It was no secret that Amazon was working an Android app store, including some early work with developers, but Amazon's "Appstore" (see what they did with the space there?) Developer Portal just went live. So, no doubt that this is happening, if there was any left in your mind, and we've got a nice stack of details on the store to tide us over until Amazon launches this thing. Amazon is looking to strike a balance between Apple's ultra strict store rules and Google's unvetted mayhem, and will be examining and testing each app before it goes onto the store. Amazon is also going to control pricing, with developers allowed to set a "list price" that Amazon will riff on, adjusting the price based on magical algorithms. There's the standard 70 / 30 split, and Amazon promises that the developer will get no less than 20 percent of the list price. Apps will be promoted to folks browsing Amazon.com just like how Kindle books pop up among physical goods, and can be "pushed" to your device similarly. It's all very intriguing if it catches on, which seems particularly likely on non-blessed devices that don't have access to Google's Market (like the bevy of WiFi-only tablets, the market Amazon claims to be targeting), and developers who want to get in on the action can fork over $99 today to get started.

Amazon opens Appstore Developer program, is obviously doing an app store originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Jan 2011 13:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We saw the HTC F8181 floating around in September, HTC's followup to the Smart, and now AT&T has announced it as the HTC Freestyle. It has a 3.2-inch capitative touchscreen, with a "Sense experience" UI that obviously riffs on HTC's Android efforts, but instead runs on top of Qualcomm's Brew MP platform. AT&T is classifying it as a "QMP" for "Quick Messaging Phone." The Freestyle will be out next month, and while there's no word on price, expect cheap.

HTC Freestyle carries the Brew MP dumbphone torch for AT&T originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Jan 2011 13:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It's been leaked all over the place, but Sprint has just confirmed its second EVO: the EVO Shift 4G. The big new addition is obviously the slide-out keyboard, but otherwise, while specs are solid, there's nothing as revolutionary as the original EVO. The Shift has a 3.6-inch 800 x 480 LCD, Android 2.2 (with HTC Sense), and the same great 800MHz Qualcomm MSM7630 processor that's in the G2 and myTouch 4G. Naturally there's WiMAX 4g, in addition to EVDO Rev A., and HTC hopes to keep those radios alive with a 1500mAh battery. There's a 5 megapixel camera around back, capable of 720p video, but oddly no front-facing camera -- something we assumed was part of the definition of EVO. The phone will be available on the 9th for $150.

Meanwhile, Novatel Wireless is cooking up its own WiMAX goodness, putting 3G and 4G in a brand new MiFi device, the MiFi 3G / 4G Mobile Hotspot. It includes a display for tracking status of the device, unlike Novatel's 3G MiFis, claims 4 hours of active use and 60 hours of standby, and can share storage from its microSD slot with connected devices. It should be out on February 27th for $50 with a two-year contract.

Continue reading Sprint trots out HTC EVO Shift 4G and new 3G / 4G MiFi from Novatel

Sprint trots out HTC EVO Shift 4G and new 3G / 4G MiFi from Novatel originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Jan 2011 09:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Poor HD2, it could never know life as a (legitimate) Windows Phone 7 handset, and instead has to sustain the indignity of hack after hack -- slouching back to the slums of its Windows Mobile 6.5 default as its only respite. Well, here's another shovelful of shame: MeeGo 1.1 has been ported to the phone, and it looks pretty snazzy. It runs about as well as anything runs MeeGo right now (which is to say: very poorly), but we see some promise in this OS as a deliciously open Android alternative, and the basic UI seems very comfy on the HD2's ahead-of-its-time gargantuan screen. Check out a video of MeeGo in action after the break. If you listen very closely you can hear the sound of the HD2 weeping large, colorful tears.

[Thanks, Ali]

Continue reading HTC HD2 gets a shot at MeeGo, still suffering from abandonment issues

HTC HD2 gets a shot at MeeGo, still suffering from abandonment issues originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Jan 2011 21:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Often when you hear minimum spec doom and gloom, it proves to be wildly inaccurate, or only part of the picture. This time, however, it's worth a closer look. PC Magazine's Sascha Segan is confidently citing the director of Enspert, a Korean consumer electronics company (which recently announced its own Android tablet), who claims that Honeycomb will require a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor. He's also confident that Motorola's tablet will be the first device to market with the new version of Android, and his other minimum specs line up with the idea of Honeycomb being initially a tablet-only release. Apparently 1280 x 720 is going to be the minimum resolution, with screen sizes "as small as" 7-inches, though it sounds like 10-inches could be the default. These specs seem to clearly leave out Galaxy Tab, along with anything else on the market or soon to arrive that doesn't have a Tegra 2 chip. It also makes sense that the Galaxy Tab 2 is going to be using Tegra 2 -- Samsung clearly won't be deterred.

And how about phones for Honeycomb? The picture is decidedly murkier, other than the fact that we could see a temporary splintering of the platform while tablets show off their new Honeycomb digs, with enough battery to back up that dual-core proc. Of course, dual-core handsets are right around the corner, so we doubt handsets will be without Honeycomb for long -- Google should know which side its bread is buttered on. There's also the possibility that this Enspert source is only talking tablets, and phones (which are required to push way fewer pixels, and have much stricter battery requirements) will get a pass on the dual-core requirement altogether. No matter what, you should settle in for a year of entertainment as Google continues to iterate its wildly successful operating system, and manufacturers strain to keep up.

[Thanks, Jason]

Honeycomb to require dual-core processor, initially tablet-only? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Jan 2011 20:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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