T-Mobile has finally launched the HTC HD2 on its network. This has been a really anticipated phone by Windows Mobile users and others who just want a new slick phone. When buying this phone, remember that Windows Phone 7 Series is coming in a few months and that Sprint just announced the 3G/4G HTC Evo. The phone is available on the T-Mobile website and in stores for $199.99 on contract and $449.99 without a contract.

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T-Mobile announced yesterday that it would be carrying the HTC HD2 on the network. The bad news is that the phone will not be upgradeable to Windows Phone 7. Therefore, the phone will be outdated by the holiday season. The HTC HD2 has a 4.3-inch capacitive touch display that really shines. With a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, the HD2 will be snappier than most other Windows Mobile phones currently out there on the market. The phone will be available on March 24th for $449.99 on a Even More Plus plan, or $199.99 with a two-year contract.

SugarSync is a service that lets people sync all of their data to a cloud. It is great for backing up your files or sharing them with your friends, family, or coworkers. With great mobile solutions, SugarSync allows you to use your smartphone to view and upload files to the cloud. The application is currently available for the iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, and Windows Mobile phones.

SugarSync announced today a new way to upload files to the cloud, by using email. The users just forwards the email attachment to a unique email address and it will instantly sync to to all of their devices and the SugarSync. This is great for using when you are not near a computer.

The company has also launched a new update to their Android application. This update allows for local sync to the smartphone’s SD card and music streaming from remote recvices.

Lastly, SugarSync has also announced a new 500GB plan for users who want to store even more data on the cloud. This plan is available upon request.

Hit the jump for the full press release

SUGARSYNC LAUNCHES ‘UPLOAD BY EMAIL’; ADDS NEW 500 GB POWER USER STORAGE PLAN

Email attachments can now sync instantly to multiple computers and smartphones in one easy step

SAN MATEO, CALIF., February 24, 2010 – SugarSync Inc., makers of the award-winning SugarSync digital sync, backup and sharing service, today unveiled Upload by Email, a new feature designed to dramatically simplify the process of syncing email attachments to a user’s SugarSync ecosystem of computers and smartphones.

The new feature enables a SugarSync user to sync any email attachment to a dedicated folder in their SugarSync account by simply forwarding it to a special email address. Instantly, the file(s) is available on all synced devices.

“It’s our goal to make your data always available at your fingertips,” said Laura Yecies, chief executive officer at SugarSync. “Upload by Email eliminates the need to download attachments and re-save them. We’re happy to add another way to make sync your most important files easier and more transparent.”

For example, if a user receives an email with many attachments, they can simply forward it to their unique SugarSync email address (comprised of random numbers and letters for spam protection). All attachments will transfer to their SugarSync account – available on all of their devices immediately. This is much easier than downloading attachments one-by-one.

A user could also provide the unique email address to trusted friends and family or colleagues to upload photos or other documents directly to their PC. The email address can be easily changed from within SugarSync at any time.

Upload by Email is also a particularly valuable tool to sync a file while traveling. If a user sees an important attachment arrive in their inbox via any mobile phone with email or on a Web-based service, they can forward the email to the unique address. Next time they log into their computer, the attachment will be there, ready and waiting.

Lastly, many business users are plagued by limits to e-mail account sizes. With Upload by E-Mail, a user can forward the attachment and then delete the original e-mail to keep an account under pre-set limits.

For added security, SugarSync will scan all file attachments for viruses prior to syncing, and certain file types are not accepted (e.g., .exe, .cmd, .bat) to prevent malicious files from landing in an account.

SugarSync Raises Storage to 500 GB

The company also unveiled a new 500 GB SugarSync Plan ($39.99/mo, or $399/year USD introductory price). Previously, the highest level of storage available was 250 GB.

“The rate with which we consume gigabits is only increasing,” said Yecies. “Smartphones, with picture and video-taking capabilities, and streaming media services are only adding to this data explosion. As a result, we’ve had many requests for higher-storage accounts. We’re very happy to formalize this plan at an attractive introductory price for power users everywhere.”

