Mighty Gadget Blog: The latest technology news & reviews in the UK

Engadget have been lucky enough to get some hands on time with the Zune HD following the exclusive demo that Steve Ballmer carried out.

The device is only a pre-production model however Engadget didn't notice a single hiccup while jumping through menus or playing back HD video.

They found the OLED screen to be absolutely stunning with colours being bright, edges crisp, and text clear.

The UI is an extension of the existing Zune interface, but way tricked out in this version, with lots of flipping images, scaling text, smooth scrolling, and an extreme emphasis on simple visual navigation.

More images and a video after the jump.

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Spotify is absolutely huge in the UK at the moment and the release of a mobile application is inevitable. It is almost a given that Spotify will release on the iPhone however it appears that Android has beaten the iPhone in developing the Spotify application.

The official Spotify Android app has been demoed for the first time at Google’s I/O event in San Francisco yesterday. You can see Spotify running on Android in the below video, and while it is still a work in progress it does appear to be functioning quite well.

The Spotify Android app will work over 3G, and it will also cache songs you request so you can listen when you’re out of signal too.

It will also work with the Spotify desktop client, letting you drag and drop tracks for preloading.

There has been a lot of rumours flying around about the Zune HD in the recent weeks, and it has now been officially announced.

So far the specs are a little sketchy but Microsoft have revealed that the Zune HD will include a 3.3-inch, 480 x 272 OLED capacitive touchscreen display, built-in HD Radio receiver, HD output (utilizing a new dock -- not on-board).

However the specs do conform to the leaked specifications a few weeks ago which includes:

• NVIDIA Tegra processor/gpu
• 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB versions
• HDMI Connection to stream straight to your TV
• HD Radio.
• Web Browser.
• WiFi compatible, with wireless marketplace.
• Released, early fall.
• International Release
• Home AV packs, Car packs, Charge packs.

Microsoft are getting rind of the squircle in favour a full multitouch device and they have suggested that some new touch-friendly apps and games would be released.

The device will boast an IE-based, customized browser, but little else was said in the way of software.

Zune integration is coming to the Xbox and Xbox Live, as the Zune marketplace will step in to replace the current Live video resources, expanding the library and offering all kinds of new perks.

It is also believed that the Zune will be released internationally!

Press release after the jump

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While Symbian S60 phones may not be quite as exciting as the likes of the Pre or iPhone they can still be great phones.

The Samsung i8910 HD is arguably the pick of the litter when it comes down to S60 with its massive 3.7” 640 x 360 capacitive touchscreen AMOLED screen, an 8 megapixel camera, an S60-specific implementation of TouchWiz with 3D enhancements, and HSUPA.

So if you can’t wait for the iPhone, Pre or maybe even Microsoft Pink then this could fit the bill perfectly.

It is currently available on Orange and costs £97.50 on a 18 month £34.25 plan

LG has released the BD390 which is the world’s first DivX HD 1080p certified player. It was debuted at CES this year and features an 802.11n Wi-Fi module and support for DivX streaming from a DLNA server. Priced at $399.95, the LG BD390 also features BD-Live support, a 7.1-channel audio output, a 1GB of built-in memory, and a USB 2.0 socket.

Great news for people living in the US. It has been officially announced that the Palm Pre will be available on June 6th and will cost $199.99 after $100 mail-rebate and 2-year contract.

The phone will go on sale nationwide (US) at Sprint stores, Best Buy, Radio Shack, and select Wal-Mart stores. The Pre will be available under Sprint's Everything Data or Business Essentials with Messaging and Data plans.

Accessories include the optional $69.99 Touchstone charging dock kit that includes the $49.99 dock and $19.99 Pre back cover.

Quite a clever move by Palm as just 2 days later is the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference!

Now the question is when will us Brits get the Pre? I’m guessing it could be several more months as the US version is EVDO only so they need to release a separate GSM version!

Unfortunately this won’t likely be seen anywhere but Japan, but Sharpe a releasing the mirumo 934SH for SoftBank (Japanese Telecom company).

The 934SH features a 3-inch external display that can display time, date, weather, news but manages to only consume 5% five per cent of the power used by previous external displays.

Sharp is coining this display as "memory LCD" which makes it sound like E-Ink but according to one of the commenter's on Engadget, who apparently emailed the tip in, the display is actually OLED and the memory part comes from the fact the external display can only show one of 38 different screens at one time, and the hardware remembers which of those 38 you use most.

The phone also comes with an 8 megapixel camera, a waterproof shell, and a UV sensor.

Pretty impressive stuff.

CrackBerry Nation have managed to acquire some images of the up and coming Blackberry Storm 2.

Looking at the photos, you can see it shares its physical appearance with the original BlackBerry Storm.

Specific information about the Storm 2 is a little scarce however Slashgear reported that it will include Wi-Fi.

More images after the jump.

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