The HTC Ruby is just as well endowed. A 4.3 inch qHD screen is on the front of the device with a fast 1.5GHz dual-core processor on board. The HTC Ruby is equipped with 1GB of RAM while the rear and front cameras come in at 8MP and 2MP respectively. Video is captured at 1080p. You can see that both handsets wouldn’t back down an inch in a battle between the two. Both will offer 4G connectivity through HSPA+ connectivity and T-Mobile customers updating to a new phone might have to pick one model over the other.

As if to make matters worse for those with T-Mobile accounts, a leaked screenshot of the carrier’s training material shows that both phones are expected to launch on October 26th. Two great handsets with similar high-end specs being released on the same day. Luckily for T-Mobile customers, they still have plenty of time to think it over. Which of these two Superphones would you select? Let us know by responding in the comment box below!

source: TmoNews

According to a leaked T-Mobile training document, both the HTC Ruby and the Samsung Hercules will launch on October 26th

Taking into consideration its $79.99 on-contract pricing right out of the gate is pretty nice on its own, it’s indeed more than reasonable for any budget out there, but T-Mobile is doing the handset a favor by dropping its price online only. If you’re seriously interested in picking this one up, then you’d better take a peek at T-Mobile’s web site because the handset is selling for free with a 2-year agreement. Yup, the limited time offer is available to both new and existing customers with qualified upgrades!

At that price point, there is absolutely no second guessing on buying it, but you’ll need to come down with a decision on picking it up since the deal is only valid until August 15th.
source: T-Mobile via TmoNews

Actually, LG says that they’ll be rolling it out some time today, but device owners would more than likely see it come in tomorrow – especially when it’s being rolled out in waves. Either way, it’s expected to arrive over the course of the next few days for the majority of people.

As we all know, Android 3.1 Honeycomb isn’t a dramatic upgrade, but rather, T-Mobile G-Slate owners will find the host of improvements to be more than satisfactory in the near term. In fact, it features some UI refinements, connectivity for USB accessories, the recent apps list is now scrollable to see all opened apps, certain core widgets are resizable, support for external keyboard, and some updates to some of the preloaded apps.

Taking into account that it was one of the very first Honeycomb tablets to arrive on the scene, the update surely did take some time to come to fruition, but it’s nonetheless nice to see it finally here.

source: LG via TmoNews

Angels chairman Dennis Kuhl says he sees plenty of possibilities to bring technology to the fans and that the club is just starting to see what they can do with the tablet rentals. In a statement, T-Mobile Southern California VP Darrin Silveria said that the carrier is always happy to bring unique offerings to T-Mobile customers. Of course, T-Mobile benefits from sales of the tablets that come from a fan’s experience trying it out at a game. Special apps are pre-loaded such as a radar gun to measure how fast a pitcher is throwing the ball. Out of town games can be streamed from ESPN and of course, the lifeblood of any baseball fan-statistics-can be found, updated during the game.

Other teams in various sports have used mobile apps to educate fans. For example, the Portland Timber soccer club joined with app developer Meridian on an app for both iOS and Android that shows you your seat and even gives you the words to team chants. Meridian is expected to soon announce a deal to provide apps for  the NFL Jacksonville Jaguars’ EverBank field. At Safeco Field in Seattle, Nintendo DS rentals are available for fans to try out the Nintendo Fan Network, but also can be used as a distraction between pitches.

Recently the L.A. Times did a video as part of a written piece on the tablet rentals at Angel games. You can check it out below. And while using a tablet at a baseball game can come in handy for figuring out up to date batting averages and era figures, perhaps the best use of the device is as a shield when a foul ball is screaming toward your face.

source: LATimes via AllThingsD

Seeing that it’s part of their 48 hour sale, the T-Mobile Sidekick 4G can be picked up for the price of free through T-Mobile’s web site – but of course, you’ll need to digitally sign a 2-year agreement to get it at that price. However, it’s worth noting that this astonishing deal is only available until tomorrow; August 9th. In addition, the ridiculous temporary pricing is available to upgrade customers as well!
So there you have it folks, you need to think fast on your feet with this one before it flies by you. Well, if you’re  not down with signing contracts, you’ll be faced with having to pay $399.99 to pick it up outright – so doesn’t that contract pricing look mightily alluring?

source: T-Mobile via TmoNews

The HTC Ruby is another Android model coming to T-Mobile. Lack of a genius button tells us that this will not be a ‘myTouch’ model. Without any hint of what the specs will be, we can’t file this as being a low-end or high-end model. Originally known also as the HTC Arrive, the Ruby actually started life as a Windows Phone 7 model as we reported back in January. Last month, leaked photos allowed us to say that the phone has a camera with dual LED flash and a 3.5mm audio jack, not the most important specs that you need to know about when picking a handset to buy. Four days later, we were able to tell you that the HTC Ruby is an Android flavored model. Unfortunately, that is where things still remain.

