Mobile Mentalism» The best mobile phones from the best mobile phone UK site – MobileMentalism

Leaked pics and specs of HTC HD3. One word: stunning

Mike Evans — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 19:23:56 +0000

This rather large beauty is the HTC HD3, a huge new smartphone from HTC that doesn’t just follow on from the HTC HD2, it blows it and every other smartphone on the market clean out of the water!

The HD3 looks set to come with Windows Phone 7 Series, which is a big deal in itself. But it’s the amazing list of features that HTC have managed to cram into the HD3 that is so jaw dropping.

Seriously, think of any hardware feature or spec you’d like to see in your dream phone, and the HD3 has it – in spades! Add to that the tasty novelty of being one of the first Windows Phone 7 Series phones, and the HD3 looks set to be one of the most anticipated phones of the year.

Don’t believe me? Check out the HTC HD3’s specifications after the jump.

HTC HD3 Specifications

The existing HTC HD2 is a monster of a smartphone, and with its HTC Sense UI, is what we described as the best Windows Mobile phoen in the world.

But the HD2 was the end of an era. A great end of an era, it has to be said, but it was very much the end of the line as far as Windows Mobile phones were concerned.

No matter. The end of Windows Mobile seems to have ushered in a brave new world of super-advanced Windows Phone 7 Series phones, at least if the HTC HD3 is anything to go by.

Just check out these specs:

4.5″ AMOLED screen with 1280×800 resolution
1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor
1080p HD video playback
720p HD video recording
8 megapixel camera with dual-LED flash
Multi-touch screen
Super-thin – just 10mm thick
WiFi, Bluetooth and 3G connectivity
4G connectivity for for blisteringly fast downloads that are over ten times as fast as today’s HSDPA phones
1GB onboard RAM
1GB onboard
32GB external memory
3.5″ headphone jack
HDMI output for connecting to your HDTV or monitor
1800mAh battery for super-long battery life
Bigger screen than the HD2, but a smaller overall physical size: 115mm x 65mm x 10mm

Add to this Microsoft Windows Phone 7 Series mobile OS, and you’ve got one of the hottest smartphones ever released!

HTC HD3 Release Date

We have no news on the HTC HD3 release date, unfortunately, other than it should be some time this year. As you can see from the pics, it’s the real deal – it’s definitely not vapourware.

Google’s Android has put up a cracking fight against the iPhone up until now, with HTC leading the way with its range of Android phones and its superb Sense UI. Now, with the HTC HD3, it’s the turn of Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 Series to step up to the plate and show what it’s made of.

I’m still not convinced by Microsoft’s new Mobile OS, but I most certainly am by the HTC HD3! I can’t wait to see it, and I can’t wait to see how a phone with those specs will perform with Android!

[Source: PCOnline]

Video of Nokia’s new Symbian^3 mobile OS

Mike Evans — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 12:44:24 +0000

Nokia’s mobile OS, Symbian, has been showing its age recently and is in desperate need of a spruce up if it’s to compete with the plethora of new toucschreen interfaces from virtually every other mobile manufacturer.

In fact, now that Microsoft has completely rewritten Windows Mobile to rave critical acclaim, Symbian is now officially the most old-fashioned looking OS on the market!

So Nokia needed to do something, and quickly. The result is two new versions of Symbian: the Symbian^3 and Symbian^4 operating systems, two different generations of the OS that are being developed in parallel.

After the jump, we’ve got a video demo of Symbian^3, which will be released on new phones later this year.

Nokia Symbian^3 Demo Video

Without further ado, then, here’s the video demo of Nokia’s Symbian^3. The demo is being held on a laptop rather than a phone, but this is just because it’s a development environment. What you see here is the real deal, and will be on Nokia phones in the middle of 2010.

There are a couple of points to note about Symbian^3. Firstly, it’s not exactly a step change in terms of innovation. In fact, it’s not that different from the Nokia N97. It’s more fluid and the overall experience is better put together than the N97, but it’s still not in the same league as the iPhone, Android and Windows Phone 7 Series.

That, though, is intentional. Symbian^3 is meant as a sticking plaster – it’s designed to get Nokia’s phones up to the same levels of user experience as the competition (which, looking at this demo, it doesn’t do), while Symbian^4 is designed to provide the real innovation.

The problem is, Symbian^4 won’t be released until 2011. With the latest Android phones providing innvoative user interfaces seemingly every week, and increasing rumours of a new iPhone 4 being released this year, Symbian^4 is going ot have to be pretty special just to compete.

