Best HTC Blog

Tech website Engadget has shown off a few teasers of a leaked web document which gave out three new names of HTC handsets: the Vision, LED and Glacier. It is impressive, but so far, the details are mostly lacking –with the exception of the Vision. It seems like a Dutch site has been able to scoop out the details on this upcoming HTC Android smart phone.

So what’s the deal? Rumors are saying that the HTC Vision is practically the HTC Desire with a slide out keyboard. It was already impressive to see the Wildfire –which is basically a Desire Mini smart phone. The Vision on the other hand, will be delivering the full Desire experience, but with the addition of the full, slide out, QWERTY keyboard.

For quite some time, people have been hoping for QWERTY keyboard on any of HTC’s impressive handsets. But since the initial rumors of the HTC Lancaster (which is basically the HTC Magic with a keyboard), nobody ever gave much hope that the Taiwanese manufacturer would be fulfilling any keyboard wishes. Now, it seems that there is a reason to hope once again as the Vision could potentially be the phone that everyone has been hoping for.

Specs wise, the phone is pretty predictable. As a clone of the Desire, the Vision is slated to have similar hardware. Expect to see the Snapdragon 1 GHz CPU, the 5 mega pixel snapper and of course, the 3.7 inch AMOLED capacitive touch screen display. For now, the Desire is still limited to the Android version 2.1 Éclair; though an update to the Flash capable 2.2 Froyo is expected sometime within the next few weeks.

Details on the two other Android devices; LED and Glacier are still unknown at the moment. Sadly, with HTC’s track record of scrapping planned devices (like some of the devices shown at the leaked HTC Roadmap last year) it is highly possible that we never see these devices ever sold on shelves.

Open world games are one of the least likely genres you would ever find in a smart phone, but here it is Gangstar: West Coast Hustle is the illegitimate child of smart phone gaming and Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto series.

The relation between the Gangstar title and the fact that GTA was developed by Rockstar is no coincidence as Gameloft has designed this game from top to bottom to be a tribute to the open world legend. To settle expectations, this game is not a big or as grand as any of the 3D GTA titles, but with that said, Gangstar is still an impressive game to play.

Players take on the role of P. Thug (yes, we are not kidding you), and the point of this title is to explore the simulated streets of Los Angeles in any vehicle you like. Just like with GTA, players can run around city, steal any car they want and even run over people.

The graphics are pretty good for smart phone graphics, though it would be a good idea not to have any other app running in the background if you want performance. Just like GTA, Gangstar allows players to listen to radio stations when driving in a car, there is even a station that will play the music in your mobile phone.

The only drawback in this fun title is the controls. Sadly, there are time when you will want to bash this game in for its clumsy driving and impossible run and gun mechanics. Driving around for fun is easy, but when you need to do some high speed chases, expect to run into walls a lot as the controls of do not lend well to the turning mechanics at all.

Gameloft’s official website says that this 3D open world title will be available soon on the Android market.

While HTC has not exactly labeled the new phone as a Desire Mini, many cannot help but feel that the newly announced HTC Wildfire is exactly that –a redesigned HTC Desire that is made for the mid range smart phone market.

Most of HTC’s most recent releases have been on the high end spectrum, while it has certainly earned the company plenty of great reputation in the tech industry, they are still alienating many of the general market who is not looking to get an Android smart phone packed to the brim with the latest tech and hardware.

This is why the Wildfire is a great smart phone –it balances features with sensibility and practicality in terms of hardware. The mass appeal is hard to deny as well; the phone focuses heavily on social networking and sharing features more than any HTC handset.

Below is a quick snippet from the official press release from HTC:

“HTC Wildfire helps you stay connected with those who are most important to you through HTC Sense, a user experience focused on putting people at the centre by making phones work in a more simple and natural way. HTC Wildfire enables you to stay up to date with your friends’ posts, comments, alerts and photos, wherever you are.”

The new phone is stated to take hold of the mid range Android market –a position previously dominated by HTC’s Hero smart phone. It was originally expected that the HTC Legend would be a mid range device (technically, it is) but the Hero successor was priced at a slightly higher cost than expected. Many are hoping that the Wildfire will be cheaper.

The big new feature on the Wildfire, as one might have guessed from the above, is the new social feature that the Wildfire has. The “Friend Stream” app will give users an instant overview of current activity on their social networks, allowing people to easily join the conversation and catch up with the latest things that are happening to their contacts. Of course, with this new function, it is equally easy to also share one’s own experiences through the smart phone.

