HTC Announces Legend, Desire and Mini

At Mobile World Congress today, HTC announced 3 new devices based on Windows Mobile and Android operating systems.

The HTC Mini is based on Windows Mobile 6.5 and brings the experience of the HD2 to a smaller footprint. The HD2 experience is truly something special. If HTC can make this into a smaller device, it will be interesting to see and use. The single best thing on the HD2 is the screen. If they can pack the processor and power into a smaller footprint, will the device be as attractive? It’s a hard question to answer. With a smaller screen, they will need to make sure that the smaller screen is just as brilliant as it’s larger brother or it won’t succeed.

The HTC Legend and Desire are both Android based devices. The Legend is like version 2 of the Hero, adding a AMOLED screen LED Flash, optical trackball, a faster processor – 600MHz, and some more memory.  The Desire is HTC’s version of their Nexus One phone, but with an optical trackball and an extra button.

You can read check out the press release over at MobilityMinded – HTC Mini, and HTC Legend, Desire. And then let us know what you think of HTC’s latest devices.

Microsoft MVP Global Summit Time

As you’re reading this, I’m traveling to Seattle to attend the this years MVP Summit. The summit is always a good time to get together with the other Mobile Device MVPs as well as the product group and various teams behind Windows Mobile.

This year, the summit falls at the same time as Mobile World Congress (and the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver). If Microsoft decides to share Windows Phone 7 at MWC, then I expect the product teams will have more to share with us. Unfortunately, a lot of what we talk about is under NDA. Rest assured, that whatever I can share, I will share. And I will also take with me a list of issues and questions that I have gathered from your comments posted on Mobile Jaw over the last while.

I’m looking forward to seeing everyone again.

Quantum Physics Used in New Pressure Sensitive Mobile Touch Screens

There’s an article over on the BBC web site that talks about a division of Samsung that has started to license a quantum physics “trick” known as Quantum Tunneling Composite. For example, the technology could be used to allow you to scroll a web page faster the more pressure you apply to the touch screen.

Quantum physics is one of those classes that I never really got along with at university. So I won’t pretend to understand exactly what’s happening here. The end result is a pressure sensitive switch that’s about the same thickness as a human hair, and only requires power when it’s pressed.

The article makes no mention about what devices and manufacturers are planning on using this technology or how it will effect the price of the unit. Regardless, I think it’s awesome use of technology and I can’t wait to give it a run myself.

Driving and Texting is Worse Than…

Once again cell phone use while driving is in the news. This time it’s because of a study that found that you are more likely to be in an accident if you are sending text messages while driving. It’s not just a little more likely, it’s something like 23 times more likely. This isn’t the first study done about the dangers of cell phone use while driving. The popular TV show Mythbusters did an episode that determined that it was more dangerous to talk on the cell phone while driving that it was to drive drunk. There are dozens of studies done on this, and lots of real world examples. There is no question in my mind that it’s flat out stupid. You’re going to get in an accident, it’s just a matter of when and how bad.

Cell phone use in the car is getting a lot of attention now from the media as well as the government. So much so, that laws are being introduced that will make using a cell phone while driving illegal. While I agree that you shouldn’t be using the phone while driving, I don’t see the need for a law specifically to deal with cell phones because that’s saying that reading the newspaper is ok, or that putting on make-up while driving is fine. When the reality is that neither of those are acceptable. Any laws created should address anything that takes the drivers attention away from the task of driving. It doesn’t matter if it’s eating a burger from a fast food restaurant, reading the newspaper, putting on make-up, shaving, browsing through music on your MP3 player, talking / texting on your cell phone, or anything else. If it takes your attention away from the task of driving, it should be illegal.

The only things that come out of creating a law to address cell phone use while driving is short-sightedness and the need to create a new law in a couple years when the next-great-thing is found to cause a distraction to drivers. Get it right the first time and deal with all the distractions and not just cell phones.

The Cell Phone Evolved

I’ve had my fair share of cell phones over the years and it’s always fun to compare new devices with old units.  Design and functionality are always changing. New devices are considerably smaller than just a year earlier. Well, here’s a pretty cool site that covers off some of the more popular and unusual mobile devices between 1983 and 2009. There a couple places where the timeline jumps a little, but it’s pretty cool to scroll through all the different devices. Of all the phones I’ve had, it’s still a small number compared to the number of devices on this list.  Check it out and let us know your thoughts.  How many have you owned?

Daylight Savings Time – How Did Your Devices Do?

Today we entered into Daylight Savings Time by moving our clocks forward by 1 hour. As a result, today is only 23 hours long and it’s a little brighter out for a littler longer. If you haven’t switching your clocks at this point, I strongly recommend you do it now before you’re late for work tomorrow – unless, of course, you live in some area that doesn’t observe daylight savings.

So the real question is; How did your devices handle the change? All of my devices switched without any problems. The only clocks I had to manually adjust are the dumb ones like the wall clock, stove, and microwave. What about your devices, did any of them fail to change, or perhaps they jumped more than 1 hour? Let us know!

HTC Returns to the Messenger Market with the Maple Smartphone

It’s been a long time since HTC had a device in the messenger space. The Excalibur, HTC’s first messenger style device, was a smash hit with T-Mobile users under the name of Dash. This device was also sold across many other carriers and under many other names, including HTC’s brand as the s620. Following the Excalibur, HTC released the Cavalier. This device added 3G, but never managed to get any traction and didn’t last very long. At this point, HTC turned their focus to other devices and left the messenger market to it’s own devices and companies like Samsung and Moto came in and took over with their BlackJack and Q series of devices.

