Author: Greg Kumparak

Palm may be down, but they’re not out just yet. Following the launch of the Pre and Pixi on Sprint last year and their respective Plus editions on Verizon back in January, Palm has just announced that they’ll soon be launching the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus on AT&T.

While its never bad news to get your handsets onto a new carrier, just how good this news is for Palm depends almost entirely on how AT&T handles it.

Palm’s exclusive launch with Sprint came as the carrier was smack-dab in the middle of their never-ending customer bleed, and their debut on Verizon had the unfortunate timing of coming right after VZW had just dumped a monstrous marketing budget into the Motorola Droid. With AT&T expected to only have an exclusive lock on the contract-magnet wunderkind that is the iPhone for another year (and a half, at most), how much time will they put behind properly marketing Palm’s goods?

From a hardware standpoint, the handsets being offered up for AT&T are virtually identical to that which we saw hit Verizon, save the fact that these latest ones are GSM. The Pre Plus has a 3.1″ screen, while the Pixi Plus’ comes in at 2.63″. Both handsets have 802.11b/g WiFi, integrated GPS, and Bluetooth 2.1+.

The software has seen some minor changes. The on-the-fly WiFi router Mobile Hotspot software that debuted on the VZW handsets didn’t make it over. On the upside, Palm threw in a new feature they’re calling “Whisper”, which automatically connects AT&T Hotspot customers to any AT&T WiFi point without requiring them to retype their credentials.

Neither company is saying exactly when to expect the handsets to hit the shelves, outside of “in the coming months.” When they do, the price tag will be set at $149.99 for the Pre Plus and $49.99 for the Pixi Plus, both after an always-annoying $100 mail-in rebate.

Hey there, friends! You know what time it is? It’s “Good news, bad news..” time!

The Good News: An anonymous tipster just spotted this little gem on Verizon’s own website, listing the “HTC Desire” as one of the items that comes in the Droid Eris box.

The Bad News: As much as we’d love to think this is some rogue employee’s covert way of leaking details or some sort of crazy Freudian slip (Freudian typo?), neither of those are probably the case. You see, the “Desire” name has served as an internal codename for other HTC Android handsets in the past, including, unfortunately, the Droid Eris. As it currently stands, we can only assume that this is a lingering placeholder that’s somehow gone unnoticed for months.

Oh well, we can always hope. And if that fails? Well, there’s always the Incredible!

See that image above? It’s notable for two reasons:

1. I’m fairly confident it takes the much coveted title for “Hardest to read leaked document ever”.
2. It, in all of its tiny text, confirms that the Sprint HTC Hero and Samsung Moment will be upgraded to Android 2.1 soon.

Update: We’ve now got a more legible picture and a full transcription after the jump.

The wonderful guys over at AndroidCentral whipped out their electron microscopes and did the hard transcription work for us. While the majority of it is just the general “Tell our customers that our service is superior to EVERYONE!” internal propaganda, there lies a pair of gems right around the middle section: “Let your customers know we are actively working on having the Android 2.1 platform available to our Hero and Moment customers over the coming weeks.” and “Look for more information coming in April about Android 2.1 platform for Hero and Moment.”

So there you have it, folks – more information is coming in April. I can’t even imagine how many people are happy about this news (Hi Carol!), given that people have been asking for an update to the Hero since roughly 1996 and that the Samsung Moment would be an absolutely killer handset when paired with Android 2.1.

Update: Want something a little more legible? Our buddy Joecrack305 of Cognizantphotos just sent a much better screen cap our way. Check it out:

Android 2.1 platform for Hero and Moment

Specialists: All
Customers: All

What you need to know:

• With all the anticipation of Nexus One joining the Sprint Android family of great devices, customers with the HTC Hero™ and the Samsung Moment™ with Google™ may wonder about the Android 2.1 platform that supports Nexus One.

What you need to do:

• We know that technology has enabled greater productivity and spontaneity in our lives, and because of this we have become very dependent on staying connected. Customers don‘t only expect more from their wireless phones — they demand it.
• Let your customers know we are actively working on having the Android 2.1 platform available to our Hero and Moment customers over the coming weeks.
  Look for more information coming in April about Android 2.1 platform for Hero and Moment.

And don’t forget:

• The HTC Hero™ and the Samsung Moment™ with Google™ are superior devices.
• Sprint is the only national U.S. carrier to offer HTC Hero, and it picked up top honors as Best Mobile Handset at the 2010 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
  About.com readers have also nominated HTC Hero as their favorite smartphone for the 2010 Reader’s Choice Awards.

