Archive for February, 2010

MWC: Project Pink’s Turtle and Pure

With the huge announcement of Windows Phone 7 out of the way, we’re anticipating what was rumored about another Microsoft phone last week: news about a project Pink revival. Project Pink is supposed to be Microsoft’s first attempt at making their own hardware using the team that they bought from the acquisition of Sidekicks creators. Before Microsoft can say anything officially however, the folks over at WMExperts have unearthed some gritty details about the upcoming phones.

The Turtle, pictured above, featuring a 320 x 240 resolution screen and, obviously, a slide-out QWERTY  keyboard. Judging by the phone and screen size as well as its resolution, this may be an entry-level phone, but it’s said that it will incorporate some serious social networking features and media.

Microsoft’s Pure may be somewhat of a successor to the Sidekick, whose reputation is now slightly tarnished due to what could be remembered as the Danger Server Fiasco of 2009, the Pure expands on Turtles horizons with a 480 x 320 screen along with what looks to be a usable QWERTY keyboard. If this is the Sidekicks replacement, then T-Mobile will get first dibs on it.

All of these handsets are allegedly strongly tied to NVIDIA’s powerful Tegra system found on the ZuneHD and are constantly referred to as “Premium Mobile Experiences” throughout the documents that revealed these morsels of information. Hopefully we’ll get a lot more from Microsoft regarding these new handsets at Mobile World Congress later today.

Mobilecrunch

HTC press conference today

Today’s the day that HTC hold their big press conference at MWC in Barcelona. James will be reporting live from the event and Tweeting as and when announcements are made. I’ll be covering things from back here in London and will be posting press releases and images as I get them.

The press conference starts at 9:30AM UK time so please be sure to check be them and to refresh pages frequently. We know some of the things that HTC have in stores for us and you probably wont want to miss it!

Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter too, twitter.com/tracyandmatt, because that’s where you’ll get the latest live updates on this and other MWC events over the next few days.

Oh and if you have any questions for us to ask HTC (or any other company) then please let us know as we are meeting with them later today too.

Posted by: Matt

Toshiba TG02 hands-on Video

The TG01 probably still has the sexiest hardware made to date, trouble was, the software was terrible and the resistive screen sealed its fate. Skip forward 12 months and now Toshiba has updated the beauty with brawn and brains. Say hello to the Toshiba TG02.

Sporting Windows Mobile 6.5.3 with a UI layer provided by SPB Mobile Shell, a popular third part skin for WinMo in the similar vein to HTC’s efforts which has gained popularity for those in the know, and a capacitive screen to go along with the Snapdragon 1ghz cpu. Seems like Tosh still have a few kinks to work out but without doubt the TG02 is worth a second look. The eagle eyed amongst you will spot CorePlayer, which happens to be one of the most versatile media players ever made and will hopefully make it into the final build.

Via

New from Sony Ericsson

Sony Ericcson have pulled out a few devices from their back pockets. Lets take a look at them:

Details and official pics of the HTC Desire, Legend, and HD Mini

Mobile World Congress is all about the last-minute leaks this year. First, a tiny glimpse of Windows Phone leaked out just hours before it became official. Now, three brand-spankin’ new handsets from HTC have just leaked out, just one day before HTC’s press conference but after the press conference, these handsets are now official.

The glorious beast you see above is the HTC Desire, previously known around the rumor mill as the HTC Bravo. Take Google’s Nexus One, stick HTC’s customized Sense user interface on it, replace the trackball with a nifty optical trackpad – and bam! You’ve got the Desire. It’ll run Android 2.1 on a big and beautiful 3.7? AMOLED touchscreen packed on top of a 1GHZ processor, 512 MB ROM/576 MB RAM, Bluetooth 2.1, and a 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and flash.

Living wallpapers (and Google Navigation for our US cousins) are all present and correct, and multi-touch capability is also enabled. This has led HTC to create something really neat – Helicopter Mode, which allows you to simply pinch in on the home screen and see all seven of your widget-filled windows at once; a real time saving boon. T-Mobile have confirmed the Desire will be available on T-Mobile in March.

We got word of this next one, the HTC Legend, at the same time we found out about the bravo – but words were all we had. Then Dutch carrier KPN came along and spilled the beans on this spec-for-spec sequel to the HTC Hero with a few itsy-bitsy press shots.

Coming in with a 600mhz CPU, 3.2? AMOLED screen, and 512 MB RAM/384 MB ROM, it’s not quite as ridiculously spec’d out as the Desire – but it’s still a damn nice handset. Like the Desire, it’s running HTC’s Sense UI on top of Android 2.1. HTC have confirmed the Legend will be available on Vodafone in April.

Last but not least: the HD Touch Mini. It’s purportedly running Windows Mobile 6.5.3 — which, considering today’s announcement of its successor, Windows Phone, admittedly makes this one a bit hard to get too excited about. With that said, this’ll probably be one of the last Windows Mobile handsets with HTC’s dramatic UI overhauls on it, given Microsoft’s new policies that keep manufacturers from replacing Windows Phone interface elements.

All signs indicate that this one will pack a 3.2? HVGA screen, 5 megapixel camera and i wouldn’t be surprised if this one turned up at Vodafone and O2 in April.

Techcrunch

IMDB Widget for Symbian 5th Edition

The unofficial IMDB widget for Symbian 5th devices such as the Nokia 5800, N97, X6, 5230, 5530, Samsung i8910 HD and the Sony Ericsson Satio is now available.

Features:

• Search IMDb for people
• Search IMDb for movie/tv titles
• Browse through episodes
• Quickly extend the search to other services google, youtube, wikipedia, ebay, amazon

Supported Devices:

• Nokia N97 / N97 Mini
• XpressMusic 5800
• X6
• Pretty much all the rest Symbian 5th Edition phones

Download the widget from dailymobile.se forums s60v5 application section

Motorola Quench Hands-on Video

Engadget is at it again, this time with the Quench from Motorola, a mid tier Android device that was announced earlier today.

HTC and Orange to show 7 Series some love

HTC has said it will deliver a "portfolio" of Microsoft Windows Phone 7 Series phones "later this year" with Peter Chou, the CEO of HTC calling the release a "significant milestone".

From Chou: "Windows Phone 7 Series is a significant milestone for Microsoft, the industry and ultimately people looking to do more on their phones. HTC is working closely with Microsoft to bring the unique HTC experience that customers love". "Microsoft has clearly listened to feedback from people and brought a new, fresh approach to the smartphone experience that is beautiful, powerful and compelling", Chou says.

Meanwhile Orange has issued a similar kind of release stating it plans to "deliver a range of phones in 2010 with smarter design and software integration that" – you guessed it – "are optimised for Orange customers".

Orange says it plans to combine its SIM and network authentication with Microsoft Windows Phone 7 Series to create a single customer ID, which will allow Orange customers single sign-on access to Microsoft services such as Xbox LIVE and Zune Music.

Via