Hasta La Gadget!

HTC has announced the Touch Cruise, a new TouchFLO-enhanced Windows Mobile smartphone featuring HTC Footprints, a new geotagging feature that lets users tag photos with GPS location data and audio clips. The Touch Cruise also includes a car cradle that, when docked, automatically switches the device to a turn-by-turn navigation mode—a useful feature for anyone who has struggled with their handset’s UI and tiny buttons when getting in and out of the car.

The Touch Cruise comes with Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capability, a microSD card slot, and—oddly, for a TouchFLO device—just QVGA (320-by-240-pixel) resolution instead of full VGA mode. HTC will sell the device in the U.S. unlocked as a dual-mode (850/1900 MHz) HSDPA phone, with HSDPA 7.2 and 2100 MHz capability overseas.

I’m not a huge TouchFLO fan, since it sits somewhat uneasily on top of the usual Windows Mobile UI. But I look forward to checking out HTC Footprints and the Touch Cruise’s improved voice navigation mode. Expect it to hit stores in Spring 2009 for between $500 and $600.

In case you missed the keynote, Palm took some special moments to let everyone know that they’re not trying to compete with Apple — which is of course exactly what they’re doing with the Pre and webOS. Sure, there’s plenty of room in the market for multiple operating systems and manufacturers, as both companies have pointed out, but we can’t help but think that Palm took a long hard look at where Apple was at with its ultra-successful mobile OS and what they could improve upon, and we would like to assume that Apple is looking very carefully at webOS right now (and hopefully the Pre’s physical keyboard, but we’re dreamers) and comparing it with its current iPhone OS. So, if you’ll indulge us, let’s look at a few of the iPhone’s existing shortcomings that Apple might try and shore up — or perhaps already has fixes in the works for — now that there’s some very serious competition on the scene. Plus, with Steve on the sidelines, we can imagine there’s some extra pressure on the company to prove that innovation at Apple is not just about one man.

These are by no means the only two phones that matter right now, but there are enough parallels and common ancestry (a certain John Rubinstein) to make this a natural first round of comparison. All the magic happens after the break.

Continue reading What Apple could learn from Palm’s webOS

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

What Apple could learn from Palm’s webOS originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Jan 2009 14:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft is planning a major announcement at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next month; many expect the company to announce the next version of Windows Mobile. Here in the states, Todd Peters, the vice president of marketing for the Windows Mobile division, hinted at CES last week as to what to expect.

According to the New York Times’ Bits blog, Peters said that Microsoft is responding to fierce competition in the phone market by revamping its mobile operating system, and—significantly—by putting it on fewer devices.

Currently, there are well over 100 devices on the market running Windows Mobile. As we’ve noted in many reviews on PCMag.com, Windows Mobile devices tend to lack the tight hardware integration required for a smooth user experience, often requiring more button pushes and deep sea menu diving than competing devices like the BlackBerry Curve, the iPhone, and the T-Mobile G1. Plus, I’ve found in recent reviews that WM-powered devices tend to have sluggish responses and often exhibit bugs (depending on the phone in question), particularly when playing media or taking photos.

HTC’s Touch Diamond and QWERTY-packin’ Touch Pro have run into some stiff competition here in the US of A, but as Adam Smith would certify, all that competition is only for the best. Now that you’ve seen what these two can do, not to mention their rivals, we’re wondering how you would change whichever handset it is (of these two, obviously) that you own. Implement a Touch HD-style display? Load it up with Android? Round those edges a bit more? Add a bigger battery at the expense of style? Say it loud, say it proud, say it down in comments below.

Filed under: Cellphones

How would you change HTC’s Touch Diamond / Pro? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Jan 2009 05:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Merely minutes after Palm shook up the mobile realm with the introduction of the Pre, Sprint — its exclusive launch partner — has already hosted up a dedicated website for what will unquestionably be its flagship device. Currently, all the site offers is a way to get informed of when it’ll be out, but that’s all you really need at the moment, now isn’t it?

[Thanks, MTW]

Filed under: Cellphones, CES

Palm’s Pre gets its own spot on Sprint’s website originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Jan 2009 15:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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