Hasta La Gadget!

We’ve been hearing about Verizon’s upcoming HTC Whitestone for a while now, and it looks like a new pic and specs for the upcoming dual-mode CDMA / GSM Touch Diamond2 variant have leaked out. Seems like a mixed bag — the revised case with a larger 3.6-inch WVGA display is impressive, but inside you’re looking at Windows Mobile 6.1 running on a 528MHz Qualcomm processor with 256MB of RAM, so you’ve certainly lived through this experience before. That’s pretty much the same case with the HTC Mega, which also leaked today: although it’ll ship with WinMo 6.5 and that hot new version of TouchFLO 2D, it’s a lower-end device with a 2.8-inch QVGA display, a three megapixel camera and yet another 528MHz Qualcomm proc with 256MB of RAM running the show. Oh, and just to round things out, there’s a pic of the Dopod-branded HTC Tachi, which probably means this one’s headed for China. Always nice to put a face to a name, though isn’t it? Pics of the Mega and Tachi at the read link.

Filed under: Cellphones

Verizon’s HTC Whitestone leaks out, along with the HTC Mega and Tachi originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Aug 2009 11:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, would you look at that? With just five days to go before T-Mobile becomes the first carrier here in the States to offer up HTC’s Windows Mobile-equipped Touch Pro2, it seems the handset has found its way underneath an undiscriminating camera. There’s also a shot or two in the gallery that portrays the tilting / sliding handset alongside Samsung’s Behold, so be sure to give ’em all a good look as you look for spare pennies in the run-up to August 12th. Oh, speaking of which, we’ve also got good reason to believe that it’ll launch for $299 on contract and $599 with no strings attached, so we hope you’re kosher with sizable premiums.

[Thanks, Anonymous]

Filed under: Cellphones

T-Mobile’s TouchPro2 spotted in the wild, $299 contract price bandied about originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Aug 2009 03:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Seeing the gold build of Windows Mobile 6.5 in action was pretty nifty, but Inquirer‘s recent video actually managed to unveil a few juicy tidbits about version 7 as well — a platform that’s shaping up to be that massive, ground-up rewrite of WinMo we’ve all been hoping for for years (as far as we can tell). The lack of multitouch is a sore point for some in 6.5 — not just because of the goodness of the multitouch gestures themselves, but because it’s indicative of a broader failure on Microsoft’s part to recognize that touch-based mobile UIs have been wholly reinvented since the days of Windows Mobile 2003. Redmond looks to be cognizant of that, though with a mention in the video that 7 will “exploit the hardware” and “introduce multitouch,” going on to say that it’ll be able to go toe-to-toe with “competitor devices” — ostensibly a reference to some combination of webOS, Android, and the iPhone. The video also mentions that 6.5 will end up being a “breadth play” while 7 branches out into the premium end of the market — at least to start — and over time, 7 will become Microsoft’s mainstream mobile platform as future versions are released. In other words, Microsoft looks like it could be setting itself up for a two-version cadence going forward — one for the unwashed masses, one for the gadget fiends. You know which category we fall into — and we suspect we know yours, dear readers.

[Via Unwired View]

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Windows Mobile 7 to be a premium, multitouch beast of a platform originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Aug 2009 16:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oh sure, we’ve seen Samsung’s WinMo-powered Omnia II a time or two before, but this looks to be the first instance of it waltzing in front of a camera after leaving its retail packaging. Not much seems to have changed from those pre-release versions we peeked, and we have to say, that 3.7-inch AMOLED display looks awfully inviting. Of course, you’ll have a hard time procuring one of these critters here in North America without a solid importer over in Singapore, but if you can somehow steal some patience from underneath that couch cushion, you’ll be just fine. Give the read link some love for a few more high-res shots.

Filed under: Cellphones

Samsung’s retail Omnia II smartphone gets hands-on treatment originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Aug 2009 06:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Entelligence is a column by technology strategist and author Michael Gartenberg, a man whose desire for a delicious cup of coffee and a quality New York bagel is dwarfed only by his passion for tech. In these articles, he’ll explore where our industry is and where it’s going — on both micro and macro levels — with the unique wit and insight only he can provide.

Last week, fellow columnist Ross Rubin talked about the state of mobile platforms and how the era for launching new platforms has come to an end. I tend to take a different view of the mobile market. There are currently six major platforms vying for the hearts and minds of users and third party applications developers — RIM’s Blackberry, Microsoft’s Windows Mobile, Apple’s iPhone, Nokia’s s60, Palm’s WebOS and Google’s Android — and there’s simply no way the market will support that many device ecosystems. But there may yet be opportunity for other players to enter the market.

This is not a new phenomenon. In the early 80s there were a multitude of personal computing platforms. Atari, Commodore, Radio Shack, Texas Instruments, Apple and even Timex (yes, Timex) all were in the personal computing business, long before IBM entered the game. All survived for a period of time selling to an enthusiast market with a focus on out of the box featuresets. Once the target became the mass market, however, user expectations changed from the out of box experience (which essentially meant programming in Basic) to additional capabilities provided by third party software. The success or failure of each PC platform was decided in no small part by the availability of third party software. Exclusive titles, best of breed titles, and titles that appeared on a given platform first determined winners and losers. The same thing is happening today in the mobile space.

Continue reading Entelligence: Six is much too much

Entelligence: Six is much too much originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Jul 2009 14:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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