Cool Gadgets | Fun gadgets

Tired of waiting for Verizon and dissatisfied with a series of recent buggy leaks , the fine folks at XDA Developers were determined to trade their Cupcake-laden Droid Eris for a more toothsome Eclair on their own terms. Yesterday evening, it seems they finally achieved their goal, though not without a caveat or three

Read the original post:  Droid Eris rooted to 2.1, but look before you leap

We’ve already seen Visa team up with DeviceFidelity to deliver NFC payments via microSD card, and it looks like they now have some company from First Data and Tyfone, who have just announced a partnership of their own to help bring the technology to the cellphone-toting masses. At the heart of their system is Tyfone’s SideTap card made by NXP Semiconductors (pictured after the break), which is not only able to function as an actual memory card in addition ..read more

So we noticed this odd “Contoso” label on Microsoft’s Windows Phone Marketplace press image earlier today, and we finally got to the bottom of it: Microsoft’s Todd Biggs says it’s a placeholder entry for a carrier-branded section of the store — instead of having a separate portal and / or store, Verizon or AT&T or whoever can simply sell their content to customers directly through Marketplace. So why Contoso? Todd says it’s a random trademark owned by Microsoft used ..read more

Well, there they are, the only three confirmed Windows Phone 7 Series prototype devices that currently exist. From left, we have the new Samsung slate that debuted today , the just-for-demos unbranded Asus unit that was the star of MWC, and the LG slider that we got cozy with at the Engadget Show .

See original here: Three Windows Phone 7 Series devices, all in a row

Remember those old, allegedly leaked Windows Mobile 7 screen shots from way back in 2008? You know — those ones that look absolutely nothing like the so-called Metro UI that Windows Phone 7 Series is actually using? Well, Microsoft’s Albert Shum — one of WP7S’ chief designers who we had the pleasure of meeting back at MWC — just confirmed the accuracy of those leaks in a session here at MIX10 .

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