Hasta La Gadget!

You might remember that a huge roadmap document leaked out of HTC late last year; though many of the devices in it never materialized, the fact that the Legend, Bravo, and Photon turned out to be legit (as the Legend, Desire, and HD Mini, respectively) lends credence to the belief that all of the phones in that slide deck were at least on HTC’s drawing board at one time or another. One of the more interesting MIA handsets — the so-called Trophy with WinMo 6.5 and a portrait QWERTY keyboard — looks like it may have been repurposed as a Windows Phone 7 model thanks to some new shots out of Vodafone Germany’s inventory system, which is pretty awesome considering how difficult portrait QWERTY devices are to come by, generally (though it would’ve had to get a redesign with a higher-res display and faster processor to meet Microsoft’s spec guidelines). Along the same lines, LG’s well-leaked E900 has recently gotten its blessing from the Global Certification Forum where it’s listed with 900 / 2100MHz 3G (HSPA, we’re sure) alongside quadband GSM. Certainly going to be an interesting fall, isn’t it?

[Thanks to everyone who sent these in]

Windows Phone 7 device roundup: LG E900 earns GCF certification, HTC Trophy meets Vodafone originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 12 Sep 2010 17:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Remember that mysterious Windows Phone 7-powered ASUS from early August? Turns out it showed up at Gnomedex this year, and there’s video floating around to prove it. The phone stars in a nearly 12-minute epic detailing the various parts of the platform — all of which we’ve seen before — but obviously, our attention is focused squarely on this hardware that we haven’t really seen before (and looks very different from the ASUS device that Microsoft was using to demo WP7 in the early days). It’s hard to say if the talk of an AMOLED display is true — or whether this is a retail or near-retail piece of hardware — so we’d hold off on saving up for this one just yet. Since Garmin-Asus came into existence, ASUS’ phone efforts have been squarely focused on the joint venture — and seeing how this steady supply of prototype hardware proves that they’ll be making commercial WP7 devices, it’ll be interesting to see whether Garmin’s involved. Follow the break for the full video.

[Thanks, Jack]

Continue reading ASUS Windows Phone 7 proto shows up on video

ASUS Windows Phone 7 proto shows up on video originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 20:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With a gold master OS, plenty of devices raring to show themselves, and a more or less obvious October launch window, it’s clear that Windows Phone 7 is right around the corner. Pocket-lint is reporting today that its sources, “senior figures within the industry,” are pegging October 11 as the special day, with a New York launch event to make it all official. The handsets will then be available later that month, according to one of those sources. It sounds like everybody is ready for Microsoft to start fighting back in the world of phones, the question is: are you?

Microsoft launching Windows Phone 7 on October 11th? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Sep 2010 12:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We were a bit surprised to find LG’s prototype Windows Phone 7 device for developers, soon to be unveiled officially as the Optimus 7 when released in its production form, hanging out in the wilds of IFA. Nevertheless, there it was, streaming DLNA content to a WiFi enabled TV. LG worked with Microsoft to develop a custom DLNA media sharing capability for its GW910 handset. Just one of the ways hardware partners are able to differentiate themselves on the otherwise locked down Windows Phone 7 platform. It certainly makes sense that LG would play to its strengths in the television industry as it moves to market with the device as early as next month according to our sources. Watch the trick flip-to-TV photo sharing interface in action after the break.

Continue reading LG Optimus 7 Windows Phone 7 prototype flicks photos to TVs, launches October

LG Optimus 7 Windows Phone 7 prototype flicks photos to TVs, launches October originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 04 Sep 2010 07:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’ve been holding yourself back during these early rounds of the smartphone wars in anticipation of Windows Phone 7, your wait just got a tiny bit shorter. Today Microsoft is announcing that its fancy new mobile operating system has been released to manufacturing, making the idea of you holding an actual WP7 device in your hands that much closer to reality. The finished product is now rolling out to partners around the world where it will be getting carrier and manufacturer tweaks and additions, and going through the kind of pre-launch testing you would expect for a release of this scale. If you had any doubt that the Windows Phone 7 onslaught was close at hand, feel free to abandon them now.

Furthermore, the folks on the 7 team have managed to cram a few last minute goodies into the OS, one of which we’re particularly excited about. As you probably know from our in-depth preview of an early version of the software, we had a lot of issues with overflowing Facebook contacts in our phone. Microsoft has now solved that problem by enabling a contact filter system which looks for pre-existing matches to your Facebook contacts. If it doesn’t find a match, it doesn’t pull that contact into your address book (kind of like how Android filters Facebook friends). It’s a welcome addition and should make the Facebook / Windows Phone 7 combo a lot more palatable to a lot of people. Furthermore, Microsoft has added functionality into the People Hub which will allow you to “like” someone’s posts, and you’ll be able to comment directly onto someone’s Wall right in the hub. The company has also made tweaks and fixes focusing on feature discoverability (another issue we pointed out in the early look), along with the expected set of polishing and finish you’d expect from a product that’s gone gold master.

Windows Phone 7 goes gold master, begins rolling out to partners for final launch preparations originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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