When the HTC Desire HD was announced back in mid-september, the htcsense.com website was announced with it, and it is now open for registration. The website serves as tool for controlling and connecting with your phone though the internet. Services on the website include online texting and SMS management, a phonebook manager which allows you to edit, sync and backup contacts with your computer, and access to Google Maps along with the Navigation and Footsteps apps (as seen in the picture and as expained in one of the previous articles). You can also browse for apps on HTC's own app store, with the possibility of marking apps that you wants to later download on his phone. More importantly, htcsense.com serves as security measure for your phone. In case you lose it you can force it to ring loudly, locate it on a worldwide map with great precision, or forward calls made to the phone to another number. If you don't find your phone you can lock it and place a message for the finder, or in worst case completely erase the information stored on the phone. This is however only available to owners of phones suppported by htcsense.com, which means only HTC Desire HD and HTC Desire Z. If you sign up with another phone, the website's functions are limited to:
Register your products with HTC for warranty
Receive the exclusive HTC Sense newsletter with the latest news and offers from HTC
Download ringtones and wallpaper for your phone
Something to keep in mind regarding the htcsense.com website, however, is that it requires the phone to constantly be connected to the internet in order to fully work, costing you both extra money (depending on your data plan) and battery life. It is a great initiative by HTC nontheless.
Even though this dosen't have much to do with the HTC Desire HD, I still thought it was worth posting.
According to Gizmodo, both the HTC phones Desire and Legend will be available in one new color each starting in Octover (now). The Desire will get "Brilliant White", as shown above,and the Legend will get "Phantom Black". My immediate impression was that the new Desire color is incredibly beautiful (making it even more desirable !), and now I hope that we will maybe see the Desire HD being available in the same color.
If you look at the top of blog under the title, you can see that the timer for the launch of the Desire HD is running out (14 hours, 54 minutes, 6 seconds left in the moment of writing). Now, when I added the countdown I based it on the supposed delivery date many websites stated for pre-orders, which was the 6th of October (tomorrow!). All we can do now is hope and see how valid that date is, and then tomorrow, with some luck, maybe some of us will get a brand new phone showing up in their mail boxes!
Please leave a comment to this post if your phone arrives, stating your first impression :)
EDIT: Because of the postponed release, the countdown has now been set to the new release date, the 19th of October. Sorry for any inconvenience caused.
Many of all the car crashes that happen are caused by various distractions caused to the driver. A common distraction, as you probably already know, is the use of mobile phones for texting or calling. The developers working for HTC thought of this, however, and have delivered a solution called Car Panel, which was made to reduce the distraction caused by using your phone while driving. Car Panel is an application that is a part of the Sense UX. Basically, what it does is allows you to access your phone in the simplest way possible. Your homescreen is exchanged for a page filled with big and clear shortcuts for the neccesities (like calling). Colorful icons are also included to make the different features more recognisable and more easily accesible . The aim is to make things simple in order to reduce time used on the phone when driving, ultimately making it a safer experience.
The app is also closely linked to the map app, which was previously discussed. What this means is that you also have easy acccess to navigation and other map feautures. This includes a feature called "Nearby", which lets you see nearby things like restaurants, gas stations, or parking spaces. "Foot prints" can also be used, which lets the user see where he has previously been in his driving journeys. Essentially, the Car Panel app allows for the Desire HD to become an intelligent GPS system that combines maps and the normal phone features, and at the same time making them easily accesible to reduce the risk of using a phone while driving.
As a side note, a car holder is probably required for the app to do any good.
Here is a video showing some features of "Car Panel": (0:40-3:55)
The HTC Evo 4G, which was another smartphone very similar to the upcoming Desire HD, is equiped with the HDMI-out feature. This allows for connecting the phone to an HD tv through an HDMI cable, and then viewing media stored on the phone, such as videos or pictures, on the hd tv. It allows for a maximum of 720p. With a little bit of modding, if I'm not mistaken, it's also possible to use the tv as an external monitor for the phone, meaning you could play games on the big screen. One of the downsides of the HDMI out is that you have to purchase a special and quite pricey Micro-D sized hdmi cable to be able to start streaming.
One of the neat things about the new sense UX that will be implemented in the Desire HD is its new map application that has been built in. The difference between this map and the ones of other smart phones is that this one allows for offline use. This, ofcourse, can be extremely useful, with regard to those times when you need directions or a map the most, but it is not avaliable to you (i.e. out of service range, no wifi, etc). With the new app that will be built in (and free) on the Desire HD, this will however no longer be a problem, since offline viewing has been added. In my honest opinion, this is one of the deal breakers that make the Desire HD just that much better than other alternatives at the moment (for example IPhone 4).
Here is a short overview of the map application. Keep in mind that it is in the beta stage and is still in development, so it does not run perfectly. The Desire HD rom has been ported to an older HD2 in this video, and that phone is used for the demonstration:
The rom (software) of the Desire HD has already been ported to the older sibling the HTC Desire. I must say, the performance is incredible! This means that you could potentially buy a regular Desire for cheaper with similar results, if you are low on money that is. A reason for why the HD rom is better than the old Desire rom is that the HD has the newest version of sense (HTC's user interface), which has been packed with new apps and other tweaks. One cool thing is that you can now change the theme of the phone. The map app has also been upgraded to allow for offline browsing, which is in my opinion one of the best changes.
Here is a video of a Desire running the new HD rom:
This blog has been made to track the upcoming HTC Desire HD. News and other developments will be posted here so that you, the reader, can stay updated. Things like reviews may also be posted later on when he phone has been released. Here is some info on the phone:
The HTC Desire HD was officialy announced on the 15th of september 2010 during HTC's annual launch event (link to engadget coverage). It was announced together with the Desire Z. The Desire HD have been geared with a state of the art 1 GHZ processor, a massive 4.3 Inch screen (great for watching movies, playing games, browsing the internet, or reading e-books), and 768 MB of ram. It is also packed with the latest in social networking and an 8 MP camera that is able to film in HD (hence the name?). HTC has also included their popular signature user experience called Sense, which basically makes using the phone a more personal experience. At launch the phone will run the operating system Android 2.2.
