Articles tagged with: htc

Its last attempt at a mobile phone - BT Fusion - may have been a flop, but BT is apparently about to move back into mobile services with a Blackberry-esque handset that will be happy both out and about and back at home with a BT Wi-Fi Home Hub.

The Times reports that BT will use one of HTC's devices and Vodafone's 3G network. Handset candidates could well be the RIM/Palm lookalike HTC S620 (pictured), or the newly launched HTC Touch Diamond.

The BT launch event is tomorrow, so we should have more news then.

The FTC (Federal Communications Commission) has inadvertently revealed some tantalising information about HTC’s new Windows Mobile smartphone, the 'Iris'.

The Iris’s design is a departure from HTC’s current range of devices and is similar in design to both RIM’s BlackBerry 8000 series and Palm's 680 and 700 smartphones, the Iris has a Qwerty keyboard on its bottom half and a 2.4in 320 x 240 screen at the top.

According to the FCC documents, the phone has CDMA850/CDMA1900/1x-EVDO, 802.11g Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, along with a 2-megapixel camera and built-in GPS.

There’s no news on UK availability yet, but HTC tends to launch new devices in Europe at the same time, if not before, the US. HTC has apparently asked the FCC to keep some details of this smartphone confidential until September 17, which suggests that a launch date isn’t too far away.

[Unwire View] 

It may have been launched a month ago, but there's still no sign of HTC Shift review units in the UK. The UMPC Portal has, however, managed to get its hands on a model and has posted a review.

The UMPC may be dead in the water for the time being, but manufacturers aren't abandoning the idea just yet. Intel has already announced its plans for a reboot of the UMPC and now smartphone supremo HTC has revealed its take on the concept in the form of the Advantage.

Despite appearances though, the Advantage isn't actually a UMPC, since it runs Windows Mobile rather than a full version of XP or Vista. This makes it a bit of a throwback to the days when Windows CE-powered clamshell handhelds ruled the world, but there's certainly nothing backwards about the Advantage's design.

HTC has officially announced [PDF press release available here] the HTC TyTN II - an update to the excellent TyTN that has so far been referred to by its codename, 'Kaiser'.

The TyTN II has a similar sliding keyboard design to the previous model, but the 2.8in screen now slides back and tilts up to give a more comfortable typing position (in a manner that appears similar to that of the forthcoming Shift).

HTC has updated its Advantage Windows Mobile handheld – the new X7510 model now has 16Gb of storage (up from 8Gb), an improved keyboard and an updated version of its VueFLO motion-sensing software. When it goes on sale in March, the X7510 will also come with Opera Mobile 9 (or 9.5, as the next version will be called) and “a future version of Windows Mobile” – we’re guessing Windows Mobile 6.1 .

Otherwise, the X7510 specification is the same as its predecessor -- a Marvell PXA270 624MHz processor, 5.1in VGA touch-screen, 3.1 megapixel camera, Wi-Fi and quad-band GSM/GPRS/HSDPA.

HTC has also announced that the Shift UMPC will be available in the UK from today from Orange for €1,119 – around £895. There’s no news from Orange on the device just yet, though.

[HTC]

Related: HTC Advantage review  

HTC launched its new Touch Diamond smartphone earlier today – a Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional device with HSDPA, 4Gb of internal storage and an updated custom UI called TouchFLO 3D. Mobile Computer wasn’t at the launch, so rather than pretend we were by simply rehashing the press release, here’s the press release itself, along with a selection of images.

The ongoing battle over the lack of hardware-accelerated graphics drivers in various HTC handhelds has opened up a new front. Angry users, given the brush-off by HTC, have begun pledging money to a fund to have someone develop the necessary drivers on their behalf.

A plea for donations posted on the XDA-developers.com forum has so far seen $5,200 promised by desperate owners of HTC devices like the TyTN II and Touch Cruise, who believe their products to be “performing at a fraction of their actual capabilities”.

Following on from our earlier story about hacked-off HTC users banding together to launch legal action against the company, HTC has issued a statement that confirms the lack of hardware-accelerated graphics drivers, but refuses to acknowledge the fact as any kind of problem.

The company says that products like the TyTN II and Touch Cruise “do not use ATI’s Imageon video-acceleration hardware”. This, of course, was the core complaint made by newly-formed pressure-group HTCClassAction.org .

But while acknowledging the absence of proper hardware-accelerated drivers, the remainder of the statement suggests that HTC is in no mood for compromise.

HTC may be pushing the Touch as next big thing in the world of smartphones, but we think its other new model is the one that deserves all the limelight. It doesn't get a sexy name, but the S710 is the most flexible and user-friendly Windows Mobile device we've seen for a while - and that's something that HTC should be shouting about.