Archive for May, 2009

By May 12, 2009 Read More →

Windows Mobile 7 minimum specs revealed

image Mary Jo Foley of ZD Net has managed to get another exclusive about Windows Mobile 7 and this time it is a list of minimum specifications for the new platform which we shall see from 2010. The good news is that Multi Touch and 3.5mm headset jacks are included in the list. It is great to see that Microsoft are producing these guidelines and hopefully this will ensure we do not see inferior devices trying to run Windows Mobile 7 and giving it a bad name. The full list is after the break, it makes interesting reading.

Posted in: Phones
By May 12, 2009 Read More →

Samsung i8910HD coming soon to Orange

image The Samsung i8910HD has appeared as coming soon on Orange’s UK website today. The i8910 which was previously called the Samsung Omnia HD is a Symbian S60 rel.5 phone and will be the first handset to offer HD video capture. You can see a video of the phone in action here

Some other highlights are the 8 megapixel camera, AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, HSDPA, 7.2Mbps, internal memory 8GB and WiFi.

Not sure if Orange have an exclusive on this handset or if it will be available on other carriers but we shall see.

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Posted in: Phones
By May 12, 2009 Read More →

Windows Mobile Marketplace Registration Open – Officially

image In the latest update to http://developer.windowsmobile.com, developers can now Register to participate in Windows Marketplace for Mobile. This marks another milestone in providing Windows Mobile Developers a clear path to develop, test, certify and distribute their Windows Mobile applications via the Windows® Marketplace for Mobile. Throughout the registration process, links to key documentation for distributing apps through Windows Marketplace for Mobile are provided.

Next steps for developers?

· REGISTER NOW. Developers can submit their complete profile information and take the first step in registration.

· Follow the Windows Mobile Developer team on Twitter @wmdev, Facebook and YouTube.

· Keep up to date via the Windows Mobile Team blog.

· And, stay informed with the latest development tools on the Windows Mobile Developer Center on MSDN.

via Windows Mobile Team Blog

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Posted in: Phones
By May 12, 2009 Read More →

O2 Targets Families with £6m Marketing Campaign

O2 is launching a £6m through-the-line marketing campaign handled by https://thelifestylemarketeer.co.uk to support its launch of three new products targeting the family segment of the UK market. The O2 Joggler, O2 Calendar and Your Family Bolt-on have all been designed to help family life run more smoothly and save families money.

The O2 Family campaign will go live on May 18th spanning television, cinema, print and online media. The campaign also incorporates experiential marketing and has a strong social media focus. If you are in to marketing for big brands, Make sure you’re not missing the different approaches to realtor marketing materials.

The creative, developed by VCCP, shows a kitchen scene where the fridge is the hub of family life, and features a family of animated fridge magnets. In the TV ad, stopframe animation is used to show the family organising their appointments using the O2 Joggler, demonstrating a new way to help family life run more smoothly.

Posted in: Phones
By May 12, 2009 Read More →

Vodafone to Redefine the Mobile Internet Experience

image Vodafone is to stimulate a new generation of mobile internet applications by providing internet service developers with a single point of access to Vodafone’s global customer base.

Developers will only need to create internet applications once in order to reach millions of Vodafone customers on any device and will be able to charge for it directly through Vodafone’s billing system. This will provide internet content partners, such as the media or game developers, with a cost-efficient and effective micro-payments system to reach all customers on mobile devices.

Vodafone will also provide partners and developers with customer controlled access to other network capabilities, such as location awareness, enabling them to create even more innovative mobile internet services and applications.

Posted in: Phones
By May 12, 2009 Read More →

HTC Touch 3G Revisited

Daniel reviewed the HTC Touch 3G back in February and had a lot of positive things to say about the phone. In fact, HTC phones seem to have a pretty good reputation and are becoming more and more popular these days.

3g_mainThe HTC Touch 3G – Exclusive to Orange

 

This review is being approached from a different angle as I’ve actually never used an HTC phone before or a Windows mobile OS. So, I’m going to give you my impressions and opinions of the Touch 3G from a first time user perspective.

