HTC Diamond

YOTAPHONE 2 OVERVIEW : THE WORLD'S FIRST PHONE WITH TWO TOUCH SCREENS

2015-01-23T00:21:00.002-08:00

It is considered that in Russia, a little innovation. Perhaps, this is difficult to argue. But there are exceptions to the rule, one of which was YotaPhone. The unique concept of a smartphone with a dual-screen is constantly being improved, we have the second generation. The main feature of novelty is that the second touch screen. Thus, in Russia have created the world's first smartphone with two touchscreens. And we have an opportunity to the world's first test detail YotaPhone 2, ready to share with you impressions.

Presentation YotaPhone 2: how it was

The second generation YotaPhone shown at the exhibition MWC in Barcelona, which was held in February 2014. If the first generation can rightly be considered the touchstone, the second generation has turned out quite different. Different design, advanced features, more possibilities for the second screen, which has now become a touch. Domestic development has collected many awards, which reflect the innovative nature of the device. YotaPhone awarded two exhibitions CES, MWC - it speaks for itself. Russian smartphone news regularly becomes a hero. He was honored to be present for the chairman of the People's Republic of China from the President of Russia. Not every electronic device falls possible.

Unique to the world of smart phones machine with two screens presented in Moscow on December 2. The next day scheduled event in London, which will be devoted to the start of the global smartphone sales. By the way, preorders for the device began to take on 19 November, the first night there was about 3,000 who want to buy a smartphone.

Used for the production capacity of Singapore's Hi-P, which is known for the production of devices for Blackberry. One of the factories located in China, its capacity is sufficient for the release of 450 thousand per month smartphones. The initial batch of 150 thousand vehicles has the potential to be rapidly sold out. Given the interest in the smartphone in the same China, where the volume of the market looks very promising for each manufacturer, YotaPhone be called original alternative formats smartphones bored.

TECHNICAL CHARACTERISTICS

OS: Android 4.4.3

Chain: LTE, UMTS, GSM / EDGE

CPU: 4 cores, 2.2 GHz, Qualcomm Snapdragon 800

RAM: 2 GB

Built-in memory: 32 GB

Camera: 8 MP, autofocus, flash, 2.1 megapixel front camera

Color Display: 5 '', 1080x1920, AMOLED, 442 ppi, Gorilla Glass 3

Black-and-white display: 4.7 '', 540x960, 16 shades of gray, 235 ppi, Gorilla Glass 3

Interfaces: Wi-Fi 802.11 a / b / g / n / ac, microUSB 2.0, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC

Navigation: A-GPS, GLONASS

Battery: 2500 mAh, Qi wireless charging

Size: 144,9h69,4h8,95 mm, weight 145 g

Price: 32 990 rubles

VIDEO

DESIGN AND ERGONOMICS

YotaPhone second generation has a more attractive appearance. There's even difficult to draw a connection between last year's smartphone - so much they differ. Perhaps nothing more than the presence of the second screen them and not binding, the model looks new, original, attractive.

The smartphone is perceived quite differently. Now it is not unusual brick with a beveled surface. Instead, come round shape body, which invariably affected not only the usability, but also on the shape of the model. It looks more modern, but if you look at its curved back, if not you can be surprised ingenuity of designers.

To come up with something new, but retain a comfortable size and offer two screens at once - it's really a great idea.

Body size remind series smartphones Nexus, the model is comparable to the 5th generation, only a little more pulled up. The smartphone is not thick and heavy, for mass-dimensional parameters is comparable with their classmates. This model is ideal for those who want to get a reasonable compromise between the size of the display and practical dimensions.

The front panel is significantly reduced the frame around the screen. Although they are not the lowest, as in some Chinese or Korean smartphone, but at the same time YotaPhone 2 looks modern and attractive compared to other devices. This is important because the predecessor of many perceived as something outdated and certainly not fashionable. There is no such, the smartphone can be safely put on the table next to other relevant devices.

The frame is made from a dark matte plastic, the front and back of the phone - glass Gorilla Glass 3. Moreover, the rear surface - curved, and glass, in turn, follows the contours of the body. By the way, considering the phone, you will notice that the model name is shown in this part of the device. Apparently the manufacturer suggests that the most attention should be paid namely E-Ink display.

However, the earpiece is a color screen. Immediately chamber and present a set of sensors. Volume keys and lock screen rendered on the right side of your smartphone. Slot nanoSIM inscribed in volume rocker. Unusual idea - managed to combine two elements in one piece.

Monolithic body smartphone collected qualitatively, no hint of backlash or scratches, made to last. Given that the body is pulled up, pulling the curtain, holding the phone with one hand, it will be inconvenient. However, typing, the keyboard will work comfortably and without the help of the second hand, as smartphone is not very wide.

SCREEN

The front panel is a 5-inch Super AMOLED-display. Used panel from Samsung with a resolution of 1080x1920 pixels. There is a proximity sensor, a sensor for automatic brightness control. The second display - curved, which in itself becomes an interesting EPD-quality screen with a resolution 460h960 points, diagonal of 4.7 ''.Both screens are closed glass Gorilla Glass 3.

Surface oleophobic coating present sensor adjust the brightness. Check the behavior of the smartphone in the sun due to cloudy weather was not possible. Subjectively the display is comparable to what is in the Samsung GALAXY S4, but no additional YotaPhone 2 color profiles for fine-tuning.

Detailed testing screens spent our expert Mikhail Kuznetsov:

YotaPhone 2 - the second and more "adult" generation smartphone, rich screens. As the main display panel supports color AMOLED (5-inch, 1920x1080) Production Samsung. As an additional screen on the back of used black and white E-Ink (4,7 inch, 960x540). At this time, the tandem thought a lot better execution was a success: two screens do not affect the overall thickness of the device, and the scope quite thin.

