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Tag: HTC

Verizon’s HTC Incredible spotted again, looking as red-accented as ever

We’re missing that crazy contoured back this time around, but otherwise, HTC’s so-called Incredible for Verizon is looking as real and ready for action as it ever has in these latest shots leaked over at Phandroid. It’s hard to say whether these crimson bits are going to make it to production — they seem a little too spectacular for a high-end device that Verizon will want to appeal to the masses, but then again, red is Verizon’s color, so who knows? We’ve seen from countless prototypes in the past (Moto’s Morrison comes immediately to mind) that they’re often given special colors, presumably to identify bandits trying to expose them as anonymously as possible — and we’re tentatively going to say we dig it here. AT&T’s gone wacky on us in the past, but is Verizon hip enough to ship a phone this edgy? Release rumors span from March to May at this point, so we’ll know within the next couple months what’s what.

Verizon’s HTC Incredible spotted again, looking as red-accented as ever originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Android 2.1 for Droid Eris leaks out

We’ve already seen a broken build of Android 2.1 for the Droid Eris slip out accidentally, but now the full package is available for installation courtesy of the fine folks at xda-developers. We haven’t tried it ourselves, but we’re told it’s working fine, and that snazzy new version of Sense is apparently quite snazzy and new. Of course, you’re risking your phone and all your data if you try this, so the absolutely smart and prudent move is to wait for the official update, but do let us know how it goes if you’re daring enough to load it up, okay?

Update: And just like that, it’s been ported to the Sprint Hero, although not everything works quite yet. You be careful, kids.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Android 2.1 for Droid Eris leaks out originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 13:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nexus One’s multitouch confused more easily than Droid’s?

Thought all multitouch-capable displays were created equal? Think again — Android and Me has posted a rather fascinating (if not somewhat depressing) video showing a demo multitouch app created by a game developer who’d grown suspicious after running into all sorts of trouble getting the feature to work the way he wanted on the Nexus One. First up, the Droid handles the demo with aplomb — two thumbs are recognized smoothly and consistently. Next, though, the Nexus One gets confused after a while and starts registering presses at the wrong corners of the on-screen box formed by the placement of the thumbs. There’s always hope that this could be fixed with a firmware bump, but that hope looks to be in jeopardy from language posted by a Google engineer in the official Android dev forums: “…this is how the touch screen hardware on the Nexus One works (which is essentially the same screen as on the G1 and myTouch). The Droid has a sensor from a different manufacturer, with different behavior. Other phones will likewise have different sensors.” In other words, Google seems to think that HTC’s just using a lower-quality sensor than Motorola is. That’s good news for Droid owners, we suppose — but with game development on Android still something of a non-starter, hardware issues like this keep fragmenting the user base and preventing big-name developers from jumping in and betting on the platform. Follow the break for video proof of the wackiness.

Continue reading Nexus One’s multitouch confused more easily than Droid’s?

Nexus One’s multitouch confused more easily than Droid’s? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Mar 2010 20:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC is hiring…

digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/gadgets/HTC_is_hiring/’; “In this position, you will join HTC America, Inc. at one of its most exciting phases.”

Note: The job was posted on February 10th — we just find the coincidence humorous.

HTC is hiring… originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Mar 2010 13:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google responds to Apple’s HTC lawsuit: ‘We stand behind our Android operating system’

We were wondering when Google would have something to say about Apple’s patent lawsuit against HTC, since the majority of the claims appear to implicate Android itself, and while the knives aren’t out yet, we just got a short-but-sweet statement from a spokesperson:

“We are not a party to this lawsuit. However, we stand behind our Android operating system and the partners who have helped us to develop it.”

We’re quite curious to see whether this means Google will contribute money and/or manpower to HTC’s legal defense — we’d bet we’ll see some of Eric Schmidt’s crew at the table when this thing finally hits a courtroom. In related news, HTC ’s posted up a short, more formal version of the statement we received yesterday, saying that it “believes that consumer choice is a key component to success in the smartphone industry,” and that it doesn’t think the suit “poses a short-term material impact to its business.” That makes sense, seeing as it’ll be weeks before HTC even files a response to the suit, and months — if not years — before it’s resolved. We’ll see how it goes.

Google responds to Apple’s HTC lawsuit: ‘We stand behind our Android operating system’ originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Mar 2010 11:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple vs HTC: a patent breakdown

digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/tech_news/Apple_vs_HTC_a_patent_breakdown’; Apple suing HTC over 20-odd patents before both the US District Court and the International Trade Commission has certainly caused some chaos this morning, but we thought we’d take a quick breath now that we have the complaints and tease out exactly what patents are at stake here. Of note, most of the patents were granted in the past year, but overall they span a range from 1995 to February 2. Yes, last month. That’s a pretty big gap, and most of the patents are pretty dry and technical — and none of them cover anything like pinch-to-zoom. In fact, you might remember #7,479,949, “Touch screen device, method, and graphical user interface for determining commands by applying heuristics” — we blew apart the myth that it was Apple’s “multitouch patent” back when Cupertino was making noise about Palm. It’s impossible for us to say exactly how this case is going to play out — just like the Apple / Nokia lawsuit, it could settle tomorrow, or it could last for 10 years — but what we do know is that Apple’s going after Android as much as it’s going after HTC. Some of these patents are from 15 years ago and cover OS-level behavior, so it’s hard to see how they can relate only to HTC’s implementation of Android and not Google’s OS as a whole. Yeah, it’s wild, and while we’re not going to blow out all 20 patents to sort out what they mean — not yet, anyway — we can certainly walk through the claims. Let’s see what we’ve got.