We’ll have to wait, of course, to see whether Nokia can fight back effectively. They certainly shouldn’t be ruled out as they’re a ferocious competitor with a history of genuine innovation. I just hope Symbian^4 will be a lot better than Symbian^3.

[GSMArena]

Leaked pictures of the Nokia C6

Mike Evans — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 11:59:39 +0000

Leaked pictures of the Nokia C6 have emerged revealing a classic Nokia smartphone with slide-out QWERTY keyboard. The C6 is the second phone in Nokia’s new C-Series range of phones, and looks very similar to existing Nokia keyboard phones such as the N97.

Fortunately, it should be a lot cheaper than the N97 was when it first came out, as the C-Series is not meant to be a range of high-end phones. Equally, though, it’s not going to be a particularly well-specified phone, which seems to be confirmed with the fact that the C6 will come with only 256MB of onboard RAM.

No other details are available yet, but we’ll be sure to report them when we have them.

[Source: UnwiredView]

LG GD900 Crystal Review – truly unique twin touchscreen phone

Mike Evans — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 22:57:55 +0000

The LG GD900 Crystal in this review is a curious phone as it comprises two touchscreens in one: the standard touchscreen you’d expect to find; and another one on the keypad.

But then the keypad is also curious: it’s completely clear. Crystal clear, in fact, hence the name!

Combine all this curiosity with LG’s great S-Class user interface and you have a superb touchscreen phone that’s choc full of novelty, and which really knows how to stand out from the crowd.

At least, that’s how it appears on the surface – is it actually any good though? Read our LG GD900 Crystal review to find out.

LG GD900 Crystal overview

At first glance, the LG Crystal looks like any other touchscreen mobile phone, with a big LCD screen and little in the way of buttons. As soon as you see it, you’ll just assume the buttons are all virtual, and are accessed by pushing a virtual keypad or touching various icons on the screen.

The reality is very different. The LG Crystal has a completely see-through keypad that slides out from below, letting you access its multiple features without getting finger prints all over its screen.

Oddly enough, you can, if you wish, get fingerprints all over its lovely screen, as the screen is fully touch sensitive, so you can access all of its features in the usual touchscreen way.

But then its keypad is also a full touchscreen – as well as a keypad!

What’s going on?!

The benefit of multiple touchscreens

The LG Crystal is something of an experiment in phone design. Its a normal touchscreen phone when you want it to be, but you can also use the touchscreen keypad when you need to. You’ll see how this can be useful when you start ot use the phone. The keypad doesn’t just respond to touch, it responds to gestures as well, and it’s this that makes it so innovative.

When you take a photo, for example, you can zoom in and out of a scene by circling your finger clockwise or anti-clockwise on the clear keypad.

The benefit of this is that you don’t obscure the screen when interacting with the phone.

It’s an interesting concept that makes for a truly novel phone that really stands out from all the other touchscreen phones out there. and because it’s been out for a while, you can now some terrific Web-only deals on it.

And the reason for the keypad being crystal clear? None, really, other than LG knew they could do it, so they thought, why not?!

Things you’ll love about the LG Crystal

What’s the LG GD900 Crystal like as a phone, though? Is it actually any good?

Well fortunately, yes. It uses the same 3D S-Class interface that was first shown off on the high-end LG Viewty Smart and LG Arena phones. This has always been an extremely usable interface with nifty 3D transitions and animations, but being able to use it with two toucshcreens makes it even better.

There’s also the usual range of features you’d expect from an LG phone, including the following:

Unique twin-touchscreen design with a normal touchscreen and a separate one on the crystal clear keypad
Innovative 3D S-Class user interface works even better with the twin touchscreens than it does on the LG Viewty Smart or LG Arena
Take great photos in a range of different settings with its superb 8 megapixel camera, complete with auto-focus, LED flash, geotagging, face detection, smile detection and image stabilization
Zoom in and out of a scene by spiralling your finger on the crystal clear touchpad
Multitouch support lets you pinch and zoom into photos and Web pages, jsut like an Apple iPhone
Show off the director in you with the Crystal’s DVD quality video recorder that records VGA videos at 30 frames per second, and even offers time-lapse and slow motion video recording
Vibrant 3″ screen with 16 million colours
Super-fast Web browsing thanks to Wi-Fi and 7.2Mbps HSDPA
Watch downloaded videos and ripped DVDs thanks to XVid and DivX support
Cracking music playing abilities with its MP3 player, Dolby audio enhancement, FM radio and Bluetooth 21 with support for wireless music streaming
Watch videos and pictures on your TV thanks to built-in TV-Out
Accelerometer automatically rotates the screen when you move it betweeen landscape and portrait modes
Control the Crystal with gestures on either of the two toucscreens.

