Windows Mobile 6.5 has been officially released for some time now. And we already had the launch event last week (together with Windows Mobile marketplace, together with Windows Mobile Marketplace this has been the biggest thing since the release of well.. Anything Windows Mobile and phone related.

Microsoft has woken up and smelled the competition, although many feel they acted a little bit too late. Luckily Microsoft is well known for putting major funds into projects and getting them back on track in record time. Although Windows Mobile 6.5 could have been more, everyone agrees that it is a huge improvement over Windows Mobile 6.1. So what phones will be getting an upgrade?

First let’s have a look at the amount of windows mobile phones that a company like HTC has launched over the course of 2 years:

HTC Touch Diamond
HTC Touch Diamond 2
HTC Touch HD
HTC Touch Cruise
HTC Touch Pro 2
HTC Touch Pro
HTC Touch Dual
HTC TyTN II
HTC Snap

And the list goes on and on, there are about 5-6 lesser known Windows Mobile powered phones released by HTC over the last 2 years. So what devices are getting an upgrade? Sadly not too many HTC already released a press release about this and stated that only the Touch Diamond 2 and the Touch Pro 2 are getting an upgrade. Probably the only reason for this is that they had promised this to the audience when these phones went on sale.

They call the other phones like the Touch HD to be dated technology even though it has the exact same hardware as the Touch Diamond 2 and the Touch Pro 2. So basically it’s all about the money. HTC has no intention in spending time and money on bringing out updates for older devices because that would only hinder their sales. For a company standpoint it’s pretty clear but from the consumer point of view it’s a bit disappointing.

Microsoft has released a list of devices that are getting an official Windows Mobile 6.5 upgrade. The list can be found here.

Please note that although they say that the devices are outdated and therefore not getting an upgrade a lot of people are already running Windows Mobile 6.5 upgrade on their HTC phones for months. If you are interested in this go find out if your device has a custom rom available on the best message board out there xda-developers.com.

If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment, we have been flashing our devices for years and are willing to answer any question about this issue.

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.

Brain training - Progress Page

Recently (15 September) SPB released their new iteration of SPB Brain Evolution, they are now up to version 2.0. As we haven’t done a review of Brain Evolution yet, this will be a complete review of the game. As you might have guessed from the title of the game, this is a brain game which means that you have to complete all kinds of exercises and puzzles and like many other of these games your ‘brain age’ is measured and is used as a motivator to improve your scores. Let’s begin to say that this game works very well for Windows Mobile WVGA devices.

The game was tested on a Touch HD, Touch Diamond 2 and a Touch Pro 2 from Sprint. The game worked flawless on all these devices but the actually in-depth game test was performed on a Touch Pro 2 which is the current favorite at the moment.

Brain Marking
The games features two modes. The first is ‘Brain marking’ which basically is what you get as you first start the game or make a new profile. You will be tested in five different games to get a quick status of your brain. The following games are some examples of what you will face in this mode:

One of the better games in Brain Evolution, quadronica

Quadronica
Quadronica Shows you a screen with a lot of cubes on it. In these cubes you can make rectangles of the different color blocks, the bigger the blocks the more points you receive for this exercise. In the case of this game the screenshot will clearly show what you have to do.

Memory Trainer
The memory trainer shows you different objects on the screen. You then have a bit of time to remember as much as you can. When the time is up you are asked a certain question. Questions include – How many blue items were on the screen, how many items were rotating to the right – how many awesome WVGA games will HTC Smartphone review in the future? Ok we will be honest that last question is sadly not in the game.

Math
You get what you expect from the math game. There is a certain number of questions you have to answer, these answers slide down on the screen and you have to calculate them and give the correct answer as fast and correct as you can. The better the time and the better the results make the number of points you will receive.

After these tests you receive a brain index that will be used throughout the game. What is new in version 2.0 of Brain Evolution is that you can upload your results to either Twitter or the SPB website so you can compete against your friends or anyone on the web.

Brain Training
The brain training mode has twelve mini games that you can play each day and improve your brain index with. There are some great looking statics pages that look vibrant and are informative on your WVGA device. As you get better and better results in the brain training mode you unlock more games which will definitely motivate you to keep on going and improve yourself. Another fun feature is that you receive a little fact after every day of training you perform. Of course we will not spoil these for you, play the game and you will see even a little addition like this can really complete a game.

