Judging by the fact that our lovely planet is home to the Libretto W100, the Kno, Onkyo DX and oodles of prototypes that utilize twin panels rather than a panel and a keyboard, Sharp’s newest microchip is likely to draw some serious industry attention. Improving on an idea that began in 2008, the company has recently shown off a new chip (dubbed LR388G9) that can control two mobile LCDs and can simultaneously display a pair of different 1,024 x 480 pixel clips on a pair of screens; moreover, it can output full 1080p to any source connected via HDMI. Since ‘08, Sharp has increased memory capacity from 16Mbits to 32Mbits while boosting the image processing speed, and the company now intends to hawk this new guy to outfits who manufacture smartphones, e-readers, digital photo frames and even netbooks. If all goes well, the chip will ship within a 261-pin WFBGA package this September, with volume pricing pegged at around ¥2,400 ($27).

Make no mistake: the Kin One and Two are coming into the world as the black sheep of the phone industry, and Microsoft would have it no other way. Straddling the fence somewhere between a dedicated smartphone and high-spec featurephone, they’ve been tricky to understand since the day they were first leaked (even Microsoft seemed unsure of what the devices meant until very recently). Billed as a Gen-Y (the “upload generation”) social networking tool — and sold in advertisements as the gateway to the time of your young, freewheeling life — the Kin phones have admittedly been something of head-scratcher to those of us in the gadget world. Built atop a core similar (but not identical) to the Windows Phone 7 devices coming later this year, manufactured by Sharp, and tied into partnerships with Verizon and Vodafone, the phones dangerously preempt Microsoft’s reemergence into the smartphone market. Hell, they’re even called Windows Phones. But the One and Two aren’t like any Windows Phones you’ve ever seen. With stripped-down interfaces, deep social networking integration, and a focus on very particular type of user, Microsoft is aiming for something altogether different with Kin. So do these devices deliver on that unique, social experience that Redmond has been selling, or does this experiment fall flat? We’ve taken both handsets for a spin, and we’ve got all the answers in our full review… so read on to find out!

Kin One and Two review

read on the entire review of the two devices at engadget.com

In a nutshell, you’ll use iPhone Explorer to copy over the Android files, then turn your Mac or PC into an Ubuntu virtual machine to install the OpeniBoot software. When you’re done, you’ll probably have a dual-booting iPhone that can swap between iPhone OS and an experimental version of Android 1.6 at startup.

read on the entire how-to at androidalot.com

source engadget.com

Dell Thunder unlike the Lightning is packing an Android 2.1 rest of the specs should be similar however unconfirmed:

• 4.1-inch WVGA OLED screen with Dell “Stage” UI
• Facebook and Twitter social networking,
• unconfirmed Flash 10.1 web videos,
• an “integrated web video Hulu app.”
• unconfirmed  8 megapixel camera

Check out engadget’s original breaking article on the Dell Thunder leak

and their image gallery:

Dell Lightning qwerty portrait slider leaked specs:

• 1GHz QSD8250 Snapdragon processor,
• WVGA 4.1-inch OLED display,
• AT&T and T-Mobile 3G,
• five megapixel autofocus camera,
• 1GB of flash with 512MB RAM,
• 8GB of storage on a MicroSD card,
• GPS,
• accelerometer,
• compass,
• FM radio,
• full Flash support including video playback.
• perhaps an upgrade to LTE in Q4 of 2011.

Check out Engadget original post on the leaked Dell Lightning: the ultimate Windows Phone 7 device leaks

and engadget’s gallery

Official announcements be damned — Verizon’s just thrown up a “coming soon” preview page for the HTC Incredible. While we didn’t necessarily need any more evidence this guy was real — we’ve read its user’s manual, we’ve spied shots of it in Verizon’s system, and we’ve seen it in the wild enough times to sketch it quickly from memory with our eyes closed — it’s still exciting news to know that the inevitable unleashing of this beast is nearly upon us.

