Flash 10.1 on Froyo goes tete-a-tete with Flash Lite 4 on Eclair: butter vs. stutter (video)

Believe it or not, your newly-upgraded Nexus One isn't the first Android smartphone to have Adobe Flash video capability, nor even the first to play said content on a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU -- Europe's been rocking the HTC Desire since April, which sports a little something called Flash Lite even on the older Android 2.1 OS. Will frozen yogurt outperform puff pastry on its home turf? Find out in a blind taste test video showdown after the break.



Please note that results are not necessarily representative of Adobe's newfound video processing prowess alone -- we hear Android 2.2 makes things speedier across the board.

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'Black' HTC Desire comes to Orange UK, sells out in a flash

We'll be perfectly honest with you: we're not seeing what's "black" about the front of the Desire that Orange UK is now selling, but it insists that the phone is indeed devoid of color; we suspect they're actually just referring to the back, for which the description seems more accurate -- but that would make it no different than any other Desire being sold around the world. What does that mean? Basically, we think it means these guys need to get their eyesight checked. Spec-wise, this is the same Desire you'll find elsewhere... if you can find it, that is -- it sold out in short order on Orange's site since its launch a few days ago, no doubt a side effect of the customer euphoria caused by the realization that they can get a 1GHz Snapdragon running Android 2.1 with Sense on a WVGA display for free on contract. In the meantime, you might want to sniff around stores.

Update: Turns out the real, actual, live Orange-branded Desire is black, despite the imagery on Orange's site. We're working on pictures -- stay tuned. Thanks, everyone!

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HTC enhances Sense with Leap and Friend Stream (updated with video)

Our recent chance encounter with a multitouch-friendly iteration of HTC's Sense UI turns out to have been a preview of the company's latest version of the software. Announcing that it has "enhanced" the already quite delectable skin, HTC has noted it'll be available preloaded on the brand new Desire and Legend handsets, and as a free download for the venerable Hero. So what's new? The press event this morning told us about Leap, the new pinching function that allows you to view all your home screens at once (see above), and Friend Stream, which aims to be your social media aggregator du jour with its one stream combining Facebook, Twitter and Flickr updates. There's also a new newsreader application and widget, along with additional improvements to the browser and web client. You'll find the full PR after the break and early impressions of the new interface in our hands-on with the new phones.

Update: See a full walkthrough of the new UI in a video after the break.



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HTC Desire first hands-on (updated with video)

Well, we just got a little up close and personal with HTC's "superphone," the Desire. What you're looking at is basically the Nexus One, sans trackball (though plus an optical touch area). Certainly the specs are the same, though you've got the new Sense UI on board for good measure. At a glance the phone actually doesn't seem as snappy as we were expecting, and there are obviously a few kinks to work out with some of the new Sense concepts (Leap for instance -- the pinch-to-card view -- was giving our demo person some trouble). Still, the Desire is definitely high on our gadget lust list right now. We're obviously reserving final judgment for a later date, but until we get some more time with this guy, feast your eyes on the gallery below.

Update: Added a quick video after the break showing the Sense UI... not behaving.

Update 2: We've been told by an HTC rep that the Sense build on the Desire unit we played with is actually quite early, so it's probably not indicative of the actual performance of the pinch-to-card view. We played with a Legend that had a later, nearly final build of the UI and it was definitely snappier and more responsive.



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HTC EVO 4G vs. HD2 and Desire... fight!

Now that the excitement of the EVO 4G announce has finally worn off, it's time to get down to more practical matters -- in a street fight, would the WiMAX-powered beast hold its own against an HD2 and a Desire, for example? We had all three in a room just now, and here's what we've got to say:

* It feels significantly beefier than the HD2, but in reality, it's not -- it's just a single millimeter thicker. The brushed metal back of the HD2 is a little sexier, but just by the tiniest of margins; it's hard to argue with soft touch and a kickstand, obviously.
* We would've never noticed this without the Desire next to it, but the EVO's text is pretty huge, a side effect of the fact that it's running the same resolution on a screen 0.6 inches larger. It's not annoying, really, but it struck us that they could've comfortably fit quite a bit more information on the screen without getting cramped. The Desire's display is more vibrant, too, but that makes sense -- we're indoors under artificial lighting and the Desire has AMOLED on board.
* The EVO's got touch-sensitive buttons below the display that function much like the Nexus One's, but no worries: they work quite a bit better. We think this might be because there's more touch-sensitive bezel real estate below the keys; on the Nexus One, you've got to be far too accurate for comfort.
* Interestingly, this is the first EVO we've seen today with a silver earpiece grill -- Sprint's have been red. We've confirmed with HTC that production devices will be silver.

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HTC Desire hits T-Mobile UK, black prototype spotted online

HTC's new flagship device is now almost certain to officially land on British shores ahead of its Sense-less elder brother, the Nexus One. T-Mobile's official online store is ready to take your order for the Desire right this minute, though it does come with the proviso that delivery may take up to seven days. That meshes almost perfectly with Amazon's April 1 delivery date, though the most exciting news might relate to pricing. At the high end, you can have the phone for free on £35 ($53) per month over two years -- nothing new there -- but at the £15 ($22) a month price point, you can have 300 minutes, 300 texts, unlimited (with an asterisk) internet and the Desire for £129 ($194). With Orange and Vodafone also confirmed as carriers, it's looking like a good time for Android lovers in the UK. In the meantime, a black prototype Desire has been spotted online, following swiftly in the footsteps of the silver Desire we saw setting Dutch hearts aflutter last week. It's not yet clear if or when it'll be making its way into retail, but the video awaits after the break in any case.



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HTC Desire, Legend and HD Mini show up on Amazon UK, expected to arrive on April 1

Slowly but surely, HTC's latest trifecta of handsets is making its way westwards. After appearing on Amazon's Deutsche hub with a pre-order value of €519 ($707), the Desire has now reached the UK with an even steeper £528 ($795) price and an estimated arrival time of April 1. Let's just hope this pattern doesn't continue or we'll be looking at a four-figure sticker when this thing comes all the way Stateside. The HTC Legend is also slated for an April 1 delivery and carries a price of £400 ($602), while the HD Mini will straggle a tiny bit with an April 14 launch and a palatable £369 ($556) price. All are without contractual obligations, so it'll be interesting to see what incentives carriers can come up with to get us to jump on board.

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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.


-- Post From My iPhone

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