Hasta La Gadget!

Between the “accidental” unveiling of the Sea Ray, the announcement of Fujitsu’s Mango device, and the less-than-stellar Q2 Nokia had, it doesn’t take a lot of crazy speculation to surmise that Stephen Elop’s quite the eager beaver in ensuring it’ll get the most out of its newfound marriage with Microsoft as soon as possible. Thus, hearing word of a special event being thrown at the beginning of Gamescom, an annual gaming conference in Germany, is definitely a good sign; according to press invites sent out today, the party — to be held on August 17th — promises “exciting actions and surprises,” and we’re pretty sure they don’t mean a free t-shirt. So join with us in determining what these surprises are, but please… don’t try that hard.

Update: Well, don’t ever say we told you to temper your excitement. We just heard from Nokia itself that this is nothing more than a “local developer event,” and to not expect any new devices that we haven’t heard of before. But hey, at least the fall edition of CTIA isn’t too far out…

Nokia and Microsoft hosting special event August 17th (update: no new hardware) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Aug 2011 17:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We thought Mango’s nectar was already pretty damn sweet, but a group of young developers recently took up the challenge to make the next generation Windows Phone 7 experience even more delicious. Following up on last year’s ‘Rockstar’ competition, Microsoft asked students to submit Mango app prototypes via Twitter, with the promise of developers phones for the top entries. Among the top 20 #WPAppItUp submissions are a program that helps the colorblind figure out what shade of puce they’re peeping, and a sadistic alarm clock that requires users to solve puzzles before hitting the snooze button. Apparently, Microsoft still has 30 Windows Phones to give away, and is looking for young devs to offer up America’s next top Mango app. Submission guidelines can be found at the source link below.

[Thanks, E-Dan]

Microsoft crowns 20 winners in Mango app contest, losers go home fruitless originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 31 Jul 2011 15:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here’s a little feature that Microsoft quietly sneaked into Mango — you can stream music straight from your SkyDrive account. With the latest WP7 update comes some nice integration with Redmond’s cloud storage service, but it’s not just for pulling up spreadsheets. You can navigate to any folder and, if you tap on an compatible sound file, it’ll start playing the tune in the music app. It’s not a full fledged streaming and syncing service like Google Music or a tightly integrated ecosystem such as iTunes and iCloud, but it is a pretty neat trick. And, lets be honest, no matter how cumbersome, sometimes those unofficial solutions are much more gratifying. Check out the video of it in action after the break.

Continue reading Mango quietly enables music streaming from SkyDrive, hides amongst your spreadsheets

Mango quietly enables music streaming from SkyDrive, hides amongst your spreadsheets originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jul 2011 13:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Second time’s a charm? Here’s hoping. Just months after seeing the so-called HTC Ignite and Prime surface alongside the Pyramid (which already launched as the Sensation 4G), it seems as if the remaining duo have found a home over at The Phone House. For those unaware, that’s the Dutch version of the UK’s Carphone Warehouse, a top-tier mobile shop that doesn’t steer folks wrong too often. The Ignite looks to be a Windows Phone 7 handset with an 800MHz processor, 3.7-inch display and an otherwise understated motif. The Prime, on the other hand, sports a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, a 5 megapixel camera and Microsoft’s homespun OS. There’s no mention of a price tag on either (nor any other specifications), but that whole “coming soon” thing most certainly has our interest piqued.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

HTC Ignite and Prime surface on Dutch e-tailer, may indeed be coming soon originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jul 2011 08:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, we can’t say we didn’t see this one coming. Fujitsu Toshiba mobile communications — now there’s a mouthful — just unveiled the IS12T: Japan’s first Windows Phone 7 device, and according to Microsoft prez Yasuyuki Higuchi, the world’s first Mango handset. The sexy and IPX5 waterproof (!) 3.7-inch WVGA slate is powered by Qualcomm’s MSM8655 CPU of undisclosed clock speed (which we’ve seen running at 1GHz in the Incredible 2 and Thunderbolt), and goes on sale in “September or beyond” on KDDI’s au network. The pink gizmo packs a 13.2 megapixel camera with autofocus and has a plentiful 32GB of flash storage for housing whatever content you’d fancy toting around. The usual Bluetooth (2.1 + EDR) and WiFi (802.11b/g/n) suspects are also onboard. Interest piqued? Peruse the gallery our Engadget Japanese brethren have handily tossed our way.

Update: In addition to pink, it’ll reportedly also come in a yellowish / greenish hue, as well as jet black.

Fujitsu Toshiba announces au IS12T, the world’s first Mango phone (hands-on!) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Jul 2011 22:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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