Hasta La Gadget!

At last eluding the omnipresent Mr. Blurrycam, Motorola’s Android-powered Sholes handset has finally gotten the sort of photography it deserves, apparently with an official go-to-market name of Droid — or at least one decent photo of it. This pic, which doesn’t really confirm or deny any of our suspicions about the device (Verizon was already in the bag), made a berth on the locked Twitter profile of Boy Genius, and hopefully there’s more where this came from: we’re getting tired of the tease.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Filed under: Cellphones

Motorola Droid (alias Sholes) finally gets a decent headshot originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Silicone skins for the Storm 2 are starting to find their way into shipments destined to Best Buy stores around the country, another solid signal that RIM’s second touchscreen effort is hitting retail sooner rather than later. What we found amusing about this first batch is that the packaging seems conflicted about what to call the thing — 9550, Storm II (as opposed to Storm2 or Storm 2, interestingly), and even the phone’s codename Odin all make appearances front and center. We suppose they’re just trying to make it crystal clear what phone the skin’s intended for, and with leaks going back a solid year, you’ve got to cover all your bases.

[Thanks, Caffoni]

Continue reading BlackBerry Storm 2 accessories roll into Best Buy

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

BlackBerry Storm 2 accessories roll into Best Buy originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 11 Oct 2009 20:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We finally got a good, hard look at the Verizon-customized version of Samsung’s Omnia II, and we’ve got good news and bad news: the good news is that the phone’s a darker, more reasonable shade in person than it was in that press shot we’d seen before, but the bad news is that we’ve confirmed it’s running 6.1. Anyone daring to release a 6.1 phone at this point is at serious risk of getting laughed out of the room unless they offer an upgrade path mere minutes afterwards, so we’re hoping that by the time this is on shelves, it’ll either be running 6.5 out of the box or there’ll be an update program announced in conjunction with the release. Otherwise, the display’s absolutely phenomenal (indoors, anyhow) and TouchWiz seems to work as well as it did on the original model, though scrolling through menus got a bit laggy at times — isn’t it kinda weird that a years-old platform can practically max out a circa-2009 device? Check out a quick gallery below.

Samsung Omnia II for Verizon in the flesh, Windows Mobile 6.1 on board originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 07 Oct 2009 18:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Verizon’s matching AT&T tit-for-tat in the race to get the first Windows Mobile 6.5 devices out of the door with the launch of the HTC Imagio, a phone that essentially amounts to a more deluxe version of the Touch Diamond2 with a larger screen, 3.5mm headphone jack, combo CDMA and GSM radios (both with 3G) for global roaming, and a FLO TV tuner to support Verizon’s VCAST TV service. We’ve had just a few brief moments to play with the Imagio so far, but after coming from the Pure — the AT&T-branded model that we used to compile our initial impressions of WinMo 6.5 — it’s a real treat. It looks and feels like a higher-end device thanks to a proliferation of soft-touch plastic (as opposed to the Pure’s glossy cover) and the kickstand is a cute touch, perfect for when you’ve got a few minutes to kill and you want to fire up the FLO-powered tube.

Follow the break for video and more impressions!

Continue reading HTC Imagio for Verizon unboxing and hands-on

Filed under: Cellphones

HTC Imagio for Verizon unboxing and hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Oct 2009 21:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re currently on a press call with Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam and Google CEO Eric Schmidt to discuss their new partnership, and while it’s mostly a love-fest between the two with no real announcements, there’s been some interesting tidbits. First off, Verizon will be launching two Android products in the coming weeks — we’d say at least one of them will be the Motorola Sholes, and while the other is still a mystery, Google says it’ll be “game-changing.” Very intriguing. Second, and perhaps much more interestingly, Verizon’s making a big push to be seen as the “open” carrier, and flatly stated that they’ll be supporting Google Voice on their network: “Either you have an open device or you don’t.” That’s a big change for Big Red — just remember that a year ago Google and Verizon were still at each other’s throats over 700MHz open-access rules. Now? Rainbows and kittens all around. Lastly, there will be a major app push coming from these two — Verizon’s obviously going to preload Android Market on its devices, and there should be some 10,000 apps available when all is said and done. Not a bad show of support by Verizon, we’d say — and there was a lot of talk about long-term roadmaps and a “family” of products, so we’d expect much more than just two phones and smiles over the next few months. Things are certainly getting interesting, no?

Filed under: Cellphones

Verizon plans to support Google Voice, will launch two ‘game-changing’ Android devices in coming weeks originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Oct 2009 10:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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