Continued Yecies, “SugarSync can easily scale to support larger amounts of data while maintaining the level of control only found with our selective sync technologies. This is critical, because many new devices today, especially netbooks and tablets, are designed with limited local storage. Customers with large amounts of data need to be able to mix-and-match their folder syncing to maximize their storage and have offline access to important files.”

SugarSync is a flexible syncing and online backup service providing always-connected consumers and busy professionals a powerful way to organize, manage, share and access all their files on-the-go, instantly and securely from any Mac, PC or mobile device.

SugarSync supports virtually all computer and smartphone operating systems, including Windows, Mac, Android, iPhone, Blackberry, and WinMo. This breadth of support ensures that users can choose to work from virtually any device from any location.

# # #

About SugarSync:

SugarSync is a powerful sync, sharing and backup solution ideal for busy professionals and digitally-connected consumers. It enables users to access documents, photos and music across all of their devices, including desktops, laptops and smart phones. The company was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in San Mateo, California.

For more information please visit: www.sugarsync.com.

Today at Mobile World Congress Microsoft announced “the next generation of Windows Phones”, Windows Phone 7 Series. This redesign may be enough to bring Microsoft back as a major player in the mobile game.Windows Phone 7 Series uses hubs that bring together content from the web, apps, and services into a single view. There are six hubs built into the themes that come with the phones.

• The People hub is for those who love social media and want all their feeds available to them. They can post updates to Facebook and Windows Live in one quick step.
• The Pictures hub brings together phones and makes it easy to share them with social media networks.
• The Games hub will bring the Xbox LIVE experience directly to the phone. Users will be able to see their avatar, achievements, and game profile.
• The Music + Video hub essentially turns your phone into a Zune music player. Users can use the music from their PC, online music services, or listen to the built-in FM radio. Zune Social will let them share their recommendations with other music lovers.
• The Marketplace hub allows users to find applications and games and load them right onto the phone.
• The Office hub brings Office, OneNote, and Sharepoint Wordspace into the phone so users can read, edit, and share documents. There is also Outlook Mobile for email.

Windows Phone 7 Series will be available by holiday 2010. The phones be be available on AT&T, Deutsche Telekom AG, Orange, SFR, Sprint, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, Telstra, T-Mobile USA, Verizon Wireless and Vodafone, and manufacturers Dell, Garmin-Asus, HTC Corp., HP, LG, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Toshiba and Qualcomm Inc.

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Gadgeteers rejoice. HTC has released the first Windows Mobile 6.5 device thru Verizon Wireless, the HTC Imagio. The Imagio to some looks like a US version of the Touch HD, which was not released in the states. Time and time again we are left out of what people on the other side of the world are able to purchase and frequently wait for an announcement from a manufacturer to just shut us down. That looks to feel like those announcements are almost over. Since the bid for the 700 MHz spectrum has taken place, carriers are now more open to carry these handsets that are being released in other countries. Look at T-Mobile, in March they’re getting ready to launch the much anticipated, nerds dream phone, Windows Mobile Phone HTC Touch HD2. Verizon’s take in this is pretty simple, they didn’t get to launch the HD2, but they’re now trying to win over customers by getting more fashionably pretty handsets that get the job done; and make no mistake, while the Imagio screams buy me with that speaker grill/bezzel that makes it look oh so pretty, its as professional than any other PDA the rest of the carriers offer. Will the Imagio shine in places where other Windows Phones don’t? Find out after the jump for more information.

Hardware
What you see is what you get. The Imagio is one of the most beautiful Windows Phone devices made to date. The grill surrounding the front casing of the phone adds a little more than glamor into the picture. It comes with a 3.6-inch WVGA resistive touchscreen, Wi-Fi, GPS, a 5MP camera, 3.5mm headphone jack, microSD storage expansion (unfortunately it doesn’t include a card) and proximity sensor. It’s also the first smartphone with V-CAST Mobile TV, which is a Flo-TV based live streaming TV service that looks and feels a bit like digital cable, but made for a phone. It also has a valuable kickstand for picture and video viewing pleasure. When using the phone out in public, people thought I was using an iPhone 3GS because of its slick rounding edges and quarter glossy battery cover. From far it does look like an iPhone but its not. The build of the phone is very solid and feels very comfortable in your hands. The Imagio’s design features are very minimalistic. The volume keys are on the right, as well as the camera button, a row of buttons rests just beneath the screen, and the miniUSB charging port and 3.5mm jack are at the bottom end of the phone. Having the volume keys on the right side is different from most HTC phones, but sometimes change is good. When you use the kickstand to watch videos, having the volume keys on the right side makes them accessible due to the horizontal screen orientation. The button row contains your Answer, Multimedia, Start, Back, and End buttons. The end button doubles as a power on/off button.

