Displaying items by tag: HTC

One of the things that has always bothered us is the continual lack of improvement in the smartphone market in the US. Although we get to read about new technologies for “world” phones and drool over the latest products from companies like Samsung and HTC which sport quad core SoCs (System on Chip) under their screens when they finally reach the US market they are shadows of what people are getting in other markets.

Will we see a compelling line up of Windows Phone products? Yesterday we had an official statement from Microsoft about who their launch partners would be for the Windows Phone 8 launch. You had Nokia, Samsung, Huawei, and HTC. This little group would all be using Qualcomms SoCs under the screens to provide the power for the new phone OS from Microsoft. At the time we thought that including HTC was a little odd since Microsoft shut them out of making an ARM based Windows 8 tablet for the launch. According to some unconfirmed information the reason was that Microsoft did not feel HTC was able to deal with supply issues with Qualcomm and other critical components for the device.

Ok so here we are with part two of the Windows Phone 8 information. Microsoft has released the list of phone makers that will be supporting Windows Phone 8 at launch (still listed as “this fall”). The list was surprisingly short with only Nokia, Samsung, Huawei and HTC on the list. HTC is interesting as they were not allowed to make a Windows RT tablet which is what Windows Phone 8 gets the majority of its structure from. In addition to the listing of phone makers, Microsoft also announced that the SoC supplier would be Qualcomm which suggests that we are looking at a controlled BOM for the first round of phones.

Last year when Microsoft handed Nokia a very large check to help them promote Windows Phone, we joked about it wondering if Steve Ballmer really expected to see any of that money back. It was the type of moment when you can almost see the writing on the wall (that Nokia was in trouble). Nokia at the time was having financial problems and had even been blocked from transporting some of their gear out of one country they still owed money to. Microsoft saw this as an opportunity to get in with a phone company on the ground and partner with them directly. Nokia was not in any direct legal battles with Apple so there was not any worry that Apple could directly affect imports or sales of the products. Things were looking good.

We have been saying for a number of years now, but the Patent System is broken. Now the FTC might be starting to agree with some of the sentiment that we have been hearing from many media outlets. In a very important move the FTC feels that the continued request for import and sales bans whenever there is a patent dispute is causing “substantial harm” to consumers.

We have heard through numerous sources that the when the Samsung S III Galaxy hits the US it will be hobbled. This move by Samsung to offer a smart phone to the US with a reduced set of specification is something that will hurt them in the long run. Although many claim that there is no need for a quad core SoC inside the product and that it can get along perfectly well with the dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon that will eventually reside in the US based version of the phone it will set a tone with consumers.

In other Google news, the advertising giant is now the proud owner of a maker of smart (and dumb) phones. The buyout of Motorola Mobility finished today with the replacement of the former CEO with Google Americas President Dennis Woodside (Dennis there’s some lovely filth over here). The former Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha is stepping down and will leave the company after a short transition period. This is not an unusual situation and it is very common for the purchasing company to replace the top person at the very least.

The Mobile World Congress kicked off today in Barcelona Spain. This is one of the yearly events that help to shape the mobile technology world. We have already seen some information slip even before the conference kicked off as companies like HTC tried to get the jump on the competition and rumors popped up about Asus’ next generation Transformer.

It is almost every Android phone owner’s headache and one of Apple’s bragging points about their products; battery life. If you own an Android phone we can bet the one thing you are probably the most disappointed with it how long the battery lasts. We have now gone through two Android phones (the EVO 4G and the EVD 3D) and while the EVO 3D that we have now is much better than the original it still cannot compete with what the average iPhone 4 (or 4S) gets. However, unlike the iPhone with an Android phone you can always grab a larger battery. Today we are taking a look at one from a company called Ontrion. This extended battery comes complete with a new back (so we do not have to worry about it being an external case) and almost doubles the capacity of the stock battery from HTC. So let’s take a look at what Ontrion has to offer and just how much more life this battery gives our EVO 3D.

As the mobile market begins to become more and more an everyday lifestyle (how often have you seen someone browsing the web on their phone during your morning commute) we are finding that simple things are being left open to potential attack. These are not new items and are often holes or exploits that have been dealt with in the PC (including Mac) world long ago. Still the mobile market where it is today is a lot like the PC market in its infancy; nothing is really secure and both Apps and OSes have a long way to go before they are truly protected.