Next to the great buzz going around the internet HTC also released a new Android hand set. The HTC Tattoo. Rumors and screenshots have been going around the web for some months now, but a couple of weeks ago HTC officially announced the Tattoo and it has landed in our hands (albeit it being for only one week).

The Tattoo looks great, it's a standard design phone and feels great in the hand (and pants!)

What it boils down to is that HTC Tattoo is the cheaper smartphone version of the HTC Hero. The hardware it sports is a little bit less impressive then it’s bigger brother. The biggest difference here is the screen type and screen size. More on that later.

Design
The design of the HTC Tattoo is great, it looks really basic but that just means that it’s sporting a proven design that has worked in the past and still holds true. The device has all the buttons we always see from HTC, search, home, menu, back a call and end button. Instead of a trackball this time they choose to install a 4 way navigation pad which works, but just really feels less ‘smooth’ then the HTC Hero/Dream and the HTC Magic. It works though, the interface is as snappy as the HTC Hero (and HTC Hero Sprint) with their current software upgrade. One thing we haven’t seen before though is the removable covers, HTC is really trying to get to the ‘general public’ with this affordable and personal looking device (well if you choose to find another cover for it).

The Screen
Ok now we get to the one thing that really makes this phone different and we guess cheaper then the other Android smartphones HTC has released thus far. The screen is only 2.8 inches diagonal and runs at a resolution of 320×240 (QVGA) where all the other Android phones released thus far have a resolution of 480×320 (HVGA). This is quite a drop in resolution also considering these days lots of smartphones have been coming out with WVGA screens, though not in the Android segment yet.

The screen is also of the resistive type instead of capacitive, meaning the screen is pressure sensitive and it’s not made of  hard glass. The screen does seem quite responsive but not as responsive as the devices with capacitive touch screens. The screen does the job though, considering this is for HTC standards a budget phone.

The Hardware
The HTC Tattoo Smartphone is built around the same CPU as all their Android phones so far released (the Qualcomm MSM7225) and quite frankly does the job. But we are waiting for the first HTC Android cell phone that sports a Snapdragon CPU (HTC Dragon is rumored).  Enough of the sidestepping now, the CPU does its job, and considering the Tattoo has a smaller resolution then its predecessors the UI should actually run smoother then the Hero, though as said before it’s smooth, and smooth is smooth.

The camera is 3.2 megapixels and it’s abit of a downgrade comparing it to the Hero but it makes decent pictures and it’s fine for using it for twitter/facebook and other social networking from your mobile device. The battery life is the same as any other android phone we tested so far from HTC, with heavy use you get a day, with smaller usage you get 2 days and that’s fine. There is nothing more to say without basicly just copying it from the other HTC Android set reviews, it seems to be a lot of the same thus far.

The Conclusion
The HTC Tattoo Smartphone is positioned as a low end Android device, and even though it has the same CPU speed as all its predecessors the device really is just that. Everything is a bit worse than the other Android phones out there. Lower resolution, less megapixels then the Hero(the other phone with HTC Sense UI). The resistive screen is a letdown, but other than that it’s a good device. Then again why not put down 150 dollars more for a HTC Hero (or a little more expensive contract)? We would certainly recommend it if you don’t have any problems with paying a little bit more.

Some time ago we wrote an article on some must have applications for the HTC Hero, of course there are many articles written about this in the past. But since android just got a lot more users in the form of the Sprint users getting a HTC Hero it’s time to find some great and currently popular games. The two games reviewed below are two of the best, and are currently on the top of the download list in the Android market. Thousands and thousands are enjoying these games, and I’m sure you will too.

Android Game: Robo Defense Free

Robo defense is a standard tower defense games. There is a home screen where you can find achievements and rewards game. You gain points by defeating opponents and levels. In the free version you can choose your difficulty (basic level).  As you start the game you get instructions how to use the game. Then you get a map where you can place your robots/turrets. On the screen you see the points you have accumulated on this round and your ‘health’ which basically is means how many hits your structure can take before the foes run from one side to the other side of the screen. So the goal is to make sure these enemies don’t pass and destroy you. There is different kinds of weapons some do area of effect damage and some just do straight up damage to one foe. The game is really the most awesome tower defense game you can find on Android. Feel free to try the free version and if you enjoy tower defense games I’m sure you will spend the $2.99 on it.

Android Game: Colorix

Colorix is a puzzle game which right of the bat looks amazing. It’s a tetris kind of game instead of different shapes you get these balls that fall down the screen and you have to make certain combinations that are explained before you start the first level. The interaction with the game is dealt with in two ways. You swipe up or down to change the order of the marbles and to move them left or right you swipe to the left or right. So the game play is really simple, and let’s face it – that is what mobile gaming is all about. Gaming on mobile devices is all about the simple puzzle games that are easy to control, these games are always the best in gameplay and value. Every try a 3D shooter? Haven’t been much fun for us at least. In this category Colorix is one of the best games out there. You can puzzle your heart out for ours and ours. And the game will only set you back $2.99.