HTC have today announced that they are to release a budget Android handset named the HTC Wildfire. It will essentially be a smaller version of the Desire, with a few less features for a lot less money. We reckon this will come with a price tag of between £150.00 and £200.00 so you can expect to get this one for free on a contract of between £15 and £20 per month. We had a little play with the Wildfire earlier today and it has a lot of the same functionality as the Desire and indeed the Legend. OK it doesn’t pack as much processing power, and the screen isn’t as big, but for an entry level version smartphone, you do get a lot for your money. The great thing about the Wildfire is the ability to customise your handset with a growing number of Android APP’s, which incidentally are usually cheaper than the Apple equivalent. More to follow…

The Taiwanese mobile phone manufacturer has been making waves in the industry thanks to their amazing devices.

From the Hero to the upcoming Legend, HTC’s line up of Android smart phones have ranged from super high-end to well balanced devices that covered almost every single market range available. Even their Windows Mobile smart phone, HTC HD2 has been sought after –thanks to the use of the impressive HTC Sense user interface that made using a capacitive touch screen on a WinMo device possible.

All in all, there is no doubt that HTC is practically reaping gold with their smart phones. Google has acknowledged HTC’s dedication and capabilities as a manufacture and has teamed up with the Android supporter to create the Nexus One smart phone –which explains why the Nexus and the HTC Desire share very similar specifications.

Speaking of the HTC Desire, the Snapdragon powered Android smart phone is not available on store shelves along with the Legend (the successor to the Hero). WinMo fans may be feeling a little left out after it was confirmed that the device cannot be updated to WP7, but HTC has let out a teaser that they are currently working on a new WP7 handset (presumably the HD3).

Even Apple recognizes HTC as a threat –being a major developer of Android handsets. The Cupertino based giant recently filed a lawsuit against HTC regarding the infringements of several patents own by Apple. Expect to see development on this issue later this year.

A recent report brings out the cold hard numbers on HTC’s Q1 sales and has shown that the company’s profit growth is continuous –gaining over 19% more than it did last year for the first quarter. Expect to see the numbers to keep rising as HTC’s new phones come out this 2010.

Read more about the Q1 sales performance of HTC at GSM Arena.

HTC has now taken the position of defending itself fully as CEO Peter Chou speaks out against the lawsuit

“HTC disagrees with Apple’s actions and will fully defend itself. HTC strongly advocates intellectual property protection and will continue to respect other innovators and their technologies as we have always done, but we will continue to embrace competition through our own innovation as a healthy way for consumers to get the best mobile experience possible.”

“From day one, HTC has focused on creating cutting-edge innovations that deliver unique value for people looking for a smartphone. In 1999 we started designing the XDA and T-Mobile Pocket PC Phone Edition, our first touch-screen smartphones, and they both shipped in 2002 with more than 50 additional HTC smartphone models shipping since then.”

It is still too early to say how things will go, but the CEO has a good point, HTC has been around long enough to be considered one of the foremost innovators in the mobile industry. In fact, their contributions to the Pocket PC technology have inspired many of the innovations we see today. Apple’s 20 patent infringement lawsuit is heavy, but quite hard to pin down as they are dealing with one of the best mobile phone manufacturers in the world.

Many already see through Apple’s motives. It has already been announced that 2010 will be the most prolific year for the Android smart phone. In April alone, several high end Android devices will be launched and several more are confirmed to be coming out later this year.

By striking down HTC, Apple would gain a solid advantage over Google as the Android developer would lose one of their main partners in developing the Android technology.

Get to know more about the details of Apple’s patent infringement lawsuit versus HTC at PC Mag.

It is pretty obvious that there is more to the Apple lawsuit against HTC. After all, HTC is the manufacturer behind the Nexus One and many other Android smart phones. With Apple aggressively marketing against their biggest competitor on the field, it makes perfect sense that they would try to cripple one of the key members of the Open Handset Alliance which heavily supports the Android OS.

Should the patent infringement lawsuit cause HTC devices to be pulled off shelves, this would mean that many Android devices and several WinMo phones will be affected –in some ways, concerns about other Android manufacturers being affected has also been raised. The lawsuit covers 20 patents for software and hardware innovations and technologies; developments that HTC is heavily defending.

After all, when words such as “stolen technology” are being thrown about, it is also a matter of principle for the Taiwanese Manufacturer to speak up against such claims.

HTC Chief Executive Officer Peter Chou says that “HTC disagrees with Apple’s actions and will fully defend itself. HTC strongly advocates intellectual property protection and will continue to respect other innovators and their technologies as we have always done, but we will continue to embrace competition through our own innovation as a healthy way for consumers to get the best mobile experience possible.”

“From day one, HTC has focused on creating cutting-edge innovations that deliver unique value for people looking for a smartphone. In 1999 we started designing the XDA and T-Mobile Pocket PC Phone Edition, our first touch-screen smartphones, and they both shipped in 2002 with more than 50 additional HTC smartphone models shipping since then.”

