The HTC Desire is spreading its wings today with the announcement of a distribution deal with Japan’s SoftBank. One of the big heavies over on that most famous archipelago, SoftBank will carry a WCDMA version of the handset with the standard Android 2.1 with Sense software and brownish externals. Sorry to disappoint our dear readers yearning for a silver or black option. Maybe in the future, eh? We don’t know what reaction to expect from the Japanese audience, but we suspect the language of effortless responsiveness and snazzy AMOLED screens will prove to be universally understood. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in] HTC Desire turning Japanese with SoftBank in late April originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Mar 2010 04:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Posts Tagged ‘softbank-mobile’
HTC Desire turning Japanese with SoftBank in late April
March 29th, 2010 
jedwan 
Posted in engadget, htc 
Tags: announcement, desire, engadget, entry, future, htcdesire, japan, language, smartphone, softbank, softbank-mobile, softbankmobile, spreading-its, standard 
No Comments »Willcom to file for bankruptcy soon?
January 26th, 2010 admin In Japan’s perpetually white-hot mobile market, Willcom kinda got the short end of the stick by virtue of the fact that it uses PHS — a tricky, rare standard that requires significantly more cells to operate than CDMA and UMTS. If the company falls into financial collapse — as Nikkei English News is reporting today that it will — we’d wager a bet that its continued use of PHS and its subsequent failure to obtain the same scales of economy as its competitors led directly to the bankruptcy. The apparently filing could come as early as next month, possibly splitting the firm into two chunks: one to see the legacy PHS network through the remainder of its life and a second, forward-looking bit that would possibly fall into SoftBank’s paws and lead the charge on a 4G build-out. We’d hate to see any company with the strategic foresight to build a concept teddy bear phone go bankrupt, of course — but in the long term, it could be for the best in Japan’s competitive wireless landscape. Willcom to file for bankruptcy soon? originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Tue, 26 Jan 2010 18:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | Email this | Comments
Posted in att, engadget, htc, LG Tags: breaking-news, breakingnews, chris-ziegler, engadget, espag-ntildeol, facebook, japan, japanese, return-false, softbank-mobile, softbankmobile, willcom No Comments »Softbank Mobile's Winter 2009/Spring 2010 Model Cellphone Handsets …
November 10th, 2009 jedwan “All” is a turn of phrase but when you think about it, camera phones were privilege at first but today camera became one of the fundamentals of cell phone . We don’t mean to just forcibly add Wi-Fi to every model. …
Posted in att, Cell Phone, htc Tags: att, Cell Phone, city, history, mobile, sankei-shimbun, softbank, softbank-mobile, statistics, summer, technology, windows, world No Comments »Samsung’s Blue Earth solar touchscreen phone gets dubbed S7550, handled in Moscow
August 12th, 2009 admin Filed under: Handsets , Samsung Samsung has been teasing us with its Blue Earth solar-powered smartphone since February, and now it’s showing us a bit more of that sultry photovoltaic skin a mere day after its budget-minded solar brother, the E1107, came out into the light . This cerulean one has finally been given an official name, the S7750, but we’re still missing many bits if crucial information, including how effective that solar panel will be in the real world, when it will be available in that real world, how much real money it will cost, and how many eco-chic celebs will be spotted talking on these while drunkenly driving their Priora (it’s Latin, dig) into crowds of spectators — all bits of info we can’t wait to learn. Samsung’s Blue Earth solar touchscreen phone gets dubbed S7550, handled in Moscow originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 12 Aug 2009 09:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Posted in att, engadget, htc, LG Tags: accessories, blue earth, blueearth, engadget, engadget-mobile, htc, messaging, mobile, samsung, samsung blue earth, samsung blue earth s7750, samsungblueearth, softbank-mobile, virgin-mobile No Comments »Nokia 5530 XpressMusic out of box, handled on video, preferred over 5800
August 9th, 2009 jedwan Filed under: Handsets , Nokia As far as we’re concerned, Nokia’s 5530 XpressMusic far and away out-classes its more expensive older brother the 5800 , even if it is lacking in the 3G department . British phone retailer mobiles.co.uk thought it best to tease us with an unboxing video of their own, along with some quick impressions of the touchscreen device. It’s certainly a looker, and a sleek device they’re pretty confident will do well. Some of the S60 5th edition additions are very welcomed, such as the new scrolling contacts bar, but for better and for worse (mostly worse), it’s still S60. See it for yourself after the break, and if you wish really hard, there’s a good chance this still won’t get 3G, but at least you can say you tried. [Via Cell Addict Blog ] Continue reading Nokia 5530 XpressMusic out of box, handled on video, preferred over 5800 Nokia 5530 XpressMusic out of box, handled on video, preferred over 5800 originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Sun, 09 Aug 2009 09:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Posted in att, engadget, htc, LG Tags: 5530, 5530 xpress music, fcc-fridays, games, handsets, htc, mobile, nokia, podcasts, softbank-mobile, xpress, xpress music 5530, xpress-music, xpressmusic5530 No Comments »LG GD900 Crystal submerged in a fish tank
