Here’s another thing the Desire has that the Nexus One doesn’t: a second color option. We’re told our Dutch buddies will soon be able to skip the default gunmetal paintjob that’s shared by HTC’s twin brothers and opt into the silvery casing you see above. The pictures are captioned with a note saying the silver Desire will be exclusive to BelCompany in the Netherlands, but we’ve found a few other retailers claiming their own exclusief. Either way, we still don’t know how things will shake out elsewhere, but at least there won’t be too long to wait. We’ve got video of the very slightly altered handset after the break.
Well, there they are, the only three confirmed Windows Phone 7 Series prototype devices that currently exist. From left, we have the new Samsung slate that debuted today, the just-for-demos unbranded Asus unit that was the star of MWC, and the LG slider that we got cozy with at the Engadget Show. We’re still hoping for more time with the Samsung — and we’re pushing for more detailed specs on all of these — but check out some high-res crops in the gallery below.
In Nokia’s own words, what we’re looking at is a “piezoelectric kinetic energy harvester.” Working along the same principles as kinetic wristwatches have done for a long time already, Nokia’s idea is to capture the energy generated by the phone’s movements and to refashion it into beautiful, clean-as-a-whistle electric power. By allowing the heavier internal components to move on rails within the phone as part of a “force-transferring assembly,” the Espoo think tank has figured out a way to capitalize on all the small forces of acceleration and rotation that we subject our phones to on a daily basis. It would seem overly ambitious to expect this to replace the trusty old charger, but we give credit to Nokia for even thinking about it. Check out some schematics of how this would work after the break.
Qualcomm’s 7X30 Snapdragon processor truly gives a fantastic multimedia performance in a demo at this year’s Mobile World Congress. Clips of some visually-stunning games and 3D acceleration after the break.
There’s also a picture browser provided by Scalado that allows you to view up to 1,000 images simultaneously and zoom up to a specific one, with little-to-nil lag. It looks to be a truly blazingly-fast chip. Skip to just approximately 3:20 in the second clip and you’ll be able to watch a game demo that was designed specifically for the Android platform.
Apple has filed an application this week that takes on enhanced photo and video performance on a mobile device that clearly shows off a front-facing camera.
The official title of the application is “Apparatus and Method for Compensating for Variations in Digital Cameras”, and details various ways that lens manufacturing could be improved, from acquiring “video images of colored light” to employing a “signal processor” that would adjust the calibrated color intensities of images and videos.
Hardware enhancements are always great, but what interests us most is the image showing a forward-facing camera on the nondescript Apple device. What could it be?
Looks like Motorola kept its promise after all. Well, part of it anyway. Some Milestone owners in France have reported that they’ve received the Android 2.0.1 update which improves the camera (autofocus and speed), Microsoft Exchange support, touch gestures, three-way call connectivity and in-call audio quality. As a bonus, Motorola’s added an equalizer and a 3D landscape viewing mode for the photo gallery and music player. Not bad for a minor update, huh? According to Motorola Europe’s Facebook page, Italy should also be getting this update right now, while “Germany and the UK will follow shortly” and it’ll soon have a date. If you’re one of these lucky folks, do let us know how it went, m’kay?
If you’re China-based and you think there might be an xpPhone in your future, we’ve got some news for you: according to an email from ITG, the device will cost from 3,000 – 4,500 Chinese RMB (or about $400 – $650), depending on options. Funny how the world works — put Windows XP on a laptop and it’s yawn city, then you go and put the same OS on a handset and the thing is a bona fide curiosity. We also have a few new shots of the thing, and now we’re we won’t be stingy with ‘em. Take a look below to get your Ya-Ya’s out.
What happens when you let all comers batter, submerge, and otherwise abuse your so-called “unbreakable” handsets on the show floor at CES? Well, sometimes they break — as a certain BBC News video makes abundantly clear. Are you ready for the truth? Hit the source link.
LG’s kept our thumbs busy over the last few days with its GW300 — a 2G featurephone with a portrait QWERTY keyboard, a first from LG that joins the likes of Samsung’s CorbyTXT and Freeform along with INQ’s Chat 3G. O2 UK offers this phone with just a standalone price of £78.29 ($129) with a minimum £10 ($16.50) initial top-up, but little is known about US availability for now. Either way, there’s no harm in pointing your sexy eyes to our review just in case something happens tomorrow. Go ahead — you know where to click.
