It's not often that a manufacturer pushes a Windows Mobile version bump in a timely fashion, so color us impressed to see that Samsung has now released an official 6.5 upgrade for the Jack on AT&T. 6.5 is a relatively minor bump over 6.1 in the non-touch Standard world -- Professional devices are getting the lion's share of improvements -- but users will be happy to find that they're getting an updated Internet Explorer Mobile, Windows Marketplace access, and automated free connections to AT&T WiFi hotspots (anything to offload cellular strain, right?). Grab it now from Samsung's site, make sure your battery's charged, and let 'er rip.
Sprint's vice president of consumer marketing David Owens sat down with the community at large last week to answer a few burning questions about Sprint's current and future lineup, and there were a few juicy tidbits, reaffirmations, and rumor confirmations that came out of it worth mentioning:
There will be a WiFi-enabled Tour (the phone we know as the Essex) along with other WiFi BlackBerrys in the future.
Sprint's 2010 HTC lineup is said to be "robust" with a number of additional Android-powered models in the pipe.
Windows Mobile 7 phones are "planned for 2010" but the ball is in Microsoft's court to deliver on the software.
He mentions that upgrades to Android 1.6 and 2.0 (presumably for the Hero and Moment, both of which are currently running 1.5) would likely not be over-the-air due to their size -- this sounds bogus considering that T-Mobile has had no problem going from 1.0 all the way up to 1.6 on the G1, but we'll need to see how this shakes out.
So here's what we want based on what we're hearing in the conversation: an HTC-sourced WiMAX Android phone with the Moment's AMOLED display. Doable?
Bell and Telus are both making quick work of forgetting their legacy CDMA networks and bringing gobs of sexy, high-profile devices to their new HSPA digs -- presumably in an effort to get folks switched over as quickly as possible and steal Rogers customers posthaste -- and the latest is Samsung's Omnia II, which will be coming to Bell in GSM form (despite the fact that Verizon is bringing a CDMA version to market). Featuring a 3.7-inch WVGA AMOLED display, 5 megapixel cam, WinMo 6.5, and 16GB of storage on board, the phone definitely rests at or near the top of the current WinMo crop -- but the real news here is the fact that the phone has just been selected as the Official Mobile Device of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games, which we suppose means you can use it with pride while bobsledding, lugeing, curling, slaloming, or whatever other arctic sports you enjoy. Pricing hasn't been announced, but the phone will be available this month; let's just hope that Olympic endorsement doesn't drive up the MSRP, eh?
Like it or not, we've got it on pretty reasonable authority that HTC's first "DROID" phone is nothing more than a rebadged, shape-shifted Hero (something we've been hearing for a while now), and that it'll be launching on Verizon on November 6th, the same day as Motorola's DROID. That means Android 1.5 "Cupcake," Sense UI, 3.2-inch screen, 528MHz processor and so forth. The Eris will retail for $199 but with a $100 mail-in rebate. It'll pack in an 8GB microSD card and the hopes and dreams of a generation of cheapskates that will be hopin' and prayin' that HTC manages to push Android 2.0 onto this thing so they don't look too bad in front of their DROID-toting buddies on Verizon.
In an interview given to Forbes, HTC CEO Peter Chou spoke pretty candidly about the widespread desire for an Android version of the HD2, and says the phone won't be finagled thusly. "Technically, we could make the HD2 an Android phone, but I have to take care of Windows Mobile," said Chou, after which we imagine popped in a stick of Juicy Fruit and didn't offer to share any with the rest of the class. Of course, this doesn't rule out a handset with similar specifications to the HD2, like the Dragon, matching DROID's push toward Android 2.0 and modern hardware, but it seems to imply that at least it won't be called "HD2," and probably won't look much like it either. Chou did admit that Windows Mobile innovation has been "a little slow" and that interest is declining, and says HTC is "working hard on these kinds of products to get excitement about Windows Mobile back." He didn't hold back on Google, however, saying that some of its actions can be "destructive" but that "we've worked with Microsoft for 13 years ... I also believe we can work with Google for a long time."
The overwhelming mediocrity of Windows Mobile 6.5 gives us pause before saying something sensational like "it's a great time to be a WinMo fan," but we've got to admit, manufacturers are really stepping up their game to deliver these days -- one need look no further than the mighty HD2 to see that. The Omnia II's looking pretty solid, too, especially if you like your phones served up keyboard-free, and ai.rs blog has compiled a comprehensive screenshot gallery showing just how deep the TouchWiz integration really goes. Build quality is said to be top-notch, and it's pretty hard to argue with a 3.7-inch WVGA AMOLED display -- so as we go into 2010, it looks like we might be gearing up for an epic TouchFLO / TouchWiz showdown in the WinMo octagon. Who doesn't like a good fight?
You've already seen the HD2 that HTC would have you see, but now it's time to take the obligatory journey to the world of unboxings. Seen here in "not-yet-final" packaging, the WinMo 6.5-packin' handset looks sexier than ever, even in that still-to-be-tweaked green box. Hop on past the break and mash play if you're looking to get all sorts of jealous this morning.
Even before 6.5 got official, the Windows Mobile community has been toying around with post-RTM leaked builds that really amp up the finger-friendliness -- thing is, no one seems to know what it is, what it's called, when it's coming, who will get it, or how it meshes with the upcoming release of WinMo 7 next year. For now, it's being informally called 6.5.1 -- sounds like a fair name to us -- and new mockups floating around suggest that Microsoft really wants to bridge the gap and make major user experience modifications to 6.5; the pre-7 platform hasn't yet reached the end of the road, apparently. Big buttons at the bottom of the screen look like they should be usable by even the fattest of fingers on a resistive display (and indeed, we've seen various forms of these in leaked builds) and interface elements throughout the OS have been spruced up to finally put the stylus to bed. We'll take it, but we would've been happy to take it in lieu of 6.5, too.
