Specifications :

• Class: smartphone
• Form factor: candy bar
• Body materials: plastic, metal
• Operational system: Android 2.1 + HTC Sense User Interface
• Networks: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, EDGE/GPRS, UMTS/HSDPA 900/2100
• Platform: Qualcomm MSM7225-1, 528 МHz processor
• RAM: 384 MB
• ROM: 512 MB + microSD (hot swappable)
• Interfaces: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR (A2DP), microUSB (USB 2.0) for charging and sync, 3.5 mm headphones jack
• Screen: touch, capacitive, 3.2” 240×320 pixels resolution (QVGA)
• Camera: 5 MPx with Auto Focus and Flash
• Navigation: GPS based on Qualcomm gpsOne chipset (support of A-GPS)
• Additionally: proximity sensor, light sensor, gyroscope, digital compass
• Battery: removable Li-Ion 1300 mAh

A quick look at the basic aspects of the phone :

Design

HTC has used a design similar to its higher end versions. It is quite similar to HTC Desire in terms of design- with similar curves, metal insert and postition of controls. The body colour consists of few shades of grey.

Dimesnsions

It is light weight and one of the compact android sets available in the market.

Controls

As with some of the other HTVC models, Wildfire uses the trackball. It also has sensory buttons just above the trackball similar to Nexus one. As other sets it has the ‘home’, ‘menu’, ‘return’ and ‘search’ buttons.

Display

It uses a 3.2″touch screen with 240×320 (QVGA) resolution. The resolution is probably the weakest point of the phone but on the same hand it might be the reason for the lower price of the phone. It supports multi touch. Although diagonal size is same as Desire or Legend but the display is bigger.

Platform

It possesses a Qualcomm MSM7225 528 MHz processor. It has 84 MB of RAM and 512 MB for software installation. Smartphone works in 2G/3G networks, there is Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, built-in light and proximity sensors, digital compass, gyroscope, FM radio.

Well, it a just small look at the phone. It could be better reviewed once the phone is out in the market. But this seems to a phone that might interest a lot of people looking at cheaper android options

[Image source: Mobile-review.com]

• Built in photo editing : One can get 3rd party application for photo editing capabilities on iPhone. It would have been nice to have a built in photo editing application in the iPhone.

• Mass Storage  mode : It would have been good if it would have been easier to transfer files from computer to the phone. Drag and drop of files should have been enabled so as to enhance file transfer mechanism rather than using 3rd party app for the same.

• Audio Profile : It would have been really beneficial had they incorporated a number of audio profiles for different environments that one could easily switch between.

• Flash support in Safari : A lot has been said and written about it , and it is unfortunate that it could not have been possible in this new edition of the iPhone OS.

• FM Radio : In many segments of society, it was demanded a lot, but it was quite certain that it was not going to featured in the new OS.

• Wi-Fi Syncing : It would have been useful if one could sync or back up our information on the iPhone over Wi-Fi instead of having to plug in our USB cable.

• Printer Support : It was also wished that iPhone provide some sort of printer support, which would have been helpful  in printing documents, pictures and notes.

• Multiple Notification Bar : Now this is due to comparison with Android, there is a notification area where one can see all recent notifications, like new messages and voice mails. It would have been great to see them on iPhone as well.

We hoped some of these features would be introduced in this new OS but now we can hope for some of them introduced in the next update.

Apple is infamous for its products being ingrained with hardware or software problems usually in early stages of the product .  Normally the problems were seen in the devices of people using jailbroken sets. But this latest Wifi problem has nothing to do with the sets being jailbroken.

The problem being faced by users is that iPad does not automatically rejoin known WiFi networks. Apple has recognized this problem. Apple came out with a statement recognizing the  problem :

“Under certain conditions, iPad may not automatically rejoin a known WiFi network after restart or waking from sleep. This can occur with some third-party WiFi routers that are dual-band capable when:

1. Using the same network name for each network
2. Using different security settings for each network”

Apple came out with a solution to the problem. In official words , this is as follows :

“If you encounter this issue, try the following:

Create separate WiFi network names to identify each band. This can be done easily by appending one or more characters to the current network name.

Example: Add a G to the 802.11b/g network name and an N to the 802.11n network name.

Ensure that both networks use the same security type (WEP, WPA, WPA2, and so on).

If the issue persists, reset your network settings using Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings.”

According to the company , this should in most probability solve the problem, but if the problem persists you might want to check out Apple Support Forums for latest development on the issue.

