Over at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, we have been been watching excitedly as each manufacturer creates a fanfare with each new android handset they show off to the world. 

With virtually every major manufacturer in the open handset alliance having announced an android phone this week. Everyone was waiting with bated breath for the android trailblazer HTC to show its cards! Wow! did they bring out a winning hand. Not just one excellent handset but two new showcase devices for the android family.

HTC Desire

If there is a better name for it, I would have called it the HTC Gorgeous.  This is a phone that really lives up to its name as most Nexus One users can attest- and with the release of the Desire, it seems that HTC have done one better.  This phone is the separated at birth twin of the Google Nexus One, however sporting a slightly bolstered internal spec and the inclusion of an FM Radio, HTC Sense and Android 2.1 . Trust me HTC sense has never looked so good as on the high Res AMOLED  screen. Having a 1Ghz Snapdragon processor inside the phone also means that its fast, snappy and very responsive.

The other major additions to the handset is of the clickable optical joystick- which works excellently.  It seems blackberry is not the only one removing the rollerballs from their handsets.    With Android, you really need this option when it comes to selecting text and copying and pasting.I suggest that this should be a standard for all handsets to come.

Tmobile has announced its releasing the handset from 24 March! and Orange will be following with a release in April.  ( Much to Connor from Orange’s delight!)

HTC Legend

This handset is for me is jewel in HTCs crown. Its pure engineering beauty and something that even Apple junkies will be gazing wistfully at. 

Designed by HTC- owned design house, One & Co, this device brings together facets of elegance, beauty, strength and functionality.  Form and functionality are entwined in the design and every element of the handset has a practical use, with nothing  added purely for decorative use.  

The handset itself is made from a block of  aluminium with is machined out to produce the whole external case in one piece- and gives the handset the strength and beauty to withstand a pretty much anything thrown at it. As a by-product of the design, it also means that servicing the handset is a breeze with the whole innards simply being slid out of the internal casing.

The handset is also ergonomically designed to fit more snugly into your hand, and doesn’t have the same “squared” feeling of the original hero.  I am also happy to see that the "pronounced” android chin is still there although much more muted than before.

Inside the box, the handset is tricked out with the latest HTC Sense 2.1 and has an excellent 600Mhz processor on board, FM Radio and AMOLED screen.  Everything that will really set it apart from its competitors.

According to the press release, Vodafone have got their hands on it and it will be rolling to a Vodafone store near you in April.  As an interesting addition, it seems that Vodafone’s excellent “Vodafone 360” will be included on it as an extra application.  Hopefully more on this later.

HTC Sense

The main element in HTCs secret sauce is the upgraded new HTC Sense UI for 2.1.

The first major addition to the customization is that HTC has started to add multitouch gestures to its sense UI. Over the past week or so we have seen videos of the mac “expose” like feature which HTC have christened “helicopter” mode. This is also accessed by pressing and holding the home physical button on the front.  It seems like such a simple tweak but it suddenly allows you to easily use all the main home screens on your handset. ( Look for this to be copied by apple in the coming months!)

They have also recoded the account manager so it runs through androids bolstered system and includes native support for Twitter, Facebook. ( Where’s my linked in please??)

Regards to other tweaks and additions:

• HTC have added in a new app called Friendstream” that gives users one single place to find all the latest updates from Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and other accounts. 
• Gone are the choice of HTC widgets and google widgets- HTC have united them in one place.
• You can now have any group as a widget speed-dial on your homescreen
• The Keyboard for the handset will now go portrait and landscape in all apps

Looks like it will be a great month for Android phones in March, and existing users- don’t get too upset- HTC have announced that Android 2.1 and the great new software updates are going to be rolling out to your handsets in March as well.  So good news all round. 

Now the difficult choice – which to upgrade to???

Related posts:

1. HTC Hero coming soon with superpowered HTC sense
2. Android 2.0 hits more handsets in March.
3. HTC Magic Review Roundup

Shrewd marketing Sony! Whilst everyone is getting set up for the forthcoming Mobile World Congress craziness over the next week. Sony has launched a pre-emptive strike by scheduling an advanced press conference for 6pm today.

Great news is that they have a lot to talk about in the form of 2 new previously unannounced android handsets in the form of the Xperia  x10 Mini and the Xperia X10 Mini Pro.

