TamsPPC – the PocketPC Blog

HTC has dominated the Windows Mobile keyboard slider market for some time – both the SE XPERIA X1 and the HTC Touch Pro series of devices were manufactured at the same plant and generated revenue for the same company.

Samsung’s announcement of the Omnia Pro was a straight “declaration of war” at this extremely lucrative market – and the boys at AreaMobile’s have performed a little pictorial shoot-out. One of the images is below:

The full gallery can be accessed here – just click the arrow labeled “Weiter” to proceed:
http://www.areamobile.de/

I have to admit that I never liked HTC’s TouchFLO too much – I am, however, perfectly aware that I am very alone with this sentiment.

The list below hits us via xda-developers; a user dubbed shadowline claims that it’s the “change log” for the upcoming version 2.5 of the UI:

Home screen:
New look
new shortcut icons on up swipe, along with 3 on the main screen.
Tapping on an appointment brings up a new appointment info screen.
Tapping on date lets you change the date.
Tapping on the alarm info lets you change alarms.
Tapping on time lets you view the world clock.

People Tab:
New layout, grid style like Manila 2D.
New Messaging screen (see messaging below)
– All people:
Nothing new in the main screen, but under “Updates and Events” tapping on “me” brings you to a list of your facebook notifications.

Messaging Tab:
Nothing new on the main screen
– All Messages:
Brand new all messages screen. Listed by conversation/contact, and includes contact icons.
– In a conversation:
Brand new screen, scrolling has changed, icons included in each message along with the contact icon at the top.

Mail Tab:
Nothing new.

Internet tab:
New bookmarks view, includes thumbnails of your favorite sites (can be used on home screen too)

Calendar tab:
Nothing new

Stocks tab:
Nothing new

Photos and videos tab:
Nothing new

Music Tab:
Totally new page
Album thumbnails now “flow” in from the top
new controls
– Menu:
Update album art from the web on selected track, or on all of now playing.

Weather Tab:
Nothing new
– Add City:
New search by typing name.

Footprints Tab:
Brand new tab, works much like its Manila 2D cousin.
Not able to test more on this as it is not currently working for me.

Settings tab:
So much to list!
All of the windows mobile settings menu has been placed into this tab.
If you could get to it from start > settings, then it is now here too.

None of this is final, and there are a LOT of features that at either not working, temporarily broken (requiring a restart), or tf3d itself crashes a lot.

As of now, no further information is available – stay tuned!

Living in the United Kingdom makes covering the mobile computing market a lot easier – SlashGear has shared the picture below:

As of now, there is no further info available – stay tuned!

Microsoft Austria has just sent word that Austria’s governmental carrier A1 will come out ahead of the pack once again when it comes to Windows Mobile: according to them, the Samsung Omnia II will be available from A1 at the end of September 2009:

Unfortunately, the carrier has refused to state prices as of this writing – I dare to bet that the device will debut in the 300E price range in a fashion similar to thew XPERIA X1…

In case you don’t trust us – the German release is below:
http://www.microsoft.com/austria/presse/pressemeldung1825.mspx?ID=4afbb4b9-9bb2-4c03-9726-c4ef569ef6e5

Krusell is a huge Swedish manufacturer of protective cases. Their top list tends to be somehwhat representative for “average users” – and saw some severe changes this month.

RIM fell out, Palm didn’t get in (no wonder due to European focus)….and Sony Ericsson has gone amiss too:

1. (3) Nokia 6300
2. (-) Apple iPhone 3G
3. (-) HTC Touch Diamond 2
4. (2) Nokia 3109
5. (-) Nokia E51
6. (1) Nokia 5800
7. (5) Nokia E71
8. (6) HTC Touch HD
9. (-) HTC Magic
10. (-)HTC Touch Pro2

11. (4) Samsung SGH-i900/i910 Omnia

() = Last month’s position.

Last month Nokia took a Grand Slam by taking all Top 3 positions at Krusell’s best seller list for May. The list in June also gives an impression something is happening in the market. Nokia takes 5 out of 10 positions, HTC takes 4 and Apple one. Samsung, LG and Sony Ericsson are all out of the list.

To me it is surprising even the previous best seller Omnia had to leave the list this month, says Ulf Sandberg MD at Krusell. Yet another surprise is that everybody in the industry always talks about how short the lifecycles of mobile phones have become. This month’s No 1, Nokia 6300, was introduced in February 2007 in Krusell’s assortment and is now back on the No 1 position 28 months later, he ends.

People who own more than one handset can tell a tale of the charger eekers – every manufacturer has at least one (usually two or more) incompatible charger types.

This is not only annoying (extra weight), but also bad for the environment. As such things tend to attract EU regulators attention, manufacturers had to act – Yahoo Tech reports the following:

…

The agreement by Nokia, Sony Ericsson and other industry majors will mean phones compatible with standard charging devices are available in Europe from next year, said the EU executive, which has pushed for such a deal.

…

The Commission said the agreement would involve the creation of an EU norm, and that the new generation of mobile phones would use a standard micro-USB socket to ensure compatibility.

…

According to them, the situation will go even further: chargers and handsets will be unbundled one day (which would lead to even lower handset prices).