Some of the statistics given by Steve Jobs in the unveiling ceremony :

As of today,

1) Over 450,000 iPads have already been sold
2) Over 600,000 iBooks have been downloaded
3) Over 3.5 million iPad applications have been downloaded
4) Over 4 billion applications have been downloaded from the App Store since its inception
5) There are over 185,000 apps in the App Store, (3,500 of which are iPad apps)
6) Over 50 million iPhones have been sold
7) Over 85 million iPhones and iPod Touch devices have been sold

The major 7 new features being introduced are :

1) Multitasking
2) Folders
3) Enhanced Mail
4) iBooks
5) New Enterprise Features
6) Game Kit
7) iADs

MULTITASKING

It is one of the lacking feature in iPhone of which everyone has been complaining about and one of the major factors why some people prefer other phones over iPhone. With the announcement of this new feature, the positives of iPhone are going to weigh , probably, more than any other phone. This feature will also support the 3rd party applications. Even the iPad will get the multitasking feature. As explained by Jobs, multitasking feature drains down the battery and makes the phone slower. But Jobs claims that Apple has come out late with this feature but has plugged in all the side-effects of the multitasking feature.

FOLDERS

With thousands of applications for the iPhone and users installing number of applications on a single device, it is a hassle to search for the correct application among the numerous installed apps. It has been even harder to  avoid clutter. To help organize , Apple has come out with Folder Categorization feature with Drag and Drop UI, and intelligent naming. This will surely prove to be very useful feature which was missing from the earlier edition and caused a lot of hassle for the users.

ENHANCED MAIL

Also targeting the business section of the users, Apple has come out with enhanced mail services. The enhanced functions will include :

1) Unified Inbox, which lets you manage multiple e-mail accounts in one place
2) Support for multiple Exchange accounts
3) Fast inbox switching – if you want to focus exclusively one account at a time, and fast
4) Organisation by thread – An email with a thread will have an indicator showing that, along with the number of messages associated with it
5) You can also now able to open attachments directly in the mail, by choosing which app to open it with.

iBOOKS

One of the another added feature is iBooks. This is not a feature that the users demanded but nonetheless, it would be good to have some way of reading the ebooks on the phone. The users will be able to enjoy iBooks like in iPad but in a smaller version. The bookshelf and store are exactly the same as on the iPad. Also once you buy an iBook on iPad , you can use the iBook on iPod touch as well as iPhone. This feature also allows wireless page syncing between devices, so that you never forget which page you were on when switching between devices.

NEW ENTERPRISE FEATURE

For the companies and business professionals using the iPhone these new set of features will prove to be extremely useful. Some of the major additions under this feature are :
1) Better data protection – Lets you encrypt all of your e-mail and attachments with your pin code. Apple will also make APIs available that will allow developers to encrypt data inside their apps too
2) Mobile device management – Something that has been very popular demand from enterprise customers, this will allow for enterprise solutions to easily manage the deployment of many phones within the company
3) Wireless app distribution – Another very popular demand, this will allow enterprise users to distribute custom/3rd party applications wirelessly anywhere in the world from their own servers to other employees, without being required to plug in anymore
4) Multiple exchange accounts on a single phone (as shown before)
5) Exchange Server 2010 support
6) SSL VPN support from Juniper and Cisco

GAME CENTER

With thousands of games been designed for iPhone, it is a successful platform for the gaming lovers. With this new Game Center  you can challenge/invite your friends to games. You can also enjoy automatic matchmaking where others of similar ability in a game will be found and put together.

iADs

This is a new feature which seems to sound revolting just seeing the name for the users. Actually it could prove to be a extremely interesting and good feature. This feature will allow developers to keep the applications free for the users by earning from the ad revenue generated. “iAD Mobile Advertising” is apparently something that will allow a user to search for what he wants and requires. The users may complain about this feature but finally this may help keep the apps free for the users themselves. The ads are integrated into the apps and are displayed after a certain time period. The ad doesn’t take you out of the app when clicked but instead keeps you inside the app itself. These are completely interactive ads sometimes similar to apps within an app.

That are the important 7 features out of the 100 new features to be incorporated into the new edition of the OS. It is to be noted that only the iPhone 3GS and iPod Touch 3rd Gen users will get all the above listed functionalities. iPhone 3G and iPod Touch 2nd Gen users will get many of the functionality, and so far, what we know to be missing is multitasking. The new version seems to be very promising and is set to convert iPhone detractors into followers.