Update: They’ve changed up this page already (as you can see from our updated image) — giving us the date of April 29th. And yes, they’re calling it the Droid Incredible.

Update 2: You’ll want to hit the read more and check out some photographic evidence of the Incredible making its way to T-Mobile via Costco stores — it appears to be showing up in inventories now — we’ll keep you posted.

Update 3: And now the website is password protected. That’s okay: we know what it said.

[Thanks, Ryan and James]

Remember Samsung’s impressive 3.7-inch Super AMOLED Beam projector phone running Andriod? This isn’t it. Instead, Samsung is launching its far less impressive 3.3-inch AMOLED (what, no Super?) Beam SPH-W9600 we previewed back in January into its South Korean home. So yeah, it’s the same 5 megapixeler with T-DMB TV, Microsoft Office and DivX codec support, and improved DLP pico projector that replaces last year’s W7900. But if it’s all the same to you Sammy, we’ll be waiting for the true projector phone successor — your Beam i8520, codenamed Halo — said to be launching this summer.

AMOLED Beam

It’s finally official: Microsoft Pink — the product of Redmond’s acquisition of Danger — has just been unveiled as a pair of handsets sourced from Sharp (which made most of Danger’s Sidekicks) known as the Kin One and Kin Two. The devices are being marketed as Windows Phones, and while they’re ultimately based on most of the same underpinnings of Windows Phone 7, it’s a distinctly and totally different experience — the entire user interface is custom to Kin with a heavy social media slant, a custom browser (we’re told it’s based on the Zune’s browser), and surprisingly, zero support for third-party apps. The displays are capacitive with support for multitouch (yes, you can pinch and zoom in the browser), but there’s no support for in-browser Flash or Silverlight.

Kin One — the phone we’d seen rumored as “Turtle” — is basically a curved square slider with a QVGA display, 4GB of internal storage, 5 megapixel camera with LED flash, and a full QWERTY keyboard. Kin Two, meanwhile, is the phone leaked as the “Pure,” upping the ante with a HVGA display and a more traditional landscape QWERTY slide form factor. It also moves up to an 8 megapixel cam and 8GB of internal storage, but otherwise, the experience is roughly the same as what you get on the One; both phones have WiFi and Bluetooth in addition to their 3G cellular radios. For what it’s worth, Microsoft is emphasizing that internal storage really isn’t a big deal with the Kin phones, because your entire photo and video collection that you capture using the onboard camera is synced seamlessly with your bottomless online storage; you can access the entire collection from your phone at any time by browsing thumbnails, and if you want the full content, you can download it. Kin comes bundled with a desktop web experience that’s entirely based on Silverlight for viewing and sorting just about all of the major stuff that you can see on your phone — contacts, social network status updates, images, and so on — and we’ve got to admit, it looks pretty slick. Keep reading after the break for a lot more info and video!

Microsoft Kin One and Kin Two press shots

A big focus for Microsoft with Kin is the totally new, different, crazy UI, which is based on blocky, simple text, monochromatic elements, and zoomed-in, stylized pictures. The big two features unique to Kin are being called “Spot” and “Loop.” Loop is sort of the Kin’s home screen, aggregating social content from your friends (Twitter, Facebook, and so on) roughly based on order of priority by how you sort your contents, so you don’t have to see as many updates from people you don’t follow too closely. Spot, meanwhile, is an ever-present green dot at the bottom of the screen where you can drag content — just about any content, be it maps, images, status updates, videos — and share it with contacts. Think of it as an “Attach” button in your messaging client, but on steroids.

Both phones have full support for the Zune music and video experience (but not Zune gaming), and it looks like the Zune HD UI we’re accustomed to, just as it does on Windows Phone 7. To loop in the Mac community, Microsoft will be offering a Mac-compatible music side-loader — in other words, it won’t be a true, native Zune client and you won’t be able to use it to shop for music, but it’ll happily connect to iTunes and sync your non-DRM collection. Both phones also support over-the-air firmware updates, so there’ll be no need to tether just for that. Speaking of tethering, data tethering isn’t supported.

