AT&T launching Windows Phone 7 handsets on November 8, unveiling them October 11?

Windows Phone 7 is really building up a head of steam, as AT&T and Microsoft are said to be planning a debut event for new handsets on October 11 in the US, to be followed by a retail launch in the week commencing November 8. A trifecta of launch devices is on tap, says the Wall Street Journal, with one each from LG, Samsung and HTC, and AT&T is unsurprisingly fingered as the exclusive early carrier for WP7 goodness. In exchange for that little favor, Microsoft will receive AT&T’s “marketing support” in pushing the message out about Windows Phone 7’s release. So long as nobody decides that home party packs are a good idea, we’ll be cool with whatever.

AT&T launching Windows Phone 7 handsets on November 8, unveiling them October 11? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 Oct 2010 08:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC Mondrian poses for press shots?

German site BestBoyZ has delivered a string of HTC leaks in recent weeks, and the latest is a fairly legit-looking handful of alleged press shots of the Mondrian. As a refresher, the Mondrian seems to be one of the many code and commercial names floating around for Windows Phone 7-based devices HTC is looking to ship at or very near to the platform’s retail launch, a higher-end unit (possibly equipped with a 1.3GHz Snapdragon) that would probably hang in the same space as the rumored HD7 and Trophy. Interestingly, the shots — which show a unit with a German ROM — have HTC Hub listed on the home screen, despite some recent talk by CEO Peter Chou that his company’s first-gen WinPho 7 products would lack serious software customization. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing depends on how much you appreciate HTC’s design team, we suppose.

HTC Mondrian poses for press shots? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Sep 2010 20:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Purported HTC Spark Windows Phone 7 ROM leak suggests Vodafone home, Trophy doppelganger

It’s been decades, in internet years, since we caught wind of a 4.3-inch, 1.3GHz HTC Mondrian via a leaked Windows Phone 7 ROM. The sun rises, the sun sets, life returned to normal, and yet… here we are again. This ROM comes care of a purported Vodafone leak and sports the name (so much as the filename hints) HTC Spark, a render of which bears striking resemblance to the Trophy we espied last week. Spark itself popped up as recent as early August on a sheet that claimed a 3.7-inch 480 x 800 display, 1GHz Snapdragon processor, 512MB RAM, and a 5 megapixel camera. Can all these loose threads tie together to form one cohesive smartphone sweater? Not yet, but it’s getting there.

Purported HTC Spark Windows Phone 7 ROM leak suggests Vodafone home, Trophy doppelganger originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Sep 2010 10:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink MobileTechWorld  |  sourcexda-developers  | Email this | Comments

LG’s Optimus 7 gets previewed by Korean newspaper, has voice to text feature?

You know how we abhor machine translation, but this rumor was too juicy to pass up — the Korea Economic Daily reportedly got hands-on with LG’s Optimus 7 (aka E900) way ahead of release, and if we’re reading this right, the Windows Phone 7 device will be capable of writing your text messages, emails and status updates just by hearing you speak. The publication also reports it’s got a 3.8-inch, 800 x 480 screen (rather than the 3.5 or 3.7 inches we’ve heard before), a 1500 mAh battery, 16GB of built-in storage and a 1GHz processor. There’s also apparently “automatic panorama” feature where you simply pan the camera to take stills and stitch them together, which sounds a lot like the Sweep Panorama dealie Sony recently added to its Cyber-Shot lineup. Can we expect a US version to have these features? Hard to say. Even should this preview be wholly legit, speech-to-text would probably need quite the overhaul to tell English from Korean — and let’s not even get started on Engrish.

LG’s Optimus 7 gets previewed by Korean newspaper, has voice to text feature? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 28 Sep 2010 07:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceKorea Economic Daily  | Email this | Comments

LG Optimus 7 pops up on Amazon.de with 5 megapixel camera, 3.5-inch touchscreen, €499 price

Amazon’s German branch has been a tiny bit fast on the trigger. Windows Phone 7 isn’t due to launch at least until October 11, but here we are, dazing dreamily at the first listing of a device bearing the hot new OS: LG’s Optimus 7. Or is it the E900? You can tell Amazon’s offering is way early since the e-tailer has opted to list both names — it now seems like the E900 was the codename and the Optimus branding will be what you see in stores — just to make sure snoopers like us don’t miss out on it. So what’s there to see? Not much actually, official product images are predictably missing and all we’re told is that the handset will cost €499, include a GPS chip, and be capable of filling five million pixels with photonic data and then displaying the results on a 3.5-inch touchscreen. Such teases, these online retailers are.

LG Optimus 7 pops up on Amazon.de with 5 megapixel camera, 3.5-inch touchscreen, €499 price originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Sep 2010 07:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink phoneseven.de  |  sourceAmazon.de  | Email this | Comments

Microsoft hosting a press conference on October 11, we’ll be there live!

