You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
The term "this summer" has finally become much more specific for anyone hoping to score a Sprint-branded Windows Phone: July 19th. This is the date the Now Network will launch the HTC 8XT, the carrier's first WP8 device, and you'll be able to grab one for $100 after a $50 mail-in rebate and two-year commitment. For that overall cost, you're getting a 4.3-inch WVGA display, 1.4GHz dual-core Snapdragon 400 CPU, 1GB RAM, 8MP rear camera, BoomSound, microSD expansion and an 1,800mAh battery. There's still no word on Samsung's entry to this arena, but we imagine it won't be terribly long before the news arrives, but we do know that HTC's version will start out $50 cheaper (likely due in part to the lower resolution). Press release after the break.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, Microsoft, HTC, Sprint
In each issue of Distro, editor-in-chief Tim Stevens publishes a wrap-up of the week in news.
This week is Microsoft's time to shine. Its Build conference, typically held later in the year, kicked off on Wednesday and along with it came a lot more about Windows 8.1 -- which we thought we already knew plenty about, honestly. But there was more to learn, including a new milestone for the Windows Store: 100,000 apps. Well, almost 100,000 apps. Steve Ballmer said the store was "approaching" that number and has racked up "hundreds of millions" of downloads. A bit of a far cry from Apple's 50 billion, but hey, it's early days yet.
More interesting to me is the inclusion of native 3D-printing support in Windows 8.1. Good 'ol 2D printers were certainly common before the traditional driver came into standard practice, but that market didn't really take off until they effectively became plug and play. One could say it's perhaps a bit early for that kind of native support to be needed in Windows for a 3D printer, but better too soon than too late.
Filed under: Misc
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
HTC's bone-shaking BoomSound front facing speakers are making their way to Windows Phone later this year. The 8XT, which appears to be a slightly tweaked variant of last year's 8S, will launch on Sprint's 4G LTE network for $99.99 with a two-year contract -- after a $50 rebate card. Powered by a 1.4 GHz dual-core Snapdragon 400 processor paired up with 1GB of RAM, we want to say the 8XT has the same 4.3 inch 720p screen as its older cousin, but the spec sheet in our hands merely says "crisp". The front of the phone has a 1.6-megapixel camera, while the rear has an 8-megapixel shooter. You'll also have to make do with 8GB of memory for your music, but microSD expansion means you can easily make room for more.
Update: We can now confirm the 8XT has a 800 x 480 pixel resolution screen.
Filed under: Cellphones, HTC
