HTC has come out swinging again with their newest smartphone the Hero. This is their third installment in their Google Android OS phones and this model will be running the v1.5 with a custom UI.
The HTC Sense focuses on customizing your phone. It offers a variety of widgets which can be added to multiple homescreens for easy and quick access. The UI can be designed the way you like it so you it can be customized to your own personal needs.
The model features an impressive list of hardware specs to like the following:
5 MP Camera with video recording
Digital Compass and GPS
Qualcomm MSM 7200A 528 MHz processor
Full touch screen with anti-fingerprint coating
There’s much more along with that. The model is scheduled to be released in the coming weeks.
Check out this hands on demo from Orange mobile in the UK.
Bill Shrink has done some handy work for all you smartphone shoppers out there and has laid out an easy to read comparison chart of some heavy hitting smartphones out there. The recently announced Apple iPhone 3G S, that phone’s supposed “killer,” the Palm Pre and then the quiet open source fighter, the Google Android running HTC G1.
The prices are surprising to say the least and they let you know what you might be getting into when you sign that contract. Check it out and be advised!
June may not officially be summer for everyone, but it is definitely the hot month for cellphones! With the Samsung i8190 Omnia HD and the Nokia N97 scheduled to hit the market in the coming week, the Apple Worldwide Developer’s Conference and Samsung’s Unpacking event, June is the month for smartphone madness.
Who is the newest to get into the chaos? Well, that is our favorite smartphone manufacturer HTC, that is. They are having a soirrée and it’s planned for June 24th. Like the brands above they are planning the release of a new model which will likely turn some heads. Only a year ago HTC was using similar promotional devices to launch the new Touch Diamond.
Most people are speculating that the device will be the new HTC Hero. This a model that will be running the new Google Android release, code named “Rosie.” We haven’t heard much solid rumor on this yet, but we we’re willing to put a penny on that one.
The “Rosie” beta build recently appeared on video being run off of an HTC G1. The interface looks impressive, although a bit stuttering at times. However once it is complete and running off of the Hero we imagine that it will look even better.
Here’s to June, the month that launched a thousand smartphones.
The Mozilla Project has been working on ‘Fennec’ for the past few months. Fennec is Mozilla’s first venture into mobile programs and the program has been announced to be compatible only for the HTC Touch Pro. (Although it appears the this initial version is able to run on many Windows Mobile VGA Phone) Just recently the first version of the Fennec has been released and is available to download. But can Fennec live up to Mozilla’s golden browsing child FireFox?
It appears not. While we have great faith in the brilliant people at Mozilla it appears that this pre-alpha release of Fennec doesn’t have much to offer. Or rather nothing to offer. Initial testings on Touch Pros and other devices have rendered practically no results. It appears that the rendering engine is not functioning and very little, if any, connectivity was available.
This is disappointing to say the least, but at this point we’re still going give Mozilla the benefit of the doubt. This by no means a complete release. And in the past they’ve made some great product, perhaps you’re using some of it right now. So our hope is that in the coming weeks the updates are going to flow in and hopefully a more official release will be available to mobile users out there.
Have you had any experiences with the program? Any successes or failures? Let us know what’s happening.
Starting February 24 you will stop complaining every time you need your phone’s GPS support with your way back home. TeleNav is officially launching its GPS navigation for the Android-powered device, bringing real-time turn-by-turn, full color 3D graphics, speech recognition, one-click rerouting, and traffic alerts, as well as weather updates, gas prices, and restaurant reviews. The service will launch with a 30-day free trial, after which it’ll run you $9.99 a month.G1 users can go TeleNav’s Web site to to sign up for a 30-day free trial of the service
HTC Touch Pro users are going to have something to be happy about in the first week of February. The folks at Mozilla have announced that they are planning to launch the mobile version of their FireFox browser, hopefully by next week.
The browser is named Fennec (a small fox found in Northern Africa, get it?) and will be made exclusively available for the HTC Touch Pro. Now that may be a bit of a disappointment to other Windows Mobile users who are a bit fed up with the Pocket IE browser, but we imagine that a more widely slated release that will have it running more universally isn’t far behind. If not, the regular team of software twiddlers out there will most likely have it running on other HTC devices in a less official manner in no time.
