HTC Touch launches; first impressions and thoughts as an iPhone rival
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Blog: HTC Corp., announces the HTC Touch. The Windows Mobile smart phone offers a touchscreen interface and could be a potential iPhone rival.
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Apple announced that there will be an SDK for the iPhone.  Hooray!
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As reported earlier this month, the HTC Touch smartphone will soon be made available in the United States by mobile carrier Sprint for a price of $249 USD.
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Blog: The iPhone's camera in action, shots of life in San Francisco and some thoughts
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With the iPhone, Apple offers a glimpse of what's to come.
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(InfoWorld) - Taiwanese handset maker High Tech ComputerÂ (HTC) is racing to put out the first smartphone based onÂ Microsoft's Windows Mobile 6 OS, a company representative said Wednesday. HTC announced the S710 at theÂ 3GSM World CongressÂ in Barcelona as its first Windows Mobile 6 handset and likely one of the first globally. But the competition is on, and HTC believes that rivals such as Samsung Electronics could beat it to the punch. A loss in the race to market by HTC could be viewed as a victory for Microsoft. For years, HTC has championed Windows Mobile software on its smartphones, while other companies eschewed the OS as too slow or bulky. But HTC's sales have taken off over the past few years, attracting the notice of a number of rivals, which have started marketing Windows Mobile-based handsets. The steady development of the OS and its tie-ins to Microsoft's desktop software are strong reasons for adoption of the OS on mobile devices. In the latest generation of the software, Windows Mobile 6, Microsoft has improved the speed of its direct e-mail push technology to better compete with Research In Motion's popular BlackBerry service. Microsoft has also ensured Windows Mobile 6 takes advantage of features of Exchange Server 2007, including allowing users to search through a greater number of e-mails and allowing a remote user to wipe all Exchange Server-fed data from a device if it is lost or stolen. Windows Mobile 6 is the first mobile OS to take advantage of these features. Other features make Windows Mobile 6 work better with Microsoft Outlook. HTC hopes to ship the S710 handset to Europe in the first quarter, but the timing of the launch could be the second quarter, an HTC representative said. Earlier, the company said it was targeting shipments in the first half of this year. The HTC S710 has a numeric keypad and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, and has a 2.4-inch color TFT-LCD (thin-film transistor liquid crystal display) screen. Thanks to brisk sales of Microsoft Windows Mobile handsets, HTC's revenue rose 46 percent year-on-year last year to NT$106.1 billion ($3.26 billion as of Dec. 31, 2006, the last day of the period reported). Â
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âThis week,â reports Katerine Boehret , âIâve been using an iPhone and iPod touch withâ the recent Apple updates installed, âand I must say that both devices are much more useful and fun with these improvements.â In particular, Boehret likes Web clip: they âgive these gadgets a new sense of instant gratification because they direct users to specific Web pages seconds after the device turns on.â And the iPod touch ânow has the same stellar Mail program that is found in the iPhone, a real plus,â she says.
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After taking stock of the hottest Internet and technology stories of the year, Michael Krey (Yahoo) puts the release of iPhone at the top of the list.  âThe iPhone marked Appleâs first smart phone, and the cell phone industry will never be the same. Appleâs product doubles as an iPod digital music and video player.â iPhone, Krey concludes, ushers in âan era of more user-friendly handheld gadgets.â
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(InfoWorld) - The level of hysteria associated with the arrival of Apple's iPhone is just a notch, maybe two, below that of the Second Coming. However, there is a very good chance that when the smoke clears in the next weeks and months, a whole lot of disappointment, frustration, and dissatisfaction will be left behind. If the iPhone is like other wildly anticipated products in the past, this could well manifest in one or more of the following forms: * The iPhone has a massive hardware defect that results in a recall of the hardware. This is not likely, but it is a risk with all first-gen hardware. * The iPhone is initially received with warmth but, after the first year of AT&T's two-year sentence, the public begins to realize that they've been had. See: Motorola RAZR. * The iPhone is a smashing success and marks the beginning of a run of Apple dominance that, like other successful rebellions, becomes twisted and short-sighted, leaving the general public with limited market options. * The iPhone is an immediate disappointment in both the power and performance categories and is immediately recognized as such for some or all of the reasons explained below. Those are the generalities. Now, read my 13 most probable reasons the iPhone will break your heart. 13. No GPS. The more you compare the iPhone to the BlackBerry, the more it pales. Imagine attempting to navigate your way through the streets of New York City -- or anywhere else for that matter. It's really, really nice to have a built-in GPS system showing you the way. And it's really, really frustrating that Apple has neglected GPS in the iPhone. 12. Text entry won't work well. There is no way -- no way! -- that the virtual keyboard on the iPhone's touch screen interface will work as well as the physical keyboards found on BlackBerries or most other devices. Most assuredly, entering text will be a frustrating, convoluted affair. Complaints about typing have already begun to surface. 