Huawei will launch own brand Google Android 2.2 phone Huawei U8150 in September 2010

The device comes pre-installed with Android 2.2 (one of the first to come out of the box with 2.2), with the hardware designed to be 100% compatible with 2.2.

The product was jointly planned and developed with Google and brings a wealth of Google options, downlink speeds of more than 7.2Mb/s, ubiquitous mobile broadband services. It also functions as a Wi-Fi router.

This new smartphone will be announced on September 2nd, 2010 in Germany. The product will be launched in Hong Kong early September.

It will be highly competitive price-wise and comes in 4 colours -  Black, purple, blue and yellow targeting the youth.

From our sources, this phone intends to be a mass market phone, it will be priced quite competitively at around HKD 2000 (USD 258, SGD 350, Euro 203, UKP 166) without contract.

* Specifications

Dimensions 104×54.8×13.5mm
Frequency UMTS Radio Interface:
EDGE/GSM/GPRS: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
UMTS 900/AWS/2100MHz or UMTS 850/1700/1900/2100MHz
HSDPA 7.2Mbps
Display 2.8” QVGA (320×240) TFT Capacitive Touch
262K colors
Auto rotate (G-sensor)
Camera 3.2 Megapixel Camera FF
Sensor Proximity Sensor
Ambient light sensor
Color Black, purple, blue and yellow

Features
Home Screen: Android Home screen
Local Search: Google Search
Tools: Key Lock / Alarm clock / Calculator / Settings / Note pad
Call service: Voice call
Supplementary Service: Voice mail
Google Mobile Suite:
Google Search, Google Maps, Google Calendar, Google sync and Android
Market
Digital Compass: Support digital compass base on Android
Sound Recording: Audio format: AMR
Other
Applications
Google Maps, Google Search, Gmail etc.

Not to mention, most of the geeks prefer stock Android over the Sense. Stock is eveolving since its launch but the Sense is nearly the same as it was in the days of Windows Mobile. Well, if you have the hot phone of the era – the Samsung Galaxy S in your hands, you’d definitely love Stock Android on it. I rate Samsung’s TouchWiz a lot lower than the Sense. But that’s just me, you can differ.

Apparently, some Android modders/hackers also prefer Stock Android over TouchWiz. So they decided to run stock Android 2.1 on Samsung Galaxy S and they did! Just imagine the neat default Android interface. Makes life much easier. See the demo for yourself:

Looks cool eh? Really, I love it. There are some issues, as mentioned in the video. Camera isn’t working as yet. But they have achieved major milestones. Camera is not too far away. You’ll have to wait until all the bugs are fixed. You’ll then be treated with the fresh out of the oven Eclair for your Galaxy S

Link

Motorola Launches the Sleek, Featherweight QUENCH™XT3 in Singapore, Exclusively with M1
 
- Trackball allows you to browse menus and web pages without obstructing your screen
- Expanded search function helps you keep track of all data on the phone, including bookmarks, browsing history and contacts
 
Singapore – 5 August, 2010 – Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT), a global leader in mobile communications, today announced the launch of the QUENCH™ XT3 in Singapore, exclusively with leading integrated communications service provider, M1. With a winning combination of power, usability and style, the QUENCH™ XT3 is designed to bring to you the power of Android™ and an easy and fun touch screen mobile Internet experience at a price you can’t resist.
 
“Many people in Singapore are interested in smartphones but haven’t yet made the leap to invest in one,” said Andrew Morley, Vice President of Marketing across Europe, Middle East, Africa, Russia and Asia at Motorola. “We launched the Motorola QUENCH™ XT3 to entice those people to take the plunge and experience the power and fun of Android-powered phones. It’s elegant, intuitive and accessible even to people who have never used a smartphone before.”
 
The slim and sleek QUENCH™ XT3 is just 12.6mm thin, a featherweight 114 grams, and fits naturally and easily into the palm of your hand with a comfortable soft-touch finish. You can navigate the phone with either the bright, high-resolution 3.2 inch capacitive touch screen, or with just one hand using a convenient trackball that keeps the screen finger-free for easy viewing.
 
Pinch-and-zoom features, 3.5G speed and WiFi connectivity help you surf the web effortlessly and ensure that you’re always connected with friends and colleagues1. A 3MP camera with digital zoom and LED flash ensures great pictures and videos that can easily be uploaded to your favorite social network or photo sharing site.
 
