Just how much is the promise of anywhere, anytime cellphone reception worth to you? If you answered “one thousand, one hundred and fifty dollars,” well… your time has finally come. After initially launching through business channels alone for $800, TerreStar’s unique GSM / HSPA Windows Mobile 6.5 smartphone for AT&T with satellite connectivity is now available to consumers from all walks of life, as long as you’ve got $1,149.99 lying around. The Genus features Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS, a 2 megapixel camera, and pretty much every other amenity you’d expect form a WinMo 6.5 smartphone with circa-2008 hardware specs, with the obvious exception that it can be used anywhere you can see TerreStar’s satellite pretty much anywhere in North America. Of course, we’d be a little hesitant about buying a four-figure phone that operates on a bankrupt service, but if you need coverage in the boondocks, your options are pretty limited. Follow the break for TerreStar’s demo video and full press release.
How would we like to replace the UI on our Windows Mobile 6.5 phone with the Kin UI? Well, we never really thought about it, we suppose… and frankly, we’re not sure why anyone else did, either. Alas, KinLauncher is here, delivering a pretty authentic Kin-esque home screen but not much else — as soon as you touch anything, you’ll be dumped back into the cold comfort of WinMo (or Sense, as the case may be). It’s available for download, if you’re really into that sort of thing — but if you’d rather enjoy the carnage from a safe distance, there’s a video after the break.
We know how the iPhone 4 sizes up against the aging 3GS — but how does it fare against its fiercest competitors from all the major platforms? We wish we had some production Windows Phone 7 kit to check out here, but in the meantime, take a look at the results against the gruesome foursome of the EVO 4G, N8, Pre Plus, and HD2. You might be surprised by some of the results — and sorry, RIM, you don’t get to play until you bring some fresh, media-heavy hardware to the table. Nothing personal!
On the list of ways to not foster customer satisfaction, deleting purchased apps with no recourse for getting them back has to be very, very high on the list, doesn’t it? T-Mobile’s now trumpeting that sort-of-leaked official update for the HD2 that features “stability and performance improvements” on top of a new ROM-integrated T-Mobile MyAccount app, but if you purchased the full versions of the demo games that came bundled with your phone, beware: installing the upgrade will wipe you out, and the only advice T-Mobile has for you is to “re-purchase them at the standard cost.” Gee, thanks, guys!
After having gone to public beta late last year, Office Mobile 2010 is now available in conjunction with the retail release of the full desktop version of Office 2010, bringing comprehensive Word, Excel, and PowerPoint editing capabilities to the pocket — on Windows Mobile 6.5, that is. Yes, granted, Windows Phone 7 is Microsoft’s biggest mobile news this year, but there’ll be a huge legacy base of 6.5 users out there for a long time to come, and they’re pretty much the core audience for the sorts of features that Office Mobile 2010 is offering: SharePoint integration for grabbing documents from the office, a nifty Bluetooth controller mode for PowerPoint presentations, and so on… you know, suit-and-tie stuff. The download is available today from Windows Marketplace for users of 6.5 devices with an older version of Office Mobile installed — so go on, Tiger, whip up the hottest quarterly reports the world has ever seen. We know you have it in you. Follow the break for Redmond’s full Office 2010 press release.
Update: Curious what Office 2010 will look like on Windows Phone 7? Get a glimpse into the not-so-distant-future in Microsoft’s video presentation, and fast forward to 52:45 for the good stuff. [Thanks, Kamara B.]
First, the good news: T-Mobile’s HD2 is in stock online and apparently at many corporate-owned retail locations. Now, the bad: the carrier seems to be putting these things on lockdown right now, only offering them to new customers signing up for a fresh contract. This is a tactic T-Mobile has applied in the past, so we’re not terribly surprised to see them do it here, too — but it’s still a disappointment, especially considering that the phone has been out for a few weeks now. Just goes to show you that a net add is worth considerably more than a loyal customer is (particularly one who’s still under contract), but in the meantime, might we recommend the iHTC HD2?
Update: We’ve received an official statement from T-Mobile on the matter, and it sounds like they’re “giving priority to existing customers” with new inventory coming in. Sweet! Here’s the full verbiage:
“T-Mobile understands the inventory challenges for the HTC HD2 and continues to work diligently in order to supply our customers with this highly popular product. As we receive additional inventory of the HTC HD2, we are giving priority to our existing customers. However, the demand for the device is still exceeding our supply.
Depending on the location, some T-Mobile retail stores may still have some HTC HD2 inventory available. We suggest that interested customers contact their local T-Mobile store via phone before visiting to see if they have the HTC HD2 available. If they do not have the HTC HD2 available, some stores are taking names and contact information, and will be able to notify customers once that location has product available.”
If you’re going to rip off one of the more memorable Windows Mobile devices ever made, you’d think you’d want to at least clone its most notable feature — but seriously, what do we know about the KIRF business? Yeah, well, this little number manufactured by a firm doing business as “iHTC” (no relation to HTC, we’re sure) looks an awful lot like the HD2, but lacks that all-important 4.3-inch display, instead trading down for a more pedestrian 3.6-inch unit. On the upside, it’s still WVGA and packs the latest and greatest Windows Mobile 6.5.3 (if “latest and greatest” really applies there) plus a 5 megapixel autofocus cam — not bad specs for a device that eats copyrights for breakfast. Seems you can hunt one of these puppies down for about 1,580 yuan ($231), so start saving and packing for your Chinese adventure — and in the meantime, follow the break for a comprehensive video demo of the finest technology iHTC has to offer.
You probably won’t hear Microsoft lauding this thing too much — it’s got bigger fish to fry at the moment — but Samsung and US Cellular have just teamed up to launch the i225 Exec, a simple Windows Mobile 6.5 Standard-based smartphone with a portrait QWERTY keyboard. It’s got a 2 megapixel camera and microSD expansion up to 32GB (assuming you can actually track down a 32GB SanDisk card), but otherwise, this is about as straightforward and basic as a modern smartphone can get — no frills, just straight-up touchscreen-free legacy WinMo action. It’s available right now for $99.95 on a new two-year contract after $70 rebate.
Alright, X2 owners, you ready for this? Odds are you aren’t, since virtually all of you are east of the Atlantic where it’s getting close to bedtime and you’re not likely reading this — and for our New World friends, the North American version is still inexplicably missing in action. Be that as it may, though, Sony Ericsson hasn’t given up on its critically panned Xperia X2, delivering a sizable new firmware update that offers a variety of goodies like FM radio support, video calling, sundry performance and stability improvements, and SlideView 2.0 featuring “better usability throughout with a fresh design.” It’s currently being rolled out market by market, but the company expects everyone to have access to it by the end of the week — except North Americans, of course, unless SonyStyle decides to get its but in gear in the next day or two.
In the wireless industry, $100 is a rather magical psychological barrier — a price point below which consumers generally have a much easier time pulling the trigger on a sweet upgrade. So when you offer a phone for $200, a percentage of your target demographic is generally going to drop out of the race with cries of “too rich for my blood.” No worries with this new HTC HD2 for T-Mobile, though, because it turns out that a number of resellers are already discounting the phone right down into that $99.99 sweet spot despite the fact that it was just launched this very week. Most notably, anyone agreeing to a two-year contract through Amazon can get the phone for less than a Benjamin, and that’s upfront — no mail-in rebate craziness to contend with. Certainly makes the phone — arguably WinMo 6.5′s last real hurrah — a more appealing buy, doesn’t it?
