Mobile Phones

The HTC Rose or S740 has been approved by the FCC.

HTC still believes in Windows Mobile and as all recent HTC devices inlcudeing and HTC Rose are based on this platform. The rose comes with a hybrid keybad/keyboard, GPS, WiFi and a 3.2 megapixel camera. 

  Add a slide-out full keyboard and a keypad and you get the Rose. You’d also have to remove the touchscreen to get a Rose. That last part you might not like!

The Rose is ready to be sold in the USA. All it needs now is some 3G support for the US since it only has quad-band (850/900/1800/1900Mhz) GSM/EDGE for now.

via mobilewhack.com

It seems HTC will surpass its own expectations to sell about 700,000 T-Mobile G1 Android phones. The first Android based phone was very well received by the public and especially by T-Mobile’s subscribers.

T-Mobile G1 has already sold out during the pre-order period which means we might expect some iPhone-like ques in front of T-Mobile stores when the G1 arrives.

Rumors say that about 60,000 G1 phones have been sold already.

Whether this is some kind of marketing step or a reality we will see very soon.

T-Mobile G1 got official making a lot of noise around here, but wait is the noise worth it? Look at the previous post and you’ll see full list of T-Mobile G1 technical specifications and among them you will notice lack of one of the most important things in phones.

Amazon store has 6 milion DRM-free songs for T-Mobile customers, but HTC made G1 just doesn’t have 3.5mm headphone jack available for you to listen that music.
It seems that’s an old problem with the HTC. They tend to forget about the music jack in their models. The Touch HD is the only exception so far.

That means you should buy an USB dongle to mediate a connection between your faithful headphones and the G1. And the adapter won’t arrive by the time the G1 gets released.

via engadget.com
 

Here are some more specs of T-Mobile G1, thanks to android community

Processor: Qualcomm MSM7201A, 528 MHz
Operating System: Android
ROM: 256 MB / RAM: 192 MB
microSD memory card slot
Dimensions: (LxWxT) 117.7 mm x 55.7 mm x 17.1 mm
Weight: 158 grams
Display: 3.2-inch TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive screen with 320 x 480 (HVGA) resolution
HSDPA/WCDMA:
Europe: 2100 MHz
US:1700/2100 MHz
Up to 7.2 Mbps down-link (HSDPA) and 2 Mbps up-link (HSUPA) speeds
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
Keyboard Slide-out 5-row QWERTY keyboard
built-in GPS receiver and map software
Bluetooth 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate
Wi-Fi: IEEE 802.11b/g
HTC ExtUSB (11-pin mini-USB 2.0 and audio jack in one)
3.2 megapixel camera
Battery: 150 mAh Lithium-ion
Talk time: Up to 350 minutes for WCDMA / Up to 406 minutes for GSM
Standby time: Up to 402 hours for WCDMA / Up to 319 hours for GSM
Digital Compass, Motion Sensor

and more photos of the same T-Mobile G1

Ok! We have it! Meat with HTC-made T-Mobile G1 with pre-orders available on dedicated official webiste of T-Mobile. It will be available for shipping in US stores by October 22 and will cost 179$ with a pay as you go contract of 2 years.

T-Mobile will sell unlimited voice and messaging plans for G1 at 35$ on top of their regular voice plans. As was reported T-Mobile G1 will be SIM locked and no prepaid service will be available.
In UK, T-Mobile G1 will be available in the beginning of November, and in other T-Mobile’s European markets (Germany, Austria, Czech Republic and the Netherlands) the first quarter of 2009. In Europe T-Mobile G1 will cost not more then iPhone 3G.

- Its technical specifications are pretty nice for now days : a 3.2 inch touchscreen display, QWERTY keyboard, quad-band GSM/EDGE and dual-band UMTS support, GPS, Wi-Fi and a built-in accelerometer. Camera of T-Mobile G1 won’t support video recording and as was supposed before Bluetooth will support only mono headset (no stereo and no file transfers). The Bluetooth functionality will be enhanced later on.

