HTC reckons its new Touch Diamond smartphone is a possible iPhone killer (doesn’t every manufacturer say that about their new phones nowadays?). But you can judge for yourself by goggling at the video above, which HTC has released on YouTube.Well, judge as much as you can from a 26-second heavily-edited trailer, obviously…
Tag Archive for 'HTC'
Though we have been enjoying HTC’s handsets over here in Europe for a while, the company is still a relative unknown in the US among consumers hungry for the latest mobile thrills. With an Android handset on the horizon and plenty of other big plans between now and the end of the year, HTC is set to roll out a massive advertising campaign Stateside (as reported by gadget lab) to announce its presence. One of the first adverts has already surfaced in this rather charming ‘Set your fingers free’ video. Is it just us or do those ice skating hands look more graceful than the real thing? Hit play to find out what we are talking about.
Do you remember a while back, we came across a video on the BBC where Google showed off a ‘reference design’ handset running Android? Course you do. Well, the plot is officially thickening as phonemag is reporting that HTC has just announced May 6th as the date for a special event that will be held in London with the tagline “Witness the next wave of HTC Innovation”.
Why is this relevant to Android? Only because HTC has already committed to getting an Android phone into retailers by mid 2008. Here’s where things get really interesting; HTC has already announced a handset called the HTC Dream which is widely rumored to have all sorts of iPhone baiting features such as a full touchscreen interface and onscreen keyboard. The prototype phone demoed for the BBC had just such a design and considering the time frame, it’s not such a dramatic leap of imagination to consider the possibility that what was demoed to the BBC was in fact an early version of the HTC Dream.
Are we right on the money with this, or are we just dreaming (sorry couldn’t resist). Either way, we will be covering the event on May 6th so stay tuned for more info.
The convergence of mobile devices, data and navigation was one of the ongoing themes at the 2008 Mobile World Congress and Windows-based company HTC had its first public showing of its P3470 PDA phone.
A typical HTC product in terms of the excellent build quality and the homepage HTC Home Screen utility, the P3470 links in with TomTom Navigator map software. Its smooth scroll wheel is used together with the touchscreen to provide a solid user interface.
In terms of tech specs, the device runs Windows Mobile Professional 6 on a TI OMAP 850 processor running at 201.5MHz, and has 256MB of ROM and 128MB of RAM. There’s also a 2MP camera (with manual macro selection), Bluetooth 2.0 and a microSD card slot.
More photos after the break. Continue reading ‘HTC’s smooth TomTom touch-PDA, the P3470′
No, not Paul McCartney’s old band, O2 has got the latest HTC smartphone – the HTC Wings - and it’s out now.
The Wings (or HTC S730 to give it it’s product name) is basically an upgrade to the S710 (also on O2). But this doesn’t detract from it being a really attractive device.
The Windows Mobile 6.0 device has a complete suite of Office Mobile applications, letting you read and edit Word, Excel and PDF documents, and from the Live HTC Home screen, gives you instant access to email, calendar, messages and so on.
The slider has a full QWERTY keypad under the screen (as you’d expect from a HTC device these days), so you can type emails and send them quickly via the Wi-Fi/3G/HSDPA connection.
So what else has it got? Well, there’s stereo Bluetooth for relaxing with music when you’re not working, or you can watch videos on the 2.4-inch colour screen.
Devices like this might be a dime a dozen these days, but that doesn’t stop it being highly desirable if you’re a businessman (or woman) on the move…
PocketToolman is a system tray utility for Windows Mobile 6 that gives instant access to all your mobile’s settings.
Frankly, most users will find the level of control to be overkill - I mean, how many people regularly enable & disable their menu animations or increase the number of TCP retransmissions? How many people even know what that means?
If however you are one of those users who likes to fiddle with your phone to squeeze out every last drop of performance, this is ideal. All your phone’s settings can be accessed with just a few taps - rather than via a hunt through the control panel icons - and you can perform soft resets and manipulate running programs through a built-in taskmanager.
PocketToolman is freeware and is written with the HTC line of phones in mind, but most of its features apply to other Windows Mobile 6 phones too.
Orange has had HTC’s iPhone-lite Touch Plus for a while now – probably something to do with it having an exclusive deal? Anyway, T-Mobile’s jumping on the Touch bandwagon and has posted an HTC Touch Plus on its British site as ‘Coming Soon’.
While O2 has the iPhone market sewn up thanks to its deal with Apple, other operators have had to scramble around for alternatives and HTC’s nifty little device certainly fits the bill for people hankering after a touch-screen smartphone. Oh, and the HTC Touch Plus certainly won’t cost £270 AND a hefty 18-month contract!
Other ‘Coming Soon’ devices posted on T-Mobile’s site are the Nokia 1650 (Due February) and 8800 (January) and Sony Ericsson’s HSDPA-enabled Walkman phone, the W890i (Also due in February).
This is a slightly geeky story that’s currently only relevant to hacky types, but its implications mean it’s worth reporting. Some iPod Touch owners have discovered that the device’s audio input pins work, which means you can theoretically connect a microphone to it.
Why does this matter? Well, it opens the way for Voice-over-IP (VoIP) applications to be developed for the Touch at some point, allowing people to make calls over its Wi-Fi connection. This, of course, is some way in the future, once Apple has released the software development kit for iPhone and iPod Touch. And even then, it’s likely to be a bit fiddly.
Nevertheless, a voice-enabled iPod Touch could cannibalise some iPhone sales, although not enough to be a bona-fide threat to Apple’s handset. I do wonder why Apple hasn’t developed its own VoIP software for the Touch - or partnered with a big player like Skype. Perhaps that’s yet to come…
(via TUAW)
Online retailer Expansys has announced three new Sim-free E-Ten Windows Mobile 6 smartphones - the Glofish X600 (pictured), the X800 and the M800.
The X600 is the lowest-end device with GPS, GPRS and wi-fi in a small device measuring less than 10cmx15cm, coming in an eye-catching black and red design.
Meanwhile the X800 has HSDPA and GPS and is a bit larger than the X600. It also has a high-res 2.8-inch screen.
Finally, the M800 has a sliding QWERTY keypard, HSDPA, wi-fi and Bluetooth. It too has a 2.8-inch screen and built-in GPS.
Currently the X800 is available Sim-free for £369.95, while the other two devices are listed as ‘Coming Soon’ but are available for pre-order.
They’re all no doubt capable devices, but why would you want to spend up to £400 on a device when you can pick up an equivalent device like the HTC TyTN II for free on a contract?
HTC has officially announced the third device in its Touch range - the HTC Touch Cruise - which goes on sale this month.
The previous two - the HTC Touch and HTC Touch Dual - have been big hits for HTC. They were aimed at specific consumer segments, and now the HTC Touch Cruise is aimed at a different group again.
The Cruise is the first Touch device to include built-in GPS, as well as 3G/HSDPA, wif-fi and Bluetooth connectivity.
Other new features include the new HTC Home Screen providing one-touch access to messages, calendar and contacts as well as, for some reason, global weather reports. It also features Windows Mobile 6, TouchFLO controls, media player, three-megapixel camera, 128MB memory (plus microSD card slot) and FM radio.
The HTC Touch Cruise’s GPS software comes from TomTom offering either a taster city map, or the option to buy full maps covering all of Western Europe.
It seems HTC’s aim of releasing different Touch devices that will find an audience among all consumers is slowly becoming a reality.
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