Hasta La Gadget!

You might have missed it if you were sleeping, but we broke open a huge treasure trove of leaked Dell mobile devices last night, including the high-end Lightning Windows Phone 7 slider and Thunder Android set. We also got wind of the mid-range Flash and Smoke Android phones, as well as the Looking Glass seven-inch Android tablet, and to round things out we scored more details on the Aero and Streak. Yeah, it was a hell of a night, but we’ve got it all rounded up for you right here, so click on through if you missed anything!

Lightning: the ultimate Windows Phone 7

Thunder: 4.1-inch OLED, Android, Hulu app

Flash: Android Froyo in ‘dramatic’ package

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Smoke: ‘Like a Pixi but awesome’

Looking Glass: 7-inch tablet with Tegra 2

Streak: Android 2.1 in September

Aero: Spec’d

Dell’s mobile outlook

Dell’s Lightning, Thunder, Flash, Smoke and more: rounding up a storm of mobile leaks originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 22 Apr 2010 15:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Though much of Microsoft’s technical strategy for Windows Phone 7 materialized at MIX last month, the company stayed hazy on a handful of key details — portions of the hardware specifications were left to guesses and hearsay, for instance, as was the software update strategy. Much of that appears to be coming to light now thanks to a leaked “architecture guide” slide deck where we seeing that retail devices will be required to feature cameras (that could be a problem for corporate devices in high-security environments), FM radio tuners, compasses, and proximity sensors, among other more obvious features like capacitive touchscreen displays; of course, these are requirements for the initial volley of launch devices at the end of 2010, and it’s probably reasonable to assume that future chassis specs will be tweaked.

Moving to software, the deck confirms that a Windows Live ID will be required to set up the handset — much the same way that Android strongly encourages the use of a Google account — and that application purchases will be tied to the ID. The update mechanism, which has all but failed Microsoft in Windows Mobile thus far, looks to be very well controlled this time around — like Kin, small updates will over the air, while larger updates will require tethering and management through the Zune software on your PC. Microsoft will manage the process — not the manufacturer or carrier — though device- or carrier-specific customizations can be pushed through the same mechanism. Speaking of OEM customizations, the deck emphasizes just how tightly Redmond will be controlling them: IE’s default search engine can be changed, but everything else on the phone will still go through Bing, for example. OEMs can add no more than six (or 60MB) worth of custom apps, and while custom home screen tiles can be added, none of the standard Microsoft ones can be changed or removed. It’s pretty draconian, yes — but considering how desperately these guys are in need of a fresh, starkly different mobile strategy, it’s probably a good thing.

Leaked slides show Windows Phone 7’s update strategy, Windows Live ID requirement, more originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Apr 2010 19:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’ve been following our reports, you know that Microsoft’s Kin aren’t your average smartphones. They don’t have a big, bright screen, a particularly fast processor or a robust app store filled with thousands of third-party programs. They’re just a pair of interestingly-designed phones with high-res cameras, running a MOTOBLUR-like OS that aggregates your social networks into a neat stream, while smartly documenting every picture, video and status update in cloud storage for future reference. What does that juxtaposition mean for the cellphone market? Honestly, we can’t quite agree — so we’re going to let the roving, mobile minds at Engadget HQ speak for themselves.

Continue reading Editorial: Engadget on Microsoft Kin

Editorial: Engadget on Microsoft Kin originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Apr 2010 19:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Regardless of how you feel about Microsoft’s rejuvenated mobile push this year, hatred of the “Windows Phone 7 Series” moniker has been nearly universal — it’s too long, it trips you up every time you try to say it (seriously, just listen to any of our podcasts), and the “Series” bit doesn’t make a whole lot of sense anyhow. Happily, Microsoft has heard the world loud and clear on this one, officially changing the name today to the simpler, happier, more logical “Windows Phone 7.” The branding move doesn’t have any technical or strategic significance, as far as we can tell — it truly is just a name change, that’s all — so you can expect the same software to launch later this year that we’ve already been anticipating… you just won’t have to deal with a tongue twister every time you’re trying to tell a friend about it.

Windows Phone 7 is the new name, ‘Series’ gets voted off island originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Apr 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Can’t wait for Windows Phone 7 Series, but can’t hack the emulator, either? Don’t lose hope, Windows junkies — you can still bring some semblance of WP7S order into your life with this Metro UI-inspired desktop HUD. Based on the open-source desktop customization platform Rainmeter, the “Omnimo UI” will overlay your desktop with a minimalist, tiled interface not unlike the one you’ve been drooling over for weeks, with live hooks into many useful services (including Gmail, iTunes, Steam, Twitter and SpeedFan) as well as the usual widgets and a host of program shortcuts. The best news of all? It’s available now for all versions of Windows since XP, completely free of charge; simply follow the source links or flit over to Lifehacker, where good folks will teach you how it’s done.

Omnimo: desktop Windows given fashion makeover with Phone 7 Series flair originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Mar 2010 18:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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