Touch Cruise | // Pocket Picks //

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 HTCâ€™s aim of releasing different Touch devices that will find an audience among all consumers is slowly becoming a reality.

O2 has confirmed it’s carrying the new version of its xda Orbit called, imaginatively enough, the xda Orbit 2.

HTC’s poor old smartphones always have a schizophrenic approach to their names, and this is no exception. O2 is calling the device one thing, but you might know it as the HTC Polaris or HTC Touch Cruise. Of course, when other operators carry it, it’ll have another name as well.

Needless to say, all these different versions will have the same features. They’ll have the new TouchFLO controls, a 400Mhz processor, quad-band GSM as well as 3G/HSDPA, a three-megapixel camera and wi-fi. Oh, and of course, as a HTC device, you know it’ll run on Windows Mobile.

O2 will start selling the xda Orbit 2 from early next month with pre-installed TomTom GPS software and a 1GB microSD card. Now, you might think this’ll be expensive, right? Wrong. According to reports, it’s going to cost a mere €99 (£65-£70) on a contract.

It’s got more under the hood than and iPod and it’ll cost less than an iPod Nano let alone the iPhone. Now that’s a bargain.