Hasta La Gadget!

For full-touch mobile use, capacitive touchscreens are the best solution we’ve got — and it has absolutely nothing to do with the iPhone, it has to do with the incremental improvement in usability brought about by near-100 percent touch registration. That’s a big deal, because even a 5 percent loss of registration on an on-screen QWERTY keyboard would represent roughly one letter missed every five words (assuming an average word length in the English language of just over 5 letters). Resistive screens have many, many totally valid applications, but put simply, phones aren’t one of them; they’ve been outmoded by a different technology that’s more appropriate for the size and use that the average handset sees. Registration issues aside, fingers are larger than styli, and when a resistive display is registering an unweighted pinpoint coordinate, you end up ironically losing accuracy — a benefit touted by resistive that’s really only realized if you’re using a stylus full-time. No one’s claiming that capacitive screens are the magic elixir to make human digits achieve superhuman accuracy on a tiny screen, but… you know, step one is making sure the phone knows you pressed something.

Anyhow, HTC’s now claiming that the just-announced Tattoo has gone resistive because its 2.8-inch screen is simply too small “to be accurate with” as a capacitive. The company’s tweet goes on to say that resistive “ends up registering fewer miss-clicks,” which could be argued — maybe — were users expected to use styli. Android is not and was never designed as a stylus-driven platform, and unless HTC’s driving in that dubious direction, the claim is bunk. More realistically, the resistive display is probably a cost sacrifice the company made to keep sticker shock to a minimum, which is fair enough — HTC’s trying to cover many market segments with Android, as it should — but we wish they’d been upfront about it.

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

HTC claims Tattoo’s screen is too small for capacitive to work well originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 Sep 2009 19:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Somebody’s tracked down HTC’s new Tattoo handset and managed to unceremoniously strip it off its faceplates on video, providing our first real look at the hardware “IRL.” It looks good, but not too good — certainly not out of the league of HTC’s other Android handsets. Sadly, the clip doesn’t show the phone in action, so if you were looking for usability fodder, you’ll have to look elsewhere. Vid is after the break.

Continue reading HTC Tattoo spotted on video, stripped of faceplates

Filed under: Cellphones

HTC Tattoo spotted on video, stripped of faceplates originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 Sep 2009 13:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Taiwanese phone maker HTC has released yet another phone based on the Android operating system.

Called the Tattoo, the device has a 2.8-inch touch screen display, a 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera, FM radio, GPS a and expandable microSD memory. It integrates Google’s services such as maps, search and email and runs HTC’s custom interface called Sense. The phone allows users to customize the device through changeable covers and pick from a choice of designs to ink the back of the phone.  The Tatoo also has a HTC-designed interface that users can personalize to bring Facebook, twitter feeds and Flickr apps to the home screen.

“Everyone wants their own phone to feel like it was specifically made for them. The Tattoo, with HTC Sense, represents an easy way to shape your own distinct mobile experience and really make it your own,” said Peter Chou, CEO of HTC.

HTC has become the torchbearer of the Google designed open source Android mobile operating system.  The Tattoo will be the company’s fourth Android device in less than a year. HTC launched the first Android phone called the T-Mobile G1 in the U.S. last October. Since then, the company has introduced the HTC Magic, a touch screen phone that eliminates the physical keyboard of the G1 and the HTC Hero, which is scheduled to be available on Sprint’s wireless network later this year.

The Tattoo is the second phone, after the HTC Hero, to use the company’s custom designed Android interface called Sense. Like the Palm Pre’s webOS interface, HTC Sense organizes the phone around contacts and widgets such as twitter feeds, weather data, email or calendar. This allows users to personalize the start up screen on their phone and create profiles around specific functions such as work and home.

The current version of the Tattoo does not support 3G in the U.S. But the Tattoo, which was earlier nicknamed HTC Click,  is expected to cost lesser than current Android handsets in the market. HTC hasn’t specified pricing or telecom carrier partners for the device.

The Tattoo is expected to debut in Europe at the beginning of October and will be available in the U.S. a few months later.

See more photos of the HTC Tattoo below.

See Also:

• T-Mobile Announces Android-Powered MyTouch
• Second HTC Android Phone Peeks Out
• Android-Powered G1 to Premiere in San Francisco
• HTC Magic Android Phone Gets Unboxed
• Smartphone War Heats Up, Google Phones Still MIA

Photo: HTC Tattoo/HTC

HTC has unveiled the HTC Tattoo, an Android-powered smartphone that the company is pitching as a blank slate. Essentially, the handset lets users personalize many aspects of the device. That includes its apps, content, and even the hardware, HTC said in a statement, although so far it is being light on specifics.

One thing is for sure: the Tattoo is the second model after the HTC Hero to come with the company’s new HTC Sense touch interface. The Tattoo also integrates Google Maps, Search, Mail, and Android Market, the latter of which lets users download from a catalog of thousands of third-party applications. The device also features a 3.2-megapixel camera with auto-focus, a standard-size 3.5mm headphone jack, and a microSD card sot.

So far, the HTC Tattoo will only be available in Europe beginning in October. But the company said rather mysteriously that it will also roll out in other markets around the world in the coming months. We’ve got a call in now with HTC to find out exactly what that means.

We’ve seen plenty of odd Android permutations, but UMEC seems to be striving to do something all its own. It’s showing two devices it currently has in the works, one is a videophone / hub / DECT phone / etc. unit (pictured), which might be at home on a countertop, while the other is a brightly hued MID, with similar internal specs but more portable aims. Both are running ARM Cortex A8 processors (like the iPhone 3GS), though there’s some significant OS optimization to be done: everything was incredibly sluggish on the videophone, and the MID was locked up at the time we dropped by. UMEC also doesn’t have the touchscreen drivers working for either device, though the good news is that they’re looking at both capacitive and resistive touchscreens, based on what the reseller that picks these up desires. Luckily, the videophone has USB plugs galore (along with plenty of Ethernet jacks) so we were able to get a quick demo of the device using a mouse and keyboard. The MID also has a full-size USB plug, and both devices sport HDMI out, so the end usage for both of these is really up in the air. Check ’em out on video after the break.

Continue reading UMEC’s Android videophone and MID prototypes stray from the beaten path

Filed under: Handhelds, Household, Portable Audio, Portable Video, Tablet PCs, Networking

UMEC’s Android videophone and MID prototypes stray from the beaten path originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 06 Sep 2009 14:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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