The Motorola QUENCH™ XT3 supports the Android platform, a vast range of Google services1, and access to more than 65,000 apps and widgets via Android Market1. An expanded search function helps you to keep track of all your data on the phone, such as bookmarks, browsing history, contacts and more. It even helps you find data in applications, a useful feature in a phone with support for up to 32GB of storage and space for thousands of songs and dozens of hours of video2.
 
“We are excited about the exclusive launch of the Motorola QUENCH XT3 in Singapore,” said P. Subramaniam, Chief Marketing Officer of M1. “It is a trendy device that supports excellent mobile Internet capabilities. Together with the attractive data bundle on our smartphone plans, it will offer our customers hours of fun staying connected on-the go. What’s more, we will be introducing more exclusive deals in the coming months to meet the lifestyle needs of different customer segments. ”
 
Motorola’s winning design and M1’s extensive voice and data communications services give the QUENCH™ XT3 a premium feel at a price that’s right for everyone. There’s never been a better time to make the leap to a sleek, trendy, full-featured, Android-powered smartphone.
 
Key Features Include:
 
•       The Trackball allows you to browse through menus and web pages without obstructing your screen
•       A 3 megapixel camera with LED flash
•       Expanded search function makes you easier to find information online or within the device of keeping track of all your data on the phone, such as bookmarks, browsing history, contacts and more, and serve up Google web search results based on location1, or launch applications.
•       Android Market™ has more than 65,000 apps and widgets, and there are opportunities for limitless customizations and enhancements to QUENCH™ XT3.
•       Extras1 such as 3.5G and Wi-Fi® access, aGPS and stereo Bluetooth®3 make QUENCH™ XT3 a solid Android-powered device.
•       Size : 116 x 56.8 x 12.6mm
•       Android™ platform
•       3.2” HVGA screen, 320 x 480
•       Capacitive pinch and zoom display
•       Video : Capture / Playback/Streaming, H.263, H.264, Mpeg-4
•       Stereo Bluetooth
•       MP3 Player
•       Internal Memory : 512 MB flash, 256MB RAM
•       Memory card : In-box 2GB microSD card (max. up to 32GB)
•       Support Chinese menu and input
 
Availability
The Android™-powered QUENCH™ XT3 will be available for sale in Singapore on 7 August 2010 at a recommended retail price of S$468 or $148 with a two-year contract at all M1 Shop outlets and its authorized dealers. For more information on MOTOROLA QUENCH™ XT3, please visit http://www.motorola.com/sg

Want something small, android powered and comes with a sliding keypad ? The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 mini pro is the answer. Watch out for our review.

HTC INTRODUCES SLCD DISPLAY

TECHNOLOGY TO ITS PORTFOLIO

New Displays to be integrated into HTC Desire and Nexus One

SINGAPORE – July 26, 2010 – HTC Corporation, a global designer of smartphones, today introduced Super LCD display (SLCD) technology into a variety of HTC phones including the HTC Desire and global Nexus One later this summer. The SLCD display offers an exceptional natural balanced color, clear contrast, broad viewing angles and improved power efficiency.

“HTC is experiencing high-demand for many of our phones, specifically our phones with 3.7 inch displays.  The new SLCD display technology enables us to ramp up our production capabilities quickly to meet the high-demand,” said Peter Chou, CEO of HTC Corporation.  “The SLCD displays provide consumers with a comparable visual experience to HTC’s current 3.7 inch displays with some additional benefits including battery performance.”

SLCD is the latest generation of LCD technology that offers improved performance from earlier LCD panels including approximately five times better power management.  SLCDs also offer an enhanced viewing experience with wider viewing angles that are enabled by Sony’s new VSPEC?™ technology.

From now onwards, you can view OCWORKBENCH NEWS on your mobile phone. Be it a Nokia, Android, iPhone, it will have that streamline view. If you have a larger screen that renders html, you can choose to view it in web view.

Just point your phone’s browser to http://en.ocworkbench.com and the system will take care of it. Here is how it looks like :

The update is available in the Android Marketplace and the full version number is 2.2.0.18794.

What’s new in this release?

