T-Mobile-branded HTC Touch Pro2 appears in the wild

It's really no secret that the Touch Pro2 is destined to arrive in the States on T-Mobile, but this is the first time we've seen the T-Mo edition not, uh, drippings with goo. And yes, that's a US-spec keyboard and the "fewer dots" US T-Mobile logo, so this looks like the real thing -- hopefully that means a launch is imminent. Hit the read link for a bunch more shots.
Update: Looks like the site is down for now, but thankfully Google cache has it on hand.

via: engadget

Apple iPhone & iPod Touch sales pass 37 million

Apple COO Tim Cook revealed during a second quarter earnings call on Tuesday that sales of the company's iPhone and iPod Touch devices have passed 37 million units. He said that sales of the touch-screen handhelds had more than doubled year over year. The sales figures combined make it an enormous platform for developers, particularly with games, which have been the most popular downloads from the App Store since it launched 9 months ago.

Apple and its development partners will soon "unleash a whole new level of innovation that keeps Apple years ahead of everyone else," according to Cook. The company said the success of the iPod Touch is clearly driven by the App Store. "All genres [on the App Store] are very popular," said Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer, "but games are quite popular. That's one of the reasons the iPod touch has been such a success."

In his preamble, Oppenheimer said the App Store now totals more than 35,000 applications. The company expects to pass 1 billion App downloads sometime on Thursday, April 23. It has also held its position on top of the portable media player market, with NPD recently confirming that Apple still holds 70 percent of the market in the U.S., and gains more ground each year worldwide.

via: afterdawn

Apple sinks lower, approving Baby Shaker, Poop the World apps

Apple continued to lower its standards for acceptable App Store content this week with the approval of two new applications, one designed to simulate violent, life-threatening acts on an infant. The object of Baby Shaker from Sikalosoft is to stop the crying of a baby pictured on screen by shaking the iPhone or iPod touch, until the crying stops and two red “x” marks appear over its eyes. Jennipher Dickens, whose son Christopher was injured by being shaken by his father, told Cnet, “As a mother of a child who was violently shaken at 7 weeks old, causing a severe brain injury, and the founder of a national organization for Shaken Baby Syndrome prevention (as well as the communications director for a national organization helping children with brain injuries), I don’t have to tell you how much this horrifies me!!!”
Update: Baby Shaker was removed from the iTunes Store shortly following the publication of this story.

Meanwhile, the scatalogical Poop the World from SWS Digital is designed to let iPhone and iPod touch users share details of their bowel movements, including time, place, consistency, and smell, with other users across the globe. Users are encouraged to select from one of 20 shapes that best approximate their most recent output, then a scent from a long list of possible smells. Details, including location, are then uploaded to SWS’ servers, allowing other users to track the details. Promoted by the developer with toilet paper rolls that feature the App Store logo, the app even offers trophies to users who accomplish set “goals.” Poop the World and Baby Shaker are available now from the App Store and sell for $2 and $1, respectively.

via: ilounge

Nokia to replace 5800 handset with capacitive touch panel version

According to sources at Taiwan handset component suppliers, Nokia is moving to replace the resistive touch panel used in the popular 5800 handset with a capacitive touch panel. The change is being made in order to compete more effectively with the products from Apple, Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics on the market.

The initial orders from Nokia are enough for two million 5800 handsets, and shipments of the new version are expected to begin in May-June this year. Nokia's design and pricing strategy for the 5800 handset have been very successful, leading to sales of over three million units so far since the device was launched in November 2008.

Availability for the Nokia N97 handset is expected in the second quarter, while Nokia is also expected to roll out more models with capacitive touch panels, QWERTY keyboards and with ultra-thin designs during the third quarter.

via afterdawn

Hulu app coming to the iPhone soon

Silicon Alley Insider is reporting that a dedicated Hulu application is indeed on its way to the iPhone and should be here in just a few months.

SAI says the application will work over Wi-Fi and AT&T's 3G network, meaning that users will be able to view programming anywhere with a fast data connection.

Rumors suggesting that an iPhone-friendly version of Hulu swirled around this time last year, however, they predated the launch of the App Store, and Hulu flat-out denied that one was being worked on.

This time around, though, it's far more plausible, with the upcoming iPhone OS 3.0 software update, which lets developers bake streaming media into their applications. For Hulu, this means that the advertising could be stuck into the mobile stream and that users would be able to watch videos without leaving the application.

One of the things that keep this rumor from holding water is that Hulu is in direct competition with Apple's iTunes business. Users of Hulu can watch ad-supported, full-length television shows and movies on their personal computers for free, instead of paying Apple to download a copy for offline viewing.

If such an app were available on the iPhone, it would also offer portable TV and movie watching, something not yet offered in Apple's own mobile iTunes app, which is limited to video podcasts. In past instances of this, the company has simply denied applications such as Podcaster from making it through the app approval process, only to launch it as a first party feature later on.
On the other hand, some of Hulu's competitors have already gotten a foot in the door, including Joost and CBS-owned TV.com, which has its own iPhone application that streams in content in chunks. In addition, Google's YouTube, whose application comes preinstalled on the iPhone, has recently reached an agreement with major studios, including Sony Pictures, Lions Gate Entertainment, and CBS (publisher of CNET News), to offer visitors full-length TV shows and feature films.

If Hulu can't manage to pull off getting advertisements in the stream, using this system, it would be fairly simple to force users to sit through advertisements between clips.

via news.cnnet

More Zune HD touch Details Emerge

After the leaked pictures of the Zune HD appeared on Saturday, more unconfirmed technical specifications of the device have now emerged. Microsoft's new portable media player is set to go neck-to-neck with Apple's iPod Touch, as the specifications of the Zune HD make it a viable contender.

The Zune HD is set to feature a multitouch (capacitive) OLED screen in a 16:9 aspect ratio and will have a TV out port on the side (apparently HDMI). Coming in 16 and 32GB versions, the device will also support wireless syncing to your computer. Some even speculate the PMP will support 3D Xbox games, if the Zune HD will actually use Nvidia's Tegra chipset.
The new details also mention a Web browser on the Zune HD, which in turn supports multitouch. No word on what kind of browser this will be, but let's hope it won't be anything similar to Internet Explorer on Windows Mobile. As previously reported, the Zune HD is set to launch this fall (probably September) with new details of international availability in Canada, the U.K, and France.

What is Microsoft cooking?

The tech blogosphere is also talking today about Zune-themed mobile phones. AdWeek reports that Microsoft is now taking bids for an ad campaign for a Zune mobile application dubbed Pink.
While some speculate that the Zune HD is likely to run on the long-overdue Windows Mobile 6.5 (expected in Q4, same as the Zune HD), it's more likely that WM phones would just share some services and feature with the new Zune.

via pcworld

Sony prices first touchscreen Walkman players

Sony has announced the price of its first ever touchscreen Walkman media players, part of the NX-X1000 series.

The NW-X1050, which will hit Japan on April 25th, will sell for $400 USD and has 16GB of built-in flash memory while its higher capacity brother, the NW-X1060, will sell for $500 USD and will include 32GB of memory.

Each player supports Wi-Fi and will allow playback of YouTube videos and the downloading of podcasts. Also of note, the players have integrated FM and 1Seg TV tuners and will allow recording of content if broadcasters support it.

The media players have nice OLED touchscreens and for audio support AAC, MP3 and WMA. For video files, MPEG-4, H.264 and WMV are supported.

EX earphones are bundled with each player and offer integrated noise reduction.

via afterdawn