The maximum brightness of the main screen AMOLED was 327 cd / m 2 (on a white filling the entire screen).Keep in mind that the brightness depends on the content on the screen, if the white color is not more than 50 area%, the brightness increases to 360 cd / m 2 . In most cases, this is enough, because AMOLED provides an enviable contrast, so the image has a good depth and clarity. However, there are other features: Smartphone YotaPhone 2 uses a non-standard substrate AMOLED-matrix of graphite, so the screen a little differently interacts with the external light when compared with smartphones Samsung.At a certain angle of the screen substrate YotaPhone 2 gives a "metallic" bluish tint and glare. Accordingly, its anti-reflective properties of a little smaller than what we are used to seeing on the AMOLED. But viewing angles are excellent, colors practically not affected.

The average range is difficult to assess because of the dynamic brightness AMOLED. Here, we get a value in the range 2.4-2.8 regardless of the templates. However, visual assessment shows that in real images blockages brightness is observed.

The average color temperature - about 6300K.

Color balance is evenly distributed. Deviations really small, the average Delta E error on gray scale was only 2.51. Here factory setting did not disappoint, weak greenish impurity in most cases, is not evident.

Color gamut - the "native" for AMOLED, ie, very wide. He is noticeably superior to the standard sRGB, so the colors on the screen look more vivid. This increases the distortion effect of someone like, someone - no.

Color evenly gaining depth, it has a positive effect on perception.

Evaluation of 24 templates ColorChecker color gives an average error in the Delta E value of 4.32.Distortion of natural colors remained within reasonable limits, despite the non-standard color gamut. This is an acceptable result, but it would be even better if Yota Devices introduced to color profiles in the image of Samsung and Nokia. At least, the standard sRGB profile is not exactly hurt.

Summing up, it should be noted that the screen YotaPhone 2 left a positive impression. There are need to work on scale and color profiles, but even in its present form it looks very bad. This is facilitated by the usual advantages of AMOLED technology in the form of high contrast and wide viewing angles, and even the color balance. Perhaps the use of the display module from Samsung went only benefit. Rich palette of colors will not please everyone, and yet, smartphone YotaPhone 2 deserves good marks for the quality of the main screen. Still, not every day you meet domestic gadget that level.

BENCHMARKS AND PERFORMANCE

By filling YotaPhone 2 is comparable with the flagship of the last year: 2 GB of RAM, Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 with 2.2 GHz and 4 cores, graphics Adreno 330. Fans of benchmarks is unlikely to impress, but performance smartphone enough for any task, with a load of different modes model copes without any problems.

On speed device is no different from the top-level model, however, the menu for unknown reasons, there may be slight delays. It is expected that in the future smartphone upgrade to Android 5.0.







Internal memory 32 GB memory card slot is not here, as in the previous model. The smartphone offers a full range of communication modules. There is support for GPS and GLONASS, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0.

Used for communication nanoSIM, which is placed in the cleverly positioned slot, combined with the volume keys.

OPERATION TIME

Battery replaceable in the smartphone, its capacity - 2500 mAh, which is considerably more than its predecessor. Considering that there should AMOLED-display, well known for its energy efficiency, it is logical to expect high performance. Indeed, during playback of Full HD-video at maximum brightness smartphone worked almost 7 hours playing HD-video to get 10 hours. In a typical mixed-mode, you can get about 1.5-2 days of work.

If you actively use black-and-white display, then leave already noticeably larger - 3-4 days. There is noticeable progress in comparison with the first generation smartphone, which runs noticeably less.

Now there is no problem with autonomy, YotaPhone 2 get rid of this problem. Additionally, the power saving mode is activated, which will help to increase the autonomy. For example, it is possible to disable the wireless profiles, fine-tune the application, and if necessary, a color screen can be turned off at all. Do not be amiss to mention the fact that the smartphone is equipped with a wireless charger that is compatible with Qi-standard, so you can safely use it in tandem with the phone compatible accessories.

INTERFACE

The smartphone is no additional shell, inside the "naked» Android 4.4.2. Here back touch buttons inscribed in the interface. Previously, they were not, users first YotaPhone had to press the touch area below the screen.Now manage it makes it easier and more comfortable. Not a bad idea - the creation of the original locking system. Smartphone remembers what man hand holding a smartphone which way the screen is rotated.Accordingly, keystroke activates the previously involved only display that eliminates false positives.



The menu includes a special section with a program that allows you to unlock the potential of the second screen.

For developers, there is a set of SDK, so third-party software to help in the work. If before the second screen could not play the role of primary, rather acting as a useful complement, but now the situation has changed.For example, you can switch to it from the menu, and manage smartphone. You can navigate between applications, run programs. In general, no difference from the usual scenario with the main display except that before contact black and white screen. Naturally, such an opportunity to dramatically change the attitude to the smartphone, is now available to many more functions and methods to assess the practical benefits of a second display in the smartphone. He did not fade in the sun, his maximum viewing angles - this will greatly help in the summer or on vacation in a hot country.



As before, the black-and-white display, you can make a screenshot of the main display. However, now you can work with the screen fully. For example, if earlier only adds to the picture of the place where it was necessary to pass, it is now on the second screen, you can fully work with the cards. Therefore it is possible to drive the address or do it through voice control to immediately get directions using only the secondary display. While taking into account the capabilities of the smartphone so called E-Ink screen has incorrectly, it could play a role as the main exception of some circumstances - for example, you can not use it to take pictures, the camera lens is only displayed on the color screen.



As before, in the E-Ink display smartphone displays notifications. New mail, SMS-ki and calls will be displayed as a view of the contents, and just as numbers that show how many new events go unnoticed. In the setting of the smartphone, you can select a background image to a second display by choosing from ready or download it from social networks, for example, from Instagram. Also here is easy to set and panels with notifications that are located in this area. The user selects interesting for myself events (calls, messages, e-mail, calendar and other PIM features), sets the format of the data displayed. It is important that there is not any single version of the design, and several panels are set, allowing more precise fit for your smartphone tasks.



EPD-screen is great for reading. The smartphone is installed firmware application to search for literature, adapted to the sub-screen. I would like to in the future, and third-party programs with the same features can be used for this purpose. Of course, they can be run with a color screen, switch to black and white, but additional panels for Moon Reader or Google Books here obviously would not have been superfluous. Yet to switch to third-party applications require more additional steps. Provided entertainment: on the second screen, you can play chess or Sudoku. If you wish, you can even start the game and bring it to the color screen to black and white.

