HTC Announcements

HTC held their "big" event at the Mobile World Congress this morning and all I can say is, huh?  Either they decided to downplay a lot of stuff or the online tech rumor mills were way off base as far as what to expect from the company.  Underwhelming is the word that comes to mind.

Three new devices were announced:  the HTC Legend, HTC Desire, and HTC HD Mini.

According the the folks from HTC, "HTC Desire has been accepted by almost every key carrier in every key country we work with".  No word on which carriers, meaning will it be a GSM only show or will it be available in both GSM and CDMA flavors?  That's the question I hope gets answered sometime today at MWC.  Of the three the Desire looks to be "best of breed".

The other big thing from the HTC even is that Sense has been revamped to allow pinch and zoom on all screens offering up something very similar to the card view of WebOS.

The big disappointment for me is a lack of any sort of news or announcements about the HTC Supersonic.

Le sigh.

Windows Phone Series 7

It seems that the folks at Engadget got an early peek at the new phone operating system from Microsft, Windows Phone Series 7, before the start of their press event at Mobile World Congress.

Here's their take on the new OS.

They are also doing live blogging from the event at this link.

It looks like the folks from Redmond have completely thrown out the old Windows Mobile code base and started over from scratch!  Something I think is LONG over due!

I'm going back to reading the live blog but I'll post more later on.

Surprising Restraint

This past week I think I showed a surprising amount of restraint.  How so, you may ask?

As of February first I was eligible for an equipment upgrade with Sprint and I DIDN'T order a new smartphone!  Most folks who know me well know that I've got a bit of an obsession when it comes to this category of device.  It got so bad that between February 2008 and June 2009 I went through four different smartphone devices:  Motorola Q9c, HTC Touch Diamond, Blackberry Curve 8330, and finally my Palm Pre.  The Q9c was my first smartphone and got it at new customer pricing ($80) by signing a two year contract with Sprint.  The Touch Diamond was a device I purchased off of eBay in November 2008, the BB Curve was purchased in February 2009 with my annual upgrade with Sprint (big mistake!), and then I was one of those fools who grabbed a Pre on the device launch day on June 6, 2009.  In late April 2009 I got so fed up with the Blackberry 8330 that I switched back to using the Touch Diamond until the Pre came out.  Needless to say, I'm a very picky smartphone user.

I'm not saying that I won't be getting a new smartphone.  In fact there is one device in particular that I'm waiting for, the rumored HTC Supersonic.  However, rather than running to the store the first day this device is out I will hold off until I can read some reviews AND play with the device in a store.  I really like the user experience on the Palm Pre and it will take quite a bit to make me leave that behind.  A reliable 4G network connection, 1Ghz processor, and that 4.3 inch display will be very tempting to say the least.

However, something else to keep in mind for ANYONE looking to buy a new smartphone right now is that Mobile World Congress is coming up in about a week and there will be A LOT of new and interesting devices announced then that may be worth waiting on, at least a month or two.

Sprint HTC Supersonic?

A new render of what is supposed to be to the HTC Supersonic that is slated to come to Sprint sometime in the next few months has hit the internet.  If what I've been reading is true about this beast of a phone then it will be THE Android handset to beat this year. 

• Android 2.1
• 4.3 inch AMOLED Capacitive Display
• 1Ghz Snapdragon CPU
• HTC SenseUI
• 4G WiMax

There's been some hints that this may be coming to T-Mobile as well but I for one am hoping that Sprint will get this puppy.  Sooner rather than later.  More than likely this will be one of the announcements HTC is planning to make at their press conference at the Mobile World Congress next month.