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Win An SIM Free HTC Touch Pro : Omio Giveaway!

By Robin LandycloseAuthor: Robin Landy Name: Robin Landy
Email: talk@omio.com
Site: http://www.omio.com
About: See Authors Posts (17)

Omio was the very first website with an unboxing video of the HTC Touch Pro. Then we added a video review, a second video review, a Q&A session, photographs from every conceivable angle, a live interactive webcast and - to cap it all - a full text review.

To commemorate this landmark event in Omio’s history we are giving you a chance to win this year’s hottest handset (if you love Windows Mobile): the original Touch Pro with its lovely high-res screen, GPS, accelerometer and fantastic slidey-out keyboard!

All you need to do is register as a user on Omio and write a review of your current handset! If you’re lucky enough to already be a member of Omio, simply add a review of your mobile on the relevant handset page, whether you love or loathe it.

Be sure to stick your name in the entrants thread in our forum too, just so we know who’s involved in the big competition!

Our only rules are that we would like it to be your own work (no stealing), be of significant length (no haikus), and be of an acceptable quality (no spammy spam). That’s it!

The competition closes on Monday 15th December and is open to all and sundry! Join Omio here!

Apple iPhone: Over 10 Million Served…Three Months Early

By Ernest DokucloseAuthor: Ernest Doku Name: Ernest Doku
Email: ernest.doku@omio.com
Site: http://blog.omio.com
About: I like gadgets, loads! I like talking about them, writing about them, using them, watching other people use them though binoculars... Some would say it was an unhealthy fascination, but then I'd be all like, "Shh...," and go back to doing gadget-related things. Hit me up on Xbox Live or PSN, I'm EJStyleS. I promise to give you a good match as well as talk about things that aren't gadgets. A bit.See Authors Posts (461)

At an Apple conference early last year, when Steve Jobs announced their new entry into the mobile phone market and a lofty goal of 10 million sales in 2008, many were very sceptical.

This was an industry with established titans like Nokia and Samsung, dedicated sellers who would not let such an unconventional device go unchallenged for long.

Despite the legions of iPhone killers, the flood of touch-based challengers that have been released or announced like the Samsung Tocco, the Samsung Omnia, the HTC Touch Diamond, the LG Viewty, the LG Renoir, the Samsung Pixon…none have had close to the same impact.

Even Nokia and BlackBerry have reluctantly entered the touchscreen domain, and whilst the 5800 and Storm 9500 seem like the most well equipped to dethrone the champ, is it too late to stop the charge?

With help from the revamped iPhone 3G, Apple have managed the unthinkable and reached their goal…three months early.

Looking at individual IMEI codes (a unique 15-digit handset identifier given to every single mobile phone made), the Apple Finance Board have tracked and logged 8 million handsets manufactured by early September, and all of those and many more have since been sold through. Wow.

The double whammy of the iPhone 3G and the new firmware and App Store (which I correctly predicted to be a game changer, thank you!) has worked wonders for the iPhone, breathing new life into what was considered a fad and technologically underwhelming device.

Apple performed what can now be officically coined as “doing a Nintendo,” perplexing the industry and consumers alike whilst selling lots of units through innovative ideas and application, despite what many would consider to be an inferior product. Wii Golf, anyone?

Champagne and cigars all round for Apple, methinks! As impressed as we all are with their success the big question, as ever, is “What next?”

HTC Goes Handset Crazy With Touch HD, Viva and 3G

By Ernest DokucloseAuthor: Ernest Doku Name: Ernest Doku
Email: ernest.doku@omio.com
Site: http://blog.omio.com
About: I like gadgets, loads! I like talking about them, writing about them, using them, watching other people use them though binoculars... Some would say it was an unhealthy fascination, but then I'd be all like, "Shh...," and go back to doing gadget-related things. Hit me up on Xbox Live or PSN, I'm EJStyleS. I promise to give you a good match as well as talk about things that aren't gadgets. A bit.See Authors Posts (461)

Well played HTC. No fanfare, no leaked shaky-cam footage, they just calmly updated their official site with a triumvirate of touchscreen handsets, sat back and watched the blogosphere implode.

The HTC brand has been doing very well redoubling their efforts to penetrate the market, and these three new phones bring their range up to date in fine fashion.

The HTC Touch Viva seems to be the new entry level handset for HTC, a clean and simple design whilst providing a slight variation on TouchFLO 3D for the user interface. It is a 2G quadband handset, and whilst not having the horsepower of the other two, is still an impressive looking device.

The HTC Touch 3G is…well, just like it sounds. A truer successor to the original Touch than the Viva, the Touch 3G offers HSDPA connectivity as well as a 3.15 megapixel camera. The 2.8 inch touchscreen has handwriting recognition and the TouchFLO interface, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth as well as GPS, and comes in at a svelte 96g.

The HTC Touch HD seems to be the jewel in the crown, with specs which take the device on a direct collision course with recent successes like the Samsung Omnia.