CAMERA

Lens is in the usual place for a smartphone, it is located at the top of the rear panel. It is worth remembering that in the first YotaPhone it was located at the bottom, so use the device for shooting was uncomfortable.

The company listened to the wishes of users and created a more conventional version, where it is not necessary to get used to the particular location of the camera.

By the way, in the first YotaPhone camera shoots 13 megapixel resolution, while the second - 8 megapixels.There is a flash, there is 2.1 megapixel front camera. The survey results can be seen below. The camera is very average, in low light conditions is markedly reduced quality, noise appears, blurred areas of the image. In the afternoon or in the street situation will be better, but at the same time one can not ignore the gloomy gray-green color in the pictures. By the way, while shooting on the second screen shows the original image.Another advantage of the smartphone can be called full use of the secondary display when creating pictures when you can switch to it for self-portraits. It looks as shown in the example below.

Sample photos

MUSIC

Built-in player can play files in various formats, including not only MP3 or AAC, and FLAC. Built-in music player base, the quality of the model is no better and no worse than many classmates. There is FM-radio, which recently can be found not in all vehicles.

OPINION HI-TECH.MAIL.RU

YotaPhone 2 will be available shortly after the presentation. Price will be 32 990 rubles. On the side of the smartphone mood of the audience: on the wave of patriotism certainly there are those who want to emphasize their attitude to what is happening and choose for themselves domestic development. For example, the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, in his Instagram proposed to abandon the iPhone and prefer YotaPhone 2. And now this - not just the tricolor on the body, lined with precious stones, engraved or dome, and more. At the very least, the idea itself smartphone with two screens was finished look and can be empirically assess the benefits of such an idea.

Treat YotaPhone 2 can be different, but it should be noted that the second generation has turned much more thoughtful and comfortable. Ergonomics usual smartphone combined with a curved display, which is ready to take on the role of the primary. But curious development is expensive, and thus the number of potential buyers will be much smaller. Still, the smartphone will be available at a price of champions, while offering even good, but not maximum performance for your money. And in the same segment play models such as the Samsung GALAXY Note 4, Huawei Mate 7 or Sony Xperia Z3. In any case, on the side of YotaPhone - the originality of the idea of performance, which became a symbol of the product. Two sides of the same coin now shine equally bright.

Pros:

original design;

Easy to work with E-Ink screen;

two touch screen;

good performance;

wireless charging.

Cons:

average quality photos;

no memory card.

We award our YotaPhone 2 reward it deserves for its unique combination of two different types of touch screens in a single package.

------------------------------------Source: https://hi-tech.mail.ru

WATCH: Russia President Putin's Speech Declaring Crimea is Part of Russia

2014-03-19T01:01:00.001-07:00

Getting rid of "standby problem" on the HTC Touch Diamond

2011-03-27T08:02:00.000-07:00

This applies to users of HTC Touch Diamond or Touch Pro2 on which you installed Windows Mobile 6,1. The problem is this: when receiving SMS text messages, while the HTC Touch Diamond is in standby mode with LCD screen powers off. When the machine is idle and the screen is off, and comes a new incoming SMS, HTC does not notify the owner of a sound and no vibration, only the joystick blinks.

This problem is likely to be caused by some specific SIM-cards for some unknown reason. To solve this problem is quite simple - you can change provider =). If you do not want do this, there is another solution in which the SIM-card intact.

Thus, the procedure is as follows:

Step 1: Make sure your phone is properly configured to play audio or beep or vibrate.

- Go to Start Menu> Settings
- Slap a "personal" tab
- Hit "Sounds and Notifications"> hit the "Notice"
- Go to "Events" drop-down list
- Select Messaging> Create a test message
- Ensure, bith sound or vibrate or Play one of them is selected.
- Check the box next to "Display message on screen"

And now, look at your phone if your phone is working properly after this step, congratulations! Then, if not, then you can try the following step:

Step 2: Insert the SMS Wake Event
- Download and install a registry editor on the HTC Touch Diamond Windows Mobile devices (eg, the registry editor PHM)
- After installation, do go to a branch of the registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ Drivers \ BUILTIN \ RIL
- Find DisableSMSWakeUpEvent entry
- Change its value to 0 (default 1)

Then look at your phone, does that change anything? If that action is also not solve this problem, you can try a reset on the HTC Touch Diamond to go to HTC service center to repair your phone.

HTC Diamond3 (Obsession) will come in June

2010-04-25T07:44:00.000-07:00

Trustworthy sources have told that the HTC Obsession, 3.7 inch AMOLED smartphone will come this year in summer, will be coming to AT&T and T-Mobile as the HTC Diamond3.

They were also able to confirm an exact time – the smartphone was intended to ship in June 2010. Despite the plans to come so early, the smartphone is definitely a Windows Mobile 7 device, and will not be coming in a WM 6.5 version first.

A reminded of the specs HTC Diamond3 are below:

* CPU: Qualcomm QSD8250; 1GHz
* GSM HSDPA
* Device Size: 112 x 56 x 11.7 mm
* Memory (RAM/ROM): 512MB/512MB
* Internal Storage: 4GB
* External Storage: MicroSD (up to 32GB)
* Screen Size/Type: 3.7-inch capacitive AMOLED “Multitouch Supported”
* Camera: 5.0 Megapixel AF with flash; HD 720p video@ 25fps
* Video Support: Windows Media Video (WMV), MPEG-4 (MP4/M4V) H.264, DVR-MS4
* Audio Support: Windows Media Audio (WMA), Advanced Audio Coding (AAC-LC), FairPlay DRM, MP3 (.mp3)
* Battery: Removable 1230 mAh
* Talk Time: Up to 10 hours
* Standby Time: 240 hours
* Internet Use: 6 hours (3G), 7.5 hours (WiFi)
* Video Playback: 7 hours
* Audio Playback: 24 hours

Unlike previous Diamonds the device will not be coming in a CDMA version, following poor sales of the last Diamond.

