Hasta La Gadget!

In a recent Vogue interview, Melinda Gates confided that she’s battled some iPhone envy in her day: “Every now and then I look at my friends and say ‘Ooh, I wouldn’t mind having that iPhone’.” It’s just too bad for her that Apple is forbidden fruit in the Gates household. “There are very few things that are on the banned list in our household. But iPods and iPhones are two things we don’t get for our kids,” said Melinda. Stay strong, Mrs. Gates, we’re hearing good things about Windows Mobile 7. Oh, and we made up that part about Africa.

Filed under: Cellphones

Melinda Gates secretly pines for iPhone, actually doesn’t even like Africa originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Mar 2009 16:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

Barring any disruptive portfolio shifts prior to its introduction, the Palm Pre will complete a new competitive handset dynamic that began with the introduction of the iPhone. Each of the four major U.S. mobile operators will be emphasizing a capacitive touchscreen smartphone. Curiously, none come from any of the top five global phone manufacturers. And even more curiously, each will be powered by a different operating system as the Pre at Sprint jockeys with the iPhone at AT&T, the BlackBerry Storm at Verizon Wireless, and the T-Mobile G1.

These signature handsets go beyond exclusives or even strong identification with the service provider. They bear the burden of attracting consumers looking for the coolest phone experience or at least minimizing the impact of the other signature handsets. In return, carriers lavish marketing dollars on them. Their role exemplifies a transformation of the market from the days when the RAZR was every carrier’s “it” phone and operators competed on their particular shade of pink .

The carriers’ selection of their signature handsets must be disappointing to Microsoft, which cannot claim a Windows Mobile device among them. Indeed, the single mobile operator Microsoft highlighted at Mobile World Congress as being an exceptional partner was France’s Orange. It’s not as if an operating system must be exclusive to the device as there are other BlackBerrys out there (although, as Verizon Wireless tirelessly notes, the Storm is the first touchscreen BlackBerry). And it is only an accident in time that has made the G1 the exclusive Android handset. It certainly isn’t about application support as incredibly all of the current signature handsets will have debuted without extensive third-party programs available.

Regardless, though, and despite efforts by HTC, Sony Ericsson and Samsung to skin Windows Mobile as well as Microsoft’s own improvements in Windows Mobile 6.1, there is a perceived cachet to these four signature phones that the best Windows Mobile devices are not yet delivering.

Continue reading Switched On: The “phonetastic four” versus Windows Mobile

Filed under: Cellphones

Switched On: The “phonetastic four” versus Windows Mobile originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Remember that Windows Mobile 6.5-equipped HTC phone that was stolen from the Telstra exec at MWC? Well it looks like you can forget about any hands-on videos popping up — to quote the immortal words of Will Smith from Men in Black, the device has apparently been flashy thing’d, from afar. According to an anonymous Microsoft staffer speaking to APC, the company remotely wiped all traces of the operating system and user data from the mobile as soon as it was reported pickpocketed, so unless the thief was smart enough to immediately place it in a faraday cage, this phone’s probably a bit too frazzled for the limelight right now.

Filed under: Cellphones

Telstra exec’s stolen WinMo 6.5-equipped HTC phone remotely wiped? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Feb 2009 17:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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No big surprises here — HP‘s announced for Windows Mobile 6.5 for its future devices, confirming what we already knew: HP is awesome. The company cites WinMo 6.5’s “key enhancements to business productivity, personal messaging and mobile Internet capabilities” plus its “new visual appeal” as some of the reasons for its continued love of the OS. We don’t have any specific information about upcoming Windows-boasting devices, but we’ll let you know as soon as we catch sight of one or more — because we’re here for you. Full press release after the break.

[Via Pocketnow]

Continue reading HP confirms support for Windows Mobile 6.5

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HP confirms support for Windows Mobile 6.5 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 21 Feb 2009 08:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Okay, an Android RAZR would have been amazing, but sadly Motorola didn’t announce anything at all at MWC, so our dreams are on hold for the moment. In fact, day three was bereft of any major announcements, but there was some action: Telstra boss Sol Trujillo’s prototype HTC handset running Windows Mobile 6.5 was pickpocketed, we played with a few real Android prototypes, and we even saw Windows Mobile hacked into compatibility with a capacitive touchscreen. What else did we learn?

Continue reading MWC day three: return of the Jedi

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MWC day three: return of the Jedi originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Feb 2009 21:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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