Josephws's blog
HTC supplies U.S. carriers Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile but says a year ago only one in 10 Americans knew its name. With the help of marketing by cellular carriers and HTC own television ads during the baseball World Series, HTC says that number is up to 40 percent.
"We want to be one of the leaders," said John Wang, the 13-year-old company chief marketing officer.
In trying to establish a global brand, HTC is following in the footsteps of another Taiwanese company, Acer Inc., which is battling Dell Inc. for the title of second-largest personal computer maker. Other rising Taiwanese technology names include software producer Trend Micro and Asustek Computer, a maker of PCs and cell phones.
HTC path to its own brand has been complicated by U.S. carriers preference for many years to market its phones under their own brands.
That started to change in 2007, and the HTC brand started showing up on phones, as carriers figured that the company had some cachet among early adopters that they could capitalize on. HTC phones on the U.S. market include the Droid Incredible, sold by Verizon Wireless, the HD2, sold by T-Mobile USA, and the Hero, sold by Sprint Nextel Corp.
Even now, HTC is careful to avoid straining ties with carriers by promoting its own identity too aggressively. Such ties are crucial in the United States, Japan and other markets where carriers usually pick which phones to offer. In Europe and elsewhere, customers pick their own phones and buy service separately.
"I don't think it should ever become a destination phone, because that is very arrogant," Wang said.
The company's slogan, "Quietly Brilliant," expresses both modesty and pride
[source:WSJ]
RIM BlackBerry Torch 9800 is not exactly the barnburner-of-a-smartphone that we were hoping it would be, but at least it looks snazzy, Regardless of your answer to that, its a bona fide fact that Colorware has outdone itself on this one. Usually, its most fun to toy around with the company endless array of hues in order to create the most hideous version of your favorite gadget before pretending to hit the order button, but for whatever reason, the first handset to ship with BlackBerry OS 6 actually looks dapper in red and white. Or maybe thats just the Wolf-pack in us talking. Anyway, its available to customize now in the source link from $250 to $1,050.
[source:Colorwave]
The Nokia N8 is coming and will be exclusive to Nokia Online for a whole week before it goes on general sale. Thats right, the Nokia N8 will go on sale here in the UK on the 23rd September. How do we know? Well, it seems Nokia has been buying Ad Word space and leaked the story itself. Read on to find out more about the Nokia N8 going on sale 23,September here in the UK. and it will be Available World Wide on 30,September.
We have been waiting for the Nokia N8 for what seems like a lifetime, with top features such as the anodised aluminium casing and 12-Megapixel camera making the wait all the more unbearable. It looks like the wait is over, however, with UK pre-order of the Nokia N8 just around the corner.
A quick search by one of our readers has revealed that Nokia Online has the Nokia N8 in stock and ready for UK dispatch on the 23rd September so you may even be able to get your hands on a Nokia N8 before the month is out. Now, the lin is not live at the moment but surely its only a matter of time before it is check out the screengrab for the proof!
Toshiba UK today announces the launch of the Toshiba FOLIO 100 a premium 25.7cm (10.1-inch) tablet device designed to offer a portable and versatile way to enjoy digital and web-based content.
Fast, easy and enjoyable to use, the Toshiba FOLIO 100 offers a rich multimedia experience, with a highly intuitive touchscreen interface designed to run on top of the Android 2.2 (Froyo) platform. Toshiba FOLIO 100 features a wide range of connectivity options to offer outstanding flexibility, with an SD card slot, HDMI connector, USB 2.0, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth all included as standard, while the integrated 1.3MP front-facing webcam also makes video-chat simple. A Mobile Broadband model with 3G support will also be launched later in the year, providing on-demand access to the web, regardless of location1.
The 25.7cm (10.1-inch) capacitive touchscreen makes navigation quick and easy, offering multi-touch control that enables users to zoom, pinch and swipe their way through menus, documents and applications. The device also offers full compatibility with Adobe Flash Player 10.1, providing a rich and unhindered experience when browsing Flash-based websites and during playback of Flash-encoded multimedia content.
Premium design, extensive connectivity
Only 14mm thick and weighing just 760g, the Toshiba FOLIO 100 features a powerful NVIDIA® TegraTM 2 processor, providing a perfect balance between high performance and efficient battery consumption. Up to seven hours2 of battery life enables users to enjoy a full day’s use on a single charge, and instant-on functionality ensures the device is operational within less than 30 seconds of being switched on. Each model offers 16GB of on-board storage for music, videos, and photos, with storage easily expandable thanks to support for SDHC memory cards up to 32GB.
The Toshiba FOLIO 100’s easy-to-navigate interface makes it simple for users to enjoy content, access social networks or play back multimedia, with the minimum of fuss. The popular Android platform offers a swift, easy-to-use operating system familiar to many, with Toshiba’s elegant software taking advantage of Android’s simplicity to allow effortless operation.
HD video support with optional docking
Designed to offer a rich and versatile experience, the Toshiba FOLIO 100 provides vivid on-screen video, as well as additional support for the external playback of high definition (HD) video on HD ready TV screens. The integrated card reader offers great versatility to load content without occupying internal memory, and the integrated mini HDMI port enables users to view their HD movie content on their TV sets. DLNA support allows users to stream music, video and images between devices around the home, and an optional HDMI-dock also comes complete with a remote control, allowing the Toshiba FOLIO 100 to be used at the centre of the living room as a fully functional home entertainment device.
Pre-installed apps
The Toshiba FOLIO 100 ships with pre-installed applications, allowing users to work, shop, network and browse the web with complete simplicity. An Opera Mobile web browser, FBReader e-book reader, Document To Go® office suite and Evernote® are all included as standard. Video calls are supported also by Fring® - an application that uses the embedded 1.3MP front-facing webcam to allow users to communicate with friends and family.