In Sonys press release they have gone into a great deal of detail about what specs and features the phones will have on their release.  Both phones are identical in all aspects except the “pro” version has the addtion of a slide out keyboard.

Like Xperia x10, they will have the new Sony customized applications(timescape and mediascape) and the slick user interface we have seen demonstrated in previous articles.

Even though the phones have  smaller form factors than their Xperia big brother, Sony have packed in great specs such as

• a 600Mhz processors
• 5MP camera
• 2.6imch screen
• Multiple color choices

These phones  are expected to launch in Q2 of 2010.

See video below showing off the handsets, along with some cool looking bods who enjoy smiling at their phones and pretending to look lost.  The guy with the scarf is my pick to win most awesome moustache of the year.

The new Sony EricssonXPERIA™ X10 mini pro | SEMC Blog.

Related posts:

1. Xperia X10 Coming soon to T-Mobile UK
2. I shall call you Mini Android

Happy Valentines Day everybody!

Here is a love heart specially made for all my readers out there. 

Thank you for sharing your opinions, emailing me and generally making this blog, one of the most personally enjoyable things I have ever created. I hope I have managed to entertain and inform you.

You’re the Best!

Send a Ben and Jerrys love heart to your sweetheart

Related posts:

1. G1 Love and Tmobile Haste to be first

If there isn’t enough Android goodness in the market today, Sony is apparently readying itself to unleash its Xperia X10 on the UK. T-mobile looks set to be the carrier of choice.  This phone looks like its going to be a serious winner and another one to add to the Android Premiere league along with the Nexus One and the Motorola Droid.

Boasting some new never before seen features in an android phone such as:

• Face Recognition and memory- The camera will automatically tag and remember faces.
• Advanced camera features like Smile detection, Image stabilization which are normally only built into serious digital cameras.
• Massive 8Mp Auto focus camera with LED Flash.
• 4inch capacitive touch screen- 0.3 inches larger than the Nexus One.
• Customized flashy UI and applications to enhance Android
• Centralised messaging from all your social networks including Facebook and Twitter
• Fully licensed activesync meaning we can enjoy true exchange sync and potentially full sync with MS Outlook!

Here’s a great video demo showing off the phone.

(Thanks to Softpedia for the breaking the news)

Follow this link to go to the T-mobile Xperia x10  preregistration page

Related posts:

1. Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 mini /pro and smiliest video promo ever
2. Countdown to Googlephone UK- Networks tussle for the Nexus one
3. Android Market doubles in 3 months!- hits big 20k!

This year’s mobile world congress is getting more exciting with each day that passes.

All predictions are that it will be Android’s time to shine- and looks like Motorola will be lending a little extra sparkle to the party. It seems Moto is getting ready to lift the lid on the next major update of their excellent MOTOBLUR customization.

Recently an official forum post has promised users a UK release of the motoblur 1.3.20 update within the next two weeks. ( before end of Feb 2010)
Excitingly the post promotes this as being a MAJOR upgrade and we hope to see a slew of new features and fixes.  Sadly the post continues to say that this will not be the recently announced Android 2.1 update which has been timeframed at an agonising “before the middle of June” for UK shores.

I applaud Motorola for their communication skills with their customers and keeping customers in the loop with updates for the phone.  Obviously, they can’t share everything in their road map for competitive reasons, however informing and having a conversation with your customers, where possible, is exactly what this social revolution is about.  Pretty great service from a company that is offering a “Social Handset” – Great job, and I hope other handset companies adopt this same practice.

At the moment the customizations and featured offered by Motoblur ( available in the UK on the Motorola DEXT) coupled with great hardware creates a powerful phone, which has drawn a lot of praise since its launch.  Despite the phone still running on Android 1.5, some of the features offered by Motoblur vastly exceed what is offered on the latest and greatest android 2.1 release. In particular, a unified mailbox for all your facebook, texts, twitter and other messages, much stronger backup and security features like remote wipe.

When the phone was released, it was way ahead of its time.  I am hoping that the last few months development are going to pay off some great new features. I am holding thumbs for at least an update to 1.6 so that DEXT owners will be able to experience the new gen of showcase android apps like Google Goggles, Maps 4.0 etc.