Phew! So, yes, it is a good phone, and an entirely unique one at that (unless you can show me another phone with two touchscreens, one of which is completely clear?!)

Let’s have a look at some of its featues in more detail

Fantastically fun video features

With DivX and XVid support, an 8 megapixel camera, DVD video recording and a plethora of other multimedia features, you’d think the LG Crystal would be a great phone for taking pics, viewing films and listening to music.

And you’d be right!

The video recording feature in particular is something to show off about as not only can it record at a resolution of 720×480 pixels at 30 frames per second, it can also record in slow-motion or by time-lapse, letting you slow down or speed up the action as you wish.

This lets you create all sorts of innovative effects. Want to see what your dog looks like when he’s shaking himself down after getting wet? Record him in slow motion and see!

What about how snow builds up over time on a snowy day? Just make sure your Crystal is placed down in the same spot and put it in time-lapse mode. It’ll then record frames of video over a period of time that you specifiy, which, when you play it back, will seem to speed up the action. A day of snow, for example, will magically appear in just a minutes.

There’s all sorts of things you can play around with this feature, making the LG Crystal a genuinely fun phone.

Once you’ve recorded your video masterpiece, upload it onto YouTube with just the touch of a virtual button.

Mighty Music Features

Music’s not exactly bad, either. As well as the MP3 player you’d expect, the Crystal also comes with an FM radio and Dolby audio enhancement to make your tunes sound even better.

There’s 1.5GB of onboard storage, enough for hundreds of tunes, and there’s a microSD card slot, which will let you add another 32GB of storage if you want to take your library up to thousands of tunes.

The music player isn’t the most feature packed, but it does at least look good. Thanks to the S-Class UI, you can see the cover art of your tunes in a CoverFlow like way, with the CD covers flowing either horizontally or vertically.

There’s loads of equalizer settings to help you get the most out of your tunes, and the Dolby Mobile setting really works, making your sounds much better than they would ordinarily.

The only downside is the lack of a standard 3.5mm headphone jack. You can get a 3.5mm adaptor, so you can still eventually plug your own headphones into the LG Crystal, but it’s annoying not have a standard adaptor come as, well, standard!

Phabulous Photos with a stonking 8 megapixel camera

The photos you can take on the LG Crystal are also rather good. With an 8 megapixel camera with autofocus, the detail is excellent, and with features such as image stabilization, smile detection and face detection, you’ll have no problem taking great pics in all manner of different environments.

The LG Crystal doesn’t provide the same quality of photos as, say, the Sony Ericsson Satio or Vivaz, but then the phone isn’t meant to be the last word in camera phones. It’s a great feature phone that adds fun and novelty, rather than exceptional photography, and it lets you take great pictures of your mates wherever you happen to be with just a few gestures on your crystal clear keypad!

You can see an example photo taken by the LG Crystal below (photo courtesy of RegHardware)

As well as taking great pictures, the picture gallery on the LG Crystal is excellent. You can view your pics either as a flat grid, or in a 3D CoverFlow-like style, with swipes of the touchscreen (either one!) letting you scroll through the pictures to your heart’s content.

Better still, the LG Crystal supports multi-touch, letting you pinch and zoom into and out of your pictures, just as you would on an iPhone.

Web browsing

Web browsing on the LG Crystal is good. You can pinch and zoom into Web pages, and although it’s not as fluid as on the iPhone, it’s still well implemented and works really well.

There’s a nice history feature, which lets you see screenshots of previously visited pages, and you can pan and zoom around a page to your heart’s content.

With WiFi and 7.2Mbps HSDPA, browsing is quick and painless. The only downside is that the LG Crystal doesn’t support Adobe Flash, so you can’t see YouTube videos within the browser. That said, there is a dedicated YouTube app, so you can still YouTube videos – just not embedded in a Web page.

Web browsing is one area where the touchscreen keypad really comes in handy. You can use your finger on the keypad to control to a mouse, and use this to navigate around t a Web page (as well as using your finger on the Web page itself, and the multi-touch pinch and zoom!)

This makes navigating the Web simplicity itself, and again gives the LG Crystal an element of novelty that other phones just don’t have.

Apps

Although the LG Crystal doesn’t have an app store, it does come with an array of apps. Most of these are what you can think of as traditional phone apps – organizers, calendars, games, etc. – rather than the more recent smartphone apps.