The Toshiba FOLIO 100 will be available in the UK from October 2010 for £329 inc VAT (non-3G).
Some guys at xda have stumbled upon an updated Froyo build for the Nexus One. The FRG33 update corrects a few minor bugs and adds a new version of the installed radio. Those who have downloaded the software on their N-One have said that the handset is quicker when connected to Wi-Fi. Overall, the FRG33 seems to provide a bump up in speed, surpassing the benchmark score of the phone using the prior Android 2.2 build.
At first, the developers thought they had stumbled on to an Android 3.0 ROM because of the use of the letter "G" in the build description, which, it had been hoped, could have stood for the "Gingerbread" code name for the next level of the Android OS. Instead, what was discovered was the next build up for Froyo. There is some speculation that installing this on your device could prevent you from visiting the Android Market. There has been some discussion on forum boards on how to handle this problem.
Samsung have been making it known that Android is their first priority when it comes to smartphones. Great news for Android, but less so for Windows Mobile 7, which is due to launch within the next few months. Its not just that Samsung are not giving Windows Phone 7 priority though, they were actually dismissive of it. YH Lee, Samsung marketing chief, told Reuters that "... we are prioritizing our Android platform ...". He then went on to say of Windows Mobile 7 "... there is still some professional, specialized demand there." That does not sound like the words of a man embracing a new consumer platform that Microsoft at least hopes will rival Android and iOS. Indeed Mr Lee was talking up Android by comparison saying that there was a 'consumer demand for it.
If Samsung view of Windows Phone 7 was not exactly upbeat their view of Symbian (yes Samsung have dabbled) was positively dour. Mr Lee commented that Samsung were seeing no 'visible demand' for it. Hardly surprising really given the combination of Samsung never having truly committed to the platform and the waning star that the platform is under at the moment.
As for Samsung own Bada OS Lee confirmed that Samsung will be continuing with the project and of course Samsung will shortly be releasing their second Bada handset, the Wave 723. Far be it form a humble tech writer to suggest that Bada is not really capturing the public imagination and that Windows Phone 7 will probably have a bigger impact, but Samsung presumably knows best.
T-Mobile may offer Huaweis recently announced IDEOS smartphone, just in time for the holiday season. The reported source has indicated that Huawei is in talks to possibly bring the budget smartphone to the USA.
The IDEOS is backed by Google Android powered 2.2 Froyo operating system, and features 3G HSDPA and WiFi connectivity with hotspot support, a 2.8-inch touchscreen display, voice dialing, and navigation. Huawei officially announced the new handset during the IFA Consumer Electronics show in Berlin this week and expects the IDEOS to be the first mass market Android 2.2 device globally.
[source:mobilecrunch]
Verizon promised to get an EVO 4G to its stores to work on its New 4G Network and as you can see from the photos, it’s sporting some Verizon-red highlights on the keyboard, and has a removable battery.
The test that the FCC ran confirm that it will run on both CDMA 2000 and GSM 850 bands, and will rock Bluetooth and 802.11b/g/n WiFi at 2.4GHz.
Apple UK site revealed the iOS 4.1 launch date they have fixed it now, but the secret is out. The new version brings bug fixes, new features, but most importantly fixes the iPhone 3G performance, which has been glacial up till now.The iOS 4.1 update is expected next week, and the UK site gave us a specific date September 8, Wednesday.
For iPhone 3G owners, the biggest gain from iOS 4.1 will be the much improved performance. Check out the video below, which races a 3G running iOS 4.0 against the same unit running 4.1. The UI becomes more responsive and beats v4.0 across the board with a pretty big advantage in some places.
Video Below!
MeeGo has been designed for the new mobile world, where people are at the center of fast flowing streams of information, where they expect to tailor their device with a myriad of applications, and where new economies are evolving around those applications. The design has been driven by a core set of Design Principles these principles drive our decisions throughout the design process.
The MeeGo interface is scalable for different screen sizes, resolutions, and aspect ratios and it supports both portrait and landscape orientations.
These guidelines have been written to help you design and develop applications for the new mobile world. They are 'alive' therefore new content will be added and edited as the project develops, so please come back and visit regularly to keep up-to-date with the latest information.
The MeeGo theme system is versatile, allowing for both global changes and special exceptions to the general theme logic. It’s possible to invest only a small amount of effort to set baseline colors, fonts, shapes, and backgrounds.
Enjoy Screenshots!
Dependencies
The sizes can be the same at first, but consider tuning them if the new font’s x-height differs from the original font. Make sure that the font size does not enlarge so much that it truncates.
Example of changing font.
Icons
Any icons on the device can be customized, either framework or application icons. Only the changed icons are affected.
How to customize
The icons are SVG vector files stored in the Icons folder. As they are vectors, one size can be scaled to any needed layout.
The icon names indicate which application they belong to, for example icon-m-messaging-smiley-wink is used in messaging application. On the other hand, icon-m-common-phone is a phone icon used in several applications. The s, l, and m prefixes describe the amount of details in the icons – small doesn’t have the same level of detail as large.
The icons can be modified with Inkscape or Illustrator CS4 and above.
Dependencies
Note that the background affects the visibility icons. If the application top bar (command area) is changed to white, the current white icons cannot be seen, and must be changed to a darker color.
New application launcher icons in the same theme.
Dependencies
The background has to be carefully designed with all the other elements in the interface. The application background is what shows under all the buttons, switchers, and label texts. Note that dialogs and container graphics also work as a background for certain elements.
The application background shows through a transparent list.
A blue button indicates a selected state
Multi selection in a list.
Effect of adding transparency to a list.
Example of adding rounded corners to a button.
Source: MeeGo Deveopers Blog
