End of the line for the HTC Surround

It appears as though one of the first Windows Phone 7 devices to grace AT&T has finally run its course as the HTC Surround has disappeared from the carrier’s site signaling that it may have been discontinued.

The HTC Surround was released on November 8, 2010 along with fellow Windows Phone handset the Samsung Focus. A day later, the QWERTY packing LG Quantum hit the shelves. It is not official that the HTC Surround has been discontinued but a simple search on AT&T’s website is returned with a grim message that the item is no longer available.

With its sliding Dolby Mobile speaker, the HTC Surround is a unique device. It features a 3.8-inch LCD display and was powered by a 1GHz processor. On the back of the Surround is a 5 megapixel camera that can record video in 720p HD. In addition to the sliding speaker it had a kickstand to make video watching easier.

Even though the end of the HTC Surround means the beginning of the end of a generation of Windows Phone devices, its end should also help usher in the next generation of Windows powered smartphones. The Surround will be missed, but with phones like the HTC Titan and the Samsung Focus S around the corner the future of Windows devices for AT&T looks bright.

Stylish new Phone HTC Rhyme

HTC might not be officially saying it, but the Taiwanese company has just announced the release of an Android phone that is clearly marketed at women, or more specifically, teenage girls. The HTC Rhyme is a compact, purple Android phone with a 3.7in touchscreen, mid-range specifications and an optional accessory that most will cringe at: a "charm" that glows when you receive a call or text message.

The most prominent specifications include: 1GHz Scorpion processor, Adreno 205 GPU, and a Qualcomm MSM8255 chipset, 768 MB RAM, 4GB internal storage, and HTC Sense UI 3.5.

The design of the HTC Rhyme is a candy-bar style without a QWERTY keyboard. The touch-screen display is 3.7 inches large and has a 252 pixel per inch density (quite impressive)! The color is a somewhat off-purple metallic color. Additionally, there are four touch buttons at the bottom of the display, which is common with many Android smartphones.

Overall, the HTC Rhyme looks to have many common features you would expect to find in a new Android device, but it does not really have anything special over the current phones out there. This would be a great cell phone to get in a one or two year contract as you can probably save some money on the price. The HTC Rhyme release date is expected to some time in October.