Well, it's now official. The HTC Touch is delivering a "New Touch Screen Experience" (although not quite the "multi-touch" we'd hoped) and not only that, it's coming to Orange and many more networks very soon.
The new HTC Touch P3450 (HTC Elf) uses groundbreaking technology to recognise and respond to the sweep of a finger across the screen. The new TouchFLO technology will even distinguish between finger and stylus input and then respond accordingly. The technology, developed by HTC, lets users sweep their finger up the display to launch an animated, three-dimensional interface with three screens - Contacts, Media and Applications. You can then rotate the interface by swiping a finger right or left across the display, giving easy, quick, one-touch access to the most used features. The TouchFLO technology also enhances finger touch scrolling and browsing of Web pages, documents, messages and contact lists.
There's a full press release below and we're still getting information by the minute, so keep it peeled for more information right here. CoolSmartphone are also the first website in the world with a review of the device right here. We've secretly had one of these devices for a few days with an early version of the operating system without the TouchFLO technology enabled, however you can get exclusive shots, details and screenshots of the highly anticipated device here.
Update - Try the interface yourself or see the video advert for this product at HTC.com (Credit - Trevor Marshall).
Update - Arne has videos of the interface in action at theunwired.net and the BBC have a video story about the HTC Touch too!
Links - CoolSmartPhone Review - Buy @ devicewire.com - Official Press Release - HTCTouch.com -
HTC.comHTC Touch™ Delivers New Touch Screen Experience
HTC Device Signals New Direction In Finger Touch Operation
LONDON — June 5, 2007 — HTC Corp. (TAIEX: 2498; “HTC”), the world’s leading provider of Microsoft® Windows Mobile®-based smart devices, today announced the global launch of the HTC Touch™, a deceptively small and stylish mobile phone that ushers in an innovative new concept in intuitive touch screen navigation. Orange is the first pan-European operator to launch the HTC Touch™. The device brings a new level of simplicity to the powerful and function-rich device experience that today’s mobile customers demand.
Building on its rich ten-year history of mobile phone innovations, the HTC Touch™ represents extensive research and development and the conviction that fingertip control will enable more efficient, natural and intuitive touch screen navigation. The groundbreaking HTC Touch™ offers a new and unique way of controlling touch screen-based devices by recognising and responding to the sweep of a finger across the screen. It is intelligent enough to distinguish between finger and stylus input and then respond accordingly.
“With the HTC Touch™, access to your most commonly used content, contacts and features is only a simple finger flick away,” said Peter Chou, CEO and President of HTC. “Mobile phone makers have done a great job of cramming ever-more exciting features into ever-smaller phones. But the way in which one accesses these increasingly sophisticated features has not kept pace. That ends today with the HTC Touch™.”
Smart, stylish and versatile, the HTC Touch™ brings together a wide variety of communication, entertainment and professional capabilities that enable mobile consumers to balance work and play. The new HTC-designed homescreen provides one-touch access to emails, text messages, calendar appointments and contacts, as well as current weather conditions and forecasts for hundreds of cities around the world.
The HTC Touch™ is the first device to feature TouchFLO™, the new underlying touch screen technology developed by HTC. Consumers simply sweep their finger up the display to launch an animated, three-dimensional interface comprising three screens: Contacts, Media and Applications. The interface can be spun by swiping a finger right or left across the display, providing efficient access to the features consumers use most. TouchFLO™ also enhances finger touch scrolling and browsing of Web pages, documents, messages and contact lists.
Leveraging the broad functionality of Windows Mobile 6 Professional, the HTC Touch™ includes Outlook Mobile, Office Mobile and the capabilities to run thousands of third-party applications. Users can surf the web with Internet Explorer®, send and receive emails, chat and upload files to the internet.
The HTC Touch™ also features a 2 mega-pixel camera, a large 2.8-inch colour LCD screen and comes with a 1GB microSD card, giving users the versatility to store, upload and share multimedia content with ease.
Availability
The announcement marks the first time that HTC has introduced an HTC product globally, and comes almost exactly a year after the company launched its first own-branded products in June 2006. The HTC Touch™ will also be the first HTC-branded product to be sold in Asia.
The HTC Touch™ will be available to customers across Europe and Asia this month, beginning today in the United Kingdom. The HTC Touch™ will be initially available to Orange customers in the UK, France, Spain and the Netherlands.
Yves Maitre, VP Devices, Orange, says “We are delighted to be first to launch this innovative new smartphone, which will open the door to widespread use of touch screen devices. Orange has the widest portfolio of Microsoft smartphones and was the first operator to launch a Windows 6.0 device. This latest addition cements Orange’s position as the leading operator in the smartphone market. Orange and HTC have a heritage of innovating with new types of smartphone and the HTC Touch™ is a great example of this.”
T-Mobile will launch a customised version of the device which will be named the MDA Touch across key European markets. The innovative and strong multi-media feature set of the MDA Touch will be a powerful fit to T-Mobile’s “web’n’walk” proposition.
“We are proud to announce that at the same time we are launching the MDA Touch. T-Mobile is continuing its successful cooperation and development of innovative products with HTC as partner,” says Michael Hagspihl, Executive Vice President Terminal Management, T-Mobile International. “T-Mobile already set standards in the past by providing its customers with innovative PDAs like the MDA Vario II and Ameo.”
HTC Touch™ key features
- Dimensions: 99.9mm (L) x 58mm (W) x 13.9mm (T)
- Weight: 112g with battery
- 1GB microSD storage card included / 64MB RAM, 128MB ROM
- 2.8’’ LCD touch screen with backlight, 240 x 320 dots resolution with 65,536 colours
- Battery Life: Rechargeable Li-Ion battery with a capacity of 1100 mAh
- Standby time: Up to 200 / Talk time: Up to 5 hours
- Camera: 2.0 mega-pixel CMOS colour camera
- Windows Mobile 6 Professional with Direct Push Email and HTML email support
- Wireless Connectivity: GSM/GPRS/EDGE Tri-band: 900, 1800,1900, Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11 b/g and Bluetooth® 2.0
- Choice of two colours at launch - elegant soft black or alluring wasabi green
Buy this device now at devicewire.com
To get an idea of the interface mentioned above, have a look at the following screenshots...
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