The reason for this is that the Crystal isn’t a smartphone. However, this isn’t actually a problem, as most apps such as YouTube, Twitter, FAcebook, Flickr, etc., a;; have a Website equivalent, and with a 3″ touchscreen and fast download speeds, using them is no problem.

The apps that you do get are all rather useful in their own right. As well as a selection of games and organizers, you also get Picsel viewer, which lets you view Microsoft Office documents. As well as viewing them, you can also zoom into and out of them using the same pinch zoom multi-touch gesture that you use to zoom into photos and Web pages.

Overall user experience

So what of the overall user experience? Is the LG Crystal’s S-Class interface good to use?

Happily, yes it is.The LG Crystal isn’t a smartphone, but it is an extremely capable (twin) touchscreen phone. It’s very responsive, there’s minimal delay when switching between screens or apps, zooming into photos or Web pages is smooth, and the 3D user interface is actually rather appealing.

Add to that the novelty of the twin touchscreens, the multi-touch pinch and zoom gestures and all the other things you can do with the clear keypad, and the overall experience is actually fun. Very usable, highly novel, and one you’ll love to show off to your mates.

Better still, it all actually works! There’s nothing worse than a fancy new interface that’s just a novelty, and which frustrates you at every turn even if it impresses your mates. You don’t get that with the LG Crystal: you get a fancy new interface that impresses your mates, and which is extremely intuitive, repsonsive, and just plain great to use!

Things you won’t like so much

The LG Crystal doesn’t do everything well. The camera, for example, could be better, even though it’s an 8 megapixel model. As we know, megapixels aren’t everything, and the colours from the LG Crystal aren’t quite as realistc as they could be.

Of course, if you want the best camera phone, you’d be looking at the Sony Ericsson Satio or Vivaz, or the Samsung Pixon 12, though, not the cheaper LG Crystal. For nights out, day to day photography, or other point and shoot pics, the LG Crystal is plenty good enough.

Another niggle is with the lack of 3.5mm headphone jack. Although you can buy adaptors, you shouldn’t have to. It’s not a deal-breaker, but it is a bit of a niggle.

LG GD900 Video Reviews

The best way to get a feel for the novelty of the LG GD900 Crystal is to see it in action. So here it is!

LG GD900 Crystal specifications

Specs now. Here they are in full:

Messaging

Video MMS
E-mail
SMS/MMS

Basic Specifications

Full Touch Slider (with Crystal Touchpad)
Connectivity: HSDPA 7.2 Mbps, WEDGE, GPRS, UMTS 2.1G, 900 (or 2.1G/850), GSM( (850/900/1800/1900), EDGE
Dimenions: 105 * 52.5 * 13.5mm
Standard Battery, Max (mAh): 1000mAh, Li-ion
Stand-by Time, Max (hrs): Up to 300 hrs
Talk Time (hrs): Up to 6 hrs(2G), Up to 4hrs(3G)

Display

External LCD (pixel)
3″ TFT touchscreen
16Mcolors
Haptic with Vibration Alert
Touch Screen Capacitive / Multi-touch/ 3D Active flash UI(S-class UI)

Internet

WAP 2.0
Browser xHTML 1.1, HTML 4.01 / Internet Full Browsing

Data Connectivity

IrDA
USB/PC Sync
Wi-Fi 802.11 b,g
Bluetooth (A2DP Ver. 2.1)

Applications

PIM
Scheduler/Alarm
Phonebook (1000 names)
Personalization
Wallpaper/Screen Saver
Picture/Ringtone Downloading
Document Viewer: MS office, PDF, Text

Advanced Features

Video Telephony
Java (version): MIDP 2.0, CLDC 1.1
MIDI (polyphonic): 64
2 touchscreen friendly built-in games
Video On Demand/Audio On Demand
Internal Memory: 1.5GB
External Memory: MicroSD slot (TransFlash), up to 32GB
Camera: 8.0 Mega Pixel AutoFocus

Multi-Media Players

Audio codec: MP3, AAC/AAC+/E-AAC+/AMR-NB/WB/WB+, WMA/WMAPro, Ogg-Vorbis, AC3, MIDI
Video codec: H.263: 4CIF(704×480@30fps, 704×576@25fps, upto 10Mbps), H.263+/MPEG4/H.264/WMV9(VC-1): D1(720×480@30fps and 720×576 25fps, upto 10Mbps)
FM Radio
Speaker Phone Mode

Accessories

TV Out Cable

Summary

The LG GD900 is one of those rare phones that manages to combine genuine ease of use, practicality, a huge set of features, novelty, and above all, fun, all in one smart looking package. It is, above all, unique – no other phone offers twin touchscreen interfaces, with one of them being completely clear.

