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Microsoft "Pink" Probably Dead, Many People Could Care Less

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I'm not going to cry over this since Microsoft "Pink" never seemed all that desirable in the first place, but it looks like the project has been canned. I don't have much left to say because Mobile Crunch got the scoop on it below. I'm sure this won't make anyone sad anyway. Goodbye Pure and Turtle - even if it isn't official at this point. Anyways, Microsoft should start working on that Zune HD Phone now...

  • Much of the Danger/Sidekick team has left or been fired since the 2008 acquisition. According to our source, there is “no braintrust that understands how to build a product” left on the Pink team.
  • If a product does ship, it will lack the third party application support/store that rumors have indicated it would have – the remaining team members simply don’t know how to get it done.
  • Amongst remaining employees, dissent is high. Much of the team uses iPhones around the office, or their old Sidekick handsets. Employees “hate the product” internally, many feeling that the division exists only to “challenge [the Windows Mobile 7 team] and upset them into competing.” Our source outright indicated that they felt the product was never intended to ship.
  • At this point, the project is roughly 2 years behind schedule. In order to continue moving forward toward some undefined launch date, basics such as a calendar application have already ended up on the cutting room floor.
  • On the “Turtle” (the smaller of the two devices): The touchscreen is unusable, as there are too many elements on screen at one time. “Your finger covers 50% of the screen”, says the source. The unit was designed “on the fly”, with a design drawn up and then sent to Sharp for verbatim manufacturing. Our source says this backwards design process has lead to a “near disastrous” battery life. “Designers forced Sharp to build to sketch and not ‘worry about that stuff.’”
  • The UI concept work was originally done by an outside party, and Microsoft engineers have been “struggling to replicate it ever since”.

[Mobile Crunch]



Sony Vaio X Notebook Launching Next Month Alongside Other Touchscreen Notebook

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According to the latest unconfirmed news, the Sony Vaio X notebook will be available next month - presumably under $2,000 USD - and it will replace the Vaio TT lineup. The other big rumour is that Sony also plans to launch a touchscreen notebook next month as well, likely utilizing Windows 7's built-in touch technology.

[Crunch Gear]

Sprint Launching HTC Hero For $329.99 Contract-Free -- Not $600 Like Best Buy Says

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Although last month we saw Best Buy tag the "Coming Soon" sticker on the Sprint HTC Hero for a whopping $599.99 off-contract. Well, it looks like Sprint has officially announced that the HTC Hero will be launching for $329.99 contract-free. That is all for the next Android phone to touch the United States of America.

[Phandroid]

Expansys and Clove Now Selling the Acer F1 neoTouch For Just £295, WinMo 6.5 With 1GHz CPU

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It looks like the Acer F1 neoTouch is now available for £304 ($484 USD) on Expansys and for £294 ($468 USD) on Clove over in the UK. This is extremely cheap, seeing how this handset comes pre-installed with WinMo 6.5 and has a 3.8-inch touchscreen display with a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU.

[WMPowerUser]

Adobe Flash Coming To Most Mobile Platforms (Except iPhone) By the End of This Year -- TG01 Demoed Running Flash 10.1 On Video

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Adobe has announced that Flash will be coming to, basically, all mobile platforms by the end of the year, via Flash 10.1. It will be coming to the iPhone, but only the apps will have access to it and not the browser, Safari, which is a big let down. In related news, the video below is a Toshiba TG01 running Flash 10.1 on Windows Mobile. It's good to see what's in the making.



[WMPowerUser]

Telus Launching HSPA Network and Bell Launching HSPA+ Network Next Month; iPhones As Well?

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Although it's not exactly 100%, the latest rumour states that both Bell and Telus will be launching the iPhone next month - November. According to the reports, Telus will be launching their HSPA network next month and Bell will be launching their HSPA+ network next month, which will give you 21Mbps speeds. This network will be in place by the holiday season and they're pushing it out as fast as they can to get ready for the 2010 Winter Games which is going to be held in Vancouver. Like I said, it's not 100% sure that they will be launching the iPhone, so don't say I never told you so.

