Seasoned tech blogger. Host of the Tech Addicts podcast.
In the last month HTC have pumped out a couple of rather high end devices. Whilst the HTC Desire is the flagship, the HTC Legend, an update to the popular Hero, is no slacker. Here we are going take a look at the Legend and see if it’s worth your time.
Gareth, Matt, James and Andy return for another fun podcast covering all types of mobile news and views across the UK. Featuring such profound nonsense as Andy’s inflatable girlfriend, Giff Gaff, the new iPhone and a feature examining instant messaging clients on mobile platforms.
Regulars: James Richardson, Matt Davis, Gareth Myles and Andy Lee.
Yes I know a physical phone is three dimensional, and they have been this way over a few years and I would imagine will continue to be for a little while yet, however in a recent patent Motorola have described something interesting:
“A cover is mechanically coupled to the housing and may be moved to overlie the display. The cover includes an optical element, such as a transparent lenticular material, through which the display may be viewed. The display presents images in two dimensions, and when the cover is “open“, the operator sees the displayed images, for example, diagrams and text, in two dimensions. However, when the cover is “closed“, the operator perceives the images presented through the optical element as three dimensional.”
A rather astonishing technological revelation that could very well change the way we do things, I’d even go as far to say, on all electronical device. If implemented well then all will jump on the band wagon to have it pretty quick.
So the super secret Apple infrastructure looks like it has been blown apart this year after a guy managed to leave an iPhone 4G or G4 in a bar in Redwood City.
Sure we have seen fakes come and go but the evidence that Gizmodo have dug up after getting their hands on this points to it being the real deal.
• Front-facing video chat camera
• Improved regular back-camera (the lens is quite noticeably larger than the iPhone 3GS)
• Camera flash
• Micro-SIM instead of standard SIM (like the iPad)
• Improved display. It’s unclear if it’s the 960×460 display thrown around before—it certainly looks like it, with the "Connect to iTunes" screen displaying much higher resolution than on a 3GS.
• What looks to be a secondary mic for noise cancellation, at the top, next to the headphone jack
• Split buttons for volume
• Power, mute, and volume buttons are all metallic
• The back is entirely flat, made of either glass (more likely) or shiny plastic in order for the cell signal to poke through. Tapping on the back makes a more hollow and higher pitched sound compared to tapping on the glass on the front/screen, but that could just be the orientation of components inside making for a different sound
• An aluminum border going completely around the outside
• Slightly smaller screen than the 3GS (but seemingly higher resolution)
• Everything is more squared off
• 3 grams heavier
• 16% Larger battery
• Internals components are shrunken, miniaturized and reduced to make room for the larger battery
via Gizmodo
Apple have just sent out an apology to international iPad wanters stating that the availability has slipped from the end of April now to the end of May.
They are blaming the high popularity and demand in the US for the lack of stock causing this delay, I for one am not happy.
On a brighter note, hot on the heels of this news is that the iPad will not be sim locked and the three carriers in the UK that currently have the iPhone on their books will be offering micro Sim cards and dedicated data plans for the iPad, thats O2, Vodafone and Orange.
No details on pricing yet but they will be announcing more on the 10th May when you can actually pre-order the iPad.
Our panel of four gathers once again for a chat about Mobile activity in the last week. The iPad and iPhone 4.0 features are amongst the topics along with Microsoft’s Project Pink announcement, the HTC HD Mini and the HTC Legend.
Regulars: James Richardson, Matt Davis, Gareth Myles and Andy Lee
Stop the presses, something huge just happened in the App Store; Apple has approved a 3rd party web browser and added it to the virtual shelves of their all conquering app store! That’s right, the Opera Mini for iPhone app has been approved by Steve Jobs and co. and is now ready to be downloaded free in the app store!
We’ve been covering this story for some time, ever since we first caught glimpses of the Opera browser playing nicely with Apple’s iPhone back in February at the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona. The browser, just like it’s various other incarnations for the various operating systems and Java enabled feature phones, compresses web pages by up to 90% offering lightening quick load times for web pages.
This compression not only drastically improves loading times but also lowers data costs as well, something that will come in handy for those who have switched their contracts to pay as you go in the run up to the inevitable launch of the iPhone 4G/ HD.
Given that O2 has sold the Palm Pre as successfully as you would a knife in the chest it’s nice to see Palm releasing the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus on dual networks in Germanland. Vodafone will hopefully give the little phones some much needed attention and will hopefully shift a few more than you could expect from O2.
One can only hope for a similar release in the UK and more Palm in more … paws. Honestly, I walked past the O2 store yesterday and there was a short queue of 3 at the Palm stand. On the other side of the stop was one person looking at the iPhone and two sales representatives explaining the great many things the iPhone could do. Never before was there a more glaring example of O2 dedication to the little Palm Underdog.
Good news for all you rocking Motorola Android device’s, you can get an idea of just when to expect your 2.1 update. The European Dext might be the only one that will cause some growls, provided someone bought one. Did anyone?
Microsoft today unveiled its "Project Pink" phones which are aimed at the growing social networking scene. The new phones are now known as the Kin One and the Kin Two.
The new Kin phones are based on a Windows CE core, sharing similar design themes, but not the full-fledged general purpose operating system capabilities of the upcoming Windows Phone 7 smartphone operating system.
The Kin phones will also naturally integrate with the Zune Marketplace which will serve up and music and video content — music can be streamed to the Zin One and Kin Two over Wi-Fi or 3G. However, if you’re looking for Xbox Live gaming — as seen in Windows Phone 7 — you’ll need to look elsewhere. And just in case you were wondering, there’s no support for third-party apps, Silverlight, or the ubiquitous Adobe Flash.
The Kin Spot, which is invoked by a green button on the keyboard, brings up a little green dot on the screen. You can drag status updates, photos, videos, and events to the Kin Spot and instantly share it with your friends via Facebook, email, MMS, etc.
The Kin Studio allows you to see your phone on the internet using any browser. Your contacts, photos, videos, text messages, and calendar events are all web accessible using a simple user interface. It also serves as a huge online backup database for your phone — so if your phone is lost, everything is easily restored from an online backup. Microsoft also sees the web as an extension of your user storage, so the 4GB or 8G of storage on the Kin One and Kin Two respectively shouldn’t really matter all that much to the end user.
The Kin One is a tiny phone with an equally tiny QWERTY keyboard that slides out from the bottom (portrait view). The Kin One features 4GB of internal storage, a 5MP camera (with LED flash), a mono speaker, and a QVGA screen. The Kin Two is a larger phone with a more traditionally-sized smartphone screen and a landscape keyboard. It features 8GB of internal storage, an 8MP digital camera, stereo speakers, and an HVGA display.
Both the Kin One and Kin Two feature 3G radios, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth connectivity. Verizon will be the exclusive carrier for both phone in the U.S. when they launch later this May. Pricing is not yet available.
Microsoft definitely thinks that it has an audience with these phones, but we can’t help but think that these two phones will end up being snapped up mostly by tweens and teenagers who’ll be texting away in class. That being said, it seems as though young adults (as pictured in all of Microsoft’s press materials and Kin video footage) would want a more full-featured phone like a Motorola Droid, iPhone, or Windows Phone 7 smartphone to carry around with them instead of something that is just geared towards social media
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