New in version 2.0
For people already familiar with this game, here is a small overview of what is actually new in version 2.0 of the game.
- Geometry (exercise)
- Full game statistics and user recommendations
- Online high scores and twitter support

One of the new features in Brain Evolution!

SPB Brain Evolution is a game that you and really your entire family can enjoy. You don’t have to sit down and play for hours and hours. It is a little similar to for instance the Nintendo Wii, often you can just sit down (or stand) and play for 30 minutes and there is nothing keeping you from turning it off. This makes the game really suitable for casual gamers, you can come back every day – but you don’t have to.

The graphics and audio of the game look equally impressive on the WVGA phones we tested this on. This really is one of those gems in the world of Windows Mobile (HTC Compatible) WVGA phones that you enjoy playing and looks great.  The screen is responsive (can be different on any device of course) and the audio is very suitable and not distracting too much, it blends in great with the game which is how it should be.
Check out this post for some more HTC Windows Mobile WVGA compatible games. We hope you have enjoyed this review, for suggestions or anything else feel free to leave a comment.

Looking for more WVGA Games? Check out the following posts:
>> Free WVGA Games you can download now
>> New HTC Compatible WVGA Windows Mobile game – SPB Quads
>> Top 5 Touch HD Games

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.

Small bits and pieces of information have been dripping in on the HTC Leo that soon will be released by HTC as their new flagship Windows Mobile 6.5 device. So what makes the HTC Leo so special? So many Windows Mobile devices have been released and were announced recently. Here are the strong points of the upcoming device HTC leo:

Specs
CPU: Snapdragon MSM 8250 1GHz
Display: 4,3″ 480*800 capacitive touch-screen
Memory: 512 ROM and 320 RAM
Camera: 8 mega pixel with auto focus
Radio/GSM: Wi-Fi, A-GPS Blue tooth 2.1 + EDR, support GSM/EDGE, HSDPA
Audio: 3,5mm Jack
Expansion slot: Micro SD Slot
G-Sensor, motion sensor and light sensor.

4.3 inch Capacitive Touchscreen
Let’s start by explaining the difference between a capacitive and resistive touchscreen. Up until now all Windows Mobile devices have used resistive touchscreens, these screens work with pressure points that cover the lower layer of the touchscreen surface. When you press down on one of these pressure points the device knows where you placed your finger/stylus and will react accordingly.

Capacitive touchscreens use a glass insulator layer that has been coated with a transparent conductor. The human body (your finger) is the conductor when touching the surface. This technique requires a very light touch to control your device. The big plus point of this technology is that it supports multi touch (thing of the famous Apple pinch to zoom in). Many people are getting enthusiastic about this technology coming to Windows Mobile. The HTC Leo will be running Windows Mobile 6.5 and we have never seen a Windows Mobile device with a capacitive touchscreen so we have to wait and see what it brings to Windows Mobile. I believe HTC is counting on the sheer size of the touch screen to makeup for any menus or settings Windows Mobile still has that are harder to control with your fingers.

Snapdragon CPU
The past 2 years HTC has made countless Windows Mobile phones with the same Qualcomm 528MHz CPU. In comparison to the newest hardware this CPU really has sub par speed. Comparing it to the CPU in the iPhone or the Palm Pre is like comparing a Lamborghini to a Volkswagen beetle. Yes, the difference is that big.

Windows Mobile 6.5
The HTC Leo will be amongst the first Windows Mobile 6.5 devices. Recently I made a post about Windows Mobile 6.5 and HTC devices so i encourage you to read that if you want to be informed of what Windows Mobile 6.5 will bring to the world of Smartphones.

And really, the rest of the specs speak for themselves. 8mp camera, all kinds of sensors, 3.5 jack for your convenience and plenty of memory available through SD cards. The only point that is kind of worrying is the camera, the camera of the Touch HD/Diamond/Touch Pro series have been sub-par in comparison to Nokia/Samsung and some other brands. Let’s hope HTC fixed this, and impresses us soon.