Thanks Joecrack305!

You hear that sound? That’s the sound of my mind being blown.

When the folks over in Cupertino strapped a little speaker to the bottom of the iPhone and released an SDK, do you think that any of them thought “Oh, people are totally going to use this to make apps that can push little Styrofoam balls around a fake soccer field.” Yeah, probably not. But sure enough, people have.

The 99 cent app, Football – Real Kick, is a clever twist on the “blower” concept we’ve seen before. In a nut shell: sound pushes air around. Certain sounds that the iPhone speaker can emit push enough air around that you can just baaaarely feel it, making it just strong enough to blow out a candle — or in this case, blow around a little Styrofoam ball.

Unlike past blower apps, this one doesn’t emit a constant stream. It only putts out air when you tap that “kick” button; combine this with a hand drawn soccer field, a couple of iPhones, and a whole lot of beer, and you’ve got the world’s most expensive game of foosball that doesn’t actually involve a foosball table.

Earlier this morning, the Windows Phone 7 emulator was “unlocked” (so to speak), granting anyone with a few spare minutes and basic tinkering abilities an opportunity to get a look at a bunch of stuff Microsoft didn’t originally include.

Not everyone is prepped and ready to get their hack on, though. Maybe you’re on a Mac. Maybe it’s Friday and you just don’t feel like doing anything. Understandable. Fortunately for you, a couple of videos demonstrating all the hacked ROM have been flying around the Intertubes.

The first one comes from PocketNow, who’s had a pretty strong chokehold on this story from the beginning:

The second (and freakishly huge) video comes from the fine folks at TechAU:

As anyone in the history of ever who has ever written a single line of code that might be subject to hacking knows, the only way to keep something “hidden” in an application is to just not include it at all. Sure, you can obfuscate the hell out of it out in the source code, or add some crazy configuration value that enables it; just don’t expect either of those to work for much longer than 5 minutes.

Either the WP7 team didn’t get that memo, or they’re perfectly comfortable with people unlocking a bunch of features in the emulator that didn’t come enabled by default.

A gent who’s now looking to have his name removed from the project managed to tear apart the ROM included with the WP7 development tools and flip a few switches that shouldn’t necessarily have been switched. Where as the original emulator set up would only show Internet Explorer and a tile or two, the hacked ROM brings out the Live Tiles, Voice Search, and Hubs. Better yet, it shows off a few fancy new features that have never been seen, including a file explorer and a task manager.

Pocketnow has a nice little write-up on how to get the hacked ROM up and running in your own emulator – but if you’re not feeling too tinkery, check out the shots of the file manager and task manager below.

Here it is, folks! Its been a few long months for Sprint fans toting Touch Pro2’s, given that the same device on all of the other carriers saw upgrades to Windows Mobile 6.5 months ago while their own Pro2s stayed back at WinMo 6.1. We knew the update was coming sometime in March, and then we pinned the date down to some more specific: today.

Sure enough, the update went live. So go, go young Pro2 carrier, and let the warm rays of Windows Mobile 6.5 breath new life into your Touch Pro2. (Download link here) Better yet, hack Android onto it.

The stars are all starting to align around the launch of the HTC Supersonic happening at CTIA. If yesterday’s report from the Wall Street Journal wasn’t enough for you, check out this line pulled directly from CTIA press materials:

HTC will be showing a number of new and favorite HTC devices –including the recently debuted HTC HD2 on T-Mobile and an unnamed device that will be unveiled for the first time at CTIA.

HTC doesn’t really launch very many feature phones, and their last few phones have done nothing but set the bar higher – so chances are, this one will be something good. If it’s not the Supersonic, it’s the Incredible; either way, I think we’d be happy.

Bad news, everyone!

Remember that Droid update that was supposed to hit today? The one that was supposed to bring Android 2.1 and all of its wonderful features? Yeah, erm, about that..

It’s been delayed.

Seemingly out of the blue, messages on the Verizon employee intranet changed from “Hurray! The update is coming on 3/18″ to big, red fonted messages of “OH GOD NEVERMIND WE’LL UPDATE YOU AS SOON AS POSSIBLE”.