Motorola’s star is definitely rising and the companies who take up the challenge of offering something unique and powerful to users will end up winners in this game.

Please don’t disappoint us Motorola!

Here’s an extract of the post

Software – currently 98% of all DEXT users in the UK are on Blur Version 1.1.14. This is the second maintenance release (MOL) we have provided over the air since launch and it includes enhancements and bug fixes. Within the next two weeks we will release Blur Version 1.3.20 which is a major upgrade and will provide more enhancements and new features.
As far as the 2.1 (Éclair) upgrade for DEXT is concerned we have not yet confirmed when this will be available for European customers. The plan is to follow the US roll out as they are the lead region and to have it available before the middle of the year. I cant say any more on this but will promise to let you all know when this will be happening.

If you want to see a video of the Dext – look at Connor from Orange’s demo below- its excellent

Related posts:

1. Its DEXT Day- Motorola is back with force
2. Android 2.0 hits more handsets in March.
3. Countdown to Motorola Milestone UK!

The smartphone revolution has been going on for a few years now and its beginning to profoundly change the way that people conduct their lives.  The clever people over at the Future Laboratory and T-mobile have produced a fascinating report on the smart phone future that is just around the corner.  Some of the characteristics  and trends they are forecasting have already begun to manifest themselves within mobile early adopters, and if these trends become more widespread, it will have a massive effect on retailers, travel operators, content creators, websites, in fact just about everybody.

The report highlights 6 major characteristics or tribes of people whose behaviour has been influenced by the spread of modern smartphone technology. I am sure most of you will recognise one or two characteristics in yourselves from the list below.  Please feel free to comment and let me know how accurate these are.

1. Insightseer- These people like to explore, whether it be inside their home city, or somewhere more exotic. They are always looking to find the inside scoop of what is cool and what is not wherever they are. Augmented Reality ( or Addon-Reality) is an insightseers’ best friend allowing their phone to become an informative window on the world.  On Android, we have apps like the amazing  Wikitude ( showcase coming soon), NRU ( from lastminute.com) and Rummble which will ensure that you always have access to the latest information wherever your are.

2. Safety.Netters- Phone have always been about safety. Knowing that you can call or be called is reassuring to the safety netters, but smartphones have taken this safety- conscience bunch to the next level.  The advent of GPS, Google Maps, Latitude mean that people can always be found, or find their way to wherever they are travelling to.  From the survey 40% of the people felt they could never get lost again, which both at home and overseas is a very reassuring prospect.

3. Smartsumers- This is the largest group of them all, and one that I hope to one day be a member of.  A “Smart”s consumer uses the leverage offered by his smartphone to:

1. find the right product using the opinions of his peers
2. Source the information about it, to see if it meets his needs.
3. quickly find the best price that he can obtain the product
4. then either buy it there, or negotiate a better price from the retailer.

In other words, retailers be very afraid.

When a smartsumer comes in, he/she will know more about your products, more about the prices your competitors are asking, and will be able to gain maximum benefit. The days of companies like “Borders” book stores charging more for products in store, than on their website is numbered.  Retailers need to take any opportunity to fight for the sale.  Refuse a price match and I guarantee that that their purchase will already have begun its transit from the nearest play.com warehouse( probably paid for by their mobile phone).  Android Apps like Barcode Scanner, Shop Savvy, or even just a straight google search are all part of the smartsumers’ field operations kit.

4. Social Bunnies ( aka the end of loneliness)- Social bunny’s character traits were often the preserve of those who had time to spend talking on their phone. Not any more, social networks like facebook, twitter, instant messaging, and push email are allowing more people to be constantly in contact with those the may have met fleetingly or sometimes never in person.  Not only are they connecting with more people, but they are using it to find out more about their friends and as a result build stronger relationships.  Apps Like Facebook, Google Talk, Blackberry messenger keep social bunnies on top of things.  The boring long commuter journey is a thing of the past- suddenly it has become a social opportunity to catch up and connect.  Next step is “send-sations” what happens when you can send a virtual hug to someone?

5. Re-connected  communities

Looks like “broken Britain” is being pieced back together one smartphone at a time. Mobile is pushing the internet to your local community and allowing people to take action and control in their local area. Online petitions, Facebook groups and local news websites were only the start. Smartphones will allow locals to photograph local issues, like graffiti, potholes and send them direct to the local council. Suddenly your phone has become tool to improve your local environment. This has started already as over a third of councils are on twitter and 10% already have a Facebook page.

