News

RIM Announces 4th Quarter Earnings

As the title of the post states, RIM (makers of BlackBerry Smartphones) have released their Q4 earnings for Fiscal 2010.

As you will see in the press release below, although market share for the iPhone and Android is growing, BlackBerry users are growing too and by quite a lot!

WATERLOO, ONTARIO–(Marketwire – March 31, 2010) – Research In Motion Limited (RIM) (NASDAQ:RIMM)(TSX:RIM), a world leader in the mobile communications market, today reported results for the three months and fiscal year ended February 27, 2010 (all figures in U.S. dollars and U.S. GAAP).

Annual Highlights:

HTC Desire OTA ROM update

Just getting news in from a few tipsters that the HTC Desire has seen it’s first OTA update. You may recall James covered the news on the HTC Desire ROM situation last week and we’ve had a few updates status updates throughout the week.

My understanding is that the OTA ROM update takes us from 1.15.405.3  to  1.15.405.4

No I am guessing that this is to mop up any Desire units that made it out before Google approved the latest ROM on the 26th as the build we had on the review devices was already 1.15.405.4. I’m also guessing this will do nothing for T-Mobile or other carrier branded handsets as we know that the T-Mobile version was an earlier 1.15.110.10 on those.

What’s changed in this ROM update then? I’d say very little given its minor revision number but if anyone out there notices anything then please let me know!

Posted by: Matt

[ Post Tags: HTC Desire, Android 2.1, unboxing video, tracyandmatt.co.uk ]

Vodafone UK Exclusive: HTC Legend Pre-Order Opens

Vodafone UK’s Android April is fast approaching and customers can now pre-order the HTC Legend Smartphone, which will launch exclusively on the UK’s best network.

The HTC Legend handset will be pre-loaded with Vodafone 360 apps, giving customers access to services like Vodafone Music and MyWeb, in addition to full access to the Android Marketplace with over 30,000 applications and the Android operating system.

The HTC Legend boasts a unique design with a smooth, continuous surface, sculpted from a single aluminium block into a seamless compact frame.  The advanced technology featured in the HTC Legend is cleverly hidden to ensure the phone is lightweight and the battery and SIM card slide perfectly into place within the unibody design.

HTC Legend arrives tomorrow with Devicewire

As the title states devicewire.com will be receiving there HTC Legend stock tomorrow and this means that if you would like one they can have it to you before 1PM on the 1st April. If the Legend is up your street you had better get a pre-order in sharpish as these will be flying out the door me thinks!

Follow this link to get your order submitted.

Not sure which to buy, Legend or Desire? Check out our full reviews of both devices. Make yourself comfortable though. They are quite a read!

Posted by: James

Post Tags: tracyandmatt.co.uk,devicewire.com,HTC Legend

Orange to get the HTC Desire – in black!

I’m pleased to let you know that Orange are jumping on the band wagon and will be stocking the HTC Desire soon. As you will see in the tweet sent by Orange PR manager and Xmas karaoke star (sorry Conor!) Orange will also be offering a Black version of the device.

This now gives Orange a fantastic line up of smartphones as the HTC Desire joins the iPhone, BlackBerry Bold 9700 and the forthcoming Sony Ericsson Xperia X10.

The Desire is not yet showing on the ‘coming soon’ page on the Orange website but if Conor says its coming, it is! For those of you that are due an upgrade or thinking of switching to Orange the dilemma you now have is which phone to get. It may be a hard decision.

Nice choices Orange 🙂

Posted by: James

HTC Desire supply issues

What’s going on with these HTC Desires. One minute we are being told they will be available on a certain day and five minutes later we are told they will not be. Frustrating or what?

Yesterday Clove Technology released the following statement:

We have heard this afternoon, 26 March, that the launch of the HTC Desire is likely to slip back to the 7^th April.

This is of course not the news ANY of us wished to hear and we as a reseller are as frustrated as you the customer about this delay.

This will affect ALL UK unlocked stock of these devices, so no other reseller will receive their shipments any quicker. Please be aware some may simply not update their website as quickly about this issue, so do not let this confuse you.

We will be working with HTC and their UK distribution to keep you informed of progress on the situation and will of course be pushing to get the stock as soon as we can.

We are already receiving a huge number of emails to clarify the status on individual orders, which is putting a huge strain on our resources, so please do not unless essential email for updates. We will endeavour to give everyone updates as soon as we get them by emails such as this.

