A look at gadget, game and geek happenings in the week ahead.
HMV features twice in tech news this week, the chief reason being the launch of hmvdigital.com, its digital music download service that will rival iTunes in terms of both pricing and back catalogue but with more media player compatibility, being that it works with Windows Media Player and its MP3 downloads can be played on most phones and digital media players.
HMV is also cited as giving away the release date for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Kinect. With pricing details released for the controller-free gaming interface revealed to be €150 and a vague release date of Christmas 2010 coming form Microsoft, it could be 19 November if HMV is correct.
Meanwhile, Microsoft has also being working hard toward a release date for the Windows Phone 7. The Samsung prototype handset has been sent out to early adopters and mobile developers to mixed reviews.
The good news is that handset manufacturer HTC – who already created the impressive HTC HD2 for Windows Mobile 6.5 – is working on a handset for Windows Phone 7.
Despite the highly standardised interface and controls required for the Windows Phone 7 handset, HTC says that it will be using its Sense UI, which has received acclaim for its ease of use, widgets and the fact that it blends well into both Windows’ OS as well as Android.
And speaking of phones, who hasn’t been talking about the iPhone 4 and ‘Antennagate’? Rumour has it that the delay of the white iPhone 4 until possibly late September is a move by Apple to get an antenna redesign into these new models.
Engadget said rather sardonically of the issue: “It could well be that Apple is trying to get the white colour just right, but I’d expect that it would have worked out the manufacturing process to do so well in advance of the product launch.
“If anything, I suspect that Apple is tweaking the antenna design or finding some non-bumper solution to improve the device signal in areas of marginal coverage,” it added.
