A little more on HTC's Touch Diamond
By Ryan Block 
posted May 6th 2008 12:01PM
posted May 6th 2008 12:01PM
- The Touch Diamond makes use of GPU accelerated procedural graphics, so you will not see a backward-compatible TouchFlow 3D update for the current Touch. It's capable of doing 7-8mil polygons per second (not that many games or apps will make use of that right now).
- HTC has made hiding WinMo away something of a priority; CMO John Wang stated, "You wouldn't even know this device was Windows Mobile. You would just think it's TouchFlow 3D."
- HTC totally reworked the WinMo virtual keyboard (as you can see above). Definitely not the best laid out we've seen (okay, it looks kind of messy), but it's instantly lightyears ahead of what WinMo had before.
- Opera "reflows" web formatting, which HTC is pitching hard. Basically it just reformats and wraps text on zoom -- unlike, say, the iPhone.
- Unfortunately, the device still uses a resistive touchscreen, while the controls below are capacitive. That really ought to be flipped around.
- And of course, we had to ask about Android: the first device is (still) coming later this year, but it will not br in the form of the Diamond.
Ummm, there any MANY more third party programs available for Windows Mobile then there are for Jailbroken iPhones.
Idiots. It doesnt have a Slide out keyboard so the onscreen keyboard is what you get. If you actually own A Windows Mobile Phone or an HTC youll find that underneath that keyboard theres a button to select from half a dozen other keyboard styles.
No need for 3rd party stuff..
Well actually, I for one use mainly third party keyboards, when i;m not using my slideout physical. But with this i wouldn't need to.
Don't call people idiots for having a different, but still perfectly valid, preference to you
"Windows Mobile? What Windows Mobile?
Hey, pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!"
I wonder how Microsoft feels about its partners doing their best to hide Microsoft's rusty junk behind a coat of shiny new paint?
Are you the new Apple fanboy jackass replacement for clak?
Because it seems like you cant add to any discussion without making a fool out of yourself.
Hey - I resent that. What am I, chopped liver? Man, I gotta work on my trolling skills.
"HTC has made hiding WinMo away something of a priority; CMO John Wang stated, 'You wouldn't even know this device was Windows Mobile. You would just think it's TouchFlow 3D.'"
Yeah, they almost fooled me... then I noticed the big Windows logo in the upper right-hand corner.
It's not like that's intrusive. They're just keeping one of the few attractive bits. They've even prettied up the start menu!
Left
What's the big deal with this freaking phone?
Oh, it has a lot of stuff the iphone doesn't have. Yeah, ok, but you'll never use them.
iphone killer, not! They're just following the bouncing business model. Like when everyone was putting "SPORT" on their clothes or when "Low Carb" was on every product. Today it Gonji Berries( to live 300 years old) and pomegranate( to keep your heart beating longer than it takes Uranium 238 to form lead).
iphone in my pocket once I get my tax rebate in June.
Can't wait!
Yes, I'm an Apple Fanboy.
We can tell.
Apple Fanboy = Steve Jobb Butt buy. You must be the only person that can tell if an iphone is 3g just by sitting on it.
FYI: the original HTC touch has already killed the iphone in sales. I'm sure this new touch will only continue the trend..
I prefer 3rd party input methods - pocket CM, Touchpal - to the 3 defaults (stylus keyboard, handwriting etc...).
Does this have expansion possibilities? This + 12GB card to bring it up to the $499 16GB iPhone is going to cost how much?
4GB is not enough.
No expansion, unfortunately :(
I really wish it had a capacitive touch screen... that really is a killer for me. I, for one, am looking for two things when I replace my Mogul:
1. Windows Mobile doesn't CHUG.
2. Smoother interface while using my phone. This includes not having to press down to drag my finger, which causes way more resistance and makes the experience so-so.
I wish it didn't have a stupid cheap 2.8" resistive screen either.
Let me guess, it'll turn out to have the same old suckful QVGA screen that HTC has been peddling since 1998. How many other devices have undergone "revision" in specs between the hype and the launch.
Revolution indeed.
READ THE DAMN ARTICLES
It's VGA
Ah yes, imitation is still the sincerest form of flattery. Now all you Mac-haters can have an iPhone without, uh, having one! Woohoo!
