RIM made an unprecedented move earlier this week when it gave away pre-production BlackBerry 10 hardware to developers, but it was a smart one. In order to develop for a brand new operating system and help grow develop support for a new platform, you need to be able to test on real hardware. Since this isn’t the phone that RIM will launch in the fall, there’s no issue letting the public see the hardware, right? Well, there’s more to the story.

The BlackBerry 10 Alpha unit is a device RIM has been testing internally for quite some time. In fact, our sources have confirmed that it’s the BlackBerry Colt handset that RIM originally planned to ship as its first BlackBerry 10 smartphone, which was later canceled.

This is just another insight into how disorganized RIM is — looking at the phone, you can clearly see how much time, effort and money RIM put into it. It’s pre-production, but this is a phone that is set up for the company to ship. It’s manufactured very well, feels good, and has way too many details for this to just be something RIM made to give away to its developer base.

The display is beautiful, and the unit is literally a smaller PlayBook. I have also been told that Mike Lazaridis and other RIM executives have been showing BlackBerry 10 off to partners using this exact device over the past few months — another sign that this was indeed in the running to be RIM’s first real touchscreen device.

Sprint and HTC have been partners for years, but it wasn’t until the HTC EVO 4G launched in June 2010 that the companies realized their potential. HTC’s sleek, technology-packed flagship smartphone and Sprint’s unlimited data plans were a match made in heaven for smartphone power users, and the EVO 4G was the first handset to truly offer a complete package to Sprint subscribers. While Sprint’s EVO line of devices has remained popular for the carrier — Sprint has sold more than 7 million EVO-branded smartphones and tablets to date — the company has yet to recapture the magic introduced with the original EVO 4G. With the new HTC EVO 4G LTE that Sprint and HTC unveiled on Wednesday, however, Sprint hopes to do just that. Hit the break for our hands-on impressions of Sprint’s new flagship smartphone.

We spent some time with Sprint’s flagship device for 2012 ahead of tonight’s press conference, and we left impressed. Powerhouse Android smartphones seem to be a dime a dozen these days, and although the EVO 4G LTE is certainly a cut above almost every device currently on the market, it doesn’t quite recapture the magic created by the EVO 4G, which was among the first of its kind.

The handset’s hardware is truly unique, and it is instantly recognizable as an EVO device. The red accents are unmistakable and the kickstand made famous by the EVO 4G is back — and improved. The red aluminum kickstand on the EVO 4G LTE is now spring-loaded, so it can support the device in landscape orientation with the display turned to the left or to the right.

The case on the EVO 4G LTE is made from a single piece of anodized aluminum that has a great look and a nice, soft feel. As an added touch and a means of further distinguishing this smartphone from the pack, HTC machined the edges of the smartphone to remove the anodized coating and leave a smooth polished aluminum finish that circles the outer edge of the device.

While we weren’t able to spend as much time as we would have liked with this sleek new smartphone, we did give it a quick spin and walked away very impressed. The 4.7-inch Super LCD display with 720p HD resolution is absolutely gorgeous, and the dual-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 processor helps the Sense 4.0 user interface jump from screen to screen with ease. We fired up as many apps as we could launch on the new EVO and the phone was completely unphased.

Our biggest qualm with the handset after the short amount of time we spent with it is absolutely the styling. This is a slick smartphone with a unibody anodized aluminum case and brushed detailing on the edges, but it is completely ruined by the glossy black cover at the top of the device’s back. HTC had to use a material that would allow radio waves to easily pass through, but a matte rubber-feel plastic like the material used on the back of the HTC One S would have looked infinitely better. We’re sure there is a reason HTC chose the material it did, but the glossy plastic really does ruin the look of this otherwise sleek smartphone.

While Sprint hasn’t yet announced a release time frame beyond some time in the second quarter, the HTC EVO 4G LTE will be available for pre-order starting May 7th, and it will cost $199.99 on contract. We’re definitely looking forward to reviewing this new flagship smartphone but in the meantime, be sure to check out our hands on photos of the HTC EVO 4G LTE, which are linked above.

Apple on Friday released OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion Developer Preview 2 to OS X developers. According to TheNextWeb, the Cupertino-based company also posted an extensive list of known issues and bugs within the latest operating system. This second OS X 10.8 release comes exactly one month after Apple announced Mountain Lion, introducing developers to iMessage on Mac computers, a new Notification Center, Game Center integration, AirPlay mirroring, enhanced iCloud support and a number of redesigned apps.

