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Windows-Based iPhone Rival for Business Users
MsManhattan writes "High Tech Computer Corp. (HTC) has unveiled a touch-screen mobile device that offers many of the same features as the iPhone but with an emphasis on business applications vs. entertainment value. The HTC Touch is based on Microsoft's Windows Mobile 6 Professional OS and features a 2.8-inch touch screen offering access to emails, contacts and appointments. But unlike the iPhone, which will feature large internal flash memory capacity for music and movie storage, the HTC Touch offers a microSD drive, and a 1G-byte microSD card comes with the handset."
Here you go
I'll start. My HTC (cingular 8525) is a sliding-keyboard touchscreen phone on WM5. The biggest drawback is that they're monsters, and they're too delicate. For both those reasons, I never put my phone in my pocket, I have to carry it around.
It's so bad, I actually unlocked my old Razr so I'd have something to take out with me at night.
http://www.htctouch.com/
To be honest, you might as well say all Windows Mobile based phones are iPhone rivals. I would prefer to say it's just a competitor in the smartphone space, as iPhone will be when it arrives.
I own an earlier HTC WM5 smartphone model, and I'm guessing that despite having a new swish frontend, it'll still be not quite as nice to use as the iPhone will be. However, the big draw is that being Windows Mobile based, you'll be able to run any software you want on it without having to go through Apple, unlike the iPhone.
Random Pics: HTC Touch iPHONE
File Deletion is Murder.
My MDA (HTC Wizard) has been dropped (HARD once or twice) several times and the worst that happened was one of the tabs for the battery cover snapped off.
Not to mention the awesome support for messing with it.
I LOVE my HTC, but I suppose YMMV.
It costs 354.95 GBP SIM-free, or nothing with a 12 month / 45 GBP contract. As per www.expansys.com
HTC has been making these devices for some years (and several models mith touch screen PLUS slide-out alphanumeric keyboard).
/. discussion?
Now that Saint Jobs has something similar (let's call it by its true name: iMitation), it suddenly becomes worth a
Here are a couple videos of the device in action. Looks pretty pathetic to me. The rotating menu screen effect is kinda cool, but the menus it displays look awful and you keep getting dropped into the Windows Mobile interface and apps which kills any hope of making the device feel truly slick and integrated.
The screen resolution of the HTC device is only QVGA: 320 x 240. The iPhone is 320 x 480 (half VGA). This is a major difference in usability.
After trying to switch from a Palm TX (320 x 480) to a Windows Mobile QVGA PDA, one thing that stopped me was the beautiful screen on the Palm vs. the QVGA on the WM5 device.
"Oh God help us. We're in the hands of engineers."
HTC makes perfect hardware, but the software it runs sucks big time. Yes, I talk about Windows Mobile. I am an owner of an HTC Universal, also known as Qtek 9000, which looks like a small laptop. The first problem I had with the device was that although the TFT screen is capable of displaying 640x480 resolution, Windows Mobile limit the output to 320x240, making the device unsuitable for the original reason I bought it (Slashdot, eh..., Internet surfing over 3G cellular networks, later also Python hacking and SSHing while on the road). Thanks to a little Russian hack, OzVga, I have an easy interface to switch between 640x480 and 320x240 anytime I want (ie never, as I only use 640x480). I really can't understand why MS stupidly sets 320x240 as th default resolution, without offering any interface to change it except through the registry. Windows Mobile crash very frequently, are very slow (even on Universal's 520MHz ARM CPU), have the most user-unfriendly and stupid interface I have ever seen since Spectrum's keyboard, and makes my life as a user very difficult. There is a project to port Linux on Universal but it is still in its infancy. I would really describe HTC's Universal as a device combining the perfect hardware with the most unusable software you could ever imagine. HTC really destroys its reputation by cooperating with MS. I am sure HTC could exponentially increase its sales by loading a non-MS OS, preferably open-source like Linux, on all its new PDAs. The best thing HTC can do is to open its hardware platform documentation and let Linux hackers create a Linux port on Universal or future similar device, then sponsor the effort and make Linux the default OS.
I hate touch-sensative surfaces. While they're nice in theory and in some limited situations, they are nearly impossible to use without looking at them, there's no tactile feedback and they often promote mistouching.
Its the one thing (besides the built-in obsolescence) that would totally keep me away from an iPhone. I want my buttons.
This was not a hardware problem. I had the phone replaced under warranty five times with the same result. I ran no third-party applications. Every person in my company hates their 700w. That is not an exaggeration. I am the IT guy here and handle all the cell phones. Literally everyone has told me how much they hate the phone. I now use a 700p (palm OS) and have zero problems. As you may have gathered, I will never use another Windows-driven PIM and will take every opportunity (like this one) to expound on their crappiness.
"What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
I'm the IT guy for the little marketing company I work at and one of the owner's had a 700w, replaced a 650, that had all kinds of problems, replaced three times before I convinced her to insist on getting a new in box 700wx from Verizon. The 700wx has fixed the problem of not ringing on an incoming call and most of the other really annoying problems relating to email.
If you are with Verizon and having issues with the 700w I'd suggest badgering tech support to give you and your coworkers new, not refurbed, 700wx units.
Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree. -Martin Luther
http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/why/technology/g sm-gprs.jsp
You're welcome.
Web2.0: I love when people Flickr my cuil and digg my boingboing until my google is reddit and I start to yahoo
Using an ipod rarely has the urgency that using a phone can, however, so that extra few seconds to remove your gloves, dry your hands, wait for a traffic light, etc. doesn't matter. And fwiw, I do have all those same gripes with my ipod, (although they got tremendously better with the click wheel, but the iphone won't have that capability) - it's just that my ipod sees 1/20 the use of my phone, so it matters *much* less.
QFT!
I have an 8525 as well, and am pretty happy with it, especially with the data plan.
That said, I'd love to have a bit more resolution than 320x240. 320x480 sounds damn nice.
(As AT&T users, we at least can trade up though, I hope!)
Hi, just a friendly reply to your complaints. Yours are perfectly valid, but I would like to comment.
I have no trouble dialing with my thumb.
The only browser that I've found that even works in a somewhat acceptable fashion is Pocket IE. Also, Google Moble will rewrite pages for you to look really nice in the browser. Also, I rarely (its probably been months now) have to soft reset the device.
Orientation has always worked fine for me. Also, you can configure when the onscreen keyboard pops up (I turned it on but found I could work more efficiently with it on.
I just put everything on the SD card. That way I can back it up seperately from the device and move it from device to device quickly. Seems saner than leaving data on the device.
Also, you're on Cingular's GSM network. Switch to Sprint or Verizon and you'll see quite a boost in data speeds.