Mighty Gadget Blog: The latest technology news & reviews in the UK

HTC MANIA OR WHAT??? Now this is the icing on the cake for HTC at Mobile World Congress, not only with the Desire and HD mini have we seen the potential of two great new mobiles but then they saved the best till last with this bad boy.

Like Apple’s MacBook Pro these smartphones are made from a single block of Aluminium set with black plastic making them look the dog’ danglies. Rocking a similar shape to last years Hero phone, the bottom of which protruded like Jimmy Hill’s chin, has been made a little less obvious and has been given a new optical trackball for extra responsive use.

Housed within the lovely metal is the usual gubbins of 3G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth running the latest Android: Eclair 2.1 OS and HTC’s own “Sense” UI. It also sports a 5MP camera with a flash so you can view decent quality pics on its AMOLED screen.

What puts this one above the other two is the raw speed that the phone can function thanks to the UI. Multitouch is available allowing the user to flick quickly between the Android screens and packs full of features for quick and easy social networking use. Again due in April this could be one to watch!

Now here we have another phone from HTC which doesn’t seem to be breaking too many barriers by appearing to be an updated version of one of its current line of mobiles. Like The Nokia N97 got its Mini, this is the HD2 but mini.Originally this phone was going to be named the “Photon” it’s one of the only phones HTC managed to keep under wraps before the congress. If you remember the HD2 was a very solid good all-round phone, maybe a little big but HTC again appears to have delivered that in a smaller form.

Running Windows Mobile 6.5.3(hasn’t 7 just been announced at the congress? :s) in conjunction with HTC’s Sense UI the HD mini has a 3.2” HVGA capacitive touchscreen more than capable of multitouch functions. It also has a a 5MP camera on the back but unfortunately it lacks a flash so no snaps in the dark i am afraid, well lit areas only.

Other exciting features lie in the software of the HD mini. Firstly it can share its 3G internet goodness to other Wi-Fi enabled wireless devices, acting as its own little Wi-Fi hotspot, WOW! This feature is exclusive to Windows Mobile, HTC phones. Another funky little addition is something that HTC calls “Manner Mode”. When you pick up your phone your ear-shattering ringtone quietens down. Its little touches like this that make HTC such a great competitor in todays mobile market. Like the Desire we’re looking at a Q2 release.

HTC were busy yesterday in Barcelona showing that the new boys in town mean business with a bunch of great phones will be hitting our shelves in the coming months which will make you think twice about getting an iPhone or Nokia.

The Nexus One appeared to be the next best thing but didn’t seem to live up to the task with reported faults and poor reviews, however HTC have come up with the Desire. Now basically it looks like a Nexus but HTC have said its got a “different construction” basically I think that means they’ve ironed out the problems.

Running Android 2.1 with a 3.7” OLED screen being run with Qualcomm’s 1GHz Snapdragon it has also been given HTC’s new optical trackpad. The main difference however is the UI. Flash Lite 4 software, a little menu that pops up in it’s browser allowing cut/copy/paste/translate and wiki text to mention a few tweaks. This phone will be available on Vodafone(who announced shortly after the release of the phone it will be carrying the three HTC phones we will talk about today) around the April/May time.

Google’s “Nexus One” phone has been stirring up plenty of interest in the past few weeks, not only as Google’s next big phone after the slightly disappointing one that was on T-Mobile not so long back (apparently this is the phone that should’ve been) and the apparent lack of originality in the name(according to the Philip K. Dick family estate saying they stole it from the author’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? AKA Blade Runner). However all this aside a little birdie(a Voda spokesman to Engadget) let slip that the release will be “imminent” and should be shipping “within weeks”

The UK will be the first country in Europe to receive the Nexus One with the rest of Europe having to wait till later in the year.

The Nexus One is a collaboration between HTC and Google and from what we’ve seen it looks nice and on paper looks………nice!!! Powered by Snapdragon, OLED touchscreen, 5MP camera, Android 2.1 OS(animated wallpapers, lovely window transitions……..nice!) This could really be the next best rival to the iPhone. Hopefully when we get the full officialness we can let you all know the exact prices and dates!!

