Fast Company Magazine Recognises HTC’s innovation

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Fast_Comapny_HTCFast Company Magazine have just published their survey of the most innovative companies and, somewhat deservedly, HTC have done very well.

There were 3 categories in which HTC made the Fast Company list; ‘Consumer Electronics’, ‘Mobile Phones’ and ‘Most Innovative Companies’.

Consumer Electronics:

1) Apple,  2) HTC3) Samsung  4) Palm  5) Nokia  6) Vizio  7) Amazon,  8.) Asus  9) Olympus,  10) LG

In the Mobile Phone Category, HTC was 4th (behind Google, Apple and Amazon) and 31st in the ‘Most Innovative Companies’ Category, finishing above the likes of Samsung and Microsoft, quite an achievement for the Taiwanese manufacturer!

Fast Company described HTC as ‘arguably the most creative electronics firms implementing Android’.

HTC are about to inject a fresh dose of innovation into the Smartphone market, with the release of the HTC Legend on March 23rd, as well as the release of the HD mini and the HTC Desire on 7th April. To view the latest HTC Smartphones Click Here.


Samsung Omnia with FREE GPS software – Not long left

Monday, February 15, 2010

We brought you news recently that the Samsung Omnia range that we are currently offering with FREE UK and Ireland GPS navigation software.

The NDrive GPS solution comes pre-loaded on a 8GB MicroSD card and provides:

  • 3D aerial photo integration, better than Google – Reality View – See your route as it actually appears with real photos!
  • Video quality graphics makes the fastest software in the market
  • Simple and easy to use with gesture recognition
  • Community features
  • Location based services
  • Faster search system
  • Special Routing for pedestrian and Adventure modes

YOU CAN FIND OUT ALL ABOUT NDrive HERE

Worth over £50 this software will remain FREE with the Samsung Omnia Lite B7300, Omnia Pro B7330, Omnia Pro B7610 and Omnia II I8000 for only a little while longer. So don’t miss out on this great package.

 


Samsung Wave GT-S8500

Monday, February 15, 2010

February 14th, 2010, Barcelona, Spain – Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., a leading mobile phone provider, today announced the launch of the Samsung Wave (Model: S8500). This is the first mobile handset to be released on Samsung’s new, open mobile platform, Samsung bada. The Samsung Wave offers a Super AMOLED 3.3” display that makes the screen truly come alive; a Social Hub to bring you closer to your contacts and connections and TouchWiz 3.0 provides an intuitive and customisable user interface. The Wave’s high-speed CPU ensures swift, smooth application experiences and multi-tasking, making the device an always-on mobile multimedia companion. The stunning full touch mobile will be available in the UK from April 2010.

Super AMOLED – Seeing is believing
With the Samsung Wave, seeing really is believing as it features the world’s first Super AMOLED display; delivering an unrivalled screen experience on a smartphone. The Super AMOLED offers much brighter, clearer, and less reflective AMOLED OnCell display, featuring a high resolution WVGA (800×480 pixels) screen with mDNIe (mobile Digital Natural Image engine) technology. DNIe technology is proven display technology which incorporated to Samsung’s LCD TV and LED TV lineups. With a free viewing angle and super fast response, the Samsung Wave display provides superb image quality for viewing both videos and photos.

Social Hub – my communities in my hand
Social Hub has been designed from the ground up to seamlessly integrate all major email providers, IM and social networking services such as Yahoo, MSN, Twitter, Facebook and MySpace directly into the Samsung Wave. With its TouchWiz 3.0 UI, it provides users easy-flow integrated experience of messaging, managing contacts and viewing calendar events.  Social Hub is powered by push technology to deliver email messages, calendar events and SNS updates in real-time.

TouchWiz 3.0 UI – new and improved
The Samsung Wave provides superior levels of choice to all users via its fully customisable menus and home-page. For those who demand access to their social networking sites at all times, the device allows users to change the layout of the home-page to allow instant access to Twitter, Facebook and a host of other social networking services. For music lovers, the device home-page can be turned into an intuitive media player; and for those that take and share a lot of photos, the home page can be customised to feature favourite images. Users will also benefit from Quick Panel, a way of prioritising and aggregating applications into one screen for instant access.

With its eye-catchingly brilliant screen, Samsung’s latest TouchWiz 3.0 user interface gives a tactile, intuitive user experience, and includes iconic new features such as motion UI, smart unlock and customisable widget screen.

Speed, performance and beauty
The Samsung Wave boasts a superb 1GHz processor which offers the best graphic performance available today. Its speed means the touch screen user interface is incredibly responsive, intuitive and more importantly, means the 3D and memory-intensive graphic and video performance is unsurpassed.

The Samsung Wave is one of the most attractive devices to launch this year; its seamless, streamlined body has no parting or harsh lines and features a beautiful curved, tempered glass display which perfectly complements and enhances the vividness of the Super AMOLED display. And, with anti-smudge technology, those greasy thumb prints are a thing of the past. Samsung Wave incorporates Bluetooth® 3.0 and WiFi 802.11n standard.

