Windows Phone Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves

"The Xda Flint is mobile technology at its best with a 5" VGA angled touch screen incorporating finger-friendly recognition and a detachable keyboard for intensive text-input. As the Xda Flint is Microsoft Windows compatible and includes Internet Explorer®, learners will be able to create documents and complete assignments while on the move, be that on the bus, out on a field trip, in the classroom, or at home, subject to coverage."

The HTC Advantage (nee Athena) has been in the market for quite a while, and if you've looked at the leaked 2009 HTC roadmap you'll know there's already a successor on the drawing board. Yet O2 has only just come on board with their own variant called the Flint, which looks suspiciously like a standard 7510 to me. All the listed specs are the same, and O2 in their wisdom are marketing this to the education market as "perfect for students and teachers who need to stay in the loop while on the move or away from their learning environment and proves that Learning on the Go is truly possible." I know prices of the Advantage have fallen faster than that of other premium smartphones, but not so much that it makes sense for students to get one. That is of course unless there's a whole load of subsidy money backing this. Read on for the full press release. Read more...

"The Sprint HTC Touch Diamond is a powerhouse Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional PDA phone with a VGA touch screen, 4 gigs of storage, 528MHz processor, EVDO Rev. A, WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth and a 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera. The Diamond is one of the smaller touch screen Windows Mobile devices on the market, though it's not as thin as the original GSM version ( 0.6" vs. 0.45"). It weighs 4.1 ounces vs. the GSM's 3.88 ounces, but we're not complaining. The added weight and girth allow for a higher capacity 1340 mAh battery-- a definite improvement over the original's 900 mAh battery. It also feels better in the hand thanks to rounded edges, a soft touch red back, and there's just a little more to hold onto. That said, it's a very attractive and modern-looking device, but it's not the head turner that the original diamond-backed model is."

"Last year O2 announced and brought to the marketplace the Orbit 2 which featured: 3Mpixel camera, fast processor, large RAM / ROM, GPS, Quad band, phone, Touch interface, etc. This has now been superceded and replaced with the O2 Xda Ignito which serves to enhance and further the popular Xda range. Again a candy-bar design (no hardware keyboard) the Ignito sports: 3.2MPixel camera, 528Mhz processor, VGA (640 x 480 display), Quad band, large ROM / RAM, A-GPS, 3G phone / video phone, Touch FLO 3D interface, etc...When one removes the Xda Ignito from the box the first impression is of the small size of the machine. Compared to the Orbit 2 or even the Stellar the Ignito is tiny. The second impression is that of weight or density, the Ignito feels much heavier than expected, this is no doubt due to the steel housing or framework that surrounds and support the inner workings of the machine."

Twins separated at birth? In fact, the device is the same, just different branding. First up, MobileTechReview offers a video review of the just-announced Sprint HTC Touch Diamond for the USA market. Before crossing the ocean, the HTC made a stop in the UK and has been released by O2 and rebranded as the Xda Ignito; 4WinMobile has an indepth look. As of this post, the device is already available at O2's online stores with in-store availability coming while the Sprint version is not yet available for purchase, but should be available sometime during September. Though the branding may be different, take a look at both reviews to get a good understanding of what the HTC Touch Diamond has to offer.

"O2 Germany was far ahead of TomTom, when it launched its O2 Xda diamond last month which contains TomTom Navigator 7, a so far not officially announced TomTom version for Windows Mobile Professional devices. And while O2 gave one free city download with its TomTom Navigator 7, it was impossible to purchase any further maps from TomTom. The only way to expand the maps was a workaround. Now, TomTom finally released maps which are compatible to O2's used TomTom Navigator 7 and at the moment, TomTom offers two kind of map packs: TomTom Map of Western Europe v7.20 and TomTom Map of Eastern Europe v7.20"

If you have an O2 Xda Diamond, you can finally get around a little more than just the one free city that came with your TomTom Navigator 7 software, that is as long as you want to travel around Eastern or Western Europe. Currently, there is a GBP 10 discount on each set; a Western Europe download will set you back GBP 49.95, while Eastern Europe is GBP 29.95. TomTom Navigator 7 is not yet available as a separate purchase.