A huge 3.8 inch WVGA touchscreen, auto-rotate to work in widescreen as well as upright, a 5 megapixel autofocus camera, and the inherited TouchFLO 3D experience from the Touch Diamond and Pro give this phone an impressive pedigree.

Flourishes like the slim design, a second videocall camera, and the Xperia-matching resolution of 800×480 pixels make this a real handset to watch in the coming weeks.

The only problem is no word about pricing and availability of the trio of touchscreen lovelies, but with spy shots of the HD already out and about, they could be here sooner than you think…

First Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 Review

By Ernest DokucloseAuthor: Ernest Doku Name: Ernest Doku
Email: ernest.doku@omio.com
Site: http://blog.omio.com
About: I like gadgets, loads! I like talking about them, writing about them, using them, watching other people use them though binoculars... Some would say it was an unhealthy fascination, but then I'd be all like, "Shh...," and go back to doing gadget-related things. Hit me up on Xbox Live or PSN, I'm EJStyleS. I promise to give you a good match as well as talk about things that aren't gadgets. A bit.See Authors Posts (461)

Delayed until January? Well, Russian website SMAPE wasn’t going to let a little thing like that stop them from putting out a very detailed review of Sony’s first WinMo handset, the Xperia X1.

The review goes into some exhaustive detail, answering the big three questions of build quality, keyboard and image quality of the epic 3 inch TFT touchscreen. Well, they’re my big three…

The user interface is the big allure, and they explain how the Xperia can run nine dynamic thumbnails of active programs, which can then be arranged and manipulated in almost any concievable manner. Fan them out like a deck of cards, rotate and flip them, all in real time with a minimum of lag.

Despite sounding gimmicky in theory, it turns out to be a gorgeous yet rather practical user interface, and the only serious contender to the TouchFLO of the Touch Pro and Touch Diamond (apart from the iPhone, naturally). As both the Xperia and the HTC duo are pretty much equals on specs, to work this magic with the same 256 MB of ram is a mircale for the Xperia. However, they do report that TouchFLO consumes more computing power than the lovely panels, so go figure…

Downsides? A  3.2 megapixel camera? What is this, 2006? Yeah, camera technology has moved at a breakneck pace of late, and with the i8510 showing off an 8 megapixel snapper, the Xperia’s doesn’t cut it. Also, the keyboard. As soon as we saw that curved sliding mechanism, the first thought was ‘those keys are going to get scratched!’ Sure enough, these fears were realised as the demo handsets were shown, and now to add insult to injury the keyboard buttons are said to feel loose and indistinct.

The Touch Pro’s keyboard is a joy to use, so the Xperia had better fix up on this front otherwise it could be a real minus point for many. Smartphone lovers are militant when it comes to keyboards.

All in all it is a largely positive review, full of plus points like the sturdy metal frame of the phone and its relatively compact nature. Let’s hope those extra few months to tweak it up make the Xperia the first big phone of 2009!

US Gets Revamped HTC Touch Diamond

By Ernest DokucloseAuthor: Ernest Doku Name: Ernest Doku
Email: ernest.doku@omio.com
Site: http://blog.omio.com
About: I like gadgets, loads! I like talking about them, writing about them, using them, watching other people use them though binoculars... Some would say it was an unhealthy fascination, but then I'd be all like, "Shh...," and go back to doing gadget-related things. Hit me up on Xbox Live or PSN, I'm EJStyleS. I promise to give you a good match as well as talk about things that aren't gadgets. A bit.See Authors Posts (461)

The 28th of August marks the long awaited (not for us, we’ve had it for ages) North American launch of the CDMA HTC Touch Diamond.

The handset will be out on the carrier Sprint, sporting a few significant distinctions from the GSM version. Aside from the fetching red paintjob on the back of the handset, the phone will be a tad chunkier with dimensions of 101 x 51 x 14 mm.

This is obviously due to the added technology, but also to the welcome addition of a 1350mAh battery (last seen in the Touch Pro) which has bolstered the poor standby time of the original. Up to you whether you still want the Diamond now it’s gained a few grams…but it has dressed up nice!

Source: NewLaunches

HTC Announces Touch S740, Needs More Keyboards

By Ernest DokucloseAuthor: Ernest Doku Name: Ernest Doku
Email: ernest.doku@omio.com
Site: http://blog.omio.com
About: I like gadgets, loads! I like talking about them, writing about them, using them, watching other people use them though binoculars... Some would say it was an unhealthy fascination, but then I'd be all like, "Shh...," and go back to doing gadget-related things. Hit me up on Xbox Live or PSN, I'm EJStyleS. I promise to give you a good match as well as talk about things that aren't gadgets. A bit.See Authors Posts (461)

Riding the crest of the Touch Diamond/Touch Pro wave, Korean manufacturer HTC are surely benefitting from their change in direction towards making phones that people outside the geekerati actually like. Little surprise then, that their handset to replace the old guard of the TyTn II and S730 bears a certain similarity to their latest and greatest.

The HTC S740 may not quite be a touchscreen phone, but they more than make up for it by adding not only the Touch Pro’s “Baby Got QWERTY” behind, but also a traditional keypad underneath the screen for digits and the like.

