We are monitoring new iPhone apps every day and recently plenty of apps with s*xy ladies (literally! "s*xy ladies" even is in the title of several apps!) appear – probably a sign that parental controls are coming next month together with iPhone OS 3.0 upgrade, but apart from that we have noticed this little game, that is free and stands out because it looks like you would do it on paper – very naturalistic and nice.
Here is how this app looks like:
Just received an email from Clove and they tell us that the HTC Touch Pro2 is now in stock and available to order for next day delivery.
Available today, the Pro2 is a great upgrade if you are using any of the predecessor devices or you have been waiting for something that offers a quality and robust communication solution for anything from emails to web browsing.
You can order it now from Clove priced at £504.85 plus delivery.
If you are a regular reader you’ll know that I’ve reviewed several Sanyo Xacti camcorder models in the past, from the more entry-level HD700 to the most recent of the HD models, the HD2000. Overall, I think that the Xacti range is really good and I remain impressed with my HD1000 and that is the camera that I use to shoot the majority of my unboxing videos.
Sanyo recently started to expand the Xacti range with some non-pistol grip models as well as adding a number of waterproof models to the range. So this week we are looking at the Xacti VPC-WH1 described as a ‘Waterproof Dual Camera’ and it’s rated to a depth of 3 metres so it’ll be ok for snorkelling or using at the pool on holiday. Even if you don’t plan on using it in the water it’s a great idea to know that you wont ruin your camcorder if you are caught in a sudden down-pour.
You may think that being waterproof you may trade-off quality and features but the WH1 is still quite well spec’ed offering 720p HD recording and still shooting modes. As for the quality of recording, well you’ll have to see what our verdict is when we publish the full review in a week or so! For now, have a look at the unboxing video below to see the WH1 in a little more detail. Oh and if the yellow colour isn’t to your taste, don’t worry it’s also available in silver!
With SANYO’s advanced waterproofing technology, the SANYO Xacti WH1 can be used without thinking twice in the rain; for water sports such as surfing or snorkeling, or for winter sports such as skiing or snowboarding. This Xacti camera keeps up with active lifestyles.
The SANYO Xacti VPC-WH1 has earned the highest possible IEC 60529 waterproof rating – IPX8 – allowing high definition 1280 x 720, 30 fps footage to be captured without worrying about the effects of water or snow.
Sanyo Xacti VPC-WH1 specification:
Posted by: Matt
[ Post Tags: Sanyo Xacti WH1, camcorder, video cameras, tracyandmatt.co.uk ]
Today, Ovi Store by Nokia is available globally to an estimated 50 million Nokia device owners across more than 50 Nokia devices including the forthcoming flagship device, the Nokia N97. Customers can visit store.ovi.com through their Nokia device browser to immediately begin downloading, personalizing and making their devices smarter and more fun with applications, games, videos, podcasts, productivity tools, web and location-based services and much more.
"Ovi Store is open for business and we’ve stocked the shelves with both local and global content for a broad range of Nokia devices," said Tero Ojanperä, Executive Vice President, Nokia Services. "Ovi Store makes shopping for content and applications easy and fun for feature phone and smartphone owners alike."
After yesterdays news that O2 are getting the Palm Pre in the UK, it has all started to become a little more interesting over this side of the pond. Anyway looking around for a bit more information on the Pre we stumbled upon PalmPreForumDotOrg who have produced quite a few videos demonstrating the various parts of the operating system so we decided to share a few of them with you. The videos are all done using an emulator and not on the actual device but they definitely give a great and detailed look at what we can expect from this device when it is released on June 6th in the US and later in the year in the UK. Take a look at the videos after the break.
Press Release : SBSH Mobile Software is excited to announce GoNews Touch release! GoNews Touch is a news reader application that brings the latest news directly to your smart-phone, aggregating only headlines of your interest based on your personal configuration. GoNews Touch is the first touch-designed news reader application, allowing you to browse through all headlines using only finger navigation!
More details and video after the break.
Well we were wondering about the recent advertising joint venture between HTC and The Carphone Warehouse and now we know why it is happening.
HTC have signed a new direct account with Carphone Warehouse on Tuesday (19 May). The deal will mean that Carphone Warehouse no longer has to go via Brightpoint GB. The agreement comes as HTC launches the Touch Diamond2 into Carphone Warehouse stores on Orange and O2. The device will be free on contracts from £40 per month. Brightpoint continues to be HTC’s sole UK distributor.
