GOOGLE’S partners in China face financial ruin, but the web giant is unwilling to discuss options if it shuts down its search engine.

THE federal government declined to make public the $25 million NBN implementation study , saying it needed more time to review the report before deciding to release it.

ONLINE is the new front line in the security war, according to our primary electronic spy agency.

It’s no TouchFLO or SPB Mobile Shell, but it turns out you will be able theme Windows Phone 7 Series… a little. Although we’ve only ever seen the classy “dark” theme with the black background, Microsoft just demoed a “light” theme with dark text on a white background. Earth-shattering, we know. Both themes also have selectable accent colors, but don’t expect to go crazy here: your choices are red, orange, green and blue. We’re hoping all of these options will be expanded over time, but for now it’s not looking like a customizer’s dream come true.

Windows Phone 7 Series will have themes… sort of originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 23:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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THE federal government declined to make public the $25 million NBN implementation study , saying it needed more time to review the report before deciding to release it.

Whether for real or for show, Google tried to make the world believe it would use Android OS as a bargaining chip during the company’s terse, slow negotiations with China. Now, the company has seemingly abandoned that option. During an educational webcast about the future of Google’s mobile business, CFO Patrick Pichette told viewers that he expected the company’s Android platform to do well in China despite all the recent threats and ultimatums in the country. “The Android platform is available to everybody,” said Pichette, “and China is obviously another great market in which Android should flourish.” Good to hear that Google and China are finally in accordance, right? Thing is, with China circumventing Android’s default search engine, Google’s stance against Chinese censorship of search depended on taking Android handsets hostage. But if the OS is indeed available to everybody, that’s not going to happen. The mobile market might one day be dominated by Android, but if Google doesn’t step up, mobile search will go to competitors more willing to play wallball with the Great Firewall of China.

Google says Android should ‘flourish’ in China, effectively concedes a point originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 22:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We couldn’t shake the feeling that the mysterious Samsung-branded Windows Phone 7 Series device being passed around at MIX10 this week was just a warmed-over i8910 HD, and it turns out there’s a very good reason for that: Samsung says it is a warmed-over i8910 HD. Even crazier, TechRadar writes that its contact at Samsung basically pegged the stunt entirely on Microsoft, simply saying “they used the i8910 HD to demo Windows 7″ and that “this demo was a one-off.” The whole thing reeks of the original Zune, which began life as a Frankenstein’d Toshiba Gigabeat — but we don’t think this new trick is going to make it all the way to retail since the i8910 HD clocks in with 640 x 360 resolution (WP7S requires 800 x 480) and a processor that falls well short of the standard-issue 1GHz Snapdragon. At any rate, we’re trying to get the straight dope on this from Microsoft now that Samsung’s washed its hands of it and we’ll update you when we’ve got more.

Windows Phone 7 Series device from Samsung is just a hacked i8910 HD originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 21:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve heard it all before, but it’s always nice to get a modicum of legitimacy from an official source. T-Mobile has now officially announced the released details for the HTC HD2 — you know, that phone who’s cool factor has dropped a few Mega Fonzies since we confirmed once and for all it wasn’t getting a Windows Phone 7 upgrade. Look for it next Wednesday, March 24th, for just a penny under $200 on a two-year contract (and $450 without). Hey, at least this one’s definitely got copy and paste, right?

T-Mobile goes official with HTC HD2 launch details: March 24th for $199 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 20:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Intel’s six-core, twelve-threaded Core i7-980X Extreme Edition has turned the hardcore gaming community on its head, and just about everyone is scrounging around in a (mostly futile) attempt to locate $999. For those in dire need of an entire system replacement, it seems that today’s the day to start looking. Shortly after we heard that this 32nm Gulftown chip would be landing with Alienware and Origin PC rigs, a veritable plethora of other outfits have shown up to make similar announcements. Digital Storm has popped an overclocked (4.4GHz) version into its Black|OPS machine (which conveniently starts at $5,642, while CyberPower is now offering the silicon in its Black Mamba, Black Pearl and Gamer Xtreme 3D machines. Maingear’s also sliding said CPU into its world-beating Shift “supercomputer,” and anyone shopping a high-end Velocity Micro system will also see the option. We suspect most every other PC maker in existence will be following suit soon, so if your prefab PC builder hasn’t yet jumped on the bandwagon, just hold tight. Real tight.

Intel’s Core i7-980X Extreme Edition hits a slew of new gaming desktops originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 20:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft is having a good old time at MIX10, showing off all sorts of new things. New things like… Internet Explorer 9, which has just been previewed at the developer event, and here’s what we’ve gleaned about it so far. First off, as expected it will support HTML5 video, boast a new Microsoft JavaScript engine which is codenamed “Chakra,” and it’ll support new-fangled web technologies like CSS3 and SVG2. Microsoft says one of its main goals with IE9 is to provide a faster browsing experience — always good news — though they don’t have things cranked quite as high as the competition just yet (remember, this is still early). Preliminary ACID3 tests on the preview show the IE9 scores a 55/100 up from IE8’s dismal 20/100 — a huge leap forward no doubt, but still a far cry from Chrome and Safari’s scores of nearly 100. In both PCMag’s and ZDNet’s SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark test, the preview performed competitively as well. Microsoft has also confirmed that IE9 will not support Windows XP, but the preview Microsoft is showing off plays nice with Vista SP2 and higher, meaning the shipping version will probably do the same. No shockers there, really. Microsoft’s also made the first developer preview of Internet Explorer 9 available for download today — hit the source link to check that out.

Microsoft shows off Internet Explorer 9: says ‘yes’ to HTML5, ‘no’ to Windows XP originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 19:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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