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We were only able to spend a few minutes with Sony’s new Xperia P smartphone as we rushed from Sony’s press conference to HTC’s press conference on Sunday, and we didn’t get any time at all with the Xperia U. Thanks to a slightly lighter event scheduled on Monday, we were able to make it over to Sony’s booth and spend some quality time with its new smartphones. These are the first smartphones that will be launched by the new Sony Mobile Communications unit that picks up where Sony Ericsson left off, and to be frank, we’re a bit concerned. This pair of Android phones is well-made and we like what Sony has done to its UI atop Android 4.0, but we’re still seeing some things that concern us. Check out our hands-on photos in the gallery linked below, and then hit the break for our initial impressions of the Xperia P and Xperia U smartphones.

First and foremost, these smartphones will hit the market in a very Sony Ericsson-like fashion. They will both launch running Android 2.3 Gingerbread, and Sony has stated that the Xperia P and Xperia U will each receive an update to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich some time in the second quarter. Slow software updates have historically been a big issue for Sony Ericsson’s Android phones, so this definitely isn’t a great way to instill confidence in users who might still have a bad taste in their mouths.

The devices themselves are solid phones, however. They share a very similar design identity that includes the transparent light bar near the bottom of each handset, and they also sport Reality Displays that make use of Sony’s Bravia engine.

The larger of the two phones is the Xperia P, and it features a 4-inch display with “WhiteMagic” display technology that Sony says is ultra-bright and power efficient. After spending some time with the phone we can definitely confirm that the screen is extremely bright, and colors don’t get washed out at all as the brightness increases. The 1GHz dual-core processor doesn’t really do Android 4.0 justice on this handset, but hopefully things will be a bit smoother in the release version of the software.

The Xperia U features a significantly smaller form factor and a 3.5-inch Reality Display. It’s powered by the same dual-core processor and it it suffers from the same occasional hiccups that we saw with the Xperia P. The display isn’t quite as impressive as the panel on the Xperia P unfortunately, but beyond that the two phones are very similar.

We’re looking forward to spending some more time with these phones but in the mean time, be sure to check out our hands-on gallery above.

A projector phone? From Samsung? Sure, why not? We got a chance to spend some time with Sammy’s newly announced “Beam” addition to its ever-expanding Galaxy line, and we left with mixed emotions. On the one hand, this is a solid and well executed smartphone, but it sports a 1Ghz dual-core chip, Android 2.3, a 4-inch WVGA screen, 8GB of built-in storage, and 768MB of RAM, so the specs aren’t exactly on par with other modern handsets. On the projector end of things, we’ve got a powerful 15 lumens unit capable of displaying a 50-inch wide image on any flat surface. This is pretty cool, but we’re still not sure this is a space that needs filling. That said, if you’re in the market for a projector-equipped smartphone, this is pretty much the best game in town. Our hands-on photo gallery follows below.

While the Pureview 808 sort of stole the show, the Lumia 610 marks a significant release as well, and something that is worth paying attention to. The decidedly downmarket Windows Phone device aims to provide the Windows Phone experience to a much wider array of folks, and we think Nokia might have a hit on their hands. The new suite of Nokia software includes a Library app, and a completely revamped Maps application. We had a chance to spend some time with the little guy, and we left generally pleased, though not overwhelmed. But, then again, we suppose that’s the goal with a 189 Euro smartphone, now isn’t it? Specs include 256 mb of RAM, a 3.7″ WVGA screen, a 5mp camera, and 8GB of onboard storage. Hit the gallery link below for some hands-on shots!

Hey folks. Following Nokia’s early morning press conference here in Barcelona, we got a litttttle bit of hands-on time with the freshly dropped Pureview 808. The software isn’t quite finished yet, but we did get some time to play with the audio recording and camera apps. Really cool stuff, and we can definitely see other manufacturers forced to follow suit. The handset features the flagship 41 megapixel camera, a 4″ screen, 512 mb of RAM with 16GB of onboard storage,  a 1.3 Ghz single core chip,  and a loft 450 Euro pricetag. Expect to see this sucker in May. Hit the link below to check out the gallery!

