Archive for May 6th, 2008

HTC’s Offical Touch Diamond press release

Here we have the official preess release from HTC:

A NEW AGE FOR MOBILE PHONES BEGINS; HTC UNVEILS ‘TOUCH DIAMOND’

Debut brings breakthroughs in size, style connectivity and overall user experience, leaves compromise at the door.

LONDON — May 6, 2008 — Born from a unique heritage of innovation and a deep desire to blend design with simplicity, HTC Corp., a global leader in mobile phone innovation and design, today unveiled its new flagship phone, the HTC Touch Diamond. Delivering unmistakable style and meticulous craftsmanship the HTC Touch Diamond is defined by its compact size, game-changing Internet and its new captivating 3D touch interface called TouchFLO 3D. The result is an uncompromising mobile phone that sets a new benchmark for phone sophistication and shapes consumer expectations for how a phone can be used.

“Today we mark a new era in mobile phone evolution, an era where beauty and size integrate with uncompromising innovation at broadband speeds,” said Peter Chou, president and CEO, HTC Corp. “The HTC Touch Diamond will make browsing the Web and using Web-enabled applications just as practical and easy to use as making calls.”

A New Dimension To Touch

HTC has taken a great leap forward in touch screen innovation with the introduction of its new 3D touch interface called TouchFLO 3D. TouchFLO 3D provides animated access to people, messaging, email, photos, music, weather and more. In addition, HTC is introducing a new innovative touch-sensitive control for interacting with Touch Diamond.

Making The Mobile Internet Fun

With the introduction of the Touch Diamond, HTC delivers an entirely new mobile Internet experience that utilizes broadband-like speeds with HSDPA 7.2 Mbps and HSUPA wireless connectivity. Committed to improving Web browsing, HTC provides a new customized mobile Web browser that enables easy viewing and effortless navigation of Websites in the way they were designed. As part of this browsing experience users can zoom and pan Websites with one-hand and automatically view optimized content that has been specially created to fit the display. Turning the device sideways automatically rotates the web page view from a portrait to landscape view.

In addition to Web browsing, the Touch Diamond includes a customized new, HTC-developed, YouTube application for watching a variety of user generated video content as well as utilizing Google Maps for mobile for mapping and traffic data.

Unmatched Style and Size

The Touch Diamond is crafted with precision to fit comfortably in a user’s hand without compromising on features or functionality. Blending contrasting design elements of metal and unique geometric facets, the Touch Diamond complements a user’s personal style.

Bursting with Innovation

The Touch Diamond delivers an unrivalled combination of features and functionality that set a new standard for integrating mobile phone innovation into a small package. The 2.8 inch display provides near-print quality viewing that enables beautiful Web browsing and viewing of photographs. The built-in camera includes an optical auto-focus lens that ensures the photos you take will be clear and consistent. Advanced wireless and auto sensor screen pivoting are just a few of the features that make the Touch Diamond experience a stand out.

Availability

The HTC Touch Diamond™ will be available to customers across all major European carriers in June. It will be available later this quarter in Asia and the Middle East. The North American and Latin American versions of the Touch Diamond will be available in the second half of 2008.

“Our long-standing relationship with HTC meant they shared their phone concept and worked with us from the earliest stage. This early collaboration is important to us because at Orange, we know that the right multimedia experience is about more than just the phone,” said Olaf Swantee, EVP of Orange’s global mobile operations. “Our approach is to select and test the best phones and integrate our applications, combining them with access to the Orange World portal, the best tariffs, integrated billing, a user-friendly interface and excellent customer support. With the Touch Diamond from Orange we have created a unique phone which has taken advantage of our latest service innovation to build upon the consistently rich experience customers expect from Orange.”

Posted by: Matt

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

HTC Confirm the HTC Touch Diamond

As expected, HTC have launched the HTC Touch Diamond at today’s press conference. You can find all the details on the HTC site (they’ve just updated it) but I’m just editing and processing the photos and video of the event. These will be online shortly.

Lots of cool features in the device:

HTC Diamond vs TyTN II

Confirmed HTC Touch Diamond Specification:

Posted by: Matt

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

HTC press event coverage

Today HTC are holding a press conference in London where they will be announcing ‘something big’.

It is expected that the big announcement will involve their new HTC Diamond and Raphael handsets but there could well be some surprises along the way.

I’m on my way in to London now and the event starts at 11am. It’s rather a full programme with several activities scheduled with Peter Chou (CEO of HTC), Eric Lin (HTC’s Chief Designer) and John Wang (Chief Marketing Officer).

I’ll be posting news throughout the day and uploading video where possible. As HTC are allowing only one reprsentative from each publication, Paul (MoDaCo) and I will be working together and between us we hope to bring you the best possible coverage.

Fingers crossed we’ll be getting some hands-on time with new devices so please check back throughout the afternoon to see what we’ve found out!

Posted by: Matt

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