Under the Hood

The Imagio features a Qualcomm 7600 series, 528MHz processor along with 288MB of RAM for all of your power user needs. The processor is pretty much the same that has been in the last few previous HTC devices, but with the bump in RAM at 288MB, it has a nice amount of extra speed to it so it doesn’t slow down as much as prior models did. With that being said, opening programs and switching between each of them is a breeze. There was little to no lag at all while having 10+ programs opened at the same time so that goes to show how Microsoft can stick it to Apple in one way. Under the back cover is the removable battery that is 1500mAh battery that should last you a whole day without charging it in the middle with moderate usage. I got through almost two whole days with emails, texting, web browsing and phone calls. Pretty good to know that I can rely on this if I need something to get me through a whole day or two. Underneath the battery you’ll find the sim card slot for international capabilities as well as the microSD slot and reset button. Usually the reset button on HTC devices is on the bottom, I wonder why they decided to place this one under the back cover. The Imagio is also equiped with bluetooth and Wi-Fi. The odd thing about the Wi-Fi is that you can turn it on/off in the settings window of WM 6.5 but in the TouchFLO Communications Manager, it is set to automatically turn on.

Media Device or Smartphone?

Windows Mobile isn’t usually known for their screen resolutions in all of their handsets (Touch HD & HD2 are the exceptions) or for music quality. Now replacing your iPod Touch or other personal PMP player is taking it to the extreme, but watching videos and listening to music on the Imagio is quite a pleasure. The sound of music is pretty much on par with an iPod and while video quality isn’t the best on this screen, a simple conversion using some type of program makes the viewing on this screen a delight to look at. The usual video codecs are on site such as .wmv, H.263, H.264. I also installed a DivX player and had no problem viewing a .divx and .xvid movie file. With that being said, I’m fondled on how come HTC didn’t implement their very own media player like they did with the Hero.

Call Quality
The call quality on the Imagio is great. Callers said I sounded loud and clear without any distortion. I had service pretty much everywhere I went and didn’t suffer from any dropped calls. Even in places where my Storm2 didn’t receive any bars the Imagio had one or two bars of 1X just so a call can come through. While listening to who I was speaking with, I noticed there was a slight hissing sound like their was with the LG Dare. Now I’m not sure if that was just my device doing that or if its an issue altogether, I’ll update the info on that when I find out more details. The speakerphone sounded loud and clear, even on its highest level. There was no distortion and the callers didn’t sound choppy when speaking. It would have been nice for HTC to implement the speaker button on the back of the Imagio just like on the TP2, but you can’t get everything right?

Windows Marketplace

I know what you’re thinking, “Not another marketplace”. Truth is, yes its another one. Since Apple has come out with theirs, it is almost in everyone’s utmost passion to develop a marketplace to have customers purchase software and games to stay interested with either their devices or the platform they are currently using. The Windows Marketplace is pretty new to the game and developers are creating applications for the platform. Now with that being said, applications should be a cinch to create for this platform since it has been out for almost a decade, but that doesn’t seem to be the case here. Developers are pretty much focused on the iPhone about 75% of the time and the closest app store is the Android one. How many apps are there available in the App Store now, somewhat close to 150,000? That is completely massive. Windows has some catching up to do. Besides that, the Marketplace is actually quite nice to look at though. When you enter the Marketplace, you have a search bar placed at the top as well as featured applications available for download. Directly under that you have a few categories to make finding your application a breeze. It’s broken down as follows: Showcase, Most Popular, What’s New, Categories and My Applications. The Showcase section is for the premium applications available for purchase. Most Popular, well, speaks for itself as well as What’s New, Categories and My Applications. Categories is broken down by categories (don’t need rocket science to figure that out ehh) such as business center, games, entertainment, and lifestyle. I like the overall style of the Marketplace, it’s nicely developed and categorized. Hopefully in the near future they have a bigger selection in applications, it’s still new so only time will tell.

