You know how Opera and other browsers have their remote rendering setup to offload the heavy lifting from the handset? Well, what if that technique was used for something a little less mundane, like gaming? Then you’d get burgeoning startup OTOY, who have managed to make Crysis playable on on a Samsung Omnia with a connected XBox 360 controller. OTOY still works through the browser, and as such will likely work on any mobile – iPhone, Palm Pre, so long as it has a Wi-Fi connection (or 3G, in a pinch). I’m curious what kind of pricing model these guys will go with, but it seems likely that they’ll do something along the lines of Gametap’s all-you-can-eat subscription model. It seems unlikely that their servers will be able to handle all the processing for the latest games, but a decent selection of PS2, original XBox and Wii games would be enough to get me to sign up. Would a set-up like this finally equalize the playing field between mobile gaming (phones) and portable gaming (PSP, Nintendo DS)?
If the opinions of two star-crossed bloggers weren’t enough to sway you firmly into either the “yea” or “nay” column regarding a Nokia N97 purchase, perhaps seeing how it fares after being dunked into a bowl of corn flakes will help you make up your mind. N97Geeks.com has gone the ‘ol torture test route, including of a series of scratch attempts for the screen and the body as well, plus the aforementioned test where it became a part of This Complete Breakfast. The result was an almost fully functional if slightly scuffed up handset that now has a non-working menu key and a wee bit of internal condensation, meaning you can probably get by without a screen protector or case if you hate buying accessories. But, for best results, keep this one clear of your Kellogg’s.
As we prepare for HTC’s official launch event today, we’re starting to see some details appear on HTC’s own website of the much rumored Hero. Through some URL trickery, we’ve managed to unearth several details that confirm the previous rumors. Hero includes the new HTC Sense widget-based interface that puts at-a-glance info right up front on the home screen where it belongs. A new Scenes profile feature lets you transform your phones focus from business to weekend mode. Viewing your contacts shows the usual data in addition to the interactions you’ve had through social networking status updates and photos from the likes of Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, and Twitter. A dedicated search button searches the phone as well as services like Twitter. In fact, like Palm’s Pre, the HTC Hero seems ready to fully integrate your local data with all your subscribed social media sites. The biggest deal here, however, might just be that HTC is touting this as the first Android device to support Flash out of the box.
The good news is that T-Mobile USA has finally gotten around to announce its second Android handset, the myTouch 3G; the bad news, though, is that you can’t have it just yet. The carrier-customized version of the HTC Magic that has already shipped in parts of Europe, Asia, and Canada features a 3.2-inch 480 x 320 touchscreen, AWS 3G for use on T-Mobile’s high-speed network paired with quadband EDGE for global roaming, WiFi, a 3.2 megapixel camera, Exchange support, and — of course — Android 1.5 with all the virtual keyboardin’ you can handle. Better than the G1? Other than the larger internal memory common to all Magics, that’s strictly a matter of personal taste — but don’t worry, you’ll have a while to sort it out, because T-Mobile won’t even start taking preorders from current customers until July 8 for $199.99 on a two-year contract. Those orders will start shipping in late July, with full national availability following on in early August in your choice of black, white, or “merlot.”
We’re unfortunately light on details here, but The Unwired is reporting that HTC’s Hero has been approved by the Global Certification Forum, listed here as “HERO100,” with support for quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE and dualband UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA at 1800/2100 MHz. With the company’s touted London event just around the corner — this Wednesday, to be exact — we wouldn’t be surprised to see the phone and its oft-rumored “Rosie” Android UI take center stage, in possibly two variations. Other than frequency bands and the associative name, the GCF isn’t giving us anything else to work with, so for now just sit back and hope this uncertainty is cleared up sooner rather than later.
One of the hottest pieces of gear this year just made its way to retail in Japan. Less than a centimeter thick, the NTT DoCoMo T-01A is the same TG01 device revealed by Toshiba back in February running Qualcomm’s ultra-fast 1GHz Snapdragon chipset. As such, our far east brethren can lay claim to that 4.1-inch WVGA (800 x 480 pixel) resistive touchscreen display; HSDPA, GPS, and WiFi radios; and Toshiba’s custom-built UI meant to mask its Windows Mobile 6.1 core with a bit of Rothko misdirection. And now that Toshiba’s home country of Japan is all set, we hope to see the TG01 make its launch debute in Europe and beyond.
As expected, the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8230 from Verizon is now available and ready to pick up for $79.99 after rebates. Frankly, I think that price point is still a bit of a gyp considering T-Mobile is selling their 3G-less counterpart for almost half the price, but hey, at the sub $100-level, you’re kind of splitting hairs. I took a look at Telus’ version not long ago, and walked away relatively happy. The form factor is a big departure for RIM, and a fine stepping stone for those who want to start tapping the functionality of BlackBerry without carrying around a big businessy thing with a full QWERTY keyboard; in fact, the external screen actually adds a surprising amount of functionality. If you’re thinking about picking one up, be sure to check out our review first.
