The HTC Muse

We're going to have to wait eight long months (at least) for this one to surface, but some details have popped up about HTC's answer to the Nokia N91 and the Samsung i300 — a new musicphone called (sorta lamely) the HTC Muse that runs on Windows Mobile 5.0 and has a 4GB of NAND Flash memory for storing media files, a 240 by 240 pixel display, triband GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS (and possible HSDPA), WiFi, Bluetooth, an integrated FM tuner, built-in stereo speakers, 64MB of RAM, 64MB of ROM, a microSD memory card slot, a 416MHz processor, a 2.1 megapixel digital camera with flash, and a second VGA camera on front for video calls. Anyone else feeling a little out of breath right now? Apart from that disappointingly low-res display, the Muse's specs seem pretty tight. No word yet on pricing or availability.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this one in]

[Dave @ Dec 19th 2005 12:20AM]

I actually am pretty surprised to see that this is a phone as well. I think it would make a great little media player product that is Windows Mobile based. I guess they are going after the i300, but it seems to make more sense to me for this to be almost an iPod Video style Windows Mobile product. In anycase, it looks like tons of fun.

[David T @ Dec 19th 2005 12:20AM]

SALVATION AT LAST! this looks like the perfect PDA/phone/portable media machine. and finally, 240x240 is gona be a viable screen resolution (after the hw6515). HTC is really going places.

[chris @ Dec 19th 2005 12:20AM]

This is very cool, but the big question is, how's the battery life. A minimum of 10 hours continuous battery life would be needed to be really useful as a media player.

Either way, I look forward to it.

[Chris's Male Lover @ Dec 19th 2005 12:20AM]

#2-Yea, because most of us don't work and need that 10 hours of playtime.

[will @ Dec 19th 2005 12:20AM]

is this a slider phone?

[chris @ Dec 19th 2005 12:20AM]

Well what would be a reasonable amount of battery life?

Where have you been lover, I've missed you!

[Evan Brom @ Dec 19th 2005 12:20AM]

Do you think we will even see this in North America?

[JL @ Dec 19th 2005 12:20AM]

#1, more like Creative Zen micro style than iPod..

IMHO...

[Eric Jacobsen @ Dec 19th 2005 12:20AM]

Why is "HTC Muse" a lame name? Beats the hell out of the ROKR, or something random like "HTC M1000x" etc.

[AFD @ Dec 19th 2005 12:20AM]

Looks nice. Wonder what the dimensions are?

[o0adam0o @ Dec 19th 2005 12:20AM]

It doesnt matter what HTC names it, most of there stuff is renamed once a carries picks it up.

[o0adam0o @ Dec 19th 2005 12:20AM]

It doesnt really matter what HTC names it, most of their stuff is renamed once a carrier picks it up.

Like the HTC Wizard and Tornado...these have so many names...tmobile and cingular have different names for them.

Also many of the features are left or diasabled, according to what the carrier wants.

You can also buy an unbranded one, but prepare to pay...

[matt @ Dec 19th 2005 12:20AM]

the battery life on this thing is gonna rock if it's using flash memory, or at least be a bit better than it would if it was hard drive based. spinning up a hard drive uses a bit more juice than all solid state memory. guess we'll see though (or, if we're in the states, we won't see unless we hit up ebay).

[dan warriner @ Dec 19th 2005 12:20AM]

the pressure to merge an ipod and a phone continues...

come on flash keep chuggin' i want a 32gb at least in that
how about apple mobile 5.0 as well
and while i'm still dreamin' how bout a 5.0 megapixels

[dansus @ Dec 19th 2005 12:20AM]

wow, what gadget. i want one now, just what ive been waiting for. 4gb flash, wifi and 3.5G for streaming. whos cares about battery life i just buy another bat, now if it only had a slide out keyboard....

[Eric @ Dec 19th 2005 12:20AM]

HEY! Its a black ipod wannabe phone running windows!!!

[Sean @ Dec 19th 2005 12:20AM]

wow....that's is just too cool. wat more can I request...with TV out..I can plug in to TV or Projector to do great Video Call...keeping video and mp3 as we'll as powerpoint presentations...plug to TV and play....cool man cool, I want it now

[Steve @ Dec 19th 2005 12:20AM]

"ipod wannabe phone"

An iPod wannabe? *sigh* Let's see... plays more music formats, streams music, plays more video formats, streams video, browses the web, makes calls, has non-lobotomised PDA features, plays non-crappy games, takes notes, plays presentations, translates languages, understands voice commands, allows connections to remote machines, has a dictionary, reads e-book, can use GPS and maps... etc etc

If you think ANY PDA/handheld is just an iPod wannabe, then you are just showing your ignorance... at this point in time it's either an iPod with crappy, half-hearted attempts at handling anything but music, or a PDA/Phone(s) which pummels the iPod in terms of features but sadly not storage space- although this 4gig Muse is an encouraging sign that the PDA/Phone manufacturers are more willing to compete on storage space now.

Bring it on!!! :cD

[xman @ Dec 19th 2005 12:20AM]

Just want them to add a sliding keyboard, which would increase its functionality and make it a true "all in one device" for my purposes.

The only other wishlist items I would want would be a slight bigger and higher resolution screen as well as built in GPS. More memory couldn't hurt (16GB of NAND) but we are still waiting on Samsung to develop this over the next 2 years.

[Nick @ Dec 19th 2005 12:20AM]

Muse? Plug In Baby!

[Pete @ Dec 19th 2005 12:20AM]

Nice. Can't wait.

[sunarso @ Dec 19th 2005 12:20AM]

what a great pda phone, it looks like future PDA and what an ergonomic pda, with the capable of play music i think this pda was the great pda