And it’s not just a novelty – the LG Crystal’s clear keypad actually helps, rather than hinders, when it comes to navigating the phone.

Add to that its great 3D user interface, cracking set of features, and tonnes of fun quirky features such as the video camera’s slow motion and time lapse modes, and you’ve got yourself a phone that’s guaranteed to keep you entertained and your mates green with envy. You can guarantee they won’t have anything like it.

Strongly recommended.

Update: The LG GD900 is now on sale from just £20 a month, making it the cheapest 8 megapixel cameraphone on the market. Pay an extra £5 a month and get some cracking free gifts, including an iPod Nano.

[Pics courtesy of GSMArena]

Android 360 turns your world upside down

Mike Evans — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:30:32 +0000

An odd lot, those Android modders. Clearly bored, one of them tinkered with Android a bit until it responded to the accelerometer all the way round. So now, whenever you turn your T-Mobile G1 round, the display turns too. But not just between portrait and landscape modes – all they way round, turning your homescreen completely upside down.

Which, if you find the G1’s chin mildly annoying, is quite handy, as it puts the chin at the top!

Completely useless, but a marvellous example of just how customizable Android is.

(thanks, as ever, to @terminal7 for the pic).

In-depth 17 minute video review of Windows Phone 7 Series

Mike Evans — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 23:59:45 +0000

Microsoft teased us at MWC 2010 last month with its new Windows Mobile 7 Series. Although we saw quite a few screenshots of the new mobile OS, the videos that were shown were frustratingly brief.

Today at last, our frustration can be relieved as Chris Pirillio has posted a 17 minute video of a hands on session he had with Windows Phone 7 Series, as demonstrated by a Microsoftie.

More details and the video after the jump.

Although not the finished product (Windows Phone 7 Series isn’t set to ship until “the holidays” 2010, although curiously Microsoft isn’t saying which holidays!), the video shows Windows Phone 7 Series working effortlessly on an unbranded touchscreen device.

What’s great about Windows Phone 7 Series

The first thing that hits you about the overall user experience is just how polished it is. The transitions in particular are brilliantly executed witha real fluidity of movement between one app’s screen and another.

Indeed, the transition from one app to another is so fluid you lose all sense of individual apps and just the phone as a single device that gives you easy access to all the content that’s personal to you: people, music, videos, photos, status updates, whatever it is that’s important to you.

Microsoft should be congratulated for this. With so many smartphone user interfaces now available, each doing essentially the same thing, it takes something exceptional to stand out from the crowd. With Windows Phone 7 Series, Microsoft has pulled this off with aplomb.

However, it’s not all roses.

What’s not so great

Overall corporate feel

The feelin I get after watching the video is of a beautifully fluid user interface, but that’s a little too, well, corporate. Take Outlook, for example. Obviously Microsoft were going to use Outlook as the email client, but everything about Outlook screams “work”.

The look and feel of Outlook on Windows Phone 7 Series is pretty much exactly what you get on the desktop version, but that’s where most of us see our work email! In other words, the first thing I think about when I see that damn email client is work and all the pressures that work’s email brings with it.

Not what I wanted to be reminded of 24/7!

The same goes for many of the other apps. Although I love the minimal look, in too many areas the overall impression is just too corporate – it’s a polished look, but one that ends up looking completely sterile. Even trivial details like the font, for example, belong on a corporate brochure.

Too much emphasis on Microsoft

Another problem is Microsoft’s narcisstic obsession with Microsoft. Obviously Bing is the search engine rather than Google, which would be OK if it was any good. But for general search queries it’s not, which kind of limits the use of the phone a bit!

It’s the same story with the music and video player. It’s Microsoft Zune. Not just designed to look like Microsoft’s ill-fated Zune MP3 player – it is Zune!

The latest version of Zune apparently isn’t bad, but we in Europe don’t know as Microsoft forgot to release it over here! So we just have memories of a crap MP3 player, if we have any memories at all!

Then there’s the authentication and payments system. It’s all based on Windows Live. Want to buy an app for your phone? You need to have a Windows Live account, and associate a credit card with it.

Same with the gallery. Although Microsoft are showing off how the photos come from many different sources, not just from the phone, the truth is those sources are predominantly Microsoft sources. The phone, the desktop, Windows Live, and Facebook (which isn’t a Microsoft property, but which is closely allied to Microsoft).

There’s no Flickr or Picasa integration. Everything, as ever, has to be Microsoft.