Continue reading Apple vs HTC: a patent breakdown

Apple vs HTC: a patent breakdown originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple specifically going after Android in HTC lawsuit

There’s no delicate way to put this: at least part of Apple’s patent lawsuit against HTC appears to be a proxy fight for a larger issue with Android as a whole. Apple’s complaint with the International Trade Commission makes an explicit distinction between HTC’s Android devices and its WinMo phones (referred only to as “DSP Products”), and the Android sets are repeatedly called out for infringing certain patents. We don’t know exactly what Apple’s issue is yet — the problem could be the specific way HTC implements Android, rather than Android itself — but it’s certainly a big shot across Google’s bow. We’ll keep reading and let you know what else we find out.

Apple specifically going after Android in HTC lawsuit originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 12:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple sues HTC for infringing 20 iPhone patents

digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/apple/Apple_goes_to_war_Sues_HTC_for_infringing_20_patents’; Looks like Apple’s going on the warpath, kids. Just a few months after Cupertino got into it with Nokia over phone patents, Apple’s filed suit against HTC, alleging that the company is infringing 20 patents “related to the iPhone’s user interface, underlying architecture, and hardware.” Steve, you have something to say?

“We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.”

Okay then. We’re pulling the complaint filing now, we’ll let you know the exact details as soon as we learn them.

Update: HTC just gave us a statement — this is apparently coming totally out of the blue for them, since Apple hasn’t even served the complaint yet.

We only learned of Apple’s actions based on your stories and Apple’s press release. We have not been served yet so we are in no position to comment on the claims. We respect and value patent rights but we are committed to defending our own innovations. We have been innovating and patenting our own technology for 13 years.

Update 2: We mean it when we say this was all just filed in the past few hours — it’s not yet in the court’s systems. We just got the PDFs and put the full list of claims from the federal lawsuit below, but remember not to take the names of the patents literally or directly, since they don’t mean much. We’ll poke each one apart and tease out what’s really at stake as we go along.

[We've now looked at each and every patent in both cases in-depth -- check it out here.]

Update 3: We’ve just learned that Apple submitted over 700 pages of exhibits to the District Court, which is a little nuts. In addition, the ITC complaint lists a number of specific HTC handsets as exhibits, including the Nexus One, Touch Pro, Touch Diamond, Touch Pro2, Tilt II, Pure, Imagio, Dream / G1, myTouch 3G, Hero, HD2, and Droid Eris. That’s really a full range of HTC phones, running both Android and Windows Mobile, with and without Sense / TouchFLO. Interestingly, the Android sets are specifically included because they run Android, while the WinMo sets are called out specifically for including DSP chips, not anything to do with Windows Mobile.

Apple sues HTC for infringing 20 iPhone patents originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 11:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC HD2 and Moto Cliq XT pricing revealed in T-Mobile database?

Alright, we know there’s a big old watermark covering it up, but the HD2’s price when it makes its eagerly awaited US debut on T-Mobile has been identified as being $199 after rebate, presumably as part of a two-year commitment with the carrier. As usual with such screen grabs, we can’t be 100 percent sure, but that number seems to be in the right ballpark, and is joined by a $129 price for Motorola’s Cliq XT and a $69 sticker for Nokia’s Nuron handset. All three are expected to arrive at some point this month, though we urge caution with the HD2 — it’s still only a Windows Mobile 6.5 device, in spite of Microsoft’s equivocations about Windows Phone 7, and should be obtained solely on the basis of what you know. That is to say, you’d better really love HTC’s Sense UI and that 4.3-inch screen, because you’ll be buying into an OS with a very short remaining shelf life, no prospects of future app development, and no guarantees about upgrades.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

HTC HD2 and Moto Cliq XT pricing revealed in T-Mobile database? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 07:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC Desire’s Sense UI ported to Droid; HTC, Motorola cringe

If you work for Motorola, cover your ears and say “Blur Blur Blur Blur” at the top of your lungs over and over again for the duration of this post, because what we’re about to present is an unholy marriage the likes of which neither Sanjay Jha nor Peter Chou ever intended. It’s not the first time we’ve heard of a version of Sense finding its way onto Motorola hardware, but developers over on AllDroid have posted a bunch of video and stills claiming to have ported an HTC Desire’s (née Bravo’s) Sense-enabled firmware to Moto’s beast — and what’s more, there’s footage of it running Flash. Bear in mind that the speed at which Flash is running here looks downright painful — and we fully expect official Flash support on the Droid later this year anyhow — but anyone conflicted between the Droid’s muscular lines and HTC’s lovely skin might want to keep an eye on this project. It’s still very early in development, but the most important part of the port has already been finished: it shows the proper Droid logo on startup. Follow the break for video.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading HTC Desire’s Sense UI ported to Droid; HTC, Motorola cringe

HTC Desire’s Sense UI ported to Droid; HTC, Motorola cringe originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Feb 2010 17:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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