HTC makes the HD mini official

Only when you’re talking about a phone designed in the same vein as the massive (though drop-dead gorgeous) HTC HD2 with its 4.3 inch display would you ever call a phone with a 3.2″ display “mini” . That’s exactly what HTC’s doing this morning in Barcelona, with the announcement of the Windows Mobile 6.5.3-powered HD mini.
Given the announcement of Windows Phone 7 series, yesterday, it may be a bit hard to get the ol’ salivary glands tickin’ over a WinMo 6 phone. With that said, remember: we’ve still got at least 7 or 8 months before the first WP7 handsets hit the market, and that’s a really, really long time in the Smartphone world.
Hitting Europe and Asia (No word yet about the US) sometime in April, the HD mini doesn’t seem quite as powerful as the device from which it gets its name – in other words, size isn’t the only thing they toned down here. The 1Ghz CPU of the HD2 has been replaced with a 600Mhz model, and the 3.2″ screen is 320×480 rather than 480×800. It’s got a 5 megapixel camera with autofocus, though without the flash found on the HD2.
Lowered specs aside, I still expect this to be a damn decent handset. We’ll be spending a bit of time with it (and all the other HTC handsets announced today) later for a hands-on, so check back for our impressions.


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HTC announces the Nexus One’s slightly cooler twin, the Desire

What’s in a name? Would a Nexus One by any other name still be as sweet? Yep. In fact, it might just be a bit sweeter.
Though it lacks almost any indication as such, Google’s Nexus One is actually made by HTC. HTC reserved the rights to the hardware design, and today they’re making good use of that decision with the announcement of the HTC Desire. It’s essentially the Nexus One reflavored to HTC’s liking.
After the Nexus One launched, a good number of gadget geeks went clamoring to HTC in hopes that they (or Google) would release a compatible port of the custom user interface overhaul that can be found on nearly any recent HTC-made Android handset. Alas, it’s not going to happen – the Nexus One is Google’s phone, and thus will always be 100% vanilla Android, just as Google intended.
The HTC Desire, however, is a different story. Sure, it may look almost identical to the Nexus One – and sure, it might be an almost spec-for-spec match. But the Desire is HTC’s phone, and thus, it runs Sense. Its got everything you might expect from a Sense-enabled handset, from multi-touch all around the OS to Flash in the browser.
Like the Nexus One, the Desire runs Android 2.1 on top of a palm-meltingly fast 1 Ghz CPU. Its got the same (stunning) 3.7″ AMOLED touchscreen, and the same 5 megapixel camera. The only real physical change is the jump from a standard trackball to an optical trackpad, just as we saw with the also-just-announced HTC Legend.
While HTC’s not sharing any details on when us folks in the US can get our mitts on it, Europe and Asia should see it hit by sometime in April.


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Garmin-Asus proclaims Nuvifone M10, A50

Much like last year, Garmin-Asus got a head start on Mobile World Congress 2010 and announced two latest superfluities to its line of GPS-enabled smartphones, the Nuvifone M10 and the Nuvifone A50.

Assured since 2009, the Garmin-Asus Nuvifone A50 is the business’s first Google Android gadget and traits all the usual Google and Android facilities, comprising Google search by voice, Gmail, Google Maps, YouTube, and Android Market. Furthermore, the A50 bids Microsoft Exchange support for e-mail, calendar, and contacts.
In the interim, the Garmin-Asus Nuvifone M10 will run Windows Mobile 6.5.3 and has some inimitable facets to help customers more simply access their apps and multitask. First, there’s 3D Task Manager that will agree you to switch between running submissions and second, there’s somewhat called Billboard, which will show a user’s most important info at a glimpse.
The M10 has many of the similar GPS features as the A10 and the navigation purposes are related into your calendar, contacts, e-mail, Web browser, and messaging apps. You’ll also be able to geo-tag any pictures you take with the phone’s 5-megapixel camera and share them via Facebook or Picasa.


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