Well, you knew the Lumia 800 would be coming to Microsoft’s chain of retail stores this month, but we bet you weren’t counting on an $899 price tag. That’s the word from our compadres at The Verge, who suggest that Nokia’s handset will initially be available only as a bundle, which is set to be up for grabs on February 14th. In addition to the unlocked Lumia 800, buyers with a whole lotta bravado will be able to demonstrate their love with the included Nokia Play 360 wireless speaker, a Purity HD Stereo Headset and an in-ear Bluetooth unit. We know that Nokia has a new conflict-free mineral policy and all, but for $899, you might just want to ask your sweetie if she’d prefer a diamond.

Lumia 800 bundle coming to Microsoft retail stores on Valentine’s Day, $899 is the new price of love originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Feb 2012 22:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google’s improved how its calendar and email services interact with Windows Phones running the Mango update. Users can now cram up to 25 different calendars into the Metro OS’s built-in calendar app. The setup’s not exactly seamless; you need to navigate your Windows Phone to the Google Sync page, login and check the boxes found there. While testing on our phones, although one device was able to immediately sync, the other couldn’t pick up on our multiple calendars. We had to delete and re-assign our Google account to the phone in order to get it working. However, once we did, the Metro styling lent itself well to multiple calendar listings, with the ability (like the web-based Google Calendar) to assign colors to each.

At the same Google Sync page, you can now choose to enable the “send mail as” feature if you’re using multiple addresses, with the option to delete unwanted emails instead of archiving. However, aside from replying from the same address that you received emails to, we haven’t discovered a way to assign new mails to our multiple guises. We were able to send messages through our own Engadget mail account, although that’s then used on all future missives. Despite these rough edges, it remains a welcome bit of extra functionality. Are we still longing for a dedicated Gmail app? Definitely. We just hope those devs don’t drop the ball.

Windows Phone 7.5 gets multiple Google Calendar sync, additional Gmail features originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 06:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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How much does it cost to license Microsoft’s latest and greatest mobile OS? A fair bit it seems. While numbers have been bandied around before, this is the first time a per-handset figure was to an internal employee — this time, the portfolio manager for ZTE UK, no less. Pegged at $27 per ZTE smartphone, TrustedReviews managed to get those licensing beans spilled at the glitzy London launch of the company’s first Windows Phone ZTE Tania. The fee flies in the face of open-source Android, which requires no price to install on handsets. Microsoft, however, is still keeping an eye on its Google rival, collecting patent licensing fees from several major phone manufacturers. ZTE hasn’t yet commented on the figure.

ZTE pays Microsoft around $27 for each Windows Phone made originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Jan 2012 19:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Microsoft’s Windows 8 hardware requirements: some good, some not-so-good

Microsoft’s Windows 8 hardware requirements: some good, some not-so-good originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Jan 2012 13:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This may have been a fairly big CES for Windows Phone, but it looks like Microsoft still has a fair bit of convincing to do in order to bring all the carriers fully on board. That includes Sprint, which does currently have a Windows Phone in its lineup (and is apparently considering more in the “August-September time period”), but remains decidedly unenthusiastic about the platform as a whole. As PCMag reports, Sprint’s David Owens said that the carrier is willing to train its reps on Windows Phone, but that Microsoft has to “build the enthusiasm for the product,” adding that the “number-one reason the product was returned was the user experience.” Sprint’s director of product development, Lois Fagan, further added that the carrier remains “cautiously optimistic,” but that Windows Phone “just hasn’t taken off.” In other news, Owens also confirmed that Sprint would expectedly now be focusing all of its intention on its new LTE network, and not produce any more WiMAX-based phones — although, as it’s noted previously Sprint will continue to support the network itself through 2015.

Sprint remains tepid on Windows Phone at CES, confirms no new WiMAX phones are planned originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Jan 2012 03:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here’s a fun little tidbit from tonight’s Seacrest-heavy Microsoft Keynote: turns out that Redmond has moved 18 million Kinect sensors in just over a year, according to the Steve Ballmer’s numbers. The news came amidst a few announcements that should help the company push even more of the gesture-based peripherals out the door — Kinect for Windows, anyone? Of course, this being the company’s last CES keynote for the foreseeable future, it’ll have to find another convention hall full of people to brag to when it announces the numbers this time next year.

Microsoft moves 18 million Kinect sensors, leaves behind a lot of lonely couch cushions originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Jan 2012 03:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Intel told us to expect next-gen netbooks from a throng of manufacturers, but for some reason it forgot to mention little ol’ Gigabyte. Perhaps that’s why the Taiwanese manufacturer is being slightly standoffish when it comes to detailing its two new 10-inch slates, which both run on unspecified variants of Cedar Trail and have equally unknown launch dates and prices. What we do know is that the T1006M is a convertible tablet that sports 1366 x 768 densely packed pixels, a USB 3.0 port and what appears to be an optional 3.5G modem — specs that are already familiar from our recent encounter at the FCC. Next comes the S1081, which is a straightforward Windows 7 business slate like its $680 predecessor and comes with a choice of HDD or SSD storage, an optical trackpad for extra “precision,” USB 3.0, VGA and HDMI outputs, plus the same optional multimedia dock. Rest assured that we’ll track these newcomers down on the CES floor to fill in the blanks and judge how well they stand out, now that the quiet trail has become a highway. Until then, feel free to read on for the press release — which also reveals that the Booktop T1132, Booktop M2432 and P2532 gaming notebook are all heading to the US market.

Continue reading Gigabyte intros S1081 Windows slate and T1006M netvertible, both packing Cedar Trail

Gigabyte intros S1081 Windows slate and T1006M netvertible, both packing Cedar Trail originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 09 Jan 2012 03:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Touchable is a stretch when talking about Vermeer, but we’d definitely call it interactive. Instead of hiding the 360-degree display under an acrylic or glass dome it uses a parobolic reflector to float a 3D “object” in space and tracks hand motions with an IR sensor or Kinect. It’s not unlike RePro3D, but with slightly less bulky hardware. Don’t take our word for it though, check out the video after the break.

Continue reading Microsoft working on Vermeer, a ‘touchable’ 360-degree holographic display (video)

Microsoft working on Vermeer, a ‘touchable’ 360-degree holographic display (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 08 Jan 2012 04:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Microsoft: UK Retailer ‘sold 94,000 counterfeit copies of Windows’

Microsoft: UK Retailer ‘sold 94,000 counterfeit copies of Windows’ originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Jan 2012 06:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft-approved Windows Phone 7 unlocker discontinued (for the moment) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Jan 2012 13:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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