HTC Hero is on everyone’s lips these days, but the folks of JournalduGeek have managed to get up close and personal with the handset, having a look at its features and demoing its interface. What came out is the video below:

Know that this is a smartphone packing a capacitive touchscreen, that provides a people-centric experience, thanks to the Sense UI, worthy heir of TouchFLO 3D. The on-screen keyboard is particularly nice and it even comes with haptic force feedback, plus T9-like suggestions.

Beneath the relatively thick case, there’s a Qualcomm MSM7200A CPU running the show, at 528 MHz, accompanied by 512MB ROM, 288 MB RAM, GPS and a G sensor. The beautiful and very useful screen is a 3.2 inch TFT LCD display, supporting a 320 x 480 pixels resolution and the camera is a 5MP unit.

[via passionemobile.wordpress.com]

Mobile.nu has a neat scoop for us all: turns out that Sony Ericsson is planning on launching an Android monster later this year, an Android 2.0 smartphone bearing the codename Rachael. Could it be the device below?

We learn that the handset will pack a Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU (1 GHz), a 8.1 megapixel camera, Android 2.0 (Donut) and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Could this device be branded XPERIA or is just a speculation/concept/Photoshop?

Expect the smartphone to pack an impressive amount of memory, a superb interface and probably every type of top notch feature you can imagine.

[via IntoMobile]

iPhone users now have plenty of nav app options to go with, if they haven’t bought a GPS yet. There’s TomTom, Navigon and now even iGo has landed on Apple’s handset. The Hungarian blogger who showed us the app for the first time and detailed it is back, with an in-car video demo of iGo My Way for iPhone:

The app looks great on the handset and its interface is very fluid. Portrait and landscape mode are both supported and the 3D UI is very helpful, plus that car cradle seems to fit the phone perfectly. The software senses the direction change immediately, so the response is not an issue and at some point you can even see the Nav N Go (iGo makers) headquarters nearby, which is a great, just for kicks.

We remind you that the iPhone will run the iGo Amigo version, that will be available for $75, bundled with maps.

Nokia N97 and Sony Ericsson W995a are two of the hottest handsets around and they have recently reached the US, without being subsidized. These unlocked phones go for $700 and $600, respectively, which is more than the average US customer is willing to pay for a handset.

In spite of the fact that the new phones come with great features, like the N97’s 5 megapixel camera, 32GB of memory and the famous touchscreen-QWERTY keyboard combo, or the W995a’s 8.1 megapixel camera, stereo Bluetooth and GPS, their price is not appealing enough for potential buyers. Why? It’s because of the American public’s habit of buying handsets that are subsidized and come with a lower price.

How can these two compete with the likes of the 3G iPhone, going for $99 via AT&T? It’s interesting to note that only 5% of the phones sold in the US each year are unlocked and available on different channels than the carriers, while in Asia, the percentage goes up to 80% and in Europe 70% of the phones are sold unlocked.

Internationally, unlocked handsets stand for 50% of the sales, so the US is a special case. You can blame their carrier-led mobile business on the usage of CDMA, instead of GSM, that doesn’t support interchangeable SIM cards between phones. Also, some people go with the carrier option, because their handsets are already setup and the updates are more easily done, while the unlocked phones will have to be tweaked and updated by their owners.

The disadvantage of subsidized handsets is the fact that you’ll pay more for the device in the long run, with a contract and sometimes the carrier will disable some of the phone’s features. Will unlocked phones ever thrive on the US market at the above-mentioned prices?

[via CNET]

The folks of WindowsPhoneMix have done a lovely review of Asus P835, one of the best Asus smartphones and probably the last of the pack to be branded without including Garmin in the logo. The device comes with a 3.5 inch WVGA screen and features a very neat trackball.

The reviewers claim that the screen is very sensitive and the phone’s 5 megapixel camera performs great, plus the bundled software is pretty good. We also learn that there’s a built in WiFi router on board and as far as flaws are concerned, the custom screen overlay looks nice but is kind of slow.

Asus P835’s battery is a 1100 mAh unit and, as you can see, the smartphone comes with an elegant metal body, with great build quality. There’s also a GPS on board, plus Bluetooth and WindowsPhoneMix states that the battery life is decent. On the “Cons” side, Asus Glide can’t compare to HTC TouchFlo 3D, since it has less features and is slower, while the processor is slower than the one on Asus P565.

Full review here.

[via wmpoweruser]

Yesterday we found out that Samsung Omnia II was coming your way in September with Windows Mobile 6.5 preinstalled, but now it turns out that the handset will hit some European countries in August, for EUR 549.

Samsung claims that in Belgium, Omnia II will ship next month, for the above mentioned price, while Omnia Pro will also hit the market, in July for EUR 499.

Both prices include VAT tax and you should know that this early Omnia releases come with Windows Mobile 6.1 Pro OS, instead of WM 6.5, but there’s a free upgrade waiting for you afterwards.

[via Unwired View]

Who’s losing iPhone prototypes? I bet that if these were 4.0 iPhones, everyone at Apple would be going nuts right now, but all we’ve got here is a 3GS iPhone found at an airport and available on eBay.

Months ago someone found an iPhone 1.0 prototype laying around and also sold it on eBay, but this is a 3GS device we’re talking about here. Too bad that it’s only a brick, stuck on the “Connect to iTunes” screen, so it’s a useful as a tiny block of concrete in your house.

Some guy found this handset in an airport and instead of reporting it at “lost and found”, he gave to a dude, who put it up for sale on eBay. Will this sell for an obscene amount of cash?

[via Engadget Mobile]

Although this product was revealed back in March, the Samsung MBP200 micro-projector has just become available in Europe, Germany to be more precise, in spite of being scheduled for a May launch.

MBP200 measures 110 x 49 x 19mm and it’s a mobile projector that supports image projections of 480 x 320 pixels and incorporates a 2.2 inch QVGA display, an audio and video player and a 3.5mm headset jack. There’s also a touch sensitive keypad on board, an image viewer and a microSD slot (16GB cards max).

The device costs around $700 in Germany.

[via Unwired View]

If you’ve got an iPhone 3GS and you want to jailbreak it, there’s a brand new solution to use, known as purplera1n and created by developer George Hotz. You’ll be able to download the jailbreak software from here and you need to know that it only works on a Windows PC.

Forget about Windows 7 or a Mac, though, since they’re not supported at the moment. You’ll also need an iPhone 3GS with 3.0 firmware on board and the newest iTunes version, to install the jailbreak. Purplera1n is available in a beta version, so you should backup all the data on your iPhone before proceeding.

All you need to do in order to jailbreak your iPhone is download the software, connect the iPhone to your PC, click on “make it ra1n”, wait, run Freeze on bootup (installer app) and then a pretty foolproof install process will start. More details on the hacker’s blog here.

[via Unwired View]

One year ago Verizon launched Samsung Glyde, that is now followed by a successor, Glyde 2, just pictured in the images below. Samsung Glyde 2 will eventually be called U960 and it comes with a touchscreen display and a sliding QWERTY keyboard.

No other details regarding the handset are available right now, but we do know that Glyde 2 might pack an AMOLED screen (like Samsung Impression). Check out the sleek interface in the last pic and we sure hope that Verizon will speed up the release process of the promising phone.

Will Ozzy Osbourne once again advertise a handset like Glyde 2, or is it just a hunch of mine?

[via Unwired View]