Depending on your particular circumstance, you might not be able to contain yourself properly before the first Mango flavored smartphone is expected to make its debut in T-Mobile stores nationwide on November 2nd. Yes, it’s only a mere two days away, but if you’re somehow unable to travel to a store on that day, then you might want to check out T-Mobile’s web site right about now.

Well, that’s because the carrier just gave the thumbs up on selling the HTC Radar 4G – the very first Windows Phone with 4G HSPA+ connectivity to land in the US. On top of that, it has the distinguished title of also being the first Windows Phones to be sold with Mango on board. So for a cool $99.99 with a 2-year contract, you can place your order for the handset right now – with the hopes of it arriving on your front door come November 2nd thanks to free standard shipping.

Naturally, it’s definitely a good start for Windows Phone in general, especially when there hasn’t been much in terms of new offerings within the last few months – but then again, you might want to wait a little longer to see what else is coming up.
[PA]

Recommended for you:

Announced last month as HTC’s most affordable Android smartphone, the HTC Explorer is now available in the UK, where retailer Clove is offering it unlocked.

The Explorer costs £192 (about €219 or $307), and comes with Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread, Sense UI 3.5, a 3.2 inch HVGA display, HSDPA, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, GPS, Bluetooth 3.0, SRS sound enhancement, 3MP camera, 512MB of RAM, 600MHz Qualcomm processor, and MicroSD card support.

You can go here at Clove to buy the HTC Explorer.

The Explorer will also be sold by Vodafone and Three in the UK, obviously for free on select plans (although we don’t know when exactly the two networks will launch the smartphone).
[UWV]

ITG will launch its second-generation Windows-powered smartphone in 2012. Dubbed as the xpPhone 2, the smartphone features a QWERTY slider keyboard, a 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z530 processor, a 2GB of RAM, up to 112GB of SSD storage and a 4.3-inch display. Measuring 140mm x 73mm x 17.5mm, the ITG xpPhone 2 runs on the Windows 8 operating system. Its battery provides up to 18-hour of talk time or 46 days of standby time. Stay tuned for more updates.
[CP]

Samsung’s S Pen input won’t be limited to some pre-bundled apps as the phone manufacturer has confirmed to release the SDK soon. Expected in December, the SDK will allow third-party developers to take advantage of the S Pen functionality.

Meanwhile, to host these specific apps, Samsung will add a new category called S Choice in Samsung Apps. Some of the apps that are included in the new category are Zen Brush, OmniSketch, Soonr, iAnnotate PDF and ComicBook.
[SH]

Verizon and HTC should officially announce the new Rezound Android smartphone this Thursday, on November 3. As reported more than once until now, the Rezound will come with lots of high-end features, including a 4.3 inch screen with HD resolution (1280 x 720 pixels), and LTE connectivity.

Another nice feature of the Rezound, discovered thanks to the FCC, is its wireless charging capability. According to the FCC, the smartphone (model number PH98100) will have a wireless charging back cover.

Verizon could start selling the Rezound shortly after its announcement, namely on November 10, for $299 on contract.

All in all, Verizon users in need of a new smartphone will have several awesome options this November. In addition to the HTC Rezound, the largest US carrier will also launch the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and the Motorola Droid RAZR. Plus of course, you can also get the iPhone 4S (available since earlier this month).
[UWV]

HTC has announced the availability of the Raider LTE smartphone in Canada via Bell and Rogers. Powered by the Google Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread, the smartphone comes equipped with a 1.2GHz Qualcomm APQ8060 processor, a 1GB of RAM, a 4.5-inch qHD (960 x 540) display, Wi-Fi, GPS, SRS WOW HD surround sound, an 8-megapixel rear-facing digital camera with 1080p video recording and a 1.3MP front-facing camera for video calls. Priced at $149.99 with a 3-year contract agreement, the HTC Raider LTE also supports a Wi-Fi hotspot capability to share access to the web with multiple devices.
[CP]

HTC Raider 4G phone is released by Rogers. Offered with $150 prce aling with a 3-year contract, HTC Raider 4G or better known as HTC Holiday sport a 4.5-inch display with 960 x 540 pixels reolution. The phone arrive with Android 2.3.4 with HTC ense 3.0 and powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM and 16GB onboard storage. Its rear facing camera has 8MP resolution has LED flash and capable to record 1080p video while it’s front facing camera is a 1.3MP one.
Rogers is the first Canadian carrier which release Raider while Bell will release it “coming soon” and might be will ask for $170.
[LAM]

It looks like Verizon and LG have finally finished working on the Android 2.3 Gingerbread update for the LG Revolution. This, if you remember, is one of the first 4G LTE smartphones offered by Verizon, and it launched many months ago running Android 2.2 Froyo unfortunately. But Revolution owners are about to get their first taste of Gingerbread.

Verizon has already published all the relevant documentation about the update, and according to Android Police, the rollout has started today. The update is expected to have reached all the LG Revolution smartphones by the middle of next week. So this is a staggered rollout, but a pretty fast one. Needless to say, the update will come over-the-air and you can apply it without using a computer.

There’s not much that this update brings aside from the platform upgrade to Gingerbread. There are, however, many bug fixes and performance enhancements in there for your convenience. To check out the full list of what’s new, go through this PDF.

For detailed software update instructions, refer to this PDF. Oh, and happy updating!
[UWV]

Samsung is readying to launch the next version of its cheapest touchscreen phone – Champ 2. The Champ 2 now sports a revamped design and slightly upgraded specs like 2.4-inch QVGA touchscreen display with stylus pen support, 2MP camera, Bluetooth 3.0, music player, ChatON and IM support, FM Radio, 3.5mm headphone jack, Samsung Apps store support, 1000mAh battery and microSD card slot supporting up to 16GB.

No info on the price but considering original Champ’s low price, this would be priced on the same lines.
[SH]

Are you an HTC Android smartphone user on Sprint’s network? If yes, you are in for luck, as the mobile carrier is now rolling a certain software update to HTC Android smartphones on its list, in order to fix some nasty privacy issues for users.

Users of the smartphone on Sprint’s network often complained about a security issue that enabled malicious third-party apps to access all types of sensitive data and other user information. Now, Sprint is in the process of rectifying this issue. The update, which started rolling out since Tuesday, will automatically update itself on all HTC Android smartphones, but those of you who just cannot wait that long can manually install the same onto your smartphones.

HTC smartphones including the Wildfire, EVO 4G, EVO 3D, EVO Shift 4G, EVO View 4G and EVO Design 4G are already receiving over-the-air updates.

More Info on the Vulnerability

It was found that certain Web apps and ads could actually manage to access data such as phone numbers, user accounts, SMS data, location history and even a list of other user accounts. Other more sensitive data included network info, IP address of the user, list of installed apps, list of installed apps along with user ids and versions of the app and much more.

HTC stated that the software itself would not do much harm to consumer data, but that it was a vulnerability that could probably be exploited by malicious third-party apps. HTC also said that its other carriers have also started rolling out the same update ever since the last week.

To find out if the fix is installed on your device, you need to go to the Settings menu and tap About Phone> System Update> HTC Software Update.

Has your HTC phone gotten the update already? What is your experience of the same?
[NG]