The HTC HD Mini was announced at MWC today and is a Windows Mobile 6.5.3 device that has a 3.2 inch HVGA screen.

The phone it’s self is described as being a scaled down version of the larger HTC HD2 but with a smaller screen and more capable of being carried around.

The HTC HD Mini seems to focus more on design as the promo video below shows emphasis on design features which oddly enough, seem to revolve around the 4 screws that hold the phone together as well as having bright yellow innards for some reason. [Read more…]

Bear with us for the next 30 minutes or so as several new handsets have been announced over at MWC, three of which are from HTC although this first one is an LG handset. First off is the LG Mini GD880 which claims to be the worlds first 3 way sync feature phone… we’ll explain what that means shortly.

The LG GD880 Mini is a phone measuring just 10.6mm in depth and weighs just 99 grams. The LG 3-Way Sync service is called LG Air Sync and allows mobile phones to sync continuously with their home computer so that when data is uploaded to one device, it is automatically backed up on the other device over the internet. Files that could be included in the LG Air Sync are photos, video clips, phone books, celendars to name a few.

“We live in an information-oriented society with vast amounts of data and content scattered all over the place. Because of this, one of the major battles in the future mobile market is likely to be in the data management technology industry, focusing on seamless access among different devices,” said Dr. Skott Ahn, President and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. “We have developed the LG Mini, which offers technological integration with its unique LG Air Sync service, in response to this trend.”

[Read more…]

T-Mobile have officially announced that the HTC HD2 is heading to their network in the US. Rather than being a traditional HD2 branded by a carrier, this particular model will have what T-Mobile call “a never-before-seen mobile experience” to those in the US.

What that means is subscribers to T-Mobile who pick up a HD2 will have access to several entertainment features that are pre-installed on the device. This includes a Barnes & Noble eReader that gives you access to more than a million eBooks, newspapers, magazines etc…

Blockbuster on Demand is also pre-installed and allows users to download movies on to their phone. MobiTV is also included that installed that brings a number of channels including MTV, NBC, Comedy Central and ESPN to the HD2. [Read more…]

Lots of information was shared about Windows Phone 7 Series yesterday, in particular the new interface that uses a new active tile system to display information on finger-friendly sized tiles that are set at 1 – 2 on each row.

What we didn’t see yesterday was anything about the Marketplace for Windows Phone 7 Series. What we do believe is that older applications not designed for the latest Windows Phone will not work, thus meaning new applications will need to be created. The screen shots above and below show the new marketplace and how it will look.

The interface for Marketplace follows along with the same theme that the rest of the new operating system uses in that the UI is wider than the actual screen which can be scrolled to the side to get to the information you want. [Read more…]

Windows Phone 7 Series has been officially announced at MWC today. The new operating system was designed to “re-invent” how phones actually operate and how the UI functions. In the past a lot of phones tend to try function like a PC. Microsoft’s [MSFT] new approach is that the phone is more intimate than a PC, and should have a new user interface.

What Microsoft wanted to achieve when planning Windows Phone 7 Series is a device that can focus on an individual and their needs as well as helping to organise information and applications.

The new operating system features flatter icons than before that actually look good. They are large allowing for 1 or 2 to fit across the page and work easily without the need of a stylus. The home page scrolls down and displays several of these blocks which house the most common details and contacts you need. [Read more…]

Samsung have unveiled another phone called the Samsung I8520 Halo Projector Phone. This comes alongside the Samsung Wave that we just mentioned a few moments ago.

The I8520 Halo has a 3.7 inch WVGA Super AMOLED display (similar to what the Wave has in that there is no motion blur on films and it has a crisp display showing as close to true life colours as currently possible). It also has an 8 megapixel camera along with a VGA camera on the front. It can capture 720p video at 30 frames per second and has plenty of wireless connectivity in allowing it to connect up to Bluetooth devices as well as 802.11b/g/n devices. Assisted GPS can also be found inside and for storage it comes with 16GB of internal which can be expanded by using a microSD card. [Read more…]

Samsung have created a new phone called the Samsung Wave. The Wave uses the new Bada OS and is actually the first device to utilise this operating system.

The Samsung Waves comes with a 1GHz processor along with a 3.3 inch WVGA Super AMOLED touchscreen display that can show 800 x 480 pixels. The Super AMOLED screen claims to have no motion blur, be ultra crisp and true to the original colours that it represents on-screen. The quick 1GHz processor allows for HD video to be played back smoothly as well as applications also run smoothly. We’ve seen how 1GHz processors perform in the past on other various devices and have definitely seen an increase in performance when used over slower 500 – 600MHz CPU’s. [Read more…]

Although the latest OS from Microsoft [MSFT] has yet to be unveiled (will be official later today), some sneaky people have managed to capture images of the new OS when some changes were being made to a display. The display changers didn’t seem to think to check around them when they lifted the covers and someone managed to capture some photos of the OS underneath.

What is seen is some XBox Live integration on the home page along with larger icons for items such as messages, missed calls etc… Also a new “Me” section seems to be on the screen too.

From what we see on the images it looks fantastic, although hopefully it’s not just a new skin for the current WM 6.5. We are expecting a lot more from Microsoft this time around as they seem to be caught behind on reskinning old mobile operating systems making it difficult for users to drop the unwanted stylus. [Read more…]

The Unifeye Mobile Augmented Reality SDK has been launched that allows iPhone and Android developers to more easily create augmented reality applications on smartphones.

The new system is demonstrated on the video below and shows how augmented reality scenes can be created more easily. It uses a number of systems to function such as the latest image recognition technologies along with 3D rendering allowing for real-time interaction with various things.

The demonstration shows how pointing the camera of your smartphone on to a magazine could pop up a 3D set of drawers to move around. Other ideas show 3D cars being looked at in magazines and also even giving the option to create augmented reality games with your own environment. [Read more…]

Acer have announced their latest Acer Liquid e phone. The device will run the latest Google [GOOG] OS Android 2.1 (aka Eclair) and be powered by a 1GHz Snapdragon processor from Qualcomm.

The Acer Liquid e Android phone has a 3.5 inch high definition screen that is capacitive touch allowing good quality images and video to be displayed. Plenty of connectivity can be found on the Liquid e with wireless 802.11b/g being supported along with Bluetooth 2.0 and HSDPA, HSUPA and GSM/EDGE.

RAM and ROM on the device is set at 512MB and 256MB respectively. The camera has a 5 megapixel sensor although no flash is mentioned. [Read more…]

Distinctive Developments have build a 3D animation that displays a few charachters (animated) in a 3D room with the camera moving around the scene to test the iPhone 3G S graphics performance VS that of the Nexus One.

Both the GPU and CPU on each device is tested. The GPU gets it’s stress test from the number of polygons present in the scene while the CPU handles the bone and skinning in the animation. The iPhone 3G S looks to be the superior model here reaching speeds of up to 61 frames per second vs the Nexus One that achieves 30 – 35 frames per second. [Read more…]

Symbian^3 has been unveiled today by the Symbian Foundation. The Symbian^3 platform is the first fully open source release since their switch to open source earlier this month.

It is expected that Symbian^3 will be finished by the end of March although it wont start showing up on phones till early 3rd quarter this year. Improvements on this latest platform (S^3) include usability and interface advances, faster networking, 2D and 3D graphics acceleration and HDMI support to name a few things on the list.

Other features of S^3 include better navigation from previous platforms that now includes gesture support. The system has also been tweaked to allow for more applications to be open at the same time. [Read more…]