Archive for 'Touch HD'
HTC Touch HD2 announced
Posted on 06. Oct, 2009 by admin.
HTC today announced the follow up to last year’s Touch HD, the new HTC HD2. Improvements to the Apple iPhone 3GS had left the HD lagging in some areas, and the features for the HD2 will go a long way to re-establishing the HTC HD range as one of the best competitors to the iPhone.
The specs are certainly impressive
- Huge 4.3-inch WVGA (800×480) display.
- Capacitive touch screen seen for the first time on a Windows Mobile device
- 1 GHz Snapdragon processor
- Dual LED flashlight (threre was no flash on previous Touch HD)
- Windows Mobile® 6.5 Professional, replacing the Windows Mobile 6.1 seen on the previous Touch HD. Windows Mobile has been enhanced using the new HTC Sense interface (the next generation of HTC Touchflo)
The HTC Sense interface appears to address some of the issues from Touchflo, such as the lack of customisation on the home screen. The HTC Sense home screen now allows the user to select their favourite applications, a feature obviously aided by the much larger display (4.3 inches compared to the Touch HD’s 3.8 inches).
HTC has clearly worked hard to make the HD2 more suited to real life usage patterns, and has handy features to make it easy for example to switch from an email conversation to creating a conference call with the participants.
Also of interest is the optional and stylish car kit, and what appears to be built-in satellite navigation software!
Other highlights:
- Day at a glance calendar
- Touch keyboard should be easier to use with larger display.
- Slim design, although overall height and width are obviously larger with the new 4.3 inch display
- Location aware applications
- Facebook and Twitter integration
- Ringer becomes quieter as soon as you pick up the phone, display turns off when phone is at the ear.
- Light sensitive display, automatic dimming
Full HTC HD2 specifications
Weight: 157 grams (5.54 ounces) with battery
Size: 4.74 inches x 2.64 inches x 0.43 inches
Display: Capacitive touch screen
Resolution: 800×480 WVGA
CPU: 1GHz Snapdragon™ processor
Operating System: Windows Mobile® 6.5 Professional with HTC Sense
Storage
ROM: 512 MB
RAM: 448 MB
Expansion slot: microSD™ memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)
Network Bands (Europe):
HSPA/WCDMA: 900/2100 MHz
GSM: 850/950/1800/1900 MHz
Battery type: Rechargeable Lithium-ion battery (1230 mAh)
Talk time:
WCDMA: Up to 320 mins
GSM: Up to 380 mins
Standby time:
WCDMA: Up to 390 hours
GSM: Up to 490 hours
Video playback Up to 8 hours
Audio playback: Up to 12 hours
Camera: 5 megapixel, autofocus
Flash: Dual LED flash
Audio jack: 3.5 mm stereo
Internet Browser: Opera Mobile™
3G,GPRS,EDGE,Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11 b/g
Location aware features:
Internal GPS
HTC Footprints™
Digital Compass
NaviPanel
Other features:
Bluetooth® 2.1 and A2DP
FM Radio
Facebook™ integration
Sharing photos on Facebook and Twitter
Sharing videos on YouTube™
HTC Peep™ (Twitter client)
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SPB Mobile Shell 3.5 released
Posted on 01. Oct, 2009 by admin.
SPB Software have released an update to their Mobile Shell software for Windows Mobile devices including the HTC Touch HD. The update to Version 3 features new widgets, enhanced icons, and several other features including 3D email, current weather conditions, option to have only a single home screen (lifestyle/professional) and an option to change the number of virtual screens in lifestyle and/or professional layouts.
See our original Mobile Shell 3 review here, existing V3 owners can upgrade for free here, and others can trial or buy here.
Other useful widgets in V3.5:
- Tasks
- Facebook status
- Twitter status
- Birthday reminders
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Live traffic data on HTC Touch HD
Posted on 06. May, 2009 by admin.
Whilst Co-Pilot is great sat-nav software on the HTC Touch HD, its live traffic service (an extra £34 for two year licence) is a bit ‘hit and miss’. So in addition to Co-Pilot, I also use a great piece of Windows Mobile software called ‘Traffic TV’ which uses the UK’s Trafficmaster network and gives live indications of congestion and slow traffic speeds on all of the UK’s A-roads and motorways. Windows Mobile allows multi-tasking and so it possible to run Traffic TV in the foreground and to have Co-Pilot giving voice directions while running as a background process.
Traffic TV displays a zoom-able map of the UK, and includes GPS support so the zoomed in map can follow your position in real-time. An extra bonus of Traffic TV is that motorway CCTV camera positions are shown on the map, and you can select a camera to see live images (of the Dartford Road Crossing for example). Otherwise, congestion is shown as a series of symbols which are red to indicate stationary traffic, orange to show very slow traffic/congestion, and yellow to show slow traffic. As the data is received live from the 8000 cameras in the Trafficmaster network, you can be confident that the traffic information can be relied on and is current (my main complaint with the ALK Co-Pilot live traffic system is that out of date info is displayed…).