Hopefully if you are a new HTC Hero Sprint owner you have all ready tried or bought these amazing games. If not be sure to try these games out, and keep on gaming!

What are you looking at!??! Oh the chin..

So are you one of the lucky few people that already has their HTC Hero Sprint phone? If so I bet you have been tweaking and configuring to try and make your Sense UI look great and personal. So what is next? You heard the android app store is filled with amazing applications that you can get for free. But where to start? There is a most popular listing but of course this doesn’t store all the previous months and what applications you should get.

For our HTC Hero Sprint friends who joined us in the Hero community (Europe has had the phone for some months now) we devised a list of must get applications for your fresh new non-chinned Hero. And don’t worry nobody blames your chinless model.

SMS Popup
SMS popup is an application that allows any android user the luxury of having their Short text messages popup on the screen like the iPhone. Some people prefer this, some people don’t. It sure is a real fast way to reply to a message as you get the 3 options on your screen “Close, Delete, Reply”. The application looks great on the HTC Hero, sprint and chinned edition alike. Choose wisely when your girl or boyfriend texts you.

Twidroid
A freeware twitter application. Yes we know HTC Hero Sprint and chinned has an included twitter client. But this one is fast, has all the options and on top of it all it’s free. Try it, if you don’t like it you can blame the Germans.

Appmanager
AppManager is a valuable instrument to assist you back up your application/programs to your expandable memory card. Like to the application program manager in ASTRO but this is a free alternative, you are able to pick out individual apps or choose all apps and back them up or install from the SD card at any time. I use this day in and day out for saving certain apps to the backup memory card.

Mobile Defense
So now you have this amazing smartphone, obviously you realy want to keep it safe. I Recall checking Mobile Defense on the Android Market some time ago, just never went around to setting it up as it required establishing an account. After I took the few mins install, I realized all this time I have been leaving my telephone at jeopardy for getting lost or stolen. Mobile defense is the best security app for your Android smart phone. It installs a application that’s hidden (so people don’t know it’s installed), and you are able to access administrative controls on your phone via a browser at http://www.mobiledefense.com. If you lose your phone, load the website using a computer and access the administrative controls you have over your lost phone. Not only does it enable GPS and show you where your phone washes up, it’ll in addition to tell you the battery life left, and pass you data about the SIM card owner if the SIM card is changed. On top of that, you are able to enable “alarm”, which turns on the volume on your phone and activates a siren sound so you’ll be able to place it. There’s also “Lock”, which turns on the pattern lock on your phone to secure it. I’m astonished at all the characteristics this application offers up, and as well the other features if you upgrade to the paid version (remote backup, remote wipe). Your Sprint HTC Hero smart phone should not go without this application installed.

I know, it’s 4 apps but top 5 just sounds so much better. See you next time for some more recommendation for your brand spanking new HTC Hero Sprint.

The third android smartphone of HTC is the HTC Hero, the chin happy design has been out for some months in Europe, and finally the HTC Hero has come out on Sprint. The HTC Hero has gone over some cosmetic surgery for Sprint and lost it’s chin, making it a bit more classic smartphone design. As is the nature of opinions in this case they are divided as well, some prefer the chin and some prefer the smooth design. All in all the phone – chin or no chin looks great, and the build quality is sturdy and feels good in the hand. The Hero is packed with great features and because of the Sense UI allows for a lot of customization in the widget rich interface.

Compared to earlier HTC Android device releases the HTC Hero feels a lot better, the quality of the device itself and the software running it are much more polished then for instance the G1 and the T-Mobile myTouch 3G. The device measures 4.5 by 2.2 by 0.5 inches. Size itself is comparable to the myTouch 3G and quite abit smaller then the G1. Without the HTC chin the device fits great in a normal sized pocket or phone holder. The coating of the device feels great, it’s a little bit soft but not too soft, making the grip on the phone feel good.

Ofcourse a smartphone does a million things, but let’s not forget about the HTC Hero call quality, like most of the HTC devices this is great and seems crisp, though the speaker phone could be better, there is some cracking in the voice and when I called a co-worker with the Hero lying on my desk while typing on my keyboard the found these background noises really loud and distracting. All in all not a really big problem area of this smartphone.