In some ways the branding will be reassuring to HTC HD2 owners, who would prefer not to see their investment superseded so quickly with an HD3.

HTC Diamond2 Running Android

2010-03-21T07:09:00.000-07:00

The development of Android emulator OS for smartphones running Windows Mobile have been held for a long time। And now, the developers of the XDA presented the main findings - HTC Touch Diamond2 running Android 2.0.1 (Eclair). In addition, there is not only video but also there are some files to run on the HTC Touch Diamond2, HTC Touch Pro2 and HTC Touch HD.

User self-installation:
1. Download the appropriate archive:
- For the HTC Touch Diamond2: 2.0.1 Android Android 1.6
- For HTC Touch Pro2: Android 2.0.1
- For HTC Touch HD: Android 2.0.1: mediafire, rapidshare or zshare
2. Make a backup copy of files on the memory card and format it to FAT32
3. Unpack the archive to the root of the memory card
4. Run haret.exe and wait for download

Android on Diamond and Raphael

2009-03-12T01:38:00.000-07:00

HTC company is going to develop three new devices based on Android. As the company reports there’s a good reason to believe that sales of HTC’s new device - T-Mobile G1 – will reach 1 million by the end of the year. It is interesting that Android can already work on HTC Diamond and HTC Raphael but still in very primitive way. You can run Android, but some device drivers will not work properly or even not be available at all.
Here is the list of what works and what doesn't when you try to run Android 0.8 on HTC Diamond (tested on HTC Diamond 100). First of all, you can boot the device without any problems.
Graphical interface is OK, so is the touch screen though it may need calibration during boot (calibration data can also be supplied through a kernel boot option). You’ll have some problems with phone functions: the speaker and microphone don't work. Instead of making calls you can send SMS . You’ll be able to use Internal Storage, Hardware Home/Back/Talk/End buttons, GPS, USB but you may still have some difficulties. See the list below including all options that are working properly, working with troubles or not working at all.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
OK
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Boot
- Graphical interface
- Touch screen (need calibration during boot)
- Stylus detection (to be confirmed)
- SMS (to be confirmed)
- Internal storage
- GPRS/EDGE/3G/HSUPA (to be confirmed)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Partial work
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Phone (speaker and microphone don't work, you can't have a conversation)
- Hardware Home/Back/Talk/End buttons(gpios work, but we need I2C interface and decode the data to map keys)
- GPS (device works when activated in WM, missing init code)
- USB (USB net is working)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Not available
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
- MMS
- Wi-Fi
- Bluetooth
- Access to SD (Is OK on HTC Raphael)
- Main camera
- Second camera
- Navigation Control/Enter
- Hardware Volume buttons
- Hardware On/Off button
- Hardware keyboard (HTC Raphael only, HTC Diamond has no hardware keyboard)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Useful links

HOWTO build your own kernel - borrowed from the Kaiser.
HOWTO build android
Latest builds @ Connect-UTB
Latest builds @ Wuala Usergroup

Android on HTC Diamond - YouTube video

2008-11-24T05:47:00.000-08:00

Sprint HTC Diamond coming in September

2008-09-06T07:55:00.000-07:00

Sprint plans to start the HTC Diamond and the HTC Touch Pro, both using the new Windows Mobile 6.1 OS, according to news reports.

The date of shipping and other details about cost and specifications were not discussed by Sprint, although news reports indicated the cost of the Diamond at US$250 after a $100 rebate under condition of a two-year contract.

Some people mention the Diamond as a competitor to iPhone, mostly for its touch-screen capability. The screen is 2.8 inches, smaller than the 3.5 inch iPhone, and the Diamond has haptics technology to give the user tactile feedback (a slight buzz) when a touch is made. It measures 4 x 2 x .6 inches and weights 4.1 ounces. But one early review by Katherine Boerhret from The Wall Street Journal notes that the real success of the iPhone is the software, and not the touch screen. But she said the Diamond suffers from the "frustrating interface of Windows Mobile" and said even its touch capabilities "didn't work as well as they should. "The Diamond's browser is based on the Opera browsing engine, and Web sites opened with the Diamond don't appear the same as they would on a PC, a feature allowed with the iPhone, Boerhret noted.

It’ll be very interesting to see how this phone is received. With the HTC Touch Pro soon expected to appear, as well, it may very well be a fight of the preferences. Would you prefer to have a QWERTY keyboard or a touch QWERTY?

Resco Bubbles for HTC Diamond

2008-09-06T07:35:00.000-07:00

Resco inc., one of the main mobile applications providers, informed today about the release of Resco Bubbles version 1.0. The purpose of the Resco Bubbles game is to clear the grid of bubbles in order to advance to the next level. You are provided with several bubbles, which should be quickly and efficiently popped. Numerous explosive, speed-up, slow-down and damage bubbles keep the game play challenging and fascinating.

Features:

30 challenging levels
G-sensor support
calibration
various surfaces
best score
realistic ball-bounce feeling

A free playable trial version of "Resco Bubbles", makes it possible for players to test the game out before actually buying it. The current version can be found at: http://www.resco.net/pocketpc/bubbles/default.asp

New HTC Diamond ROM for UK and Europe

2008-08-21T04:26:00.000-07:00

New HTC Diamond ROM for UK and Europe!Touch Diamond was released. The update is available for the UK and other users European countries. However, you can’t use this ROM update if your phone is branded. Orange and some other companies simply won’t allow you to download it.
As with other HTC ROM updates, you need to register the serial number of HTC device through the 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 size of the download is about 98MB. After the download is completed it will take 20 minutes more to perform the update process.
What is updated in ROM Update version 1.93?
- Camera navigation
- Improved TouchFlo response
- New city selector in weather tab
- Text alert speed
Important note: be sure to backup all of your important data before you begin the update process as this is a full ROM update! All information will be wiped from your Diamond (Internal Storage is Safe) during the upgrade!

Make your Diamond more personal with TouchXperience!