I can't think of any other single brand that commands such blind zealot like loyalty.
It boggles the mind.
Doesn't James?
Watch those iPhone haters boast how much they love the Diamond's Windows Mobile virtual keyboard because it's so much better than the iPhone OSX Mobile virtual keyboard (which they never tried).
WinMo users will claim it's predictive typing is far better because it actually figures out what they're thinking ahead of time. In a few months, WinMo users will claim MS lead the cellphone industry by being the first to use an onscreen keyboard in large numbers. Why? Because Microsoft is the tops in innovation.
An HTC Diamond is not an iPhone replica, it's more like an iPhone caricature. Did they really put WinMo 3.1 under TouchFlow 3D to get better menu speed?
Steffen Jobbs, it's actually the other way around. When Apple does something that's been done before Mac fans go all crazy and decide that Apple was first, etc.
I'm not biased, but don't spout your bullshit about any one being like that when your name is Steffen Jobbs and you're obviously an Apple Fanboy.
The fact that faithful HTC Touch users don't get the new diamond GUI is a bit of a disappointment. I would even be willing to pay for the new GUI. If these boys want to play with the likes of Apple they need to be willing to support updates for earlier gen devices. Especially when it comes to an enhanced touch experience for the user. That's what makes the iphone so successful. The Iphone GUI is like icrack once you use it you don't want to use anything. And with third party apps and the new 3g model coming soon they need to consider this stuff more seriously. Please not I don't own an Iphone. I
It's not that they don't want to support it, it's purely hardware
The hardware isn't the problem, us Touch users have the hardware, it's that the Diamond actually comes with drivers to use the hardware.
...good point.
I forget which devices have the hardware, it's usually just the Kaiser that gets mentioned
Expect the guys at xda-devs to port it to the other oolder device only it's only compatible with vga devices... =/
There's the other hardware issue! VGA!
i'm looking forward to the Maddox cartoon on this keyboard
i'm disappointed that android didn't debut on this device. it would have been a beautiful phone to launch a beautiful mobile os with. oh well, guess i'm still looking forward to getting and iphone.
i'll still wait for the Samsung Instinct.
This looks nice, however.
Samsung wha-now?
This looks pretty nice.
I'm disappointed they didn't pimp their lock screen. Where are pics and vids of that? C'mon HTC, show us some of that 3D accelerated S2U2. :)
On screen keyboards will always suck until they can improve upon the haptic feedback currently being implemented. I look foward to the HTC Raphael - although it will be hard to beat the Xperia. Tha is just one sweet feature rich phone.
Rapheal = more feature rich than the X1
But I thought all Windows Mobile users in this forum hated typing with virtual keyboards. Oh, that's right, only if it was on the iPhone.
Well, people, I think you'd better get used to using virtual keyboards on all top-of-the-line handsets from now on. That is, at least until Apple starts to use another form of input. Then the rest of the cellphone manufacturers will follow and start using that.
Correction
Steffen Jobbs = Steve Job's Butt boy. You are the only person that can tell if an iphone is 3g just by sitting on it. Loser.
You're the only one I've seen obsessed with SJ's butt, and so much so that you capitalize it.
Resistive touchscreen is actually better than capacitative since you can use stylus input more effectively on resistive screens. Capacitative buttons actually streamline device design but are hard to use without looking at the device. Also the new Touch keyboard design is actually really nice compared to the old Touch keyboard design which had both Suretype and normal keyboard functions. The addition of Shift symbols and active switching between T9 and QWERTY are a huge improvement.
I'm sure Microsoft doesn't really care that HTC is hiding a lot of Windows Mobile, since they're themselves working up WM7 and WM8 to update the OS.
Instead of waiting to buy an HTC Touch Diamond, I'm planning on getting an HTC Mogul soon, because for what I want it for I like the form factor better, a slide-out keyboard. Plus I get a expansion card slot, which, from what I hear the Touch Diamond doesn't have.
While Windows Mobile could use UI updates, I also don't care much for viewing my email in little graphical envelopes, and seeing graphical windshield wipers wipe my screen when its raining. Some of the visuals in the Touch Diamond are a bit overboard, they didn't know when to stop