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Orange UK and the HTC Desire shortage

August 5th, 2010

The UK mobile phone operator Orange has been experiencing shortages with the HTC Desire for around 7 weeks now. These shortages are being experienced all around the world and not just with the HTC Desire but with any device that includes an AMOLED screen. Manufacture of this type of screen cannot currently cope with the demand for it, and it looks set to stay that way for a while to come.

I’ve been meaning to upgrade my phone to the HTC Desire for, unsurprisingly, about seven weeks now and Orange have been out of stock all this time. A few phone calls to Orange and it turns out they have at least around 5,000 – that’s five thousand – of the HTC Desire in their possession, possibly more, which Orange are testing. The issue is apparently not to do with stock shortage, as they do get regular deliveries, but to do with the number of devices passing Orange’s tests. Apparently, a shipment of around 4,000 devices this last Monday only produced 90 devices that passed. That’s 2.25% that are passing Orange’s tests! A new software update should apparently be implemented soon which should let the Desires flow freely from the test centre and into our hands, but when this is supposed to happen is anyone’s guess. Hopefully in the next couple weeks.

But don’t get too excited as a reservation list apparently has around 15,000 people who are next in line to get their lucky hands on this phone. My advice? Go sim free if you can. Or go to another network. If you’re not prepared to wait that is!

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Posted in Blogging, Life, News, Phones, Technology

Hold Your Desire: New HTC Desire

July 26th, 2010

I was planning to upgrade my phone in the next few weeks, as I have mentioned before, to one of the best all round smartphones on the market, the HTC Desire. If you go to any review site you can find the HTC Desire near the top of the best phones list, if not occupying the top spot.

One item of contention with the Desire is that the battery life is rather disappointing. While this doesn’t deter me, as I’m used to charging my current phone nearly every day, it would deter some power users looking for something more. With this in mind, HTC today put out a press release detailing that the next revision of the HTC Desire, and the global Nexus One (the Google phone), would include a new screen employing Super LCD display (SLCD) technology which offers up to 5 times more power efficiency than the current lineup.

Whilst this is indeed good news, it also means users wanting to upgrade to the HTC Desire have to choose between risking upgrading now for the phone that everyone loves, or waiting until whenever it is HTC decides to unleash the more power efficient SLCD Desire onto the market, which may be as soon as the end of this summer. Or even to wait for the rumoured HTC Desire HD, hitting a shop near you in October apparently.

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Posted in Blogging, Life, Phones, Technology

Adobe Air P2P Video Calling for Android

July 25th, 2010

With a move to an Android phone in the near future planned to replace my tiring Motorola E8, I thought I’d spend a bit of time talking about a concept using Adobe Air that brings peer-to-peer video calling to the Android platform. With Apple introducing their FaceTime application along with the next generation iPhone, the iPhone 4, a few months or so ago, it would seem that the Android platform is fast becoming a realistic competitor to the iPhone, and currently iOS 4, especially with the rising number of applications being developed and the range of choices the consumer gets in the Android marketplace.

While only meant to show off the peer-to-peer capabilities of Adobe Air 2.5, the video calling application shows the potential of the platform. While at this early stage there are some expected glitches, it shows what could be expected from the platform. With smartphones becoming ever more powerful, most phones will be able to use these features with no problem in the near future.

The fact this concept uses Adobe Air opens up the possibility of peer-to-peer video calling over different types of devices. For example you could make a video call from your smartphone to a colleague on their laptop at work or video calling your friend who’s watching TV from your tablet computer. This is definitely one to watch. But while you wait for the polished product to hit your marketplace, check out Fring.

Via: Engadget
Source: FlashMobileBlog

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Posted in Blogging, News, Technology

Zune HD – Microsoft is Sexy Again

August 6th, 2009

I think the last time I saw those words in the same sentence was looking at that infamous photo of a young Bill Gates caressing a retro and probably very scared computer in the age of brown and more brown. I never thought I’d hear those words again with the imminent release of Windows 7 and Microsoft’s general history of proudly bringing ugly products to the market – the original Xbox and Internet Explorer are just two examples. On those special occasions though, the company surprises us with a beautiful product. The Xbox 360 was one example that comes to mind and now, I believe, another is the third generation of Zune, the Zune HD.

The first iteration of the iPod competitor was frankly awful. It lacked features that cheap Chinese MP3 player rip-offs excelled in, it looked ugly even compared to the slightly uglier iPods that were available back then and the interface had nothing on its competitors. It had promise though. Saying that, even the second generation of Zune didn’t quite hit the nail on the head. The thing I most remember it for is the Zune Pad – or the squircle – that was used as the main means of navigation through the product’s interface. Microsoft seems to have gone back to the drawing board, looked at what people love about other products in the personal multimedia player market and, probably just as important, what people don’t like about them. The result is the not yet released Zune HD and from preliminary reviews it is one damn sexy beast.

Zune HDThe main features of the Zune HD are its beautiful 3.3″ OLED touch screen display, unusual HD radio tuner, Wi-Fi connectivity and an internet browser that’s said to be good, even though the team behind Internet Explorer produced it. Another thing about it is that this will be the first Zune released outside of North America so it’ll be that bit easier to get your hands on it.

Firstly, along with the integrated HD radio and high-definition video playback (through an optional dock), the 3.3 inch OLED screen is something the Zune HD has that its main competitor, Apple’s iPod, currently does not. Early reviews, and especially leaked promotional photos, suggest the screen is beautiful. Secondly, unlike most players in the market, a HD radio is integrated into Microsoft’s latest entry. HD radio is very similar to DAB digital radio here in the UK and Europe. Hopefully when it is released here, the Zune HD will be modified in whatever way to allow us to receive DAB stations – a selling point very few MP3 players boast at the moment. The third important feature is that of a web browser. These days, any serious mobile entertainment device has to have the ability to surf the internet. Pre-release reviews of the web browser included with the Zune HD have yielded significant praise – especially considering the browser was born from the same team behind Internet Explorer. It apparently behaves almost exactly like the browser included with Apple’s iPod and iPhone. This can only be a good thing but with the good obviously comes the bad and at the time of review the browser on the Zune apparently did not include support for Adobe Flash. Hopefully an update somewhere along the line will bring this near essential functionality.

The Zune HD is shaping up to be a nice piece of technology and a huge improvement over previous generations. It’s not confirmed but suspected to be launched around early September this year although in which markets are anyone’s guess. Nor has pricing been confirmed but hopefully it will be priced competitively against other products. I’m going to go out on a limb and say around £190. This is one Microsoft product I can’t wait for. I won’t be one of those buying it as soon as the shop doors open, but I think I’ll be getting my hands on one if everything that’s been said is true.

Round-up of the Zune HD’s features:

  • 3.3″ OLED multi-touch touchscreen
  • pocket friendly size
  • nvidia Tegra graphics chip – challenging the iPod touch/iPhone’s gaming dominance?
  • HD radio tuner
  • Wi-Fi connectivity
  • web browser
  • equaliser
  • 720p HD output (with optional dock)

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Posted in Internet, Technology