Rumors

Verizon is slowly beginning to solidify its spot as the provider of top Android handsets. Between the launch of the Motorola Droid and today's release of the Droid Incredible, Big Red is starting to resemble the preferred carrier for high-end smartphones. If the latest rumors prove to be true, next month will see yet another powerful offering from the nation's largest wireless provider.

It's being reported today that Verizon is readying the release of the LU2300 from handsetmaker LG. Known internationally as the Aloha, the U.S. version will be called the Ally and pack some heft. … Read more

The FCC inadvertently outed another HTC handset this week and it appears it's going to be an Android device.

There's not much known about the phone other than what can be gleaned from the pictures that came with the FCC filing. From the images, we can see that the handset has buttons similar to the ones found on the recent Droid Incredible.

The only hardware specifications uncovered so far reveal that the phone will have AT&T's 3G bands. This would mark the first Android phone from HTC on the carrier's network and would also … Read more

Google I/O is only a few weeks away and the Android fanboys are getting anxious. At last year's event Google teased us with unreleased features like gesture search and the only phone on the market was the T-Mobile G1. Later in the year, some of these enhancements were rolled out as individual apps and OS upgrades, so as we near this year's two-day conference, which starts on May 19, questions are starting to pop up. What does Google have up its sleeve?

Most of the tech community is in agreement that Android 2.2 (Froyo) features will … Read more

Verizon Wireless customers waiting for the Nexus One should probably make other plans, as it looks like Big Red's version of the Google "superphone" will never see the light of day.

When the Nexus One was first announced in January, Google revealed that a Verizon model would be made available later this year. However, on Monday, Google posted an entry on its official Nexus One blog site recommending that users head over to Verizon's site and preorder the HTC Droid Incredible instead. The official checkout page for the N1 shows a similar message.

While Google has … Read more

Editor's note: Click here for a more current story on the lost iPhone prototype investigation.

Silicon Valley police are investigating what appears to be a lost Apple iPhone prototype purchased by a gadget blog, a transaction that may have violated criminal laws, a law enforcement official told CNET on Friday.

Apple has spoken to local police about the incident and the investigation is believed to be headed by a computer crime task force led by the Santa Clara County district attorney's office, the source said. Apple's Cupertino headquarters is in Santa Clara County, about 40 miles south … Read more

For those of you who thought Dell was content with putting out low-end Android handsets like the Aero, I submit the Thunder, Smoke, and Flash.

Wednesday saw Engadget leaking three new phones from the handsetmaker's road map. Looking through the various details and specs, one gets the sense that Dell has lofty ambitions for the platform, going so far as to create its own user interface called Stage. Based on the few pictures available, the experience looks stylish, sleek, and classy. Although we shouldn't expect to see these phones for nearly a year, Dell has already committed to … Read more

A handful of pictures arrived online early this week with what appears to be two new Motorola handsets. Looking very similar to the Motorola Krave ZN4 found on Verizon, these phones are yet another unique design from Motorola.

By all appearances, both models appear to be ready for production, however, we don't yet know how well the operating system works. On a related note, we can see that at least one design has MotoBlur and possibly Android 2.1 under the hood.

We haven't come across anything in terms of specs yet, so your guess is as good … Read more

With roughly a month to go before its expected launch, the myTouch 3G Slide rumors and leaks have kicked into high gear.

A fresh batch of details found its way online over the weekend thanks to a source at Android and Me. Apparently T-Mobile and HTC recently gave out several hundred of these handsets to T-Mobile employees for testing and feedback. This source was among one of those lucky folks and was only too happy to provide details about the phone.

As it sounds, the myTouch 3G Slide should bridge the gap between older handsets like the G1 and myTouch 3G … Read more

People lose their iPhones all the time. But it's not often that a super-secret prototype of a not-yet-released iPhone is carelessly left on the floor of a local drinking establishment.

But apparently that's what happened, according to two different gadget blogs. That this would happen to a company like Apple, which takes secrecy and security of its products very seriously, is surprising. Apple has not yet said there even is an iPhone 4G--although it's a safe bet there will be based on the pattern of the past three years. Steve Jobs has said that new iPhone software is coming "this summer," but the company has stopped short of acknowledging that new hardware is in the works.

Normally the first time we see a new Apple product it is in Jobs' hands while standing on a stage in front of an audience of geeks and journalists. So what happened this time?

To back up: Over the weekend, Engadget posted photos of what it said might be the iPhone 4G, or the next-generation version of Apple's phone. It said it was found on the floor of a bar in San Jose, Calif., and a tipster sent the photos into the gadget blog for posting. The pictures are sort of blurry and the device is never shown powered up, so it didn't seem that hard to dismiss as yet another fake iPhone knockoff.

Flash forward to Monday morning. Engadget's rival blog, Gizmodo, ups the ante with its own photos and video of what appears to be the same device, though it claims it's from "someone" who found it on the floor of a bar in Redwood City, Calif. How Gizmodo got its hands on it is unclear.

There have been several suggestions that Gizmodo's parent company, Gawker Media, bought it. A tweet from Gawker boss Nick Denton on Monday appeared to confirm Gawker's willingness to pay for stories, though Gizmodo hasn't yet responded to a request for comment. The company generated much publicity when Gizmodo's sister blog Valleywag announced a bounty on early access to an iPad. Denton has also considered paying for paparazzi-style photographs of sports stars for its sports blog Deadspin. It's not impossible that the company saw Engadget's pics and tracked down the person who sent it in and paid him or her for it.

Blogger John Gruber at DaringFireball.net says that, according to his contacts at Apple, the purported iPhone 4G is considered "stolen" by Apple.

Apple has not responded to a request for comment.

Assuming both Engadget and Gizmodo discovered the same device, there are some odd inconsistencies in the stories, such as the discrepancy between being lost at a bar in San Jose and Redwood City, as well as claims of seeing the device powered on, but not showing photos of it. Also, Gizmodo says it took the thing apart, yet it didn't post photos of the processor or the storage.

But more importantly, how did this happen?… Read more