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HTC Launches HD Phones and Updated Sense UI
cgriffin21 writes "HTC on Wednesday confirmed two new Android smartphones, the HTC Desire HD and HTC Desire Z, that include what the vendor is calling an "enhanced version" of its HTC Sense user interface that includes everything from video editing software to a mapping tool. The HTC Sense's new features include the ability to record HD videos and edit images with various camera effects. HTC Locations, another new feature, provides on-demand mapping, and there's also an integrated e-reader and an e-book store powered by Kobo."
This is a pretty intriguing idea. It's interesting to see how mobile phones are not only starting to encroach on netbooks/laptops, but also now on e-readers. How long until they encroach on home PCs?
I would actually really like it if my phone was my computer, and when I went home it just linked to my keyboard, mouse and monitors and used them. And when I left, it's back to its normal interface.
According to the article, both versions will be available in Europe and Asia in October. Only the "Z" version will hit the US this year though. Gotta say that's disappointing. My next upgrade becomes available December 15th, and the "Desire HD" looks to best every other Android handset out right now. I really, really hope that some version of that phone hits Verizon before or really soon after that date.
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
Especially when it comes to Android phones.
Living With a Nerd
I ordered Verizon's Droid X a few weeks ago, it should arrive next week. But I heard that Droid 2 has a discreet graphics component whereas the Droid X doesn't. Is this true? People who have the Droid X, are you happy with the phone?
So I see HTC and all the vendors are pushing hidef video and more features. However, I see the battery life is suffering on these phones. At what point are they going to push for better battery technology and longer life? Unless your phone does nothing but make a few calls and the occasional email sync, it seems tough to get a smartphone these days to last a day without charging.
I have found that stock Android is pretty nice. HTC Sense is a good *looking* UI, but it suffers in some places. The stock mail client for stock 2.1 is much nicer than the sense variant, for example, and there are a number of other places where it looks like HTC tried to "reinvent the wheel" (with shiny chrome) for what appears to be little or no reason. Perhaps they're trying a little too hard to offer a differentiator on the software side...
I've been much happier with the stock android versions of 2.1 and 2.2 (thanks to CyanogenMod) on my HTC CDMA Hero, since switching from the stock firmware. (Doesn't exactly help that HTC orphaned OS support for that model before 2.2...)
"He may look like an idiot, and talk like an idiot, but don't let that fool you. He really is an idiot." - Duck Soup
The HTC Desire Z is about to be released as the T-Mobile G2 later this month ($200ish with a plan.) The T-Mobile G2 will have the stock Android UI as did the G1 years ago.
http://g2.t-mobile.com/
http://www.androidcentral.com/htc-announces-desire-z-qwerty-slider
Lurking at the bottom of the gravity well, getting old
Wait, it costs how much?!
Damn, never mind *sob*
Free Martian Whores!
Microsoft sued HTC over the use of MS patents in HTC's mobile phones that were running Android, much the same way that Apple has an ongoing suit against HTC. HTC decided to license the patents from Microsoft so it's likely that Microsoft gets paid for every Android phone that HTC sells. Here is the press release. It's reminiscent of how PC vendors paid Microsoft for every box sold, regardless of whether or not it had Windows installed. Different arrangements, but similar end results.
Some have speculated that depending on the agreements, it could be just as expensive for HTC to ship a phone with Android as it would be for them to ship one with Windows Phone 7. If Android doesn't have a price advantage it may put the two operating systems on more even ground, at least from HTC's perspective.
For the past 6 years or so, I would buy the latest greatest phone after my contract ran out. I was close to getting a Droid, then it occurred to me "do I really give a frak about HDMI ports and video on my phone?" I settled with an LG Ally I got for free and got to keep that extra $200 with ZERO regrets. I guess I'll have to stop posting here and watching more Antique's Roadshow now?
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
What AC was trying to convey with his usual 2nd grade vocabulary level was that HTC upsets the no-patent crowd by paying the ransom Microsoft demands of Linux users for alleged patent infringement, thus creating a precedent and helping bid bad Redmond scare others.
It looks like we're starting to see (to a greater degree) new phones coming out too quickly to match the market.
I've no idea about statistics, but I imagine that most people get a discount on their phone by signing up for two years. If new and better phones are coming out every six months, this is going to cause a problem under the current plans. It wasn't as bad with PCs and laptops, simply because people aren't locked into using them for the duration of a contract. I think it's great that my snazzy new phone is going to be less than that only a few months after I bought it, but I'm not even going to consider any kind of upgrade until my contract allows me to.
Someone flopped a steamer in the gene pool.
I'd pay for an officially supported updated HTC Sense for an existing phone.
Can I? No? iPhone users can upgrade iOS on existing devices. Why can't I do the same with HTC Sense?
Would be more descriptive to say that they launched some new features that drain the phones battery even faster.
Now, I have a Android HTC to replace a ancient dumb phone. Excuse my ignorance, but it's my first smart phone... and it took me by the second day of ownership that switching off the Bluetooth, GPS, Wi-Fi and other enabled stuff saved a tonne of battery power. They may be smart phones, but they really do need more battery power packed in to the phone.
Take Nobody's Word For It.
car companies went to stable brand names years ago where each car has a name and a year to show when it was made. Apple is close with the iPhone. Verizon is learning with the Droid.
why can't Samsung and HTC figure this out and stop the constant stream of new phone names every month? cell phones are as much fashion accessories/penis extenders as tools and having the cool phone is important. if you release new phones constantly then the old one is forgotten and kids and others who are your biggest customers will buy the competition.