Developers preview of iPhone OS4 : http://developer.apple.com/

Image source : engadget

Using this application any user can add a message to the barcodes sticking on the object. These messages could be in the form of text messages, pictures, video or a voice note. Anyone who scans the barcode with the application would eb able to read all the messages associated with the barcode. The application lets one add a message to the physical object as well.

A few examples to further display the usages of the concept. One can see QR codes on webpages, in store windows, on business cards, and on number of objects.

A QR (“quick response”) code is a square barcode that makes getting URLs, location coordinates, any text or contact information onto a phone fast. IF one has abrcode app installed in the phone, one just needs to point the device camera towards the code and all the information associated with it can be read using the phone.

One just has google to find number of QR scanner reader for the specific model of the phone. There are numerous available in the market.

One can also generate QR codes with any information one may want to append to the code. The QR code generator can embedd a URL, text, phone number, address or a any other kind of info into a QR code.

So go on, try it and explore the all new world of QR codes.

[via: smarterware.org]

1.

Name : Android Little Big Planet Theme
Author : AGx-07_162
Website : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=580217

It is a cute theme for android. The icons are lovely, colours are bright and the overall theme gives a sense of light, chirpy theme. It is nice to have such a theme in your collection. Also the latest version of the theme is made to work for CyanogenMod v4.2.8.1.

Download : get it here

2.

Name : Android Mélange Dark Theme
Author : ZilverZurfarn
Website : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=552679

This theme is categorized as a dark theme which is very different as compared to the category of the earlier mentioned theme. The colour combination and the whole look and feel of the theme give a totally different experience altogether. It is made available for CyanogenMod 4.2.x. The latest version is 1.0.

Download : get it here

3.

Name : Android AlienAqua Blue Theme
Author : prash
Website : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=563525

Now comes another different kind of a theme. As the name suggests it holds an aqua look and feel to it. The theme suggests calm and cool mood of the user. It is developed by a professional graphic designer as mention in the author. The latest version is 0.5 for CyanogenMod 4.2.3.1

Download : get it here

4.

Name : Android Ubuntu Brown Theme
Author : AGx-07_162
Website : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=582358

Here is one for Ubuntu lovers. It tries and modulates the look and feel of Ubuntu and thus obviously is brown. The theme is available for CyanogenMod v4.2.3.1.

Download : get it here

5.

Name : Android Star Dust Dark Theme
Author : AGx-07_162
Website : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=557797

Star Dust is also dark android theme. And the latest version 1.1 is for CyanogenMod 4.1.7.

Download : get it here

6.

Name : Android Windows 7 Theme For CyanogenMod
Author : Six6Sicks
Website : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=552530

With the ubuntu theme coming earlier, I couldn’t leave out the Windows theme for Android. As the name suggests , the theme is based on Windows 7. The theme is interesting and provides a different working experience than usual. It is available for CyanogenMod 4.0.4.

Download : get it here

7.

Name : Android HTC Heroine Pink Theme
Author : Armyranger251 And Beagz
Website : http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=544683

Here is one specially for ladies. The pink colour dominates all the way. It is available for Cyanogen 3.9.7.

Download : get it here

Gravity is one of the most useful and popular mobile phone Twitter client. Gravity does almost everything you would want a Twitter client to do, and does it well. Some basic features of gravity are :

• Compatible with Twitter and Laconica
• All functions available on your S60 phone: tweet, reply, retweet, DM, follow & unfollow, block, create favourites, search, auto-update and many more …
• Tabbed view of your Timeline, Replies, Messages, Friends, …
• Profile View to see information about a Twitter User
• Configurable Audio Alerts for Timeline/Replies/DM’s & Searches
• Auto-Connect to any Access Point and Auto-Fallback to WLAN
• Setup and use as many accounts as you want at the same time
• Group support for creating custom tabs with user-defined filters
• Post URLs from tweets to del.icio.us or Instapaper
• Twitter-Search section with multiple search tabs and Twitter Trends
• Post pictures to MobyPicture, TwitPic, TwitGoo, Posterous, Yfrog or img.ly
• Preview pictures from MobyPicture, TwitPic, TwitGoo, Flic.kr, Yfrog and img.ly
• Ping.fm support by simply sending “p message” or “p #group message”
• Open URLs from any Tweet
• Kinetic scrolling on S60v5 ( Nokia 5800 and Nokia N97 )
• Theme support ( fixed dark and bright theme )
• Full-Screen mode
• Includes a Homescreen Widget for the Nokia N97
• Built-in auto-update function and beta access for testing the latest features

Start up

Start up Gravity and you see the option of adding a twitter or Laconica account. Add you twitter account. You can also add multiple accounts. Once you set up an account, Gravity will wait for you to confirm going online, useful as all the avatars downloaded could run up your data cost and even then there’s a counter on the screen showing the data used in the current online session.

Online

Once online, you see a number of tabs. The first tab is your current timeline – showing tweets or updates from all of your contacts, just like the default view on Twitter. The post is shown with user name and his avatar and you can easily do number of tasks such as reply, retweet etc.

From your timeline, you can scroll to the right once more to see a list of any updates from anyone that includes an @reply to you. This is helpful to somewhat carry on a conversation on Twitter. The next tab over shows any direct messages you have received. Yet another click to the right gives you a list of your updates, and another click shows the direct messages you have sent to other people. The last click to the right brings you to a list of your favorite tweets, if you use that feature.

Also there is a search pane and an images section. The image section integrates with your smartphone’s gallery, and any picture taken can be uploaded to the popular third party web site Twitpic and have a twitter message with a link to the photo embedded. So one click to take a picture, one to upload to Twitpic, and one to post the Twitter message about it.

For Symbian 60 v5 users,  Gravity is fully touch-enabled across the entire interface along with kinetic scrolling, so that flicking down the long lists carries on and slows after a quick flick, rather than coming to a dead stop after the scrolling move. This is another rmarkable feature of Gravity.

Here’s a small video on Gravity :

Mobile Phone Info is very light application created by an individual developer. This application helps you to find the service provider of any phone number you wish to know. Also gives you the information about the location of that number. You just need to type in the number and it will display both results in an instant. It takes the information from the HLR( Home location register) of the phone number stored at the database of the service provider. So the information with the provider is relayed to you.

The application is a ‘.jar’ application and thus can be installed on any java enabled phone. It is not symbian dependent and is available for any phone with java capabilities. This application might be useful for many and one may find different uses of the information.

(Note: This application works only for Indian users)

Download link : download

Firstly why mini? The first difference you will notice is the size.Its as if someone chopped off about a centimeter from the original N97  and this modification gave it the name – ‘mini’.Same N97 on all aspects but a bit smaller than the original.It is primarily targeting those customers who are not satisfied with the chunky casing of N97 .The price has to be considerably lower than N97 as Nokia doesn’t want clashing markets for both their flagship products.

The trade off for the smaller size is that the QWERTY keyboard has also been trimmed down.It features 3.2-inch touchscreen and full QWERTY keyboard. It measures 113 x 52.5 x 14.2mm compared to 3.5-inch touchscreen with a QWERTY keyboard in a bigger frame measuring 117.2 x 55.3 x 15.9 mm of N97.The D pad is gone which has been replaced by arrow keys.The keyboard might not be liked by some of the users of N97 as it nowhere as comfortable as N97 although Nokia claims to have improved the keyboard.Apart from lifting the keys a bit ,no other improvement is evident on the phone.

Also the screen has been reduced 0.3 cm to account for the size cut.The back of the phone has been made metallic.The N97′s 32 GB inbuilt memory has been reduced to 8GB expandable to 24 Gb with a 16 Gb microSD card.The camera is a 5 M.P. with dual LED flash and video light.The camera used by Nokia is same as N97 as they decided not to tweak with the camera though the lens cover is missing in this edition.N97 Mini supports up to 12 days standby time and up to 28 hours music playback. It supports video playback up to 210 minutes.

Nokia has persisted with its Symbian S60 series OS for this handset same as in N97.The phone’s software also features kinetic rolling.It has got the new Nokia firmware (2.0) which will also be introduced in N97 in mid September.Also Nokia Maps has been updated to version 3.0.It also has facility of  Lifecasting with Ovi.Lifecasting enables users to update their Facebook status directly from the phone’s homescreen.There are some other smaller tweaks which Nokia has introduced to increase the value of ‘mini’ over the original.

Now it is to be seen if the users prefer the new smaller,lighter edition of the phone with a slightly lesser comfortable keypad ( for some it might be better) and with a possible price cut of 100 euros or they would go for the original thing.Expected launch in India is in mid October with a price hovering slightly over Rs.30,000.It might be tough for Nokia to preserve the market for both the models as the overall experience of the phone is similar except a few changes here and there.More to follow when the phone releases in the market.

Here is a small video released by Nokia :