Category: Windows Phone

HTC has confirmed via their Twitter feed that they will making available the HTC TOUCH PRO 2 in every country.

“To answer the big question on everyone’s minds, the Touch Pro2 will be broadly available in all major markets, including North America. We have not announced a launch date for the Touch Pro2 in any country yet. But we did announce we will start to roll it out late Q2. “

This means that unlike Touch HD, which did not make it to the US, the Touch Pro 2 will debut in US around the time it debuts in other parts of the world

[HTC touch pro 2 official webpage]

The HTC TOUCH DIAMOND 2 was launched last week at MWC 2009. The DIAMOND 2 is an update to original Diamond. One of the most obvious improvements that the Diamond 2 brings over the Diamond-1 is the bigger and higher resolution screen. The screen is now WVGA as you can easily make out from the following screenshot.

The higher resolution enables you to see more than the normal VGA screen of Diamond-1.

Like the TOUCH HD, which also sports the same resolution, it also shows weather data of the coming days on the same screen.

Stock tab is the new tab which was not there in the Diamond-1. It basically shows the stock information like their current price and whether there is a increase or decrease in its value.

The calender tab is a much welcomed addition to the Touch Flo interface. It looks nice and works great too. A nice update for those who just got tired of the built-in calender.

Another improvement is the updated SIP (soft input panel).

Calculator has also been a given a nice facelift.

Commentary: Although the Touch Diamond 2 still uses the Windows Mobile 6.1, HTC has (again) done  a commendable job of giving Windows Mobile a new look. Quite a lot of improvements in terms of usage and functionality can easily be seen and observed. It is also nice to know that the HTC has promised a Windows Mobile 6.5 upgrade to the Diamond-2 users.

Folks at Opera have rolled out a technology preview which brings Google Gears to the mobile devices. On the mobile devices, Google Gears will enhance the web experience as it allows the pages to be cached in the background.

How to install?

Installing Gears is pretty easy. Install our Opera Mobile 9.5 technology preview build, go to the Gears web site and click the “Install Gears” button

Links:

• Download Opera Mobile 9.5 technology preview
• Google Gears

[Opera Labs]

credit: Jamie (submitted via contact us form)

How to play?

Drag the board around with your finger/stylus or use your device’s d-pad to move the board around so you can see all of it.

[download Scrobble]

[related XDA-devs post]

The HTC S740 is nice Windows Mobile smartphone, which looks like a brother of the HTC DIAMOND. It uses Qualcomm processor clocked at 528Mhz, which makes it the strongest Windows Mobile standard device. Most of the Windows Mobile Standard(non-touch screen) devices come with TI OMAP 200Mhz processor. HTC has put a lot power in the S740 together and with breathtaking looks, HTC sure has a winner in their hands.

PDA.pl has done a hardware tour of it. Although the review is in polish, but you pretty much get the idea how the device looks and works.

[related article at PDA.pl]

It is not a hidden truth that Windows Mobile is facing a lot of criticism these days. This is due to two reasons:

• increased competition
• increased expectations

The competitions has increased a great deal since the last two years when the first iPhone was released. Also, companies like Blackberry used aggressive marketing to gain even more share than ever. The Blackberry sales have been doubled over the past year and they have been able to sell nearly 22.5 million units. On the other hand, Windows Mobile experienced a drop of 11% with 18 million units sold. Now, with the Palm Pre’s new webOS in the horizon, the competition is going to get a little more tougher for the Windows Mobile

Not to forget about Google, who has been giving free licences to the OEMs. Microsoft charges OEMs for the licences of Windows Mobile.

[cellularnews] [via Solsie]

Skyfire has made the BETA available to the public for testing and that too for free. Also, it supports almost all the Windows Mobile devices

Here is what is new in this new version:

• New Super Bar that combines search and URL entry into one bar
• Skyfire can now be set as the default browser
• New search bar on the Homescreen
• New start page redesign
• Faster start-up and page loading times
• Share a link via SMS
• Invite friends to download Skyfire via SMS
• Save an image
• Download files

So, what is missing? The most obvious is its inability to import bookmarks from IE Mobile/Opera Mobile. Other than that the interface is as feature rich as one would find on the Opera Mobile. Also, you will have to wait for the download to finish because you cannot use skyfire when it is downloading.

Skyfire 0.9 Beta can be downloaded now at get.skyfire.com on a Windows Mobile or Symbian S60 smartphone.

Here are some fresh screenshots of the leaked ROM taken from HTC TOUCH HD. I’ve given explanation for the screenshots wherever it was required. First is the rumored sliding panel interface. Also, notice how nicely the wallpaper blends with the start menu. Next is the lock screen.

Honeycomb interface is working on HTC TOUCH HD. Here are couple of screenshots. You can customize the positions of the hexagonal boxes. Also, the first screenshot shows the soon-going-to-launched Marketplace by Microsoft. It is rumored to be launched at MWC, 2009.

Incoming Call interface has been a huge facelift. It now shows two sliders: one to answer the call and other to reject the call. Also, the menus are a lot more finger-friendly. That will let you to use your device without taking the stylus out of its silo.

The best news according to me is the CONFIRMATION of market place in those screenshots. Only Microsoft has the funds and the resources to make the application store for Windows Mobile successful. We hope that it is real and it is not a simple link to the Mobile Application store

UPDATE: Although the market place is not working yet, but its presence in the ROMs gives us an assurance that it will be available and working in the final release.

credit: juelu at pocketpc.ch (submitted via contact form)

Just when you thought browsing couldn’t get any faster, Opera unveils its latest innovation for better browsing, Opera Turbo. This all-new, turbo-charged way to surf will make its exclusive appearance at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona from February 16-19, 2009.

Currently, the mobile web browsers like Opera Mobile do all the heavy-duty jobs like downloading the webpage; optimizing the webpage and then rendering it on the device. This takes a lot of CPU power, whcih means faster battery consumption. Opera Turbo takes away the much of the load by optimizing the webpage at the Opera servers and then it send the optimized data to the device. This speeds up the operations and makes the device use suck less power. Overall, it also reduces network traffic.

Due to Opera Turbo, even the people with devices with weak hardware configurations will be able to enjoy better performance.

The Opera Turbo will be unveiled at Mobile World Congress

[related press release]