We knew it would be coming around this time , but now T-Mobile has confirmed it: The HTC HD2 will be available on March 24th for $200—assuming you sign up for a two-year agreement, complete with a data plan. [ T-Mobile via Laptop Mag ] More

Now, these may have been around for ages, we can’t really be sure because, truth be told, it’s pretty rare for us to troll the aisles of Kohl’s makeup section looking for KIRF s. Regardless, a helpful, hawk-eyed reader snapped this shot of an eyeshadow palette — called eyemobile — that’s got the distinct iPhone aura going on, though we’re 100 percent certain this is an unauthorized use case. It’s hard to say from the photo, but it also looks like there’s a lip gloss palette in the background (which we assume is called lipmobile), and that, friends, we would pay money for. Lots of money. [Thanks, Bill] Keepin’ it real fake: iPhone hits discount retailers as an eyeshadow palette originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 14 Mar 2010 21:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds .

Whether you covet your Irish friends’ ability to make in-flight cellphone calls or value your aerial naps too much to care either way, you must admit that the promise of in-flight SMS, MMS, voice messaging, and text email is tantalizing. To this end, the kids at Asiq have announced a little something called the Bluetooth Access Point. This device uses the aircraft’s satellite link to send data to your respective carrier, eliminates the need for a picocell, and boasts up to 3Mb/s speeds. Now let’s see how quickly this bad boy gets approved for use! (Or not.) PR after the break. Continue reading Bluetooth Access Point brings text messaging, voice messaging, email to the friendly skies Bluetooth Access Point brings text messaging, voice messaging, email to the friendly skies originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 02:19:00 EST.

Forget typing out searches or searching by voice. Devices running Android 2.0 can now use Google Gesture Search to find contacts, music, and more. All you have to do is “draw” letters on the screen. This is how Google says the whole thing works: Say you want to call your friend Anne.

When one thinks of a PSP Phone , they usually imagine a handset with a number of cool, gamer-centric features, such as some sort of integration with the PlayStation network or — imagine! — the ability to actually play PSP games . What they don’t imagine — correct us if we’re wrong — is some sort of KIRFy cellphone shoved inside what is essentially the shell of a PSP. That said, we do have to give our friends in Shenzhen some props: not only have they beat Sony with this knock-off, but with the way things are going, they might have the PSP Phone market all to themselves in perpetuity. No specifics on this one yet — price, stats, or street date — but you probably weren’t going to buy one anyways. Get a closer look after the break. Continue reading Keepin’ it real fake, part CCLVIII: shanzhai PSP Phone dampens our excitement for an actual PSP Phone Keepin’ it real fake, part CCLVIII: shanzhai PSP Phone dampens our excitement for an actual PSP Phone originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 21:41:00 EST

Two days after a 8.8 magnitude earthquake displaced them from their homes and separated them from dear ones, people gathered at a fire-station in Concepcion, Chile to charge their cellphones—their comfort objects during this disaster. Chile was becoming a trending topic on Twitter before even the fastest newscasters got a chance to talk about Saturday’s earthquake, thanks to many hastily posted Tweets—most of which likely came from mobile devices. Tweets, text messages, emails, calls, voicemails—everything flew across the networks, draining phones and granting people some comfort and peace. Just hearing a familiar voice or reading words of assurance—knowing that your mobile device links you to the world, to family, and to much needed aid—makes one heck of a difference. We need food.

The mobile OS running on this old Toshiba TG01 looks like Windows Phone 7 and it mostly acts like Windows Phone 7. But in reality it’s a clever user interface skin covering up Windows Mobile 6.5. Put together by a fellow named LeSScro, this interface tweak can make older WinMo phones pretend that they can handle Windows Phone 7 and will hopefully be made available soon. [ Pocket Now via Mobile Crunch ]

Once upon a time, buying cellphones was easy. You’d go for the cheaper deal and leave it at that. But what about when you’re faced with the choice of paying more now or more over time? Which do you chose? The NY Times has an interesting example of this dilemma: Let’s say that you buy a MyTouch 3G, one of T-Mobile’s most popular smartphones, for $400, and sign up for its unlimited voice, text and data plan for $60 a month. The total cost of the phone over two years would be $1,840.

Gartner just released its annual numbers for worldwide mobile phone sales to end users in the year known as two thousand nine. Looking at smartphone OS market share alone, Gartner shows the iPhone OS, Android, and RIM making the biggest gains (up 6.2%, 3.4%, and 3.3% from 2008, respectively) at the expense of Windows Mobile (down 3.1%) and Symbian (down 5.5%). Although Gartner says that Symbian “has become uncompetitive in recent years,” (ouch) it concedes that market share is still strong especially for Nokia; something backed up by Nokia’s Q4 financials and reported quarterly smartphone growth of 5% . Regarding total handsets of all classifications sold, Nokia continues to dominate with 36.4% of all sales to end users (a 2.2% loss from 2008) while Samsung and LG continue to climb at the expense of Motorola (dropping from 7.6% to 4.5% of worldwide sales in 2009) and Sony Ericsson. See that table after the break or hit up the source for the full report. Continue reading Gartner: Apple, Android, and RIM winners in 2009 smartphone growth, Nokia and Symbian still dominate Gartner: Apple, Android, and RIM winners in 2009 smartphone growth, Nokia and Symbian still dominate originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Feb 2010 05:05:00 EST

No matter how realistic a KIRF phone looks these days, there’s always a catch somewhere. For instance, this GSM handset is pretty much an exact clone of the HTC Tattoo , except for a couple of debatably important things: the suspiciously-cheerful $169 price tag, and the fact that Windows Mobile (and not Android ) is running the show. Oh, and it doesn’t end there: judging by the photo, you’d assume this evil clone runs WinMo 6.5 , yet the spec sheet mutters 6.1. A typo?