Hasta La Gadget!

WinMo folks, we wouldn’t blame you for getting a bit of Android envy after last week’s DROID onslaught, but if there’s one thing that could make people pine for your OS it’s HTC’s HD2, and T-Mobile has just confirmed it’s coming on November 9 — a mere weekend after Moto’s new hotness hits Verizon. Mind you, there is some confusion going on here, as the picture on T-Mo’s site is of the old Touch HD, not the HD2 we met and loved, and the mention of “loads of applications to download from Android Market” is particularly perplexing. But, we’ve been told to go ahead and blame a bumbling marketeer rather than to expect some sort of cross-platform app marketplace love fest — groovy as that may sound.

Update: We’ve also just learned that HTC is going to officially launch the HD2 on November 4 ahead of a November 11 release elsewhere. We’re not entirely sure what there is left to learn about the thing, but we’re always game for another press event.

Update 2: Just to clarify things, this is T-Mobile UK. Also, as many have pointed out in comments, we’re now thinking the “09” above means 2009, not November 9, which likely points to a November 11 release. Surely you can swallow that DROID envy for another two days, yeah?

[Via WMPoweruser.com]

Filed under: Cellphones

T-Mobile nabs HTC’s Touch HD2, schedules release for November originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In an interview given to Forbes, HTC CEO Peter Chou spoke pretty candidly about the widespread desire for an Android version of the HD2, and says the phone won’t be finagled thusly. “Technically, we could make the HD2 an Android phone, but I have to take care of Windows Mobile,” said Chou, after which we imagine popped in a stick of Juicy Fruit and didn’t offer to share any with the rest of the class. Of course, this doesn’t rule out a handset with similar specifications to the HD2, like the Dragon, matching DROID’s push toward Android 2.0 and modern hardware, but it seems to imply that at least it won’t be called “HD2,” and probably won’t look much like it either. Chou did admit that Windows Mobile innovation has been “a little slow” and that interest is declining, and says HTC is “working hard on these kinds of products to get excitement about Windows Mobile back.” He didn’t hold back on Google, however, saying that some of its actions can be “destructive” but that “we’ve worked with Microsoft for 13 years … I also believe we can work with Google for a long time.”

[Via SlashGear]

Filed under: Cellphones

HTC CEO says he could but won’t make HD2 an Android phone, has to take care of Windows Mobile originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Even before 6.5 got official, the Windows Mobile community has been toying around with post-RTM leaked builds that really amp up the finger-friendliness — thing is, no one seems to know what it is, what it’s called, when it’s coming, who will get it, or how it meshes with the upcoming release of WinMo 7 next year. For now, it’s being informally called 6.5.1 — sounds like a fair name to us — and new mockups floating around suggest that Microsoft really wants to bridge the gap and make major user experience modifications to 6.5; the pre-7 platform hasn’t yet reached the end of the road, apparently. Big buttons at the bottom of the screen look like they should be usable by even the fattest of fingers on a resistive display (and indeed, we’ve seen various forms of these in leaked builds) and interface elements throughout the OS have been spruced up to finally put the stylus to bed. We’ll take it, but we would’ve been happy to take it in lieu of 6.5, too.

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Windows Mobile 6.5.1 (or whatever it’s called) looking ready for primetime originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve seen plenty about HTC’s hot HD2, gone hands-on and sized it up next to everyone’s most/least favorite smartphone, but there’s one thing we haven’t seen yet: multi-touch in IE. The video embedded below from Techblog.gr is in a language you may not quite understand, but certainly everyone can grok the snappy UI performance and the pinch zooming demonstrated at the 2:20 mark. It does look a wee bit unresponsive at this point, but HTC still has time to make things perfect before releasing it here — though to be honest we’d rather just have it now.

[Via WMPoweruser.com]

Continue reading HTC’s HD2 continues to impress, reveals multi-touch web browsing

Filed under: Cellphones

HTC’s HD2 continues to impress, reveals multi-touch web browsing originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 22 Oct 2009 06:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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After what seemed like a full lifetime of waiting, Acer’s recently-launched neoTouch S200 is finally making its way into some reviewing hands. The fine young cannibals over at Phone Arena have just given it the head to toe treatment, and we have to say, we’re glad they’ve done the dirty work for us. This WinMo 6.5 handset, according to their impressions, seems to be a not fully baked affair — sluggishness and random crashing are both reported, as is a rather serious sounding call quality issue. The battery also seems to be inadequate for a workday, coming in at around five hours. Overall, the phone suffers from software optimization problems more than hardware issues. The one ray of light in all this is of course that 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU, which can multitask and handle several things at once without flinching — but it’s rather hard to get pumped about it in the face of all that sadness. Hit the read link for the full, exhaustive review.

Filed under: Cellphones

Acer neoTouch S200 reviewed, not recommended originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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