Multimedia Features
Multi-codec support for DivX and Xvid, and support for 5.1 surround-sound-delivery transforms the device into a personal entertainment system, and 720p HD video decoding and recording capabilities make the Samsung Wave an outstanding device for capturing, sharing and viewing video.

Samsung Apps: Unlimited Expandability
Samsung’s bada platform allows mobile users to simply and easily download an abundance of applications from Samsung Apps, an integrated application store accessible from the device and online. Featuring a wealth of games, navigation, social networking, e-book, health and lifestyle applications, Samsung Apps gives users instant access to a huge choice of mobile experiences.

Specification of Samsung Wave (GT-S8500):

Network: 2.5G (GSM/ GPRS/ EDGE) : 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz
3G  (WCDMA/ HSDPA) : 900/2100 MHz

Display: 3.3” WVGA (800×480), 16 million colours, Super AMOLED with mDNIe

Camera: 5.0 Megapixel camera w/ LED Flash, Touch AF
Face/Blink Detection, Lomo Shot, Vintage Shot, Beauty Shot,
Smile Shot, Panorama Shot, Geo-tagging, Photo Editor

Video: HD video playing & recording (720p) 5.1ch Mobile Theater MPEG4, H.263, H.264, WMV,DivX, XviD Video Editor

Audio: Music Player  with DNSe & SRS Sound Effect
Find Music, DISK UI
3.5mm Ear Jack
FM Radio/ Recording
30 hr Playing Time

Connectivity: Bluetooth technology v 3.0, USB v2.0 (Full -Speed), Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n

Memory: 2GB + microSD (Up to 32GB)

Size: 118 x 56 x 10.9mm

Battery: (Standard) Li-Ion, 1,500 mAh

Value Added Features: TouchWiz 3.0 w/Integrated phonebook, Voice & Motion UI , Accelerator Sensor, Proximity Sensor, Digital Compass, A-GPS, LBS


Mobile World Congress – Predictions

Monday, February 8, 2010

image

So, a week today it all kicks off and there is bound to be a raft of new announcements.  Now of course all the manufacturers are keeping under wraps their new releases and it is difficult to think what they may indeed release but here are some of our predictions.

Acer -

It was at Mobile World Congress a year ago, that they announced their original product range, so it seems an apt time to announce replacements.

They have released devices in between times, including the neoTouch and beTouch and Liquid but we think they have been working on something.

With Android growing so quickly, there has to be an Android device announced – what size or specification it could be is anyone’s guess.  My prediction is that it will be small and cheap to capture mass market approval.

They currently also lack a business device that competes with the HTC Touch Pro2 or Samsung Omnia B7610 since they discontinued the Acer M900.  It would be nice to see them release a device with a slide out keyboard with either Windows Mobile or Android that could compete, or offer an alternative to the earlier mentioned devices, or the Motorola Milestone.

HTC -

With such a strong product range what could they possibly release here?

Android is all that anyone is talking about so there must be an android device coming, but with the Hero available and doing so well, the only option may be something with a bigger screen?!

Maybe they will announce or team up with Google to launch the Nexus one or equivalent in Europe.

It would be really great to see a competitor to the Motorola Milestone, HTC are in the best position to do so, but having only just launched the Nexus One in the USA, such a device may over shadow this and not be to the likes of Google.

Samsung -

A few low end device announcements maybe.  We don’t expect any revisions to the Omnia family of devices.  We are sure they will make a big push on the Omnia devices though.

RIM -

We can’t see what they would announce at this time.  There is a strong line-up of products – but we could be surprised.

Microsoft –

There is a great deal of discussion over what Microsoft will announce. Rumours have on and off suggested Windows Mobile 7 .  We would be very surprised by this and anticipate a late 2010 announcement; more likely to be a Windows Mobile 6.5.3  (as so be found on the Sony Ericsson Aspen) announcement, however we could be proven wrong if Chris’s earlier post is correct.

We will of course bring you all the news and announcements as they happen next week.


Samsung i5700 coming soon to Clove.co.uk: Pre-Order Yours Now!

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

The Samsung I5700 is the latest Google Android smartphone from Samsung.

This compact full touch enabled mobile, weighs just 120g and offers all the normal mobile phone features and functions, but benefits from the additional features of Google Android 2.0 operating system.

The latest edition of the Android platform, the hardware and software work well together to bring a convenient and user friendly package.

Make phone calls, send texts, check or reply to email, capture a picture with the on board 3 megapixel camera, browse the web or update your Samsung i5700 FrontFacebook and Twitter status, all from the i5700.

Bluetooth 2.1 and WiFi on board ensure that there are few limitations to the applications and situations in which you can use the Samsung i5700.

The 3.2inch display offers a convenient way to interact with your content on Samsung i5700 Backthe phone and the world wide web and offers a great way to view the latest video or photos you have downloaded or stored on a card in the phones memory card (microSD) slot.

The Samsung i5700 can be pre-ordered at Clove Technology today, with first stock expected mid-February!


Samsung N210 now in stock and looking good!