This is the reason I think it’s all gone belly up (unless I have got it wrong)!

It would appear that it wasn’t until Friday morning (26th) that the final ROM was confirmed by Google. The HTC Desire review units (of which we have one) were re-flashed and then despatched Friday afternoon to bloggers and reviewers.

This means that all the HTC Desires that are currently sitting in a warehouse somewhere in the UK waiting to be sent to distributors etc need re-flashing. These were due to be on sale on Monday 29th but its going to take a few days to get the new ROMs on all the units.

T-Mobile however have the HTC Desire for sale now as they have their own ROM on the device and this was authorised by Google clearly at an earlier date.

I just tried to buy a Desire from the T-Mobile website and I got as far as paying for it and there was no mention of any supply issues.

So if you want a HTC Desire over the next few days you only have two options. Option one is to get it on T-Mobile. Option two is to beat up Matt and nick his one!

If we do get any developments we will be sure to let you know.

Did you like the Unboxing video? If you would like to discuss the device with us please feel free to join us on the forum.

Posted by: James

It’s HTC Desire time!

This is the one we have been waiting for!

The HTC Desire is now in our possession and over the coming days Matt will be posting the unboxing video and also putting together an in depth and extensive review of the device.

We must however point out a couple of things regarding the Desires out there at the moment, although we certainly do not wish to discredit anyone else’s reviews.

We have been informed by a reliable source that some HTC Desires have been out for review for several days now, but these devices did not come from the same source as ours. These early versions did not contain the final ROM that we have been waiting for and I am reliably informed that those devices will have essential features missing. They have also had problems with the OS crashing and serious battery issues which is clearly down to the fact that Google had not completed the ROMS when the devices were shipped.

The batch of HTC Desires that we have had ours from have been in the UK for over a week now but were unable to be released pending the flashing of the final ROM. Its been a frustrating week waiting for Google to authorise the ROM but now its done the fun can begin.

Stay tuned to tracyandmatt.co.uk over the weekend as we will be bringing you some demo videos as well as the usual stuff. Please do interact with us via the forum too!

Posted by: James

HTC Legend and Desire stock update

If you are waiting to order a sim free HTC Desire or Legend then the good news is that next week both will be available from devicewire.com

The HTC Desire will be in stock on Monday and the Legend from Wednesday.

If you have not placed an order yet I suggest you head on over to devicewire.com as I have a slight suspicion both of these handsets may be rather popular.

If you have not read our review of the HTC Legend you can do so here. The Desire review will hopefully be done before the device is released however HTC have not released any review devices yet.

In addition to ordering online you can call devicewire free on 0800 198 0000 or alternatively use their ‘Live Chat’ service on the site.

Posted by: James

Samsung i9000 Galaxy S on video

Yesterday we brought you the announcement details of Samsungs new flagship Android device, the i9000 Galaxy S.

The guys at mobileburn managed to get a hands on with the device and below you will see their video.

As you will see, the Super AMOLED screen on the Galaxy S is truly amazing and possibly the best screen we have seen to date. Although the technology is the same as the Samsung Wave, that I had a chance to play with at MWC, the Galaxy S has a massive 4 inch capacitive screen to wins on size.

Being able to video record in HD and then watch the video back in HD on that screen will be the deciding factor for some perspective buyers. I know the below video will not do the screen justice but it looks unbelievably vibrant.

This is going to sell like hot cakes when it’s released this summer.

Enjoy the video.

Samsung announce the Galaxy S

Today Samsung have announced what sounds like a beast of a phone, the Galaxy S.

The Galaxy S GT-I9000 has a 4-inch Super AMOLED display running at WVGA 800 x 480 resolution, together with a 5-megapixel autofocus camera, 1GHz processor and the company’s own custom UI.

The camera is also capable of video recording 720p HD at 30 frames per second. Fingers crossed it will do a better job than the Sony Ericsson Vivaz did that I reviewed last week.

As well as that nice big super AMOLED screen the Galaxy S also comes with A-GPS, Bluetooth 3.0 USB 2.0 and Wi-Fi b/g/n. Onboard storage will be either 8 or 16gb and external storage of up to 32gb, nice.

Sounds like a serious contender for the Google Nexus One and HTC Desire?