- And now the most interesting part of this phone. T-Mobile G1 is the first Android device to see daylight. The G1 will make use of all Google online services such as Gmail (with push support), YouTube, Google Talk, Google Maps with Street View, AmazonMP3 marketplace for affordable DRM-free tracks and finally, Google’s own Android Market, which would supply the handset with third-party applications over-the-air. Somthing unique that G1 offers is the embedded compass, which syncs with Maps Street View allowing live 360-degree cityscape browsing just by turning the handset around.

T-Mobile G1 lacks a lot of features but it’s open to third-party developers.

To take a look at design we must say that it’s not impressing. Android OS looks a really lovely base, the first hardware to be based looks ugly. T-Mobile G1 reminds SideKick.

Can’t say that our hopes of one year came true. We see a poor iPhone replica with a QWERTY keyboard.

It seems Google must choose another producer instead of HTC to make its phone more attractive.

We’ll wait more.
 

Mobile market conditions studies suggests that Google, together with T-Mobile by the end of the last quarter of this year, may sell up to 400 000 devices with Android OS. In the market of smartphones that could amount up to 4% of total sales during this period, and it must be said that this is a very big figure for a new device.

Google is a strong company that has enormous potential and influence on the market that could allow it to «unleash» virtually any device, and achieve big sales. However, in order to Android Phone to be competitive in the current market of smartphones, it is necessary that its retail price be below $200, a navigation menu, and applications were no less simple than those of competitors.

Many eagerly await the release of Android Phone. It seems that unpleasant surprises - as a delay of release date to next year - are excluded.

via analytical company Strategy Analytics

update : official announcement  and specs on T-Mobile G1

T-Mobile G1 the same HTC Dream, which will become the first phone to support the operating system Android, will be sold in the US for T-Mobile customers with a contract for $199, repeating pricing tactics of iPhone. This was reported today by The Wall Street Journal.

While it is not known what kind of contract will be offered for a new phone, which is manufactured by HTC. It is expected that in such a way Google and T-Mobile intend to raise interest of potential buyers in the new operating system.

The official announcement of T-Mobile G1 (HTC Dream) is scheduled on 23 September.

T-Mobile sends official invitations to journalists for presentation of T-Mobile G1, the same HTC Dream, and the first smartphone based on Android. The press event is scheduled at 10:30 AM of September 23 local time in New York.

Recall that the Android mobile platform is developed by Google. The first smartphone based on this platform has been rumored for a while, and all this time T-mobile G1 / HTC Dream attrackted the attention of users.

T-Mobile G1 invitation

Through photographs and other information leakage, we can already guess that this smartphone will have a form factor of slider with movable touch screen that conceal QWERTY-keyboard, and is equipped with motion sensor, modules WiFi and GPS.

Whether this proves true or not we will know very soon.

Countdown starts…

HTC will soon release a color modification of communicator HTC Touch Diamond Snow White. Towards the end of autumn, it will be available  not only in black, but also in “Snow White”. Touch Diamond White will ahve the same attractive elements of design and pronounced outloks as the black HTC Touch Diamond.

we should remind that the HTC Touch Diamond is a communicator with advanced VGA-touch screen, 4 GB internal memory, GPS-module, 3.2-MP camera, support for high-speed standard HSDPA, the operating system Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional and interface TouchFLO 3D.

Snow-white HTC Touch Diamond will be available in Europe in October.

Recommended price for it will be 549 euros.

HTC officially annaounced Smartphone HTC Touch HD, details of which were rumored earlier. Now we have all the details.

Chipset of HTC Touch HD will be Qualcomm MSM 7201A (528 MHz) and will run Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional OS (512 MB ROM, 288 MB RAM). Size of Touch HD is 115×62,8×12 mm (about the dimensions of iPhone 3G - 115,5×62,1×12,3 mm) and despite that HTC  offers a 3.8 inch TFT-LCD display with touch input and WVGA resolution of 480×800 pixels. This enables you to watch widescreen movies.

Movies can be stored on microSD cards (high capacity SDHC cards are also supported). This is not the end of multimedia features Touch HD has - it has a pretty nice 5 megapixel camera.

