HTC Arrive now available as first Windows Phone 7 CDMA device

HTC Arrive

Sprint has launched its first Windows Phone 7 CDMA device.
Available immediately, the device will set owners back $200 on a two-year contract after a $100 mail-in rebate. Sprint has launched the device with Microsoft’s first Windows Phone 7 update, codenamed “NoDo”. The device is also available at a bargain $50 from Amazon.
The HTC Arrive includes the following:

• Qualcomm 1GHz Snapdragon Processor
• 3.6-inch WVGA capacitive touchscreen with multi-touch capability
• Full HTML Web browser with Bing Search and Maps for turn by turn directions, address mapping and even street level views via voice search or typing
• Windows Phone Marketplace offers a single view to showcase apps, games, music and premium Xbox LIVE games
• Corporate email (Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync®), personal (POP & IMAP) email and text messaging
• 5MP camera with flash, autofocus and digital zoom and 720p HD camcorder. The camera button will snap photos fast, even if the phone is locked.
• 16GB internal memory for storing pictures, videos and large files. With an additional 25GB of storage in the cloud at no additional charge using a Windows Live ID.
• Wi-Fi® (802.11 b/g/n)

 [via Technologizer]

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Posted in: Bing,HTC,Microsoft,Windows phone 7,XBox Live

Windows Phone 7 Smartphones Revealed [PICS]

Microsoft, its partners — handset makers Dell, HTC Corp., LG and Samsung — and mobile operators such as AT&T, Deutsche Telekom AG, O2 and Orange, have unveiled nine smartphones based on Microsoft’s new mobile operating system, Windows Phone 7.

We’ve already seen the prematurely leaked specifications of Samsung Omnia 7 and LG Optimus 7. These two handset makers have launched two more Windows Phone 7 devices: Samsung Focus and LG Quantum.

Dell has joined them with Dell Venue Pro, and HTC has launched four completely new devices: HTC 7 Surround, HTC HD7, HTC 7 Trophy, and HTC 7 Mozart.

The announced devices will be available “in the holiday 2010 timeframe.”

Check out a gallery with some of the new handsets, as well as a list of the new devices and the mobile operators that will sell them, below.

Samsung Focus

The Samsung Focus has a 480x800 4-inch screen, a 1 GHz Qualcomm processors, 5-megapixel camera capable of 720p video and a battery life of up to three hours of talk time and 10 days of standby time.

LG Optimus

The LG Optimus 7 (or LG E900) sports a 3.8-inch 480x800 resolution screen, a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash and autofocus (capable of 720p video) and a 1 Ghz processor. It will be available in many countries around the world.

Samsung Omnia

HTC Surround

The HTC Surround features a slide out Yamaha speaker with surround sound and 16GB or internal storage. It also has a 1 Ghz Qualcomm processor, a 480x800 3.8-inch screen and a 5-megapixel (with flash and autofocus) camera capable of 720p video. It features four hours of talk time and up to 11 days of standby time.

LG Quantum

The LG Quantum has a horizontal QWERTY keyboard, a 5-megapixel camera, 720p video and a 480x800 3.5-inch screen. It also has a 1 Ghz Snapdragon processor. The phone features seven hours of talk time and up to 19 days of standby time.

Dell Venue Pro

The Dell Venue Pro has a vertical QWERTY keyboard, a 480x800 4.1-inch screen, a 5-megapixel autofocus camera with 720p video, up to seven hours of talk time and 14 days of standby time.

HTC HD7

The HTC HD7 features a 480x800 4.3-inch screen, a 1 Ghz Qualcomm processor, a 5-megapixel camera with dual-LED flash, capable of 720p video. It features six hours of talk time and up to 13 days of standby time.

HTC 7 Trophy

HTC 7 Mozart

LG Optimus 7Q

The LG Optimus 7Q looks like it is the world version of the LG Quantum. Like the Quantum, the Optimus 7Q has a 3.5-inch 480x800 resolution screen, a 5-megapixel camera with autofocus and LED flash (capable of 720p video) and a 1 Ghz processor.

