November 2008 - Posts
Having just launched the HTC Diamond, HTC Touch Pro and the HTC S700 just a few months ago, HTC has yet again launched, not one, but three new Windows Mobile phones in the Philippine market! The Touch Viva, The Touch 3G and the Touch HD.
The Touch Viva, offers the best Windows Mobile experience in its most basic level at the most affordable cost. The Touch 3G offers the same benefits of the Viva with the added 3G experience. The Touch HD, being the most revolutionary of these offerings, offers the most powerful hardware and a true high definition experience with its 480 x 800 resolution VGA screen. The three products offers the best features in smartphone market from the most basic consumer to the power user.
HTC also announced that they would be setting up a local office in the country which would allow it to be more aggressive in marketing its products. "We feel there is still ample room for growth," According to the new HTC Philippines General Manager Mark Dewy Sergio (formerly from Samsung). “Surprisingly, despite the crisis, we have been hitting our sales targets," he added.
The local retail price of the HTC Touch Viva is at ₱21,990, The HTC Touch 3G at ₱32,000, while the high-end HTC Touch HD costs ₱55,900
We have just received word from our friends at Sony Ericsson that they have just released the Xperia X1 Windows Mobile Pone, which is now available at all Sony Ericsson outlets.
The Xperia X1 is a Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 phone from Sony Ericsson which features a multiple panel interface, which gives you the functionality of having multiple Today Screens to choose from, depending on your mood or current activity. It offers a revolutionary hardware design which features a very firm sold body, an arc slider QWERTY keypad (the best slide out QWERTY pad in the market), dual customizable LED for notifications, aGPS, quad-band GSM, tri-band 3G, and a 800 x 480 widescreen touchscreen display.
The X1 may also be enticing for enterprise developers since the X1, being developed by Sony Ericsson in partnership with HTC, has the undocumented HTC “disk-on-chip” capability which is being used by almost all local enterprise developers and required by most application certifications. Developers can also create their own panels, as easily installable CAB files, using the developer kit provided by Sony Ericsson.
Please watch out for our upcoming comprehensive review of the X1 coming out very soon.
While visiting Australia for Liberation Day, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer mentioned a bit about the Windows Mobile roadmap for Windows Mobile 6.5 and 7. During the Q&A session, he answered questions about what's coming for Windows Mobile in the near future:
With releases we'll make this year - releases we'll make with 6.5 next year, Windows Mobile 7, I think we have a pretty interesting roadmap.
Although he did not go into specifics, it is hinted that there would be improvements in the user interface and flow of the software. It is also expected that Zune integration would be included in the release.
Before the confirmation by Ballmer, Motorola Mobile Devices CEO Sanjay Jha casually mentioned Windows Mobile 6.5 while announcing that Motorola is dropping Java and Symbian to focus on Windows Mobile and Andriod.
Microsoft has released for download a patch to fix an email sending problem specific to Windows Mobile 6.1 where you can unexpectedly loose the ability to send out email messages. This problem is more clearly defined in the
Microsoft KB article KB958639, where you could find more details about the problem.
There is also a little bit of controversy surrounding the cause of this problem. With Windows Mobile 6.1, Microsoft decided to add a feature in the email system which enable the mobile operator or OEM to define an alternate SMTP server name, in case the user-defined server name fails. more on this issue is found on the Pocket PC Thoughts forum.
You can download the patch from the Microsoft Download website where you can choose between a CAB file which you install from the device itself, or using an MSI file through your Windows PC, while your Windows Mobile device is docked.