News
I’ve just found out that tracyandmatt.co.uk has been nominated in ComputerWeekly.com’s IT Blog Awards 2008.
I have to say that this really is a very nice surprise to even be nominated so whoever is responsible for putting our name forward Tracy and I sincerely thank you, it’s things like this that make blogging worth while!
Looking at ComputerWeekly.com’s award page I see that we are up against several other excellent blogs, even my friend Jason Langridge is there!
If you enjoy reading our blog please could I ask you to show your support and click on the link below to vote for us. We’re in the ‘Wireless and mobile blogs’ category at the bottom of the vote form.
Thank you!
Posted By: Matt
[Post tag(s): smartphone blog, Pocket PC blog, Tracy & Matt]
When HTC unveiled the HTC Touch Diamond in May, they promised that it would be coming to North America later this year. Today Telus is announcing it will be the first carrier on thoe other side of the pond to carry the HTC Touch Diamond. With this announcement; “HTC continues our tradition of creating a family of devices, bringing the HTC Touch Diamond’s unique style and exceptional features to a number of form factors and wireless protocols.”
Telus will launch a CDMA version of the HTC Touch Diamond later this summer for $149.99 with a 3 year contract. To make the HTC Touch Diamond even more attractive, they offer subscribers very affordable unlimited data plans like $15 per month for unlimited email and IM, or $30 for unlimited email, IM and web browsing.
You can learn more about Telus and the HTC Touch Diamond at: http://promo.telusmobility.com/smartphones/index.html?landing=product&sku=DIAMOND
Note also the subtle design change of the HTC Touch Diamond on the Telus CDMA version.
Are three year contracts becoming common in Canada and the US? I honestly cant imagine ANY phone lasting three years!
Posted by: Matt
[Post tag(s): smartphone news, Pocket PC news, Tracy & Matt, telus, HTC, HTC Touch Diamond]
If like me you are eagerly awaiting the HTC Touch Pro (aka Raphael) then you might want to head over to Devicewire.com as the have just revealed the RRP of the HTC Touch Pro, £468.07 ex VAT or £549.99 inc VAT. It’s set to arrive on September 1st and, if you didn’t know already, it’ll add a QWERTY keyboard to the existing HTC Touch Diamond! You can now pre-order from Devicewire to ensure that you get yours on release day.
As I said above, the provisional release date of the Pro is September 1st but that’s certainly subject to change. Full details can be found HERE.
HTC Touch Pro specification:
Posted by: Matt
[Post tag(s): smartphone news, Pocket PC news, Tracy & Matt, raphael, HTC, HTC Touch Pro]
A few months ago we were invited to a Polaroid press event where we were one of the first to see their new instant digital printer the Polaroid PoGo.
Polaroid today made an official announcement about the PoGo which you can see below. We’re hoping to get our hands on one to review pretty soon too!
The magic of instant photos is going digital. Polaroid, the company that pioneered instant photography 60 years ago, is launching the first in a new line of digital instant photo products. Using a revolutionary, pocket-sized inkless printing process, the Polaroid PoGo™ Instant Mobile Printer, unlocks photos trapped on mobile phones and digital cameras.
For fans of the original Polaroid instant camera, the Polaroid PoGo™ Instant Mobile Printer, short for Polaroid-on-the-go, provides a new way to continue the magic of instant printed pictures, and is the biggest innovation for the brand since the commercial launch of the iconic instant film in 1948.
Weighing just eight ounces, the Polaroid PoGo™ Instant Mobile Printer uses a Bluetooth or USB connection to receive pictures and creates full-colour digital photos without the need for ink cartridges or ribbons. The pictures print in 60 seconds – instantly dry to the touch, removing the need to ‘shake it like a Polaroid picture’. “For decades, the name Polaroid has been synonymous with white-bordered pictures, although change and innovation have always been, and will continue to be, a key part of this business,” explains Tom Petters, Chairman and owner of Polaroid.
“Dr. Edwin Land, the founder of Polaroid, reinvented this company many times through its 70-year history – from polarized lenses to eyewear to the iconic instant camera,” said Petters. “With the Polaroid PoGo™ Instant Mobile Printer, we’re reinventing the magic of instant printed pictures for the 21st century.”
The Polaroid PoGo™ Instant Mobile Printer was exclusively unveiled by popular Hollyoaks actress, Leah Hackett, at PC World on London’s Tottenham Court Road today and will go on sale nationally tomorrow at retail outlets for £99 including PC World, selected Curry’s and John Lewis stores, Play.com and Amazon.com.
Polaroid PoGo™ products employ Zink™ Zero Ink™ Printing Technology from Zink Imaging, using a unique composite paper which houses cyan, yellow and magenta dye crystals in a protective coat. The millions of crystals embedded within the special Polaroid paper are colourless before printing, so the paper appears white. The secret to the process is the heat activation which brings the photos to life through colourising the crystals, printing high quality images in less time than a traditional Polaroid photo.
More than a decade in the making, the ZINK™ Zero Ink™ Printing Technology originally hatched within the research and development department of Polaroid, before spinning out as a separate company. As the company’s namesake innovation reaches the digital age, it’s only fitting that Polaroid will pioneer this inkless printing technology through its new digital instant printer.
Facts about Polaroid:
While the initial application for Polaroid was for sunglasses and scientific work, it has been key to many other products including LCD flat screen TVs
Just a few years after launching its portable DVD player, Polaroid achieves top ten rankings among global brands in other CE categories such as LCD TVs and digital cameras
Posted By: Matt
[Post tag(s): smartphone blog, Pocket PC blog, Tracy & Matt, Polaroid, Zink]
I just picked up a copy or Orange’s July catalog and discovered the HTC Touch Diamond now appears in the main section of phones available on contract. What’s more, the catalog says that the Diamond will be free on all contract worth £40+ per month. However, what it doesn’t say is whether this requires a 12, 18 or even a 24 month (do people sign up for 24 months?) contract in order to get it free. Assuming it’s 12 months then that really is an excellent deal when you consider the SIM-free price of the Diamond.
