Palm Treo Pro Sized Up Against Competition

Most of us can size up the functionality of a phone from its spec sheet, but a phone's practicality, usability and enjoyability falls to a whole other series of factors. Form factor is a biggie. In this clip, you'll see the Treo Pro literally sized up against the smartphone competition (including the Palm Centro, Motorola Q9H, the BlackBerry Bold, the iPhone 3G, the HTC Touch Diamond and more. If you're at work and can't play the audio track, just turn it off and you'll still get most of the effect.

HTC announces S740: because two keypads are better than one

ooking for the Touch Pro in a slightly less conspicuous package? HTC (who else?) thinks it has the answer in the S740, a pretty thorough revamp of the S710 of old. The basic concept is the same -- wrap Windows Mobile Standard into a candybar package with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard

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First Android Release Will Have iPhone-Style Crippled Bluetooth, No Google Talk

Over on the official Android Developers Blog, Googler Dan Morrill has news of what won't be making it into Android 1.0—a full featured-Bluetooth stack and data messaging via Google Talk API. Android 1.0 will work with Bluetooth headsets, but won't do other things like send files or link up to a PoGo printer, just like the iPhone. Google Talk will be missing completely. Thankfully, the reasoning behind both decisions seems to make sense: Google Talk's security is nowhere near where it needs to be in order to function as the core IM service for a huge mobile platform as intended, and a full Bluetooth API simply isn't done yet, but both should show up in future iterations. Apparently any frameworks in the 1.0 SDK would be impossible to greatly change down the road, so it sounds like Google's taking the smart route and not rushing out inferior code.

Windows Mobile 6.1 Comes to the AT&T Tilt

HTC and AT&T have just released a free Windows Mobile 6.1 upgrade for the AT&T Tilt. This brings the latest version of Microsoft's operating system to this widely-used smartphone.

Among the enhancements are:

* Threaded SMS
* Microsoft Voice Command
* OneNote Mobile
* PTT Button now reassignable

HTC TiltThis ROM upgrade is available now on HTC's website. It is a free download.

More About the AT&T Tilt

For the benefit of those who are now interested in learning more about the Tilt because of this upgrade, this smartphone is practically loaded down with features.

Among these are 3G cellular-wireless networking and Wi-Fi, a GPS receiver, a built-in landscape-oriented keyboard, and a 3 MPx camera.

What's a ROM Update?

The ROM is where the operating system and built-in applications are stored. Changes made to the files in ROM are permanent and will survive the device undergoing a hard reset.

Updating the ROM will erase everything that's on the smartphone, so it's important to back up any files before installing the new version of the operating system. This doesn't apply to files that are on a removable memory card.

Sony Ericsson's XPERIA X1 reviewed in breathtaking detail

If you're looking for pictures from every conceivable angle of Sony Ericsson's first foray into the danger-fraught tar pit that is Windows Mobile, well, here you go. In fact, Smape goes so far as to take a look at both the black and metallic versions of the X1 (but don't get to attached to the metallic one just yet, seeing how it might have gotten the axe in some markets), noting that they're assembled exceptionally well and exude a premium look that's rarely seen in the WinMo realm. Unfortunately, they've dinged the keyboard for the same crappy feel observed elsewhere, something we're all hoping gets fixed by the time it hits production in a couple months' time. With that wild panel interface, you might expect some pretty miserable performance when you have the thing going at full tilt; fortunately, though, Smape reports that lags occur "only occasionally," which is better than "frequently" or "always" as far as we're concerned. Camera performance is said to be better than the Touch Pro's, though both HTC and Sony Ericsson (via HTC, ironically) still have plenty of time to tweak that via a well-placed firmware update or two. At any rate, we're definitely looking forward to seeing this thing finally materialize so the Touch Pros and X1s of the world can start duking it out in those rough, dog-eat-dog professional trenches of the world.