Hasta La Gadget!

CNET had a chance recently to get embedded deep within Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 engineering group, listening in on meetings with OEMs, arguments, celebrations, and all the other drama that comes with trying to ship a huge product that’s new from the ground up in just a couple years’ time. There aren’t any blockbuster revelations in here — no launch devices, ship dates, or prices — but it’s an interesting look at the project from Windows Phone engineering VP Terry Myerson’s perspective, who acknowledges that it’ll take a long time and several releases to catch up to the competition but still thinks they’ll “actually have a lot of happy customers” with version one.

On a related note, some existing Windows Marketplace devs have started getting notifications that Microsoft wants to send them loaner Windows Phone 7 devices — yes, loaners, meaning they’ll need to be returned to the mother ship at some point down the road. They’re apparently set up for delivery in July, which should give publishers plenty of time to stock up the Marketplace in time for that planned holiday launch.

Behind the scenes with Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 team: ‘I think about this really as a first release’ originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Jun 2010 16:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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For all its faults, the prime reason we panned Microsoft’s Kin was price. Why buy a Kin when you could get a more capable iPhone, Palm Pre or Android device for the same price? This week, it seems someone at Best Buy HQ has seen the light. As of today, the brick-and-mortar electronics superstore has knocked $50 off the price of both handsets, making the Kin One free and the Kin Two cost only $50 on a two-year contract, with no mail-in rebates or other nonsense required. Now, if only Verizon would do something about that $30 monthly data plan, your teen might finally have a vaguely compelling reason to pick one up.

[Thanks, Sean T.]

Best Buy now offering Kin One free, Kin Two for $50 on contract originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 May 2010 23:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore certainly piqued our interest at MIX by demoing Windows Phone 7 on an unidentified Samsung handset, but our excitement soon faded when we found out it was just a hacked-up Omnia i8910 and not a real phone. Still, the Sammy remains only the third WP7 device we’ve seen other than the ASUS-built test mule and the prototype LG Panther that’s been popping up recently after debuting on the Engadget Show, so these two videos of it running a recent WP7 build at reMIX in France is still quite notable — the OS seems fast and responsive, and we’re told everything on the device was functional, including the GPS and camera. What’s more, there’s a demo of an Xbox Live Arcade / iPhone game port called Twin Blades by Press Star Studio — it was done in a week by one programmer using 90 percent of the Xbox Live code. That’s impressive, to say the least.

Of course, this device may look like an Omnia, but it doesn’t have the Omnia’s OMAP3 processor — as per WP7’s requirements, the internals have been swapped for a Snapdragon-based board. We’re still waiting for Microsoft and its partners to show us some more interesting hardware — let’s face it, the Panther and this Samsung are almost identically boring — but there’s no denying the software itself looks to be coming along quickly. Now let’s just hope it launches with enough heat to save Microsoft from another executive shuffle. Video after the break.

Continue reading Windows Phone 7 pops up on a Samsung prototype device, plays Twin Blades

Windows Phone 7 pops up on a Samsung prototype device, plays Twin Blades originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 May 2010 13:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LG hasn’t been what you’d call “super secretive” with its first Windows Phone 7 hardware (codenamed LG Panther), after all, the phone was flashed on the Engadget Show as the first official hardware for the new OS. Still, a prototype of the phone, meant for developers to start testing their apps on, has made its way into the wild and might shed some new light on the handset. It’s been spotted with some full-on packaging (which is apparently non-final, even the Windows Phone 7 logo is wrong) and a “GW910” model number, which might be the final name for the handset — or at least its internal call sign. It’s also dangerously close in sound to the GW990, bringing back painful memories of that Moorestown phone’s cancellation. Other notes accompanying the leak state that while the OS still has plenty of rough edges and is being updated with new builds almost every other day, it’s “more or less feature complete” and very fast. They even shot a sample photo with the device, which you can find at your friendly neighborhood source link. Haven’t had enough Windows Phone 7? Hit up our nerdtastic breakdown of the OS’s core components.

LG’s Windows Phone 7 caught in some early packaging, to be dubbed GW910? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 May 2010 14:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Android-powered Vision isn’t HTC’s only possible user agent-borne leak from this week. Now comes word of two potential Windows Phone 7 devices , the HuaShan and T5588 HengShan. The former has a 480 x 800 screen (no obvious relation to the Mondrian spotted yet) while the latter sports the more typical 320 x 480. Beyond that and an apparent lack of physical keyboards, we’re kind of in the dark here — assuming this turns out to be legit, but those names popped up previously on a roadmap with a 4.3-inch / 3.4-inch screen size, respectively. At any rate, whether or not it’s this pair, we definitely have at least some HTC Windows Phone 7 devices to look forward to by the end of 2010.

HTC Hengshan and Huashan for Windows Phone 7 make another online cameo originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 23 May 2010 12:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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