The HD2 is either the worst and most unstable device ever, or HTC seems to want to keep in the press. For me, there is no other reason for the permanent flow of hotfix updates being released for the device.

The latest update addresses recurring events:

Get the file via the URL below:
http://www.htc.com/hk-en/SupportViewNews.aspx?dl_id=1016&news_id=731

It looks like LG will take the place of HTC & HP in the Windows Phone 7 world – while HP has gone and HTC has not shown much enthusiasm so far, developers all over Europe are already finding Windows Phone 7 devices from LG in their hands.

PCWorld reports the following quote:

…

South Korea’s LG Electronics will launch its first smartphone designed around Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 software by the end of September and will follow with more by the end of the year, a company representative said Wednesday.

Photos of one of the LG smartphones have already been shown off by a number of enthusiast blogs. That phone is ready to go, according to LG.

“We have a deep relationship with Microsoft so expect to have a couple by the end of this year,” said Ken Hong, an LG representative in Seoul.

…

As of this writing, not much more is known…

Don’t ask me what is going on at AT&T’s. The carrier seems to be truly “in luck”.

PCWorld reports the following:

…

“We’ll be the premier carrier for Windows Phone 7,” a spokeswoman said via e-mail on Monday. “We haven’t given guidance on timing.”

The spokeswoman wouldn’t elaborate about what a premier carrier would do to promote WP7 and phones running it. Analysts have noted the value to Microsoft of getting as many carriers on board as possible, especially given the failure of Microsoft Kin phones sold by Verizon Wireless and Microsoft’s move away from the Windows Mobile 6.x platform.

…

For me, this is extremely interesting – keep in mind that the carrier is said to have a very long exclusivity on RIM’s upcoming flagship (the 9800) and also has the iPhone…

Dear Readers,
given that today is a somewhat slow news day, and given that our new design and rotating background system is now around for some time, I felt like asking you all to give us feedback.

First of all, a big thanks to all the readers who sent in complaints and praise for the new layout and the image choice. We have read each and every email with great pleasure.

From a performance standpoint, the difference between “Backgrounds” and “no Backgrounds” is minimal. This means that site performance will not be affected much (outside of peak times) irregardless of whether we enable the background images or not.

Editorial effort, also, is minimal. The images have already been shot for reporting purposes, and are essentially being recycled here.

Thus, the question is: do you like the idea?

Sound off in the comments or via a twitter message to the user tamhanna. There is no need to register!!

Samsung’s ever-growing smartphone line-up eats up their entire AMOLED production capacity. This, obviously, means that other manufacturers have to step back.

The first victim of the supply shortage was HTC, who have recently announced plans to deploy Sony-sourced “Super LCD” displays instead. Howard Chui from HowardForums now shares the following video:

In general, Howard Chui has found the two technologies to be largely on par – looks like HTC’s promise turned out to be true after all…

In the last few years, the emergence of bluetooth and TCP/IP connectivity has made cross-plattform gaming on mobile devices possible. However, very few game houses have released cross-plattform games so far.

The above-mentioned Rahul Sood now shares an anecdote which could explain the situation:

…

There was a project that got killed at Microsoft. This project was designed to allow console gamers and PC gamers to interact and battle over a connected environment. Personally I wish it would have stayed the course. I’ve heard from reliable sources that during the development they brought together the best console gamers to play mediocre PC gamers at the same game… and guess what happened? They pitted console gamers with their “console” controller, against PC gamers with their keyboard and mouse.

The console players got destroyed every time. So much so that it would be embarrassing to the XBOX team in general had Microsoft launched this initiative.

…

This obviously has huge implications on cross-platform (or even cross-device) multiplayer gaming – what do you think?

LG’s plans for a QWERTY-enabled Windows Phone 7 devices are hardly news. Microsoft’s plans for shipping Windows Phone 7 hardware to developers are not news either – however, so far, all of these reported getting Omnia HD-derived “prototype” units.

A developer called swildermuth now shares the video below, which shows the LG QWERTY device in action:

Given that this device is said to be one of the machines which will ship to end customers one day, I would consider this an excellent sign – let’s see how much longer it takes until Windows Phone 7 actually hits the road!

Call it strange coincidence: shortly after having made a public statement on Sense being on Windows Phone 7, a tipster provides images of a Windows Phone 7 device from HTC without HTC Sense.

Engadget just got their hands onto the image below:

Unfortunately, not much more is known currently…

Frequent Mobile World Congress visitors will never forget the man pictured on the left – this unfortunate Toshiba PR person had the unfortunate honor of jumping into the neck of more than one member of the press who felt that there are too many “custom user interfaces”.

Even though his behavior was especially funny, his employer was not the only house in question. HTC also produces Windows Mobile device with a custom user interface. However, Microsoft intends to take “More control” over the look and feel of Windows Phone 7 devices – does that mean the end of custom user interfaces?

Forbes.com now quotes Drew Barnford from HTC as following:

…

“Microsoft has taken firmer control of the core experience [in Windows Phone 7], but we can still innovate,” says Bamford. The future version of Sense, he adds, won’t look the way it does on current Windows Mobile (6.5) phones, where it basically replaces all the core applications and is fully integrated into the phone.

Nevertheless, HTC is optimistic about the Windows Phone 7 launch, according to Bamford. “We won’t be able to replace as much of the core Windows Phone experience, but we will augment it,” he says.

…

Let’s see what he really means – if the “new Sense” is but a few extra programs in the ROM, Microsoft will have nothing against it while HTC will be allowed to “keep its face”.

If HTC, on the other hand, gets away with significant retooling, I expect a new wave of custom UI’s following suite…

Everyone who ever did anything with HTC ROMs, has probably heard of Conflipper.

He has now called it quits, but has released a “roadmap” of HTC devices as a parting treat. Get the tweets below:

Not much to add here…