Mozilla made waves in the browser market by taking a large chunk of userdom from Internet Explorer and it is often praised for its speed and less spyish activities. If they are able to work out all the bugs with this initial release, we may have a much more pleasant time surfing the web from our handhelds.
Would you reconsider a Windows Mobile device if it meant you could surf the web with a FireFox based browser? Let us know!
A large amount HTC G1 users have been hit with a corrupt application called MemoryUP. The program makes claims that it will clean up your memory and improve the processing speed on your device. However, when users started the app a variety of problems started occurring.
Some users complained of all of their contacts being deleted, others were instantly spammed along with the addresses on their contact lists. Others experienced complete memory loss as well as SD cards being cleared away as well.
T-Mobile has not yet commented on the app as they are not affiliated with it, but this doesn’t satisfy the estimated 10,000 to 50,000 users who fell victim to this bunk application.
So beware and tell your friends to avoid this application. You should also be aware the the Java in the phone and the actual construction of the Android OS does not require any assistance in cleaning up memory in the device. This will be done automatically.
It leaves us to question the possible advantages of open source software mixing with commercial devices. Are you rethinking your mobile choices considering the possibility of these dangerapps out there?
HTC has recently announced the release of a new handset. The HTC Touch Cruise 09 - an update on the previous Touch Cruise model - is scheduled to be released sometime this year.
This new model is a GPS heavy phone featuring an Advanced Navigation system and the new feature of HTC Footprints. This new features allows you to mark specific locations with photos, videos and even audio clips. So when flipping back through your day you can trace your steps with multiple mean of data. This is geo-tagging to the max.
In addition to this new GPS feature the model also can be used as a navigator for car rides, as it is reported to include a car cradle in the packaging. This will give turn by turn directions and get you to your destination quickly and safely.
Other features include a large 2.8″ display with TouchFLO UI and also the Qualcomm® MSM7225™, 528 MHz chip.
This is another strong addition to HTC’s already stellar line of smartphones. The GPS features, full touch screen and slim and sleek design of the phone will definitely make this model an attractive purchase for anyone looking to step into the smartphone market.
The Global Economic Slowdown has been hitting almost everyone hard in the last few months, but one company that didn’t seem to get the memo is HTC.
The sales of HTC made for revenues of US $528.57 million in November, which marks a 22.1% increase for the year and a 10.8% jump from last month’s sales. The boost in sales is being attributed to such popular models as the HTC Touch Diamond and also the HTC G1, the first device touting the Google Android mobile OS.
With sales like these the High Tech Computer company should have no problems reaching their stated revenue goal of NT$48 billion (Roughly $1.4 billlion USD) for the fourth quarter.
HTC has been on a rampage lately release such heavy hitters as the Touch Diamond, Touch HD, Touch Pro and also the G1. With such advanced devices catering to some of the more high end/high tech users it isn’t surprising their success in such an unforgiving market right now.
It may be still a little presumptuous to jump on board the HTC train, but with numbers like this it is hard to resist not trying to pick up some stock.
It was recently announced that Google is launching a new exclusively smartphone AdWords feature for businesses wishing to advertise products and services with Google. This service is geared towards mainly the G1 which features the Google and Android OS and also the Apple iPhone 3G. Google ads on the iPhone? Talk about ubiquity!
Although this is geared towards those phones mentioned above this service is going to function on any smartphone that is using a full fledged HTML browser. This is going to be useful for advertisers getting a grip on that new internet crowd who have become cyber-aware recently through their smartphone purchases.
Although to the user this isn’t going to mean much more than a few extra ads on your browser, for us on the consumer end we are hoping that this will ultimately lead to lower costs of phones and services as there will be much more ad revenue coming just from people using their phone.
How do you guys feel about it? Do you want less ads, or do you think this may lead to better and cheaper service in the long run? Shout out how you feel!
