14 DAY TRIAL // With the second week of Spring come and gone, we are getting closer and closer to the launch of new mobile phones, most of which were unveiled back in February, and also to the release of new software solutions for some of the operating systems available on the market or soon to arrive on shelves. At the same time, we also had the chance to learn some more details on various applications and tools for these mobile platforms, and we witnessed the launch of some handsets, such as the CASIO G’zOne Brigade, which can now be purchased from Verizon Wireless in the US.
Starting with the handsets that are set to soon make an appearance on the market, we can count the Android-based HTC Desire and Legend, which were recently listed on Vodafone UK's website with an April release date next to them, or the Nexus One by HTC, which is also set to soon land at the carrier. HTC also plans the shipping of its HTC Smart device starting with March, and will have the Windows Mobile-based HD2 available via T-Mobile USA before the end of this month, it seems. Moreover, two unannounced handsets from the company made it into the wild this week, namely the HTC Incredible and HTC Supersonic, both Android-powered.
HTC's handsets did make it to the headlines quite a few times during the past seven days, as we had a chance to see a video unboxing of HTC Legend, along with some photos with T-Mobile's HTC HD2, which also got the unboxing treatment this week. Another Nexus One Android 2.1 update leaked into the wild, said to be a little faster than the previously leaked one, and we also learned that T-Mobile might soon launch the HTC Desire, though this is only a supposition for the time being. In addition, we heard that HTC's Droid Eris might be replaced with the HTC Incredible on Verizon's lineup, and that the HTC Tattoo was also poised to receive the Android 2.1 update from its maker.
Still in the Android side of business, we learned that Sony Ericsson planned on updating its Xperia phones to the Android 2.2 operating system when it became available later in the year (Xperia X10 was unboxed on video by the company itself), and that developers could use the Android NDK r3 with OpenGL ES 2.0 support to deliver apps for Google's mobile platform. AT&T has launched the Motorola Backflip on its airwaves, though with a lot of restrains when compared to other Android-based devices available on the market. Hopefully, Canadian wireless carrier Telus, which will launch the Backflip exclusively in the country, won't make the same move.
Motorola has reaffirmed its commitment to the Android platform, saying that most of its smartphones for this year will run under the platform, though not excluding a possible launch of Windows Phone 7 devices. The company also delivered a new Android phone to China, the XT701, and announced a partnership with Microsoft through which it would include Bing on its Android handsets for the country. A series of hands-on photos with Motorola CLIQ XT emerged this week, as well as some more details on the company's Android-based iDEN phone dubbed Motorola i1, not to mention that the handset vendor was ranked first in comScore's January US market report.
Some of the most interesting pieces of news of the week regarded the gaming capabilities of mobile phones, and most of these were focused on Microsoft's newly unveiled Windows Phone 7 Series, which might arrive on Toshiba's future TG03. The company launched this week the XNA Game Studio 4.0 with support for the platform, and also demonstrated some 3D games on the platform. Additional details on the building of games for Windows Phone 7 emerged, as well as on the screen resolutions supported by future handsets. Palm also demonstrated gaming capabilities of its webOS platform, with Unreal Engine 3 for the OS, and announced the released of webOS PDK.
Among the software solutions that were released or announced during this week we can count free EA Mobile games available for Palm Pre in the UK, updated App World and AddOnis for BlackBerry, an announcement regarding the availability of Flash Player 10.1 for Windows Phone 7, or the launch of Opera Mini 5 beta for Android. YouTube Mobile was updated to version 2.4 for Windows Mobile and Symbian, SPB Quads for Symbian was released, Nokia updated Ovi Player to version 2.1 and the Nokia Ovi Suite to version 2.1.1.1, while Palm released a beta Facebook app for webOS.