Even though I personally prefer MiniUSB as I feel it handles better, MicroUSB nevertheless seems to be a pretty robust solution. My Nokia XPressMusic 5800 is still alive and kicking, and Nokia’s large-scale roll-out has started with the Nokia N85 (review here)…

P.S. HP’s Data Messenger is also based on MicroUSB…and has no problems with it AFAIK…

Mio has produced quite a few successful handsets in the past – their latest device could be dubbed Amber. The image below hits us via ai.rs:

They claim the following specs:

* CPU: Qualcomm MSM 7201A Turbo (528MHz)
* Memory: 256/512MB RAM/ROM
* Display: 3.61″ WVGA
* Network: GPRS/EDGE + WCDMA/HSPA
* Camera: 5MP AF + secondary VGA
* Battery: 1500mAh minimum
* OS: WM 6.5
* MicroSD, GPS, AGPS, BT 2.0, USB 2.0, M sensor, G sensor
* Noise Cancellation
* FM Transmitter

As of now, no official information is available – stay tuned!

The Mozilla Foundation has just unleashed the second beta of its mobile FireFox (dubbed Fennec):

The following things have been added or changed:

New for Alpa 2:

* Improved panning performance
* Newly designed theme
* JavaScript error console is now built in
* Improved add-on support
* Numerous bug fixes
* Improved UI polish

As of now, the Mozilla Foundation has stated nothing about hardware requirements – all they state is that Windows Mobile 6 is required. This means that the program will likely work on all supported screen resolutions – further information can be had here:
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/fennec/1.0a2-wm/releasenotes/

HTC’s recently-announced Android handset (dubbed HTC Hero) contains an UI stack of its own – it is dubbed Sense, and is radically different from the current TouchFLO implementations which sit on the Today screen of various WM handsets.

WMPowerUser asked the folks at HTC’s whether TouchFLO is here to stay – and got the following response:

The Hero UI has been created specifically for HTC’s Android-based phones but also represents that three core pillars of HTC Sense. HTC’s future Windows Mobile phones will also be based on HTC Sense, but will enhance Windows Mobile in a way that is as appropriate and valuable to people.

I personally think that their choice makes perfect sense: people think about brands first, and about operating systems only after that. Nokia is as successful as it is as its S40 and S60 handsets share a largely common UI stack, thereby simplifying switching.

HTC gains a lot from unifying their UX: I personally would not be surprised to hear that HTC got thousands of calls from people switching to the G1 and who ended up looking for the Start menu…

Unfortunately, developers will likely end up paying the bill. HTC TouchFLO has already made loads of Today plugins obsolete – the more it does out of the box, the less there is to do for developers.

What do you think?

Don’t ask me where the boys from handy-faq.de got the video below from – but it nevertheless makes for a very interesting watch especially for HTC heads:

Looks like the time of Windows Mobile is over for good…it now is but a kernel to run HTC’s custom skin…

Handango has just sent word about its top sellers for the second quarter of 2009 – the list is now dominated by RIM’s BlackBerries and touchscreened Windows Mobile boxen:

1. Samsung Omnia i900
2. HTC Touch HD
3. BlackBerry Bold 9000
4. Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1
5. HTC Touch Pro
6. BlackBerry Storm 9500
7. BlackBerry 8830
8. BlackBerry Curve 8330
9. HTC Touch Diamond
10. BlackBerry Storm 9530

Don’t ask me where the touchscreenless boxen are though…

HTC’s dominance of the Windows Mobile market has forced both Verizon and Sprint (who happen to be extremely hard competitors) to put up with one manufacturer: delays and long negotiations followed.

Samsung’s recent release of Windows Mobile devices which seem to be serious about business will now add a new hardware manufacturer to the mix – and it looks like Verizon (who usually found itself on the receiving end of all kinds of possibly Sprint-helping delay) will take the plunge.

PhoneArena claims the following:

…
Now, thanks to a tipster of ours who claims to have contacted Verizon Wireless, we know the carrier intends to make the smartphone available sometime in July
…

As of now, no further information is available. Let’s see how it all plays out…

Expansys has sold quite a few highly interesting handsets in the past – their latest scoop involves two of Acer’s recently announced Windows Mobile-powered smartphones:

Acer F900

Acer M900

P.S. Just in case anyone wonders why there is a T-Mobile icon next to the devices: UK retailers often create contract bundles of their own…

Microsoft Austria has just gotten in touch with us for some further information about the WIndows 7 upgrade program. First of all, it starts on the 26th of this month.

From that time onward, Austrians who buy their PC at a participating retailer will be able to obtain an equivalent version of Windows 7 after its release. In particular, the following transformations will be possible:

• Vista Home Premium
• Vista Business
• Vista Ultimate

to corresponding version of Windows 7. System Builder licenses will get the same treatment – so people who get their PC with an SBC license (decoupled OEM licenses, are very popular in Austria) will also get their upgrade free of charge.

The offer will be free except for processing fees, which are said to be different from manufacturer to manufacturer. The Offer will run to the 31st January of 2010.

A Thai web site (which can not be hotlinked for one reason or another) has released the image below:

Specs are as follows according to them and previous leaks:

Phone: GSM850, GSM900, GSM1800, GSM1900, UMTS900, UMTS2100.
GSM and HSDPA connectivity
Windows Mobile 6.5
Screen 3.6 inch WVGA touchscreen display transflective TFT, 65536 scales.
CPU: speed 600Mhz Qualcomm 8250 processor.
Memory: 256MB RAM and 512 MB ROM.
Slot: Micro SD.
Bluetooth: Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR.
Wireless LAN: 802.11b, 802.11g.
AGPS.
G Sensor
Rule headphones: 3.5mm.
Main Camera: 8 million pixels

As of now, no further information is available. However, the Firestone is expected in August – we will probably know more then!