Bell and Telus Launching HSPA Networks In November: Boy Genius, Mobile Syrup
[9 to 5 Mac, Boy Genius]

Motorola DEXT Launching Overseas On October 7th; Storm 2 On October 14th; HTC Imagio On the 20th; Tao / Sholes On the 30th

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So, we're not hearing that the Motorola DEXT, their first Android device, will be available on October 7th, which is just two days away. This handset will be available for free on a 2-year contract in which you have to pay £34.26 ($55 USD) monthly.

In related news, the photo below shows us that the Motorola Droid / Tao / Sholes will be launching on October 30th on Verizon. I don't believe this date, since it's just a rumour. If this is true, then we should also be expecting the BlackBerry Storm 2 on October 14th, the HTC Imagio on the 20th, and the Motorola Barrage on the 23rd.


PSP Go Drops In Price To £199.99 In the UK, PSP-3000 Also £139.99

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After launching this past weekend, Amazon UK (here) has already cut the price of the PSP Go down to £199.99 ($319 USD) from £224.99 ($358 USD). It's not a big drop, but it's better than nothing. On a side note, the PSP-3000 should be available for £139 ($221 USD).

[Engadget]

Palm's WebOS App Catalog Gets Its First Paid App, Air Hockey For $1.99 Anyone? -- Pulled

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Finally! It looks like the first app with a $1.99 price tag has just found itself a home on the WebOS App Catalog. It's Air Hockey! Fun, fun, fun. If you have a Palm Pre, you should go buy and download it, right now!

Update: Well, it looks the paid apps have just been pulled because there is a bug that is allowing you to get the apps for free. We have no word on when the paid apps will be available again, but I'm sure Palm's team is hard at work.

Weibu Releases N10A Netbook With Nvidia Ion in Japan

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It looks like Weibu has just released their N10A netbook. This netbook has: a 10.1-inch display with a 1,024 x 600 resolution, Nvidia Ion graphics, an Intel Atom Single-Core 230 1.6GHz CPU, 2GB of RAM, a 150GB HDD, and an HDMI output. This netbook is now available in Japan for 49,800 Yen, which is around $556 USD.

[Liliputing]

Gateway EC18T Tablet PC Gets Specced Out, Running Windows 7

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What you see above is the Gateway EC18T tablet PC that is going to be released with Windows 7 pre-installed. The EC18T looks like it will be outed with: an 11.6-inch touchscreen display, an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, up to 4GB of DDR3 SDRAM, an integrated Intel GS45 Express graphics, and Windows 7 Home Premium / Basic. We don't know the release details right now, so we'll have to wait for Gateway to make this all official.

[Engadget]

Nokia N97 Mini Hitting London On October 23rd For 450 Euros

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It looks like the Nokia N97 Mini will be available on October 23rd for around 450 Euros ($639 USD). It'll be available in London on the 23rd, but we don't know if it will hit North America at the same time.

[Slash Gear]

Bluetooth SIG Reveals Palm Ring P, Samsung F839, C6112 and E1390B Handsets

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Bluetooth SIG revealed some decent phones today. The first one is a WebOS handset from Palm, codenamed Ring P, and that's all we know about it right now. It also revealed the Samsung F839 handset which has: a WQVGA touchscreen display, CDMA / EV-DO connectivity, GPS / Bluetooth support, a 3MP camera, and an FM radio. The Samsung C6112 is another handset that has Bluetooth support, but we know nothing about it. The last handset it revealed was the Samsung E1390B. Surprisingly enough, this handset is already official in Romania and it has: a 1.63-inch display with a 128 x 128 resolution, dual-band GSM/GPRS connectivity, an FM radio, and a microSD card slot.


[Unwired View]

Verizon Planning To Launch a Bunch of Phones, Headed to Target and Sam's Club

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We know that Verizon is going to have a launch-fest for the rest of the year. They are getting ready to launch the most exciting phones OF ALL TIME! It looks like Verizon Wireless is planning to team up with Target and Sam's Club in order to launch the Motorola Droid / Tao / Sholes, the BlackBerry Curve 2 / Storm 2, and even the LG Chocolate Touch. We still don't know when these will launch, but it should be pretty soon.

[Boy Genius]

HTC Leo / HD2 Launching On O2 On October 12th? -- Already Available For Pre-Orders -- To Get Official October 6th

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According to the latest unconfirmed news, the godly HTC Leo / HD2 could be available as early as next month in Europe. The rumour states that O2 will be launching this handset with WinMo 6.5 pre-installed starting on October 12th for an undisclosed price.

Update: According to a more recent WMPowerUser post, this handset is actually now available for pre-orders on a couple of online retailers in the Netherlands. You'll find the best deal at Phoneshop.nl here, where it is available for €522 ($770 USD); 2call.nl here, has the handset available for €592 ($870 USD). Unfortunately, the handsets don't have a release date, it just says Q4. Could October 12th really be the date for the on-of-the-best WinMo handsets to date?

Update on October 5th: According to Slash Gear, the HTC HD2 / Leo could get officially official tomorrow, during the big WinMo 6.5 launch party.

[Slash Gear, WMPowerUser]

Apple Launching iMac / Mac Mini / Plastic MacBook Refresh On October 7th?

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It looks like that rumoured iMac / Mac Mini / plastic MacBook refresh could be coming very, very soon. According to the latest rumour, Apple will be launching all of these new products on October 7th to 9th of this year. This means that we could see the refresh by the end of this week. Could it really be true? If this is true, I hope we'll also see the Bluetooth keyboard and mouse that just passed the FCC.

[Stuff.tv]

Sony Ericsson Satio (Idou) Now Available For Pre-Orders On Vodafone UK

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It looks like Vodafone UK now has the Sony Ericsson Satio now available for pre-orders for free on an 18-month contract or on a 24-month contract. However, you'll have to pay 35 pounds ($56 USD) monthly on the 18-month contract and 40 pounds ($64 USD) monthly on the 2-year contract. This 12MP cameraphone with the S60 OS is also available unlocked for 500 pounds ($797 USD) if that's your thing. It could officially be released on October 13th.

[Tech Radar]

Windows Marketplace Already Available On WinMo 6.5 Handsets, Not That Many Apps Right Now

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Even though it's set to officially launch tomorrow it looks like current WinMo 6.5 handsets already have Marketplace on-board. This could mean that the tipster has the new AT&T HTC Pure that launched yesterday or something like that. Well, whatever, that's not important. The Marketplace looks like it's already available, but there aren't that many apps right now...

[Gizmodo, Engadget]

First Shot of the Need For Speed: Shift 250GB PS3 Slim Box

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The title says it all. This is your first look at the box shot of the 250GB PS3 Slim and Need For Speed: Shift bundle. The gray box looks like it's just about official.

[Kotaku]

AT&T Reveals Four Upcoming Handsets, Samsung Flight / Mythic and Pantech Reveal / Impact

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AT&T has gone out and mentioned four more of their upcoming handsets that will have full HTML mobile browsing thanks to the built-in Opera browser. From left to right, it's the Samsung Flight which has a slide-out QWERTY keypad and it'll be available next month for $99.99 USD on a 2-year contract after rebates. The middle handset is the Samsung Mythic. This handset will feature a 3.3-inch touchscreen display and AT&T Mobile TV. This will also launch next month for $199.99 on a 2-year contract after rebates.

The handset on the right is the Pantech Reveal. This handset has: a numeric keypad, a slide-out QWERTY keypad, AT&T Navigator, and 3G connectivity. This will be launching later this month - on October 18th - for an undisclosed price. The last handset they revealed was the Pantech Impact that is not pictured. It has: an external OLED touchscreen display that folds up to reveal an internal display and a QWERTY keypad.

All four of these handsets will have Opera as a browser and that will give you full HTML browsing. We'll have to see what happens when all of these phones launch to see exactly how good they'll be.

[Engadget]

Samsung Behold II To Feature Android and TouchWiz 3D UI, Coming This Holiday Season

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The rumours proved to be true. The Samsung Behold II will be another Android handset from them. This handset will feature: a 3.2-inch AMOLED touchscreen display, a 5MP AF camera, WiFi / Bluetooth 2.1 support, a microSD card slot, and their own TouchWiz 3D UI over top of Google's Android. The release details haven't been mentioned, but we'll see it hit T-Mobile before the holidays.

[Engadget]

Orange France Launching the HTC HD2 / Leo On November 12th?

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Although it may get launched on another carrier beforehand, it looks like Orange France could be launching the HTC HD2 / Leo on November 12th. This is still a rumour, so take it with a grain of salt. I believe that we'll see someone else launch it tomorrow - October 6th, and I'm definitely excited.

[WMPowerUSer]

Microsoft Windows 7 Already Being Delivered To Stores

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There's not much to say here, but it looks like Microsoft's Windows 7 is already making their way to stores, which is a lot earlier than the expected October 22nd launch date. Maybe we'll see it launch a couple of days earlier, kind of like how a WinMo 6.5 handset - the AT&T HTC Pure - has already been launched ahead of schedule.

[Engadget]

Motorola Ruby / V13 and E11 Spotted at the Bluetooth SIG -- Dual-SIM Slots On E11

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A new Motorola handset has been spotted at the Bluetooth SIG here and it's actually the Ruby that could get launched as the Motorola V13. According to the listing, this handset has: a 2-inch external QVGA touchscreen display, a 2.2-inch internal QVGA display, CDMA / EV-DO connectivity, Bluetooth support, and a 5MP camera.

In related news, the Motorola E11 has also been spotted at the Bluetooth SIG here.

Update on October 4th: Like I mentioned the E11 popped up on the Bluetooth SIG. Well, the details have just been spilled. The E11 looks like it will be a handset that will be available only in Asia. Like we already know, this handset has a 2.8-inch QVGA touchscreen display and a 3MP camera. This handset will also reportedly feature dual-SIM card slots.

[Unwired View]

Acer Changes Names of F1, C1, E1, and L1 Handsets

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It looks like Acer has decided to change the name of almost all of their upcoming handsets. The F1 will be named the Acer neoTouch; the C1 will be named the Acer beTouch E100; the E1 will be named the Acer beTouch E101; the L1 will be named the beTouch E200. Pretty interesting news and all of these handsets should be launching pretty soon - likely October 6th.

[WMPowerUser]

GeeksPhone Redesigns Their Android Handset, Makes It Sexier

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GeeksPhone has just just redesigned their Android-based handset and they've made it looks much better - in my opinion - although they could've made the screen a bit bigger since they've got the room on there. This handset will come with: a 3.2-inch WQVGA "hybrid-resistive touchscreen" (whatever that is), a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, quad-band GSM / 2100MHz UMTS HSPA connectivity, WiFi / Bluetooth 2.1 / GPS support, a 3.1MP camera, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a microSD card slot to round it out.

According to the reports, this handset's UI still needs to be touched up and we don't know the release details right now.

Rogers Launching 7.2Mbps HSPA Rocket Hub Sometime This Month

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Rogers has already launched the HSPA+ Rocket Stick, but they seem to be "out of stock" already. Well, it looks like Rogers is set to launch a new product for you, called the Rocket Hub. The cost of the actual hub hasn't been determined yet, but it'll cost a minimum of $35 CAD a month. This Rocket Hub will give you access to "Rogers 7.2Mbps HSPA network, either using WiFi or Ethernet to allow multiple devices to share one Internet connection and its UMTS network for voice." We don't know when it'll launch, but we do know that it will be sometime this month.

iriver B30 PMP Now Available For £139 In the UK

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Back in May, we heard about the iriver B30 PMP and it looks like it's finally available in the UK. This PMP has: a 2.8-inch QVGA display, 8GB / 16GB of internal storage, a microSD card slot, and a battery long enough to last 40 hours of audio and 6 hours of video. DadAudio now has this PMP up for £139 ($221 USD) - Engadget believes it's the 8GB model. The 16GB model will, of course, cost a bit more.

MSI Reveals Mobile Core i7-Packing GT640 Gaming Notebook

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Like the title says, MSI has just unveiled their Mobile Core i7 notebook, dubbed the GT640. This notebook will have: a 15.4-inch display, Nvidia GeForce 250M graphics, a 250GB / 320GB / 500GB HDD, but only up to 4GB of RAM. Other specs include: WiFi 802.11 n, an HDMI output, optional Bluetooth, and a 6 / 9-cell battery. This handset hasn't been launched yet, but I think MSI will wait until October 22nd with the launch of Windows 7 coming very very soon. The price hasn't been mentioned yet, but should launch cheaper than the Alienware m15x and the Asus G60J.