• GeoLocation Support.  Skyfire now supports the HTML5 GeoLocation feature. Thus, for example, Google and other web pages that use the location feature will be fully working.
• Vertical Search Results. When searching with Skyfire several result options are available, such as Google, Videos, Trends, Twitter and Amazon. We will add more providers from time to time, so send us feedback.
• Set as Default Browser. For Android 1.5 to 2.1 Skyfire supports setting the default browser option within Skyfire. Unfortunately, Android 2.2 does not provide that option.

Enhancements in this release

• Android 2.2 / FroYo enhancements: Fixed some cosmetic and crash related issues that were FroYo specific.
• Flash 10.1 related enhancements: Addressed UI overlap and background audio issues with Flash. We recommend that users change the Plug-in setting to “On Demand” under the Browser Settings tab for snappier browsing experience.
• Updated Video startup behavior: We optimized the video start sequence to clearly differentiate between pre-loading and buffering.
• Disable standard Zoom buttons: we reintroduced this feature (was missing in Skyfire 2.1). Thus you can remove the +/- zoom buttons if they are not wanted.
• Improved Pinch to zoom for HTC devices (Evo, Incredible etc).  We found a way to reduce the page shifting behavior after pinching that was systemic to some HTC devices.
• Fixed some crash and force close related issues that we found.

Known Issues

• Finding videos and 25% stuck issues. Supporting videos from millions of websites on the Web is not a trivial undertaking. We are getting better and better at it and support more than 100,000 websites and counting. Another major upgrade due out soon so stay tuned.
• Hulu: Won’t work since Hulu does not have the rights to support content for mobile devices and thus is blocking Skyfire.

Are you jealous that HTC phones are given
EXCLUSIVE rights to use MeRadio App from Mediacorp?

To all Sony Ericsson, MOTOROLA, and other Android users
- here is the link to download MeRadio!

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4777570/MeRadio.apk

Just open your browser to the link and install it direct into your phone. If it doesn’t work, use a Astro File manager to install. (You can download astro file manager from Android market).

Video Review of the LG GD880 Mini Feature Phone
Bluetooth  11 Jul 2010

Looking for a small size feature phone? THe LG GD880 will fit the bill. The first sight of it reminds me of the minis from various manufacturers, all trying to outbid one another to make it more compact and handy.

Finished in polished black with silver lining, this phone looks very unique just like the LG BL40 which is longer in size. It has icons and widgets similar to those you commonly see on Android phones.

The GD880 uses a 3.2″ TFT capacitive touchscreen, 16M Colors of Size 480 x 854 pixels and is powered by the ARM11 processor which is used in the original iPhone 3G.

Although the GD880 Mini is not a smartphone, it has some neat features that address the social media users.  You have  3 page customisable desktop (with widgets, shortucts, icons). They are widgets available for download for real time Facebook and Twitter updates on the 3 page desktop. When the desktop gets too messy, you can just shake the phone and it will help you arrange them in an orderly fashion.

The phone has a 10.6mm Slim 3.2″ Multi-touch LCD. It has  built-in Phantom Browser (Support Flash-lite v3.1). It supports Wi-Fi, HSDPA 7.2Mbps & GPS and comes with a 5MP Camera with Auto Focus & Face Detection (no flash). The GD880 also supports 2 finger pinch and zoom for pictures and in the browser to manify the text. There is a FM Radio built in.

LG GD880 is the first to implement the LG Air Sync. LG Air Sync allows you to synchronize your mobile with the computer without USB. A simple right click can select, resize, and crop from a PC or a website, and send directly to your LG Mini. You could also retrieve important information, like contact list, schedule and memo from your LG Air Sync account.

Below is a video showing the contents of the package.

Display

Main Display Type

TFT capacitive touchscreen, 16M Colors

Main Display Size

480 x 854 pixels, 3.2 inches

Sensor

S-Class Touch UI, Multi-touch input method, Accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate, Proximity sensor for auto turn-off

Screen

Scratch-resistant surface

Sound

Alert types

Vibration; Downloadable polyphonic, MP3 ringtones

Speakerphone

Yes, 3.5 mm audio jack, Dolby Mobile sound enhancement

Memory

Phonebook

1000 entries, Photocall

Call records

Yes

Internal

60MB

Card slot

microSD (TransFlash), up to 32GB

Data

GPRS

Class 10

HSCSD

Yes

EDGE

Class 10

3G

HSDPA, 7.2 Mbps, HSUPA 2.0 Mbps

WLAN

Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g

Bluetooth

V2.1 with A2DP

USB

Yes

Camera

Primary

5 MP, 2576×1928 pixels, autofocus

Features

Geo-Tagging , face detection, Manual Focus, Smile Shot, Beauty Shot, Art Shot, Frame Shot, Panorama, Stitch Shot, Animation Shot

