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HTC announce the Desire S

There really is no denying the popularity of the HTC Desire range. First announced at MWC this time last year the original HTC Desire built upon the Nexus One (the two handsets virtually the same hardware) but added to that HTC’s own Sense user interface making the Android operating system a lot less stark and arguably more accessibly to more potential customers.

The desire was so popular in fact that HTC couldn’t make them fast enough in the summer of last year. Problems with the supply of the AMOLED display from Samsung further added to the issues and led HTC to change the Desire to SuperLCD displays instead.

There have been a couple of other ‘variants’ of the Desire, the Desire Z and the Desire HD. HTC are now making the most of their investment in that name and are bringing us the HTC Desire S. I’m not sure why all new products seem to be getting the ‘S’ suffix this year but here’s another. Is it like car registration numbers??

Today in Barcelona, Spain HTC have announced their new flagship Smartphone, the Desire S. As a successor to the popular and award winning HTC Desire, the new HTC Desire S blends stunning design with power and speed. Inspired by the HTC Legend’s aluminum design, the HTC Desire S is sculpted out of a single block of aluminum making it feel solid and natural in your hand. With Qualcomm’s new 1GHz 8255 Snapdragon processor the HTC Desire S offers snappy performance and power. It offers front and back camera, High Definition video recording and the 3.7 inch WVGA display presents multimedia content brilliantly.

See the full spec and more images below:

HTC announce the HTC Flyer (tablet)

Well we were pretty sure it was about to happen but just moments ago HTC made their first tablet device official. It’s called the HTC Flyer. The name has been out there for a while but the exact specification has been a matter of speculation for a while. Fortunately you can take a look at the full spec further down this post.

In essence the HTC Flyer is a 7" Android tablet running, at launch, with 2.4 Gingerbread. The screen is 600×1024, good for web browsing in landscape and it has a new HTC Sense overlay designed specifically for this tablet.

There’s also a special stylus for precision entry so you’ll be able to write on the screen or use your fingers, the UI will know the difference between the pen and your fingers.

Of the 7″ tablets we’ve seen so far this one is the most attractive and with HTC Sense is stands out from the rest of the Android tablets.

More details follow:

HTC announce 6 new products at MWC

Last year at MWC HTC announced three new handsets, the HTC Legend and HTC Desire went on to be extremely popular devices. This year though, HTC have literally doubled their efforts in announcing 6 new devices at MWC 2011.

The new products fall in to three categories:

• Evolution products that build upon existing platforms and take them to a new level. These include the HTC Desire S, HTC Incredible S and HTC Wildfire S.
• Social products; the HTC ChaCha and HTC Salsa billed by many as the ‘Facebook phones’
• Finally the HTC Flyer, HTC’s first entry in to the Tablet market.

There will be a full press conference held at MWC at 8:45am today, these handsets were all under embargo until that time but a few naughty people have broken that embargo so it’s go, go, go!

We’ve got full details of each new products coming up in individual posts so keep your eyes peeled!

Posted by: Matt

HTC’s press event tomorrow

Tomorrow is the day that all you HTC fans have been waiting for. At around 08.45, GMT, HTC kick of their press conference at Mobile Word Congress in Barcelona. Our man Gareth will be at the event to get the low down and some hands on time with the new devices that are being announced.

There has been much speculation about what HTC has up its sleeves for us this year and without giving anything away i will just urge you to keep an eye on the site tomorrow morning.

Full details from the press event will be live at 08.45 UK time.

Posted by: James

Qualcomm announces Snapdragon superchip

It wasn’t long ago that the latest dual-core processor to join the Snapdragon family was announced – the APQ8060 was revealed to be the brains behind the new HP webOS TouchPad. Their newest chip though is an entirely different beast; the APQ8064 is a quad-core processor capable of scaling up to 2.5GHz! That’s not all – the 28nm design also includes a quad-core Adreno 320 graphics processor, which apparently has 15 times the performance.

That might already be jawdropping, but this is the real kick – the APQ8064 has 12 times the overall performance while drawing 75% less power than the original Snapdragons. Qualcomm have also thrown in some extras too – support for dual 20MP cameras, 3D displays and video recording, PCIe, USB, WiFi, GPS, NFC and almost every other technological acronym you can think of.

The expected launch date of mid 2012 is a long way away, so keep dreaming for now!

Posted by: Vince

Acer’s ICONIA TAB A500

Mobility and innovation, which have always been part of Acer’s DNA, now find a new form of expression in the new Acer ICONIA TAB A500, a 10.1-inch tablet designed to maximize content enjoyment, providing the same rich multimedia, gaming and Web experience you can enjoy on your home PC with the added user-friendliness of multi-touch technology.

Huawei announces new devices at MWC 2011

More announcements this morning from MWC, this time Huawei with news of a new handset, tablet, WiFi Dongle and USB Dongle.

The new IDEOS X3 looks to be a great little entry level handset, complete with Android Gingerbread and claiming to be the thinnest 3.2″ Smartphone.

The IDEOS S7 tablet offering 3G and WiFi capability in just a 12.5mm thick platform.

More details after the break.

Sony Ericsson press event at MWC

Our man Gareth has just arrived at the Sony Ericsson press event at MWC. Things kick off at 6pm UK time and we’ll be trying to keep things as live as possible via this post so be sure to keep your eyes peeled!

We’re not expecting too many surprises from SE this year as many of SE line up for the year have been leaked over the past few weeks. We’re expecting a look at the Xperia Play and the Arc for sure. In fact 3 have already sent out a press release this evening stating that the Xperia Play will be available on their network.

Timeline below:

Mobile World Congress 2011 – Let the fun begin

Unless you have had your head in the sand you will know that Mobile World Congress kicks off in Barcelona, Spain, tomorrow. Here in Europe it is the mobile event of the year where all the major manufactures announce new products and services.

Our man Gareth will be at MWC over the next four days to attend all the press events and get hands on with the new devices that are announced.

As well as the usual press events Gareth will have one to one sessions with many of our favorite manufactures to not only get some super video footage but also to ask questions like a proper interview!

There have been plenty of rumors and leaks over the last week or two but now we only have 24-48 hours left before we finally get to see what new Smartphones we can expect to be reviewing over the coming months.

Rather exciting if you ask me so keep your eyes on the site and Twitter over the next few days. We will have all the press releases go live as soon as we receive them and as long as the internet works in Barcelona we will also have some of Gareth’s video footage too.

Posted by: James

Everything Everywhere to launch branded stores

Orange and T-Mobile parent brand to launch on the high street for first time on February 18 as the second stage in branding trial commences.

Everything Everywhere is introducing its branding in the high street for the first time by opening five branded branded stores over the next month, offering what it calls a “21st century” retail customer experience.

Everything Everywhere, the parent company of T-Mobile and Orange in the UK, will open the five “trial” stores over the next month with the first opening in Altrincham (February 18) with Bishops Stortford, Eltham Lowerstoft and Evesham opening two weeks later.