HTC Blog

Right now at BGR headquarters, one of the phones on our “want list” is definitely the HTC Hero — especially after checking out all that delicious HTC Sense UI goodness. After getting some of that typical Europeans-get-it-first jealousy out of the way, we were happy to hear the device is headed stateside later this year but the question remained… Which carriers would be scoring this bad boy? The government body partly responsible for making or breaking our gadget dreams, the FCC, has given the HTC Hero its stamp of approval for North America and the related filings indeed tout WCDMA 850/1900. Woo! Is the Hero AT&T-bound? Is it headed to Rogers? Maybe both? Hopefully we’ll find out soon but at least AT&T and Rogers subscribers now know to hold off on the imports since some 3G love is definitely headed our way.

[Via Phandroid]

Read

Folks who scooped up the HTC Ozone from Verizon Wireless or the HTC Snap from Sprint may be pleased to learn that an official upgrade to Windows Mobile 6.5 may be in your future. According to documents published on the Bluetooth Special Interest Group’s website, a Windows Mobile 6.5 variant of the HTC Cedar, codename for the CDMA Snap, has received regulatory approval. There are no additional details other than the CEDA100 moniker and the WM6.5 designation. With this handset being released so close to expected Windows Mobile 6.5 roll out later this year however, we can only hope HTC (and Sprint and Verizon) will extend this olive branch to early adopters.

[Via wmpoweruser]

Read

Two new low cost handsets are now available for your budget-minded buying pleasure. This weekend AT&T debuted its teen and tween texting machine, the Motorola Karma QA1. The quad-band EDGE/dual-band HSDPA handset features a sliding QWERTY keyboard, 2.5-inch QVGA display, 2 megapixel camera, aGPS, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, 3.5mm headphone jack, microSDHC expansion and, most important for socializing t(w)eens, Facebook, MySpace, IM, MMS and threaded SMS support. The Karma is available now for $79.99 with a $50 mail in rebate and a 2-year contract.

On the CDMA side of things, we find the HTC Ozone. The Ozone is a Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard handset with dual-band 1xRTT/EV-DO Rev. A, quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE for international roaming, 2.4-inch QVGA display, QWERTY keyboard with 5-way navigation key, 2 megapixel camera w/ auto-focus and video capture, 256MB ROM/128MB RAM, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP and microSD expansion (up to 16GB). The Ozone is available now for $49.99 after $70 mail-in rebate and 2-year contract via Web, telesales and B2B channels with in-store availability expected on July 13th.

Read (Motorola Karma QA1)
Read (HTC Ozone)

Sure TouchFLO 3D 2.5 is looking pretty amazing, but the future of HTC’s WinMo UI may be headed elsewhere. Despite the muddled availability of the new HTC Sense UI on Android devices, it appears as if its presence on Windows Mobile devices at some point in the future is a bit more cut and dry:

The Hero UI has been created specifically for HTC’s Android-based phones but also represents that three core pillars of HTC Sense. HTC’s future Windows Mobile phones will also be based on HTC Sense, but will enhance Windows Mobile in a way that is as appropriate and valuable to people.

There you have it — the Sense UI in some shape or form will appear on Windows Mobile devices in the future. Maybe that means HTC will retain the TouchFLO name and apply Sense elements to it, or perhaps we’ll see a completely new UI based on Sense. Either way, Windows Mobile 6.5 and 7 users definitely have some sexiness to look forward to.

Read

It was pretty much expected that T-Mobile USA’s Android phones would be passed over where HTC’s Sense UI is concerned, but we still got our hopes up just a little when HTC CEO Peter Chou said the UI would be hitting current handsets. According to some statements reportedly made by an HTC representative, Android devices that bear “with Google” branding such as T-Mobile’s G1/myTouch 3G and Vodafone’s Magic will indeed not receive Sense due to licensing issues with Google. But it gets worse. Some handsets that don’t have the “with Google” mark are reportedly not even guaranteed to be getting the update either as a result of licensing, logistics and cost issues. Of course, it’s not quite a nightmare scenario considering anyone who is capable of following a tutorial will be able to load a custom ROM onto an upgrade-ineligible device. But still, it would’ve been cool to not have to worry about custom ROMs.