Email/Messaging

The HTC Imagio supports SMS, MMS and email. SMS and MMS share an inbox and a message editor and thanks to TouchFLO, you can enjoy scrolling in the inboxes and through longer messages. The Message tab offers a great interface for managing messages. With the nice interface and touch-optimization it’s highly unlikely you will ever switch back to the standard Windows SMS inbox. The email inbox is also available as a homescreen tab with an eye-catching view. The email editor will hold no surprises for experienced WinMo users as it has not changed at all. Setting up your email is easy as it is on most of the latest mid or high range phones. You type your email and password and all the other steps are configured automatically. HTC has equipped the device with a set of home-grown thumbable virtual keyboards. It’s a commendable feature since the default Windows Mobile keyboards are fit for stylus use only. The first keyboard is a regular 9-key multi-tap keypad, the second one is a brand new full QWERTY and the third one is a regular Windows Mobile QWERTY optimized for use with a stylus. The new QWERTY differs from the previous one in button placement and a five-row design that gives you all four navigation arrows in the final row. In landscape mode you get the typical three-row full QWERTY with nav-keys on the right. In applications where screen auto-rotation is enabled, you also get larger landscape versions of those keyboards. The keys are big enough, the gaps between the letters takes away the chances to hit two letters in the same time and the button’s places are very well placed.

Web Browsing

With EVDO Rev. A and Wi-Fi in the mix, web browsing and data consumption shouldn’t be a problem. Where I am currently located, the EVDO Rev. A speeds are currently blazing fast like the Millennium Falcon going into warp speed and I have no problems with connecting at all. So downloading images, emails, songs and applications should be as fast right? Correct. Here is why. The Imagio comes with Opera 9.5 and Internet Explorer 6 right out of the box and they are both good browsers in their own ways. Opera as you all know, uses a compression technology unlike no other to render fully blown web-pages on mobile devices and for that reason, it is the default browser on the Imagio. The Opera browser is extensively touch-optimized and draws inspiration from the iPhone’s Safari. The browser has matured since its introduction in the Touch HD and has been updated time after time to perform with no bugs and that is a sure pleasure. The Imagio offers automatic screen rotation inside the web browser and Opera 9.5 offers a landscape QWERTY, but in the presence of the hardware one this option won’t be necessary. It also comes with a handy download manager which keeps track on the files you are currently downloading and downloaded previously. So after all of the mobile Safari comparison, do you understand why I said it’s blazing fast previously? One word, Opera.

Battery Life

It’ll do. Just kidding. Through two weeks of using the Imagio, battery life was above average. With constant emails, texting, web browsing, tweeting and listening to music, the Imagio lasted me throughout the whole day. HTC has given us a very good 1500 mAh battery to back up this Multimedia monster or however which way you plan on using it. If the Imagio didn’t have the Sense UI in this, I doubt it would last half a day since Sense does consume massive data for its programs. I connected the Imagio on a land line call and let it go until its last breathe to test out the battery life on a call. The results surpassed the specs sheet HTC has given us, 5.3 hours to the 5 hours already given. So a little extra juice is always a benefit to know that you can go a whole day or so with this device.

Conclusion

The HTC Imagio from Verizon Wireless is a fine handset. The stylish and sleek looks may have people think you are using an iPhone until they see the front and notice it isn’t. Would I purchase one for my personal usage? That answer is no. It is not a bad phone don’t get me wrong. I’m just never satisfied with just one phone for a certain amount of time. Would I purchase this phone for my wife? Yes. Something that can get her through the day and let her be able to see a few emails here and there with massive texting on a responsive screen; she’ll definitely jump on it. It’s also the kind of phone that females would consider “cute” mainly because its sleek, slim and pocketable. You can’t sell a phone now that is bulky because people want to put their devices in their skinny jeans all of a sudden and it seems that HTC and Verizon continues to go that route (with the exception of the Touch Pro2). Overall, this is a great phone. It gets the job done when it needs to and is reliable at times when needed. It earns my stamp of approval. Will you give it the same?