Except Android sucks a lot less... I don't use either, but I've played with both, I'd pretty happily exchange my iPhone for an Android or vice-versa as carrier needs or whatever changed. I'd hate to have to use Win-Mob phone.
I don't need a million points of light, just two points of multi-mode fiber and a 10 Gig-E router.
TSIA
Out of court settlements don't create precedent. I'm no lawyer, but I'm certain of that. It's the functional equivalent of giving the bully your lunch money instead of fighting with him.
I don't need a million points of light, just two points of multi-mode fiber and a 10 Gig-E router.
If someone can do an LCD with high contrast e-paper style screen and normal LCD functionality then they will solve that problem. Perhaps have the LCD flip out of the way to expose the e-paper screen underneath?
As for the Desire HD, 4.3" screen makes the device too big for me, I did some estimates on paper of its size. Any bigger than 4.3" and you'll have a phone approaching the footprint of a 3.5" hard disk.
Oh, certainly! I like your analogy to explain my actual meaning as well.
PS- I didn't mean the legal definition of 'precedent' you correctly pointed out is irrelevant given the out-of-court settlement. Rather, I was using the English word, thefreedictionary.com defines as "1. a. An act or instance that may be used as an example in dealing with subsequent similar instances". That the law uses the word to specify a similar but extended meaning provided for this clash of terms. If I were discussing the legal aspect of the ransom, rather than the moral one being objected to, I'd be wrong to use a legal term in such a context or one spanning the two without clarifying my meaning.
Where are Android phones that work with the pay-as-you-go, or at least low-cost plans? Virgin Mobile has LG smartphones with $25/month plans, but if you want Android, nobody offers anything at less than $60/month.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
Pocket Answer+hangups.
AARRGGHH!!!!
HTC, Why oh why do you not put a fucking screen unlocker on one of the real hardware buttons of the phone instead of the touchscreen only?
I like to keep my HTC Desire in my shirt pocket. Whenever I get an incoming call, just simply reaching into the pocket to slide out the phone often touches the screen enough to answer and then hang up the call as I try to slide it out of my pocket.
The touchscreen unlock security pattern thingy also is PURE FAIL because of the "Emergency Call" hotbutton on the screen below the pattern. Sliding a ringing phone out of your shirt pocket with the touchscreen pattern soft-lock enabled will about half the time trigger the emergency call button instead and dial 911. Fuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!!!
Out of court settlements don't create precedent. I'm no lawyer, but I'm certain of that. It's the functional equivalent of giving the bully your lunch money instead of fighting with him.
Giving your lunch money to a bully creates a precedent as he will go after you for lunch money again tomorrow. On the other hand bullies are easier to fight as they usually don't have lawyers.
Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
Because the fastest phone existing anywhere on earth has approximately the same raw computing power as a 300MHz Pentium II on its best day, ever?
Forget about Flash (a lost cause on anything slower than the equivalent of a 1-GHz Pentium III), just try to do *anything* with the hardware of something like a Nexus One driving a 1920x1080 display in 32-bit color. You'll be lucky if it can render a double-buffered screen update without flickering, let alone do anything like what we've become accustomed to thinking is the norm for even the most ghetto PC you can possibly buy from Wal Mart.
1GHz ARM11 is NOT the equivalent of a 1GHz Pentium M. It's not even the equivalent of a hypothetical 1-GHz Intel Netburst-architecture Celeron. If you cranked an original Cyrix 6x86 up to 1GHz, it might be roughly equivalent to an ARM of the same speed if you found the right benchmark. There's a reason why you don't see ARMs running Windows... or really, even Linux desktop applications. They just don't have the raw horsepower to do it. If you tried to boot Windows 7 on a PC with the ram and horsepower of a Nexus One, you'd be lucky to have it huff and wheeze past the boot logo before collapsing from resource exhaustion.
It has the same resolution as the original Desire in a bigger display. Doesn't that make it low definition?
Indeed. Doubly so considering HTC are Taiwanese, not American.
I believe claims were also made over HTC's own software (HTC sense), I think HTC paid MS to go away and forget about the Linux stuff especially since MS haven't gone after Motorola (US, not Taiwanese so they'd make a great example).
Also, Taiwan is one of the only [_]COUNTRIES/[_]PROVINCES OF CHINA that you can legally reverse engineer Windows, so there may be some kernel of truth to MS's claims (I may be going into paranoid land here though).
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Are you sure Microsoft sued HTC? I was aware of the licensing deal but never heard anything about Microsoft suing them. A Google search turns up nothing about Microsoft suing HTC either, just the licensing deal.
It would be rather stupid of Microsoft to sue HTC too seeing as Microsoft has historically been so dependent on HTC hardware to shift Windows mobile. I don't really see that changing either, with Windows Phone 7 I suspect HTC will still produce the best Windows Mobile handsets.
Thank you for posting using bold text, I'd never have understood what you were trying to say otherwise.
I don't know about Windows 7, but you can run OSX on a N900 ;) (yeah, it takes 90 minutes to boot, and is completely pointless/unusable)
Slashdot ate the R out of my BR.tag. Next time I'll use preview.
Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
Heh, I find Slashdot tends to mangle a lot of things. I still have nightmares from the time I accidently changed the text type drop down without previewing!