Announcements

Here we are in London at the Soho Hotel with HTC, and we are among the first to see their new Diamond handset. While we thought we may see three new products in three different form factors, HTC Prez and CEO Peter Chou led-off the event by mentioning that they would be launching just one product today. He peppered his intro by talking about the Touch, so we were prepared to see an update on that product utilizing their TouchFLO tech.

The device has some pretty nice interface tech that they’re calling TouchFLO 3D that heavily emphasizes one-touch browsing and single-finger dialing. They emphasized web accessibility, zoom-in navigation with “just one hand” and not too many fingers. As expected, the device is loaded with Windows Mobile 6.1, a VGA screen and HSDPA 7.2, among other nice specs.

Updates, specs, and pics after the break!

As expected, the Diamond is loaded with prettiness and specs, including (coming as we get them, so refresh for more):

• Windows Mobile 6.1
• VGA Screen
• Quad-band HSDPA 7.2
• One-touch navigation, including single-finger dialing
• An accelerometer that rotates pictures as you rotate the phone
• One-touch music playback with an animated music browser
• A heavily-animated weather forecast app
• Full-featured desktop-like web browser (Opera) with zoom-in tech that actually reformats to fit the screen upon zoom, although Microsoft promises IE 6 coming soon for it
• Youtube app and content playback
• Available in June in Europe via Orange and the “rest of the world” sometime later
• Orange music store, games, wallpapers, and ringtone downloads
• Orange mobile TV with up to 61 channels
• No normal headphone jack - gotta use HTC’s proprietary USB dongle
• “Better battery life” than their other devices (although it uses a smaller battery than the Touch - we’ll keep our eye on this) — will offer a bigger battery at a later time for those who are experiencing battery life issues
• No pricing info just yet

interface and more product shots in the gallery below.

Gallery: HTC TouchDiamond Launch

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You nominated, everybody voted, and the results are in. The winners of the 2007 Engadget Awards are…

 Gadget of the Year
Readers’ Choice: Apple iPhone

Worst Gadget of the Year
Readers’ Choice: Microsoft Vista*

Most Anticipated Gadget of 2008
Readers’ Choice: Apple iPhone (3G)

Cellphone of the Year
Readers’ Choice: Sony Ericsson K850

Smartphone of the Year
Readers’ Choice: Apple iPhone

Desktop of the Year
Readers’ Choice: Apple iMac

Digital Camera of the Year
Readers’ Choice: Nikon D3

Display of the Year
Readers’ Choice: Dell 3008WFP UltraSharp

Game Console of the Year
Readers’ Choice: Microsoft Xbox 360 Elite

Game Device of the Year
Readers’ Choice: NVIDIA 8800GT

GPS Device of the Year
Readers’ Choice: Garmin nuvi 770

Handheld of the Year
Readers’ Choice: Nokia N810

HDTV of the Year
Readers’ Choice: Sony XBR5 series LCDs

Home Entertainment Device of the Year
Readers’ Choice: TiVo HD

Laptop of the Year
Readers’ Choice: Apple MacBook Pro

Peripheral of the Year
Readers’ Choice: Apple thin aluminum keyboard

Portable Media Device of the Year
Readers’ Choice: Apple iPod touch

Robot of the Year
Readers’ Choice: Ugobe Pleo

Storage Device or Technology of the Year
Readers’ Choice: Eye-Fi WiFi SD card

Tablet PC of the Year
Readers’ Choice: Lenovo X61T

Wearable Device of the Year
Readers’ Choice: WiFi detector t-shirt

Wireless Device or Technology of the Year
Readers’ Choice: 802.11n Draft 2.0

 Gadget of the Year
Editors’ Choice: Apple iPhone

Worst Gadget of the Year
Editors’ Choice: Palm Foleo*

Most Anticipated Gadget of 2008
Editors’ Choice: Apple iPhone (3G)

Cellphone of the Year
Editors’ Choice: Sony Ericsson K850

Smartphone of the Year
Editors’ Choice: Apple iPhone

Desktop of the Year
Editors’ Choice: Apple iMac

Digital Camera of the Year
Editors’ Choice: Nikon D3

Display of the Year
Editors’ Choice: Dell 3008WFP UltraSharp

Game Console of the Year
Editors’ Choice: Microsoft Xbox 360 Elite

Game Device of the Year
Editors’ Choice: Harmonix Rock Band Ensemble

GPS Device of the Year
Editors’ Choice: Garmin nuvi 770

Handheld of the Year
Editors’ Choice: Amazon Kindle

HDTV of the Year
Editors’ Choice: Pioneer Kuro series plasmas

Home Entertainment Device of the Year
Editors’ Choice: TiVo HD

Laptop of the Year
Editors’ Choice: Dell XPS M1330

Peripheral of the Year
Editors’ Choice: ATI TV Wonder CableCARD tuner

Portable Media Device of the Year
Editors’ Choice: Apple iPod touch

Robot of the Year
Editors’ Choice: Ugobe Pleo

Storage Device or Technology of the Year
Editors’ Choice: Samsung 32 / 64GB SSDs

Tablet PC of the Year
Editors’ Choice: Dell Latitude XT

Wearable Device of the Year
Editors’ Choice: Phosphor E Ink watch

Wireless Device or Technology of the Year
Editors’ Choice: 802.11n Draft 2.0

Thanks again to everyone for nominating and voting in the Engadget Awards! We’ll see you in a while for 2008!