So what happened? Last minute bugs? Distribution errors? Is Verizon toying with our emotions? We may never know for sure. The one thing we do know, straight from the horses mouth: “The 3/18 software update will not happen as planned. ”

Boy Genius got his mitts on the shot below, confirming the delay:

Microsoft has taken a very Apple-esque approach to the development and launch of Windows Phone 7. Now, before anyone tears into me in the comments with some crazy knee-jerk response, think about it for a second. Developed in the utmost of secrecy? Check. Closed-wall app store? Check. Minimalist user interface? Check. Apple also has a tendency to speak out against things that their product doesn’t do (Steve Jobs, January 16th 2008: “People don’t read anymore!” Steve Jobs, January 27th 2010: “Hey guys! Check out the iPad!”), all whilst secretly working on it behind closed doors.

If the latest rumor to come out of Internetsville rings true, it looks like Microsoft is taking the same approach with Copy and Paste in Windows Phone 7.

Microsoft already told us waaaay back in February that there would be no Copy/Paste in WP7 – but now that they’ve confirmed it, everyone’s flipping out. Every blogger within reach of their MacBook Pro shot off an e-mail to Microsoft asking for more details, and they essentially told everyone the same thing: No, we’re not working on copy and paste.

Well, at least one guy is saying that’s not the case. Long Zheng of istartsomething is saying that someone “close to the den” (i.e someone at Microsoft) has shared the low-down on copy/paste with him: Yes, it’s coming — they’re just not sure how to implement it yet.

Of course, rumors like this are bound to happen. Holographic sex robots are coming eventually – they’re just not sure how to make them yet. In this case, however, it seems likely that we’ll see it sooner than later; Microsoft has supported copy/paste in past releases, and much of their word-editing, enterprise-emailin’ userbase relies on it.

[Via Electronista]

Oh, HTC Incredible, you just can’t stay off the Internet, can you? We’ve seen you in not one, but two series of spy shots, we’ve seen you leak out in alternative color schemes — hell, we’ve even spotted you roaming around Verizon’s inventory system. We sure are seeing a lot of you — and you know what? We don’t mind one bit.

According to the latest leak, we should be seeing a lot more of the HTC Incredible — as in, in the hands of the general public — within two weeks.

The word comes from DailyTech, who mentions nearly in passing that they’ve “confirmed that the HTC Incredible was supposed to begin to arrive at Verizon Wireless stores in two weeks”. It’s a fitting time, really; CTIA is just next week, so this could be Verizon going all-in on the blind to counter whatever the other carriers might have cooking up.

To recap, the Incredible is allegedly packing a 1 Ghz Snapdragon chip (clocked down to 768Mhz for the sake of battery life), an 8 megapixel , and 512 MB of RAM. HTC’s getting a bit experimental with this one, moving away from their generally flat and smooth surfaces to a hard-lined, blocky design on the battery cover. What say you, lovely reader?

Still having a hard time believing that the Sprint Touch Pro2 will finally be getting the Windows Mobile 6.5 update treatment Friday, March 19th? Believe it, dear reader.

Our boy 99accordv6 just sent over a stack of documents all positively pinning the update on 3/19/10, the most clear of which is pictured up above. While the details are mostly the same as the ones we saw in the last leak, the two download links down at the bottom do positively confirm that the update won’t require a trip to the Sprint store. It won’t be too much longer now, Touch Pro2 owners!

Thanks, 99accordv6!

A few days ago we wrote about Mel Sampat, a member of the Windows Phone 7 development team who had chosen to leave the team to pursue his own endeavors, part of which included making third-party apps for the very platform he helped make. You might assume that his history with the platform would make developing things for it a bit easier — and, well, you’d probably be right.

Just two days after the general availability of the Windows Phone 7 development tools, Sampat’s company Mist Labs has just announced their first Windows Phone 7 application: Twikini. Besides being the company’s first app, it also gets to claim to be the first Update: second (see below) Twitter client announced for the platform.

Mist Labs had said from the beginning that one of their goals was to help already established applications/brands bring their wares to WP7, and that’s exactly the case here. Mist Labs worked in collaboration with Trinket Software, who originally made Trikini for WP7’s aging sibling, Windows Mobile 6.5.

There’s no word yet on pricing — but given that there’s no sign of advertising in the screenshots they’ve shown so far, I wouldn’t expect it to be free. The price of the original Twikini was $4.95; combine that with the fact that there will inevitably be dozens upon dozens of Twitter apps by the time WP7 launches in 7-8 months, and Twikini probably won’t set you back more than a buck or two.

Update: False alarm on the “first” part – Seesmic was one of Microsoft’s software partners announced at MIX earlier this week, making it the first on the platform.

We just got the good word from the folks at Sprint themselves: the Google Nexus One will be landing on Sprint. And with that, the Nexus One will be available for all four major US carriers (AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, and T-Mobile).

