Rory really should have posted this earlier, but he didn't, so I'm going to fill in for him.

Photos and specifications of the newest member of the HTC Touch Family have been leaked. The current name seems to be the HTC Touch HD - I'm not sure if that's going to be the final name, but it may well be (HTC doesn't normally put the family name - Touch - in codenames). Also, apparently, the device is going to be available in time for Christmas. The latest thinking is that the device has a 3.8" screen, which makes it considerably bigger than previous members of the HTC Touch family, although it's no thicker than normal. Finally, to conclude this general summary, the device has a specially designed version of TouchFLO 3D, which is faster, more efficient and just as stylish as the iPhone's UI. I have two extensions to this summary of the device - one for people familiar with WM devices, and one for people familiar with the iPhone:

Extended summary for people familiar with WM devices
The HTC Touch HD is basically an iPhone-sized Diamond, with a large 5MP camera and a large screen with a higher resolution screen (WVGA - 800x480). The d-pad has been removed and the four buttons beneath the screen have been put in a single row, to maximise screen space. The battery has been significantly improved, and the RAM has received a decent boost too (despite the fact that the Diamond was hardly short of it). The HTC Touch HD also has a microSD slot, for all of those who need to store huge amounts of data. The most unexpected thing about the device though, is that it has a 3.5mm jack (or minijack) socket. That's unusual on a HTC device (HTC likes it's proprietary ExtUSB). Other things, such as the processor, generally remain the same.

Extended summary for people familiar with the iPhone
This device shows you how un-iClone-ish previous members of the Touch family are. Also, it's designed to lure some of you away from Apple. The screen has a WVGA resolution - a significant improvement on the VGA resolution on the two previous members of the HTC Touch family which, again, is a significant improvement on any iPhone. Similarly, the camera is 5MP - the two previous members of the HTC Touch family had 3.2MP cameras, and the oldest members of the HTC Touch family had 2MP cameras, like the iPhone. The HTC Touch HD also comes with a stylus. This does not mean that you'll need it - rather, it's for writing on the screen (faster than any on-screen keyboard, and very handy during a phone call). In conclusion, I could go on, but the HTC Touch HD is basically an iPhone that can do twice as much, twice as fast. Also, it's not from a company that brainwashes individuals into thinking that controlling developers, introducing ancient features and lacking newer features is innovative, and it should be competitively priced and available on most networks in most countries.

(Normally, with HTC, there's a significant delay before the American version comes out. However, due to the fact that most people who own the phone it's aiming to compete with - the iPhone - live in America, that might change...or it might not. Nobody knows much at this stage.)
Wed, 10 Sep 2008 19:52 WEST | Category: Technology
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Comments:

fanboy hater
youre such a fanboy
a few comments
you are a blatent fanboy of htc because you
a) have seperate sections for iphone users and wm users, implying that the users of both are ignorant of the other type of device. this is infact untrue, and is a stupid thing to do. this has also implied thta iphone users cannot understand specifications
b) your summaries are totally biased, and its not even an argument. you have somehow managed to bring bias into a list of facts.
c) you post a news item based on a few specs leaked to the web. not exactly new news is it?
and seeing as ou nothing of the specs except the screen for certain, how can you claim it does everything twice as fast and can do twice as much.
thats like saying a boy racers car with all extra tv dvd player speakers nos and a bunch of other stuff can do twice as much as a standard car. well yes it can, but how much does it cost for all those extras?
d)it looks like a brick and is almost as big as the htc athena but obviously way thinner.
e) you cant know much about resolutions on windows mobile or you would know that qvga is supported for basically anything good, vga is most things, 240x240 (sqvga) is generally unsupported, 320x320 (wqvga?) is also generally unsupported, and wvga is also unsupported.
it is one of the main questions asked to users and reviewers of the upcoming xperia x1. does this program work, does tomtom 7 work etc. However, it is becoming a lot more widely supported in the wake of the new phones using it (omina too).

the iphone is very competitively prices for a phone with suce demand. apple and o2 could have charged the same £279 for the 3g, but instead they cut prices massively, and added new tariffs. not exactly a bad deal s it, getting a new phone for cheaper than its predecessor.
and it matters not about the marketing strategies of apple. surely you should be considering why htc dont market in such ways?
because they know that £450 for a device which is a supposed comsumer device (diamond) according to your other posts, is just outrageous.
plus you cant buy direct from them so they would be doing free advertising for companies who have already bought from them, so they gain nothing.

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 20:31 WEST

Mark Hogan
Random attacking comments...
Your comment is rubbish and clearly biased.
a) It does not imply that at all. The titles are slightly misleading - the different sections compare the HTC Touch HD to WM devices or the iPhones. Both sections contain equal amounts of dpecification detail.
b) It is unbiased. I don't know of any comparable device that outspecs the HTC Touch HD in any area. You would do well to remember that I actually own a Diamond, so I should be annoyed that HTC has been hiding a better device. The fact that I haven't shown any annoyance shows the lack of bias.
c) The core specs are certain. The screen, funnily enough, is one of the undertain specs (can you read?). I can make those claims based on several important things:
1. It has a much better specification than the iPhone.
2. Windows Mobile can do much more than the iPhone OS can. Many people seem to be unaware of or ignore how crippled the iPhone's OS is.
3. The old TouchFLO was proven to be more efficient than the iPhone's UI. TouchFLO 3D is even better and faster.
Your comparison in that point is to do with price and is not related to the rest of the point. The price of the Touch HD is likely to be competitive, as HTC release their devices on every network possible (the Diamond, for example, was released on all major networks on the UK and a HTC-branded version was released - the iPhone, meanwhile, was released on O2).
d) It's pretty much the same size as the iPhones - slightly bigger than the original iPhone but slightly smaller than the iPhone 3G (I think). If they're all bricks to you, fair enough. Get a HTC Touch Diamond instead.
e) As you've just said, new resolutions normally eventually get supported. Good developers should be able to write software that can cope with most resolutions.

Of course it wouldn't be a bad deal, if its predecessor wasn't overpriced and the market hadn't moved on. HTC doesn't market in such ways because it doesn't have the money or experience - it has only been selling its devices under its own brand for a few years. £410 (the rough average price - not even INKINO is charging £450 any more) is for an unlocked version, stupid. Obviously it's cheaper on contracts. In fact, I actually did careful research into the prices and found that Vodafone does a better, cheaper deal involving a free Touch Diamond, than O2 does involving a free iPhone 3G.

And it would be advantageous for HTC to market their devices - the more devices that are purchased by companies from them, the more money they make.

Please actually think, and maybe have your comment checked by someone else, before replying, because replying to that sort of comment is extremely time-wasting for me.
Wed, 10 Sep 2008 21:37 WEST