*As you may recall, while not really gadgets released in 2007, both Vista and the Foleo were included by popular demand as nominees for worst gadget of the year.

Companies wishing to place the award on their site or packaging should feel free to, but are asked to please contact us before doing so.

It’s been well over a year since our last big redesign, which in gadget time means our last design was unveiled circa original Walkman. So we’re freshening up the whole joint — all seven sites — with a brand new design. Oh, and we’re also adding an eighth site to the Engadget network: Switched!

Our latest addition, Switched will be dishing out features for those with a more casual interest in tech, as well as highlighting fresh, hand-picked tech news from our network of sister sites. So expect to see hot stories from Engadget classic, Mobile, HD, TUAW, and Download Squad running over there, as well as news from other geeky Weblogs, Inc. sites like Joystiq, Xbox 360 Fanboy, and Wii Fanboy.

As for Engadget’s new design, we went through and really cleaned up the joint, yanking out old modules and ads wherever possible. You might spot our new and improved photo gallery browsing and updated looks on things like comments and polls, but it’s hardest to miss the new rotating carousel over on the right. Keep an eye on that thing, it’s where we’ll be plugging in our biggest stories and must-see features.

Of course, launching eight sites at the same time is bound to cause a few problems, so please tap that first adopter attitude and bear with us as we squish bugs and tweak styles. And definitely hit us up in comments to let us know what you think (or if you see anything wonky)!

P.S. -Big ups to the gang that worked tirelessly to make this happen: Matt, Mark, Erik, Gavin, Celly, Alex, Christoph, Charlie, Marty, and the rest of the crew!

Jealous of all those Engadget commenters with avatars, leaving their mark in the boards with the greatest of ease? Just a reminder on how to edit your password, profile, and avatar: hit that link and be on your way to the commenter’s pleasure dome.

Alright iPhone nerds, it’s the eve of iPhone’s next big day. The SDK may or may not actually be released tomorrow, but we’ll finally find out what’s going on with it — and what those “exciting new enterprise features” are that Apple teased. Check back tomorrow (and feel free to leave your local time zone in comments), we’ll see you there!

08:00AM - Hawaii
10:00AM - Pacific
11:00AM - Mountain
12:00PM - Central
01:00PM - Eastern
06:00PM - London
07:00PM - Paris
09:00PM - Moscow
03:00AM - Tokyo (March 7th)

Where you need to be:
Live from Apple’s iPhone SDK press conference

We’re creeping up on the Oscars, which means it must also be time for you to vote in the 2007 Engadget Awards! Based on your nominations (and a couple of our own) we’ve compiled a list of over 150 gadgets and technologies that made 2007 the blockbuster year it was for consumer electronics.

Votes will be tallied until Saturday, March 1st; after we’ve checked for abuse we’ll publish the results alongside our own Editors’ Choice picks the following week. May the best gadgets win!

You know, this last week we closed up two contests where you’d have the chance to win an HDTV (among other things), but we were feeling a little magnanimous and decided to leave them open through this weekend. Just remember, you can enter both contests one time, but you can’t enter either contest more than once. Check out all the details and rules below:

Read - Win a Philips 42PFL5603D 42-inch 1080p HDTV
Read - Win an LCD HDTV, Xbox 360, and plenty of Old Spice

You heard right, we’re giving away a sexy new Philips HDTV over on Engadget HD. For your shot to take home a 42PFL5603D 42-incher of your own, head on over and drop a comment! Want to find out more about the set? Hit up Philips’s video here. Finally, don’t forget about the other HDTV Xbox 360 combo Old Spice contest we’re running, you can enter both.

It’s hard to think back to a time when Peter and I longed to do our very own cellphone-centric Engadget spinoff — those were the days that a 1GB microSD card was pretty impressive, HTC phones were frequently EDGE-only (the more things change…), and Ballmer was predicting $100 smartphones were still a year or two out. But exactly two years ago today we also finally launched Engadget Mobile, and it’s been a crazy amount of fun watching it grow into its own as the go-to place for handset news ever since. Much love to Chris, Sean, and the rest of our regular EngMob contributors — and, of course, the cellphone fanatics that keep coming back to feed their sick, wireless addiction.

At all interested in snagging a 32-inch LCD HDTV, Xbox 360, some console peripherals, and enough Old Spice to keep your roommates or significant other from kicking you to the curb for spending altogether too much time watching and playing with all that gear? Hit up Engadget HD, the contest you’re looking for is over there — and good luck.