If you're a developer following our coverage of Windows Phone 7 and want to get on that gravy train as early as possible, you'll be happy to know that development hardware will be arriving "very soon." This apparently according to an unnamed Microsoft representative at a Norwegian developer event, where it was also made known that, upon the retail release of hardware, developers will be allowed to unlock five devices for their testing, although Microsoft will continue to make available pre-unlocked dev handsets after launch. Exactly what the unlocking procedure will look like remains to be seen, as does nature of these early developer-only handsets. MobileTechWorld speculates that LG's GW910 will be that handset, and since that company did provide us with the world's first official device running Windows Phone 7, we'd say that money is probably a safe bet.

[Thanks, Frank]

Windows Phone 7 devs said to be getting test hardware 'very soon' originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Jun 2010 09:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We've been running up and down the show floors here at Computex over the past week, and frankly, we're a bit overwhelmed. And exhausted. But mostly just stoked about chowing down on "fish legs" and "frog balls" at Taipei's own Windows 7-theme eatery. We've been covering the major hits right here on our front page, but our tremendous comrades over at Engadget Chinese have been blazing trails of their own. We all know you're looking for an excuse to brush up on your Chinese anyway, so why not dig in below to catch the best of the rest from a world-class group of folks? Enjoy... er, 享受.

• Samsung N127 running MeeGo
• ASUS CineVibe rumbling headphones hands-on
• MSI U160 netbook spotted with MeeGo
• Aiptek 3D digital photo frame
• Pint-sized HTPC remotes that Americans won't ever see
• Transformers love Computex, too
• Newman PhonePC telephone gets an AMD chip for reasons unknown

More Computex coverage from Engadget Chinese -- it's just a click away.

Computex 2010: the best of the rest from Engadget Chinese originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 06 Jun 2010 04:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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• WowWee’s Roboscooper picks up the stuff too big for your Roomba
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Over the years we’ve been pitched many thousands of times by startups. Sometimes those pitches are in person. Sometimes it’s over the phone, which works if you have a live website to play with. But all too often we get requests for meetings via WebEx or one of the dozens of competing products. Over the years those products have improved, but the percentage of failures is way too high. It’s always awkward when people are talking about what you would see if the meeting software worked.

The problems with these products are particularly frustrating when we put on a big launch event like TechCrunch Disrupt later this month. We schedule hundreds of live demos in a two week period, stacking them every 20 minutes for days on end. Companies can choose how they want to live screencast their software and demos, and we’ve informally tracked what software they choose and the failure rates.

Skype video, which now has screen sharing, now accounts for about 30% of all demos for us.

The failure rate is near zero and the lag is acceptable even for calls originating from thousands of miles away. It is hands down the easiest way to connect by screen and voice. And it’s completely free.

There are few bells and whistles. It’s only good for one computer to one computer communication, for example, and you can’t view the presenter and the demo at the same time. But the benefits are more than worth it. Just about everyone in the tech community already uses skype for calls and chat anyway. You click to initiate a call and share your entire screen or just a part of it, and you’re off and running. I wish everything on the Internet worked this well.

We are probably going to make Skype mandatory for our future events. The time and efficiency savings are substantial.

What amazes me most is that screen sharing is just a side feature for Skype. But that side feature is way better than the products released by companies that focus on virtual meetings and nothing more.

I like straightforward, reliable and easy to use products. Skype is doing all of that for us right now.

Also, I’ve been using Skype video nearly constantly since my move to Seattle for meetings with people in Silicon Valley that I used to do in person. When you go to full screen view it’s the closest thing to them sitting right in front of you that I’ve seen. Well, other than if they were actually sitting right in front of you. That would definitely be more real than Skype Video, I guess.

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Earlier today, at the insistence of a collation of media organizations including Wired and Cnet, a judge unsealed an affidavit the iPhone 4G leak case that has uncovered many more details about the case. The documents, which contain the affidavit of Detective Matthew Broad of the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office, affirm that it was Apple that sparked the police investigation, and offers a timeline of events leading up to the police raid of Gizmodo editor’s Jason Chen’s house. We’ve embedded the full document below, via Cnet.

In the documents, it’s revealed that Steve Jobs personally contacted Gizmodo about getting the phone back (Gizmodo responded that it wanted Apple to officially state that the phone was theirs). It also reveals that Apple has claimed that Gizmodo damaged the prototype iPhone during the course of taking it apart:

“Sewell said that upon returning to Apple, employees attempted to power the phone and found that it no longer functioned. Upon examining the phone, they found the following damage occurred to it as a result of the phone being disassembling[sic]:
1. Broken ribbon cable
2. One screw was inserted into the wrong location and caused an electrical short
3. Back plate snaps were broken.
4. Stripped Screws.”

At one point in the document, the story of how Gray Powell probably lost the phone is detailed (note that this supports the claims by Gizmodo that it was not actually stolen out of Gray Powell’s possession):

“Powell said he sat at the bar with his uncle. He said the last memory he had of the prototype phone was placing it in his bag, which he then put on the floor by his feet. Powell said that his bag was knocked over at one point in time and it was possible the prototype iPhone fell out of the bag onto the floor.

I asked Powell if it was possible that someone stole the prototype iPhone from his bag. He said he did leave his bag with his uncle at one point during the evening when he went to the bathroom and it was possible, although unlikely, that someone removed the prototype iPhone from his bag”.

But most interesting, at least on our first read-through of the documents, are the bizarre chain of events that took place as the investigation closed in on Brian Hogan and Thomas Warner — the two young men allegedly working together to sell the phone after Hogan found it in a bar. Police were allegedly tipped off about the involvement of the two men by their roommate, a woman named Katherine Martinson, who was concerned that she would be considered an accomplice to the young men because Hogan had used her computer to try syncing the iPhone 4G prototype.

“Orloff said that Witness Martinson contacted him due to the fact that Suspect Hogan connected the stolen iPhone to her computer and she believed that Apple would eventually trace the iPhone back to her via IP address. Therefore she contacted Apple in order to absolve herself of criminal responsibility…”

The documents allege that when Martinson tried to talk Hogan out of selling the iPhone because it would “ruin the carer of Robert ‘Gray’ Powell”, Hogan responded “Sucks for him. He lost his phone. Shouldn’t have lost his phone.”

The documents then go on to detail the night of April 21, when Hogan and Warner allegedly tried to hide evidence that tied them to the phone. It’s a bizarre tale. Warner, who had two outstanding misdemeanor warrants, allegedly tried to hide a laptop at a church, and after saying he didn’t know where a missing thumb drive and flash card were, said that they were hidden in a bush in Redwood City. Here are the passages describing the events of that night:

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