HTC press event photos
May 9th, 2008
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Here are a few more photos from the HTC Touch Diamond press event.
The initial introductions were made by Peter Chou, CEO of HTC. We were given a bit of background with lots of references to the HTC Touch and also mobile web browsing.
The first time we got to see the devices they were all held in plastic display cases so it wasn't possible to play with them and taking pictures was tricky. However, you can see the cool media player interface shown in the image below.
As you'll be able to see from the shot below, the HTC Touch Diamond is extremely thin at just 11mm it's less than half the thickness of the TyTN II. The Touch Diamond is also significantly lighter and weighs in at a mere 110 grams!
Although the buttons on the Touch Diamond are completely smooth they are still physical buttons with a positive click action rather than being touch sensitive. The ring you can see around the d-pad area is touch sensitive though and works like a jog wheel. Circling the wheel clockwise zooms in and counter-clockwise zooms out when used with Opera and Image Viewer, and probably other apps too.
Finally, a number of the HTC people at the event had their own Touch Diamond devices and they all had nice leather slip or pouch style cases for their phones. The cases were good quality and had a soft material lining which wipes the screen each time you slide the Diamond in or out.
We're not sure whether or not the case will be supplied with the Diamond as we were given conflicting information on this. Hopefully it will be included with the retail units.
Posted by: Matt
[Post tag(s): smartphone news, Pocket PC news, Tracy & Matt, Orange, HTC, HTC Touch Diamond]
HTC Touch Diamond full launch video
May 8th, 2008
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The main press announcement for the HTC Touch Diamond was about an hour long and included pieces from HTC, Microsoft and Orange. I recorded the full presentation and you can find the video below. Word of warning though, it is almost an hour in length, I've cut the pause for applause and the bit where someone stood up in front of me but other than that it is the full announcement including Q&A at the end.
More images to follow.
Posted by: Matt
[Post tag(s): smartphone news, Pocket PC news, Tracy & Matt, Orange, HTC, HTC Diamond]
HTC Touch Diamond promo video
May 7th, 2008
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Here's another video for you from the HTC press conference yesterday. This is the official HTC Touch Diamond promo video. You can probably expect to see this video cropping up all over the web and there is even talk of this advert, or a version of it, being used on the TV here in the UK.
Still more photos and video to come.
Posted by: Matt
[Post tag(s): smartphone news, Pocket PC news, Tracy & Matt, Orange, HTC, HTC Diamond]
HTC Touch Diamond in action (Video)
May 7th, 2008
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Paul (MoDaCo) and I were able to spend quite some time playing with the HTC Touch Diamond today and between us we've come up with the following video demonstrating the device in action.
I have a great deal of video left to process so you can expect to see more online in the coming days. We're still at the event and will shortly be heading off to for dinner so I'll be posting more when I return. Trying to get the balance between finding out the information and then finding the time to post and pass it on is tricky!
Posted by: Matt
[Post tag(s): smartphone news, Pocket PC news, Tracy & Matt, Orange, HTC, HTC Diamond]
HTC's Offical Touch Diamond press release
May 6th, 2008
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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
May 6th, 2008
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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:
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
May 6th, 2008
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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]
Asus Eee PC 900 unboxed & mini review
May 5th, 2008
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Introduction
Love it or hate, there is not denying the popularity of the Asus Eee PC, demand for the 701 has far exceeded supply since it was originally launched last year. In fact these are still very hard to get hold of.
I've been using my 701 for about 6 months and love the portability of it, sometimes you just don't need a 'proper' laptop to do what you want to do.
New versions of the Eee PC have been on the cards for quite some time and finally Asus have launched the new 900 model. Very similar to the original 701, it's the same size and virtually the same weight, same CPU and basic hardware. However where the 900 differs is in the screen department where you can now find a 9" display running at 1024 x 600 - a vast improvement. There's also a 20GB SSD in place of the old 8GB unit.
What's in the box?
The device itself, instruction book, installation CD, battery, power adaptor, er, that's about it take a look at the unbox video below for more.
Asus Eee PC 900 Specification:
General
The Eee PC opens easily to reveal a small, but full QWERTY keyboard, trackpad and mouse buttons.
One of the complaints about the older 701 was that the screen was quite small and looked a bit lonely in the middle of the top part of the unit. However you'll now find a 9" unit filling this area.
The Ethernet port is located on the left hand side next to one of three USB2.0 ports and the audio lines In and Out. There are a further two USB ports on the right along with the SDHC card slot.
The removable battery slots very smoothly in and out the spine of the unit and power cord plugs into the back. The AC adapter has also changed from the 701, you now get an inline power brick style charger rather than an adapter that plugs in to the wall. The adapters now also match the colour of the Eee you purchase.
There's also a built in webcam which can be used for video conferencing and with later versions of Skype.
As you can see from the picture below, the overall foot print of the 900 is the same as the 701.
Highlights
Lowlights
Review
It has to said that the keyboard, trackpad and mouse button does feel distincltively cheap, but that said the device IS cheap so you get what you pay for and given what you get on the inside it's hard to grumble. That aside the only other disappointment was the screen size which, given the overall size of the device does feel a bit small. However a larger screen would no doubt to have added to the price and made it feel less economically attractive.
The default installed OS is Xandros Linux on this model but a version with Windows XP pre-installed should be available some time in June.
Now that the screen has been upgraded to 1024 x 600 it makes the 900 much easier to use. Most web pages assume a resolution of 1024 x 768 so some pages didn't look right or load properly on the 701 and those that did required a lot of scrolling. This is a lot less of a problem now with the 9" screen in place.
However, the having a larger screen is not without penalties. We praised the battery life of the 701 getting about 3-4 hours use out of a single charge depending on the usage. The 900 has barely half the battery life though, needing a charge at around the 2 hour mark. Hopefully this will be addressed with bigger batteries!
Ram has been increased on the 900 and you now get 1GB as standard. This certainly helps those applications run more smoothly. It's not just RAM that's been increased though as the Solid State Drive is now up to 20GB (From 8GB on the 701). For those out there that want to install other operating systems on the device the additional SSD space will make the process a lot easier.
A number of owners complained of problems with the SSD installed in the 701 and the reliability of the drive has been called in to question. It's too early to say if the SSD in the 900 will suffer the same fate but lets hope this has been sorted!
Conclusion
A vast improvement over the original 701 the new Eee 900 is now my next must-have gadget. It's just a shame that the battery life has been reduced so much by that larger screen. However, larger batteries are said to be available soon.
Posted by: Matt
[Post tag(s): smartphone blog, Pocket PC blog, Windows Mobile blog, UMPC, Asus Eee PC, Laptop, Tracy & Matt]
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