Video

Yes, WVGA@30fps

Secondary

Videocall camera

Features

Messaging

SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email

Browser

LG Phantom Browser, WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML

Radio

FM radio

GPS

Yes, with A-GPS support; Google maps

Java

Yes, MIDP 2.0

Software

MP3/AAC/AAC+/WMA player, DivX/XviD/MP4 player, Organizer, Document viewer (DOC, XLS, PPT, PDF), Voice memo

Next Page

Sony Ericsson releases firmware updates (Android 2.1 ?) for Xperia X10, Xperia X10 mini and Xperia X10 mini pro. This came as a surprise as it is just the beginning of Q3. Nothing is mentioned if it is Android 2.1 or just a cosmestic update to the User Interface. If you own one of these phones, do try it out and feedback your findings.

Source

We have done a video review of the Samsung Galaxy S in the past and was quite impressed with the speed as compared to the iPhone 3GS. The set we had our hands on previously was a review set with an older firmware.

Our team bypass a local telco shop and decide to give it a try. The set is customised with a lot of add on shortcuts etc to specific services provided by the telco. We tried it out and was dismay by the performance. Here is a video of it shot using iPhone 3GS.

So, what is the problem? Is it due to the firmware or over customisation of the phone? Nobody knows until you flash in an European firmware to see the difference.

The original video review can be found here.

Sony Ericsson launches two new mobile phones in Singapore today – the much awaited Xperia™ X10 mini pro and the next generation Walkman™ phone, the Sony Ericsson Zylo™ with Walkman™.

Xperia™ X10 mini pro

The third compact version of the Xperia™ X10 series – the Xperia™ X10 mini pro now comes equipped with a slide out QWERTY keyboard.Combining the Android platform with a customizable UX platform as well as the inclusion of the signature Sony Ericsson TimescapeTM, the new Xperia™ X10 mini pro is a mighty performer within its compact body.Xperia™ X10 mini pro features include: Four corner control – allowing users to customise their favourite icons for better control 5-megapixel camera and video Music player  links to music store and YouTubeTM Android platform: access to GoogleTM services and Android MarketTM for unlimited access to Human curvature design philosophy extended to slide out QWERTY keyboard which offers open and intuitive communication entertainment experience The Xperia™ X10 mini pro is now available in Singapore in Black and Red. The recommended retail price is S$588 without contract.

Sony Ericsson Zylo™

Continuing the legacy of the award-winning Sony Ericsson Walkman™ portfolio and offering an affordable entry point to the brand’s Communication Entertainment portfolio is the new Sony Ericsson Zylo™ with Walkman™.The Sony Ericsson Zylo™ provides consumers with the best music experience that they have come to expect from Walkman phones; and goes one step further in incorporating social networking features (Facebook™  and Twitter™) in this new model.Sony Ericsson Zylo™ with Walkman™ include: Iconic Sony Ericsson Walkman™ player High definition FLAC format TrackID™: name the artiste and track that you just heard PlayNow™ – Sony Ericsson’s proprietary music store Stay connected with Facebook™  and Twitter™ and share photos instantly on Flickr® and Picasa™ Upload video clips with just two clicks on YouTube™ Sony Ericsson Zylo™ with Walkman™ is available in Singapore in the colours Jazz Black, Chacha Silver and Swing Pink. The recommended retail price is S$298 without contract.

StarHub first in the world to launch new AndroidÔ 2.1 Samsung Galaxy Beam
World’s first built-in projector Smartphone capable of projecting from 5 to 50-inches
3.7-inch SUPER AMOLED screen for clear and bright viewing of high-definition videos at all angles, even in the sun

Singapore, July 8, 2010 – Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., a leading mobile phone provider, today announced that the world’s first smart projector phone Samsung Galaxy Beam (Model: GT-I8520) will be available to StarHub customers from 17 July 2010. StarHub will be the first in the world to introduce Galaxy Beam in Singapore, which is set to illuminate the future of smartphones with its built-in Pico Projector coupled with power-packed features and a crystal clear Super AMOLED display.