2008-08-14T23:45:00.000-07:00

Using HTC Diamond is a keen pleasure except for Touch Flow which keeps many people from getting this device. Well, TouchXperience might change your mind. It brings a sort of infinite scrolling to your HTC Diamond and gives you the option to scroll through via flicking the device itself. There’s also the ability to customize your own menu. Adding contacts, calendar, or any shortcuts makes this a robust application. It even takes advantage of the built in GPS by acting depending on your current location. When you’re out reminders will pop up saying ‘buy beer’, ‘drop off mail’, ‘call your grandma’ or whatever it is that you program it for. Check out the video how it uses the accelerometer to flip through the phones functions!

TouchXperience could be a powerful application for Diamond and Touch Pro users. Users are always looking for a way to adjust, customize, or make the device more personal. TouchXperience gets you one step closer to making that “I made it” feeling come true. It also gives you a pleasant feeling that your device is more functional than somebody’s. Besides that it uses the built in tilt sensor and GPS to make enhance the built in features. All these things will gain over those who still have some doubt!

Android mobile phone on HTC schedule will appear this winter

2008-08-11T11:12:00.000-07:00

This winter HTC company is going to release a mobile phone based on the Android operating system. Observers contend that the company is due to release 2 or 3 handsets based on the system. As you know, Android platform is a software stack for mobile devices including an operating system, middleware and key applications.

HTC is also buoyed by its performance, including the successful launch of its Touch Diamond mobile phone. HTC's CFO, Hui-ming Cheng, said: “HTC revenues are expected to grow 10% sequentially and 30% on year in the third quarter, buoyed by the planned launch of CDMA, GSM and sliding form-factor HTC Touch Diamond handsets.”He also added: “HTC has shipped Touch Diamond handsets to 50 telecom operators in more than 30 countries so far.”

HTC CEO Peter Chou also said that HTC will introduce a more advanced user interface than its current TouchFlo next year and will launch WiMAX devices by the end of 2008.

HTC Diamond: 4 column program instead of 3

2008-08-07T06:13:00.000-07:00

If you are a lucky owner of the device with high-resolution screen you might found out that native Windows Mobile 6.1 is poorly optimized for it. However the new generation of Windows Mobile devices can be improved by different tools and options buried already in the OS, accessible via the registry.

First of all you need to know that there is the ability to change your icon grid on the programs and settings screens from 3 to 4 columns. The simple registry edits needed are as follows:
In HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Shell\
Add a New Key “IconConfig”

In there Add DWORD Value:
“HorizontalIconSpacing” Dec value=”112?
“VerticalIconSpacing” Dec value=”115?
“IconTitleFontSize” Dec value=”6?

If you don’t want to edit your registry than you can simply install this cab made by XDA-Team.
By decreasing “HorizontalIconSpacing” to 90 5-rows of icons can be achieved, but that may be pushing things a bit. On larger screen devices this mod will be even more useful.

1 000 000 HTC Diamonds shipped by the end of August

2008-08-07T01:15:00.000-07:00

HTC is expected to reach 1 000 000 sales mark for HTC Diamond handsets by the end of this summer! This figure seems to be incredibly high taking into account that High Tech Computer (HTC) began to ship the handsets at the end of May, less than 3 months ago. HTC CEO Peter Chou met journalists on August 4 and reported about company’s achievements.
It took about five months for HTC to ship up to one million units of its first touch-screen handset, the HTC Touch, noted market sources. Peter Chou told that HTC is definitely able to reach its next goal - shipping two million HTC Diamond handsets by the end of this year.
However, sources at the Taiwan handset industry supposed that HTC will eventually revise upward its shipping target for 2008. According to them, there’s a good reason to believe that HTC is likely to ship 2.5-3 million HTC Diamond handsets before the end of the year.
Despite market concerns of declining gross margins at HTC, Peter Chou said that HTC is expected to report gross margins of 34-35% in the third quarter of 2008. As he contended, it will be still relatively higher compared to the market average.
Other news came from Jack Tong, the vice president of HTC Asia. HTC's new plant in Shanghai is expected to begin volume production in October this year with a capacity of 1000000 handsets per month. According to Tong, the Shanghai plant will mainly focus on the production of 2.5G handsets.

Official 850 MHz ROM update for the HTC Diamond

2008-07-25T06:30:00.000-07:00

After an unofficial ROM patch which appeared last week on XDA Developers website, HTC has now released a ROM update which officially adds GSM 850 MHz to the HTC Diamond making it a quadband GSM smartphone know which can be used anywhere in the GSM networks. In addition to adding GSM 850 MHz support, ROM v1.93.831.1 WWE also fixes some bugs HTC Diamond users have seen already, such as no signal issue, no action while touching navigator control in camera mode as well as SMS sound alert notification delay issue. Furthermore it's said to increase the overall device performance including improved audio quality after audio booster is enabled, improved TouchFLO 3D tab switching and movement speed or improved home page loading speed.

The new ROM build is now available from HTC's Hong Kong support website. It didn't appeared on other support sites yet and a single operator which is offering the new ROM for OEM Diamonds already. Howevew, it should be just a matter of time until the new ROM build is available from all HTC support sites as well as carriers.

HTC Diamond easy tweaking - DiamondTweak

2008-07-21T01:13:00.000-07:00

MonteChristoffOn from XDA-Developers, inspired by the very popular KaiserTweak, has created DiamondTweak, an app to ease changing of the various registry entries that make your HTC Diamond work much better.

Featuring essential registry edits such as the ones to disable TouchFlo3D and the ability to disable fast sleep during phone calls, this app is a "must have" for your HTC Diamond.

At the moment DiamondTweak supports only English and French languages, more translated version are expected soon.

You can download DiamondTwea at XDA-Developers here.

HTC Diamond radio ROM does 850Mhz

2008-07-18T00:31:00.000-07:00

The lack of support for the 850Mhz GSM frequency band that americans love to use keeping HTC Diamond from sweeping across USA as the next big competitor (and a capable one at that) to the iPhone 3G. Sure, 850Mhz has better penetrating power than the higher frequency 900Mhz band that's used in ubiquity throughout the rest of the world. However it still means the US has to wait for European handsets to make the jump to the US.But, the thing is, Euro handsets usually lag in hitting the US market due hardware limitations. We were under the impression that the HTC Diamond, in European trim, lacked the radio hardware to jump on the 850Mhz frequency in the US. Lo and behold, there's 850Mhz support built-in to the HTC Diamond! Who knew?