[via mashable]

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Posted in: Smartphone,Windows phone 7

Samsung and LG Windows Phone 7 Smartphones Leak Ahead of Schedule

We were supposed to find out about LG and Samsung’s new smartphones, based on Microsoft’s upcoming mobile operating system Windows Phone 7, later today, but the specifications and images of both phones were uncovered a little earlier than expected.

Samsung Omnia 7, which showed up on Samsung’s Russian site, has a 4-inch Super AMOLED, 800×480 pixel screen and a 5-megapixel camera capable of recording 720p video. It’s powered by a 1GHz Qualcomm QSD8250 CPU, it sports 8 GB of internal storage and it supports HSPA, as well as Bluetooth 2.1 and Wi-Fi.

Optimus 7, outed on LG’s official UK blog, has a 3.8-inch screen with 800×480 pixels, and – again – a 5-megapixel camera capable of recording 720p video, which seems to be the standard for most new smartphones these days. It has 16 GB of memory, and supports Bluetooth 2.1 and Wi-Fi.

More details about both devices will surely be revealed at Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 event, but this is more than enough to satisfy our curiosity – and, admittedly, nothing out of the realm of expected.

How do you feel about these two new smartphones? Based on the leaked specifications, do you think they will be able to compete with the other high-end smartphones currently on the market? Share your opinion in the comments.

[via Samsung Russia, LG UK, SlashGear, Engadget]

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Posted in: Samsung,Smartphone,Windows phone 7

Microsoft Launches Windows Phone 7

Update: Windows Phone 7 has now been officially announced. Check out our gallery of Windows Phone 7 smartphones for more details.

Initially released 10 years ago, in April 2000, Microsoft’s mobile operating system – Windows Mobile – was once a dominant force in the smartphone and handheld market. Things change: After Apple’s iPhone completely altered the way we think about smartphones, followed by Google’s increasingly popular mobile platform Android, Windows Mobile devices just didn’t have what it takes to compete with the new breed of smartphones.

Enter Windows Phone 7. After the transitional phase that was Windows Mobile 6.5 – and let’s face it, it really was no more than a quick fix, with Windows Mobile’s overall market share plummeting month after month– Microsoft has finally decided to embrace the new smartphone philosophy. It threw away the stylus and created a completely new, finger-friendly UI, coupled with an OS that enables easy integration with Microsoft services Xbox Live and Bing, as well as social networks such as Facebook.

Today at 9:30 a.m. ET we’ll learn about the actual devices powered by Windows Phone 7, coming from handset makers such as Samsung, LG and HTC. It all sounds promising, but we already know about a couple of Windows Phone 7’s drawbacks: apparently, devices based on WP7 won’t support copy and paste, and tethering.

What do you expect from Windows Phone 7? Will everything go smoothly, or will there be bugs? Will developers embrace the new platform, and will we see a decent amount of Windows Phone 7 apps in the near future? Please, share your opinion in the comments.

[via mashable]

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Posted in: Microsoft,Windows phone 7

Windows Phone 7 Doesn’t Support Tethering

If you’re thinking of buying a Windows Phone 7 device and using it to connect your laptop to the Internet, think again. The company’s new smartphones will not support tethering at all.

That’s another item on the list of features (including copy and paste [mashable link]) tech geeks love that won’t be present in the new phones. To be fair, though, the iPhone didn’t officially do tethering either until very recently, but the feature is well-supported by many Android phones.

The Boy Genius Report says that it heard directly from a Microsoft spokesperson, who said that the company’s official statement is this: “Windows Phone 7 does not support tethering.”

That’s going to be a dealbreaker for some hardcore techies, but most users won’t know the difference. And there are plenty of features left to recommend Windows Phone 7, including Xbox Live integration, the Zune marketplace and some neat Bing Maps features.

Windows Phone 7 is ready for release [mashable link], so we’re just waiting on manufacturers to start cranking out their handsets based on the platform. Let’s just hope it goes over better than the Kin [mashable link], Microsoft’s last big phone launch.

[via mashable]

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Posted in: Smartphone,Windows phone 7