Hasta La Gadget!

So yes, it’s looking about as confirmed as can be: thanks to a full-page ad in the latest issue of Rolling Stone, we’re finding out that the name of HTC’s first LTE phone for Verizon — and its first LTE phone regardless of carrier, actually — will definitely be “ThunderBolt.” This is the same phone that we’ve seen rumored and leaked over the last few months as the Mecha and the Droid Incredible HD, but we’ll admit — ThunderBolt seems like a pretty solid name for a phone that’s sporting a 4.3-inch display and some of the fastest data around.

Behind and to the right of the ThunderBolt, though, is another leak: the Inspire 4G for AT&T, though it’s unclear what “4G” means in this context exactly — AT&T’s in the same boat as T-Mobile right now where they’re topping out with HSPA+ and don’t have any LTE markets live, so it seems they might be borrowing a play from their smaller rival’s playbook and labeling the HSPA+ airwaves as straight-up 4G. We’re sad to see that trend start to snowball — but we’ll admit, T-Mobile kinda forced their hand on that one. At any rate, we’re pretty confident both of these suckers are going to get official here at CES this week, so keep your ear to the ground.

HTC ThunderBolt for Verizon and Inspire 4G for AT&T break cover courtesy of Rolling Stone ad originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Jan 2011 00:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Surprised? Nah, neither are we — Verizon’s LTE-based Android smartphones have been leaking like the sweet, Cortex-A8 sieves that they are for weeks now — but Big Red’s using stronger language than ever before to say that we can expect multiple Android devices running on Verizon’s fresh LTE network here at CES this week. Specifically, the press release says that “the company will also offer a sneak peek at a suite of Android-based LTE consumer devices” at its January 6th event here at the show, echoing Twitter teasers last month — but with the key addition of the word “suite,” which hopefully means we’ll have an LG, an HTC, a Motorola, and a Samsung (at the very least) to toy with by the time this week is out. Stay tuned, folks. Follow the break for the brief press release.

Continue reading Verizon teases ‘suite of Android-based LTE consumer devices’ this week

Verizon teases ‘suite of Android-based LTE consumer devices’ this week originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Jan 2011 09:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So, that lovely 4.3-inch LTE smartphone with Android for Verizon we’ve been calling the Mecha and the Droid Incredible HD? Looks like it might come to market as the Thunderbolt, so says Droid Life — and we tend to put some weight on the rumor considering that they’ve just run twelve leaked shots of the thing. As you can see, this is clearly Verizon’s head-on answer to the EVO 4G, featuring similar stylings and, in all likelihood, an LTE modem swapped in for the EVO’s WiMAX one. Sure looks like that “controlled” leak from a few days back, doesn’t it? More on this at Verizon’s press conference next week, we presume.

HTC Thunderbolt with LTE for Verizon pictured ahead of CES unveiling? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Dec 2010 18:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So we’ve got a crazy theory here: SlashGear just got a couple closeup shots of some heretofore-unknown HTC. So did we — one in common with SlashGear, one different. Could it be that Taiwan’s finest are “leaking” us these shots in an effort to drum up interest going into CES in a couple weeks? We wouldn’t doubt it in the least — with the LG B, Optimus 2X, and Samsung Nexus S all fresh off the presses, HTC probably wouldn’t mind getting a little boost in mindshare right now, and there’s no better way to do it than by teasing a phone that looks an awful lot like the previously-leaked Mecha. As a refresher, the Mecha is the beast that might end up on Verizon as the Incredible HD, offering LTE compatibility for the carrier’s new 4G network — and we know that Verizon plans on showing a whole bunch of LTE devices at CES, so this is all lining up pretty nicely. Follow the break for the other shot we received along with SlashGear‘s.

Update: Android Central got another picture, too, presumably from the same source. Shenanigans!

Update 2: Gizmodo, too. At the rate we’re going, we’ll have these pictures assembled into an actual working phone by the time the night is over.

Continue reading New HTC device starts leaking piecemeal — is it the Mecha / Incredible HD?

New HTC device starts leaking piecemeal — is it the Mecha / Incredible HD? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Dec 2010 18:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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How many dedicated LTE-capable USB modems does Verizon need? At least three, apparently, because we’ve just been sent shots of Novatel’s upcoming USB551L that looks perhaps a tad glossier and sleeker than the Pantech and LG models that have preceded it. Hard to say from the spec sheet here, but it looks like there’s at least a chance this is LTE-only without CDMA / EV-DO fallback since there’s no explicit mention of it; unlikely considering how small Verizon’s LTE footprint is for the time being, but you never know. More importantly, there is explicit mention of Mac support, something the carrier’s current options lack. No word on a release date or pricing, but we imagine it won’t be long now that these dummy units — which you can see in the gallery below — are floating around.

Novatel’s USB551L LTE modem for Verizon in the wild, does Mac support out of the box originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Dec 2010 17:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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