The other thing you’ll notice on the page scan above is that it states that the Diamond is ‘Mobile Instant Messenger Compatible’ – this clearly means that Orange have hobbled Windows Mobile again and removed Windows Live Messenger from the ROM.
You may recall, we discovered that Orange are planning to charge to use ‘Orange Messenger’. Costing we’ve hear will be: Unlimited use for £4 a month or £1 a day with Unlimited bundles. Or, if you’re not a regular user you can sign up to use it for 5p per message. At 5p per message that will soon become expensive!!
You may also notice in the scan below of the Diamond spec as listed in the catalog there is an error on the listed internal/external memory. Just in case you are buying from Orange – the Diamond doesn’t have a MicroSD card slot but has 4GB rather than the listed 256MB of internal storage. I also think that the listed 16.5 days of standby time is rather optimistic – I get about 2 days from my Diamond!
Posted by: Matt
[Post tag(s): smartphone news, Pocket PC news, Tracy & Matt, orange, HTC, HTC Touch Diamond]
HTC just released another ROM update for the HTC Touch Diamond the ROM is now available for download from the HTC website (htc.com) but only through the e-club.
As with other HTC ROM updates, in order to download the update you must have an HTC Touch Diamons and have registered it’s serial number through your e-club account. Once you have done this then the download will be available as a “Phone Software Update” in the “My Downloads” section of your account.
The download is just over 98MB in size and the update process takes around 20 minutes to perform. This is a full ROM update so EVERYTHING will be wiped from your Diamond (Internal Storage is Safe) during the upgrade so be sure to backup all of your important data before you begin the update process!
Updated in this ROM:
The other thing you’ll notice when you register your HTC Touch Diamond is that you can download a free copy of Sprite Backup. This allows you to copy all of you phone settings to a non-volatile memory area in order to restore the settings later. It’s probably a good idea to install Sprite Before upgrading the ROM and then restore after the update.
Thanks to Paul at MoDaCo for the heads up on the ROM!
Posted By: Matt
[Post tag(s): smartphone blog, Pocket PC blog, Tracy & Matt, HTC, TyTN II]
When we first heard that the HTC Touch Diamond came with only a 900mAh battery we, like many other people, questioned the descision to include such a low capacity battery and wondered if the battery life would suck.
Mind you, I have to say that I’m finding the Touch Diamond battery life to be pretty good and on par with my TyTN II giving me around two days use between charges.
However, when questioned about the battery life at the Diamond launch event HTC themselves commented that there was nothing wrong with the battery life but that there would be an extended battery made available soon!
Something of a mixed message there then.
As it happens though, ‘soon’ is now as eXpansys have the extended battery packs, including raplacement back cover, available for pre-order. The replacement extended battery is 1350mAh so offering a 50% increase over the standard battery.
You can pick up a standard battery from eXpansys for just under £41 and you can pre-order HERE.
You’ll notice that the replacement back maintains the angular design of the original back. Personally, as much as I like the look of the angled back, I’d really like to see someone come up with a replacement plain back. The angled back makes the Diamond wobbley!
Posted by: Matt
[Post tag(s): smartphone news, Pocket PC news, Tracy & Matt, HTC, HTC Touch Diamond]
Looks like Orange are moving a step closer to launching the HTC Touch Diamond as today the Diamond appeared on the Orange website as one of their coming soon phones.
I’ve also had a couple of emails from Orange employees saying that the Diamond has already started shipping to Orange retail stores so a June 30th release date could well be accurate!
Posted by: Matt
[Post tag(s): smartphone news, Pocket PC news, Tracy & Matt, orange, HTC, HTC Touch Diamond]
Here’s a post that definitely comes under the mega-bargain category.
I just received an email from eXpansys informing me of an amazing price drop on the Samsung SGH-i320. You may recall we reviewed the i320 about a year or so ago and for a while it was my device of choice. It’s a really neat design and a small, easily pocket-able form factor. Battery life is pretty decent and what’s more it weighs a mere 95grams which is unheard of for a Windows Mobile Smartphone.
Ok so the i320 isn’t cutting edge technology any more, it’s WM5 and there’s no 3G BUT for under £100 you probably cant go far wrong. On top of that, if you’ve bought anything from eXpansys in the past and have a £10 discount voucher you can use that on this purchase too!
Go and check it out for yourself on the eXpansys website and bag yourself a bargain!
Samsung SGH-i320 Specification
Posted by: Matt
[Post tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, Tracy & Matt, Samsung SGH-i320, expansys, Samsung]
Just as a quick follow up to my pst a few weeks ago about the HTC Touch Diamond appearing in the June eddition of the Orange catalog in the ‘Coming Soon’ section (see below) I’ve just been told by one of the Orange business account managers that the Diamond will be released by Orange on Monday 30th June.
We believe that, as with other popular new handsets, Orange will only offer the Diamond to business customers initially. Although this is as yet unconfirmed it does sound about right as previous HTC handsets, the Orange M700 and HTC TyTN II were only offered to business customers for about the first month after launch.
I’m seeking confirmation at the moment and will share further news as I get it.
Posted by: Matt
[Post tag(s): smartphone news, Pocket PC news, Tracy & Matt, orange, HTC, HTC Touch Diamond]
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