We’re here in sunny Barcelona, Spain on day 0 of the annual Mobile World Congress trade show — yes, several companies couldn’t even wait for day 1 to hold their press conferences — and Sony’s media event has just wrapped up. In case you missed it, Sony unveiled two devices at this year’s show, one of which was the sleek new Xperia P smartphone that will launch in the second quarter. The handset’s design is reminiscent of earlier Xperia handsets, but like the other members of the “Xperia NXT” family, it features a clear strip near the bottom of the phone that adds a variety of unique lighting features to the device. The phone’s 3.5-inch display leaves a bit to be desired compared to market leaders like Samsung, and colors weren’t nearly as vivid as they are on phones like the Galaxy S II or Galaxy Nexus. The Xperia P will also launch with a dual-core 1GHz processor while the competition is rolling out devices with NVIDIA’s 1.5GHz quad-core chipset, and the difference is noticeable; the Xperia P isn’t laggy per se, but moving around Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich feels a bit slow compared to some other phones. We weren’t able to spend much time with the Xperia P — or any time at all with the Xperia U — but check out a few photos in the gallery below and tune in for HTC’s press conference, which is scheduled to kick off at 2:30 p.m. EST / 11:30 a.m.

Rovio on Friday teased the next frontier for the company’s massive Angry Birds franchise. The fourth major Birds release will be called “Angry Birds Space” and is scheduled to land on mobile devices on March 22nd. In the newest edition, users will be flinging birds on zero gravity planets with new gameplay features such as slow-motion and lightspeed destruction, according to Yahoo Games. ”We think fans are really going to love it because we’ve already gotten amazing feedback on the physics of our games,” said Rovio’s GM of North America Andrew Stalbow. “They’re so accurate and easy to grasp that some teachers use Angry Birds in their lessons about projectile motion.” Rovio has confirmed that the game will have completely new birds along with some originals, who now possess various super powers. Since debuting in 2009, the franchise has been downloaded over 700 million times on iOS and Android alone. Read on for a video teaser from Rovio.

[Via Yahoo]

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Apple just did something the company hasn’t done very often in recent years — it completely surprised nearly every single person with the announcement of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, the next OS for the Mac. Inching a step closer to bridging the gap between iOS and OS X, Mountain Lion brings practically all of iOS’s featured apps to desktop and laptop computers. From Messages, which I’ve been waiting for ever since iMessage was announced, to built-in iCloud support, Notification Center, Game Center, Reminders, Notes, a much-improved Safari browser, AirPlay and more, the two OSes are practically the same now in terms of system apps. This is the first developer preview of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, and the OS will only improve before it is released in the summer. If you’re itching for my thoughts, though, you’ll find them after the break.

Messages

Out with iChat, in with Messages. Finally.

I’ve been talking about Apple’s messaging strategy for a while, and it is now coming together as I predicted — iMessage, FaceTime and iChat all had to merge eventually. While you can still use iChat much like you’d use the app before, the real star of the show is the new Messages interface which combines all your open conversations together in one unified window.

The ease of use here is just off the charts — by using your Apple ID, all of your messages will instantly and effortlessly flow from your iPhone to iPad to iPod touch to computers, keeping on-going conversations in sync no matter what device you have with you. This is a huge game-changer for instant communication in my book. Apple has said that over 26 billion iMessages were sent since its introduction in iOS 5. Add in delivery and read receipts, photo and file sending, and the over 100mm people who use iMessage, and you have a major network for instant sharing that just works.

One thing that I’d like Apple to solve on the computer with Messages, though, is checking to see what people in my contacts have an Apple ID or phone number and not showing me the rest of their contact information. Since you can only chat with an iPhone user or Apple ID in iMessage, it doesn’t make much sense to show me a contact’s secondary numbers or email addresses.

FaceTime is integrated into the main Messages window for whomever you’re in a conversation with, which is a clean way to bridge these two services into one. If you’re on OS X 10.7 Lion, you won’t even have to wait until the summer to start using Messages, as Apple has released it as a public beta that’s available for download now.

iCloud

Apple has integrated iCloud into the foundation of OS X 10.8. When you first power on the computer, you’re greeted with a sign-in window for your Apple ID. After you sign in, iCloud downloads your settings and sets up most of your computer for you, automatically. This includes your mail, contacts, calendar, reminders, notes, messages, bookmarks and more.

Opening the iCloud preferences shows you just how much syncing and data Apple is handling so you don’t have to worry about it — Back to my Mac, Find my Mac, Photo Stream and of course, the aforementioned as well. I still don’t see a way to integrate iCloud with Apple’s iWork suite, but this is obviously coming very soon.