A fairly curious setup, not least because it makes the phone look comically long, but presumably also makes those front keypad controls pretty tough to navigate when in used in landscape. Having said that, they have moved the numbers from that slide out keypad to make room for dedicated Shift and arrow keys, which will the whole thing very quirky to use in practise…

Anyway, it still has a sizable 2.4 inch screen, and all of the features that you’ve grown to know and love with the Diamond et al. 3G support, a 3.2 megapixel camera, GPS, Wi-Fi, TouchFLO, an FM radio and a microSD card slot for boosting the 256MB of internal storage.

It has the looks, but would the Touch handsets be quite as appealing without the finger-driven functionality? We will soon find out as the S740 will have to go up against the Touch Pro upon its release next month.

Samsung INNOV8 Unboxed!

By Ernest DokucloseAuthor: Ernest Doku Name: Ernest Doku
Email: ernest.doku@omio.com
Site: http://blog.omio.com
About: I like gadgets, loads! I like talking about them, writing about them, using them, watching other people use them though binoculars... Some would say it was an unhealthy fascination, but then I'd be all like, "Shh...," and go back to doing gadget-related things. Hit me up on Xbox Live or PSN, I'm EJStyleS. I promise to give you a good match as well as talk about things that aren't gadgets. A bit.See Authors Posts (461)

Whilst we’re grafting to get things ready for our HTC Touch Pro live webcast next week, those lucky souls at Electric Pig are already getting to play with the new 8 megapixel handset from Samsung!

Exclusively available from the Carphone Warehouse in September, the INNOV8 has plenty of impressive features like DivX playback, GPS and Wi-Fi but seems to have reverted to it’s maiden name of the Samsung i8510 for the UK. Not like we liked the contrived title in the first place, to be honest…

A bit of a surprise that it’s coming so soon, the Omnia was only out a bit ago, and the Tocco not long before that. The march of the great Samsung phones is continuing unabated…bring it on!

Source: Electric Pig

HTC Touch Phones Even More Touchable?

By Ernest DokucloseAuthor: Ernest Doku Name: Ernest Doku
Email: ernest.doku@omio.com
Site: http://blog.omio.com
About: I like gadgets, loads! I like talking about them, writing about them, using them, watching other people use them though binoculars... Some would say it was an unhealthy fascination, but then I'd be all like, "Shh...," and go back to doing gadget-related things. Hit me up on Xbox Live or PSN, I'm EJStyleS. I promise to give you a good match as well as talk about things that aren't gadgets. A bit.See Authors Posts (461)

This video seems to show that the HTC Touch Diamond (and presumably the Touch Pro) gives a lot more touch than we had bargained for…

That’s right, not quite multi-touch on the screen but two finger capacitive recognition beneath it, all over the scroll wheel and keys! Crazy. This means that all the pinching and twirling to zoom that made the iPhone’s user interface so sexy are possible upgrades with a simple HTC firmware update.

Unfortunately, as the video shows it is only active in a test kit capacity but the practical third party applications will hopefully follow! Like the Touch Pro needed another reason to be desirable…

Source: Gizmodo/MobileTopSoft

Samsung i900 Omnia Unboxing: Awesome

By Ernest DokucloseAuthor: Ernest Doku Name: Ernest Doku
Email: ernest.doku@omio.com
Site: http://blog.omio.com
About: I like gadgets, loads! I like talking about them, writing about them, using them, watching other people use them though binoculars... Some would say it was an unhealthy fascination, but then I'd be all like, "Shh...," and go back to doing gadget-related things. Hit me up on Xbox Live or PSN, I'm EJStyleS. I promise to give you a good match as well as talk about things that aren't gadgets. A bit.See Authors Posts (461)

Not quite as good as our unboxing of the Touch Pro, but if you like the whole ’showy’ thing, then this is for you. Bet their camera was on macro mode (thanks Terry!).

The Samsung Omnia is available on Omio right now, but we cannot guarantee a similar box. Sorry.

EISA Awards, Gongs For HTC And Sony Ericsson

By Ernest DokucloseAuthor: Ernest Doku Name: Ernest Doku
Email: ernest.doku@omio.com
Site: http://blog.omio.com
About: I like gadgets, loads! I like talking about them, writing about them, using them, watching other people use them though binoculars... Some would say it was an unhealthy fascination, but then I'd be all like, "Shh...," and go back to doing gadget-related things. Hit me up on Xbox Live or PSN, I'm EJStyleS. I promise to give you a good match as well as talk about things that aren't gadgets. A bit.See Authors Posts (461)

A European Imaging and Sound Association Award is recognised amongst the mobile phone community as an impressive plaudit, recognising those handsets which break new ground in the field of multimedia functionality. This year was no different with very deserving winners, although not necessarily those one might expect…

The best music phone went to the Sony Ericsson W980, a justifiable winner through being the perfect combination of looks, functionality and audio support. 8GB of storage with that Walkman touch that Sony gives the W-series phone makes for a handset offering a better aural experience than even the iPhone 3G.

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