Posts tagged smartphone
HTC Schubert: Windows Phone 7, aluminum unibody
Aug 13th
247WindowsPhone has obtained a prototype of a Windows Phone 7 handset built by HTC. The HTC Schubert will be a Windows Phone 7 launch device, and while we have no confirmed details, it is an aluminum unibody design and appears to have around a 3.7″ screen, likely with WVGA (800×480) resolution.
Photo and video after the break.
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HTC Desire HD leaked: 4.3″, Android 2.2, 1 GHz Snapdragon
Aug 6th
A new HTC smartphone has spotted in Hong Kong running Google’s Android 2.2 (Froyo) OS. Like its older siblings, the HTC HD2 (Windows Mobile) and EVO 4G (Android), the Desire HD sports a 4.3″ WVGA capacitive touch screen and a 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor.
The phone seems to lack a front-facing camera, so this is basically an HD2 with Android and the EVO’s 8 MP camera tossed on. Full specs below:
4.3-inch WVGA touch screen
8 million pixel camera lens
1 GHz Qualcomm processor
Android 2.2
720p HD video capture
Support the Xvid format video playback
SRS Audio Technology
Face tracking
Support for Adobe Flash 10.1
Built-in 4GB SD card (up to expand to 32GB)
E-book reader
Integrated aluminum body
Via: Android-HK, Uwants
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Microsoft Kills Kin
Jul 2nd
Microsoft has killed its Kin social phone line just a few weeks after it launched. Gizmodo reports that the company has merged the whole Kin team into the Windows Phone 7 team. Rumors suggest that a mere 500 Kins have been sold to date, and while the figure’s probably higher than that, it might explain such a large project being folded so suddenly.
Kin was accompanied by some strange advertising, but the biggest problem was that Verizon only offered Kin phones with its $30 monthly smartphone data plan. Kin was supposed to be a cheaper, social-oriented alternative to a smartphone, but without a cheaper data plan, it became almost pointless. Even drastic price cuts to just $20/$50 for the Kin One/Two (from $50/100) didn’t help, and Microsoft’s ads promoting Kin as a Windows Phone just caused further confusion.
Read on for the full story behind Kin’s demise.
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Apple’s new iPhone 4: A4 CPU, HD video, high-res screen, video chat, 3-axis gyro for $199/299, June 24
Jun 8th
Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced the iPhone 4 at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) yesterday. The phone sports a high-resolution screen, thin new (though repeatedly leaked) design, front-facing camera for video chat, the iPad’s A4 processor, HD video capture and playback, a three-axis gyroscope, and the newly-renamed iOS 4.
The iPhone 4 will be available starting June 24 for $199 (16GB) / $299 (32GB) in either black or white, on a 2-year contract– and yes, it’s still tied to AT&T in the U.S.
Read on for our full coverage of Apple’s fourth-generation iPhone.
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Qualcomm ships dual-core 1.2 GHz Snapdragon CPU for smartphones
Jun 3rd
Qualcomm just shipped the first dual-core smartphone processor, a 1.2 GHz Snapdragon chip. The new third-generation QSD8260 and 8660 chips are based on a die-shrunk 45nm version of the 1 GHz QSD8250 chip found in phones like the HTC HD2, EVO 4G, and Google’s Nexus One and should use less power while packing a lot more computing horsepower.
The third-generation Snapdragon CPUs offer a next-generation Adreno (ATI Imageon) GPU with support for Open GL ES 2.0 and Open VG 1.1, hardware acceleration for 1080p HD video encode/decode, and video output resolution up to WXGA (1280×800) with 24-bit color. They also pack a dedicated low power audio engine (to allow the rest of the CPU to go to sleep when you’re just playing music) and low power GPS electronics (to reduce power consumption in navigation apps).
The 8260 model packs an HSPA+ radio (GSM), while the 8660 supports both HSPA+ (GSM) and EV-DO Rev. B (CDMA). Qualcomm will also offer the QSD 8672, a 1.5 GHz version for tablets and larger devices that began sampling several months ago.
The CPUs are based on the same Scorpion core design as current Snapdragon chips, implementing the ARMv7 instruction set but offering slightly better performance clock-for-clock than ARM’s reference design, Cortex A8. For more information, check out our Smartphone Processor Guide.
No info on when the new chips will hit production smartphones, but we’re probably looking at early 2011 at the earliest.
Full press release after the break.
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Microsoft unveils social network-focused Kin One, Two phones
Apr 12th
Earlier today, Microsoft unveiled its new Kin One and Two- social network-heavy phones, exclusively on Verizon Wireless. While the phones’ OS, which resulted from the company’s “Project Pink,” shares its Windows CE 6.0 underpinnings with Microsoft’s upcoming Windows Phone 7, it has a completely different interface, with an IE6-based browser (from the Zune HD), social media integration throughout, and multitouch support. Notably, it has no support for third-party apps. The Kin series is meant for “social media amplifiers”- teens and early-20s who might not be able to afford or want the complexity of smartphones.
Read on for more info about Kin. More >
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Windows Phone 7 Series Minimum Hardware Requirements
Mar 17th
Microsoft revealed the minimum hardware requirements for Windows Phone 7 Series devices at the MIX conference, shown below. Nothing too surprising here- we’re looking at some pretty high-end specs. WP7 does not support external memory cards, so the phones must have 8GB or more built-in flash storage.
The specs list “ARMv7 Cortex/Scorpion or better” for the processors, referring to ARM Cortex A8 processors (used in the iPhone 3GS and other high-end phones) and Qualcomm’s Scorpion core from its Snapdragon chipsets (found in the HTC HD2, Google Nexus One, and others). We’re told there are more specific performance requirements, though. For more information on mobile processors, see our Smartphone Processor Guide.
Screen
Capacitive touch with 4 or more contact points
WVGA (800×480) or HVGA (480×320) resolution
WVGA (800×480) or HVGA (480×320) resolution
Sensors
A-GPS, Accelerometer, Compass, Light, Proximity
Camera
5 megapixels or more, flash required, camera button required
Multimedia
Common detailed specs, Codec Acceleration
Memory
256 MB RAM or more, 8 GB Flash or more
GPU
DirectX 9 acceleration
CPU
ARMv7 Cortex/Scorpion or better
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Apple Sues HTC for Infringing 20 Patents: First Battle of the Apple-Google Proxy War?
Mar 3rd
It’s on! A few hours ago, Apple launched two lawsuits against Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC, alleging infringement on 20 Apple patents ranging from the early 90s to just a few weeks ago. The suits, filed with both the U.S. District Court and the International Trade Commission, focus mostly on software patents– an area of some controversy. You can see details of the patents at issue here– Apple has apparently filed over 700 pages of exhibits to the District Court, and based on the complexity of some of these patents, this might well take years to resolve.
HTC is the most prominent manufacturer of phones powered by Google’s Android OS. Is this the opening act of an Apple proxy war against Google? There certainly are some signs of it. More info after the break.
Update: Google just issued a short statement on the case:
Sphere: Related Content“We are not a party to this lawsuit. However, we stand behind our Android operating system and the partners who have helped us to develop it.”
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