Phones

What is USB On-The-Go?

With USB On-The-Go starting to appear on a number of mobile devices now, specifically the O2 XDA Flame, I thought it was time for a quick lesson. 🙂

USB on-the-go is a technology that most PocketPC and Smartphone users have been crying out for. In simple terms USB OTG will allow you to connect a variety of other peripherals to your device. This will include USB memory sticks and USB Hard Drives.

In the past devices such as hand-helds, cell phones and digital cameras were classed as USB peripherals and in order to transfer data via USB you would have to connect that peripheral to another device, such as a PC, that could function as a USB host. USB OTG capable devices will benefit from having additional capability to connect to other USB devices.

USB OTG defines a dual-role device, which can act as either a host or peripheral, and can connect to either a PC or other portable devices through the same connector. It will even allow you to connect two USB OTG devices together to transfer data.

Imagine being able to connect a 500gb external USB hard drive to your PocketPC. Great for PocketPC powered jukeboxes!

For more information about USB on-the-go visit the USB Org website.

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, XDA, XDA Flame, USB On The Go, Tracy & Matt]

O2 XDA Flame shows itself

It didn’t take long for the photos to be leaked. Just a few days ago the O2 XDA Flame was nothing but a rumour but today there are photos!

The XDA Flame is a PocketPC phone device that looks to be about the same sort of size as some of the older XDA models, a bit bigger then devices that we have got used to lately.

The Flame is a 3G PocketPC Phone that’s going to get enthusiasts pretty hot under the collar for it’s one of the first devices to have, not only a generous 3.6″ VGA display but also to be powered by NVIDIA’s GoForce 5500 GPU for next-generation mobile graphics. Oh, and if that isn’t enough, there’s the Intel XScale PXA270 520MHz CPU to keep things moving along at a fair old lick!

O2 XDA Flame Specification

The XDA Flame is said to be shipping in Q1 2007. Shame I can’t have one for Xmas!

Check out PocketPCThoughts for more info.

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, XDA, XDA Flame, O2, NVIDIA, GoForce, USB On The Go, Tracy & Matt]

HTC P4350 (aka HTC Herald) announced

The new HTC P4350 has just been officially announced on the HTC site.

The HTC P4350 is HTC’s own version of the HTC Herald.

Overview
With the convenience of instantly synchronised Outlook® email, contacts and calendar through Microsoft® Windows Mobile® 5.0 Direct Push you can be in touch wherever you are. With Pocket MSN® you can also connect to Hotmail® and MSN® messenger.

When doing business, manage your Word®, Excel® and PowerPoint® documents on the go – the full auto-sliding keyboard makes editing a breeze.

If you just want to relax, you can enjoy your music and video through Windows Media® Player, enhanced with Stereo Bluetooth® wireless sound quality.

HTC P4350 Specification

See the full spec on the HTC product page.

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, HTC Artemis, Dopod, HTC Trinity, HTC Herald, HTC Excalibur, Tracy & Matt]

Having ActiveSync issues?

We recently heard from someone having issues with their ActiveSync. Basically their Orange M3100 would not connect to their PC. I too have seen this in the past where the ActiveSync logo would turn green and start spinning but would do nothing more.

So if you are having these connectivity issues here is a little something to try: On the device go to, Start, Settings, Connections, USB to PC, then uncheck ‘Enable Advanced network
functionality’.

You should find that your connection springs to life!

Thanks to Phil for sharing that with us.

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, HTC, M3100, HTC Hermes, HTC TyTN, SPV, Orange SPV M3100, Tracy & Matt]

Eten Glofiish M700

EDIT: You can now purchase the ETEN M700 from clove and with our offer you can save £25 on the purchase price! See this post for more info.

I just got back from the Eten X500 UK product launch press conference where I took this rather ropey photo of the Eten Glofiish M700.

Pretty impressed with the device, it’s pretty light and compared to the HTC TyTN it’s pretty damn thin.

Find out about ordering the device HERE.

Keep your eyes on MoDaCo where Paul will have some better photos (He remembered to take a camera!).

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, E-TEN, glofiish, E-TEN Glofiish, Tracy & Matt]

Eten Glofiish X500 offer – save £30

We have another offer for you from Clove Technology, this time it’s for the Eten Glofiish X500.

All you have to do is type TM3PNOV06 into the voucher box on the order form once you have selected to buy the X500 and £30 will be deducted at the checkout stage. To visit the Eten X500 on the Clove site click here.

We believe that this is the cheapest price in the UK for the Eten Glofiish X500 anyway and we are offering you £30 off to boot!!

This offer is for our readers only and is valid until the end of November 2006.

Edit: Check out the latest X500 offen in this post.

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, Eten, Glofiish, Eten Glofiish X500, Tracy & Matt]

Eten Glofiish M700 Announced

E-TEN have officially announced the Glofiish M700.

In their press release they had this to say:

“Glofiish M700 Optimized for Messaging on the Move

E-TEN Information Systems continues to create innovative Pocket PC Phones for mobile business users. Its latest release, the glofiish M700, is the first E-TEN Pocket PC Phone to feature a sliding QWERTY keyboard making it the optimum companion for messaging on the move. The product also supports a full compliment of communications standards and is currently the only device in this category to offer both Wi-Fi and GPS. “

See the rest at MSMobileNews.

EDIT: You can now purchase the ETEN M700 from clove and with our offer you can save £25 on the purchase price! See this post for more info.

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, E-TEN, glofiish, E-TEN Glofiish, Tracy & Matt]

Orange SPV M700 appears

The new Orange SPV M700 (aka HTC Trinity) has put in an appearance in the latest Orange catalogue in the ‘Coming Soon’ section.

We’re not sure what they mean by ‘coming soon’ but hopefully it will be available by Christmas!

Orange SPV M700 Specification

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, Tracy & Matt, Orange, M700, HTC Trinity, SPV, Orange SPV M700]

Orange M3100/HTC TyTN camera issues

Over the past week I’ve had no less than four people email me about problems that they are having with the camera on their HTC TyTN or Orange M3100.

According to their reports, when trying to use the camera they are presented with the following error message: “Can not start camera! Can not start camera!” (the message is repeated twice) and then the camera application quits.

Apparantly the problem is not resolved by rebooting the handset.

I’d like to hear from anyone else that’s experiencing this problem especially if you know how to resolve it! Not having seen this problem myself I’m not able to offer any advice, I’m assuming that a hard reset would cure it but that seems rather drastic.

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, HTC, M3100, HTC Hermes, HTC TyTN, SPV, Orange SPV M3100, Tracy & Matt]

Exclusive HTC TyTN deal

One post that continues to be very popular on the site is our HTC TyTN review. So we teamed up with the nice people at Clove to bring you an exclusive deal.

All you have to do is type MTBHTCNOV06 into the voucher box on the order form once you have selected to buy the TyTN and £10 will be deducted at the checkout stage. To visit the TyTN on the Clove site click here.

This offer is for our readers only and is valid until the end of November 2006.

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, HTC, M3100, HTC Hermes, HTC TyTN, SPV, Orange SPV M3100, Tracy & Matt]