News

New HTC Sense Announced with HTCsense.com

Along side the brand new Desires, unveiled the latest version of HTC Sense with a lot of cool features. And according to HTC, Sense is not a UI or an overlay, but rather something else, maybe magical? Running on Android 2.2, the new Sense brings features such as cache data for maps, a digital compass and it cuts down launch time to just 10 seconds! It also brings HTCsense.com. Lauching next month, HTCsense.com is similar to MobileMe for the iPhone, as it enables users of  owners to backup of texts and contacts, locate their lost phone on a map and even remote wipe the Device straight from the website 
See a full list of the new features below:

Seesmic for Windows Phone 7

Not long to go now until we get an official Windows Phone 7 release date and in the meantime it’s great that we are slowly getting to see more and more of what we can expect once the platform is made public.

The below video is a prime example. Seesmics Twitter client is pretty huge on the Android and BlackBerry platforms and the developers have been working on a version for WP7.

As you will see it looks pretty sweet and totally different to on the existing OS’s.

Check out the video after the break.

HTC’s Take on WP7, And Oh My, it is Beautiful!

If this turns out to be real, I think HTC have got themselves an instant hit. As blog MobilityDigest have managed to grab hold of and post a video of what appears to be a running version of HTC’s implementation of Windows Phone 7. Codenamed, the HTC Portal, it is supposed similar to HTC Sense that is running on it’s Android phones, but not as customised. WP7 still has all the tiles that we are used to, but now we have some new gorgeous eye candy with HTC’s take on it. Such as the versions of the notes app, stocks app and the weather app. One thing I’m kinda confused about though, is the flower petal app. Not really sure why it is there, and pretty pointless in my opinion.

Microsoft has always said from when they announced WP7, that they were going to have tight control over the hardware and software. And ever since HTC was announced as a hardware partner, they’ve tried to customise WP7 heavily. But as you can clearly see, Microsoft has obviously stamped down on that, and limited HTC to the HTC Portal. Even though it may not be as customised as it is on Android, it is certainly prettier.

Anyway, check out the videos below and please excuse me, I need to go change my trousers.

phonesdirect.com News

phonesdirect.com Ltd are pleased to announce the immediate launch of their brand new website, phonesdirect.com.

Established at the start of 2010 and based in Fareham, Hampshire, phonesdirect.com has been born out of recognition for a growing need in the marketplace for a specialised and affordable smartphone provider.

Danny Key, Business Development Manager of phonesdirect.com said

HTC Announces Desire HD and Desire Z

The rumours were true! The successors to the Desire are here in the form of the Desire HD and the Desire Z. Announced earlier today in London, these phones are HTC’s latest and greatest phones to date. The Desire HD is the european version of the very successful EVO 4G on the Sprint network in the US, and the Desire Z is the HTC Sense version of the G2 on T-Mobile USA. And both come with the latest version of Android and HTC Sense, with HTCsense.com, that enables backups of texts and call logs, remote wipe and the ability to locate your phone.

Read on for details of the phones…

HTC event coverage

Had a lot of tweets from many of you regarding today’s HTC event. James and I recorded a LOT of video for you today and I’ll be editing and uploading that for as soon as I can. We’ve just left the event and are heading over to the after-show party. I’ll be home late this evening but will upload video as soon as I can.

In the mean time, have a look at some of the photos we took below. Don’t forget, you can also replay the Live Blog any time too!

Dell show off dual-core hybrid tablet

Fresh off of the presses from IDF is news of a forthcoming Dell tablet hybrid armed with a dual-core Atom processor.  Hybrid you ask?  Yes it seems it’s another Transformer netbook, allowing you to flip the body and hide the keyboard.  It shows the device running Windows 7 with a selection of big, finger friendly media icons for those not wanting to get PC about things, plus it certainly looks like a capacitive screen of around 10".  Not much more is known yet but it certainly looks exciting and quite powerful compared to other netbooks.

Source – UMPCPortal

More shots after the break:

Blackberry Torch Available for Pre-Order

RIM’s first slider phone, the Blackberry Torch 9800, is now available for pre-order on Vodafone. But it is going cost a small fortune! As for a £20 a month contract you will need to shell out £400 just for the phone! And the only way you can get out of the £400 is by paying £40 a month, and did I mention that all contracts are 24 months? Oh, and to top it off, the data cap is at a measly 500MB on all contracts. RIM and Vodafone really got you by the balls on this one!

But if you still want the Torch after the insane cost, you do get some nice features. Such as a 3.2″ capacitive touchscreen, OS 6 with a real browser and universal search, the famous Blackberry keyboard but in slide format this time and a 5MP camera.

Anyway, if you do pre-order today, you should expect it to ship by September 27th.

Posted by Patrick

[ Post Tags: RIM, Blackberry, Blackberry Torch, Blackberry 9800, OS 6, tracyandmatt.co.uk, Slider ]

Nokia giving N8’s away! (For £35 a month)

No Nokia haven’t fallen on such hard times that they are giving their latest handsets away, but three of the major operators (Vodafone, T-Mobile and O2) have confirmed you can walk out of their doors with a shiny new N8 without handing over a penny.  The catch?  Well, you’ll instead hand over £35 a month to them for the next 2 years so ok, it’s not quite the offer it first appears.  In fact this is right in the mid to high-end handset sweet spot of £30-35 / 24, putting the N8 up against big Android players like the Galaxy S and Desire, but still representing better value than the year old iPhone 3GS.  At that price, it may even have to defend it’s 12mp Symbian^3 OLED screen equipped self against a kicking from the soon-to-be-revealed Windows Phone 7 devices.  This quarter is shaping up to be one of the most interesting in mobile tech for years.

Posted by: Ian

Nokia News

Today is the start of Nokia World being held in London. As well as the Nokia Development Summit on Wednesday the next two days will consist of keynotes from Nokia top smartphone executives, some product info and some hands on time with some new devices.

However Nokia Mobile Solutions leader Anssi Vanjoki has decided to resign which comes as a total surprise.  Although he will work a six month notice this means we could see some changes in the future from Nokia.

This was the official statement: