Buying an iPhone ? You might want to check the MotoRazr 2 first.

The new Razr2 is a pimped up version of the original Razr, with a full HTML browser, Google mobile search, a music player, and a videoconferencing feature. It will work on the HSDPA, EVDO and GSM networks, with a new 'CrystalTalk ' technology that ensures the ideal audio environment for a user to talk in.



The Razr2 at $ 630 (in Korea is certainly not cheap, but has several improvements over it's predecessor. It has an external touchscreen with tactile feedback, a 2.2 inch internal QVGA display and an impressive 470 minutes of talk time.



SUMMARY OF FEATURES

• An ultra-slim design makes this the thinnest RAZR yet at 11.9mm.
• The reflective vacuumized metal and hardened glass front catches light and creates visual intrigue.
• The 2" external color display is our largest ever and features interactive soft keys for music with a vibrational response.
• Windows Media™ Player 11 lets you access over 200 online music stores worldwide including favorites such as MTV Urge, Yahoo and Napster.²
• A 2MP camera with 8X digital zoom takes high quality pictures and provides up to 2 hours of video capture and playback.
• High-speed web access¹ with content that's intelligently sized to fit your screen, there's no need for horizontal scrolling.
• Music player includes stereo micro-USB headset and a compatible Bluetooth® enabled headset.³
• 512MB of on-board shared memory with a storage capacity of up to 200 songs.⁴
• Opera 8.5 Browser provides a full HTML browsing experience.¹
• High Speed USB 2.0 gives you fast data transfers.
• Large, external 2" QVGA display 320x240 resolution provides vibrant viewing.
• MotoSync™ makes it easy to organize your corporate phonebook, calendar and emails.
• Integrated Bluetooth® wireless technology facilitates imaging, printing and peer-to-peer gaming.³
• CrystalTalk™ helps deliver crystal clear voice quality in noisy environments.

Razr2 Website

Picture - iPhone Accessories

Picture of iPhone Accessories included with the iPhone

Edit: The bluetooth headset will have to bought separately ($129)

11 things all reviews say about the iPhone

Too tired to read all the iPhone reviews ? Well, here's 10 things all them say.

1. The Hype surrounding the iPhone is Justified, but so are it's limitations.
2. The glass does get smudgy, but it's easy to clean and doesn't scratch easily.
   
3. The software and the web browser is amazing and simple and fun to operate.
4. Call Quality is average.
5. The camera sucks.
6. Real life battery - 5 hours of video, 23 hours of audio.
7. Unlimited internet plans are only $20 a month.
8. Typing is hard, but you get used to it eventually with smart software figuring out what you intended to type.
9. AT&T's EDGE network sucks, but WiFi makes everything better.
   
10. No 'cut and paste' option.
11. Signing up for the iPhone is through iTunes, after you've reached home.
    

Some Detailed Reviews:
David Pogue at the New York Times
Steven Levy at MSNBC

iPhone rival - HTC enters India through Airtel

Airtel is providing the HTC Touch to it's Indian customers for Rs. 20,000 ( US $ 500) . The Touch entered the Indian barely a week after it entered the International market.

The HTC Touch has a new navigation technology called TouchFLO which navigates through the phone based on user gestures and touch. The early introduction of the iPhone may help it to capture the Indian market before the iPhone can arrive.

The HTC Touch will be available to Airtel users in 10 India cities: Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Pune, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Jaipur.

Why wait in line for an iPhone when you can buy one at Froogle for $999,999.00

Froogle (or 'Google Products' as it is known nowadays) has listed the iPhone for sale at a massive $999,999. Detek.biz , the company that listed the iPhone on Froogle, doesn't officially mention the price at their website, but they do provide an inquiry form where any questions on the iPhone can be forwarded to them.

An iPhone at $999,999 maybe a little out of reach of the average buyer, but there is one more seller on Froogle offering the iPhone for a more sane price. Alestech.com is offering the iPhone for a mere $748.75 and claims that the product is ready to ship.

No one actually knows if the above two sellers actually possess the product ready to ship, but if I can get one for $748.75 without having to wait in a long line like these two guys, I definitely would buy the iPhone from Froogle.

Apple iPhone Pros and Cons

Matt Casamassina at IGN talks about some of the pros and cons of the iPhone. Some of the cons could eventually be solved by Apple, like no IM for the iPhone (Although, there is a Web version of it at: publictivity. (Requires Safari))

Pros:

• It's Smaller Than You Realize and it's Got Style to Spare
• Multi-touch Tech and Sleek, Simple Interface
• Music-player, Movie-player, Internet Browser and Phone in One
• It Plays YouTube Movies

Cons:

• It Doesn't Ship with an Instant Messenger Program
• The Keyboard is Unproven
• Its Storage Capacity Rivals iPod Nano, not iPod

Analyst firm Gartner tells IT executives to avoid the iPhone

Why you should stay away from the iPhone if you're an IT professional.

The analyst firm Gartner will tell IT executives to keep Apple’s iPhone away from their networks, in a research report to be released within a week.

“We’re telling IT executives to not support it because Apple has no intentions of supporting (iPhone use in) the enterprise,” Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney says. “This is basically a cellular iPod with some other capabilities and it’s important that it be recognized as such.”

The iPhone, scheduled to ship in the United States on June 29, appears to be a great consumer device but has no redeeming qualities from the perspective of a business user, Dulaney says. Besides lacking security features like a firewall, the product does not support Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Notes, so corporate users would have to forward e-mail to an Internet service provider, he says. Gartner’s research note warning against business usage of the iPhone will likely be issued Monday, according to Dulaney.

“You’ll have e-mail in a place that’s unsecured. There are no firewalls on the device. There’s no ability to wipe (data from) the device if it’s lost,” Dulaney says.

Businesses have little, if any interest in the iPhone and Apple isn’t marketing it to the business sector anyway, says Randy Giusto, who leads IDC’s analysis of mobile devices, computing and computer markets.

“The iPhone is not positioned at all for the IT world,” he say. “It’s a very personal device. Most corporations are probably not going to support the iPhone on their networks.”

Apple may not be making a direct appeal to enterprises, but AT&T is betting that business users will want the iPhone, the IDG News Service reported in April. AT&T plans to market the iPhone to business users and is making sure its backend enterprise billing and support systems will accommodate the device, the report stated.

Apple’s spokeswoman for the iPhone could not be reached for comment.

Businesses tempted by the iPhone should resist for a number of reasons, Dulaney argues. The high price tag – up to $599 – is exorbitant for most enterprises, he says. Even if the iPhone met the security requirements of an IT executive, there’s no real reason for employees to have one. To make it worthwhile, an enterprise would expect firewalls to prevent unauthorized access, long-term maintenance and support commitments, support for an e-mail client like Microsoft Outlook, and PBX integration.

“Enterprises are not going to buy this so employees can buy music and watch movies,” Dulaney says. “Business has a very narrow purview of what they want to get done. … From the consumer perspective, Gartner is really positive about this device and it really changes the game.”

A 451 Group analyst agrees the iPhone has no place in a business, and thinks the new product won’t even live up to its hype as a consumer device. Tony Rizzo, director of mobile technology research at the analyst firm, doubts Apple’s assurance that the iPhone’s battery will provide up to eight hours of talk time, six hours of Internet use, seven hours of video, and 24 hours of music playback.

“If a user were to click on the Wi-Fi radio inside an iPhone, the battery life would probably significantly drain. Using a large touch screen to do anything is going to eat up a lot of battery life,” Rizzo says.

The touch screen will disappoint both business users and consumers, such as young people who do lots of instant messaging and text messaging, he says.

“It doesn’t have any features that would make it successful as a business tool.

The other question, is it even going to be successful as a consumer device?” Rizzo says. “I’m not giving up my BlackBerry. I like the keyboard, I like the trackball and I like the service.”

Source

Apple revises specs for the iPhone - Battery life to be longer

Apple revised it's battery estimates for the iPhone on Monday. The new battery estimates are significantly better than the previous battery life. Apple also states the conditions under which the battery life were tested.

The old iPhone battery life at Apple was:

• Up to 5 hours Talk / Video / Browsing
• Up to 16 hours Audio playback

New Battery Estimates:

Up to 8 hours Talk Time Up to 250 hours Standby Up to 6 hours Internet Use Up to 7 hours Video Playback Up to 24 hours Audio playback

Talk Time:
Testing conducted by Apple in May and June 2007 using preproduction iPhones and software. All talk time testing was done connected to a 1900MHz network. All settings were default except: Call Forwarding was turned on; the WiFi feature Ask to Join Networks was turned off. Battery life depends on the cellular network, location, signal strength, feature configuration, usage, and many other factors. Battery tests are conducted using specific iPhone units; actual results may vary.

Standby:
Testing conducted by Apple in May and June 2007 using preproduction iPhones and software. All settings were default except: Call Forwarding was turned on; the WiFi feature Ask to Join Networks was turned off. Battery life depends on the cellular network, location, signal strength, feature configuration, usage, and many other factors. Battery tests are conducted using specific iPhone units; actual results may vary.

Internet over WiFi:
Testing conducted by Apple in May and June 2007 using preproduction iPhones and software. Internet over WiFi testing conducted using a closed network and dedicated web and mail server, simulating browsing to 20 popular URLs and checking mail once an hour. All settings were default except: Call Forwarding was turned on; the WiFi feature Ask to Join Networks and Auto-Brightness were turned off; WPA2 encryption was enabled. Battery life depends on the cellular network, location, signal strength, WiFi connectivity, feature configuration, usage, and many other factors. Battery tests are conducted using specific iPhone units; actual results may vary. Internet over EDGE: Testing conducted by Apple in May and June 2007 using preproduction iPhones and software. Internet over EDGE testing conducted over a 1900 MHz EDGE, using a dedicated web and mail server, simulating browsing to 20 popular URLs and checking mail once an hour. All settings were default except: Call Forwarding was turned on; the WiFi feature Ask to Join Networks and Auto-Brightness were turned off. Battery life depends on the cellular network, location, signal strength, EDGE connectivity, feature configuration, usage, and many other factors. Battery tests are conducted using specific iPhone units; actual results may vary.

Video Playback:
Testing conducted by Apple in May and June 2007 using preproduction iPhones and software. Video content was a repeated 2 hour 23 minute movie purchased from the iTunes Store. All settings were default except: Call Forwarding was turned on; the WiFi feature Ask to Join Networks and Auto-Brightness were turned off. Battery life depends on the cellular network, location, signal strength, feature configuration, usage, and many other factors. Battery tests are conducted using specific iPhone units; actual results may vary.

Audio Playback:
Testing conducted by Apple in May and June 2007 using preproduction iPhones and software. The playlist consisted of 358 unique audio tracks, a combination of content imported from CDs using iTunes (128-Kbps AAC encoding) and content purchased from the iTunes Store (128-Kbps AAC encoding). All settings were default except: Call Forwarding was turned on; the WiFi feature Ask to Join Networks was turned off. Battery life depends on the cellular network, location, signal strength, feature configuration, usage, and many other factors. Battery tests are conducted using specific iPhone units; actual results may vary.

So the rumors about the battery life being better than expected turned out to be true.

Kevin Rose of Digg talking about the iPhone in Dec '06

Kevin was at first reluctant to talk about the iPhone in December '06, because he was worried about putting his source at risk, but eventually he talked about some of the features of the iPhone, most of which turned out to be not true. Remember though, this happened in December '06, one month before the iPhone was released.

Here are some of the stuff he claimed back then.

1. First he says the iPhone will work on most mobile networks - Wrong
2. Two Batteries for the iPhone - one for the Phone, the other for the music player - Wrong
3. Two memory capacities - 4 and 8 Gigs - Right
4. Price - $249 and $449 - Kinda close for the $449 so Right
5. Slide out keyboard - Wrong
   
6. Touch Screen - Right

So he was right about the memory capacity and the Touch Screen. A score of 2 and a half out of 6 isn't bad.

Survey says 30 % of Britishers want an iPhone

30% of people living in the UK want an iPhone. That's 7 million iPhones !

According to research by M:Metrics, 56% of British and 64% of Americans were aware of the iPhone. 30% of UK mobile owners wanted one and reported a strong interest in buying a piece. 14% of Americans said they would consider buying one too.

Mark Donovan, a senior analyst at M:Metrics said: "While other devices - some of them already on the market - have features equal or better than the iPhone, such as 3G, superior cameras, and the like, the iPhone has been the first mobile device to create widespread consumer excitement around a mobile phone. This has the potential to increase consumer demand for more expensive, full-featured phones across the board as OEMs and other operators respond to AT&T/Apple’s marketing juggernaut."

The iPhone will be released on June 29 at Apple and select AT&T stores in the US.

Mobile Developers disappointed with the iPhone

No one ever said Apple marketers weren't clever. So if they wanted to start a firestorm of ISVs developing applications for the iPhone, how better to do that than to make development as simple as possible with the least barriers?

Nevertheless, until we hear more details from Apple about the way in which applications are handled on the iPhone, we won't know how clever Apple really is.

At WWDC07, Jobs promised that there will be a "new way to create applications for the iPhone" due mainly to the fact that it uses the full Safari browser engine.

But a lot of developers are disappointed with what Apple is offering.

"Web-based apps are cool for a lot of things. But what people were looking forward to was to to let them develop native applications," said Anthony Meadow , president of Bear River Associates , an ISV for mobile applications

Without native access to facilities, you don't have storage or sharing of information between applications, or reading and writing from address book and iCal. "There is not any easy way to do that with a Web-based application," said Meadow.

Overall, Meadow was not impressed. Although he admitted it is really not very clear what Apple intends. But, he added, "If they don't intend to have access, they should just tell us."

Ken Dulaney, the senior mobile analyst with Gartner says Apple's Web 2.0 solution is likely to be similar to what RIM does now.

"It avoids having to put code down on the device," Says Dulaney, which in turn protects it from crashing due to outside influences.

On RIM devices, the application is rendered on the server side, and the cache in the browser reformats it and pushes it down to the device.

"The code is only resident briefly on the device," Dulaney said.

Similar technology is also used by device manufacturers using mobile Linux from MontaVista.

Now resident on tens of millions of cell phones, the MontaVista design uses a "computing peer" design, Linux on the server and on the phone, giving developers the flexibility of partitioning an application on the client side and server side. An ISV can put a heavy load on the phone or a light one, says Jim Ready, CTO and founder of MontaVista.

"Linux on the phone is every bit as capable as Linux on the server," said Ready.

Certainly this supports similar statements from Jobs about Safari on the desktop and Safari on the iPhone.

However, like Meadow at Bear River, Ready has some reservations about the future capabilities or the richness of applications running on the iPhone.

When applications are developed solely using an "abstracted" development environment that doesn't talk to the lower layers of the device, such as the hardware and middleware, there is a dividing line in terms of the capabilities of the application.

"Take video frame rates. The reason you back out of an abstracted environment is because you pay for the abstraction in performance. It is a tradeoff," said Ready.

And not only for performance -- developers also need to write native applications that get down closer to access the hardware and the middleware for size and control reasons, as well, although Meadow doesn't see access to hardware as a major problem. "There is a handful of people that care about writing to the chips. It is possibly useful for really high performance graphic drivers and low level networking code," he says.

So where does that leave gamers and business users whose need for rich network applications might be problematic on the iPhone?

Unfortunately, until the full story is known, it is hard to tell what the software limitations of the iPhone will be. Certainly, if Apple wants the device to be a great mobile gaming system for use by millions of road warriors during those long waits at the airport, it will have to address the issue of how to get developers to write applications native to both the hardware and middleware.

In business as well, cell phones are currently being used with customized software, such as bar code and RFID readers.

"You can't do that with a browser interface," says Jerry Panagrossi, vice present of U.S. Operations for Symbian. "You need something more in-depth that can talk to IBM or Oracle middleware using native APIs for a richer experience."

Jim Ready at MontaVista sums it up when he says keeping the development environment as simple as possible will facilitate the largest amount of applications. As far as the capabilities of those applications Ready says, "There are limits, but sometimes it's okay that there are limits."

Source

iPhone may go it alone in Europe

EUROPE - Apple might choose a retail-only strategy when it launches its iPhone in Europe, as operators are complaining about the firm's arrogant demands.

"Operators consistently told us – not for attribution, of course – that they had spoken to Apple and found the company 'unbelievably arrogant,' making demands that 'simply can not be justified, no matter how hot the product is,' Avi Greengart, a principal analyst covering mobile devices for Current Analysis wrote in an advisory report on Monday.

"Several [operators] were adamant that they will never offer the iPhone."

The operators didn't disclose to Greengart what demands Apple imposed on European operators, he said in a phone interview.

Apple is preparing a US iPhone launch on 29 June. The company has previously promised an European release in the fourth quarter of this year.

In the US the device will be available only through mobile provider AT& T, previously known as Cingular. Apple has previously said that it is looking for a www.vnunet.com for the entire European market.

Greengart suggested that Orange would be well suited to offer the iPhone, because it is the only operator that has significant Edge coverage in Europe. The first version of the iPhone will feature an Edge radio, but lacks 3G capability. Edge is commonly referred to as 2.8G because it offers slightly slower data transaction rates that 3G.

Instead of partnering with an operator, Apple could opt to sell the iPhone through its existing dealer networks or partner with specialized mobile phone retailers such as the Carphone Warehouse which has subsidiaries throughout Western Europe.

If Apple decided to sell the iPhone directly to consumers, it would have to sell the devices without simlock, allowing the buyer to insert their own SIM card.

This isn't an option for the US market because several providers don't use SIM cards, and because operators use different network standards that prevent the iPhone from working on some networks.

Going operator-free however would pose a new challenge for Apple because the phone relies on the provider to power features such as the visual voice mail. This allows the user to view the sender of a message and select it, instead of having to listen to the entire queue of left messages.

This would force Apple to host voicemail or seek an outside partnership to bypass the voicemail services that are offered by operators.

Source

First Third Party App for the iPhone

The first third party app for the iPhone that runs on the Safari Web Browser has been created. It's a simple shopping list that's made using Javascript. You need Safari to run the App.

The iPhone will be released on June 29 in the U.S.

The iPhone VS the HTC Touch

The HTC touch is the newest smart phone out there that's touted to be able to compete with iPhone, but in terms of raw specs, how exactly does it compare with the iPhone ?

Well, first, the 'Touch' uses a new navigating interface called the TouchFLO where you can sweep your fingers on the screen to operate the phone. Moving your fingers along the screen lets you navigate. The screen size at 2.8 inches, is smaller than the iPhone and the screen resolution is also lower at 240x320.

The HTC Touch has a 128MB ROM and 68MB RAM and is providing a 1GB MicroSD free (at least in the U.K.), the iPhone on the other hand has a 4 or 8 GB storage capacity built in.

Comparing the iPhone and HTC Touch specifications....

	Apple iPhone	HTC Touch
Screen size	3.5 inches	2.8 inches
Screen resolution	320 by 480 at 160 ppi	240x320
Input method	Multi-touch	TouchFLO 5-way navigation control
Operating system	OS X	Windows Mobile 6 - Professional Edition
Storage	4GB or 8GB of internal storage	128MB ROM, 68MB RAM, 1GB MicroSD Free
GSM	Quad-band (MHz: 850, 900, 1800, 1900)	Tri-band GSM with GPRS/EDGE
Wireless data	Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) + EDGE + Bluetooth 2.0	Bluetooth / WiFi
Camera	2.0 MegaPixels	2.0 megapixels
Battery	Up to 5 hours Talk / Video / Browsing Up to 16 hours Audio playback	Talk Time : upto 5 hours Standby Time : 200 hours
Dimensions	4.5 x 2.4 x 0.46 inches / 115 x 61 x 11.6mm	99.9x58x13.9 mm
Weight	4.8 ounces / 135 grams	112 grams
Price	$499 for 4GB, $599 for 8GB	$594
Official Website	Apple iPhone	HTC Touch

The HTC's audio capabilities....
- Built-in microphone and 3-in-1 speaker
- Windows Media® Player supported formats: AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, MP3, WMA, WAV, QCELP, MPEG4, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, MIDI

Overall, the HTC Touch doesn't seem to be a bad phone, and I wouldn't mind one.
The HTC Touch will be available in the US in the second half of this year.


The Apple iPhone....

Do you fit the iPhone buyer profile ?

'Solutions Research Group' has released a survey showing the likely profile of an iPhone buyer.

According to SRG, 72% of those interested in the $499 version will be male.

The average age will be 31 years


58% would have completed college


Around 43% of the buyers would be from New York or California. This could increase your chance of getting an iPhone outside of those states.



Around 15 % from T-mobile, 7% from Sprint and 4 % from Verizon want the iPhone for their own carrier.


The iPhone would be more popular among the younger crowd


And their average household would be 26% higher than the national average.


48% of likely buyers do not currently posses an iPod

If you're all of the above, you have a God given right to posses an iPhone.

Apple iPhone for sale on eBay, Froogle

The iPhone is selling on eBay, for some absurd prices and some of the sellers have no previous selling histories. There are around 12 pieces for as of right now, and most of them are priced above the official Apple recommended price. Some of the sellers could be fake, so watch out.
Apple iPhone's on eBay

Froogle (or is it Google Product Search now ?) is also selling the iPhone , some for an insane $999,999, although some are 'reasonably' priced at around $900. Some sellers (Negri Electronics) also promise an unlocked iPhone. I wouldn't put too much trust on their reliability though.

The Apple iPhone will be a locked device when it comes out on June 29 with a compulsory 2 year contract with Cingular.

Guy working at Restaurant gets to check out the iPhone

A server working at Balthazar in NYC got to check out a customer's iPhone for around 5 minutes.

I work at Balthazar in NYC, a place that fancy people tend to hang out in quite a bit. One of my customers was testing out the iPhone. Apparently only 20 people in the world have a working iPhone at the moment! It's that secret. That phone is amazing!

The design of the unit has little to do with its ingenuity. It's the execution of its different functions that floored me. Movement throughout the UI was an intuitive experience. Navigating through menus flowed seamlessly from one element to another, with all the little Apple trimmings, genie effects, swishes. Steve did not lie. My customer turned the phone, instantly it switched to portrait mode. When he clicked on Safari, it opened the browser right away without slowdowns. The thing seemed more responsive than my powerbook! The version I saw did not appear to have any bugs or kinks in its use. Keep in my mind, I did not get a chance to test it out for longer than a few minutes, although what I did see assured me that this is a phone of a totally different caliber than anything I've seen out there.

How can i put it? That phone is running OSX. It feels like an Apple product. Consider it another mac. That made me pretty eager to get it.

If you have questions, I'll try to answer them.

On smudgy screens and covers.....

Throughout use the phone screen never got messy or smudged. The outside seemed to absorb fingerprints. My customer definitely touched it every which way too. We both had clean fingers.

It had a very clear, non glossy screen. The light in Balthazar is always indirect though so that might not apply in sunlight.

On the iPhone typing speed....

ahh, that was something I did not get to do personally. The guest did type a few things on the screen which he seemed to do without a problem. He said only good things about typing on the phone. That might be because he has had a production unit for months.

On the iPhone covercase....

Forgot to mention something. He had the packaging out also.

It's a softer black than the Ipod cases, with almost a more organic look. Once the top is pulled off, you only see the iPhone in the center, cocooned by a protective foamlike material. I didn't touch it. It looked so good that I wanted to ask if I could take it right there! The dimensions are of a cube, I think. Everything was really elegant.

Source

iPhone Ads

All 3 recently released Ads for the iPhone. Watch how Google maps loads amazingly quick, even though you might have to do that on an EDGE network which isn't known for it's high speeds. Also note the minimum 2 year activation plan requirement.
Apple better clear up what they mean by the "new 2 year activation plan" soon or there's going to be a lot of confusion on D-Day.



A previous Ad was also released during the Oscars

Another iPhone lookalike - HTC Touch

June 05, 2007 (IDG News Service) -- High Tech Computer Corp. announced the HTC Touch, a device based on the Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 Professional operating system that's designed with one-touch screen features giving users instant access to e-mails, contacts and appointments. Taiwan's HTC is the largest maker of mobile devices based on Microsoft Windows operating systems, and its use of a 2.8-in. touch screen in the HTC Touch is similar to the emphasis Apple Inc. has put on touch-screen features in its iPhone, which is due on June 29.

Users just sweep their fingers across the HTC Touch's screen to bring up an animated interface with three views: Contacts, Media and Applications. The views also allow finger control for scrolling on documents and browsing Web pages.

Apple has also touted the touch-screen features in its iPhone. Among other things, the iPhone will allow users to scroll through songs and movies on the 3.5-in. display. The main difference appears to be that the iPhone focuses on entertainment, while the Touch focuses on e-mail and other business-oriented uses.

The Touch does not come with large internal flash memory capacity for music and movie storage, which the iPhone will have. HTC instead offers a microSD drive, and a 1GB microSD card is included with the handset.

The HTC Touch includes multiple wireless technologies, including triband GSM for voice and EDGE (Enhanced Data for GSM Evolution) and Wi-Fi for uploading and downloading data to and from the Internet. Device-to-device data transmission is offered via Bluetooth.

The Touch weighs 112 grams with its battery. The handset also includes a 2-megapixel camera and other features.

It is now available in the U.K., and users throughout Europe and Asia will be able to buy one by the end of this month. North and South America will have to wait until later in the second half of the year. The company did not offer pricing information.

SMS: HTC launched the HTC Touch, a Microsoft Windows Mobile 6-based device designed with one-touch screen features reminiscent of the iPhone.

Source

It's official, iPhone to be released on June 29th

It's official, the iPhone will be available at Apple and AT&T/Cingular stores on June 29 2007.
Apple has displayed the date in it's Ads.

• Never Been an iPod
• How To
• Calamari

No comment on how many iPhones will be on available for sale on June 29. Steve Jobs has already warned about the shortage of iPhones at Apple Stores on June 29. So your best bet to get one is at an AT&T/Cingular store.
Happy Hunting.

P.S. Apple states 'Use requires minimum new 2 year activation plan'.

iPhone release date speculation - 2

More speculation on the iPhone release date.....

The only thing holding back the tidal waves of excitement about the release of the iPhone is that Apple has not announced an official date; it is very hard to take off work, pack your tent and thermos and prepare for a campout when you have no time frame to work with. Well, AppleInsider is reporting that a credible source claims June 29th could be the official day of release, as discussed in privileged circles at Apple retail stores.

Many people initially hoped Jobs would release the phone to the public sometime during WWDC week, relatively early in June. Those hopes seem a bit overzealous at the moment, some still hold that the iPhone could hit shelves around June 20th; much more plausible.

However, speculation really only goes as far as there are hard facts to replace them; though official dates are yet to be released, a credible source who has reported succesfully in the past might be the most trustworthy deliverer of speculation.

That also coincides with Jobs’ statement recently about the iPhone hitting stores before the last day in June; after all, there are only 30 days in the month…if Apple wants to squeeze as much time for delivery as possible, the 29th sounds accurate.

Don’t start packing your overnight bags just yet, as that means you have nearly a month to go. However, you might start planning your excuses and “business trips” that will inexplicably land you and your friends outside an Apple store prior to launch. Stealing out of the bed in the middle of the night is much more difficult to justify to significant others, so I would start out a bit earlier to avoid the most messy of confrontations. Happy camping!

Source

Google is the iPhone's secret ingredient - Time

Apple and Google just can't stand to be apart. Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced this week that Apple TV will soon play YouTube videos. Google recently unveiled a desktop search program especially for Mac users. And Google tools increasingly appear to be a key part of the secret sauce behind Apple's signature new gadget, the iPhone, set for release in June.

Both brands are beloved by legions of fans, and with Google CEO Eric Schmidt embedded on Apple's board of directors, the companies have gotten wise to the benefits of synergistic coupling. Call it the power of Gapple.

The partnership is more a friendship of convenience than a permanent pact. Apple benefits by bolstering its phone with popular Web tools, while Google gives its users a slick new way to access its services. One concern for Apple might be that the growing popularity of Google's mobile e-mail and calendar programs could reduce interest in Apple's own such offerings. But Apple already gives that software away for free, so the competition isn't likely to pose a lasting problem.

The iPhone's Web widgets and browsing software will enable access to a wide range of Google applications, with built-in tools for Google Maps and searches. A number of the portal's other mobile applications, such as Google News, will also work on the iPhone, benefiting from its touch-friendly browser. And Google's newest mobile tool, an on-the-go version of its calendar program, will take advantage of the iPhone's bright colors, though Apple will offer an alternative in the form of a built-in version of its own iCal software.

Sumit Agarwal, product manager for Google Mobile, says Google has been working with Apple and is moving in the direction of universal access to its suite of search and software applications on mobile devices. "Generally speaking, everything that you see on Macs, pending the technical ability of the device itself, will migrate into mobile applications," Agarwal says. That's likely to include a universal sign-on, so that you don't have to sign into each of Google's services separately.

Programs that require significant data input or are compromised by screen size aren't likely to be ported over in the near term, though. Agarwal says he doesn't expect consumers will demand a mobile Notebook product anytime soon, for instance, referring to Google's popular Web-clipping tool. And he doesn't see consumers clamoring to do heavy word processing on their mobile phones. They may want to comment on and communicate about such documents, though, to facilitate collaboration.

Rather than dumping huge applications onto small devices, Google's mobile applications are streamlined and stripped down to focus on the primary ways consumers use them on the go. "With Blogger, for example, it isn't as important that I be able to leave lots of comments, as that I can capture the essence of what I'm doing at that moment and share it in real time," Agarwal says. "I may want to snap a photo of a monument and store a voice annotation."

Google may have surprises yet to come for the iPhone. The portal partnered with LG in March to offer a blogging tool, and a related widget for the iPhone would be a logical next step. Google already offers a GMail widget for Macs, and a similar program on the iPhone would complement the pre-installed Apple mail software.

What else might Google offer? Possibly a Google Reader widget. The portal recently announced that its blog-reading tool can now be accessed offline. And though the iPhone could access Reader through its browser, a widget would be particularly useful when speedy mobile Web access isn't available. And why not a YouTube iPhone widget, now that YouTube is on Apple TV?

Though Google is key, it is far from the only iPhone partner. Yahoo will offer a mail widget and others, such as Sling Media, may offer software add-ons later to enable access to Web content and TV. Jobs has said that he is open to third-party applications that work within Apple's software framework.

AT&T, the iPhone's wireless carrier, has followed Apple's secrecy lead in keeping mum about the iPhone's features. But AT&T's Glenn Lurie recently alluded to Google applications on the iPhone as particularly appealing features that would make the device worth its $500 sticker.

Lurie and Jobs are both betting that supplementing Apple's sleek mobile browser with Google goodies will encourage consumers to capitalize on the mobile Web in a way that so far they haven't. Although about 90% of phones have some sort of built-in browser, Forrester Research has found that only about 45% of consumers say they are aware of their phone's Web capabilities. And given that 55% of those surveyed by the Equs Group, a market research firm, said they would buy a Google or Yahoo-branded phone, Apple looks smart partnering up.

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