Orange have kindly provided us with the handset that I am reviewing. The Touch 3G is exclusive to Orange and they offer this on both their Personal and Business plans.

For detailed specifications of the phone you can check out Matt’s unboxing video or Daniel’s review.

 

Highlights:

  • Compact and minimalist design
  • Easy to use
  • WIFI
  • TouchFLO interface

Lowlights:

  • Portrait screen – no Landscape setting except for when viewing pictures
  • Fixed focus camera
  • No camera light/flash

 

 

Review

I was really taken with the look of the Touch 3G. It has a minimalist design with only the call/hang up buttons and a D pad. The generously sized 2.8″ LCD screen doesn’t take away from the compact feel to the phone. The screen is completely flush with the rest of the phone which adds to the high quality look of the phone. It’s quite light for being such a high spec gadget yet still feels robust enough that it would stand up to constant use.

You can see from the photos on Daniel’s review the locations of the buttons and USB socket on the sides of the phone. Again, the minimalist design is followed here.

The Touch 3G is available in four different colours which you can see here.

HTC Touch 3G Colours 

OK – I think you get the point that I really like the look of the phone! Moving on, I was nicely surprised at the quality of the display with its QVGA resolution (320×240 pixels). Very clear and sharp.

As it was my first time really using a Windows Mobile device I was confused at what to do next! But it took all of about 5 seconds to figure out the ‘Start’ button (.obviously! Because it’s a Windows OS). All of the features of the phone can be accessed through this but there is also a quick menu bar along the bottom (or on the left side of the screen depending on which ‘homescreen’ you choose) of the screen which is very useful for all the applications or features used frequently. You can see this on the picture below. You can also add/remove the applications of the quick menu bar to suit your needs.

HTC Touch 3G display HTC Touch 3G screen view

 

Looking into the basics of the Touch 3G – making a call is simple and the sound quality is good. But the reason I really wanted to mention making calls on the phone are the on screen options provided. Once you have chosen the number to call and start calling you are then presented with the options to mute, place on hold, speaker phone, take a note, enter your contacts list and also add a call (for conference calls). I’m not saying that this is only available on the Touch 3G but remember – this is the first HTC phone I have tried!

Not all of the call features I have mentioned will be useful for people using the phone for personal use (e.g. add a call or hold) but will be great for business users. As I mentioned before, Orange are offering the phone on both personal and business plans. You will find the same call options on many phones but they aren’t always as easy to access without fiddling through menus.

 

HTC’s TouchFLO technology is great to use. Scrolling though menus has been made easy because of this and there’s no real need to use the stylus.

WIFI is available on the Touch 3G which is one of the upgrades from previous versions of the Touch. From going through the Start menu, settings and then the connections it is very easy to set up any WIFI connections. There is also 3G support of course (did the name give that away?!). For web browsing the default browser provided is Opera version 9.5 and there is also Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 7.

Unfortunately there’s nothing to really write home about on the web browsing side of things. It’s not bad though. It’s fast enough, but some improvements could be made to make the experience better. Such as, the option to view in landscape mode. As far as I’m aware, only pictures and video can be viewed in landscape mode.

 

I find messaging on the phone great to use. The whole Windows Mobile layout of previous messages shown as ‘Conversations’ was a bit strange to me at first but I easily got used to it. I’m not keen on touch screen QWERTY keyboards but there is the option to use one. I would recommend using the stylus for this though as it’s pretty small. Especially as you can only use it in portrait mode. But don’t let this put you off! There are also other input methods to choose from such as a compact QWERTY, letter recogniser and a few others. But of course, for those like me who are used to the Symbian OS, the phone style input is also available. It’s also large enough on the screen to be able to text away without the use of the stylus.

Email support for POP3/IMAP and Microsoft’s Direct Push for Exchange server email is provided on the phone and is easy to set-up and use. There is also GPS built in on the phone which can be used in conjunction with the preinstalled Orange Maps. Mind you, after seeing that the GPS has correctly located where you are on map and you’ve had a look at a few places you know, the novelty wears off quite quickly! But, you can make the GPS more useful to you by purchasing satellite navigation software which Orange offers.

