Windows Mobile may be in the process of being handed its hat, but it’s not quite out the door yet.  Today Motorola and Sprint announced the U.S. availability of the Motorola ES400S Enterprise Smartphone, a ruggedized device running Windows Mobile 6.5.3 Professional.

Features include a built-in fingerprint scanner for biometric security, barcode scanning via its 3.2MP camera, a 600MHz Qualcomm CPU, GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0, a 1GB ROM for storage, EV-DO Rev. A, HSPA/GSM (world travel), and a 3-inch touchscreen transflective display.

According to the press release, it can take a 4-foot drop and keep on going, so this device may be useful to business users who butterfingers.

The Motorola ES400S will be available by the end of October for $499 for qualifying customers.

Read the Sprint Motorola ES400S Press Release after the jump.

Continue reading »

TechCrunch has posted a couple of interesting news items in the last few hours.  None of the information has been confirmed, but if true they indicate an interesting new direction for Amazon vis-à-vis the Android OS.

The first story states that Amazon is planning to launch its own Android app store.  Apps in the store would be viewable on Amazon.com and the retailer would split the take with the developer.  Exactly how such a third-party store would work is unclear, but Amazon would have a great deal of control over what appears in the store and what devices its apps can be installed to.

The second story suggests that the debut of Amazon’s Android app store may be accompanied by an Android-powered Amazon tablet.  Whether the Amazon Android software store would be exclusively available on this device or whether it would be a built-in feature on the tablet and an option for other Android smartphone users is unknown.

Via: Techmeme

Today RIM announced the BlackBerry PlayBook, the first tablet device from the Canadian-based wireless company.  Here are the bullet points:

- 7" LCD, 1024 x 600, WSVGA, capacitive touch screen w/ multi-touch and gesture support.
- BlackBerry Tablet OS with support for symmetric multiprocessing
- 1 GHz dual-core processor
- 1 GB RAM
- Dual HD cameras (3 MP front facing, 5 MP rear facing), 1080p HD video recording
- Video playback: 1080p HD Video, H.264, MPEG, DivX, WMV
- Audio playback: MP3, AAC, WMA
- HDMI video output
- Wi-Fi – 802.11 a/b/g/n
- Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
- Connectors: microHDMI, microUSB, charging contacts
- Open, flexible application platform with support for WebKit/HTML-5, Adobe Flash Player 10.1, Adobe Mobile AIR, Adobe Reader, POSIX, OpenGL, Java
- Measures 5.1"x7.6"x0.4" (130mm x 193mm x 10mm)
- Weighs less than a pound (approximately 0.9 lb or 400g)

Looks pretty cool at first glance.  Unfortunately, it won’t be out in the U.S. until “early 2011.”

Source: RIM Press Release

Over the weekend Neowin and other tech blogs reported that Windows Phone 7’s official kickoff would be on October 21 – and while this may be true for some parts of the world, it seems that those of us in the States will have to wait a bit longer.

Paul Thurrott, who has literally written the book on Windows Phone with cooperation from Microsoft, says that the U.S. launch date will be November 8.  Exactly what devices will launch that day – and on what carriers – remains unclear, but that information will be forthcoming in the next few weeks regardless of the launch date.

A few months ago, we told you about CloudFiles, which was then the only application which allowed access to Dropbox from a Windows Mobile device.  Now there’s another.

DroppedBoxx is a Windows Mobile Dropbox app from DK Development designed for touchscreen WM6+ handhelds.  All of the expected functions are there including uploading, downloading, sync, and photo upload.  You can also create new folders, attach files in your Dropbox to email messages, move files from folder to folder and more.  A recent upgrade to v1.1 added settings for camera resolution, two-way syncing of select folders, and an updated user interface.

The app sells for $2.50.  If you’re already familiar with DroppedBoxx, let us know your opinion of the software in the comments section.

Find out more about DroppedBoxx…