And this is where Windows Phone 7 Series really lets it down while at the same time, showing Microsoft’s true colours. In Microsoft’s world, there’s only ever been Microsoft. Other services don’t exist and certainly shouldn’t be used.

So absolutely everything one Windows Phone 7 Series is Microsoft-based, irrespective of how good the actual service is.

However, the reality of smartphones in 2010 is that they’re embracing the mobile Web like never before – and the mobile Web, like the Web itself, doesn’t give a hoot for any one company. It’s all about sharing, interoperation, collaboration, remixing and mashups.

Not about tying everything down to one vendor.

The economics of the desktop with its big monolithic applications and operating systems never worked on the Web, and they won’t work on the mobile Web (no matter what Apple, never mind Microsoft, may think!)

No differentiation

The final problem I have with Windows Phone 7 Series is the way Microsoft are restricting its customization. Phone manufacturers have been given a precise list of hardware specifications their phones must meet, and are told they can’t interfere with the standard user interface you see here.

Which does kind of mean that every Windows Phone 7 Series phone will look like every other Windows Phone 7 Series phone!

I guess this is Microsoft’s attempt to follow Apple’s business model and avoid the variety offered by Android.

But since when was variety a problem? When Microsoft let vendors customize the old Windows Mobile OS, we were treated to the glorious HTC Sense UI found in the HTC HD2 and other WinMo (and now Android) phones. How is that a bad thing?!

This does at least make future Windows Phone7 Series review extremely easy to write. The first review will be extremely detailed, with screen captures, videos, specs, ease of use, overall experiences described, etc.

The second review?

“Like the phone in the first review, but a bit faster”!

[Source: Chris Pirillo via TracyAndMatt]

Microsoft Pure and Turtle phones heading for Vodafone in May

Mike Evans — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 22:58:34 +0000

Microsoft seem to be on a bit of a roll at the moment. Not content with rewriting their mobile OS and unleashing Windows Phone 7 Series on us, they’re also rumoured to be developing their own range of mobile phones.

Called Project Pink, the phones form part of a new range from Microsoft that comprises the Microsoft Pure, and, oddly, the Microsoft Turtle, each of which is a new smartphone based on its new mobile OS.

Today we learn that the phones will be released on Verizon in the US on April 20th, and across the UK and the rest of Europe on Vodafone shortly after.

But what is Microsoft Project Pink phone, and are the phones any good?

Read on after the jump for more details.

Microsoft phone rumours

Rumours of a Microsoft phone have been around as long as rumours of a Sony PSP phone. With the Sony phone, they stem from the desire of people to own such a thing. With the Microsoft phone, it kind of makes sense, even if nobody actually desires one!

Windows Mobile was such an awful mobile OS that nobody would have wanted a Microsoft branded phone that carried it. Initial rumours had a Microsoft phone being based on its Zune MP3 player, as a counter-strike against Apple who turned their iPod MP3 player into a phone.

The problem was the Zune was as unloved as Windows Mobile, so all that Microsoft would have proved with its phone was how bad a turkey it could really unleash on the world (which we already knew thanks to IE6!)

Recently, though, a new version of the Zune has been launched that’s actually not bad. And at MWC 2010, Microsoft showed off its updated mobile OS – now called Windows Phone 7 Series, and completely rewritten from the ground up.

So now maybe a Microsoft phone doesn’t sound so bad after all?

Microsoft Pure

The latest news is that the Microsoft Pure phone will be launched on April 20th. Looking at these photos, I’d have said the rumours are true as the phone looks like it’s nearly ready for release, and an April 20th release date sounds about right for a launch at the CTIA trade show in the US.

As far as looks are concerned, the Microsoft Pure is pretty conventional. It’s your average touchscreen handset with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and some pink detailing.

What’s very different about it, though, is the user interface. Described as being “hectic and colourful”, it’s aimed firmly at the yoof. So that’ll be lots of social networking built in then!

There will also be an impressive amount of cloud support, with back-ups, data storage, picture uploads, contacts and all manner of data handling being managed by Microsoft’s servers.

What’s odd is that these phones won’t be using Microsoft’s shiny new mobile OS, Windows Phone 7 Series. No idea why not, they just won’t be.

Very little of Project Pink makes sense though. Like the next phone, for example – the Microsoft Turtle.

Microsoft Turtle

The other Microsoft Pink phone is the amusingly named Microsoft Turtle. The name’s odd in its own right, but when you consider that it’ll be called either the Lion or Pride in the UK, it’s even more bizarre!