Read

One of our T-Mobile ninjas gave us a heads up about some business events that T-Mobile will be holding in July. T-Mobile reps will apparently be on hand in seven cities to show off the HTC Dash 3G and Touch Pro2, two devices T-Mobile is hoping will strike a chord with both business users and prosumers alike. The best part? Everyone who attends the events will receive a free Dash 3G which just so happens to drop on July 15th. The Touch Pro2 is rumored to become available on the 22nd. We’ve got the complete list of dates below and they all still have room for people to sign up — or at least they did at the time this post was written.

July 14 - San Francisco, CA
July 15 - Chicago, IL
July 16 - Los Angeles, CA
July 21 - Arlington, VA
July 22 - Houston, TX
July 23 - Atlanta, GA
July 28 - Fort Lauderdale, FL

In other T-Mobile news, we’ve also been told that a new plan for businesses is coming soon and that it will include unlimited voice and data for $59.99 a month. Yes, please.

Thanks, FrankenBerry!

Now before you get too excited about this, Sprint subscribers, know that we have to throw some annoying words/phrases at it first. Rumor, possible, unconfirmed, skeptical, grain of salt and so on. Right then… According to PhoneNews.com, Sprint finally has Android positioned squarely in its sights. First up, the company is allegedly in the midst of testing the HTC Hero with a planned release toward the end of this year. While we haven’t yet heard any rumblings of a CDMA version in the works, it’s certainly feasible and tough to completely count out. Secondly, the blog reports that Sprint is currently testing an Android-powered handset from Samsung as well — the key here being this little guy reportedly sports WiMAX and CDMA. Could this secret Sammy be the tri-mode WiMAX/WiFi/CDMA handset we heard about earlier this month? We sure hope so.

Read

No surprises with this one as our leaked spy shots, release date, pricing details and specifications were all spot on. Today, Verizon Wireless made all that we already knew about the HTC Ozone official. Those looking for a basic Windows Mobile phone with a QWERTY keyboard will only have to shell out a meager $49.99 after $70 mail-in rebate and 2-year contract for the HTC Ozone. The Ozone will be available online, through telesales and B2B channels starting June 29th with a full in store retail launch to follow on July 13th. Yeah, it’s not the Tour but $49 for a sweet new Windows Mobile smartphone isn’t too shabby at all.

Read

Sure, current Android handset owners, it’s understandable that you’re looking at HTC’s new Hero handset with a bit of jealousy. The new Sense UI alone is reason enough to be envious of course, as HTC has seemingly done for Android what it has done previously for Windows Mobile — added a UI layer that boosts sex appeal by about a million times. Don’t fret though… It looks like at least some of you will be getting some Sense UI love in the near future. HTC CEO Peter Chou is reportedly quoted as stating, “HTC sense will be available on some other existing devices.” That little snippet can be interpreted a variety of ways of course, but suffice it to say that the Dream/G1 or the Magic/myTouch 3G (or even both) are destined for updates that include the new Sense UI. As for what carrier versions will be privy to said update, your guess is as good as ours for the time being. Keep those fingers crossed, T-Mobile subscribers.

Read

Mmmmm, Flash. As part of the Open Screen Project, Adobe is actively working with developers and manufacturers to make feature-rich Flash content accessible on mobile devices. In its latest achievement tied to this morning’s announcement, Adobe demos Flash support on the brand-spanking new HTC Hero — the first Android device to support Flash (officially). In short, it’s smooth, sexy and usable. Adobe’s Adrian Ludwig shows off the Hero’s Android Web browser and its ability to gobble up Flash-based video, Flash objects on web pages and even Flash-based games. There is one line in particular from the demo video that grabbed our attention though: “This is one of the first devices out there that has really great flash capabilities.” Ouch. No love for S60 handsets? Maemo tablets? Fair enough. Hit the read link to check out the demo and prepare to drool over the Hero even more than you already did this morning.

Read