Earlier this month you may recall the TELUS LG IQ making a cameo in a Best Buy mobile ad. The device that was once a bit of a mystery is starting to come out into the light, today in the form of a few spy shots.
The IQ features a 3.2″ touchscreen, 5.0MP camera with video, and a full and somewhat luxurious slide-out QWERTY keyboard. The IQ will be TELUS (NYSE: TU)’ first device to offer Windows Mobile 6.5… I can’t imagine there being much (if any) demand for Win-Mo, but good on TELUS for mixing it up a bit here.
I’m by no means a Windows Mobile fan, but I’d sure like to get my hands on this bad boy… I’ll see what I can do…
Sometimes size doesn’t matter. Most other times, though, size really counts. Take smartphones, for example. We’re always looking for a thin waistline (we’re a superficial bunch), big helpings of processor power, and a huge touchscreen. It’s all about size. We would have never thought a Windows Mobile device would be the first smartphone to completely meet all those criteria. The HTC HD2 Windows Phone packs in a 1Ghz Snapdragon processor and a 4.3-inch capacitive touchscreen into a package about as thick as a No. 2 yellow pencil. It’s about as good as it gets for Windows Mobile. Heck, the HD2 massive touchscreen, powerful processor and impressive 5-megapixel camera make the handset one of the best phones of the year.
What? A Windows Mobile phone that’s actually worthy of competing at the same level as the iPhone and Android phones like the Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Droid? You bet your ass. Here’s the thing: HTC does a great job of covering up the Windows Mobile interface with its own TouchFLO 3D UI (infused with HTC’s “Sense” design philosophy, of course). So, the HD2 might be a Windows Phone, but with the TF3D interface in place, it’s easy to forgive the HD2’s WinMo roots.
Add in a dash of 4.3-inch capacitive touchscreen goodness, sprinkle on a 5-megapixel camera with dual-LED flash, and add a pinch of GPS, 3G data, WiFi and digital compass, 3.5mm headphone jack, and a microSD card slot, and the HD2’s recipe is sure to please even the staunchest Windows Mobile haters. The barely-there bezel surrounding the touchscreen really highlights the ginormous display – it dominates the handset.
Some say the display is too big, which makes the handset too big, but we have to disagree. The HD2 is just thin enough to pull off the bigscreen look without feeling bloated or unwieldy. It feels a little wide in the hand, but nothing we couldn’t get used to. And, when you’re watching a music video or browsing the web, any complaints about the HD2’s size immediately vaporize into the ether.
We’ll leave the Windows Mobile commentary for a full review, but for now, enjoy the HTC HD2 hands-on video and photo gallery!
Uh-oh. This doesn’t bode well for Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE)….
The SE Satio, purported to be a big-hitter in the touchscreen/smartphone/cameraphone space, has been pulled from sale by Carphone Warehouse, and Phones4U in the UK. Given they are (arguably) the two biggest independent high street chains for Mobile devices, that’s a MAJOR problem for the embattled handset maker.
The vague, and frankly somewhat annoying, explanation of “software issues” is apparently to blame – something that many of us, as smartphone owners, will have experienced at one time or another. In actual fact, what they are referring to is a handset that most likely either crashes or locks when certain actions (e.g. opening an app) are performed on it.
However, usually for handsets to get pulled, these software issues have to be consistently bad, and repeatable – along the scale of say, a handset that persistently restarts when you try and make a call on it (yes, that’s happened before on other devices I’ve tried). So we can assume that for affected handsets, there’s a bug that ain’t going away, and that is going to frustrate users a great deal.
Interestingly, as well being for sale in independent retail channels, the device also got ranged with Vodafone (NYSE: VOD), 3, and Orange – none of whom are apparently considering pulling the Satio. Vodafones view is that it has an Operator-variant of the device which has been tested extensively, and therefore doesn’t have the same issues. Anecdotally, the Satio that I had, which was on the 3 network, didn’t have any issues either – actually, it was very good!
Apparently SE is coming with a software update that is going to fix the issue within the next few days.
Google Apps (a hosted service which manages corporate contacts, calendar, and mail) plugged in to BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) Enterprise Server last spring, but it was targeted to mid-range companies. Well, App Connector has been updated to version 1.5, and with it has come better scaling both for larger and smaller enterprises. For the higher end, Google (NSDQ: GOOG) has bumped up the per-server support to 500 from 250 devices, and for the smaller companies, Google Apps has embraced BlackBerry Professional Software, for rollouts of 30 and under. Just keep in mind that there were rumors awhile back that RIM was going to be ditching BPS, although Unite! was the only thing that ended up getting cancelled.