The Turtle is an altogether different looking phone. Actually, that’s too kind – it’s an awful looking phone! It’s too fat to fit in your pocket, yet its screen is too squat to look at comfortably.

It’ll be interesting to see this phone in the flesh, if only to see if it lives up to the true horror that it seems to be about to unleash on the world!

I’m not sure what’s odder – the design of these phones (particularly the Turtle), their names, or the fact they don’t use Windows Phone 7 Series.

Fortunately, we won’t have too long to wait. The CTIA mobile tradeshow in April is looking like it could be the even of the year, as Microsoft, Motorola and Nokia are all rumoured to be showing off their new phones.

Here’s hoping they make more sense than Project Pink!

[Source: Gizmodo, Engadget]

Super-fast LG Arena Maxx debuts

Mike Evans — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 22:56:27 +0000

Leaked pictures of LG’s new LG Arena Maxx have been doing the rounds for some time now, but the new and super-fast phone from LG has finally debuted in its native South Korea.

The LG-LU9400 Arena Maxx is a touchscreen smartphone featuring LG’s own S-Class user interface and Qualcomm’s blisteringly fast 1GHz Snapdragon processor.

With a 3.5″ touchscreen display, 5 megapixel camera, 720 HD video recording, DivX video, mobile TV, GPS and WiFi (phew!), the LG Arena Max certainly packs a powerful punch.

No details yet on whether it’s heading for the UK or not, but there’s nothing to stop it, as it’s perfectly capable of working with the UK’s mobile networks.

Looks pretty special, so let’s hope so!

[Source: TelecomsKorea]

Google stands up to Apple, backs HTC and Android

admin — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 22:43:13 +0000

With Apple attempting to sue the pants off HTC and in the process starve the mobile Web from any form of competition, innovation, and, perish the thought – choice, Google has waded into the battle by backing its Android OS and manufacturers to the hilt.

In response to Apple’s pitiful law suit, Google said:

“We are not a party to this lawsuit. However, we stand behind our Android operating system and the partners who have helped us to develop it.”

This is cracking news. Apple’s actions, both with its lawsuit against HTC and its over-zealous censorship of the app store, are appalling. Mobile choice in the US has always been restricted, and competition and consmuer choice has suffered as a result. The US mobile phone market has traditionally been at least a year behind Europe as a direct result.

Just when all that looked to change, with Google, Apple and Palm leading the smartphone challenge and looking to dominate the next wave of mobile devices, Apple at a stroke aims to kill the innovation stone dead. Its lawsuit aims to stop HTC, and, by extension, Android, from being sold in the US.

If they succeed, then the only smartphones left in the US will be the iPhone and Palm. Nokia has no carrier deals in the US for its high-end phones; Blackberry is too business-oriented to be classed as a smartphone in the same way the iPhone and Android phones are; and the most successful Windows Mobile phones are made by HTC!

So if the US wants to keep on seeing restricted consumer choice and limited innovation in its mobile phone market, then let Apple do its worse.

I’m not sure what’s more ironic: That Apple under Steve Jobs turned into the very Big Brother figure its original iconic Apple Mac adverts sought to destroy; that the most capitalist market in the world is the least free as far as mobile phones are concerned; or that Google, the one company people associate most with being the next Big Brother with all the data it has on its all, is actually the White Knight in the story!

How weird the mobile world can be at times!

[Source: Engadget Mobile, HTC.cc]

HTC Tattoo Review – the perfect budget Android phone

Mike Evans — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:41:26 +0000

Why an HTC Tattoo review, you might ask? Isn’t it just yet another budget Android phone? Well, technically yes – at least in the fact that it’s certainly a budget Android phone, which is perfect if you’re looking to get in on the Android action without paying a fortune.

But “just another” budget Android phone? Nope, not a bit of it! The HTC Tattoo might not be expensive, but that doesn’t mean it can’t come with some killer HTC polish.

Read our full HTC Tattoo review after the jump to discover some of the tricks the Tattoo has up its sleeve.

HTC Tattoo Review

Like all good Android phones, the HTC Tattoo comes with a plethora of smartphone features. Touchscreen, aGPS, digital compass, accelerometer, etc. – they’re all here, so if you’re looking for a smartphone with all the bells and whistles, the Tattoo won’t disappoint.

It’s not a bad looking unit either. Unlike earlier HTC Android phones, there’s no chin – just a smooth slightly rounded face with a number of dedicated control buttons. It’s much thinner than earlier models as well, being only 106mm x 55.2 x 14mm in size.

And at just 113g, it’ll be kind to your pocket both physically as well as financially.