The device supports data transmission using HSDPA (inbound channel - 7.2 Mbps), can connect via Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g) and Bluetooth.

For all these HTC included a battery capacity of 1350 mAh, which is not bad at all.

 Two more HTC devices appeared on official website. In short about them also.

HTC Touch 3G
Besides Touch HD another device appeared on the HTC website, which honestly, was unexpected. The HTC Touch 3G is a bit taller and thinner than its predecessor – the original HTC Touch. The main improvements of the 3G version include a 3.2 megapixel fixed-focus camera, 3G with HSDPA, as well as 192 MB of RAM. HTC Touch 3G also flaunts the newest version of the TouchFLO UI – the TouchFLO 3D - and GPS (with A-GPS support).

The quad-band HTC Touch 3G has a 2.8″ display of QVGA resolution and runs on a 528 MHz Qualcomm CPU as Touch HD. It also has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB and a microSD card slot for expanding the built-in memory.
‘

HTC Touch Viva

The last handset to appear on HTC’s webpage is HTC Touch Viva about which we wrote yesterday.

 We wrote about the new Touch smartphone HTC is preparing named Opal, but latest rumors give us another name for it. HTC Touch Viva - this is how it’s going to be called. Viva isn’t much better then Opal. You’ll be able to name it Charlie later on when you get it. Or Wilma, or Stan…

Europe will see the phone on September 30th for a price around €300 or $426.

No official confirmation yet but we keep following after HTC rumors, and will write if anything unexpected happens.

Well, just out of the blue the never before seen HTC Touch HD device appeared online in spy photos, which reveal quite a lot. Destined to be the ultimate iPhone rival, the new Windows Mobile powerhouse packs some serious specs.

Based on Windows Mobile 6.1, the new HTC Touch HD measures 115 x 62.8 x 12mm (which is just about the iPhone 3G with 115.5 x 62.1 x 12.3mm). Yes, slim it is and it has a large display (that seems to be 3.5 inches) with the overwhelming resolution of 800 x 480 pixels. It also seems to be running TouchFLO 3D.

The HTC Touch HD (we don’t know whether that would be its retail name) is powered by a 528Mhz CPU courtesy of the Qualcomm 7201A platform. There are 512MB flash memory and 256MB of RAM.

Of course, goodies like GPS, Wi-Fi and HSPDA go without saying, but the HTC Touch HD also has a 5 megapixel camera (without a flash though).

The Touch HD is due this Christmas, so we could be in for some official announcement really soon.

via gsmarena.com

Resource Smartmobilegadgets publishes a photo and technical specifications of smartphone HTC Opal, which is supposed to be successor of HTC Touch. Technical specifications given by the source are somehow surprising.

Handset is equipped with low TI OMAP 850 processor of 200 MHz, 128 MB RAM and should be able to run Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional. Device will have, according to the source, 2.8″ QVGA display with touch screen input.

Built-in camera is just 2 Mp, without autofocus. The phone can transmit data via Wi-Fi (b/g) and Bluetooth 2.0.

Data can be stored on MicroSD cards.

Google, as we all already know, intends (with the help of HTC) to release first phone with OS Android. Critics remain skeptical regarding the unbelievable successes of OS Android.

Onyl methods of the production of the device (Google provides the operating system, HTC makes the “iron”, and sells all these T-Mobile - engaging its software) are ambiguous. “The best results were obtained when running” vertical “system, where” iron “and” soft “come from one company”, - said in an interview with Financial Times Tom Conrad, chief technology director of well-known company Pandora.

Other observers note that Android does not have attractive applications such as iTunes / Apps in  iPhone or convenient system work with corporate mail of BlackBerry. “If I’m the buyer, I ask myself: I buy Android, why should I change the iPhone or Nokia N95?”, - Said Frank Meehan, Head of Telecommunications Unit of Hutchison Whampoa.

At the exhibition IFA in Berlin HTC demonstrated Communicator HTC S740, which was introduced earlier. And as it turned out, its rear side very much reminds Touch Pro also.

HTC S740

HTC S740

As the source says, Communicator is not too stable with working with Windows Mobile - this aspect will be further developed.