Official: Samsung Fascinate launching September 9

Put away your leaked Verizon documents , good folks, the Fascinate finally has an official release date: September 9 . Verizon’s Galaxy S variant snuck up on all of us with a commercial appearance last night, which was accompanied by that appropriately blown out text at the bottom, indicating it’ll be in stores within a couple of days. That doesn’t leave much time for you to build up fresh anticipation, so hopefully you were able to sustain yours while everyone else was unpacking their Captivate, Epic and Vibrant handsets. Hey, you might be late to the party , but at least you’ll be there

Orange HD Voice service and handsets go live in the UK, we go ears-on (video)

Good news for UK mobile addicts: Orange’s long-anticipated HD Voice service has officially made it to the Land of Hope and Glory. Starting today, British customers can pick up a HD Voice-enabled handset — including the Nokia 5230 , X6 , E5 and Samsung Omnia Pro at launch — from Orange, and start buttering their ears with “crystal clear” phone calls while within the carrier’s 3G coverage. Prior to the launch, we were fortunate enough to try out the new service on a couple of Nokia E5 prototypes, and boy, that was some pretty impressive stuff there — the wider speech bandwidth really added a lot of clarity to the caller’s voice, and additionally, the noisy traffic from the caller’s end was well suppressed at where it’d otherwise crackle over a normal call. Perhaps the easiest way to put it is that this is much like jumping from a bad FM radio broadcast to some sweet CD audio, thus making conversations a lot easier to interpret, even if the recipient is in a noisy environment or has hearing problem (as proven by Orange’s public trial). As always, hearing is believing, so do check out our sample audio clips after the break.

Motorola Milestone 2 arrives, 720p HD video, Android 2.2, and Motoblur Enhanced in tow

Even without yesterday’s premature video promo , you had to know Motorola wouldn’t leave its international audience without a successor to the Milestone, so today — surprise, surprise — we’re being treated to the Milestone 2′s launch. The first thing to be said here is that if you’ve handled a Droid 2 , you’ve also handled a Milestone 2 — the new phone follows Moto’s tradition of being a simple rebadge away from the Verizon-friendly Droid naming scheme, which means it retains the same 1GHz OMAP SOC, 512MB of RAM, 5 megapixel camera, 8GB of integrated storage, and Android 2.2 as the default, albeit Motoblured , OS. Also, we got this straight from the Motohorse’s mouth: Motoblur’s not going anywhere, it’s the company’s “Android solution” and is here to stay.

LG C900 due to bring Windows Phone 7 to market near September 28th, according to Bluetooth SIG

The Bluetooth SIG has a long history of promoting its members’ “special interests” by leaking valuable tidbits about their handsets before they’re announced. The recently unearthed LG C900 is the latest of these, being pegged for a launch date “around” September 28th by the SIG’s detail page on the phone. The QWERTY slider, which is referred to in C900N, C900k, and C900B versions, will be available in Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America. Phone Arena conjectures that the launch date lines up with AT&T’s marketing materials timing and the slated Q4 launch of Windows Phone 7, so the C900 probably has a decent chance of being the first Windows Phone 7 phones to market if LG’s own GW910 or some more secretive set doesn’t beat it to the punch.

Droid 2 and Android 2.2 fated to be together from the start, according to latest leaks

You know, some people get married with less information about their partner than we already have about the Droid 2 . Today, we have a pair of independent leaks seemingly confirming that the second coming of Moto’s QWERTY-sportin’ Doer will be running Android 2.2 right out of the gate. Droid Life has a tipster that’s apparently spent some quality time with the device, describing its keyboard as “phenomenal” and pointing out that it feels notably snappier than the original . The Froyo connection is reiterated by Phandroid ‘s sources, which provide images of Verizon’s device database indicating once again that Android 2.2 and Droid 2 will be an appropriately matched pair when the launch codes get entered (last mooted for August 12 ) and this thing finally hits retail. Droid 2 and Android 2.2 fated to be together from the start, according to latest leaks originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Jul 2010 03:25:00 EST

Life and death of Microsoft Kin: the inside story

Since our piece on Wednesday, we’ve had more trusted sources step forward to fill in some blanks and clarify the story behind the amazingly swift fall from grace that Microsoft’s Kin phones have experienced since their launch just a few weeks ago. It’s a fascinating tale, and we wanted to share everything we’ve learned. Continue reading Life and death of Microsoft Kin: the inside story Life and death of Microsoft Kin: the inside story originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Jul 2010 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds

Apple sells 1.7 million iPhone 4s through Saturday, June 26

There you have it. 600,000 pre-orders turned into 1.7 million iPhone 4 sales through this Saturday — the Sunday transactions haven’t even been tallied up yet. One more reason for Steve and company to look smug.

Live from Verizon’s Motorola Droid X event!

Today’s the big day: Motorola’s getting back into the high-end Android game in a big way with the launch of the Droid X on Verizon, and we’re here for the official announcement. Read on for the juicy details in real time! Continue reading Live from Verizon’s Motorola Droid X event! Live from Verizon’s Motorola Droid X event! originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Jun 2010 12:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink  |  Email this  |  Comments

HTC Legend debuts on Virgin Mobile in Canada, glances furtively southwards

The phone, the myth, the Legend has just become available over in Canada, giving North Americans their first taste of that aluminum unibody construction. It’s looking highly likely that this is the same handset we saw gracing the FCC’s pages not too long ago, indicating that Yanks should be getting in on the fun relatively soon as well. AT&T already let one HTC cat slip out of the bag today, guess this confirms the Liberty won’t be feeling lonely in Ma Bell’s Android cupboard whenever it does launch.

iPhone 4 at Best Buy for launch, at least 45 devices per store?

The iPhone 4 at Best Buy on launch day? It’d be no surprise, really — after all, the retail giant had both the iPhone 3GS and iPad right from the get-go. We just got word from one of our trusted sources that Best Buy will indeed have the newfangled phone at launch, and even better, we’ve got some details on the inventory.

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