Smartphone Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves

Product Category: Windows Phone running Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard

Manufacturer: HTC / T-Mobile

Where to Buy: T-Mobile

Price: $349 (No Contract) / $199 (2 year Contract)

Requirements: Need to speak to others, desire to be connected to information.

Specifications: QUALCOMM 528 MHz, Quadband GSM, Dualband UMTS (Supports T-Mobile USA 3G), WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0, 2 MP Camera, GPS.

Pros:

• 3G Data Connection (In T-Mobile 3G Markets);
• GPS Capabilities;
• Speedier than the original!

Cons:

• Imprecise Trackball;
• Button arrangement will confuse Dash devotees;
• No real incentive to upgrade if you aren't in a 3G market or don't need GPS.

Summary: The original T-Mobile Dash was a great little device that only started to feel dated recently. With 3G rolling out farther, GPS being standard, and 1 MP being woefully bad for a camera phone, the Dash 3G sets out to update its older brother into 2009. But is it worth the price to upgrade?

Read more...

"Telstra today launched the world's fastest mobile broadband service, ushering in a new era in real-time mobile communications that will bring major benefits to customers, innovation and business productivity. The CEOs of Telstra, Ericsson, Qualcomm and Sierra Wireless jointly announced a new 21Mbps peak rated mobile broadband modem, Telstra Turbo 21, would be available to customers on Telstra's supercharged HSPA+ network, the Next G network, on 23 February. Peak network speeds will increase to 42Mbps later this year."

Australia's largest carrier, Telstra, has kicked its Next G (3G) network up a notch to 21 Mbps, earning the title of the world's fastest national mobile broadband network from the folks at Guinness World Records. And it's set to increase to 42 Mbps later this year. One can only hope we'll see more mobile phones that, put simply, will take advantage of such a mind-boggling amount of pure "awesomeness", because the last time we checked, they were few and far between.

"Tough economic times have triggered an upheaval in Australia's $13 billion a year mobile sector with its number three and four players Vodafone Australia and Hutchison "3" forced into merger... The new group, to be named VHA Pty Ltd, will have more than 6 million customers and sell products and services under the Vodafone brand. The deal also appears to signal the death knell of the 3 brand in Australia with Vodafone being earmarked as the new venture's main brand."

Uncertain times have forced Australia's third and fourth largest carriers, Vodafone and 3, into merger. The two operate in all major centres and select rural areas across the country, and currently carry many of HTC's and Samsung's Windows Mobile devices, including the Touch Diamond, Touch Pro, Omnia, i600, and i780. It's expected that once the merger is complete, all products and services will sell under the Vodafone brand, with pricing expected to change in an attempt to take aim at Australia's second largest carrier, Optus.

"Maybe those calls for 'Vista light' on UMPCs and MIDs are getting answered with Windows Mobile 7. While you could use a Celio REDFLY paired to a Windows Mobile phone for a similar experience now, Qualcomm is already showing off a portable device on Engadget Mobile to exemplify the potential here. In fact, SVP Luis Pinada alluded to that just today: 'Microsoft Windows Mobile 7, which is made for chips used in mobile phones, will be more laptop friendly than older versions of Windows Mobile.'"


[Photo courtesy of Engadget]

According to Engadget Mobile, Qualcomm will be releasing a Windows Mobile 7 powered handset which will be powered by their Snapdragon mobile CPU. The device is supposed to make "big presence in Snapdragon-based devices at CES 2009" and pack a $299USD price point that is almost as tiny as the device pictured above. This tiny powerhouse will also come equipped with 3G mobile Internet technology. All and all, not too shabby Qualcomm! If only 2009 wasn't so far away...

"AT&T's Chief of Mobility, Ralph de la Vega, was recently quoted as saying that his company intends to offer data speeds of up to 20Mbps on its network by 2009. AT&T has previously committed to using the yet-to-be-standardized LTE technology for its next-generation 4G network. AT&T is currently testing an HSPA upgrade that will offer speeds up to 7.2Mbps, and already offers PC Cards that will support it. AT&T is in a unique position because these speed enhancements are merely software upgrades to existing equipment, and would require limited resources to deploy, as opposed to implementing an entirely new network."



Jumping from 7.2Mbps to 20Mbps is a significant bandwidth increase. In theory by the year 2009 my HSDPA enabled phone would be able to download whatever I wanted quicker than my current cable connection from Comcast. Hopefully with the increased data speeds AT&T will finally get around to releasing some video conferencing enabled devices, preferably of the Windows Mobile variety.

"This is another BIG device for HTC. Perhaps not to the same scale as the TyTN II or the Touch series – but it’s got to be number 3 in line. It sounds too good to be true really – a candybar phone, a large QWERTY keyboard and the still new Windows Mobile 6, with decent connectivity via 3G."



The crew over at Tracy and Matt's Blog has brought us another review. This time we get a quick run down of one of HTC's newest handsets, the HTC S730. While the handset does look incredibly sleek and stylish it is a little big for my taste. Not sure if you should grab this handset as a New Years present for yourself? Well head on down to Tracy and Matt's and read the full review to find out!

"This time the nice people at eXpansys have kindly given us one of the just-released HTC S730's to give away as part of our Christmas promotion. To enter, you simply have to head on over to the eXpansys website to find the answer to our competition question below. Once you have the answer come back and submit it to us using our Feedback Form - remember to give us your name and email address with your entry. We'll choose a winner at random on the 9th January 2008 and will accept entries up to the 8th January, you've got plenty of time to enter. One entry per person please, we'll only accept entries via our feedback form."



Those wacky whippersnappers, Tracy and Matt, are at it again! This time they're giving away the sleek and sexy HTC s730, one of HTC's latest Windows Mobile Standard devices. This handset sports a slide out QWERTY keyboard, fairly large 2.4" QVGA screen, a front facing camera for video conferencing, 256MB Flash, 64MB ROM, HSDPA and Quad-band GSM/EDGE data connectivity. To win this handset, all you have to do is go and drop Tracy and Matt a line via their feedback form and answer this super easy question - "How big (in inches) is the screen on the HTC S730?"

NOTE: All replies must be sent to Tracy and Matt via the feedback form on their website!

"According to some completely unconfirmed information CrunchGear received, AT&T is expected to launch a 3G version of the HTC Vox/HTC Libra and following CrunchGear's information, the device is code-named "HTC Juno". Well, sounds to me like a U.S. version of the (so far also) unannounced (but already unveiled) HTC S730 (code-named HTC Wings or HTC Volans). If the AT&T Juno is the U.S. version of the HTC Wings/HTC Volans, it should sport Windows Mobile 6 Standard, featuring a Qualcomm MSM7200 CPU at 400 MHz which supports quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE and triband UMTS/HSDPA."

Happy days are here again! It has been a while since we have had a really good rumor floating around here in the Windows Mobile Standard world. While I am not jumping for joy over the almost all black rendering of the device in the above image, I must say the thought of carrying a slim candybar style phone again is really intriguing. Add in the extra benefit of having a slide out QWERTY keyboard at your disposal and what you basically have is Smartphone heaven! This is one rumor that I desperately hope becomes a reality