What you’ll like about the HTC Tattoo

The HTC Tattoo has two great things going for it: its budget cost, and HTC’s acclaimed Sense UI user interface, which you’ll find adorning its higher end models such as the HTC HD2 and HTC Hero.

Sense UI makes the Tattoo look and feel like no other Android phone (apart from other HTC Android phones, obviously!). Whereas some manufacturers simply release an Android phone with the stock interface that Google developed, HTC have gone the extra mile and have created a completely new user interface that’s different from the ground up.

Sense UI provides you with gorgeous new icons, smooth transitions, new look music player and gallery – everything, in fact, that you normally use on your phone has been completely redesigned.

That’s not all though. Check out these other features you’ll love about the HTC Tattoo:

Never get lost with the Tattoo’s cracking navigation features. GPS, compass, Google Maps, accelerometer and StreetView all combine to help you find your way at any time
Super-fast Web browsing with 7.2Mbps HSDPA and WiFi
Great multimedia features with a 3.2 megapixel camera, video camera, MP3 music player and FM radio
Never get bored! The Tattoo gives you access to the Android market, where you can download thousands of apps to make your Tattoo do whatever you want it to.
All the social media features you could want. The Tattoo comes integrated with Facebook and Flickr so you can tie your Facebook contacts into your phone contacts, while Twitter, MySpace, YouTube and any other social media app are all downloadable via the Android market.

User experience, Web browsing, multimedia and the Sense UI

Normally at this point in a review, I’d discuss at length what a phone’s like to use. How good it is at browsing the Web, the quality and intuitiveness of its user interface, and the overall user experience it offers.

The fact is, though, that in virtually every respect, the Tattoo is identical to the HTC Hero, which I reviewed last year. Even the hardware’s mostly the same! In fact, apart from the chin, camera and a few user interface tweaks, the Tattoo and the Hero are one and the same phone.

Except that the Tattoo’s cheaper – much cheaper!

So if you want to find out all about the Tattoo’s user interace and overall eperience, check out our HTC Hero review. While you’re there, see what you think of the Hero. Then, if you’re after a cracking Android phone at a low price, and you love the Sense UI, see which you prefer – the Hero or the Tattoo. They’ll both suit your purposes perfectly.

Some things you won’t like

This being a budget phone, there are obviously a few areas that HTC have cut back on to save costs. One of these is the toucshcreen display. It’s only resistive, not capacitive. To humans, this means that you have to press down on the screen to get the interface to respond. Capacitive screens, in contrast, are much more sensitive, with a gentle swipe being all that’s needed to have the icons dancing across the screen.

Of course, this isn’t necessarily all bad. Sales of sausages in Korea, for example, exploded over the winter, as capacitive touchscreens won’t work through gloves, and it was too cold to take gloves off. The only way Koreans could use their phones, therefore, was to use a sausage as a replica finger (and no, I’m not making this up!)

You won’t have this problem with a resistive touchscreen, as it relies on pressure, not skin. That’s why you can use a stylus with a resistive touchscreen, but you can’t with a capacitive one.

Personally, I prefer a capacitive touchscreen like the HTC Hero’s, but it’s just personal preference. My advice would be to try the Tattoo first if you’re unsure.

Another problem is that the screen itself is smaller than other Android phones, being only 2.8″ and 240 x 320 pixel. Because of this, some applications won’t work, as they need a minimum amount of screen real estate to run.

Aside from that, though, there aren’t any other issues to report, and particularly not at this price.

HTC Tattoo video reviews

Is the HTC Tattoo really the same as the HTC Hero? Can a new budget Android phone really be as good as the phone of the year 2009? Yes – just see for yourself!

Summary

HTC have pulled off quite a coup with the HTC Tattoo. With it, they’ve turned the HTC Hero, which was crowned the phone of the year 2009 by virtually everyone in the mobile phone industry, into a budget Android phone. OK, so it’s got a few issues because of this price, but with the beautiful Sense UI running on top, you’ll never notice.

Everything about the Tattoo runs the same as the Hero. They’ve got the same processor, memory and user interface, so they’re both just as fast as each other and just a slick.

If you’re after a cheap Android phone with a stunning user interface, then, you’ve got a tough decision to make. Do you go for the more expensive HTC Hero (on the right, below), with its better screen, or the much cheaper Tattoo (on the left)?

Whatever your decision, you can rest assured you’ll have a cracking shiny new smartphone in your hands.

And in case you’re wondering what I mean by budget you can buy an HTC Tattoo now for just £15 a month. Spend a bit extra, and you’ll get some amazing free gifts. Its the bargain of the year!