Hasta La Gadget!

Dell, you wouldn’t toy with our emotions again, would you? The latest official update from the boys and girls in Round Rock says that if you managed to get an order for a Venue Pro in by the 14th of this month, you’re golden for receiving it before Christmas — which is a considerably friendlier estimate than before, when some folks were being told January 6th. If you’ve ordered since the 14th, the company advises that you “use the Estimated Delivery Date to understand when you will receive it.” Meanwhile, if your Venue Pro has already managed to leave the warehouse, we recommend you use this opportunity to gloat in this post’s comments and as many forums as you possibly can.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Dell Venue Pro arriving before Christmas if you ordered by the 14th originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Dec 2010 16:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Still bummed to be waiting for your Venue Pro? Dell’s amended its December 14th shipping update — henceforth known as (this time only, and then never again) as “VP Day” — to let yearning customers know that, if they had ordered the device before that day, a present was coming in due course. Nay, not a present, a Thank You in the form of a free Plantronics Explorer 240 Bluetooth headset. That’s shipping in four to six weeks, excusing any ironic bouts of delay of its own. Let’s just hope it doesn’t beat your Windows Phone 7 device to the doorstep.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Early Venue Pro adopters get free Bluetooth headsets, the infinitely rewarding lesson of patience originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Dec 2010 22:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Remember the Windows Phone 7 ads, the ones that promised to “save us from our phones” by giving us more “glance and go” information? For the most part, these phones haven’t delivered on that promise due to the relative dearth of apps taking advantage of Microsoft’s live tile concept. That changes a bit today thanks to an update to the HTC Hub app that ships with every Windows Phone 7 device manufactured by HTC. Now, instead of a generic double-wide icon, the HTC Hub presents you with the current weather condition and temperature and the forecasted highs and lows. As such, you’ll never have to click through and be subjected to HTC’s overwrought animations that feel so out of place on Microsoft’s more demure user interface. More please.

HTC Hub update helps save us from our Windows Phone 7 phones originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Dec 2010 07:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Venue Pro delay situation certainly isn’t getting any clearer with Dell’s latest update on its support forums, but we know this much for sure: the new kid on the smartphone block still has a few things to learn about shipping handsets. A post from a Dell moderator says the company is working directly with Microsoft to draft a battle plan and that current Venue Pro owners (those that got their devices early on from Microsoft stores, that is) “might require another hardware swap” to get their issues solved. The rep says that she’s hearing that some orders could still potentially ship this week, but she doesn’t know which ones, and that affected customers are welcome to cancel their orders if they wish. So yeah, kind of a good news / bad news situation there. We’re still clinging to hope that we’ll see these things on the streets before the end of 2010, but it certainly seems like an iffy proposition at this point.

[Thanks, @steveymacjr]

Update: Dell’s posted a new blog entry on the matter, too, though it’s not much help — basically, you could get your phone before January 6th, but it’s anyone’s guess. They’re promising to keep people abreast of the situation as it develops.

Dell: ‘Venue Pros are being reworked in the factories,’ ship schedule unclear originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Dec 2010 19:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There’s not much to see right now, but it appears that Red MR is well on its way to becoming one of the most advanced (and probably the most amusing) karaoke bars in the world. Ahead of its Hong Kong debut this Saturday, said company has already installed six Surfaces in its two bars, and is aiming to fit more to fill up all 80 rooms — and that number could go up to 300 in the near future — once Microsoft has ramped up production. With Red MR’s customized software (still under wraps), customers will be able to pick songs, order food, watch TV, and play games on the Surface while listening to a drunk rendition of My Heart Will Go On. Oh, and there’ll also be a few Kinects dotted around the bars, but it’s not exactly clear whether they’ll be in the rooms as well. Anyhow, we’ll be flying out to Hong Kong to check it out later this week, so stay tuned. For now, you can watch a demo of the Surface’s Liar’s Dice game after the break.

Update: Our friends over at M.I.C Gadget found a video from Apple Daily that teases the karaoke UI. Have a look after the jump.

Continue reading Microsoft lands its largest ever Surface order… from a karaoke bar (update: new video)

Microsoft lands its largest ever Surface order… from a karaoke bar (update: new video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Dec 2010 12:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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