Hasta La Gadget!

Microsoft details Windows Phone 7 by the numbers: 11,500 apps, 36,000 developers originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 15:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Where is your Windows Phone 7 “NoDo” update? That’s the question Microsoft is aiming to answer with a new spreadsheet it has cobbled together to detail the software status of all WP7 handsets released so far. A February preparatory patch and the long-anticipated first proper upgrade to the OS, herein titled merely “March update,” are sat side by side, with a set of delivery states under them for each WP7 phone. Things aren’t looking awesome in the US, where AT&T’s batch is still undergoing carrier testing and T-Mobile’s pair of phones are “scheduling” (which Microsoft says takes no more than 10 days), but news is better overseas, where most have received the February OTA and are mere days away from the final NoDo goodness. Sprint’s HTC Arrive and AT&T’s upcoming HD7S will both have that software preloaded, so at least new buyers won’t have to fret unduly.

[Thanks, Arty]

Microsoft serves up a ‘NoDo’ update schedule for Windows Phone 7 devices originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Mar 2011 05:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC’s HD7 was certainly one of the most handsome devices to be launched back at Windows Phone 7’s retail introduction late last year — and really, when you take the HD2’s heritage as your starting point, it’s hard to go wrong. Of course, in the last year and a half, mobile display technology has advanced by leaps and bounds — and the original HD7 was using nothing more than a standard, old-school TFT LCD with less-than-perfect contrast and viewing angle specs. Well, that’s where the HD7S comes into play: the “S” in the name presumably stands for Super LCD, the newer type of display that HTC’s been using on recent 4.3-inch models like the Thunderbolt. It’s quite pretty, but otherwise, it’s the same HD7 as usual — and really, considering how nice this hardware is, that’s just alright by us. The phone also comes with the so-called “NoDo” update of Windows Phone 7 preinstalled, a fact we were able to verify with a quick look of the version number being reported in system settings. Check it out in the gallery!

HTC HD7S hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Mar 2011 16:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s March 20th and, right on schedule, Sprint has started taking orders for its first Windows Phone 7 handset. The HTC 7 Pro, renamed the Arrive on the Now Network, can now be had for $200 after rebate when bought with the customary two-year contract. Amazon’s doing its usual thing of undercutting carriers’ own pricing by offering it up for 50 greenbacks less at $150, and we suspect other online retailers will follow suit. So affordability shouldn’t be a problem, but if you’re still wondering if the investment will be worth it, we’ll have our review of this handset early next week — just before Sprint makes it irrelevant by blowing the doors off CTIA.

[Thanks, Justin]

Update: That was quick, Amazon’s dropped its price to just $50.

HTC Arrive now available for $200 from Sprint (update: $50 at Amazon) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 20 Mar 2011 14:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Even before the Incredible S was announced as the company’s new top-of-the-line set back in February, the rumored Pyramid was the upcoming HTC phone that was capturing everyone’s imagination thanks in no small part to its promise of a dual-core processor — something the Incredible S notably lacks. We hadn’t seen what this beast might look like, though… until today. Chinese site xda.cn has posted alleged renders of the Pyramid’s front and rear, showing a careful evolution of HTC’s current design language along with claims of a 4.3-inch 960 x 540 display, 8 megapixel primary and 1.3 megapixel front cameras, 768MB of RAM, and Android 3.0 (that last bit doesn’t sound right to us, though — Android 2.x with Sense would be more plausible). Rumors have this one pegged for launch on T-Mobile at some point this year; it’d be nice if that happened at CTIA next week, but considering how tied up they might be with Sprint at the show, it’s hard to say if that’ll happen.

Moving on, we’ve got some visual evidence here that HTC’s pressing on with its Windows Phone line. The first of the two, the Ignite, looks like a midrange slate thanks to an 800MHz Qualcomm processor (clocked slower than the current batch of 1GHz units that are out there), a mere 3.7-inch display, and a 5 megapixel camera around back. The Prime, meanwhile, looks like a little brother to the 7 Pro thanks to a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and similar specs to the Ignite — not blockbusters by any stretch, but HTC (along with other OEMs) might be waiting to pull out the big guns until Mango. Check out those renders at the source link.

HTC Ignite, Prime, and Pyramid renders surface? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Mar 2011 13:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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