With many years in the industry behind them, it was a pretty obvious thing for HTC to remind Apple that HTC has been an innovator long before the coming of the iPhone.

Read more about the Apple lawsuit at Pocket Lint.

Carphone Warehouse has already revealed some pretty nice pricing information about the upcoming HTC Desire Android smart phone for the Taiwanese manufacturer and from the looks of things, there will be some pretty tempting deals under T-Mobile that might just get a lot of attention from phone users. A deal for two years at 30 Pounds per month delivers unlimited internet access and the device for free –it also comes with free 500 messages and 900 minutes of talk time.

Looks like things are all green for the Desire’s upcoming launch this April with many people already hoping to try out the new Android smart phone. Vodafone and Orange have also confirmed that they will be offering the device when it launches so expect to see more good deals for the phone by then.

With HTC still embroiled in that big legal dispute with Apple suing them for 20 patent infringements, it would be a good idea to go purchase the Desire as soon as possible in case Apple manages to squeeze out an order that would hold back the sale of HTC devices –many experts believe that Apple is aiming to cripple the distribution of HTC devices as a blow to Google (as HTC is a major supporter of the Android OS).

Lawsuit or not, plenty of people are already looking forward to the release of the Desire as the device is placed as an excellent option to choose instead of having to get the Nexus One over the internet. While some say that Google’s decision to stick with an online store was made to avoid direct competition with manufacturers, they have also painted the Google phone into a corner with its inaccessibility.

Get to know more about the HTC Desire Android smart phone and its various price offers at Mobile Choice UK.

Vodafone just might have an indirect exclusivity to the HTC Legend as the Android smart phone has yet to be found on other operators.

While the HTC Desire Snapdragon Android smart phone is pretty much offered by everyone else (it makes for the perfect Nexus One substitute –that is why), the HTC Legend is still a Vodafone-only find.

So far, the UK based Vodafone has yet to confirm as to whether the device is indeed an exclusive offer, but it is hard to believe that other operators simply passed this device up. Surely the Desire is a much more superior mobile phone in terms of specs. It runs at 1GHz, has a 3.7 inch AMOLED capacitive touch screen and a 5 mega pixel camera that can shoot in 720p

The Legend on the other hand, only has a 3.2 inch AMOLED capacitive touch screen, a 5 mega pixel camera (with WVGA video recording), and a Qualcomm 600MHz CPU. It does have a cool aluminum cover and is the successor of the HTC Hero. As a mid range phone, this is one great device that is much cheaper than the Desire. This smart phone also uses the Sense user interface on the Android 2.1 Éclair operating system.

HTC is a Taiwanese based mobile phone manufacturer that is currently the target of a 20 patent infringement lawsuit from Apple. Despite the lawsuit itself, many consider the move by Apple as a strike against Google –its chief competitor. Since HTC is a close industry partner of Google (and a big part of the Open Handset Alliance), Apple would be able to take out a major portion of Google’s mobile phone industry foothold. Google has announced that they stand behind HTC in regards to the lawsuit.

Get to know more about the HTC Legend and Vodafone’s offerings for the device at Tech Radar.

Paul Miller at Engadget raises a good point for many HD2 owning hopefuls: that the amazing new Windows Phone 7 Series will be making it to the Snapdragon powered HTC smart phone.

Unfortunately, Microsoft has just declared that the HD2 will never have an update to Windows Phone 7. Despite the fact that an update has the potential to boost the sales of the already available HD2, allowing the device to be compatible with the new OS would potentially lead to a loss of sales for the new batch of WP7 mobile phones that are expected to be launched within this year.

HTC was among the first to announce that they will be working on their own WP7 device and are expecting to have it ready by the end of the year. If the HD2 will get WP7, it could very well threaten the sales of the newer HTC device.

Hardware-wise, the HD2 is an impressive smart phone, provided that the Snapdragon is more than enough for the new OS. Despite the fact that 1GHz of processing power is already good for current standards, the new Windows mobile platform features so many dynamic elements and animations that it actually makes the Android and the iPhone OS look like bland interfaces. Another interesting point is that the new OS will be incorporating the Xbox Live Games service, which means that the new game apps might be pushing the HD2’s capabilities.

Even if the hardware on the HD2 could run the new OS, there is also the fact that the 7 series is a completely new operating system. Sadly, WinMo 6.5 will never have an update to WP7. Instead, a phone would have to be completely wiped or formatted (including the HTC Sense UI) in order to install the new mobile platform. This cannot be done with just a simple downloadable patch.

Head over to Engadget to read Paul Miller’s article.