Notification Center

This makes me so, so happy. I’ve hated Growl since its inception, mainly because it wasn’t ever executed properly. Notification Center is a wonderful place to see all of your notifications and alerts, including the addition of banner alerts that appear on the right side of your display. You can fine tune these just like you can on iOS by going into the Notifications panel in your settings and choosing whether to badge apps, what kind of alert you want, how many alerts for a specific app to show and more granular controls.

Introduced with Notification Center is a new two-finger gesture to bring up your notifications, and it’s a two-finger swipe from the edge of the trackpad from right to left. This is a bit cumbersome on a Magic Trackpad because you have to start exactly where the surface starts, unlike on a MacBook Air or Pro where there’s a surface next to the trackpad area.

Apple has an API for Mac Apps that want to appear in Notification Center, so expect almost every one of your favorite app to be compatible. For now, Mail, Messages, Contacts, Calendar, Reminders, Mac App Store and Safari will appear in Notification Center.

Game Center

Game Center is something else that feels big to me. The Mac was once a platform that was terrible for gamers. With the introduction, capability, and popularity of iOS, however, Apple’s devices have been the number one place for console-quality games in the past few years. It’s now translating to the Mac. Not only can you use Game Center how you would on iOS — yes, your friends are here, game recommendations are here, and your achievements are here — but you can also play multiplayer and turn-based games from your Mac with someone else on an iPhone or iPad. That’s big.

Contacts / Calendar / Notes / Reminders

Address Book and iCal are gone, replaced with Contacts and Calendar just like on iOS. These apps are mostly identical to the apps they replace aside from their new names, but there is a level of iCloud integration that was missing before. Whatever is on your iOS device will be on your Mac now in Reminders and Notes, and the Notes app also features some awesome capabilities like in-line photos, bulleted lists, hyperlinked URLs, customizable fonts and other enhancements. Reminders also syncs with your iOS devices, though Reminders with locations don’t seem to display properly on the Mac at this point.

AirPlay

 Another huge addition to the Mac is AirPlay. This allows you to send your video and audio content directly from your computer to a TV or projector. Imagine just showing up to a conference room with your MacBook Air and instantly beaming your Keynote presentation wirelessly to a display, or grabbing your laptop while you’re on your sofa and showing off a new home video to friends on your TV. You can push your content from your Mac to a TV, and you can also use AirPlay Mirroring just as you can on your iPad 2 or iPhone 4S, turning the TV into your monitor on your Mac — wirelessly.

Mountain Lion

There’s a lot more to OS X 10.8 then what I covered above. For example, there’s now system-level sharing going on, called Share Sheet. It’s contextual based on the app you are in, and this is most likely a sign of what’s to come in iOS 6 if I had to bet — a system-integrated way of sharing from one app to other services in iOS.

Safari has improved to the point where I’m going to try to make it my default browser. It’s buttery smooth, the ability to type a URL and search from one unified bar is a needed improvement, and I love how it grays out all of the URL noise, just leaving the base URL whole. Reader has moved to a permanent place on the right side of the browser bar, and using Safari just makes browsing the Internet feel like a different experience than just pulling up Web pages. It feels very iOS-like, especially with the Magic Trackpad — something Apple was obviously aiming for.

Another addition in OS X 10.8 is the fact that the Mac App Store now handles all of your system updates. These updates will even appear in Notification Center now. I was able to update three different parts of the system using just the App Store.

Apple has also introduced a way to try and prevent any bad apps from running on the Mac with GateKeeper. This setting lets you choose whether to accept apps downloaded only from the App Store (Apple has to approve every app before it’s available here), apps from the App Store and verified developers (developers will be able to sign apps with a unique identifier, and Apple would be able to revoke this in case of any nefarious happenings), or apps from anywhere and everywhere. This would also be a much-welcome and much-awaited feature for iOS, if that’s ever an option down the road.

All in all, playing with OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion feels more like an experience you have come to expect from Apple — a window into whatever you want, pushing every distraction out of the way so you can work better and play better. Check out high resolution images of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion in our gallery.

Details surrounding Apple’s next-generation Mac operating system were released on Thursday morning, shedding light on a number of new features set to hit Apple’s desktop operating system later this year. OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion highlights include the arrival of iMessage on Mac computers, a feature iOS users have been clamoring for since iMessage was first introduced in iOS 5. Notification Center will also arrive on OS X with Mountain Lion, bringing further iOS-like features and visual elements to the platform as the world awaits a touchscreen-ready version of Apple’s desktop platform. Other new features include Game Center integration, AirPlay mirroring, enhanced iCloud support and a number of redesigned apps. A developer preview of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion will be released on Thursday and the updated OS will become available to end users this summer. Apple’s press release follows below and a beta of Messages for OS X can be downloaded immediately.

