huashan
Latest
The Art of Wushu: Talking Mount Hua with Age of Wushu's Peter Kang
A day or two after writing about the Mount Hua expansion last time, I had the chance to sit down with community manager Peter Kang -- better known to the Age of Wushu playerbase as Earthquake -- and talk about the various changes in the expansion. We had a fairly long talk. Like true wuxia fanboys, we derailed quite a bit to talk about Legend of Condor Heroes, but we discussed where Wushu is, where Snail would like it to go, and the relationship between Snail USA and the dev team in China. It was pretty enlightening because he clearly plays the game and is acutely aware of the impact the company's decisions has on players.
Sony Xperia SP render possibly spied, puts the Xperia Z design in a smaller package
So you're enamored with the Xperia Z's premium look, but not the slightly hand-defying 5-inch screen size. There might not be reason to worry: an apparent press-quality image making the rounds in China shows the Xperia SP (aka Huashan), which now seems to be a more compact expression of Sony's Omnibalance design. The render doesn't suggest much on its own besides a familiar software layout, although previous rumors have hinted that it could be a slightly reworked Xperia T with a similar 4.6-inch 720p display, a faster 1.7GHz Snapdragon S4 and a scaled back 8-megapixel camera. While there's nothing here to validate talk of a launch as soon as next week, the existence of a seemingly final press shot implies that there won't be long to wait for the real deal.
Sony 'Huashan' and 'Taoshan' smartphones hinted at by retailer listings
The trouble with online retailers listing pages for rumored products is that you can never tell if it's a genuine leak or the work of hopeful database technicians. That's why we'll keep our emotions in check to tell you that references to a Sony C5303 Huashan and C2105 Taoshan have cropped up over the last few days. Since neither handset made an appearance at MWC, we're left wondering if they really do exist -- or if we're just a chess piece in Leonardo DiCaprio's mind.
HTC Hengshan and Huashan Windows phones make another online cameo (update)
The Android-powered Vision isn't HTC's only possible user agent-borne leak from this week. Now comes word of two potential Windows Phone 7 devices , the HuaShan and T5588 HengShan. The former has a 480 x 800 screen (no obvious relation to the Mondrian spotted yet) while the latter sports the more typical 320 x 480. Beyond that and an apparent lack of physical keyboards, we're kind of in the dark here -- assuming this turns out to be legit, but those names popped up previously on a roadmap with a 4.3-inch / 3.4-inch screen size, respectively. At any rate, whether or not it's this pair, we definitely have at least some HTC Windows Phone 7 devices to look forward to by the end of 2010. Update: Perhaps we spoke too soon on the platform of choice -- as WMExperts points out, other parts of the profile hint at not Windows Phone 7, but actually the soon-to-be classic Windows Mobile 6.5.3. Enthusiasm lowered? Ours, too.
HTC Dragon and friends turn up on Dopod roadmap
The HTC Dragon may not be quite the same mythical beast it once was now that the Nexus One has stolen some of its thunder, but it is still an actual device and, according to a recently leaked Dopod roadmap, it's headed for China in the second quarter of this year. Details are otherwise a bit light, but it is apparently an Android device (as expected) and packs a 3.6-inch WVGA display. Joining it over the course of the year are the 3.4-inch, Android-based A6388, the 4.3-inch Huashan (apparently now a Windows Mobile device -- possibly an HD2 successor?), the 3.2-inch Tianshan, and the considerably smaller Songshan phone, both of which are also Android phones, and should be out in either Q3 or Q4. Still no indication of a release for any of them over here, unfortunately, but something's bound to give with that many HTCphones floating about.
