Hasta La Gadget!

Microsoft employees may eat their own dog food, but they won’t have to code cross-platform Windows Phone 7 games in their spare time — Redmond job postings recently revealed that there’s a studio for that, which will develop and publish first- and second-party titles on the company’s dime. According to job descriptions, the newly-christened “MGS Mobile” will develop “showcase” Windows Phone 7 titles with an emphasis on connected play, and also incubate titles from indie devs and partners like the original Microsoft Game Studios, its older Xbox-based sibling. Interestingly enough, games won’t necessarily be limited to Windows Phone 7 devices, but may appear on “emerging mobile platforms” as well — the idea being to advance Microsoft’s position in the mobile gaming space rather than just pimp the WP7 platform. Is the world ready for Halo on MeeGo? Oh, you bet your britches it is. Just don’t expect to see Xbox games on Android, yo.

Update: Looks like Microsoft’s actually been on the job hunt since June. It’s just so hard to find good employees these days.

Microsoft to open mobile games studio, develop and incubate Windows Phone 7 titles originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Aug 2010 20:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s one of the most barebones filings we’ve seen in recent memory, but there’s no mistaking that at least one Windows Phone 7 device from HTC is going to make a stateside debut. If we had to guess, we’d say that this is the first official look at whatever phone we spotted late last month, but the only identifying mark anywhere is a PD26100 model number. Based on the test reports, we know for sure that it’ll boast Bluetooth, 802.11n WiFi and support for GSM 850 / UMTS I and II, but it’s obviously still up in the air as to what carrier this will be headed for. Given AT&T’s own proclamation that it’s aiming to be the “premiere carrier” for WP7 in the States, we’d reckon that this bugger has a better-than-average chance at sitting quietly beside Apple’s iPhone 4 and Samsung’s Cetus in due time. Those “holidays” are drawing ever closer, you know?

Mysterious HTC Windows Phone 7 device breaks cover at FCC, swears it was invited originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Aug 2010 15:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Boy, this thing here has more questions than answers attached to it. Presented as the first Windows Phone 7 device to show up in Pakistan, of all places, this angular handset bears a serial number on top and atypical “powered by ASUS” branding on the bottom, leading us to believe that if it’s legit, it’s certainly a pre-production model. Even so, should you dare to invest some trust into its validity, you’ll find plenty of reason to be titillated: brushed metal adorns the front, a rare sight on mobile phones of any description, the top right corner looks suspiciously like it might be housing a front-facing camera, and the display looks very much like an OLED panel to us. Exciting, if true.

[Thanks, Raju]

Update: Turns out the phone in question belongs to the leakster’s brother. Perhaps he’s an ASUS engineer on vacation in his home town?

ASUS’ Windows Phone 7 debuts in the wild? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Aug 2010 10:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You’d probably assume that Samsung would have a difficult time overshadowing the Galaxy S right now, but all it really takes is a salacious Bluetooth SIG entry that leaves only the most important parts to the imagination. We’ve known for some time now that Sammy would be one of Microsoft’s closest Windows Phone 7 launch partners, and we’ve even taken the time to toy with a prototype earlier in the year. But a new Bluetooth certification is now all-but-confirming a name: Cetus. The SGH-i917 is apt to be North America’s first WP7 device from Samsung, a 4-inch smartphone with an 800 x 480 AMOLED display, 5 megapixel camera, a VGA front-facing camera, an FM radio tuner, inbuilt GPS, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, USB 2.0 and of course, Bluetooth. As for pricing, availability and form factor? “Not yet.”

Samsung’s 4-inch Windows Phone 7 handset gets named: Cetus (SGH-i917) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Jul 2010 10:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Some cried and some cheered when Microsoft revealed that handset manufacturers couldn’t reskin Windows Phone 7 devices wholesale. But as it turns out, at least one major OEM is still banking on software to help differentiate its phones. HTC’s Drew Bamford told Forbes that Sense UI will still appear in the company’s Windows Phone 7 creations, and believes it will live on in Android 3.0 (Gingerbread) as well. “Microsoft has taken firmer control of the core experience,” acknowledged Bamford, who added that Sense wouldn’t be fully integrated into WP7 phones, but that HTC would “augment” the Microsoft experience with as-yet-undisclosed functionality of its own. As long as it doesn’t eat up too much memory and processor time, right?

HTC Sense coming to Windows Phone 7, after all originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 24 Jul 2010 22:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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