Apple Releases OS X Mountain Lion Developer Preview with Over 100 New Features

CUPERTINO, California—February 16, 2012—Apple® today released a developer preview of OS X® Mountain Lion, the ninth major release of the world’s most advanced operating system, which brings popular apps and features from iPad® to the Mac® and accelerates the pace of OS X innovation. Mountain Lion introduces Messages, Notes, Reminders and Game Center to the Mac, as well as Notification Center, Share Sheets, Twitter integration and AirPlay® Mirroring. Mountain Lion is the first OS X release built with iCloud® in mind for easy setup and integration with apps. The developer preview of Mountain Lion also introduces Gatekeeper, a revolutionary security feature that helps keep you safe from malicious software by giving you complete control over what apps are installed on your Mac. The preview release of Mountain Lion is available to Mac Developer Program members starting today. Mac users will be able to upgrade to Mountain Lion from the Mac App Store™ in late summer 2012.

“The Mac is on a roll, growing faster than the PC for 23 straight quarters, and with Mountain Lion things get even better,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “The developer preview of Mountain Lion comes just seven months after the incredibly successful release of Lion and sets a rapid pace of development for the world’s most advanced personal computer operating system.”

The developer preview of Mountain Lion features the all new Messages app which replaces iChat® and allows you to send unlimited messages, high-quality photos and videos directly from your Mac to another Mac or iOS device. Messages will continue to support AIM, Jabber, Yahoo! Messenger and Google Talk. Starting today Lion users can download a beta of Messages from www.apple.com, and the final version will be available with Mountain Lion. Reminders and Notes help you create and track your to-dos across all your devices. Game Center lets you personalize your Mac gaming experience, find new games and challenge friends to play live multiplayer games, whether they’re on a Mac, iPhone®, iPad or iPod touch®.

Mountain Lion presents notifications in an elegant new way, and Notification Center provides easy access to alerts from Mail, Calendar, Messages, Reminders, system updates and third party apps. System-wide Share Sheets make it easy to share links, photos and videos directly from Apple and third party apps. Twitter is integrated throughout Mountain Lion so you can sign on once and tweet directly from Safari®, Quick Look, Photo Booth®, Preview and third party apps. Mountain Lion also introduces AirPlay Mirroring, an easy way to wirelessly send a secure 720p video stream of what’s on your Mac to an HDTV using Apple TV®.

More than 100 million users have iCloud accounts, and Mountain Lion makes it easier than ever to set up iCloud and access documents across your devices. Mountain Lion uses your Apple ID to automatically set up Contacts, Mail, Calendar, Messages, FaceTime® and Find My Mac. The new iCloud Documents pushes any changes to all your devices so documents are always up to date, and a new API helps developers make document-based apps work with iCloud.

Gatekeeper is a revolutionary new security feature that gives you control over which apps can be downloaded and installed on your Mac. You can choose to install apps from any source, just as you do on a Mac today, or you can use the safer default setting to install apps from the Mac App Store, along with apps from developers that have a unique Developer ID from Apple. For maximum security, you can set Gatekeeper to only allow apps from the Mac App Store to be downloaded and installed.

Mountain Lion also has features specifically designed to support Chinese users, including significant enhancements to the Chinese input method and the option to select Baidu search in Safari. Mountain Lion makes it easy to set up Contacts, Mail and Calendar with top email service providers QQ, 126 and 163. Chinese users can also upload video via Share Sheets directly to leading video websites Youku and Tudou, and system-wide support for Sina weibo makes microblogging easy.

Hundreds of new APIs give developers access to new core technologies and enhanced features within OS X. The Game Kit APIs tap into the same services as Game Center on iOS, making it possible to create multiplayer games that work across Mac, iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. A new graphics infrastructure underpins OpenGL and OpenCL and implements GLKit, first introduced in iOS 5, to make it easier to create OpenGL apps. Using Core Animation in Cocoa apps is easier than ever, and new video APIs deliver modern 64-bit replacements for low-level QuickTime APIs. Enhanced Multi-Touch™ APIs give developers double-tap zoom support and access to the system-wide lookup gesture. Kernel ASLR improves security through enhanced mitigation against buffer overflow attacks.

