Leaked HTC Roadmap Reveals 5 Android Handsets and 3 WinMo Stunners

Handset leaks are all part of the mobile marketing plan, we all get very excited, or disheartened when we catch a glimpse of an alleged handset. When a leak hits the big time, for those few days the device in question gets more attention than page 3 of the sun. Sometimes, revelations are taken a step further and we get actual dates, specs and images all at the same time. This leak is of epic proportion, because what we’ve got here is what looks like HTC’s entire Q1 -Q2 2010 roadmap.

First -The Android Generation.

 

As you can see they’ve been split into different sections to optimise market reach. Let’s take a look at the different categories and the handsets (albeit codenamed) that fall within them.

Design / Lifestyle:

• HTC Legend. Spec-wise it’s very similar to the HTC Hero, as is the design. The Legend’s an Android handset with a 3.2″ capacitive touchscreen. Key features include the 5mp camera, GPS, WiFi and 3G. It’ll run on a pretty snappy 600MHz Qualcomm CPU and carries 256MB of RAM. It’s expected to arrive sometime in March 2010. 
• HTC Salsa. The QWERTY option, it’s got a 2.6″ landscape QVGA touchscreen and there’s WiFi, 3G, and GPS onboard. The Salsa has a 3.2mp camera and will be available from June 2010.

Social:

• HTC Tide. This device is heavy on the social networking side of things with integrated Twitter, Facebook, and Microsoft Exchange email. The Tide comes with a 3.2mp snapper and has the usual connectivity options onboard. This will make an appearance around April 2010.
• HTC Buzz. Another handset with socialites in mind. It’s got creativity written all over it with customisable back covers, similar to the Tattoo. It has a 3.2″ screen, and again features all your usual connectivity suspects. We can expect to see this next May.

Performance:

• HTC Bravo. The single shining light in the performance category is the HTC Bravo. Sporting a 3.7″ AMOLED touchscreen, with HD 720p video recording capabilities as well as DivX support, this will be HTC’s multimedia giant. Running on a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU this will leap onto the market in April next year.

 Next - The WinMo Handsets.

 

All of the Windows Mobile Handsets run on V6.5 and all fall under the same title.

Productivity:

• HTC Photon. Sporting the largest screen of the bunch the Photon grabs a sufficient 3.2″. It has a 5mp camera and all the connectivity options we spoke of in the Android section. The Qualcomm MSM7227 comes in at 600MHz and it will be showing us exactly what it can do in April 2010.
• HTC Trophy. This is pretty much identical to the Photon, except it has a slightly smaller screen coming in at 3″. The 5mp camera’s onboard as well as all those connectivity options we are used to. But we’ll have to wait until May 2010 to spot the differences.
• HTC Tera. The odd-one-out so to speak. The only Full QWERTY Slider of the group. There’s a 3megapixel camera to flaunt and again a host of connectivity options. This is another April bloomer.

 

HTC Passion runs Android on 3.5-inch OLED and Snapdragon in Verizon’s early 2010?

Ever since the WinMo-powered HTC HD2 started to drip, drip onto our pages in the form of leaked images and details, we’ve been asking ourselves one question: where’s the Android version? And while we’ve heard whispers of a supposed Snapdragon-based Dragon device running Android ever since early October, we’re left to rely on Motorola’s Droid / Milestone to fulfill our Android 2.0 dreams this holiday season. And if DigiTimes is correct, that picture likely won’t change until early 2010. Taiwanese DigiTimes‘ sources have its Taiwan-based neighbor launching its Passion handset running Android 2.0 (or even 2.1 by then) on a 1GHz Snapdragon chipset with 3.5-inch multitouch OLED display sometime in early 2010 (not 2009 as previously tipped) as HTC continues to tweak the device’s software. And if previous rumors are true then this CDMA variant of Dragon will be making its debut on Verizon at that time. DigiTimes‘ sources also claim that HTC will announce a QWERTY-toting Android device, possibly named Espresso, at the huge Mobile World Congress event in February. Of course, all this is rumor for now so hold tight as HTC’s roadmap unfolds.

How to Turn your G1 into a tethered 3G modem

Though expressly against T-Mobile’s terms and conditions, some clever chap over at the TmoNews forums has put together a step-by-step guide to tethering the G1 to a computer so that it can be used as a 3G modem.

Now, in an ideal world, we’d run our own step-by-step guide to this process but, as we still haven’t been loaned a G1 review sample, we can’t – sorry. However, TmoNews poster bdogg64’s instructions seem pretty clear, if a tad convoluted (though he can hardly be blamed for detailing the process). More after the cut.

Essentially, bdogg64 explains how to connect a G1 - which went on sale just last week - to a Windows/Linux/Mac computer via USB before enabling a proxy server on the G1. A bit of a faff, sure, but we’re some will consider it worth it for the tethering ability. It’s also reminiscent of the method employed by NetShare on the iPhone, before that program was pulled from the App Store by Apple.

However, be warned again that doing this does violate T-Mobile’s terms and conditions. Note that we didn’t say 'might', as others are reporting: tether in this manner and you will break T-Mobile’s rules (and therefore face, er... well, we’re not sure – a call from a slighly-cross T-Mobile customer-services assistant, perhaps?). Here’s the pertinent bit of T-Mobile’s legals: "Remember that you can only use web'n'walk in the UK and you can't use your phone as a modem or use web'n'walk for peer to peer file sharing.". That’s about as clear as legalese ever gets, so T-Mobile can at least be applauded for that. 

source:mobilecomputermag.co.uk