HTC just threw two new Windows Phone handsets down on the table and politely requested that we be impressed. The high-end Titan (previously leaked as the ‘Eternity‘) is indeed an awe-inspiring brute, wielding a 4.7-inch SLCD display, 8MP rear camera and 1.3MP front-facing snapper to take full advantage of Mango’s newfangled Skype integration. Its over-sized guts include a single-core 1.5GHz processor, 512MB of RAM and up to 16GB of fixed flash storage. Meanwhile, the Radar (which also recently leaked out as the ‘Omega‘) comes significantly less pumped in order to meet a lower price point and — we suppose — the expectations of a more mainstream audience. It can be seen as an updated Trophy, with similar weight and dimensions, plus the same 3.8-inch LCD, 1GHz processor clock speed, 5MP rear camera resolution, RAM and maximum 8GB fixed storage. The key upgrades involve the cameras: HTC says it has an improved 28mm wide-angle lens on the rear, plus of course there’s the front-facer, which is unfortunately only VGA. Although HTC intends to update its existing WP7 range to Mango starting in mid September, the Titan and Radar will be the company’s first innately Mango-fied devices when they arrive in early October. What do we make of them? By all means, click past the break to find out.
HTC has done the unthinkable and created a massive phone named Titan. It weighs over a third of a pound, has a gigantic 4.7-inch screen (Christ…), has a 1.5 Ghz processor of some sort, and, yeah, is huge. Bonus: Mango! More »
HP’s webOS had a feature called Touch to Share which allowed information to easily sync between devices, like the TouchPad and the unreleased Pre 3. Photo by Jon Snyder/Wired
These days, accessing the same files across multiple devices can be a feat. Services like Dropbox can help transfer files from one device to another, but it’s not the most elegant solution.
We’re moving toward a world in which you can swipe, flick and tap to share data from one piece of hardware to another, effortlessly. One where you never have to worry about which device you stored that file on. We want a seamless, integrated computing experience.
Software company Nsquared is working hard to make this a reality. Using a Windows Phone 7 device, a Slate tablet, a large Kinect-controlled television display and a Microsoft Surface smart table, Nsquared came up with a model for how information can be shared and manipulated among a variety of like-branded devices.
When the smartphone is placed on the Microsoft Surface smart table, information instantly branches out onto the table around the perimeter of the phone, displaying the e-mail itself in larger text to the left while other relevant information sits above the top of the phone. The information can be touch-manipulated from either the phone or the table.
When the tablet is placed on the smart table, it renders a different, more detailed view of the floor plan that’s displayed on the table. You can pick up the tablet to provide a 3-D view of that same information, then manipulate your position on the blueprint in the tablet by touching a different point on the smart table. This could foreseeably be convenient for a contractor to show a client details of a space or project — the contractor can manipulate the client’s view on the tablet by tapping on the smart table, guiding them through the project detail by detail, without needing to zoom out on the tablet to figure out where you are in the blueprint again. All you have to do is glance down at the table to see that.
But mobile OS developers themselves have also started implementing features that are bringing us towards a completely integrated computing experience.
HP’s webOS could have offered a really convenient way to share and sync data between devices (before HP killed off its mobile hardware division, that is). The “Touch to Share” feature allowed things like open web pages to be shared between webOS devices like the HP TouchPad and the Veer smartphone with a simple nearby wave.
We’ve also seen that Apple is taking steps toward making seamless computing a reality. Apple’s iCloud service will help make data a non-issue as you switch from one device to another, and iOS 5 will have AirPlay mirroring, so you can wirelessly stream video on your iPad to a larger display. A patent for projection technology, with a feature that allows for information to be swapped from one projected display to another, is another forward-looking implementation of the concept. And if rumors prove true, Apple’s got some sort of revolutionary television up its sleeve that would have iOS integration. You could use your iPhone as a controller for games using its accelerometer and gyroscope, easily swipe what’s playing on your iPad to the TV, and then back to your phone or MacBook Air.
Samsung, which makes a variety of smartphones, televisions, and tablets, is another solid contender for developing its own in-house, completely seamless computing experience. Though it isn’t remarkably popular here in the U.S., the company could use its Bada operating system across its devices to unify the experience and allow for information to easily be shared, swiped and synced between devices.
With its new Tablet S and Tablet P, e-readers, and televisions, Sony is another company that could break into the space if a software platform was unified across its different devices.
There’s obvious incentive for companies to provide a high degree of compatibility and integration between its devices — it means you’re more likely to buy more of their products, rather than their competitors. Customer loyalty.
Currently, Apple is the only one who seems to really be taking advantage of this in-house, but as Nsquared’s video shows, it could certainly be accomplished with other-brand devices.
Windows Phone 7.5 will be wearing more Mac-friendly pajamas when it comes. Microsoft’s Connector app just got updated to Version 2.0 and it enables both Marketplace support and ringtone transfers for Mango-equipped handsets. It also packs some other improvements which already work with WP 7.0, including drag-and-drop file importing from the Browse Device window, better backup and restore operations, and full sync and import support for Apple Aperture software. Connector 2.0 is ready and waiting at the App Store and Mango should poke its head around the mountain any day.
