Fringe have put out their update Android client that, front facing camera permitting, manages to do video calling. Wonder just how long the networks will tolerate this but grab it while you can from the Android Market if you have an appropriate camera.
Acer has announced the Stream, an Android 2.1 smartphone with a new 3D user interface. The interface provides information on the lock screen so that you don’t have to unlock the device, much like we have saw years ago on the Palm Treo Pro (and were pretty impressed by). Acer says the Stream is a high-end multimedia smartphone that’s optimized for watching movies and browsing the web. It comes equipped with a 3.7-inch touchscreen display, HSDPA 7.2Mbps 3G connectivity, 512MB of RAM, a 8GB microSD card, and a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. Certainly something to keep an eye out for since Acer’s price tag is usually £100 less than the competing HTC or Samsung device. Check the video and press release after the break:
T-Mobile wants to be the network of choice for Android smartphones, T-Mobile head of postpaid devices Richard Hynes told delegates at the Fonehouse conference. The operator is launching four new Android handsets in the next quarter – including the HTC Wildfire – as part of its plan to grab share of the Android market this year.
Hynes said: ‘Our key strategic imperative first and foremost is to be the network of choice for Android.’
He said T-Mobile would leverage the legacy of the G1 to build its Android share. Launched in October 2008, the G1 was T-Mobile’s most successful launch, making over 110,000 connections.
‘T-Mobile is the operator with the highest base of Android customers, with 23% of market share. We want to build on that legacy,’ Hynes told delegates.
The operator is looking to create ‘a family’ of Android devices this year, said Hynes, adding that it has ‘high hopes’ that the HTC Wildfire will perform at least as well as the HTC Desire, which he said had outperformed all expectations.
On the back of the announcement yesterday regarding Orange pushing £100 Android devices it looks like Everything, Everywhere, the future mega-network of Orange and T-Mobile, should be somewhat Android focused.
The Samsung Galaxy Portal has been around for some time now, however we have only just managed to get out hands on one running Android 2.1. We didn’t feel it would do it justice reviewing the original 1.5 version we had and unboxed.
The Galaxy Portal is clearly a follow on from the Galaxy that I reviewed last year. That one was not great in my opinion so it will be interesting to see if the Portal is an improvement.
Read on to discover the verdict.
JKKmobile.com has had some hands on time with the Dell Streak. At 24mins there is a lot of coverage from what we had learned over the last few days. The build quality seems high, which isn’t really a surprise as Dell usually has a good record for this. There’s plenty of bits and bobs on the device to play with whilst not being particularly oversized. Compared to the Archos 5, which has the same sized screen it’s pretty big. Android looks beautifully smooth here and the interface is a little different to the typical we have seen and seems nice. Check the video after the break.
Orange is targeting the mid range of the market with own-brand Android smartphones at £100 price points. They will launch one device from Huawei in June and one device from ZTE in August, across the Europe. More devices will follow later in 2010, with up to four launching in the UK.
Orange is aiming for 50% of its mobile portfolio to be Smartphones by 2013, with ‘affordable’ smartphones driving that growth. Currently Smartphones make up 15% of the Orange portfolio.
This announcement will be interesting to see unravel as the Orange is positioning itself to be the premium side of the T-Mobile/ Orange merger. Also getting Android into the hands of the masses will see something of an Android explosion if successful.
HTC is to launch the HTC Vision – a new smartphone said to be identical to the HTC Desire but with a Qwerty keyboard.
Leaked information from the company’s internal website revealed plans for the new phone. The Android powered handset comes with a Qwerty keyboard and closely resembles the popular HTC Desire.
It is unclear, as yet, whether the phone will run on Android 2.1 or 2.2.
HTC will be working hard to get stock numbers right for the new phone. Massive demand for the HTC Desire after its launch earlier this year saw operators and retailers rapidly running out of the Android-powered device.
Last month HTC chief executive Jon French told Mobile that HTC would increase production of the HTC Desire in Q3 to meet demand.
The leak closely follows news that the HTC Wildfire will be available to T-mobile customers from the 14th of June.
The Wildfire comes with Android 2.1, as well as the HTC Sense social networking skin, a 5 megapixel camera, 3.2-inch touchscreen, Wi-Fi and GPS.
Tomorrow will see a lot of major news papers will be reporting on the working conditions surrounding the latest must have device, Apple’s iPad. With the pressure on to deliver a huge amount of devices to satisfy demand the Telegraph added the following earlier today:
In the lobby of Foxconn’s headquarters in Hong Kong, a group of around two dozen protestors laid mannequins to rest and conducted funeral rites. "We are staging the protest because of the high death rate [at Foxconn], with an abnormal number of workers committing suicide in the past five months," said Debby Chan, a spokesman for the Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour group.
The latest death comes just a day after Foxconn admitted that it had paid "insufficient attention" to the well-being of its workers and promised to hire over 2,000 therapists to offer counselling to its factory workers.
It’s a harsh reality for the larger corporations to realise the profit they expect, and at what cost? We will keep a close eye on the investigation.
The little phone that we think will be quite big is about to hit the market it appears after being pushed back time and time again. Mobiles.co.uk are taking pre-orders for the heavily modified but attractive Android handset on both Orange and Vodafone. The Pro version is available only to register interest in for the time being.
Following on from last years launch of Vodafone’s own 360 OS, the Samsung I8330 will be the successor to the Samsung H1, aptly named the Vodafone 360 H2.
Device specs are rumored to be pretty good with a Super AMOLED touchscreen, 8MP camera with LED flash as well as full HD video recording. Powered by a 1Ghz processor the Vodafone 360 will sport all the usual high end features such as GPS, Bluetooth and HSDPA.
The word on the street is that the H2 should be in your local Vodafone store in June or July although we have no official word from Vodafone at this point.
I wasn’t a huge fan of the original 360 H1. Not because of the hardware but I just couldn’t get over excited by the 360 software. Lets hope this one is more up my street.
Posted by: James
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