A new radio ROM has surfaced at XDA developers that somehow enables 850Mhz support in the HTC Diamond. This basically means an HTC Diamond with this radio firmware is now a USA-compatible, quad-band GSM smartphone - albeit, EDGE data is about as good as it's going to get.
So, if you can't wait to jump on the HTC Diamond before it hits the US in official quad-band spec, grab a European HTC Diamond and give it some unofficial ROM-love. Just remember, you're messing around with critical firmware at your own risk.

HTC Diamond 850Mhz radio ROM

Android running on HTC Touch Devices

2008-07-15T00:15:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: see Android on Diamond and Raphael
It seems that the guys over at XDA Developers, a Windows Mobile centric hack/developer site, have managed to get Android running on a number of HTC devices.

Leah Geary of Coolsmartphone has it running on his HTC Touch Dual and has posted a number of videos of it working. It took a number of reboots and such, he says, but hey - it works. Which, of course, makes everybody wonder, if a bunch of random guys can plug away and get it working, how hard could it be for HTC to do it?

You can see some videos at YouTube.com showing Google Android working on several HTC Touch devices.

Google's Android on HTC Touch

Android on HTC Touch Cruise

Google Android on the HTC Touch Dual

Google Android on the HTC Touch Dual - Part 2

Get Android running on the HTC Touch Dual

Current Features

Touch-screen
Some buttons
Data works with some carriers
Make and Recieve calls
SMS text send and recieve (limited)

Current Issues
Still extremely limited, and is more of an Android sneak peak than anything else
Current main issue is the fact that most buttons wont work, and those who do doesnt do what they should

INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS

1 - Dowload the attached .zip file and extract it to your desktop.
2 - Copy the extracted "Android" folder to the root directory on your HTC Touch Dual. (NB: On the device, not the storage card)
3 - On your phone, open file explorer and navigate to the Android directory. Click_haret-0.5.1 once and wait for the loading to complete. (NB: Keep the screen lit up by touching it to prevent it from dimming down)
4 - Android should now boot. You will have to take out the batter in order to close it as there is no way to shut down Android yet.

Download here

GPS in HTC Touch Diamond

2008-07-14T05:37:00.000-07:00

The GPS receiver that is built-in into HTC Diamond is very good. How about getting GPS fix, even indoors, in a matter of 3-4 seconds? HTC Touch Diamond can do it! How about getting GPS fix during short moment when your car stops at red lights? HTC Touch Diamond can do it!

Thanks to QuickGPS application (see below: this application in action in a video!), that is included in the HTC Touch Diamond, the GPS fix can be accelerated by downloading satellite data from the Internet from time to time:

... and thanks to high-resolution display (VGA = 640x480 pixels) viewing maps is pure pleasure (here: Microsoft UK headquarters):

Screenshot above is from TomTom 6 that works perfectly in HTC Touch Diamond but TomTom 7 is already available.

Note that while TomTom is the best GPS software (that uses maps stored on memory card or internal storage - no online connection needed!) for turn-by-turn navigation, sometimes it is showing less points of interest (here: cinemas in vicinity of Leicester Square in London, UK):

... than Google Maps (the improved Google Maps especially designed for HTC Touch Diamond, with fancy red pins dropping from the top, is pre-installed in this phone):

... so we advise you to youse Google Maps, and other similar programs from Yahoo, AOL and Microsoft (Live) - to get most up to date lists of points of interest. For turn-by-turn navigation however applications like TomTom are the best because they show you the way to go - both visually on the map and through voice instructions.

The QuickGPS application automatically can notify you after a couple days when your GPS satellite data download from Internet - used to accelerate GPS fix - has expired. Here is a video demonstration of expiration of this satellite data and how this program is working (downloading current GPS satellite data from the Internet):

Conclusion: GPS in HTC Touch Diamond is really good.

msmobiles.com

The Opinion: What sucks about the Touch Diamond

2008-07-14T00:57:00.001-07:00

Contrary to all thinking and common-sense, I went and bought the HTC Touch Diamond. The perspective of having a hackable device with high resolution, GPS and voip capability and flawlessly working Exchange-Synchronization finally pushed me over - oh and of course I just like new gadgets to try out.

In my dream world, the Touch would even replace my iPod Touch as a video player and bathtub browser, so I could go back to my old Nano for podcasts.

Unfortunately, the Touch is not much more than any other Windows Mobile phone with all the suckage and half-working features they usually come with. Here’s the list:

VoIP is a no-go. The firmware of the Touch is crippled and does not provide Windows Mobile 6+ SIP support, Skype doesn’t run on Windows Mobile 6.1, but all that doesn’t matter anway because none of the Voip-Solutions actually use the speakerphone. You can only get VoIP sound on the amplified speaker on the back of the phone - or you use a headset at which time, the thing isn’t better than any other VoIP solution at my disposal.
GPS is a no go as the Diamond takes *ages* to find a signal and it’s really fiddly to get it to work - even just in the integrated Google maps application.
Typing anything is really hard despite HTC really trying. Whichever input method you chose, you lose: The Windows Mobile native solutions only work with the pen and the HTC keypads are too large for the applications to remain really usable. Writing SMSes takes me so much longer than every other smart phone I’ve tried before.
T9 is a nice idea, but here and then, you need to enter some special chars. Like dots. Too bad that they are hidden behind another menu - especially the dot.
This TouchFLO 3D-thingie sounds nice on the web and in all the demonstrations, but it sucks anway, mainly because it’s slow as hell. The iPhone interface doesn’t just look good, it’s also responsive, which is where HTC fails. Writing an SMS message takes *minutes* when you combine the embarrassingly slow loading time of the SMS app with the incredibly fiddly text input system.
You only get a German T9 with the German version of the Firmware which has probably been translated using Google Translation or Babelfish.
The worst idea ever from a consumer perspective was that stupid ExtUSB connector. Aside of the fact that you’d practically have to buy an extra cable to sync from home and the office, you also need another extra cable if you want to plug in decent headphones. The ones coming with the device are unusable and it’s impossible to plug better ones. Also, the needed adapter cable is currently not available to buy anywhere I looked.
The screen, while having a nice DPI count is too small to be usable for earnest web browsing. Why does windows mobile have to paint everything four times as large when there are four times as many pixels available?
Finger gestures just don’t work on a touch sensitive display, no matter how much they try. At least they don’t work once you are used to the responsiveness and accuracy of an iPhone (or iPod touch).
The built-in opera browser, while looking nice and providing a much better page zoom feature than the iPod Touch also is unusable because it’s much too slow.