“StarHub is pleased to be the first operator globally to launch Samsung Galaxy Beam, a highly innovative, world’s first Smart Projector Phone. The Android platform has been gaining ground in many smartphone markets worldwide and the Galaxy Beam marries exciting features such as StarHub’s mobile TV app, offering projection of a mobile TV programme on the wall. This unique smartphone also allows business customers to display presentations on the wall during business discussions,” said Mr Ng Long Shyang, Head of Sales, StarHub. “Our collaboration with Samsung to bring this world’s first device demonstrates our commitment to be the leading mobile service provider by offering consumers an unrivalled immersive experience in mobile communications.”

Besides operating Singapore’s most advanced mobile broadband network with no-bill-shock mobile data packages, StarHub continues to be an innovator of mobile offerings to deliver the most immersive experience for consumers. Early in 2010, it launched an enhanced mobile TV application that works across all major smartphone platforms to provide a TV-like viewing of 24 premium StarHub TV channels on smartphones. This innovative mobile TV app will be pre-loaded on the Samsung Galaxy Beam.? In addition, StarHub customers can use MobiClip, a mobile web video search service to easily search and stream videos found on user-content generated sites like YouTube and MetaCafe directly on their mobile phone.? MobiClip is accessible from StarHub’s Gee! mobile site.

The built-in multimedia projector on the Samsung Galaxy Beam allows customers to share fun moments intuitively with family and friends, such as watching National Geographic Channel or Disney Channel, browsing photo albums, as well as streaming YouTube or MetaCafe videos together through MobiClip.

The Samsung Galaxy Beam’s highly responsive 3.7-inch WVGA SUPER AMOLED display will further enhance the mobile experience, delivering ultra-brilliant and clear images whilst offering a viewing experience second to none. With the Android powered Galaxy Beam, consumers will receive an integrated and heightened multimedia experience on Singapore’s smartest mobile broadband network with StarHub.??

World’s first smartphone with built-in projector and brilliant Super AMOLED screen
The Samsung Galaxy Beam, first unveiled at the Mobile World Congress 2010 in February this year, is designed to provide users with a rich mobile web experience and best-of-class multimedia features. Packed with a built-in Texas Instruments Pico projector, 8-megapixel camera and multi video codec support, the Galaxy Beam offers consumers the capability to switch between entertainment and professional mode easily. With a projection screen size of 5 to 50-inches, the Galaxy Beam toggles between a personal home theater system to a portable business projector to suit every need.

“The Galaxy Beam combines the best of both worlds, offering users the technological capabilities and features to enjoy entertainment and work functions on a smartphone – now with an enhanced experience thanks to the built-in projector feature. We believe the Samsung Galaxy Beam will capture the imagination of users who demand the option of either enjoying their favourite media files on their Super AMOLED screens or projecting them to share with friends and colleagues. The Galaxy Beam will bring us one step further to achieving our vision of providing a smartphone for every lifestyle, in order to drive the mass adoption of smartphones,” said Mr Sung-Hyun Moon, Managing Director, Samsung Asia Pte Ltd

Android Market applications, Social Hub and Calendar features for simple and integrated access
Powered by Android 2.1, the Galaxy Beam enjoys a variety of applications from the Android Market, which allows users to extend the benefits and excitement of their smartphone experience. Users also have access to Google mobile services such as Google Search, Gmail, and Google Maps.

Multi-tasking is a breeze with Galaxy Beam smart applications, which allow users to update social networking accounts like Facebook, check emails, listen to music and send messages without having to open and close applications. Users can stay connected with social networks through Samsung’s Social HubTM and Social CalendarTM, which offers convenient, single-point access to all email accounts, calendars and personal contacts. The impressive battery life offers users up to 7 hours of continuous talktime and 530 hours of standby time.

Value-Packed Starhub Price Plans for the Samsung Galaxy Beam
The Samsung Galaxy Beam will be available at all StarHub Shops and selected Exclusive Partners’ outlets from 17 July 2010, from as low as $0, on selected price plans.

From 10 July 2010, customers can visit selected StarHub Shops to check out the phone.