HTC exclusively partnered Brightpoint in May 2008 after the distributor acquired Hugh Symons Telecoms’ business. Brightpoint was already an international supplier of HTC’s handsets and the deal gave the manufacturer an instant foothold in the UK market.
via Mobiletoday
Another guest review, Alli Flowers from Just Another Geek Site has been busy looking at cases for her iPhone and has come across the Prima leather book style case. She has written a review with pictures, if your looking for this type of case, take a read of the review after the break.
The last device with a QWERTY keyboard I used was the original HTC TyTN. It seemed great at the time, but looking back, it was a bit of an unwieldy thing!
When it comes to Nokia’s apparently I’m the most qualified of the misfits that make up the tracyandmatt team! This seems to have been achieved by using a N95 for a while last year, but in truth, I am quite excited by a QWERTY Nokia. Can it live up to expectations?
What’s in the box?
Have a look at Matt’s Nokia E75 unboxing video for more details.
Device Description (Nokia.com):
The Nokia E75 is a GSM/WCDMA dual-mode business smartphone supporting WCDMA/HSDPA, EGSM, and WLAN. The device features a side slider QWERTY keyboard for optimal email experience. Enjoy videos, music, and graphics on the 2.4” QVGA display and orientation sensor. Find directions and locations with the integrated A-GPS and included maps. Take photos with a 3.2-megapixel autofocus camera. Additional features include USB charging with simultaneous data transfer, Bluetooth 2.0 +EDR, and USB 2.0 High-Speed. Supported WCDMA frequencies depend on the region where the device is available.
Nokia E75 Specification:
General
First impressions of the device were generally positive. As you’d expect from the E series it has a business look to it, and is quite slim considering what hides within it! For its size, it seems fairly heavy in comparison to other similar kit, but not to the point of annoyance or irritation.
The front of the device is gloss black, with the screen edges hardly visible in some lighting. The glossy finish extends around the front edges of the phone, finished with a classy chrome surround. The chrome effect is also found around the earpiece and the centre button, where it doubles as a direction pad.
Either side of the earpiece, you’ll find a front-facing camera to the right, and a light sensor to the left.
Around the direction pad, you’ll find the usual Call and End keys – the latter doubling as the power button, and the usual Nokia softkeys. Each of these four buttons has a second use – almost like rocker-switches – these are the home key, a back button, a slightly random calendar button, and a shortcut to the messaging application.
The keypad itself is cramped – and my fat fingers did have trouble speed texting. Of course in most situations you won’t be using the keypad for sending email or other text-based apps – you’ll use the full QWERTY keyboard.
Speaking of which, I was disappointed to find quite a bit of loose slider movement on our demo kit – not from side to side as we’ve seen on older HTC devices, but front-to-back, with the front of the phone pulling away from the back slightly. Having said that, the slider mechanism itself does feel sound, with the spring loaded push each way working very nicely.
The keyboard itself is compact, but very usable. It reminds me of the original HTC Tytn keyboard. All the keys are pushed against its neighbour, and there is a short, easy-going learning curve before you’ll get fully up to speed. The keyboard is backlit, although there are no hardware lamps to signify Caps lock or shift keys.
Beyond the chrome finish, the rest of the phone is finished in an almost gun-metal matt silver, and on the left hand side of the phone, we find the USB connector, and the micro-sd slot – both hidden behind rubber covers.
On the right hand side, there is a dedicated camera button, up and down switches, either side of a button with a dot on it! On closer inspection, it seems its a shortcut for the voice command software!
The top of the device is home to the now-almost-standard flat 3.5” headset/earphone socket. It’s a shame Nokia didn’t see fit to add a separate power button here – there seems to be plenty of space for it, at least externally.
Moving to the back of the device then, where the camera cluster sits on the left side. This includes the 3.2mp autofocus lens, a proper flash, and an ever-pointless mirror. Opposite, there’s a small speaker grill for the speakerphone option, or playing music (badly). The battery cover, complete with Nokia E series logo, takes up most of the remaining space on the back panel. The cover itself is quite hard to work out at first (or maybe its just me!) – pushing the level towards the bottom of the phone seemed to do the trick in the end! The large battery slots in to keep the SIM card in place above it. Interesting to note that despite the weight concerns, the cover is proper stainless steel!