The screen of the HTC Hero seems as vibrant and bright like the iPhone and the iPhone 3G which have the same HVGA (480×320) screen resolution. Browsing the web, updating twitter or facebook all looks great. The browser works great, but is a lot slower then for instance safari on the iPhone and slower then Opera Mobile (both 9.5 and 9.7 score a lot faster). However it’s not annoyingly slow. HTC has made the software so you can use multi touch on the device so pinching to zoom works in the browser. One of the selling points of the HTC Hero is the fact that it supports flash in the browser, but while trying to get this to work on youtube seemed like a big chore, some movies played, some did not. One thing was always the case, it is really slow and takes the fun away from the browsing experience. It seems flash is just not ready yet for usage on smartphones. Perhaps apple isn’t that foolish to not include it in the iPhone.

The phone has some standard themes which basically puts some widget on your screen, from there you can further customize the device, this feature saves quite some time and works well. One thing that also saves a lot of time is that the HTC Hero fetches all your contacts from all your e-mail and social network accounts like facebook and google mail. You will probably still get some duplicate contacts and some that need your time to manually edit, but at least the feature works, and we haven’t seen it on that many phones as of yet.

One of the other big plus points while comparing this device to other android smartphones is the exchange supports, it actually syncs e-mail, contacts and calendar items, something we have not seen before. The camera on the phone is what you would expect from HTC, sadly no flash, no optical zooming and not so great shutter time. If there is enough light the Hero makes great photo’s but as soon as there is a shortage of light like at night or in a not so well lit garage you will get grainy dark pictures that take ages to shoot.

All we would rate the phone a decent 8 out of 10, some things need more work, especially the web browsing and the camera. But the phone offers a great experience and is a joy to use. I’d say apple has to watch it’s back, when android device like this hopefully get some better hardware and faster cpu’s to backup the rich features and flash web browsing.

Ever since HTC released the first Android device, the HTC Dream also known as the T-Mobile G1 on 22 October 2008 they have come a long way in improving their devices. Android in general has improved quite allot since the now almost 1 year that the device has been out. The current devices are running on android 1.5 (all users can upgrade over the air). The goal of this article is to inform the reader of the different android devices available at the time. And hopefully help making a choice, in this soon to be crowded market.

HTC Dream

HTC Dream

As said earlier the Dream was the first android device released by HTC and available to the public. It features a 3.2 inch capacitive touchscreen, 3.2 mega pixel camera with auto focus and a sliding qwerty keyboard. The CPU a MSM7201A ARM11 that can run at 528mhz but has been under clocked by HTC (perhaps to increase battery life which was not a strong part of this phone).  The phone is still loved by many in the android community because of the qwerty keyboard and many hacks that allow you to overclock the CPU, lets you run applications from the SD card and install custom firmware. However the device is allot thicker then the other android smart-phones that HTC has released. The Dream is also the first “google experience” phone on the market. The google experience means that there are no shells installed on the device by the creators (like HTC did with the Hero, don’t worry we will come to that later on). The google experience stand for full google app integration like Gmail, google documents, and many more.

HTC Magic

HTC Magic

The HTC Magic also know as the T-Mobile myTouch 3G is the second android phone HTC released. The specs are almost identical to the HTC Dream, in fact the specs of nearly all the HTC android phones are close to identical. The same processor is the heart of this device but this time they did not under-clock it and runs at the same speed. The Magic like the Dream is a google experience phone. The Magic was released with google android 1.5 (the build that added the on-screen keyboard). The on-screen keyboard was of course necessary as the Magic does not have a qwerty keyboard nor a keypad; it’s a full touch screen device.

HTC Hero

The Hero, HTC’s first non-google experience android device. HTC has it running their Sense UI, proudly presented as the counterpart to windows mobiles devices that run TouchFlo 3D. The Sense UI will be running on many upcoming HTC Android devices including the recently announced HTC Tattoo.  They market the Hero as a real HTC-Smartphone experience. The interface includes a search function that searches your contacts, twitter, e-mails and more. Next to the 3,2-inch capacitive touchscreen the hero has a 5 mega-pixel camera, GPS, digital compess, motion sensor and a 3,5mm jack so you can hook-up any headphones to the device. The Hero is the top of the line android smartphone that HTC has to offer.

HTC Tattoo

The Tattoo als know as the HTC Click is a new upcoming android device from HTC. The device has lesser specs compared to the HTC Hero, Tattoo will feature a 320×240 resistive screen. In the touch friendly categorie this is usualy considered to be the lesser brother in comparison to capacitive touchscreens where the most well known device is the iPhone line-up. The selling points of the HTC Tattoo are the fact that it runs HTC’s Sense UI, has removeable fronts – hence the name Tattoo as in – you can change the look like tattooing your body. The pricing range of the Tattoo will be alot lower then the other Android phones. HTC is hoping to bring Android to the masses.