6. The Digivores

Information is power. 40% of people’s surveyed felt they were more informed having fingertip access to latest news. The digivore actively seeks out information like his or her hunter gatherer ancestors. Information is there to give the digivore the edge over his competitors. I encounter digivores on a regular basis, and find that sharing newly acquired information is a way to build links and strengthen relationships with others.
If you seek digivores they are usually to be round hanging around Digg.com ( great mobile page), RSS aggregators and news forums. On mobile they use newsrob, fewer and the multitude of twitter clients to get near real-time news updates.

For those of you developing for Android, I would personally look at each of these tribes and ask myself if my app caters to any of these groups.  If it doesn’t, chances are you are missing a trick or two.

For me the smartphone revolution began in earnest when T-mobile released its flat rate internet pricing plan and allowed for personal devices to be always connected.  This revolution has spread and with the advent of the iphone, blackberry and android has broached the mass market. T-mobile has broken down further barriers by being the first to market a full touch screen android smartphone in the form of the T-mobile Pulse at comparatively cheap £150.00

As we see increased smart phone adoption, we will see the above tribes manifest themselves in greater numbers.  The markets had better start getting ready.  The Insightseer and Smartsumers trends should set off warning sounds to travel co’s and retailers alike.  The Digivores also are a  threat to traditional newspapers and magazines.  News is already becoming a commodity with a very short half life.  Its going to be consumed even faster than at present, and the thought of reading a 4 hour old printed newspaper will disappear very quickly, in the face of smartphone personalisation and realtime updates.

Despite the above trends saying that things are changing, I like to think that each of the tribes have a common theme of connectivity running through them.  Insightseers are interested in connecting to peoples’ personal experiences to find things they are looking for about their location.  Safety netters draw comfort in the fact that they are always with in easy reach of help.    Its only human to want to create and maintain connections-  Connections between people and connections between readers and relevant information. From what I see, the smartphone revolution is finally beginning to deliver on some of its promises of a closer, connected society….and the revolution is only just beginning.  Enjoy the ride folks!

Ps which of the above tribes do you belong to??

No related posts.

Android 2.1 has been widely praised by both Nexus One and Motorola Milestone owners whilst other Android handset owners could only look on in envy.  Finally it looks like looks like all those months of teasing are finally going to be over as the the awesome android 2.1 update looks like its finally making its way onto Android 1st Gen handsets in March.

Handsets so far mentioned include:

• HTC hero
• Samsung galaxy
• Motorola DEXT ( or CLIQ as they call it out west- Boy Genius Report story here)

Sadly no mention of the T-Mobile G1 as yet

Its interesting to see that all the handsets above with Manufacturer customized flavours of Android are all rolling outstanding the same time around March.

For me the ones to watch will be HTC to what new tricks it can add their mature  and visually appealing HTC Sense code base and Motorola, with their radically and social focused Motoblur which is showing a lot of promise.

I think it is one of the great strengths of android that the updates keep rolling in and that users will be able to partake in the benefits.  It also gives a great win to developers having the bolstered Android Market App on the handset to improve sales.  The best part will be that developers no longer will have to sit on their hands and can use all the latest tools that android 2.1 offers to roll out their epic applications.

Here is some of the features you can get in Android 2.0

Contacts and accounts

• Multiple accounts can be added to a device for email and contact synchronization, including Exchange accounts. (Handset manufacturers can choose whether to include Exchange support in their devices.)
• Developers can create sync adapters that provide synchronization with additional data sources.
• Quick Contact for Android provides instant access to a contact’s information and communication modes. For example, a user can tap a contact photo and select to call, SMS, or email the person. Other applications such as Email, Messaging, and Calendar can also reveal the Quick Contact widget when you touch a contact photo or status icon.

Email

• Exchange support.
• Combined inbox to browse email from multiple accounts in one page.

Messaging

• Search functionality for all saved SMS and MMS messages.
• Auto delete the oldest messages in a conversation when a defined limit is reached.