USA, 08 July 2010 — The Android OS user base is experiencing immerse growth. Accordingly, competition in the open source application market can be fierce due to the shear amount of applications. The nature of the Android market demands top-quality from developers to differentiate from a vast sea of similar applications. An explosion of activity, and updates for the latest versions of Android OS are occurring frequently. With Froyo being released more than a month ago, early adopters of the new OS, such as NDrive, a leading Android on-board navigation system provider, have created significant exposure or a ‘Big-Hit’ in the market

NDrive’s exposure stems from not only a sound platform to be quickly implemented to a new OS, but developers strategically positioning their applications to win. For example, NDrive also realized a first-mover advantage in the Android Navigation market at inception. This allowed them to travel down the learning curve faster and offer a further developed application. The learning curve effect could be one reason for NDrive receiving a cumulative 4 star rating and praise in the travel applications category. With the summer months rapidly approaching, it is suggested that users utilize trial maps in foreign countries to get a glimpse of travels to come or to simulate real-time navigation.

To facilitate your ability to acquire lifetime full featured local map packs for free; AndroidForums.com is hosting a week long contest in which participants enter to win NDrive map licenses for free. Additionally, version 10 is offered in the Android Marketplace as a free 7-day trial to allow users to browse their user interface, test navigation ability, and map quality at no cost. Prices for full licensed maps range anywhere from $10 to $40.

We reported about the availability of this new application. Here is a video demonstrating MeRadio where you can listen to Singapore radio broadcast from your Android device. Take note that you will need to supply IMEI number to download it. It is only available for HTC Wildfire, Desire, Legend and Hero at the moment.

The application allows you to listen LIVE to the stations via 3G. Music information comes with the tracks and that include lyrics too. Here is how it works (in video).

HTC will officialy unveil the HTC Wildfire for sale in Singapore. This phone is the little brother of the HTC Desire. It is also powered by Android 2.1. Features of this phone include friendstream, flash light, Apps share etc. At the launch, Mediacorp also announce the availability of MeRadio application; formerly only available for iPhone is now ported to the Android platform. It will first be available on HTC phones exclusively and will be made available to all android 2.1 handsets in the upcoming months. 

More pictures and video here.

The Android version of the MeRadio application will be available for users to tune in to MediaCorp radio while on the move.

The Android version will initially be made available exclusively to selected HTC Android phone models for a three month period. From OCT 2010, it will be made available to all other Android phone users.

The Android version of MeRadio app will feature a unique background button allowing user to listen to the station while doing other tasks. It also boosts the call and email function, allowing listenders to contact with the radio stations without having to dial or key in email addresses. With Twitter and emial support, listeners can slo tell their friends what station and songs they are listening to at the touch of a button.

The Android version of MeRadio will be available to HTC users from 7 Jul 2010. The application can be downloaded from htc.com by entering your imei number

The application is exclusively for HTC Wildfire, Desire, Legend and Hero.

Check out the launch party videos and pictures here.

KEEP YOUR FRIENDS CLOSE WITH HTC WILDFIRE

Share apps, updates and experiences with the latest social powerhouse from HTC

Singapore – 07 July 2010 – HTC Corporation, a global designer of smartphones, today introduced HTC Wildfire™, a new HTC Sense-based Android phone that integrates the most popular social networks to help bring your friends closer to you. HTC Wildfire closely follows the success of the acclaimed HTC Desire and makes the company’s signature HTC Sense experience accessible to a younger audience.

“Today’s social networks provide an essential forum for friendship with more than 400 million users* – many of whom are young adults – actively sharing their lives with their friends through Facebook,” said Jack Tong, Vice President, HTC Asia Pacific. “HTC Wildfire makes the HTC Sense experience available to young mobile users for the first time. It brings all your communications into one place, whether it’s through Facebook, Twitter, text messages, images or email, ensuring that you are never far away from the conversation and always close to your friends.”

HTC Wildfire helps you stay connected with those who are most important to you through HTC Sense, a user experience focused on putting people at the centre by making phones work in a more simple and natural way. You won’t miss out on the fun as HTC’s Friend Stream application seamlessly gathers and displays content from social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr into one organised stream of updates. HTC Wildfire enables you to stay up to date with your friends’ posts, comments, alerts and photos, wherever you are.

In addition, each contact viewed in HTC Wildfire’s address book includes a thread of recent communications with that person, including when you last spoke, recent text messages and emails, and social network updates. When your friend calls, HTC Caller ID displays their Facebook profile photo and latest social network update, as well as a reminder if their birthday is fast approaching.