It seems that HTC the Taiwanese mobile company will continue to use the Android platform with a supposed 20 new phones on the horizon. With the success of the Hero and the well reviewed HD2 this can only be a good thing.

The rumours have come from a text thread inside the new Android 2.1 ROM. Some of the names within have been seen before but some new have shown up. Since the first phone released the T-Mobile G1, HTC have used the Google made OS in its phones. I personally have not used one but with the sheer volume of new phones using and big mobile manufacturers switching to it, it must be a solid performing OS leading to so many great reviews of Android phones.

The full list of names within the ROM are Bahamas, Bravo, DesireC, Dragon, Dream, Espresso, Halo, HeroCT, HeroC, Hero, Huangshan, Incredible, Legend, Liberty, Memphis, Paradise, PassionC, Passion, Sapphire and Supersonic. Obviously some of the names will be phones probably based in the East but it shows HTC’s future in the Android Mobile business.

Source : T3

PC World are reporting that HTC will ship "at least" three smartphones this year that use Google's Android software.

HTC, already the largest maker of smartphones that use the Windows Mobile OS, was first to the market with an Android-based smartphone last year, when it teamed up with Google and T-Mobile to launch the G1 in the U.S.

The Taiwanese handset maker last month announced its second Google phone, the HTC Magic, or G2 as some are calling it. The handset is being sold first in Europe by Vodafone.

HTC will sell at least two more Google phones this year.

At the sidelines of a Merrill Lynch technology conference in Taipei, HTC CEO Peter Chou was asked whether or not a report saying HTC will market five Android-based handsets this year was true.

HTC will launch "at least" three, he replied, declining further comment on the matter.

I just wish someone would bloody hurry up and release a good phone already! I have been due an upgrade for 2 months now but holding out for the Palm Pre!

HTC has just gone and announced updates to their ever-popular handsets, the Touch Diamond and Touch Pro. The Touch Diamond2, as you might have guessed, is the new Touch Diamond. It adds a larger display (3.2" WVGA with touch sensitive zoom bar), a new and improved TouchFLO 3D and 5 megapixel camera. All in an updated and refined exterior casing.

The Touch Pro2 is the real attention grabber. The Touch Pro2 is a mash-up of the TyTN II, the Touch HD, and the Touch Pro. It will include a tilting screen, 3.6″ WVGA screen, brand new TouchFLO 3D which apparently uses HTC’s Straight Talk which combines all communication into a fluid UI.

Both Handsets are due to appear around Q2 in Europe.

Images of the HTC Touch Pro2

Image of the HTC Touch Diamond

Press release after the jump

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Neowin (via Wmpoweruser) are reporting that the first Windows Mobile 6.5 ROM has leaked and is available for Blue Angel (O2 XDA IIs, Qtek 9090, T-Mobile MDA III) devices. Apparently the ROM is only beta so it is likely to be missing a few features.

The rom appears to be publicly available via XDA-developers:

Windows Mobile 6.5 features include:

• MSTOUCH(UPDATE)
• TouchRecognizer
• Touch LockScreen
• IE6[IE Mobile8.12Pro]2009 Only for 6.5
• CMHome For WM6.5PRO
• Live For WM6.5

Microsoft are set to unveil WM 6.5 next month at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Microsoft are also developing Windows Mobile 7 and this is expected for  release in the second half of this year. However it has already been delayed and was planned for release the first quarter of this year. I am sure we will see a few more delays between now and the planned release date.

I have previously mentioned (several times) that I was disappointed with Windows Mobile 5 and version 6 as I found them both very buggy with frequent crashes requiring software or worse hardware resets. I have not tried 6.1 but I do hope the new versions improve a lot. I like to see a bit of competition between manufactures and this year does look good for smartphones.

A video of Windows Mobile 6.5 running on BA is after the jump.

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