Mobile Phone Blog:

Well, we all knew it was happening soon, but it’s nice to have confirmation of just how soon, right? Yes, thank to the HTC UK Facebook page, we now know when the HTC Sensation XE is going to get its official update to Ice Cream Sandwich. I would tease you a bit before telling you when it’s set to happen, but since I’ve already written it twice, in the title and the image, you already know when it’s due to happen.

Yup, that’s right, the HTC Sensation XE is due to get the ICS update by the end of March. Of course, it’s not just the Sensation XE, ‘cos the original HTC Sensation is set to get the same update around the same time, and the HTC Sensation XL will follow, soon after… (more…)

Woohoo! Yes! Score! After seeing how Ice Cream Sandwich would look on other manufacturers’ phones (namely Samsung and Sony Ericsson phones), and after I got excited about the fact they’d removed the Google search bar from the top, I was very open about my hopes that HTC would do the same thing.

And today, we find out whether they have, thanks to the XDA Developers forums. Y’see, a new ROM has appeared on there, and it’s based on the official test build of ICS, that HTC have been working on. And basically (and this should surprise no-one), Sense on Ice Cream Sandwich looks like, well, Sense. Which is cool and all, but it’s not the best bit… (more…)

Right then, here’s a rumour that could end up being a good thing indeed; according to IntoMobile, HTC may well be considering not releasing as many phones next year. You may ask why that’s a good thing, given how much I love HTC, but if the rumour’s true, there’s a very good reason for them limiting their output in 2012.

It’s so they can focus on quality, y’see. So, the basic idea (I say again: if the rumour is true) is that HTC will make fewer phones, but that those phones they do make will be, er, more betterer. ‘Tis a simple equation, really; instead of chucking out seven or eight good phones, they release two or three mind-blowing phones, and I can’t see any way in which that could be a bad thing… (more…)

Okay, we all know that Ice Cream Sandwich is the latest, greatest version of Android, and we all know it can be found in the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. What we should all also know is that a load of currently available phones are going to be updated to that new version of Android. Unless you’ve been paying loads of attention, though, you might very well not know which phones are going to get updated.

Anyhow, since Engadget has now done a round-up of all the phones confirmed to be getting that update, I figured I’d do likewise.

So, here we go with my big round-up of the phones that’ll be getting Ice Cream Sandwich! (more…)

Oh, for god’s sake, I hate it when this happens. They let me get all excited about an upcoming new phone, and proclaim that it will be my next device, and then a new phone leaks that completely blows it out of the water. There was the HTC Sensation, that got supplanted in my affections by the HTC Sensation XE, and then that phone got supplanted by the mind-bogglingly powerful HTC Rezound.

Yeah, well, now an even more powerful HTC phone has leaked online, according to PocketNow. It’s called the HTC Edge, and it’s got a bigger screen than the Rezound, coming in at 4.7 inches. The big news, though, is that if it’s genuine, it’ll have a 1.5GHz quad-core processor, thus leaving the Rezound in the dust… (more…)

Woohoo! Here we go, I’ve been waiting to hear which HTC phones would get an official update to Ice Cream Sandwich, and it turns out that, according to the manufacturer’s Facebook page, the two phones I’m seriously interested in are getting updated. The HTC Rezound is one of them, which means that the UK version, whatever it ends up being called, will most likely get the same update.

The other phone I’m interested in is, of course, the HTC Sensation XE, and that one will be getting updated, too. This is all set to happen in early 2012, and so, brilliantly, by the time I get round to buying a new phone, it seems fairly likely that they’ll ship with Ice Cream Sandwich already installed, straight out of the box… (more…)

Here we go, another day, another story about my favourite manufacturer, HTC. Basically, they’ve had another good quarter, which I always like to hear, ‘cos it means more HTC phones in future, for me to ogle and/or fiddle about with.

Oh, and when I say they’ve had a good quarter, I mean they’ve had an utterly brilliant quarter; according to MobileBurn, their profits for Q3 2011 stand at NT$ 18.64 billion (about £388.7 million), compared to NT$11.1 billion (about £231.4 million) in Q3 2010. That equates to a growth of 68%, from this time last year, which is bleedin’ impressive.

So, how did they manage such a gob-smacking amount of growth? (more…)

As I’ve mentioned many times, I’ve been using touchscreen phones for years, ever since I got the P800 in 2003 (or possibly 2004… one or the other, anyway, I have enough trouble remembering things from last week, never mind eight years ago). For most of that time, I’ve used phones with resistive screens, which meant using a dibber (oh alright, a stylus) on them; the HD2 was the first phone I had which featured a capacitive screen, of the likes seen in current phones like the HTC Sensation.

So, imagine my glee when I heard that Ice Cream Sandwich will include stylus support. Yes, according to Android Developers, the new version of Android includes native support, built into the core OS, for using dibbers… (more…)

[The opinions expressed in the blog post are entirely those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Mobileshop.com.]

Say what you like about Steve Ballmer, the big, baldy buffoon of a man certainly knows how to get tongues wagging. Case in point is this bit of news from IntoMobile, where Ballmer announced that Nokia will be unveiling a bunch of Windows Phone 7 devices, next week. That’s not the bit that’s getting tongues wagging, though. No, that would be the part where he went on to slag off Android, saying, “You don’t need to be a computer scientist to use a Windows Phone, but I think you do to use Android.”

Riiiiiiiiiiiight. By logical extension, then, you don’t need to be a complete dullard to use Android, but you do to use Windows Phone 7? That’s how logic works, isn’t it? (more…)

If you were reading the blog, earlier (or if you scroll down a bit, to just below this post), you’ll know that the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, the Samsung-made showcase for the brand new Ice Cream Sandwich version of Android, was announced today. Here’s the intro video, for your viewing pleasure…

Tron! So yeah, anyway, the phone formerly known as the Nexus Prime is here, and Krissy wrote about it, earlier today, but since that’s never stopped me before, I figured I’d stick my tuppence-worth in, as well. And yes, the title of this post should give you some idea of how I feel about the phone… (more…)