So instead of having a possible iPhone killer in my pocket, I have a phone that provides around zero more actually usable functionality than my previous W880i and yet is much slower, crashier, larger and heavier than the old solution.

Here’s the old feature comparison table listing the features I tought the touch would have as opposed to the features the touch actually has:


	Assumed	Actually
Phone usage
Quick dialing of arbitrary numbers		(the phone application takes around 20 seconds to load, the buttons are totally unresponsive)
Acceptable battery life (more than two days)	?	yes. Actually yes. 4 days is not bad.
usable as modem	yes	yes
usable while not looking at the device	limited	not at all mainly because of the laggyness of the interface
quick writing of SMS messages		it’s much, much worse than anticipated.
Sending and receiving of MMS messages	yes	not really. Sending pictures is annoying as hell and everything is terribly slow.
PIM usage
synchronizes with google calendar/contacts
synchronizes with Outlook	yes	yes
usable calendar	yes	very, very slow
usable todo list	yes	slow
media player usage
integrates into current iTunes based podcast workflow
straight forward audio playing interface
straight forward video playing interface
acceptable video player	yes	no. No sound due to no way to plug my own headphones.
hackability
ssh client	yes	not really. putty doesn’t quite work right on VGA Winmob 6.1
skype client	yes	no. a) it doesn’t work and b) it would require headset usage as skype is unable to use the speakerphone.
OperaMini (browser usable on GSM)	yes	limited. No softkeys and touch-buttons too small to reliably hit.
WLAN-Browser	yes	no. Too slow, Screen real estate too limited.

Now tell me how this could be called progress.

I’m giving this thing until the end of the week. Maybe I get used to its deficiencies in the matters of interface speed. If not, it’s gone. As is the prospective of me buying any other Windows Mobile phone. Ever.

Sorry for the rant, but it had to be.

Taken from: gnegg.ch

HTC Diamond gets a beefier battery, users cheer

2008-07-10T04:27:00.000-07:00

Now here's some news that can make the day for any Touch Diamond user. Soon the price tag of 50 euro (or 80 US dollars) can get you an original extended battery for your beloved devices - along with a spanking new replacement back cover tjavascript:void(0)o accommodate the added bulkiness.

The new HTC Diamond extended battery BP E270 is an original HTC product with a capacity of 1350 mAh. The new battery and back cover will surely add some thickness and weight to the device, but that would be reasonably compensated by the added uptime. Having in mind the usability issues that the good-looking diamond-shaped back panel brings along, we are a bit let down that HTC haven't made the new replacement cover flat. The extended battery pack BP E270 is a great new accessory but it sounds a bit overpriced at 50 euro (or 80 US dollars).

Before you shell out the cash on the original battery, you may also consider a third-party alternative that's not only already available, but also a bit more affordable.

The second alternative pumped up battery is by the Chinese manufacturer Cameron Sino and it would only set you back 33 euro (or 51 US dollars). It's rated at a 1800 mAh and comes with a replacement back cover too. This one's flat however, and while we still don't know whether it looks as good as it's supposed to, we welcome the opportunity for making our Diamond-back totally flat-back (those two names actually sound like two different animal species - too much Discovery Channel, we know).

Back to cell phone batteries, we are also glad to share that you can find the official Touch Diamond battery available for pre-order here, while the third-party replacement pack can be found here - both from the online store of Clove Technology UK.

HTC Diamond Vs. Apple iPhone - the ultimate specs comparison

2008-07-10T00:56:00.000-07:00

The Touch Diamond handset was announced on Tuesday by HTC, and as expected, every blog and newspaper is calling it the first real 'iPhone killer'. And here was me thinking we'd expired that term!

Obviously, the Diamond and iPhone have some similarities (even hired similar hand-models!), but the main difference which is dividing everyone's affections boils down to the original format wars - Mac vs. PC. Want a concise break-down of the pros and cons of each mobile? Whoomp, there it is - below the jump.

Dimensions

The Diamond measures 102mm in height, is 51mm wide and 11.5mm thick, whereas the iPhone comes in at 115mm high, is 61mm wide and 11.6mm thick, weighing 135g. The Diamond is a shade lighter, at 110g.

Display

HTC has put a 480 x 640, 2.8" TFT LCD touch-sensitive screen on the Diamond, and as you probably know by now, the iPhone has an impressive 480 x 320 3.5" multi-touch display.

Operating System

The former runs on the new Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, the first HTC phone to do so. However similar it may be to WM 6.0, HTC has actually layered their own software on over the phone, giving it a more user-friendly navigational system, and TouchFLO 3D technology, which we first saw in the Touch last year.

You can draw a huge comparison between the Diamond and iPhone due to the TouchFLO 3D, with users able to browse through photos and songs sliding their finger along the screen, much as you would on the iPhone.

The iPhone runs on OS X, which is Apple's very own operating system, and as we learned recently with Psystar, very much exclusive to them.

Memory

Buried within the Diamond, HTC has planted 4GB of internal flash storage, plus given the handset 192 MB DDR SDRAM, and a 256 MB ROM. A microSD card slot is supported, for additional storage.

Meanwhile, the iPhone comes in two options, an 8GB or 16GB flash drive, and has 128MB of RAM.

Camera

The camera on the Diamond is quite impressive, with a 3.2-megapixel sensor, and auto focus. The internal accelerometer means the Diamond acts like the iPhone, so photos can be viewed in landscape-stylee and be browsed through with a flick of the finger. The Diamond also has a second camera on the front, a VGA CMOS colour camera, for video-calling.