Camera

• Built-in flash support
• Digital zoom
• Scene mode
• White balance
• Color effect
• Macro focus

Android virtual keyboard

• An improved keyboard layout to makes it easier to hit the correct characters and improve typing speed.
• The framework’s multi-touch support ensures that key presses aren’t missed while typing rapidly with two fingers.
• A smarter dictionary learns from word usage and automatically includes contact names as suggestions.

Browser

• Refreshed UI with actionable browser URL bar enables users to directly tap the address bar for instant searches and navigation.
• Bookmarks with web page thumbnails.
• Support for double-tap zoom.
• Support for HTML5:
  • Database API support, for client-side databases using SQL.
  • Application cache support, for offline applications.
  • Geolocation API support, to provide location information about the device.
  • <video> tag support in fullscreen mode.

Calendar

• Agenda view provides infinite scrolling.
• Events indicate the attending status for each invitee.
• Invite new guests to events.

Roll on March!!

Related posts:

1. Android Market doubles in 3 months!- hits big 20k!
2. Android Fragmentation: a Developers Persepective
3. Samsung Galaxy I7500 launches in UK

Wordpress has finally joined the long list of companies finally sitting up and taking notice of android, by pushing out its initial release of its android app.
Over on android.wordpress.org, they have set up an android friendly blog which lists the current features of version 1.0.

Features include the ability to:

• Configure and manage multiple blogs
• Comment moderation including the ability to reply to comments
• Create and Edit Posts including categories, tags and photos
• Create and Edit Pages
• Get notified of new comments in the Android notification bar

Not seeking to reinvent the wheel, Wordpress have used the developer of  GNU Public licensed WpToGo code.  Wp2Go will be discontinued in favour of the brand new Wordpress App.  It seems that there is also a new momentum behind the app, and Wordpress are seeking community help in the form of Beta testers for the new version. ( click here to sign up to the beta test!)

Wordpress is another great app to add to the list of Killer apps for Android and I can’t wait to see what further developments time will bring. 

Edit: I cheated and added this from the computer afterwards – purely because of how cool this video is.

Check out the Wordpress Android Release Post here

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Looks like Motorola is rolling out its next phase in helping developers by launching its first Motorola App store in China.  It is inviting submissions from app developers who are looking to cash in on the 1.3 billion populace country.

Motorola has one of the best Developer programs for Android in the form of the Motorola’s App Accelerator Program ( Join it here).  It includes help with

• free Application Testing,
• localisation/ translation
• programming through its great Motodev studio for Android
• And now listing on their own App store.

Motorola has an exciting and rapidly expanding set of handsets, so the future really looks bright when it comes to dealing with them. Their current phone range in the UK includes the Motorola Milestone ( Motorola Droid in the USA), and the amazing Motorola DEXT handset.  Future promises include tablets and more!

If you would like to submit your applications to Moto for inclusion just follow the link below:

Announcing SHOP4APPS in China.

Related posts:

1. Motorola MILESTONE delayed past Magic December 11th
2. Motorola is back and working developers with blue android
3. Motorola Milestone arriving through UK postboxes

One of the largest single criticisms of Android often mentioned by Iphoners is the fact that there are so many different combinations and interations of Android and handsets that it becomes almost impossible to develope applications that will work on all of them.

Thanks to a tweet from Google’s Reto Meier I have finally been able to find a sane, response to this courtesy of Chris, the developer of the Replica Island App.

In his post, he lauds the fact that thanks to Android he was able to get his app on 13 different types of devices, without physically having to test on each device.

I don’t have regular access to all this hardware to test on, so when a phone comes my way I jump on it, install the game, and try it out.  Excepting basic support for multiple screen sizes and input systems, I don’t have any device-specific code.

There is always going to be some minor differences in the way that the applications run, with some giving a much faster video performance, differences in the way that the controls operate or the screen size.  The fact that you can use the same code on so many new and upcoming handsets, demonstrates that having a great app now is going to pay off in ever increasing returns.

Obviously the issue of which Android operating system is running is also something that needs to be noted, and thanks to Google’s Device Dashboard, developers can fully understand what softwar their users are running.  At the moment, its shows a virtual 3 way split, between 1.5, 1.6 and 2.01.  From the news thats been around, most devices are intending or have already made the jump to 2.01, so I think that this will become a non issue within the next couple of months.

The future is bright, so developers what are you waiting for?

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