Samsung and AT&T are getting ready to launch a new smartphone, superphone, phablet or whatever else you want to call it, and I picked one up earlier today. It’s the first time I have used or even held the device personally, and I really need to share some immediate thoughts even though a full review is forthcoming. This is a phone, after using it for a few hours, that feels like it is too big to be taken seriously. That’s the end of it. I don’t care if you like large screens on mobile devices, I don’t care if you love Android, and I don’t care if you love 4G LTE — this is a device fit for use only by such a small subset of the human population that I can’t fathom how AT&T and Samsung are putting so much marketing resources behind it. Check out images of the Galaxy Note in the gallery below, and the rest of my thoughts follow after the break.

The Galaxy Note essentially has everything you’d want in a smartphone: a great dual-core processor, a solid camera, a beautiful display and good build quality, and it runs on AT&T’s new 4G LTE network that delivers incredibly fast downloads speeds. Plus the battery seems actually decent so far, which is a triumph for modern smartphones.

Throw all of that right out the window.

The phone is too big. You will look stupid talking on it, people will laugh at you, and you’ll be unhappy if you buy it. I really can’t get around this, unfortunately, because Samsung pushed things way too far this time.

You can’t use it one-handed, and I can’t even type on it easily with two hands. I’m almost offended by this product, and I love a lot of what Samsung is doing — in fact, the company’s current flagship is my favorite Android smartphone in the world. But the Galaxy Note just feels like a joke. And the worst part? Look at the display and how it’s manufactured and designed. See any resemblances to anything else?

I feel like no one else is saying this, and since I’ve not ever been one to hold back what’s on my mind I absolutely will — enough is enough. I’ve had it with incremental updates to Android smartphones every two weeks, I’ve had it with the super-sized ridiculousness, and I’ve had it with all of these marketing gimmicks. Just focus on a quality product, and you won’t have to release eight “flagship” models a year.

But you have a stylus that comes with it, so I guess that makes up for any similarities with rival devices. Kind of like those lollipops you’d get at the dentist after someone just went Mike Tyson on your tooth.

HTC and AT&T took the wraps off of their latest device during an AT&T press conference on Monday, the HTC Titan II. The device is the first 4G LTE-enabled Windows Phone to be announced at the show but it won’t be the last — Nokia CEO Stephen Elop confirmed earlier on Monday that the Finnish vendor will unveil an LTE Windows Phone as well during its press conference. The Titan II is a fantastic first LTE device for Windows Phone fans, as long as the monstrous size isn’t a turn off. The phone sports the same 4.7-inch Super LCD display as its predecessor, but the build is much different. The unibody aluminum case from the Titan has been replaced by a soft-touch plastic — we liked the aluminum case a lot more so we’re definitely sorry to see it go — and the dark black color has been replaced by a light gray. The user experience is still among the best available; like the Titan, the Titan II is unbelievably responsive and smooth. Differences of note beyond the case are the embedded LTE radio, of course, and the 16-megapixel camera. Images taken with the camera were definitely impressive on the Titan’s display and on our MacBook Air, but we didn’t have an original Titan handy to compare photo quality. Where data speed is concerned, however, there was obviously no comparison. We’ll have more for you in our full review but in the meantime, be sure to check out our hands-on gallery below.

HTC’s unreleased Sense 3.5 UI has been shown off extensively ahead of its formal introduction thanks to Chinese-language website XDA.cn. Expected to be unveiled alongside the upcoming HTC Vigor and Bliss Android smartphones, Sense 3.5 will seemingly offer some great enhancements to the UI including new animations, a new side-mounted dock and a tweaked unlock mechanism. We have repeatedly called HTC’s Sense overlay the best such offering among Android vendors and as such, it’s nice to see HTC make some solid improvements in its upcoming new version. The full 5-minute preview video follows below.

[Via Droid Life]

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The first notebook model to run Google’s Chrome OS is now available for $499 through a private sale. Samsung’s Chromebook Series 5 notebook computer is currently a featured item on Gilt Men, a subsection of Gilt Groupe’s popular private sale website. Gilt’s sale began today and it runs until 9:00 a.m. Eastern on Friday. The Samsung Series 5 Chromebook features a 12.1-inch display, a dual-core Intel processor, Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity and an HD webcam, and it ships with a free sleeve as part of Gilt’s sale. Samsung will release the notebook to the general public on June 15th but Chromebooks purchased through the Gilt sale will be delivered between June 8th and June 14th.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in

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