Verizon is getting the Kin One and Two in the US in May, while Vodafone has signed on as the European partner for a Fall launch. We’ll update you on specific pricing and availability just as soon as we have it.

While iPhone 3G owners and would-be Windows Phone 7 buyers sit in the corner, quietly weeping over their lack of true multitasking, webOS and Symbian continue to point and laugh. In mid-January, a Palm Pre Plus was seen cackling with joy over its rivals’ misfortune even as the device staggered under the weight of 50 simultaneous applications, and less than a week later, a Samsung Omnia HD performed the very same feat, despite having only half the Pre Plus’ RAM (i.e. 256MB) to work with. Now, in what we can only interpret as a large middle finger and “come here” gesture to all who aspire to the cell phone multitasking heavyweight title, we have a video of the i8910 running no less than sixty-two applications thanks to a custom ROM by HyperX. Watch in stunned silence as a finger scrolls through them, right after the break.

So we just got handed some sort of Sprint “overview deck” going over some of the HTC EVO 4G’s finer points — and rest assured, there are many fine points — but all told, there’s not a lot new here; there’s no release date that we can see, and we’re already well acquainted with its 4G hotspot capability and the major features of Android 2.1 integrated with Sense. That said, our attention was drawn to the last couple slides, which reveal a bunch of accessories that’ll be available just in case the phone itself isn’t enough to max out the plastic. Specifically, there’s a dock with HDMI out (“likely” available after launch), a car mount, screen protectors, several kind of cases and gels in every color of the rainbow, and a couple different kinds of replacement shells — one multi-color kit with a handful of snazzy shades, and a custom design option that sounds similar to what T-Mobile has done in the past with some of its devices. Oh, and there’s another gem in here: a battery charging holster — something along the lines of a Case-Mate Fuel, from what we can tell — that’ll come after the initial launch.

That’s about it as accessories go, but we’d like to call your attention to the second slide in the deck, which calls out a mysterious “Segment 1″ as Sprint’s primary target market for the EVO 4G, with “Segment 6″ gaining importance after the phone drops in price — possibly around the holidays this year. From what it sounds, Sprint actually has all of its target demographics grouped into numbered buckets; we’d love to know what they all are, but needless to say, you can count us (and probably most of you) in this fun-loving, awesome Segment 1. You know, the cool kids.

HTC EVO 4G to get boatload of accessories in Sprint stores

[Thanks, Crimmage]

Well, it’s not April 12th, but it looks like you can now order a Zune HD 64 nonetheless — straight from the Zune Originals website, at least. As expected, the device runs $349.99, and the 16GB and 32GB models have now also been knocked down to $200 and $270, respectively — all of which are naturally available in the usual range of different colors, and with custom designs for an extra $15. You’ll also, of course, get the latest v4.5 firmware pre-loaded on the device, which packs new features like SmartDJ that Microsoft was recently kind enough to demonstrate for us.

[Thanks, Henry and Jonathan]

Update: Turns out the Zune HD 64 won’t come pre-loaded with the v4.5 firmware — you’ll be prompted to download it when you connect the device.

You heard that right, people — iPhone OS 4 just brought multitasking to the platform! Apple says they’ve figured out how to implement third party multitasking without hurting performance or battery life, and they’re demoing it now — you just double click the home button and see a list of your apps, and you can just tap to switch between apps. The system actually runs the services apps need in the background — the apps don’t need to do them individually, so it’s not a “true” multitasking system, but it seems plenty effective. There are seven services: background audio, which allows you to use the standard pop-over iPod controls, Voice over IP, which can receive calls in the background, location services for GPS and social networking (there’s an indicator if any service is tracking you), updated push notifications with local notifications, task completion so you can finish things like uploads in the background, and fast app switching, which lets apps sleep and resume instantly. Notably missing? Anything for managing a conversation, like IM or Twitter, which is a big omission. Win some, lose some, we suppose.

