Hasta La Gadget!

In our excitement over HTC’s announcements this morning (that’d be Desire Z, Desire HD, and Sense enhancements, in case you missed it), we missed one other nugget of good news. The HTC Media Link wireless DLNA streaming adapter does exactly what you’d expect from a name like that — namely, it’s a box that allows you to stream media (photos, audio, video up to 720p) to TVs that don’t natively have DLNA support. The pic above shows off what appears to be micro-USB and mini-HDMI ports. According to SlashGear, it’s due out in Q4 this year, but price is still TBA.

HTC’s Media Link provides the wireless DLNA support your phone and TV crave, coming Q4 2010 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Sep 2010 16:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you were paying attention during HTC’s keynote earlier this morning, you’ll have noted Peter Chou dropped a big old promise on us all: no more waiting for maps to load when zooming or scrolling. Pre-cached maps are one of the headline new features in the upgraded Sense that accompanies the Desire HD and Desire Z‘s announcement today, so we naturally had to go have a peek for ourselves. Requiring no internet connection, the Desire HD on hand sauntered through the streets of Sao Paulo and it was true that there were none of the aggravating grey squares of doom that we’ve grown used to when panning around. What isn’t true, however, is HTC’s claim that there’s no waiting to be done. Responsiveness on these maps is far from perfect and patience will still need to be exercised. Notably, HTC said that you’ll be able to download city maps free of charge, but navigation and other additional services will cost you. A final note is merited for the use of the phone’s digital compass to rotate the map with you — so that the map adjusts itself to whatever direction you point the phone. A very classy little inclusion.

Eric Lin was on hand to answer the question of when this new Sense might trickle down to the classic Desire or other handsets in HTC’s portfolio. Well, his answer was a non-answer: no roadmap or schedule has been set and HTC isn’t ruling anything out just yet.

Continue reading HTC Sense’s new map pre-caching demoed on video

HTC Sense’s new map pre-caching demoed on video originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Sep 2010 11:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve just gotten to grips with HTC’s luscious new Desire Z slider (you’ll know it as the T-Mobile G2 in the US) and it is indeed a slab of finely crafted metal. That Z hinge that the company is touting feels pretty robust, requiring a reassuring amount of torque to get it to spring open. And it really is a spring, it flips from closed to open instantaneously. The QWERTY button array feels pretty terrific, giving us just the right amount of responsiveness, while separation between keys feels a lot more spacious than the images would lead you to believe. It’s also worth noting that, exactly as HTC promised in its keynote, the Desire Z has one of the most accessible top rows in the slider smartphone business. We honestly didn’t think there was a difference between typing on it versus any of the other rows. That’s quite the feat, and easily positions this as the best competitor to Nokia’s newly announced E7. Are we witnessing a QWERTY renaissance? We sure hope so. Check out the gallery below and hands-on video after the break.

Update: Added a second video to demonstrate the Z’s ridiculously fast startup and more under Android 2.2 Froyo.

Continue reading HTC Desire Z hands-on (update: more pics and video)

HTC Desire Z hands-on (update: more pics and video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Sep 2010 08:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Desire HD is official, folks, finally bringing a 4.3-inch LCD to European Android fans. The handset is made from a solid block of aluminum and comes packing a 1GHz 8255 Snapdragon processor, 8 megapixel camera with dual-LED flash and 720p video recording, Dolby Mobile, and HSPA+ data with 802.11n WiFi when it lands in Europe and Asia sometime in October. It’s also one of the first HTC devices to feature the enhanced HTC Sense experience with HTCsense.com services.

Continue reading HTC launches the Desire HD: an EVO for the rest of world

HTC launches the Desire HD: an EVO for the rest of world originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Sep 2010 07:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC’s announcing more than hardware this morning, it’s also announcing an enhanced HTC Sense experience. At the heart is HTCSense.com, a series of dashboard-connected services for backup, security, and control of your HTC handset. A new locate feature triggers the handset to ring loudly (even when set to silent) while flagging its location on an online map. If the phone was lost or stolen, owners can remote lock and/or wipe the phone. Backups will automatically archive your contacts, text messages, call history, customizations and data. Sense is also adding advanced multimedia capabilities to help ease the way we capture, share, and upload our content. HTC’s also added on-the-fly capture effects and filters to manipulate depth of field or for adding distortion and vintage effects.

Update: We’ve got a gallery’s worth of interface shots from the new Sense experience!

Continue reading HTCSense.com will backup and remotely locate / wipe HTC devices

HTCSense.com will backup and remotely locate / wipe HTC devices originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Sep 2010 07:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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