The camera on the iPhone isn't quite as impressive, with just a 2.0-megapixel sensor, and no auto focus, flash or any editing software.

Media Player

An integrated speaker and FM radio feature in the Diamond, with the iPhone lacking both - well, you can play tunes through the tiny inbuilt one, but we wouldn't suggest it. However, the iPhone's main thrill is indeed the iPod functionality, and with 8GB or 16GB options, that's a lot of AAC, Protected AAC, MP3, MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 1, 2, and 3), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV. Meanwhile, the Diamond supports MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA, WAV and AMR-NB.

Connectivity

Rumours have abounded since the first generation of iPhones came out, that the next model would have 3G connectivity. We're now hoping for a June announcement and release date, but nothing has been confirmed as yet. The Diamond has managed to pip it to the post, with HSDPA connectivity, and 384 kbps up-link and 7.2 Mbps down-link speeds.

The iPhone, meanwhile, has, err, Wi-Fi, and, uh...Bluetooth...

GPS

The Diamond has GPS and A-GPS, however not much else is known about it than that. The iPhone, on the other hand, has Google Maps, which is a pleasure to use, particularly in conjunction with the multi-touchscreen.

Battery Life

You'll get a fair bit out of the Diamond, with 270 minutes' talktime for WCDMA and up to 330 minutes on GSM networks, whereas standby is 396 hours and 285 hours respectively. When video-calling, users will get up to 145 minutes on WCDMA.

The iPhone is advertised as having up to eight hours of talk time, up to 250 hours of standby, 6 hours of internet use, 7 hours of video playback, and up to 24 hours of audio playback.

Availability and Pricing

The HTC Diamond will be out in June, with pricing not yet confirmed. The iPhone is already out, and available on 18 month contracts for either £35, £45 or £55 a month, plus of course the upfront fee. Apple's third party retailers (O2, Carphone Warehouse) recently cut the price of the 8GB model, to £169, however they appear to not be selling them anymore. The 16GB model is £329 upfront.

HTC Touch Diamond keyboard and texting demo

2008-07-09T05:27:00.000-07:00

Since the video demo of the HTC Touch Diamond was posted on Phone Mag, there has been numerous requests for a demo of the keyboard and SMS messaging interface. Our own Vincent has taken it upon himself to get this video demo of those two aspects of this device up and ready for your viewing pleasure.

Here it is. As you can see, when a key is pressed, it gets larger. This is similar to the iPhone, but a good idea is a good idea, right? There is a symbol menu, and a number pad. The keyboard is large enough to get things done, but may be a little hard to type up documents and such. Then again, the Diamond is not nearly as targeted for suits as HTC’s other products.

No haptic feedback on the device, but to many that is not desirable anyways, unless it is localized. The messaging interface is threaded style. Threaded SMS is a huge improvement over traditional SMS, especially if you are forgetful like me.

HTC Touch Diamond soft reset

2008-07-09T00:59:00.000-07:00

Possibly one of the most common questions that I have been asked this week by email and through comments posted on the site is how to soft reset the HTC Touch Diamond.

Seems that many think that the Diamond doesn't have a soft reset button and that the only way to reset a hung device is to pop the battery out and put it back in.

However, this isn't the case. The Diamond does indeed have a reset button that you can press with your stylus, it's just in a slightly unusual place. Don't go poking your stylus in the two holes on the bottom of the device, neither of these are the reset button. The square hole is where you attach a lanyard or phone charm and the round one next to the USB connector is the MIC. Don't go forcing your stylus in the MIC hole - we've heard that some people have already damaged their phones because of this.

In actual fact that reset button is located just under the bit where the stylus slides in. If you remove the stylus you'll see a little red button and the word reset. You can in fact press this button if you poke it with the stylus at an angle but it's a little easier to get to if you pop the back cover open a bit.

Winterface – Cool & Fresh Breeze in the World of Windows Mobile Interface

2008-07-08T02:19:00.001-07:00

Highly customizable Shell to improve standard WM interface

July 7, 2008 - VITO Technology releases Winterface - a major breakthrough in the world of Windows Mobile interface. Winterface is the Next Generation Shell for Windows Mobile comprising the options of a launcher, a task manager, and a multitude of Today plug-ins. Winterface gives the user unprecedented freedom to easily lay out interface exactly the way they like it.

As a shell Winterface removes the necessity to turn to default Windows Mobile interface: Today screen and Start menu. Winterface opens instantly whenever users draw a simple gesture on the screen. It allows users to have as many screens as they need and put on them icons for applications, settings and contacts.

The screens are flipped through with sliding finger gestures. The icons for such applications as phone, sms, email, battery, clock, calendar, memory, etc. - all show relevant information and thus replace a number of Today plug-ins.

As a launcher Winterface features one tap launch of any installed applications and settings. A tap on a contact icon opens a menu with contact details from where you can call, send text message, email, browse URL, etc.

As a task manager Winterface lets you easily switch between running applications. A fixed icon on the first screen lets users see running programs, switch between them or close them.

It is very convenient to organize icons on screens by a certain topic. Users can set up a screen with favorite contacts, a screen with most used applications, a screen with icons-indicators (battery, memory, calendar, clock, etc.), and so on, as far as their fantasy goes! Icons are easily moved on the screen and between screens by drag’n’drop gestures.

Winterface is available for $19.95 at Winterface - Next Generation Shell for your Windows Mobile device. There is also a free 14-day fully functional trial available as a cab or exe installer.

VITO Technology Inc. is known for its innovative products in the field of Windows Mobile and Symbian software, GPS navigation and custom projects. Introduced in this press-release Winterface is a next generation mobile shell for Windows Mobile touch screen devices.
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Useful links:
Download desktop installer: http://iwindowsmobile.com/files/Winterface.exe
Download mobile (on-device) installer: http://iwindowsmobile.com/files/Winterface.cab
Program page: Winterface - Next Generation Shell for your Windows Mobile device

PS: If you like this application, download it, try and post your comment and you will get a free copy of Winterface.