August 8th, 2009 jedwan Filed under: Handsets , LG It’s really a shame this isn’t an out of box feature, but some ingenious modder has graced LG’s GD900 Crystal phone — you know, the one with the gesture-based transparent keypad — with a custom water-resistant case that renders it perfect for swimming with the fishes. And so did they just that, dipping it into a fish tank. It’d make for one insanely hip charging dock, but we digress. Meanwhile in Russia, [email protected] has delivered some impressions on the device, with good words to say for the keypad’s gestures but lamenting it’s $899 suggested price tag, a figure higher than even the super sexy BL40 Chocolate. Aquatic footage is six feet under after the break, and hit up the read link below for the machine-translated impressions. [Via Daily Mobile ; thanks, Daniel] Read – Hands-on Read – LG GD900 Crystal in water Continue reading LG GD900 Crystal submerged in a fish tank LG GD900 Crystal submerged in a fish tank originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Sat, 08 Aug 2009 08:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | Email this | Comments
Posted in att, engadget, htc, LG Tags: apple, att, crystal, culture, engadget, engadget-mobile, gd900, joystiq, lggd900, messaging, podcasts, softbank-mobile, virgin-mobile, water No Comments »Motorola Morrison engineering sketches emerge, has Android written all over it
August 7th, 2009 jedwan Filed under: Handsets , Motorola Okay, so maybe there’s not literally any text penciled in on these drawings, but if you’ve been looking for multiple angles of Motorola’s sure-to-be-forthcoming Morrison , these are about as good as it gets. Not surprisingly, the design here seems pretty conventional; for all intents and purposes, it’s just a QWERTY-packin’, full touchscreen slider smartphone with all the makings of a sub-$100 (on contract) Android offering. Hit the read link if you’re eager for more, and go on grab another handful of patience while you’re at it. Motorola Morrison engineering sketches emerge, has Android written all over it originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Fri, 07 Aug 2009 01:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Posted in att, engadget, htc, LG Tags: cellphone, drawings, engadget-mobile, fcc-fridays, games, handsets, moto, motorola, network, phone, podcasts, smartphone, softbank-mobile No Comments »eMobile claims it has Japan’s first commercial HSPA+ network
August 6th, 2009 jedwan Filed under: HSDPA , HSUPA How many Japanese carriers would have guessed already have 100 percent HSPA+ coverage? 3? 5? 17? Believe it or not, the answer was a big, fat goose egg until up-and-comer eMobile stepped up to the plate and upgraded its back end in recent days. Customers with properly-equipped hardware are now cruising along at up to 21Mbps (well, theoretically, anyhow), which should be more than enough to take ‘em into the LTE -based next phase of their plans for world domination. It’s said that since garnering its spectrum license back in 2005, eMobile has already managed to capture some 15 percent of Japan’s HSPA market — an impressive stat, considering they’ve got to go head-to-head with giants NTT DoCoMo and SoftBank Mobile — and HSPA+ certainly won’t hurt their cause. eMobile claims it has Japan’s first commercial HSPA+ network originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Thu, 06 Aug 2009 00:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Posted in att, engadget, htc, LG Tags: accessories, att, engadget, evolved hspa, htc, messaging, rogers-wireless, softbank-mobile, virgin-mobile No Comments »Symbian^4 to break compatibiliy with S60 apps in a big way
August 4th, 2009 jedwan Filed under: Software , Android It’s been known that the first iterations of the Symbian Foundation’s platform releases are basically going to amount to S60 5th Edition Feature Packs, but what comes after that? TamsS60 recently had a chat with David Wood — who has the rather fantastical-sounding title of “Catalyst and Futurist” at the Foundation — and he’s managed to set the record straight about how S60 as we know it will be phased out over the next few years to make way for a new (well, mostly new) development stack. Most notably, UI toolkit Qt will replace S60′s legacy Avkon API around Symbian^4, which is expected to solidify in the latter half of 2010; this means that most current S60 applications will break except for low-level things that aren’t using Avkon UI elements. That’s a big deal and a bit of an issue considering the huge installed based of S60 users and apps — but just like tearing off a bandage, it’s gotta be done quickly and correctly for the health of the platform going forward. Symbian^4 to break compatibiliy with S60 apps in a big way originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Tue, 04 Aug 2009 22:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Posted in att, engadget, htc, LG Tags: culture, engadget, games, messaging, s60, softbank-mobile, symbian, virgin-mobile No Comments »Palm hires Apple vet Jeff Zwerner as new SVP of Brand Design
August 4th, 2009 jedwan Filed under: Handsets , Palm , Misc , Apple It’s no secret that Palm has plenty of Apple veterans in its upper ranks (starting right at the top ), and it looks like there now may be even more reminiscing about old times going on during lunch breaks, with the company recently announcing that it has hired Jeff Zwerner as its new Senior Vice President of Brand Design. In addition to working at Apple for a stint from 2001 to 2003 as Creative Director for Packaging and earlier from 1995 to 1996 as a Senior Art Director, Zwerner also founded the San Francisco branch of Factor Design, which has done work for Coca-Cola, Gap, GE, Hewlett-Packard, L.L. Bean, Nike, the Walt Disney Company and, yes, Apple. [Via PreCentral ] Palm hires Apple vet Jeff Zwerner as new SVP of Brand Design originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Tue, 04 Aug 2009 16:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Posted in engadget Tags: culture, engadget, engadget-mobile, games, hire, management, messaging, rogers-wireless, softbank-mobile, virgin-mobile, zwerner No Comments »