Update: Here’s a big “lose some” — only the iPhone 3GS and 3rd generation (late 2009) iPod touch will support multitasking. The iPhone 3G and below won’t — Steve says the hardware doesn’t support it. Sad face.

Multitasking comes to iPhone OS 4.0!

Developing…
Make sure to check out the ongoing iPhone OS 4.0 liveblog!

We ran through the seven mainstream iPad alternatives a few weeks ago. You should know the list anyway.  They include the usual suspects of the ModBook, Notion Ink Adam, HP Slate and Dell Streak along with a few others. But there are a bunch more portables either currently available or coming out real soon that could also have made that list. Consider the following seven computers alternatives to the standard iPad alternatives.

Spring Design Alex Ebook Reader

While the Alex is really an ereader first, it’s still capable of a lot more with Android running on a 3.5-inch color LCD under the 6-inch e-ink display. Since it’s Android, everything works as it should so it can browse the web, send emails, and access the Android Marketplace via Wi-Fi or 3G. But the real magic is that the two screens can be linked so that content on the small screen can be pushed up for easier viewing on the large screen. It also handles book navigation and selection. Think of it as a suped-up Nook and instead of B&N, there’s a partnership with Boarders but any ebook standard will work. Available in either black or white at $399 and the company is taking pre-orders right now with an expected shipping date of April 14.

Advantages over the iPad

• USB power charging
• User-replaceable battery
• Longer battery life with only the e-ink screen

Disadvantages

• Smaller screens
• Less storage

enTourage eDGe dualbook

One look at this thing and you can tell it’s something different. Two screens, combined with a hinge that also holds a speaker. It’s really not just an ereader with an Android netbook bolted on, either. It’s so much more and truly shows what the future of computer could hold for everyday joes, but more so for academia. Oh, and unlike the similar Microsoft Courier concept, this thing is real and available for $499 right now. Read our review here.

Advantages over the iPad

• More touchscreen real estate
• SD card slot
• 2 USB ports
• User-replaceable battery

Disadvantages

• No 3G
• Less storage

WePad

The WePad may be the most complete alternative to the iPad with Linux at the core and access to the Android Marketplace. It’s reportable going to be less expensive, as well, when it first its German retailers in the coming months.

Advantages over the iPad

• Webcam
• 2 USB ports
• WePad App Store + Android Marketplace
• Multitasking
• Works with all ebook formats
• Larger screen
• Flash support

Disadvantages

• None we can see

Lenovo Skylight Smartbook

Yes, it’s a netbook but give the Skylight a chance before scrolling down to the next iPad alternative. 10 hour battery life, 2 lbs weight, and a bright 10-inch screen are pretty standard noondays. But then throw in a 3G wireless into a thin and sleek package powered by a custom web interface and you have one tasty treat.

Advantages over the iPad

• Full keyboard
• USB ports
• SD card slot

Disadvantages

• Unproven OS (that’s a biggie)
• No touchscreen

Lenovo IdeaPad U1 Hybrid

It’s a tablet! No, it’s a netbook! No, it’s both! An Intel CULV processor handles Windows 7 while in netbook mode and an ARM CPU takes care of the Skylight OS when the tablet is all by itself. It packs 3G, 128GB SSD all in a design that’s truly the best of both worlds. The U1 Hybrid slated for a summer 2010 release. See it in action here.

Advantages over the iPad

• Windows 7
• Two-in-One design
• USB port
• SD card slot
• Larger screen

Disadvantages

• No access to the App Store
• It will probably be more expensive

ExoPC

It looks like an iPad, costs the same as an iPad, has similar tech specs as the iPad, but it isn’t made by Apple. The ExoPC might be the absolute best iPad alternative for Apple haters as long as they feel comfortable owning an obvious iPad clone. The ExoPC is supposed to be released sometime this spring.