According to ComScore, out of the 82.2 million people in the US with a smartphone (up ten percent from last quarter), Android came in first as the biggest platform yet again, capturing a whopping 41.8 percent of the market like a boss. In a not-so-close second, Apple was able to snag 27 percent, followed by RIM in the third place spot with 21.7 percent — down 4 percentage points from last quarter. Pulling up the rear is Microsoft with 5.7 percent, and lastly Symbian with a grim 1.9 percent — both down when compared to the previous three months. As far as US hardware manufacturers goes, Samsung is still on top with 25.5 percent of the market, while LG got 20.9 percent and finally Motorola with 14.1 percent, down 1.5 percentage points from before. Apple was able to snag some standing in the OEM space with a 9.5 percent share, while BlackBerry-maker RIM only captured 7.6 percent. As the battle wages on, looks like Androids, iPhones, and BlackBerrys (oh my) are still on top — at least for this quarter. Check out the PR after the break for the full scorecard.
Sydney’s nsquared is calling it “Seamless Computing” — software which unifies Windows Phone 7,Surface, Windows 7 Slate and Kinect. Begin designing a new home on your phone and then place it on the Surface to share between all the devices, then pick up the Slate to make some modifications before walking through a 3D model of the building, navigating with Kinect’s gesture interface. Software like AirPlay and Touch to Share already give you a taste for this sort of tech, but the experience that Dr. Neil Roodyn demonstrates in the video below is far more immersive — not to mention unspeakably cool.
Your smartphone and / or tablet is justbeggingto get updated. From time to time, these mobile devices are blessed with maintenance refreshes, bug fixes, custom ROMs and anything in between, and so many of them are floating around that it’s easy for a sizable chunk to get lost in the mix. To make sure they don’t escape without notice, we’ve gathered every possible update, hack, and other miscellaneous tomfoolery from the last week and crammed them into one convenient roundup. If you find something available for your device, please give us a shout at tips at engadget dawt com and let us know. Enjoy!
Official Android Updates
Motorola’s Photon 4G was the recipient of a minor over-the-air firmware revamp that offers improvements to responsiveness and voice calls, and offers more bug fixes and other enhancements. [via PhoneArena]
Want another bug fix update? The HTC EVO 3D is the next contestant, rolling out its second OTA refresh in as many weeks. This time it appears that a new “Corporate 4G” widget and a new radio have been added. [via AndroidCentral]
Gingerbread 2.3.4 is now rolling out to Bell’s Motorola Atrix 4G OTA. [via MobileSyrup]
Remember that Gingerbread update the HTC Droid Incredible was supposed to get? The official version’s been leaked out and is awaiting your download. Just remember the follow the directions and back up your device before proceeding. [via AndroidPolice]
The Motorola Droid 3‘s been successfully rooted. As it turns out, there may be a couple different methods to do so, so check out the link to learn how to do it. [via XDA and AndroidCentral]
The Nokia N8 was recently blessed with Symbian Anna, but a few camera-related upgrades were left out. No need to fear, as an “experimental” update is now being offered, which adds continuous auto-focus and tweaks the UI to allow for faster access to the camera — among other improvements, such as a boost to 30fps. Check out the change log here. [via ZOMGitsCJ]
Given last week’s news about webOS, we were concerned the newly-launched Pre3 would be DOA, with no promise of future updates. HP’s proving this isn’t the case, however, as the device got a minor update that brought the phone’s help center live and fixed a few bugs along the way. [via PreCentral and PhoneArena]
Research in Motion released an upgrade to its Tablet OS for the BlackBerry PlayBook. Unfortunately, it’s not the 2.0 version we saw leaked screenshots of earlier this week, but it still brings a nice feature to the tablet: differential updates. This means that in future OS refreshes, only the affected sections will be changed. In addition, the new version, dubbed 1.0.7.2942, will improve WiFi connectivity via WEP and enhancements to BlackBerry Bridge. [via RIM]
WP7Mod showed a video of the HTC HD2 booting up with Windows Phone Mango’s RTM build installed. We’ve been told that it’s almost ready for any daring souls interested in a new challenge for their Windows Mobile device. [via WMPowerUser]
After the two most craziest weeks ever in the history of the mobile technology news universe, it’s important to step back and just take stock of everything: a survey course, if you will. That’s why we’ve created Engadget Mobile Podcast 101, your first stop on the road to an otherworldly state we call CMA: Complete Mobile Awareness. Come along, won’t you?
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It looks like we have our Windows Phone roadmap filled out for at least the next year, as Tango has been confirmed by Microsoft as next year’s minor update preceding Apollo (aka Windows Phone 8). As mentioned at a MSDN seminar in Hong Kong, the successor to Windows Phone Mango will indeed be made for handsets in developing countries — a key method to make these devices more affordable. These targeted nations have been neglected to this point, the company said, and the Tango update would bring more Bing services to them at a lower cost. Will such a move help Ballmer & Co. achieve greater market share against Apple and Google? It’s hard to tell — we certainly don’t see this update coming to Vertu anytime soon, so we imagine that’s probably a good sign.
We first heard about the existence of the Acer M310 Windows Phone last week, but literally no information was given besides the fact that two test units were discovered on a developer’s traffic sheet. How about a few more shreds of meat to chew on? According to WindowsPhoneNZ, the Mango device was sighted at TechEd New Zealand with HDMI-out support. We may be seeing this feature across a large variety of Windows Phones coming out this fall, as the HTC Eternity has been rumored to include video output via HDMI as well. The observer claims the M310 has a “black shiny look” and “bevelled edges,” has a similar appearance to the Acer W4 (shown in the above image), and includes DLNA support over WiFi. The handset was also seen snuggling up to Asus’ entry into the Windows Phone market, which was said to have a matte black finish and may have a front-facing camera. Certainly, if these factoids are correct, this fall’s Mango lineup looks to be laden with all kinds of hidden gems we haven’t seen on Microsoft’s OS yet.
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