HTC EVO 4Gs flooding into Best Buys, some Radio Shacks opening at 6AM on Friday

EVO fever -- have you caught it? Things are seriously starting to ramp up in preparation for Friday's festivities, the day that Sprint's EVO 4G hits shelves (though most will likely be sold before they even touch a shelf, truth be told). Radio Shack hit us up with the knowledge earlier today that it'll be opening some locations as early as 6AM -- and what's more, they claim to have "specifically set aside" some units for folks who didn't pre-order, so that might be your best chance. We're also getting a bunch of shots from tipsters who say their Best Buy locations have started taking delivery of the retail units, so at least you'll know they'll be in stock on Friday -- but for how long is another question altogether.

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'Black' HTC Desire comes to Orange UK, sells out in a flash

We'll be perfectly honest with you: we're not seeing what's "black" about the front of the Desire that Orange UK is now selling, but it insists that the phone is indeed devoid of color; we suspect they're actually just referring to the back, for which the description seems more accurate -- but that would make it no different than any other Desire being sold around the world. What does that mean? Basically, we think it means these guys need to get their eyesight checked. Spec-wise, this is the same Desire you'll find elsewhere... if you can find it, that is -- it sold out in short order on Orange's site since its launch a few days ago, no doubt a side effect of the customer euphoria caused by the realization that they can get a 1GHz Snapdragon running Android 2.1 with Sense on a WVGA display for free on contract. In the meantime, you might want to sniff around stores.

Update: Turns out the real, actual, live Orange-branded Desire is black, despite the imagery on Orange's site. We're working on pictures -- stay tuned. Thanks, everyone!

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T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide official: Android 2.1, QWERTY, coming in June (we go hands-on)

Hey, CLIQ, better check that rear-view mirror, because you've got an interesting competitor coming right up on your tail. T-Mobile is launching another midrange Android QWERTY slider -- some might argue the G1's true successor -- christened the myTouch 3G Slide (not quite the "myTouch Slide" we've been hearing for a few months) with a 3.4-inch HVGA display, 5 megapixel camera, and a pretty heavily-customized skin based on Android 2.1. How custom are we talking, exactly? Well, it's not quite like anything we've seen on a production Android device before, featuring a host of custom apps including the "Faves Gallery," a social aggregator for your most dearly beloved contacts; "myModes," a profile manager that can change the phone's themes and settings based on time or location; the Swype keyboard in place of Google's option; and the so-called "Genius Button," which seeks to extend Android's already decent voice command and text-to-speech systems by allowing you to do just about anything on the phone using your voice, hear messages read back to you, and so on. In the myTouch 3G tradition, the Slide will come in a selection of colors when it launches in June -- black, white, or red -- for a to-be-announced price. Check out T-Mobile's full press release along with our impressions of the device after the break

We had a chance to play around with the handset a bit, and there's quite a bit about it that's an improvement over previous T-Mobile Android offerings. For starters, the keyboard is actually quite good, and without having that annoying G1 chin to block your moves, typing seemed pretty natural. The UI is a bit like a mashup of Sense and stock Android, with a little featurephone thrown in for good measure -- it's clear the carrier wanted to make this welcoming to beginners, and it's mostly succeeded. One addition we liked was that your recent applications are now docked in the notification window, which makes getting back to business a little easier. There are also a handful of Sense widgets here (yay), and despite the lower resolution screen (boo), it did feel like a roomier experience than the previous myTouch. One other plus worth noting: the Genius Button and corresponding voice recognition (powered by Dragon Dictation) was some of the best we've played with, nailing complex text message dictation (including the word Engadget) on the first try. Honestly, it put Google's stock voice recognition to shame. On the downside, we're not sold on the styling of this phone -- it's a bit plasticky and over-styled -- and we suspect that the lack of a more modern CPU (the Slide has an older generation Qualcomm chip) is going to spell trouble just around the corner. Still, we're holding final judgment till we have a review unit in hand.

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Sense UI ROM available for Droid; is nothing sacred?

It seems that man's mad quest to unite Sense UI and Droid continue at breakneck speed. This next bit of evidence comes from the blurrycam of AllDroid forum member Greek35T, and befitting its status as an experimental Alpha release, there are a few hiccups. Data is available when 3G is enabled, but not voice (although a quick perusal of the forum has indicated that at least one user has had success placing 3G calls -- but none receiving them). Bluetooth is also out of the question, for the time being -- as is airplane mode and the GPS (although aGPS seems to be working fine). That said, you do get Flash (as a rousing game of Alien Attack demonstrates). See for yourself after the break -- or hit the source link to try it out for yourself. You know, if you're crazy like that.



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HTC EVO 4G vs. HD2 and Desire... fight!

Now that the excitement of the EVO 4G announce has finally worn off, it's time to get down to more practical matters -- in a street fight, would the WiMAX-powered beast hold its own against an HD2 and a Desire, for example? We had all three in a room just now, and here's what we've got to say:

* It feels significantly beefier than the HD2, but in reality, it's not -- it's just a single millimeter thicker. The brushed metal back of the HD2 is a little sexier, but just by the tiniest of margins; it's hard to argue with soft touch and a kickstand, obviously.
* We would've never noticed this without the Desire next to it, but the EVO's text is pretty huge, a side effect of the fact that it's running the same resolution on a screen 0.6 inches larger. It's not annoying, really, but it struck us that they could've comfortably fit quite a bit more information on the screen without getting cramped. The Desire's display is more vibrant, too, but that makes sense -- we're indoors under artificial lighting and the Desire has AMOLED on board.
* The EVO's got touch-sensitive buttons below the display that function much like the Nexus One's, but no worries: they work quite a bit better. We think this might be because there's more touch-sensitive bezel real estate below the keys; on the Nexus One, you've got to be far too accurate for comfort.
* Interestingly, this is the first EVO we've seen today with a silver earpiece grill -- Sprint's have been red. We've confirmed with HTC that production devices will be silver.

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How would you change HTC's Sense?

Microsoft's not going to allow HTC to cover Windows Phone 7 Series with its Sense UI overlay (which is going to be an interesting thing to watch in and of itself), but there's no question that the homegrown user interface has made a-many Windows Mobile phones look and feel a whole lot better than stock. Sense is also gaining traction in the Android realm, a sector where it's far more likely to either make a huge impact or be overlooked entirely. So, the question we're posing here today is this: if you were granted an HTC badge for a day, how would you change Sense? Are you satisfied with the quickness? Does anything simply get in the way? Any quirks that you just can't figure out? Any tweaks that you'd love to see made? We aren't always serious when we say that these companies are listening to you, but trust us when we say that design folks from HTC might just give your comments a once over. Here's your chance. Don't screw it up.

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