If you combine Co-Pilot and Traffic TV with the newly updated SPB Mobile Shell (as a replacement for TouchFlo 3D) then you can create a custom desktop which just has your essential driving items (you can quickly flick between three separate ‘lifestyle’desktops with Mobile Shell V3!). My uncluttered ‘driving desktop’ screen just has a Traffic TV icon, a Co-Pilot icon, Profiles icon and a Backlight icon (plus battery and time). This makes the Touch HD a great travel companion; links to purchase them all are shown below:
- HTC Touch HD (Sim Free)
- Traffic TV
- CoPilot Live 7 Windows Mobile UK & Ireland
(contact ALK for free upgrade to WVGA version)
- SPB Mobile Shell V3
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New version of SPB Mobile Shell
Posted on 23. Apr, 2009 by Paul.
Version 3 of SPB Mobile Shell is available, and it makes a nice alternative to Touch Flo 3D for HTC Touch HD owners. With a new more refined look, it has a widget based approach and includes widgets for; Media Player, Profiles, Weather, Clock with world time, Wireless Manager, Calendar with 2 weeks agenda view, applications, and lots of others. You can also add widgets to represent individual contacts. 
There are a number of screens for world time, settings, launcher etc and these can be accessed by a live 3D carousel (or Xperia X1 style tiles).
Of particular interest (and the reason that I have paid out cash for it) is the multi-screen home 
page – you can swipe sideways on the touchscreen to reveal an extra homepage to the left, and one to the right. I have used this functionality to create an uncluttered main home screen with just ‘the basics’ eg. clock, calendar and unread email/SMS/calls indicators. I then have a screen with driving related icons (Co-pilot, Traffic TV, backlight, and time), and the other screen is for frequently used apps and contacts etc. You also get another ‘professional’ homepage which has a fixed layout but includes all your work essentials.
I have to say that I did try Version 2 of Mobile Shell but didn’t really like it, but Version 3 is a big step forward and has proved good enough for me to fork out the $29.99 when the 15 day trial expired.
Mobile Shell also integrates with other SPB products and so I have also purchased their 
Phone Suite which adds extra phone profiles, call filtering, amongst other features. Their is also a more comprehensive weather app if that is of interest to you (the weather app included with Mobile Shell is fine but limited to one town/city).
So what do I miss about the standard TouchFlo 3D interface? Probably only the ’stocks’ tab to be honest. And that is not too much of an inconvenience, easy to check using the Touch HD’s Opera web browser.
All in all, highly recommended and definitely worth trying it out free for 15 days. A trial version (or the full version if you prefer!) is now available from Handango.
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HTC HD ROM Upgrade available
Posted on 14. Apr, 2009 by John.
An EU specific ROM upgrade for the HTC Touch HD is now available for download from the HTC website.
The update addresses the following:
1. Update to the Connection Setup Database.
2. Improved emergency calling connections while using Airplane Mode.
3. GPS position updating speed enhanced.
4. A Title bar display flickering issue in the TouchFLO 3D interface has been corrected.
5. Multiple browsing issues have been fixed.
The HTC HC upgrade download file is available here:
http://www.htc.com/uk/SupportViewNews.aspx?dl_id=533&news_id=137http://www.htc.com/uk/SupportViewNews.aspx?dl_id=533&news_id=137
Read the instructions and warnings carefully before proceeding!
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Touch HD with keyboard!
Posted on 17. Mar, 2009 by admin.
HTC has announced what is effectively a Touch HD with a keyboard, but is in fact the follow-up to the Touch Pro – the new Touch Pro 2.
With a 3.6 inch WVGA (800×480) display (slightly smaller than the Touch HD), and a full QWERTY keyboard this looks like being a great addition to the HTC range. It also features a ‘zoom strip’ for zooming into web pages and documents. More details to follow, or view the HTC website. The phone will be available Summer 2009.
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iPhone vs Touch HD vs Blackberry Storm vs Xperia X1
Posted on 16. Mar, 2009 by admin.
The latest issue of PDA Essentials (issue 84) has an interesting match up between the iPhone, HTC Touch HD, Blackberry Storm and Sony-Eriksson Xperia X1. Other magazines seem to have only taken notice of the Blackberry so it is good to see some coverage for some of the other touch screen contenders.
The latest issue of Stuff magazine (issue 121 April 2009) also reviews the Touch HD against it’s rivals where it gets a Stuff Hot Buy rating, and is crowned Supertest winner. The other phones in the Supertest are the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, the Samsung M8800 Pixon, the T-mobile G1, and the LG KF900 Prada.
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