 

I was somewhat disappointed with the camera on the Touch 3G. It has an 3.2mp camera which is average and on many phones you can take a decent picture with this.

3g_back HTC Touch 3G – camera view

For some reason HTC have decided to place a fixed focus camera on the handset. There is also no light or flash. And to make matters worse there doesn’t seem to be a night mode! So to sum the camera up – yes, you can take decent photo with it but just as long as you are in good lighting.

It seems the Touch 3G wasn’t designed with picture taking a main highlight but the sheer amount of applications and features makes up for this I guess.

 

If I went though all of the applications on the phone I would be here forever, so I leave you with one more. The music player.

The phone comes with Windows Media Player which most people will be familiar with. Easy to use and looks pretty good. There is also a standard ‘Audio Manager’ to listen to music an sort your music out with. The earphones provided with the phone are pretty standard but do the trick and also have the added benefit of volume control on them.

Daniel mentioned that the backlight stays on when playing music. This is very true, for the playing back music from the Audio Manager. Some may not like this as it will drain the battery a bit faster, but another way to look at it is that you don’t have to find the unlock button on the top every time you want to change a track. However, to save a bit of battery power you can use Windows Media Player where the backlight will dim.

 

Conclusion:

The HTC Touch 3G is a great looking phone which is absolutely packed with features. As I mentioned, I haven’t really used any HTC or Windows Mobile OS phones before and I found it to be pretty easy to get used to after only a short time using the phone. 

Yes, I was a bit disappointed with the camera, but to be honest I found that all of the features and applications provided would still make the phone a worthy purchase. Just a point to remember if a camera phone is what you are looking for.

One main improvement that the Touch 3G could do with is being able to use applications in landscape mode but I would still consider this phone the next time I upgrade my own.

 

 

Reviewed by: Emma

Posted in: Reviews
By May 12, 2009 Read More →

Speak2Me for iPhone released

With use of the 21st century technology we are scanning Apple store every day for the newly released apps – so that you don’t have to. We will be picking some newly released apps and reporting about them. While we can’t report about all of them – it is literally several hundreds new apps a week – we can cherry-pick some that seem interesting.

Here we are presenting Speak2Me for iPhone that looks like that:

Posted in: Phones
By May 11, 2009 Read More →

Android growing rapidly

image Google’s Android operating system is gaining support in the mobile industry, with 8 million Android phones to be sold in 2009, up 10-fold from a year ago, research firm Strategy Analytics said on Monday.

With the overall handset market shrinking as economies slow globally, the mobile industry is focussing investment on more advanced smartphones and their software.

Google’s Android was introduced in the United States in the second half of 2008, and now all top mobile phone vendors except Nokia have said they would use Android. "Android is now in a good position to become a top-tier player in smartphones over the next two to three years," said Neil Mawston, a director at Strategy Analytics.

Posted in: Phones
By May 11, 2009 Read More →

Hands-on review of Palm Pre

 

palm-pre-1 Prethinking have an excellent Hands-on review of the Palm Pre. Covering most of the aspects this is an essential read for anyone interested in this device. Check after the break for the review.

Posted in: Phones
By May 11, 2009 Read More →

Samsung i7500 caught on video

image Looks like the Android device promises are starting to appear at long last, here is a video hands on with the Samsung i7500 which has some really nice specs. This one will surely give HTC a run for their money as Samsung seem to understand the whole 3.5mm headset jack and camera flash requirements where other manufacturers do not.

  • 5 megapixel camera with LED flash
  • Quad-Band GSM
  • Tri-Band 7.2Mbps HSDPA (900/1700/2100MHZ)
  • 320×480 pixel 3.2? AMOLED Screen
  • WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth
  • 1,500mAh battery
  • 8GB Internal Storage (expandable to 32GB via microSD)
  • 3.5mm Headset Jack

Take a look at the video after the break.

Posted in: Phones
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