Omio News Blog

HTC Hero On Orange Gets Speedy Firmware Update, G2 Touch To Follow

The Android-powered HTC Hero has only had one major fault levelled at it since release (apart from that opinion-splitting chin), that of the unique ‘Sense’ interface feeling a tad sluggish and unresponsive to use.

Following on from HTC’s own attempts to pimp out the Hero, Orange has released a fix on the official site, allowing users to upgrade their firmware for a boost in speed as well as the odd tweak in other departments.

The process is fairly simple, but be warned that the HTC Hero on Orange update will delete all your data, so be sure to back up you contacts and saucy texts beforehand…

The T-Mobile G2 Touch – the network’s take on the HTC Hero – is a little more liveried up with carrier-specific functions, and in turn seems to require a lot of tinkering before the release of a performance update.

With T-Mobile asking customers to sit tight on their forum, it looks like the G2 will see its update brought forward from an initial October/November release to the next couple of weeks, keeping up with the HTC Hero’s new go-faster stripes as well as calming the crowd of pitchfork-wielding Touch owners.

The debate of whether network-specific firmware is detrimental to phone features is a fair one, but at least the respective carriers are making a concerted effort to appease impatient owners this time.

Source: Register

G108 Phone Watch – Interesting Concept, Looks Weird

The G108 Phone Watch from China almost succeeds. It certainly has an impressive list of features crammed into its tiny, very strange body. It has a 1.3-megapixel camera. There’s also Bluetooth connectivity for use with headsets, or you can use the built-in speakerphone to share your conversation with the world.

The inside display is 1.5 inches and features 256 thousand colours and a 128 x 60 resolution. There’s also a second external display with the time, signal strength and battery life.

The phone part of this watch beast uses a quad-band GSM connection and can also be used to send SMS and MMS messages. There’s half a megabyte of internal memory but this can be expanded via a memory card slot featured somewhere on the device.

Once the memory card is in you can use the included media player software to watch films and view photos. All this, and you can also use it as a watch. There’s no word on pricing or availability.

Source: Slashphone

The EU Wants Cheaper Texts!

It’s not surprising to hear someone on the Omio staff complaining about the cost of texts. We can’t do anything about it, but the EU can.

At the mobile industry trade show in Barcelona, Viviane Reding, the EU communications commissioner, had some strong words for any companies that thought they could “rip off” EU citizens over roaming text charges. For the moment this policy will be self-regulated but if a satisfactory agreement is not set up by the 1st of July, further action will be taken.

These plans should hopefully cut the average cost by nearly two-thirds and reduce high-volume cross-border exchange costs by up to 5/6ths! Now all we need are more chances to go abroad.

Source: International Herald Tribune

The Modu Mini Phone

Remember how Inspector Gadget was capable of carrying around a ridiculous array of mechanical doodads in his coat with nary a regard to spatial reality? As non-animated humans, we sometimes have to deal with the reality of carrying around a clunky phone that pays no regard to our wardrobe choices.

One Israeli company is hoping to change all that with a new phone capable of adjusting to its surroundings. The Modu phone, launching in Italy, Russia and Israel in October, weighs a mere 43 grams (lighter than an iPod nano) but fits inside a series of ‘jackets’ that improve its functionality. Going out to a club you might want as ergodynamic a design as possible but doing travelling you could bring the larger mooted GPS attachment. This isn’t just for convenience; users can update their ‘jackets’ to give their phone a totally new look.

A US release will be as far off as 2009 but if the idea takes off, it could be one to watch.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald