AT&T adores to trumpet the importance of the so-called “quick messaging” segment to its bottom line — the QWERTY-equipped featurephones that keep the teens and tweens texting 24 / 7 — so it’s no surprise that of the latest batch of devices they’ve added into the mix from Samsung and Pantech (which we missed while caught up in the week’s MIX10 activities), three of the four have full keyboards. The Strive from Samsung gets real in stores on March 21 with a 2 megapixel cam and vertical slide for just $20 on contract with rebate; the Sunburst comes on the same date for $40 with the same cam but a rather attractive full-touch design. On the Pantech side, you can choose from the portrait QWERTY Link (pictured left) or the Pursuit portrait slider, though neither has been blessed with a price or release date just yet. Perhaps more interesting than the phones themselves is the fact that the devices are the first to get hooked up with a host of new services from AT&T, including a cloud-synced address book, a media sharing service called Mobile Share that allows you to transfer videos and photos between devices for a monthly or per-transfer fee, and so-called “Next Generation Messaging” that adds group texting capability, a threaded view, and a unified inbox — smartphone-caliber features across the lower end of AT&T’s range.

AT&T posts four new featurephones from Samsung and Pantech originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Thu, 18 Mar 2010 22:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Making the rounds, are we Google? Just over 24 hours after we saw an AT&T-friendly Nexus One go on sale, along come Sprint yelling “me too!” at the top of its lungs. Today marks the day that Google’s first-ever smartphone now has at least a holding place on all four of the major US carriers, with T-Mobile nabbing it first and Verizon users still waiting for that vague “spring release.” Unfortunately, Sprint’s making us wait when it comes to finding out an exact price and release date, but at least we’re assured that both are coming “soon.”

Make it four: Google’s Nexus One coming to Sprint originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Mar 2010 14:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Hang with us for a sec as we conjure up a speculative device from a sordid collection of rumors. By now we’ve all seen the leaked BlackBerry slider right? How about the “Mr. T” phone, heard of that? Maybe you’ve heard of it by its other codename of Talladega? The connection here is that all of these devices are thought to be one and the same although that’s definitely not confirmed by any stretch.

Things got a bit more interesting this day after a loose-lipped CEO of a RIM parts supplier (Woojeon & Handan) mentioned a brand new BlackBerry “T” phone launching next month during an interview posted on joins.com (a popular Korean news site). According to our translation or the Korean jibba jabba:

“The Canadian company RIM famous for BlackBerry smartphones is releasing a new model next month. Known as the “T,” The new model is an ambitious product aimed at competing against iPhone’s storm of success. Rim will present it (”T”) as its flagship model to compete in global markets such as the U.S. and Europe.”

Funny, we thought that the original Storm was RIM’s answer to the iPhone. Anywho, Reuters picked up on the Woojeon & Handan interview this day but shied away from mentioning the name or the “next month” timing, saying only that W&H would supply parts for a new RIM product to be released later this year. With any luck, we’ll get a full reveal of the mythical BB slider next week with the kickoff of the huge CTIA show.

[Thanks, Frank]

Update: You know what’s next month? WES, RIM’s own trade show, which runs from the 27th to the 29th of April. Perfect timing for something like this, if we do state so ourselves.

RIM BlackBerry ‘T’ (Talladega?) slider launching next month? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Mar 2010 08:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Numbers released by Flurry Analytics yesterday recommended that Google’s Nexus One had sold around 135,000 units in 74 days (the same amount of time it took the iPhone to hit a million) — not a staggering number by any measure. Now, we don’t really have any way to assess the accuracy of Flurry’s data, but we spoke with Google’s team about a few things, and here’s what they had to state. For starters, Google wanted to assert the idea that selling lots of a single handset isn’t the company’s primary goal, an idea which makes sense considering how many handsets are currently available with Android. In our conversation, Google actually called out the sales figures for the Droid and seemed eager to make the point that their game is more of a war of attrition fought on a variety of fronts. their statement — and lots more — after the break…

Continue reading Google issues statement on Nexus One sales, touts Android Market’s 30,000 apps

Google issues statement on Nexus One sales, touts Android Market’s 30,000 apps originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Mar 2010 13:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Popularity: 1% [?]

The biggest chunk of eye candy we’ve seen out of Microsoft’s MIX10 event so far today has been the unveiling of the significantly-retooled Windows Phone Marketplace that’ll debut in Windows Phone 7 Series — and needless to say, it’s a looker. It’s got support for credit card buys, operator billing, and ad-supported content — a hot topic right now with Google’s and Apple’s mobile advertising acquisitions — and a try-before-you-buy scheme not unlike Android Market’s policy (though WP7S devs can choose what kind of trial period they want to offer; Android devs have no such option). We’ve been offered some video of the new Marketplace in action, and it looks super polished and well-integrated with the typical WP7S way of getting around — you’re given a “panoramic view” where you can browse categories and titles, see featured items, and get details with ratings, reviews, screen shots, and pricing information. Bought apps can be pinned to your Swift Launch screen, saving you a couple taps for your favorite and most frequently-used items. Watch the full video after the break — and keep an eye out for the trick “tilting” of menu items based on finger location toward the end of the clip, something we haven’t seen before.

Continue reading Windows Phone Marketplace for Windows Phone 7 Series unveiled

Windows Phone Marketplace for Windows Phone 7 Series unveiled originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Popularity: 1% [?]

We’d had some indication that Europe would be seeing Motorola Milestones running Android 2.1 roughly around this time, and it looks like we are now finally starting to get a few more specifics. According to Mobile Bulgaria, that country’s leading carrier, Vivacom, will start selling Milestones equipped with Android 2.1 “by March 20th,” which should no doubt be just part of a broader European rollout in the coming days / weeks (that will hopefully extend to Canada as well). Unfortunately, things still aren’t any clearer for Droid users in the US, but you can be sure we’ll be watching every development on that front.

Motorola Milestone with Android 2.1 hitting Bulgaria by March 20th, rest of Europe to follow? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Continue reading Jaxbot’s Windows Phone 7 Series Theme now available in beta (video)

Jaxbot’s Windows Phone 7 Series Theme now available in beta (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 13 Mar 2010 23:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Although Microsoft’s huge MIX event is still days away, the Windows Phone 7 Series development platform is already pretty well defined. It’s also clear that Microsoft wants to keep things tidy for developers by requiring all WP7 phones to meet a certain base-level spec. Now, thanks to a post from Microsoft’s Shawn Hargreaves, we know the display resolution for the first batch of Microsoft’s next generation phones: 480 x 800 (WVGA) pixels at launch, with a future update that will introduce a 320 x 480 (HVGA) native resolution. Dedicated hardware will ensure image scaling across all those pixels without taxing the GPU. That grants game developers, for example, to write to a lower resolution (requiring less horsepower) and then scale up as required while remaining compatible to a variety of screen resolutions.

Now, for those playing along at home, the HD2 getting ready to launch on T-Mobile in the USA is also WVGA and it features a 1GHz Snapdragon processor from Qualcomm, Microsoft’s WP7 silicon partner. So we can assume (but not guarantee) that it meets the image scaling hardware stipulations described by Hargreaves. Man, if only the HD2 had three-buttons.

[Thanks, Cytrix]

First Microsoft Windows Phone 7 Series devices to boast 480 x 800 pixel displays, HD2 owners sigh originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 04:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Popularity: 1% [?]

We’d had some indication that Europe would be seeing Motorola Milestones running Android 2.1 roughly around this time, and it looks like we’re now finally starting to get a few more specifics. According to Mobile Bulgaria, that country’s leading carrier, Vivacom, will start selling Milestones equipped with Android 2.1 “by March 20th,” which should no doubt be just part of a broader European rollout in the coming days / weeks (that will hopefully extend to Canada as well). Unfortunately, things still aren’t any clearer for Droid users in the US, but you can be sure we’ll be watching every development on that front.

Motorola Milestone with Android 2.1 hitting Bulgaria by March 20th, rest of Europe to follow? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Though its pure Java and BlackBerry counterparts had gone live late last year, Opera’s Android version of the Opera Mini 5 beta has been missing in action — until now. As far as we can tell, the new cut is a dead ringer for its cousins on other platforms, bringing all of 5’s new features including the so-called “speed dial” bookmark browser, tabbing, and an integrated password manager. We’ve had just a tiny bit of time to check it out so far, and our initial impression is that it’s wicked fast and renders just like you’d expect Opera Mini to, but the downside — and this is a big one for Android users on newer devices — is that it doesn’t appear to support multitouch. The new version is available for download today.

Opera Mini 5 beta comes to Android originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 02:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Popularity: 1% [?]