If the pictures posted by Cnet Germany (via WM Experts) are any indication, all that is about to change. The new HTC Maple is the first messenger device from HTC in a while and it sure looks nice. There is no official comment from my sources at HTC and as such, there is no official specs to be had. But if we look at what HTC has been doing and what this image shows us, we can guess at what features this might have. HTC’s most recent WinMo Standard device, the Rose, has a 528Mhz processor with 256MB for RAM and ROM and 3G in a very small package. I would be surprised if these specs don’t make it to the Maple. WiFi is also a staple on most, if not all HTC devices, so expect to see WiFi. Further, you can clearly see the trackball on the front of the Maple. This is a welcome change from the horrible JOGGR touch panel that the original Excalibur and Cavalier sported. The screen appears to be 320×240 and shows the sliding panel home screen from WinMo 6.1. Don’t take this as an indication that there won’t be WinMo 6.5 on the device. We haven’t seen any screen shots of 6.5 on a standard (non-touch) device. So it’s unclear what the user can expect to see with 6.5. WinMo 6.5 will mainly focus on finger usability, so it’s possible that there is no new user experience changes to standard devices.

GPS should also be expected. Although, to be honest, you can never tell these days. Some devices where you expect to see it, it’s doesn’t get added. It sure would be nice to see this with GPS, as I use it so much these days. With any luck, we’ll see a spring launch and hopefully it will be here in North America.

I’ve got my fingers crossed – can’t wait to try the new HTC Maple.

What Devices are Used by Mobile Device MVPs?

Fellow Mobile Device MVP, Todd Ogasawara, thought it would be a good idea to interview the Mobile Device MVPs and see what device(s) they are using. This video was recorded during the MVP Summit this past week in Seattle. The summit was 2 days of product group meetings with a day on either side of keynote speeches. The summit is always a good time to get together and hang-out with other Mobility MVPs, as well as yelling at Microsoft about what they need to change.

Take a look at the video when you get a chance. You’ll find me at around the 1 minute mark.

On another MVP note, all the MVPs went to the Experience Music Project where Microsoft had setup a nice little reception party with Rock Band for people to play with, along with a real band for singing karokee. In this video you can see Helio from PocketPCFreak singing with the WinMob’s dancing around on stage with him. And if you think there’s something funny about that beaver, you would be right – It’s Rocco from Smartphone Thoughts. Go Beaver, Go Beaver!

Taking a Closer Look at Microsoft Tag

Microsoft recently took the wraps off a new barcoding standard. The new system is called Tags and uses triangles arranged in a 5 x 10 grid with 4 different colors to produce a high capacity color barcode. What makes this new system better, or worse, than regular barcodes, QR Codes, or any of the other scanning systems already being used?

There are a couple significant advantages to this new system. Whether or not this is enough for the world to switch and start using Microsoft’s Tags has yet to be seen.

The fist big difference that you will notice is the use of color on this code. There are 4 colors – Black, Pink, Blue, and Yellow. The use of color means that the camera can pick out the image in poor conditions and still correctly determine the code. It doesn’t matter if it’s poor lighting or a blurry image, the camera can still decipher the code. As well, the use of color means that storing 1 byte (or 8 bits) requires just 4 symbols. By comparison, QR Code requires 8 symbols to store the same amount of data.

Typical barcodes and QR codes are black with a white background providing easy contrast for scanning. With the Tag solution, the black background followed by a thin 2 pixel wide contrasting boarder is required for the camera to successfully pickup the image and process it. I tested this with a white, yellow, and black boarder. The black border would not allow the camera to correctly frame the tag and thus not process it. Both yellow and white worked without any problems. [ ..Read More.. ]

HTC Responsible for 80% of Windows Mobile Device Sales

It shouldn’t come as a big surprise to hear that HTC has sold 80% of all Windows Mobile smartphones sold to date. After all, they dominate the Million+ sellers list with 7 out of the total of 11 devices. But when you start to break down the numbers, it really starts to get interesting.

Microsoft announced at Mobile World Congress that they sold 50 million Windows Mobile devices to date, with 20 million in the last year. HTC then announced that they have sold 40 million Windows Mobile devices since they started building Windows Mobile units. And remember, they have been with Microsoft since the start and for the majority of their existence, they built devices for other companies, only bringing their brand out in the last couple years.

50 million sold, less the 40 million that HTC accounts for, and that leaves 10 million devices. Of that 10 million, we know that Samsung has 3 devices in the million sellers list. Assuming, which we all know is a bad idea, that they only sold exactly 1 million units, that means Samsung is good for 3 million out of that 10. Motorola also, has a device on the million sellers list, so they account for another 1 out of that 10. That leaves us with 6 million units. Those 6 million units are divided across the rest of the device manufacturers like Palm, Asus, LG, HP, etc…

I’m not sure if having one company control so much of the Windows Mobile devices sold is a good thing or not. It’s nice to know that they are successful in what they are doing, and that clearly shows in the quality of their devices. We all know that competition is good for the consumer. Samsung is clearly in the best position in terms of competition, but they’ve got a long way to go if they’re going to threaten HTC. The recent announcement by LG to make Windows Mobile the primary OS for their smartphones could be the competition that the market needs. LGs plans to bring 50 different Windows Mobile devices to market over the next 4 years. Even with 25 of those coming in 2012, that still leaves just over 8 devices a year over 3 years. As much as HTC has done, 8 different models could be a strong push into their market.

Ah, the times are changing! I’m looking forward to seeing what these companies can do to innovate and bring new and exciting devices to the market over the next couple years.

[from InformationWeek via MocoNews ]

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