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Samsung N210 white 1

This week we have received stock of the Samsung N210, which is one of the nicest netbooks we’ve seen to date – its stylish, comes with a strong feature-set, and offers great value for money.

One particularly nice feature of the N210 is the Samsung Hyperspace Technology. This instant-on technology boots a simplified operating system so that you can instantly access the internet and emails without having to wait for Windows to load. This means you can be on the web literally within seconds of pressing the power button. Here’s a run-through of the features Hyperspace offers:

hyperspace_logoInstant On – Immediately surf the Web, access Facebook, or check e-mail when you turn on your notebook. With HyperSpace Hybrid, Windows will continue to boot in the background. A Windows icon will appear to let you know once it has fully loaded.

Instant Off – HyperSpace allows you to turn your notebook off in an instant too. No more waiting. It’s that simple.

Hot Sleep – Close the lid of your notebook and HyperSpace’s Hot Sleep unique stand-by feature automatically saves battery life. (You don’t have to power down HyperSpace or Windows individually.) When you’re ready to work again, simply open up your notebook. With this convenient instant sleep, it takes less than 3 seconds to resume browsing or working on your application right where you left off.

Always Connected – HyperSpace automatically jumps on the best network- wired, Wifi, WWAN. No more wasted time configuring for the fastest connection.

Instant Access to Windows -Even when you’re checking e-mail, accessing Facebook or watching a YouTube video in HyperSpace, the
full power of Windows is always just a click away.

Hit ‘F4′ and edit that Powerpoint presentation.Samsung N210 black 2
Done? Hit ‘F4′ to go back to HyperSpace.
Windows automatically goes to sleep.

If you’re surfing the Web, HyperSpace makes sense because it’s fast and saves power. When you need to use Windows, just toggle over with the easy press of a key. For more info and FAQs about Hyperspace, visit the Hyperspace website.

The other stand-out features of the Samsung N210 include 11 hour battery life, Windows 7 Starter OS, 10.1" LCD display, 250GB Hard Drive, WiFi and Bluetooth. At just £275 + VAT it offers great value for money and a fantastic portable internet solution. 

Click Here to view the Samsung N210 Product Page


Samsung B7610 Interface and Hardware Tour

Monday, January 4, 2010

A few days ago we brought you a video unboxing of the Samsung Omnia Pro B7610 from Brandon at Pocketnow.

He has also put together a video demonstrating the Interface and the Hardware on the B7610.

You can check them both out below.


Swype, what is it and when will it be available?

Thursday, December 24, 2009

 

swype

Swype is a text input method that has been in development for the last 7 years, created by the inventor of the T9 predictive text dictionary. It recently debuted on the Samsung Omnia II, and is set to be available on forthcoming Nokia and Samsung devices in 2010.

Swype is designed to make typing on touchscreens more accurate by letting users drag their finger from letter to letter rather than having to tap each individual key. The software will then decide what word you are typing based on when your finger pauses or changes direction. As the software predicts what words you are going to type, users can input roughly 40 words per minute allowing for messages to be composed a lot quicker.

So far, Swype has received good reviews from sources such as CNET and Samsung Omnia II users, but it is not the first time that a company has tried to introduce an alternate keyboard, as mentioned in this post at Android And Me. However, after a significant amount of funding (just over $7 million to date), including a substantial amount from Nokia and Samsung, it seems that Swype could be a winner.

TechCrunch stated in November that Swype would be coming to Android in early 2010, which could give it some real firepower as it looks to take the edge over Apple next year. TechCrunch also published the video below of a text race between the iPhone and a Samsung Omnia II using Swype. The Omnia II easily wins, but it could be argued that a practised iPhone user could keep up fairly well.

It looks like Swype will be a welcomed form of text input, and could be a wise investment on the part of Nokia and Samsung. The Omnia II gives you the option to revert back to a normal touch input if you do not like the Swype keyboard, so your options are not limited. If Swype is successful on smaller handsets it is likely to be very popular indeed. We eagerly await 2010 devices to see how it fairs out.

If you’ve been using Swype on the Omnia II, please post a comment to let us know how you’ve been getting on with it!


Samsung Omnia Pro B7330

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Shaun over at PDA247 has undertaken a review of the Samsung Omnia Pro B7330.

A fairly complimentary review, Shaun really looks at the positives and negatives of this device.

His concluding comments –

The B7330 is a superb phone in many areas and because of this it builds into a complete unit which is capable of being used for a variety of tasks. It does not attempt to stun you with fancy gimmicks and a fashionable design, it has no pretentions of burying the Windows Mobile OS beneath layers of graphics and because of this you end up with a seriously capable phone which is much, much better than I ever expected. Is it better than the HTC Snap? I would say it is, but the design of the Snap is better and the Inner Circle feature is exceptional. There is little to choose between them. But I would go for the B7330.

The review is in two parts, but you can read PART ONE HERE and PART TWO HERE.


Samsung Omnia B7610 Unboxed

Monday, November 30, 2009

Matt from Tracy and Matt unboxes the all new Samsung Omnia Pro B7610.