Advantages over the iPad

• SD card slot
• User-replaceable battery
• Supports Flash and Silverlight
• Wireless and wired networking
• Windows 7
• 3 USB ports

Disadvantages

• No access to the App Store
• Shorter battery life at 4 hours

Your smartphone

And finally, your smartphone should really be considered an iPad alternative. Think about what the iPad can do and then compare it against your current phone. It could be a Palm Pre, Droid, HD2, or even iPhone. You can surf the web on these phones, edit photos, read sheet music, play electronic instruments, read comics, watch TV shows, play racing games and the list goes on and on and on. Sure, the iPad has that massive screen to further exploit those apps, but most of the functions are the same.

Let’s just be nice and feign surprise, okay? Good. With that out of the way, Microsoft has announced a 64GB version of Zune HD, due out April 12th via the Zune online store (and later via other retailers) with a handful of color options and a strapping $349.99 price tag. Not to be outdone, the 16GB and 32GB will each receive a $20 cut on the MSRP, to $200 and $270, respectively — whatever Amazon and Newegg slash beyond that is up to them. It seems “as soon as possible” is the motto for when the price drop is taking place, so if your favorite online / brick-and-mortar retailer isn’t yet honoring the extra Andrew Jackson in your pocket, have patience. So now we’re left with a v4.5 firmware release date as the remaining piece in this puzzle, but Microsoft promises to solve that riddle wrapped in an enigma “in the coming days.” Right. Press release after the break.

Those whispers you might have heard of a Pro version of Samsung’s delectable Galaxy S have just turned into a booming roar, thanks to Eldar Murtazin apparently confirming the existence and prospective arrival of the rumored handset. According to the legendarily loquacious mobile reviewer, Samsung will be strapping a QWERTY keyboard onto the already potent Galaxy S hardware and upping the pricing ante with an extra €50 (about $67) charge. He also manages to give us a June launch date, but pictures of this device are predictably not yet available. We’ll just have to let our imagination do the work until Mr. Blurrycam gets on the case. Screenshot of the relevant tweet after the break.

Sharp’s new IS01 MID for KDDI au proved to be something of a letdown when it was announced earlier today, partly due to raised expectations, and partly due to a lack of a decent look at it. Thankfully, Akihabara News has now come through on the latter point, and provided a fairly extensive hands-on look at the Snapdragon-powered MID. Anyone hoping for a bit more incentive to buy one may well still come away disappointed, however, as the site describes the device as fairly “cheap” feeling, and says that it doesn’t have multitouch support (although earlier reports have stated that the device has a multitouch display). That said, the Snapdragon processor does apparently ensure that the device is suitably speedy, and there’s always the possibility for some exciting things to emerge from its developer-friendly JN-DK01 counterpart. Hit up the source link for a closer look.

The rumor mill is churning today as news of a CDMA iPhone running on Verizon will be manufactured by Pegatron in China while a whole new AT&T model, made by Foxconn, will also drop in the summer/fall timeframe. the Journal notes that the two new devices will be exactly the same except, obviously, the CDMA version will lack a SIM card.

We’ve seen weird leaks of an iPhone 4G screen – something longer than the current iPhone screen with a front-facing camera – but nothing concrete. We also need to take this with a grain of salt. Asian manufacturers enjoy talking up their connections with certain companies because it gives them a slight boost in the equities markets, so this could be a pump and dump.

Read the rest of this entry »

Don’t look surprised. With the Windows Phone 7 Series dev tools now out in the open the pent up demand for that elusive HD2 upgrade was bound to be a priority for some well-meaning developers, somewhere… namely, Russia. Now we’ve got what looks to be the first screenies of the WP7S OS running on an HD2. Better yet, htcpedia claims that almost everything is working including WiFi, GPS, and Bluetooth. However, the graphics driver is still showing problems and there is noticeable device lag. Nevertheless, the team is planning a beta release soon. Imagine it, an HD2 WP7S ROM available before Microsoft and its partners can even launch an official device, with its 5 buttons or not — now that would be something. One more grab after the break, the rest at the source below.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]