If you had any doubts about the most important date in your Windows Phone 7 calendar, you can now dismiss them. Microsoft has just gotten in touch to ask us very kindly to “save the date” October 11 for a 2PM London press conference (9AM ET for Americans) that will last all the way until 5.30PM. Unless Steve Ballmer’s planning on reading the Iliad all that time, that sounds like there’ll be hands-on opportunities with WP7 devices to us. Of course, there’s nary a mention of any phones in the brief invite, but given the multiple sources nailing that exact date as Microsoft’s European launch, we’d be shocked to see anything else. Either way, we’re bringing our trusty liveblogging equipment and will keep you informed whatever happens.

Microsoft hosting a press conference on October 11, we’ll be there live! originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Sep 2010 06:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft prepping Windows Phone 7 for an October 21st launch? (update: US on Nov. 8?)

We’d heard October. We heard Europe in October. We heard next month. Now, Neowin cites anonymous sources that Windows Phone 7 will arrive in the UK, France, Spain, Germany and Italy on precisely October 21st, and is preparing a good deal of marketing fanfare to support a fancy October 11th unveiling in New York City. We can’t say whether the rumor’s correct, but it’s certainly picking up steam, as these particular numbers were independently reported by Pocket-lint and the Spanish publication El Economista earlier this month as well. Now all we need is an alleged US release date — misery loves company, right?

Update: Microsoft expert Paul Thurrott says that while Redmond’s indeed holding an October 11th shindig in NYC, it’s not a Windows Phone event… but his source tells him the long-lost US launch date is actually November 8th. Imagine that!

[Thanks, Stephen]

Microsoft prepping Windows Phone 7 for an October 21st launch? (update: US on Nov. 8?) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 26 Sep 2010 19:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Pocket-lint  |  sourceNeowin, Eleconomista  | Email this | Comments

HTC Mondrian stars in leaked AT&T ad campaign, jump-kicks lesser smartphones? (video)

Would you believe that after months of leaks, this is the first time we’ve allegedly seen the HTC Mondrian? It’s true — though from this angle, it’s a dead ringer for the Mozart, which looks just like the Shubert, too. The above picture comes from what appear to be a pair of mostly complete ads for AT&T’s Windows Phone 7 push, which if real make the Mondrian look like it might be a flagship device. Perhaps those rumors of a 1.3GHz Snapdragon inside weren’t too far off. You won’t find real phones demonstrated in the videos after the break, but don’t let that stop you from clicking through — you do like watching oblivious folks flying through the air, don’t you?

Continue reading HTC Mondrian stars in leaked AT&T ad campaign, jump-kicks lesser smartphones? (video)

HTC Mondrian stars in leaked AT&T ad campaign, jump-kicks lesser smartphones? (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 26 Sep 2010 02:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LG E900 stars in epic 20-minute hands-on video, referred to as Optimus 7

We knew Windows Phone 7 leaks would increase as we got closer to launch, but this is just ridiculous. LG’s E900, or what we knew as the E900 until now, has been subjected to an exhaustingly detailed hands-on overview, courtesy of some intrepid Czech investigators. Alas, the video is voiced over in that language too, so good luck with your Eastern European phonetics. But hey, at least the visuals are universal. Oh, and before we forget, the MobilMania guys are calling this the LG Optimus 7, presumably that’ll be the retail name for this handset. Follow the break to see it.

[Thanks, Manu]

Continue reading LG E900 stars in epic 20-minute hands-on video, referred to as Optimus 7

LG E900 stars in epic 20-minute hands-on video, referred to as Optimus 7 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 24 Sep 2010 09:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink MobileTechWorld  |  sourceMobilMania.cz  | Email this | Comments

Samsung SGH-i916 spotted cuddling up to an iPhone 4 in the wilds of Canada

Unless our eyes deceive us most cruelly, the Samsung phone we see above looks identical to the i917 Windows Phone 7 handset we’ve been seeing all over the place. Curious then that it bears the title of SGH-i916. We can only surmise that there’s some minuscule difference between the two phones, with this i916 seemingly set to ride Rogers airwaves up in Canada — purportedly with none of Samsung’s own branding anywhere on its shell. Another common feature it seems to share with the i917 is an AMOLED screen, judging by the deeper than deep black color it’s capable of pushing out. See a much larger picture of the i916 after the break, and if you want an even better idea of how a 4-inch Samsung handset compares to the iPhone 4, visit our screen comparison test starring the Galaxy S.

Continue reading Samsung SGH-i916 spotted cuddling up to an iPhone 4 in the wilds of Canada

Samsung SGH-i916 spotted cuddling up to an iPhone 4 in the wilds of Canada originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 24 Sep 2010 04:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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