Throughout most of the device housing, its refreshing to find it built mainly of metal, rather than just looking a (little) bit like metal! While the weight won’t suit everyone, its been used wisely in building a device up to the task of surviving a busy office life.
Highlights:
Lowlights:
Review
The E75 joined the rumour mill way back in September, thanks to some leaked images appearing on the net – but its taken until now to get it on the shelves. We’re not sure why, but its unfortunately thank the E75 has been lumbered with a slightly old skool 240×320 screen. It’s not a bad screen by any means – bright, clear and sharp, but the size itself is a bit of a let down in a market that has since moved on. It’s fine for day to day basic use, as you might expect, but browsing does suffer slightly.
Amazingly Nokia have (finally) seen fit to allow their new released to charge from the USB port. It’s incredible that its taken this long for the masses of user feedback on the issue, to work it’s way through to the decision makers. It’s all adds to the already decent connectivity on the device – WiFi is onboard, as is HSPDA 3G.
The S60 operating system which all high-end E and N series smartphones use has improved over the last few years, and while its still looks and feels a bit basic – especially when put against Android and iPhone – its now a very stable base for any device. The additional slider sensor on the E75 works well, flipping the screen quickly, into the S60 landscape mode.
The keyboard itself feels very well defined, and key-presses are consistent. The keys are not large, and with no gap between them, speedy typing will need practice. However, invest some time in it, and the keyboard covers all SMS and email use with ease. I liked the Nokia implementation of the keyboard in the main, although I wasn’t overly impressed with the decision to stick the shift key on the bottom row, second in. Beyond that though – it’s robust and usable. It’s very net friendly, with one-touch access to the most common symbols such as @. Back in September, I wonder if Nokia envisaged it being used more for email – or twitter!
Clearly its a business phone, so the great email functionality is a major plus – and out of the box you’ll find Nokia’s Push solution, exchange support and something by Lotus we’ve never heard of. All the basics such as pop3 are of course included – but don’t go looking for Blackberry support – you’ll be needing a third-party app.
While full QWERTY keyboard’s are great for business, more often than not it also means a very chunky phone. Not so with the E75 though. Nokia have managed to squeeze the whole package into a slim 50×14.4×111.8mm frame, and it really does look the part – both in the office and at home.
The E75 is perhaps the first phone to hint at a combination of the E and N ranges. All the enterprise gear is still there – but you’ll also find the top-down 3.5” earphone port, the decent Nokia music player, and even Ngage support. FM Radio is also on board, and the 3.2 megapixel camera ensures this is a phone which is at ease out and about, or in the home, as it is in the office.
I particularly liked Nokia’s ‘Dual Home’ screen. The system is really very simple, and just involves the ability to switch the phone from Work to Personal modes – each with a separate home screen and differing shortcuts. Fairly basic, but useful anyway.
Conclusion
Reviewing phones automatically means you take an interest in the market, and I’m always looking at what’s available next month/next quarter/next year. Perhaps that’s why I think the E75 has probably appeared a little too late. Had it been released last September, alongside the N96 and other 320×240 phones, maybe it would have had more of a chance.
That’s not to say its not a decent phone – and I’m convinced its got a decent chance of becoming a ‘goto’ phone for fleet upgrades and new additions in offices. It’s just a bit uninspiring really. A couple of years ago, I’d have loved this, but in today’s market, while it doesn’t do a lot wrong, it doesn’t stand out either. Needless to say, if there is a market for a smaller-screened device, you may as well put this to the top of your list – it does everything a Nokia phone should- and does it well.
It’s good to see Nokia trying new ideas, and even better that is has listened to what its customers have asked for – USB charging for example.
While the E75 is a very competent device, I’m not sure it has what it takes to gain mass appeal outside of the office environment. Still I enjoyed my couple of weeks using it, and friends and colleagues did seem to think it looked the part if nothing else!
Review by: Mark
[ Post Tags: Nokia E75, Symbian, Smartphone, tracyandmatt.co.uk ]
So it looks like everyone and his granny will be picking up HTC’s latest Touch devices. The Touch Diamond2 and The Touch Pro2 have been sighted on on AT&T according to Engadget.
The Diamond2 will be called the HTC Warhawk and the Touch Pro2 will be named the HTC Fortress. Full size pictures after the break.
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