Author Archive: James Richardson

Samsung i8520 Halo looks a bit of alright

It looks like someone from the Samsung camp may have let news of the Samsung Halo slip!

Although not officially announced yet we believe it will be, later on today, and as far as I can see it may well steal the limelight away  from The Wave that was revealed yesterday.

The word on the street is that the Halo has a projector built in to it. Yes, built in!

As well as this cool feature it will run Android 2.1 with Bada over the top, have a 3.7 WVGA Super AMOLED display, 8 megapixel camera with autofocus and flash, 720p / 30fps video encoding / decoding, DivX and Xvid playback support, Bluetooth 2.1, standard 3.5mm headphone jack, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, A-GPS, 16GB of internal storage, microSD expansion and stereo speakers.

Doesn’t sound too shabby does it?

As soon as we have the confirmed details we will let you know, and hopefully some video to go with it!

Posted by: James

Samsung Bada and the Wave

All eyes were on Sony Ericsson last night with the announcement of a string of new devices, all that look jolly nice.

Samsung too held a press conference with some good stuff of there own.

"A smartphone revolution is underway"

First off was the unveiling of the new operating system, Bada, which as we expected focuses on integrating contacts from various sources such as Facebook and Gmail. It all looked very nice on video but the real test will be when we can use the OS.

Along with Bada, they also talked about Samsung Apps which they intend to roll out in 50 countries over the next few months.

Devicewire – Live Chat

devicewire.com have a fantastic new service on their website – Live Chat.

As from now, if you visit devicewire you will notice the words Live Chat at the top right of the page, in red. Give it a click and you will be connected to to them over the internet and can ask them whatever it is you need to know. Its very similar to using Windows Live Messenger or even Facebook Chat. What a great idea!

We mentioned last week a few changes including a free phone number but this Live Chat really makes life easier for customers with a query.

And it works. I just tried it out and Tom was online to help with a couple of seconds. I’m sure he thought I was bonkers as I said I was just testing!

Posted by: James

Mobiletech Addicts Podcast 58

You’re going to see one of these posts each week now!

As new co-hosts, Matt and myself recorded the mobiletechaddicts podcast last night, with Gareth and Andy.

If you fancy listening to us having a serious chat about recent mobile news (and also some not so serious!) then head over to mobiletechaddicts.com where you can download the podcast or be directed to iTunes. If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch you may also want to download the mobiletechaddicts app!

Next weeks podcast should be a super good one as we will record it once Gareth and I return from Mobile World Congress. I hope I may have a better microphone by then too!

Posted by: James

Another ‘coming soon’ HTC device: The Legend

Last year we published the details of HTCs forthcoming roadmap and among those devices was The Legend.

HTC Legend 2009

Now 2010 is here and engadget have managed to get a couple of photos of the device in action.

HTC Legend

Apart from these photos there is not any new info on this new device but this so called Hero sequel sure looks a nice bit of kit. Like the HTC Incredible, we posted about yesterday, could that be some kind of optical trackpad below the screen?

Sporting an aluminium shell, the HTC Legend is reportedly due for release in March. I have a suspicion I may be able to get my hands on one of these in the next week or so.

Stay tuned for more info (I sound like a radio DJ!)

Posted by: James

HTC Incredible

Pocketnow.com have been sent not only some photos but also a video of the HTC Incredible!

HTC Incredible

The device which as you will see in this video is Verizon branded and comes with Android 2.1 with the HTC Sense UI. Its also believed to have a Snapdragon CPU and looking at the screen switch speed in the video this looks more than likely.

It is also reported to have an OLED screen and an optical mouse pointer which would be a first for HTC. Sounds good doesn’t it?

More news as we get it….

Posted by: James

Is this Windows Mobile Seven?

The guys over at PPCGEEKS have announced the below spec which they say is the closest info yet know about Windows Mobile 7.

Is this what it may look like?

-The User Interface is based upon codename “METRO”. It will be very similar to the Zune HD User Interface with a complete revamp of the “Start” screen. The UI is “Very Clean”, “Soulful” and “Alive”
-Unfortunately there will be no Flash support at the get go as there was not enough time to implement these features.
-Windows Phone 7 will only support application installation through service based delivery. (i.e Marketplace). Application installation via storage card will not be possible.
– No Multi-Task support. Applications will “Pause” when in the background, however will support notifications via push notifications.
-Marketplace will now support “try before you buy” as well as an API
-No NETCF backwards compatibility. This means the original rumour of no backward compatibility for applications holds to be true. That being said, there are high hopes of porting the NetCF to the newer platform easily.
-Microsoft is confident that devices will be ready by September 2010
-Full Zune Integration
-Windows Mobile Device Centre will no longer be used. Zune software to take over syncing via PC.
-OEM Interfaces will not be allowed to run on the device. Say goodbye to Sense UI / SPB Mobile Shell / Point UI / Infinity, etc, etc
-Full XBOX Gaming Integration (Gamer tag, achievements, friends, avatars, merchandising, etc)
-Full support for social networking

Now the Zune is not a bad bit of kit but do I want the same UI on my phone with no option to change it – Hell No!

None of the above has officially come from Microsoft and if it turns out that this is true then I think I may give up all together with Windows Mobile. There must be more to it that this?

Posted by: James