We've seen plenty about HTC's hot HD2, gone hands-on and sized it up next to everyone's most/least favorite smartphone, but there's one thing we haven't seen yet: multi-touch in IE. The video embedded below from Techblog.gr is in a language you may not quite understand, but certainly everyone can grok the snappy UI performance and the pinch zooming demonstrated at the 2:20 mark. It does look a wee bit unresponsive at this point, but HTC still has time to make things perfect before releasing it here -- though to be honest we'd rather just have it now.
It's another Microsoft video, another few minutes of hilarious, unintentional pain. This time Microsoft is tackling the topic of apps, riffing on the abundance of gimmick apps for the iPhone. Unfortunately for Microsoft, we'd think the last thing it would want to do is draw comparisons between Apple's App Store and the company's freshly minted Windows Marketplace for Mobile. Video is after the break.
Can you imagine Dell or HP selling a Vista laptop a couple months from now? No, you probably can't -- but we've got the mobile equivalent of that faux-pas going on here with MetroPCS' introduction of the rumored Code from Samsung, a portrait QWERTY device with EV-DO, a 2 megapixel camera, and microSD expansion up to 32GB. To be fair, WinMo 6.5 does far less for Standard than it does for Professional over its 6.1 equivalent, but still, it's just a little awkward for all parties involved. If you can get past that minor oversight, though, check it out now at your local retailer for $299 contract-free.
Certain user interface elements of the sundry Windows Mobile 7 mockups we've seen floating around over the years have remained more or less constant -- a general gravitation toward better touchscreen usability and some positively bizarre bottom-aligned signal and battery meters, most notably. WMExperts is showing off a newly-acquired document of some sort comparing screens in 6.5 and what was apparently supposed to be 6.5.1 -- the finger-friendly tweak of 6.5 that would precede 7 -- but those mockups on the bottom there have apparently been pushed forward and are now being repurposed as guidance for 7's visuals. For what it's worth, the mockups look so drastically different from 6.5 (and so similar to what we've seen prior 7 leaks) that we're inclined to believe this stuff was destined for 7 all along -- and it actually looks pretty snazzy, save for those dang meters down below -- but whatever, Microsoft, let's just get this moved to RTM already.
Update:pocketnow.comhas some additional mockups posted, possibly from the same batch; it looks like they were playing with the appearance of elements, because the meters have a distinctly different appearance (though they're all still at the bottom). Can you tell we hate the fact that they're at the bottom?
It feels like these phones have been on sale for a solid six months for some weird reason, but in reality, Acer's 2009 line of WinMo 6.5 devices -- including the range-topping F1 -- are finally out and about with shiny new names to boot. As we'd previously heard, the Snapdraon-powered F1 is actually going to market as the S200 and will sit in the high-end neoTouch range, while the E100, E101, and E200 will slum it down in the beTouch series. All four are touch-equipped and range in price from £159 to £295 ($259 to $481) at retail, and when you consider that they're all fully unlocked and unbranded, that may not be so bad of a deal -- particularly for that sexy S200 up there.
Those looking for a slightly more QWERTY-equipped WinMo 6.5 device for AT&T than the HTC Pure need look no further than its stablemate, the Tilt2, now that it's officially available to all comers. The carrier's second model to use Microsoft's latest and greatest cut of Windows Mobile stays pretty true to its Touch Pro2 roots, offering an industrial-strength full duplex speakerphone, 3.2 megapixel cam, WVGA tilt-up display, and of course, that five-row QWERTY keyboard that makes banging out long emails and extended MMS tirades just a little more tolerable. Interest parties should come bearing gifts and plenty of cash, because it'll run $349.99 on contract before a $50 mail-in rebate.
If this picture looks a little "off," yeah, we know what you're talking about -- it's hard to say how any graphic designer could've mis-rendered a mocked-up screenshot this badly -- but just squint your eyes a little bit and play along, won't you? This is apparently a conceptual view of Samsung's new SPH-M8400 for South Korea's KT, which will become just the manufacturer's second phone to feature WiBro (and KT's first) after the M830 / M8300. In fact, they've coined a fun little term for it -- 3W -- which means you're getting WiBro, WiFi, and WCDMA all wrapped up in one for the total 3G / 4G experience. Neither a date nor pricing are easy to come by at this point, but unless you happen to be around Seoul, that WiBro compatibility isn't going to do you a heck of a lot of good anyhow.
Sprint's vice president of consumer marketing David Owens sat down with the community at large last week to answer a few burning questions about Sprint's current and future lineup, and there were a few juicy tidbits, reaffirmations, and rumor confirmations that came out of it worth mentioning:
Bell and Telus are both making quick work of forgetting their legacy CDMA networks and bringing gobs of sexy, high-profile devices to their new HSPA digs -- presumably in an effort to get folks switched over as quickly as possible and steal Rogers customers posthaste -- and the latest is Samsung's Omnia II, which will be coming to Bell in GSM form (despite the fact that Verizon is bringing a CDMA version to market). Featuring a 3.7-inch WVGA AMOLED display, 5 megapixel cam, WinMo 6.5, and 16GB of storage on board, the phone definitely rests at or near the top of the current WinMo crop -- but the real news here is the fact that the phone has just been selected as the Official Mobile Device of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games, which we suppose means you can use it with pride while bobsledding, lugeing, curling, slaloming, or whatever other arctic sports you enjoy. Pricing hasn't been announced, but the phone will be available this month; let's just hope that Olympic endorsement doesn't drive up the MSRP, eh?