11. It's ugly! There, it had to be said. The iPhone's awkward, neo-futuristic design looks like something out of an old Star Trek episode. Remember the me-too styles and hairdos that were in vogue at the tail end of the 1980s? The iPhone feels like that, and it likely marks the end of the relatively pleasing design aesthetic that marked Apple's rise to grace. 10. Slow Internet access. The iPhone will utilize AT&T's old Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution EDGE wireless network, which means data speeds that aren't nearly as fast as far superior 3G technology. In 12 months, when everyone you know is surfing the Web at lightning-fast 3G speeds while they're mobile, you'll be stuck in the slow lane. And you'll still have one more year of locked-in service contract to go. 9. Sensitive screen = scratches. It's extremely easy to scratch the front of the iPod. It will be really easy to scratch the front screen of the iPhone, even with its glass faceplate. This is a neurotic concern, perhaps, but it's still valid, especially considering the $500 price tag for the low-end model. 8. It's pricey. As much as $600 for the phone. As much as $100 per month for a reasonable service plan. That's almost $2000 for the first year of iPhone, which is a lot of cash. Worse yet, after the first year of service, first-gen iPhone users will still have another year remaining on their contract with AT&T but by then, Apple could well be up to its third iteration of the iPhone. 7. No MMS. The absence of MMS technology means that you can't send or receive pictures via text messaging. This takes about 70 percent of the fun and usefulness out of the phone's camera. This is something that will likely be rolled into a future version. 6. Touchscreens lose their sensitivity. The hard reality of using a touchscreen on the go is that, over time, it will lose sensitivity and begin to malfunction. Ask anyone who has toted their Treo or Palm Pilot around in a bag or pocket for a few years. 5. No IM. Initially, the inability to use instant messaging apps may seem like no big deal. But it's a huge convenience for both workplace and social connectivity. BlackBerry users and Windows Mobile devices can already IM away. 4. No enterprise e-mail connectivity. Chances are that if you are reading this, you'll want to use the iPhone as a work-oriented device. Unfortunately, if your workplace doesn't utilize POP or IMAP e-mail servers, you're out of luck on the e-mail front. 3. No third-party applications. Given Apple's insistence on closed environments, it's no surprise that iPhone will not support third-party applications unless they exist within the Safari browser environment. Congratulations, Apple -- you have just stifled innovation and development on your brand new phone for years. 2. Locked to AT&T? In the eponymous 1984-themed commercial that marked the debut of the Macintosh, Apple went out of its way to emphasize freedom of choice, freedom of life, freedom from the hegemony of the PC. Does anyone else think it strange that Apple is now releasing a phone based on a closed OS with virtually no third-party application support and limited file flexibility? The clincher is that iPhone users only have one choice of service providers: AT&T. June 29, 2007 could mark the moment that Apple becomes the sort of oppressive, inflexible bad company that it has long accused Microsoft of being. 1. The smug factor. How excited are you to be on a plane surrounded by legions of iPhone users, each of whom is smugly confident that their iPhone has transformed them into a superior being? Admittedly, this complaint ranges into grumpy old man territory, but still. Remember when Apple used to be cool because it was alternative? On June 29, those days are officially over. George Jones has been an avid technophile since the day he got his first Commodore 64 (and almost electrocuted himself by cracking it open with the power on).
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There's hype. There's hysteria. And there's history. The hype around Apple Inc.'s upcoming iPhone is abundantly clear. So is the hysteria. But how the iPhone will leave its historical mark after Friday's launch is to be seen.
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Does Apple's latest innovation match the hype?
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Blog: Exploring future product opportunities using the iPhone's components
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âAfter all the ink thatâs been spilled describing, previewing and hyping the Apple iPhone, does it deserve the attention? Iâd have to say yes,â reports Ryan Kim (San Francisco Chronicle). âThe lure of the iPhone is that it makes you want to use it. Itâs actually fun. Do we say that about any phones? Hardly. Itâs not really the physical design, which is a marvel of simplicity. Itâs what happens when you pick it up and use it. There is nothing intimidating about it. Rather, itâs inviting.â âThe cell phone, the most personal of technology devices,â Kim concludes, âhas just gotten a whole lot more personal.â
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Apple's iPod Touch made it into the wild a bit earlier than expected, but folks are finding some quibbles with Cupertino's latest.
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InfoWorld - Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC sold 2 million of the Microsoft-based mobile phones it developed to compete with the iPhone last year, the 'Touch' family of handsets.
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New handset could be the iPhone spoiler Today in London, HTC showed off its latest mobile phone handset, simply known to as the Touch - referring to its main feature, the fact that functions are accessed and operated through a touch screen...rather like that much-hyped other touch screen mobile phone soon to hit the shores of the US - Apple's iPhone.â¦
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I'm getting a new mobile phone :) In the whole spectrum of digital opportunities, mobile is where the next big battle lies and I'll be rejoining the fray. It's eight years since Western Mail & Echo bought my first mobile. Four phones later my new one will bear no resemblance to the first.