It is hard for T-Mobile customers to concentrate on anything right now besides the Samsung Hercules. And while the LG Flip II does have that unique screen that cuts the slide out landscape QWERTY in half, it will take more than a unique design to upstage the Samsung Galaxy S II. And as far as the HTC Ruby is concerned, it could be anything from a low-end budget special to a high-end Superphone. Right now it is Hercules who will be doing the heavy lifting for the carrier.

source: Pocketnow (HTC Ruby), TmoNews (LG Flip II)

The HTC Ruby

The LG Flip II

What makes T-Mobile customers smile is the larger 4.5 inch display on the Hercules. Touchwiz is running over Android and a source for Tmo News says that not only is the phone “fast, fast and fast”, the calendar, messaging and email apps are “amazing” and beat what is available on stock Android. Those who love to use their handsets for streaming movies will be happy to know that Netflix is pre-installed and apparently is working great.

So instead of feeling sorry for T-Mobile customers, you might end up envious of them, although to be fair, we haven’t really seen what the other carriers’ version of the Samsung Galaxy S II will look like completely.

source: TmoNews, Pocketnow

An 8MP camera on back captures video at 1080p and a 2MP front facing camera takes self-portraits and can be used for video chat. 16GB of storage can be expanded to as much as 48GB with a microSD card and the phone is NFC enabled. Android 2.3 is pre-installed. As both T-Mobile and Telus have different 3G bands, the Samsung Hercules is expected to be rolled out with T-Mobile’s AWS bands along with the more “standard” 850/1900MHz frequencies. All Telus will have to do is take an eraser to the T-Mobile name and write “Telus” over the empty space.

With a late September launch penciled in for the Samsung Hercules, it’s interesting that the carrier that at first seemed to be left out of the Samsung Galaxy S II sweepstakes in the States, might end up with a variant pushing some of the highest of high-end specs. For example, as we reported, the Hercules is expected to have 42Mbps connectivity.

source: MobileSyrup

The Samsung Hercules is T-Mobile and Telus' variant of the Samsung Galaxy S II

Fortunately, T-Mobile is already working hard on resolving the issue, and you are also invited to provide your feedback, if you wish. On its support web page, the carrier has started a thread where users are free to describe the symptoms that their T-Mobile G2 is experiencing in an effort to provide a solution in the shortest time possible.

Reading through the posts we noticed that switching the smartphone to 2G-only mode has worked for some G2 owners. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be neither a universal nor a practical solution. Others say that it was the G2’s recent Gingerbread update is to blame, yet the majority of users confirm that they have been having battery problems even before the new software version rolled out.

If you are a T-Mobile G2 owner yourself, feel free to hit the source link below and help getting that problem solved soon.

source: T-Mobile via Electronista

If your HTC Sensation is acting up as well, then welcome to the club. As a matter of fact, a lot of Sensation owners are reporting issues with their smartphone’s display, which becomes unresponsive after about a week of use and fails to register swipes most of the time. There is a pretty long thread over at XDA Developers (69 pages and counting) where the problem has been described thoroughly, yet a universal solution has yet to be arrived at. Some say that the device’s stock charger is to blame while others think that a build-up of static electricity causes all the troubles, but the thing is that nobody can tell for sure.

When users tried contacting HTC for advice, the company’s support team did not provide any kind of solution beyond performing a factory reset of the device, which doesn’t seem to do the trick. Reportedly, replacing the smartphone with a brand new unit does not help either as those who tried that were facing the same problems in only about a week’s time.

If you are an HTC Sensation owner yourself, drop a comment below and let us know whether your smartphone is affected as well. Spreading awareness of the problem might just be what it takes for HTC to come up with a solution in a timely manner.

Thanks, Mihai!

source: Android Police, XDA-Developers