Thanks to a new app sharing widget, HTC Wildfire enables you to recommend an application by email, text message or over social networks. Your friends will receive a link allowing them to find the application on the Android Market with a single click and download it to their phone.

Jack Tong continued, “We understand that people need a better way to navigate their way through the tens of thousands of applications that are currently available on the Android Market. In fact, our own independent research found that consumers are not only hungry for the latest and most popular applications that their friends are using, they want an easier way to find and download them. For the first time ever, you can recommend the newest and coolest apps to a friend or group of friends with HTC Wildfire. With so many applications to choose from, there’s a world of content to discover and pass along to your friends.”

HTC’s latest advanced smartphone is great for viewing and sharing photos on Flickr and for surfing the internet thanks to its 3.2-inch capacitive touch screen. A five-megapixel camera with auto focus and LED flash allows you to capture special moments, while a 3.5mm audio jack and micro SD card slot mean you are never without your favourite songs.

Pricing & Availability
The new HTC Wildfire will be available from 10 July 2010 at all authorized resellers in three colours, Phantom Black, Flamenco Red and Pure White at a suggested retail price of $498+.
+All prices are subject to pricing policies of individual operators.

Check out the launch party video and pictures here.

Sometimes it is just that you need something that works fast out of the box without spending too much time downloading Linux derivative like ubuntu or pay for Windows 7. Well, you can always choose to try out the unofficial port of the Android 1.6 OS to x86.

The Android 1.6 is downloaded from the android x86 project and burned into a CDR. Boot up the system using the CD-R and you get to install it or run it off from the CD-R.

We tried it, booting the CDR and it took less than 30 secs and we are in the OS. Imagine if you use SSD, it will be way faster.

The interface looks like that plain vanilla Android 1.6 without customisation on handphones. You get 3 pages, left, right and centre pages. You can change the background wallpaper, add widgets using the mouse pointer.

Surfing the net isn’t a problem with the LAN cable plugged into the ASRock NETTOP ION 330. The Apps marketplace can be accessed and you can install the latest updates and read RSS feeds just like what one normally do on an android phone.

Although most of the things work, youtube video doesn’t play. There is also some lag in the video display, that is probably because the video used is the Intel integrated chipset instead of the ION.

So far, it is said that Intel is porting the Android to Intel platform. If that is true, it would mean that light users who just need a surfing terminal can just set up a small box to access everything from the cloud. This would definitely be another good use of such NetTops serving as a thin client.

You can read the original review of the ASRock ION 330 here.

Optimus means ‘best’ in Latin, and that is just what LG are aiming for with their new Optimus series – a line-up of innovative smart devices featuring the latest mobile technology designed to spearhead LG’s ability to simplify consumers’ information-dominated lives.

The Optimus series will feature a full range of devices running a range of operating systems including Android Tablet PCs. These devices will range from entry level, to premium products and will include 10 new products under the Optimus banner being released in the second half of this year.

“The LG Optimus Series is aimed at challenging the notion that one device can meet the needs of many,” said Dr. Skott Ahn, President and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. “At LG, we believe in providing people with many different choices because our customers are not all alike. We want to provide devices that suit all needs and simplify people’s lives.”

The Optimus Series came about after extensive consumer research revealed the way that people gather information, as well as discovering that people rate the ease of finding this information as a priority when selecting a smartphone. This information also looked at what users liked and disliked about current smartphones, with user friendliness and fast response time rating highly on the list.

The first of these smartphones to be released is the LG Optimus GT540, aimed at entry-level users, which runs Android 1.6 and packs a whole host of great social networking tools as well as direct and easy access to Google’s Android Market™. This will be followed by the LG Optimus One with Google™, which will incorporate the speedy Android Platform 2.2 (Froyo).

The LG Optimus One with Google™ offers the latest in Google™ mobile features and connects seamlessly to Google’s Android Market™. The Optimus One has a user-friendly UI and diverse multimedia options to ensure that it is one of the simplest smartphones on the market to use.
Beyond smartphones, LG will be releasing its first tablet device later this year. It will run the Android platform and will offer vastly superior performance in comparison to other devices currently on the market while still managing to be thinner and lighter than competing devices.