Archive for 2007

Orange launches first no-touch interactive window for its retail stores

Orange launches first no-touch interactive window for its retail stores here in London’s Carnaby Street. Here’s their press release:

Orange today launches the UK’s first ‘no-touch’ interactive window in a Central London store. The window is activated when the shop is closed and enables passers-by to check news, watch music videos or film trailers, play Buff or Rough and interact with a wide range of content from the Orange World mobile portal. Users browse through menus and interact with content by simply waving their hands in front of the window.

The Orange shop at the junction of Great Marlborough Street and Carnaby Street was chosen to host the first interactive window because of its busy location that sees hundreds of tourists, shoppers and workers walk past every hour. In the future, further Orange shops in similar high footfall areas across the UK could be installed with interactive windows.

Justin Billingsley, Director of Brand Marketing, Orange UK said: “Our interactive windows are the first of their kind and are a new way for passers-by to see a whole world of content that our customers can access on their phones in a fun way. Initial trials have proved very popular and we’ll continue to innovate and find new ways to bring our shop windows to life and in time, install interactive windows in other similarly busy sites across the UK.”

Orange’s interactive window was developed by The Alternative. The window uses gesture-based technology to allow users to wave a hand and a projected image inside the store responds to the movement. With no interface such as a glove, mouse or keyboard, the Orange interactive window gives a tangible use on the high street to a future technology.

Posted By: Matt

[Post tag(s): smartphone blog, Pocket PC blog, Tracy & Matt, Orange]

HTC release Bluetooth fix for TyTN II, Touch and S710

You may recall that I spoke about problems with the Bluetooth implementation on the HTC TyTN II, specifically that it would not work properly with OEM Bluetooth car kits installed in some BMW’s and Jaguars. My personal experience of the problem meant that the speakers worked fine but no one could hear me via the microphone.

It seems that the problem was a little more widespread and that the HTC S710 and HTC Touch also had the same Bluetooth issues as the TyTN II. Fortunately HTC have come to the rescue and have released a fix in the form of a CAB file.

You’ll need to register and login to the HTC Eclub website to in order to download the update but the good news is that it wont wipe all your existing data!

Posted By: Matt

[Post tag(s): smartphone blog, Pocket PC blog, Tracy & Matt, HTC TyTN II, HTC S710, HTC Touch]

Toshiba G910 and G920 appear on FCC

The Toshiba G910 and G920 have both appeared on the FCC website. Saying ‘Both’ isn’t really that accurate though as they are essentially the same device. The only difference between the two is that the G910 has its integrated GPS disabled.

Toshiba G910/G920

There are several photos of the new devices on the FCC site but basically we are looking at a clamshell design with a full QWERTY keyboard, dual cameras for video calling, an external LCD display (that looks like it’s been stolen from a digital watch), Windows Mobile 6 Professional, Tri-band, WiFi and Bluetooth 2.

Toshiba G910/G920

If it genuinely is the case that the G910 and the G920 are the saem device I suspect that it would only be a matter of time before someone works out how to enable the latent GPS unit in the G910 and save everyone the expense of buying the G920.

Let’s hope that the final production units look a bit prettier than the ones shown on the FCC. The white circles on the front, which look to me like navigation and phone buttons, look terrible and the external LCD seems to be a bit of an after-thought.

Posted by: Matt

[Post tag(s): Tracy & Matt, Memory, Toshiba, SD cards, SCHC]

Orange report reveals explosion in mobile data usage

According to a recent report from Orange (the Digital Media Index) there has been a massive increase in mobile data usage over the past three months, quoting up to a 37% increase in some services.

The report, an excerpt of which you’ll find below, makes for some interesting reading. However it really does make me wonder why Orange can’t offer a truly unlimited data package to their customers? Surely by now Orange must realise the importance of mobile data, and their customers need to cap the cost of their access and not have to worry about a nasty surprise at the end of the month? How much longer must we wait for a (reasonably priced) unlimited data service?

The Digital Media Report:

Orange unveiled its second Digital Media Index, a detailed report examining trends in customer consumption of digital media. The Orange Digital Media Index reveals usage patterns across the full range of Orange’s entertainment and communications services, including home broadband, text and picture messaging, and mobile internet over a three month period.

Key findings from the Orange Digital Media Index include:

The Index shows that there has been an explosion in mobile data services, generating nearly 22% of network revenue in the last nine months. Rather than using mobile phones for just voice calls and text messaging, customers are increasingly exploring the mobile internet and using email and social networking sites to keep in touch.

Posted By: Matt

[Post tag(s): smartphone blog, Pocket PC blog, Tracy & Matt, Orange]

More HTC Shift delays

More bad news for those of us waiting for the HTC Shift, once again HTC have pushed back the launch date. We’ll now have to wait until the new year for HTC’s UMPC device.

HTC Shift

“High Tech Computer (HTC) has delayed volume shipments of its HTC Shift UMPC (ultra mobile PC) to January of 2008, instead of the third quarter of 2007 as originally planned, according to market sources. Problems related to the integration of HTC Shift’s hardware and software caused the delay, said the sources, noting that the Shift will run on both Microsoft’s Windows Vista and Windows Mobile.”

There’s still no official word from HTC as to when they will no release the Shift but it’s looking more like the end of January begining of February 2008.

Posted by: Matt

Quote courtesy of Digitimes.

[Post tag(s): smartphone news, Pocket PC news, Tracy & Matt, HTC, HTC Shift, Microsoft Communicator]

Polaroid Definia updated

You may recall that in our Polaroid Definia Review I mentioned that the power LED on the 37″ model I reviewed was rather too bright and that I found it annoyingly distracting.

When I raised this issue with Polaroid at the time they agreed with my comments and assured me that they would look in to the problem and see if there was anything that could be done during manufacturing to resolve the issue. While it was nice to have the accept it as an issue, I have to admit that I didn’t think anything would happen.

However, I got an email from Polaroid yesterday saying that they had been able to implement a fix and that all new Definia models being manufactured from now on would include a minor hardware update!

Definia LED control board

In the image above you can see the circuit board for the power indicator on the infrared receiver. Notice that there is now a black divider between the IR sensor and the power LED, to stop the light from the power LED bleeding out through the IR sensor on the front of the TV, and that the power LED itself (the white bit in the middle of the photo) is now a frosted white rather than clear.

I know this is just a simple fix but I’m sure this will greatly improve matters and I have to take my hat off to Polaroid for implementing a fix so quickly and for actually making the effort to do so in the first place. It’s very, very unsual for changes to be made to a product during the manufacturing stage and it just goes to prove how commited Polaroid must do to getting their product right and to giving the consumer the best experience possible.

Well done Polaroid!!

Review by: Matt

[Post tag(s): smartphone blog, Pocket PC blog, Tracy & Matt, Polaroid, Definia]