You can find more info about Google Apps here or their mobile offerings over here.
If you thought Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE)’s high-fashion XPERIA Pureness was pretty enough to make up for its low-tech attitude and nothing-to-cough-at price, you’re in luck. Sony Ericsson is apparently planning to launch a follow-up to the XPERIA Pureness with a Pureness 2. According to Electricpig, the Pureness 2 isn’t anywhere close to an official announcement (let alone a launch), but early reports indicate that Sony Ericsson is looking to create a more simplified and stripped-down Pureness phone. Sony Ericsson’s Pureness designer, Daniel Mauritzson, says the focus right now is on “taking away” features.
Imagine that. In a world where feature-packed smartphones jockey for visibility in a crowded market, Sony Ericsson is moving away from feature-bloat and looking to bring “counterbalance” to the smartphone market. Not just that, but Sony Ericsson is slapping its highest-end XPERIA brand on the Pureness handsets. That’s saying a lot about what Sony Ericsson thinks the public wants in a mobile phone.
The XPERIA Pureness is already a good looker, we can’t wait to see what the Pureness2 will bring to the table.
Aside from being preloaded on the BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) Storm2 and getting rolled out on the original Storm, Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT)’s search engine, Bing, is continuing its spread on mobile. An over the air download link for the BlackBerry Tour 9630 version has bubbled up, the 8530 Curve2 is apparently preloaded with it (though I don’t see it on my unit), and a knowledgebase article is talking about new features in the 8300-, 8500- and 8800-series. If you haven’t tried it yet, Bing offers voice-enabled search, GPS-enabled local search and directions, suggested results as you type, and top news. Windows Mobile and BlackBerry seem to be getting the royal treatment right now, but it would be pretty interesting to see Bing on Android at some point. Obviously Google (NSDQ: GOOG) will be ruling the web search roost for some time still, but considering Bing’s recent partnership with Wolfram|Alpha, Microsoft will at least be able to offer an interesting alternative. To see if you can nab it on your device, head to m.bing.com/download from your mobile browser.
RIM’s desktop app for syncing up your BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM)’s media card with iTunes and Windows Media Player has just been updated to version 3.0, now allowing two-way picture syncing. That means not only will your pictures be automatically offloaded to a particular folder, but if you’ve taken some nice pictures with a real camera and want to have them on your BlackBerry, they’ll be pulled in. Of course, those pictures might be a little large for your media card, so you can opt to have them mobile-optimized. If you’re anything like me, you’ll let your mobile pictures pile up on the memory card for awhile until it strikes you to sideload the pictures onto your desktop, and then you’ve got a sizeable backlog to organize and upload; hopefully Media Sync mitigates some of that hassle into manageable chunks. To get started, go ahead and download the updated BlackBerry Media Sync for free over here.
Tokyo, Japan – As part of its global efforts to align its research and development (R&D) operations to be in line with its focused portfolio of future products, Nokia will be reducing its R&D activities in Japan. As previously announced last week, Nokia plans to reduce some of its R&D activities in Finland and Denmark.
Today’s announcement will impact approximately 220 employees in Japan. The total number would represent slightly more than 1% of Nokia’s R&D personnel globally.
Nokia will continue its significant sourcing activities in Japan. Japanese manufacturers are important partners who play a critical role in Nokia’s global supply-chain strategy and with whom Nokia continues to develop its world-class logistics operations.
The Japanese operation of Nokia Siemens Networks, Nokia’s network infrastructure business, is not affected by this announcement and continues uninterrupted.
Vertu, Nokia’s exclusive line of handcrafted mobile phones for the luxury market, will also continue operations in Japan unaffected by today’s announcement.
So, you might have noticed how Verizon (NYSE: VZ) commercials might have sort of, kind of, maybe been taking some potshots at the iPhone. As we all know, Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) can sling some mud with the best of them, and just launched these two ads that show just how darned handy it is to use voice and data simultaneously.
Son, you just got served. Actually, even though it’s fair game right now, simultaneous voice and data will be a moot points once LTE rolls around. It’s also maybe not such a smart move to be bashing on Verizon if Apple hopes to be using their network at some point, although the same could be said for VZW. One way or the other, Apple really shouldn’t be bragging about AT&T (NYSE: T)’s network, even with it’s data/voice capability. What do you guys think of the ads?
Uh-oh. This doesn’t bode well for Sony Ericsson (
Aside from being preloaded on the BlackBerry (
RIM’s desktop app for syncing up your BlackBerry (