Sprint’s being sort of tight-lipped here; they apparently haven’t quite figured out how to price it yet, so pricing details and availability haven’t been disclosed. While we might hear more solid details about this at CTIA next week, don’t expect it to be Sprint’s main focus; chances are, a different Android-powered handset already holds that spot.

There isn’t much to say about the HTC Supersonic that hasn’t been said already. It’s big (in a 4.3-inch-display sort of way). It’s beautiful. It’s Android-powered, and runs on Sprint’s 4G WiMax network. It’s just not.. you know, official in any way.

According to the Wall Street Journal, that’s about to change. Though they aren’t naming their sources, they say that Dan Hesse himself will be dropping the good word about the Supersonic in the middle of his CTIA keynote on Wednesday, March 24th.

Next week can’t come soon enough – we really can’t wait to play with this thing. If even half of the rumors end up being accurate (and we get the feeling everything we’ve rounded up so far is pretty spot on), this thing is going to be one hell of a phone.

If I had to pin a color on the HTC Desire we saw back at MWC, I’d have called it silver. Dark, sort-of-brownish silver, but silver none the less.

But then this comes out, and shows us what a HTC Desire looks like when it’s really, really Silver.

Pulled from the depths of xda-developers (as posted by forumgoer irkan), it’s not 100% confirmed that these color scheme will ever reach the shelves – but given how damn good it looks, we’d say it probably will. As BGR points out, this hue edition could be a perfect match for the rumored AT&T released, given AT&T’s affinity for all things silver.

It’s been a crazy ride on the rumor rollercoaster for the Android-powered Motorola Cliq XT. What started out as a mysterious spotting finally became official at Mobile World Congress in February. Then came a series of leaks, each half right: one got the date right, while the other nailed the price.

Well, the ride is over. The Cliq XT is now available in T-Mobile retail spots for a 2-year contract price of $129.99. It’s got a nice little 5 megapixel camera tucked on the back there, but here’s the bad news: it’s still running Android 1.5. It’s sure to get a bumpgrade to a more recent build of Android before too long, but don’t expect to be riding the cutting edge here.

Picking up a new Cliq XT? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

They’re in our homes, and they’re in our schools. There they sit, silently, eating our power. Even if you unplug your phone, they keep devouring power. What’s next!? Will cell phone chargers some day EAT YOUR CHILDREN? More at 11.

In a move to save you some gadget juice and boost their “green”-factor, AT&T has just announced what they call the first “automatic zero draw charger”, the ZERO.

In a nutshell, the thing simply stops drawing power when no phones are connected for charging. Like many chargers as of late (Apple’s, Palm’s, HTC’s, etc), it’s USB based, allowing you to use this brick with just about any phone you’ve got. It also will not eat your children.

Look for the ZERO charger to hit the shelves at AT&T stores come May. They’re not saying how much it’ll cost beyond “the same as existing replacement chargers” which, according to AT&Ts own site, is right around $30 on average.

When it rains, its pours. We just found out yesterday that Android 2.1 hitting the Moto Droid sometime in March was a pretty sure thing, and now we’ve got an exact date.

A handful of different screencaps like the one you see above just hit a bunch of Android fan blogs (We spotted these ones on Droid-Life and Android Central), implying one thing: this memo either just got pushed out to the Verizon retail outlets, or some fakester out there is putting waaaay too much effort into this. We’re guessing its the first one.

According to the memo, the first batch of Android 2.1 handsets will roll out beginning this Thursday. Given that it’s being rolled out gradually, don’t freak out if your friend’s Droid gets updated and yours doesn’t – it might take a day or two. Don’t worry, though; if Android 2.1 is half as slick on the Droid as it is on the Nexus One, the wait will be worth it.

Bluetooth headsets are great for keeping your eyes on the road while you’re driving — until you get a text message. “I wonder who that’s from? I’ll just take a peek!” you think, reaching for your phone… and BAM! Your car’s front end is now playing twister with another car’s rear end.

Bluetooth headset manufacturer BlueAnt is looking to cut down on the number of surprise trunk attacks with the introduction of their first Android App, which they’ll be announcing next week at CTIA.

Nobody’s spilled the beans on the app’s name to us just yet, so we’ll have to do with just calling it “the application”. When paired up with BlueAnt’s Q1 headset, the application will read off the text of incoming text messages. You get to know what people are saying, and you don’t even have to wreck your car or endanger others! Who would have thought?

Look for more news about the app (and a brand new BlueAnt headset) next week.