I love gadgets and I do like to get a new phone every year.

However it hasn’t gone unnoticed at DiPonio central the cost of everyday essentials are going through the roof.

With the hype surrounding this weeks launch of the iPhone 3g. I wonder how many people have figured out the total cost of ownership.

There are other issues like do you actually have 3g coverage where you live/work. I have had a 3g enabled phone for about 3 years and I wonder if this 3g dream people are expecting of being permanently connected is actually going to work out.

The other sexy phone on the market is the HTC Touch Diamond

I could pick one up for £433 inc VAT and just pop in my SIM card.

So when compared to the cost of the iPhone the HTC Touch is much more affordable.

However lets be honest the HTC Diamond is just another Windows Mobile device with a shiny face. It doesn’t help that it has a User Interface running on top of a User Interface.

I don’t want to give the impression that I don’t want either device but at £639 or £433 respectively I think I am going to pass.

My current HTC Touch is small, light, has good battery life and most importantly I already own it.

Yesterday HTC announced the HTC Touch Diamond their latest phone.

I have an original HTC Touch so I guess I am their target market for this new model.

With phones these days its all about the user experience, so Leigh from www.coolsmartphone.com has uploaded a hands on clip. See below

It runs Windows Mobile 6.1 not that you can tell from the user interface. It seems HTC has done their best to hide it (not a bad thing). Notice the Internet Browser in the clip is Opera not IE.

In summary it now offers a user experience that comes near to that of the iPhone but is a true Windows Mobile phone. Something the iPhone will never be.

The one thing that amazes me about the Windows Mobile OEM’s is how long it took them to start innovating on their own platform. Perhaps innovating is the wrong word, copying  Apple would be a better description.

What Apple does next in the revision of their hardware (next month) will be interesting.

Link: www.htc.com

Well first of all any photograph you have seen of the HTC Touch doesn’t really do it justice.

When I opened this box the “oh, now that is cool” was my first impression.

I have been using the phone for nearly a month and to date this phone is the most reliable Windows Mobile device I have used. No crashes, freezes or other problems to report.

A month later the Touch Flo interface has proved not to be just a gimmick I can flick between the different screens single handed and make calls with just my thumb. A great user interface improvement.

I do miss not having a physical keyboard but you cant have anything.

The 802.11 wireless works flawlessly which is a cheap way of allowing me to play with Google Maps/Live Search without using my orange data package.

The voice call quality seems to be as good as any phone I have used over the recent years. No problems here.

Battery life seems to be an issue for some people but now I have calmed down and stopped “playing” with my new phone its not a problem. I can go two or three days without worrying about it.

The loudspeaker is great for a device this small. Last weekend I was installing a Network in a deserted office so I loaded up some music on the 1gb mini sd card.

My only criticisms are:-

Copying data to the mini SD memory is slow if you connect the phone to your PC over USB

Fitting the mini SD memory and the phone sim  is a bit too tricky.

The reflective nature of the screen does not make it easy for viewing video. You can do it but you have to view it at a slightly off angle. But lets put that in perspective this is a phone not a portable media sever.

Conclusion

There is a big decision to be made around the issue of the keyboard, if you can live without one the HTC Touch is a great phone other wise you have to go HTC 730 or HTC TYTNII.

The Touch range also comes in Touch Dual (has a slide out keypad) Touch Cruise (this has inbuilt GPS).

So a month on I have zero regrets about the HTC Touch. What a cracking little phone.

Official Link: HTC Touch

On related HTC News any phone geek’s should check out this recent interview the CEO of HTC

Link: http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/10/the-engadget-interview-peter-chou-ceo-of-htc/

I am now a Windows Mobile 6.0 User.

This is my 4th smart phone to be running Windows Mobile. Four Years ago I was using a Windows Mobile 2003 device and then a couple of Windows Mobile 5.0 devices for two generations and now finally Windows Mobile 6.0 Professional.

Windows mobile gets better with every release but the lack of innovation in the software is becoming obvious. If I were Microsoft I would be embarrassed that Apple’s 1.0 phone product makes their Windows Mobile platform look so dated.

The lack of progress in the Windows Mobile space did not go unnoticed by phone manufacturers like HTC in my case.  So they developed the Touch-Flo interface to freshen things up a little.

You know Microsoft have lost it when the hardware manufacturers start getting into software and user interfaces.

Long before Apple announced the iPhone Windows Mobile 6 was in development. I read the specs for “6″ and though it sounded relatively minor in terms of innovation. This lack of innovation is now at the heart of the problem.  It takes someone to steal their lunch before they take notice.

I was listening to the Directors Commentary from Michael Bay’s film The Island, Microsoft had loaned the movie some of their best brains to think tank some of the tech in the movie as it was set 20 years in the future.  All I can say is Mr Bay should have phoned Mr Jobs.

So why do I keep buying Windows Mobile? Compatibility is the answer, Microsoft are essentially a standards company at this point.

Twenty five years ago the young Microsoft executives used to laugh at how dinosaur like IBM was.

Microsoft are now the lumbering beast, so powerful, yet unable to innovate.

The HTC Touch

One of the very few perks of my Job is that I get to buy and use the technology I want.

I am quite happy getting a smart phone refresh about once a year as long as technology has moved on far enough to justify the cost.

This year I have been under whelmed with my choices. Under consideration were:-

HTC TYTN II

I essentially use the original HTC TYTN (branded as Orange SPV M3100). Now the TYTN II is a fantastic phone but the form factor is too close to my current phone. So its worth considering but expensive and I wouldn’t get the “new cool phone feeling”.

iPhone

Later this week the iPhone is getting launched in the UK. However I have already written up 6 good reasons I wont be an early adopter. See: Permanent Link to 6 Reasons iWont be an iPhone user yet

Since writing that post Apple have been busy plugging the iPhone’s ability to be used Sim free, Although still possible who needs the headache.

So with the two big boys out of the way I went looking for innovation and came up with the HTC Touch.

A few of the reasons behind the choice of the HTC Touch.

1) I need push Exchange/e-mail support which means I need Windows Mobile.

2) New Touch-Flo interface. Windows Mobile is boring so HTC have created a finger flicking user interface experience on top of it. Its difficult to describe but you use your finger for most things and a stylus for when you need to use the on screen keyboard.

3) I Like the size. Palm sized.

4) Cost, The HTC Touch is relatively inexpensive compared to the TYTN II / iPhone. I picked up a nearly new one for about a third of the cost of the TYTN II.

Official Link: www.htctouch.com