Microsoft tapped Dell, HTC, LG, and Samsung to deliver the Snapdragon-based handsets with a carrier list that includes AT&T, T-Mobile USA, Vodafone, TELUS, América Móvil, Deutsche Telekom AG, Movistar, O2, Orange, SFR, SingTel, and Telstra. And that’s just for the first wave — Microsoft has even more handsets coming in 2011 including the first for Sprint and Verizon in the US. Here’s the lineup of 480 x 800 pixel (WVGA) phones announced today:

HTC 7 Surround — The 3.8-inch T8788 with slideout speaker for AT&T and Telus
HTC HD7 — Schubert comes of age as a 4.3-inch HD2 cousin for T-Mobile and beyond
HTC 7 Trophy — the 3.8-inch Spark headed to international carriers
HTC 7 Mozart — another heavily leaked int’l player with 3.7-inch display
Dell Venue Pro — 4.1-inch portrait QWERTY slider for T-Mobile we broke as Lightning
Samsung Focus — AT&T’s 4-inch Super AMOLED slate we broke as Cetus
Samsung Omnia 7 — the i8700 is a 4-inch Super AMOLED jobbie for Europe
LG Optimus 7/7Q — the E900 is the official 3.8-inch global workhorse
LG Quantum — AT&T’s 3.5-inch landscape slider first seen as the C900
HTC 7 Pro — a 3.6-inch QWERTY slider for Sprint (2011)

The new slate which Lazaridis described as “the first professional tablet” — will sport a 7-inch, 1024 x 600, capacitive multitouch display, a Cortex A9-based, dual-core 1GHz CPU, 1GB of RAM, and a 3 megapixel front-facing camera along with a 5 megapixel rear lens.The PlayBook will be capable of 1080p HD video, and comes equipped with an HDMI port as well as a microUSB jack, 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi, and Bluetooth 2.1. The device clocks in at a svelte 5.1- by 7.6-inches, is only 0.4-inches thick, and weighs just 400g.

In terms of interface, the OS looks like a mashup of webOS and the BlackBerry OS, even allowing for multitasking via what amounts to a “card” view. Interestingly, RIM and QNX boasted of the PlayBook’s multimedia and gaming functions, but Mike Lazaridis also described the tablet as “an amplified view of what’s already on your BlackBerry.” That’s due largely in part to a function of the tablet which allows you to siphon data off of your BlackBerry handset via Bluetooth tethering and display it on your PlayBook (a la the ill-fated Palm Foleo). While the PlayBook doesn’t seem to rely on phone content alone, the press release from the company says that users can “use their tablet and smartphone interchangeably without worrying about syncing or duplicating data.” RIM didn’t hand out any solid launch dates beyond “early 2011,” and of course, there was no mention of retail price.

New iPods
After rolling out multitasking and printing features for the iPad and a new video game service for all iOS devices, Apple CEO Steve Jobs dived into the company’s new lineup. First up was a refreshed iPod Shuffle. The iPod shuffle is both regressing and progressing as Apple is bringing back the click-wheel from the second generation shuffle, but keeping the VoiceOver playlists that everyone loved about the third generation shuffle. It’s teeny, holds 15 hours of battery and it comes in five colors. Available next week, it’s got 2GB of storage and it costs $49.

The iPod nano also got a major redesign. Apple ditched the video camera that they added just recently, completely took away the scrollwheel, made the screen smaller and added multitouch. This has 24 hours of battery and comes in seven different colors. It sells for $149 for the 8GB version, $179 for the 16GB. Again, it’ll be available from next week.

Last in the line of iPods is the iPod touch. This generation comes with the iPhone’s Retina display, offering 4X the number of pixels, the Apple A4 chip, 3-axis Gyro, iOS 4.1 and two cameras. The front-facing camera is for FaceTime, which allows users to video call with other iPhone and iPod touch owners. The back camera is capable of shooting HD video. Again, just like with the iPhone, you can edit and upload these videos directly from the iPod. It’s got a 40 hour battery life and it’s retailing for $229, $299, and $399 for the 8GB, 32GB and 64GB, respectively. Like the other two, it’s also available next week.

iTunes 10
Steve Jobs also revealed some details about iTunes 10, which is available for download starting today. The biggest change in iTunes 10 is Ping, a new social networking service that allows you to follow updates from friends and favorite musicians. Also added in to iTunes 10 is a space-saver that makes list-view look a little more colorful. If you have more than five songs from the same album, Apple will take the space from the repeated album name listing and use it to display that albums art work instead. For songs where you don’t have the complete album, iTunes will still display the name of the album where it always has.

Apple TV
This is the one a lot of people have been waiting for: A streaming TV service from Apple. Rumored to be called iTV, Apple has instead kept the Apple TV moniker and reinvented the old version. The company reduced the size of the device, so it’s now 75 percent smaller, and a cool graphite color instead of the old brushed silver.

Best Wishes,
The iFunia Team