Firefox, one of the Internet’s best web browsers, is now working on a project for the Android platform and it will probably be known as Fennec as well. Fennec, which means little fox, is currently still in the alpha stage for the Windows Mobile Phone platform and has been like that for almost close to a year. Just a little ove 7 months ago we heard that the Mozilla company was working on a browser fr the Android platform and now that product is coming to reality. There are reports on the German Mozilla community website that they are preparing the first Beta (Fennec) for Android to be out in February. To make things even more interesting, the Google Labs site listed a Labs Night meeting for yesterday where Jay Sullivan (Mozilla VP of Mobile) would discuss their mobile strategy and demo the FireFox for Android beta. It will be interesting to see what Mozilla can do for the Android platform because their stock browser is getting a tad bit better at rendering full websites and quicker loading times on each software update. Now we can’t forget about the downloadable Dolphin browser, which implements multi-touch in the browser, something that the stock Android browser doesn’t have.

Source AndroidSPIN

UPDATE: It appears that February was a bit “optimistic” and Firefox for Android is more likely several months away although progress is being made quickly. To follow progress of the project visit this link.

Good news for those looking to replace the stock Android browser on your device. The first beta version of Firefox for Android (Fennec) will be released in February 2010. Currently, Firefox is among the most popular PC browsers, and my personal favorite. We have seen Fennec operating on the Nokia N900, but now with Firefox for Android the company’s plans go even further.

Microsoft’s launch of Windows Mobile 6.5 is past due.  There has been little excitement for the release as Microsoft still falls behind Google, Research in Motion and Apple.  HTC Corp is going with Android for its top phones.  Motorola is entering the market with its focus on Android as well.   Unlike Google, Microsoft charges licensing fees to mobile makers using the software.  It seems to be a little too late for Microsoft, but only time will tell how there ‘new’ venture pans out.  Bill Gates might have to bring his genius back into the game if Microsoft wants to get its edge back.

Read more about Microsoft Mobile 6.5

Adobe unveiled the first Flash Player for smartphones today. Adobe Flash Player 10.1 will be compatible for most smartphones, sorry iPhone users but Steve Jobs isn’t on board yet. Phones running Windows Mobile, Symbian, webOS, Android, and BlackBerry OS will be the chosen phones that will be compatible with Flash. Public betas for Android and Symbian are expected to be available in early 2010. We are all very excited that Adobe has finally hit the smartphone world with Flash as it has been one of the most anticipated browser addition for a while now.

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Microsoft recently announced the availability of “Windows phones” (AKA Windows Mobile 6.5 phones). Starting on October 6th, these phones will be available on carriers all over the world including AT&T, Bell, Sprint, TELUS, and Verizon. These phones are from various manufacturers including HP, HTC Corp., LG Electronics, Samsung and Toshiba. Windows Mobile 6.5 introduced a new OS that has a lot of new features. The user interface has been redesigned to be more touch friendly and make everything easier to use. It will also have a new version of Internet Explorer that will be much improved.

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Nothing beats the iPhone when it comes to ease of use, but when you need a phone packed with features. The Sony Ericsson Xperia X1a is here for you. Let me start off by saying that this phone is in fact a Windows Mobile 6.1 cellular phone. So that means for all you Windows Mobile haters, this phone isn’t for you.

Pricing and Specs:

The Sony Ericsson Xperia X1a goes for $249.99 on a 3-year term or $549.99 with no contract and is available in French or English on the Rogers Wireless website. The x1a specs:

• HSDPA 7.2 Mbps
• GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
• 110.5 x 52.6 x 17 mm
• 145 g
• 800 x 480 pixels, 3.0 inches
• Full QWERTY keyboard
• Optical trackpad
• 256 MB RAM, 512 MB ROM
• Wi-Fi 802.11b/g
• GPS w/ A-GPS Support
• Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional
• 3.5mm Headphone jack

Screen & Navigation:

The Sony Xperia X1a is a full touchscreen phone which features a high resolution 800 x 480 pixels, 3.0 inches screen. Unfortunately, the LCD is not like the iPhone screen. In order to navigate around using the touch screen. You must press, unlike the iPhone where you could just tap. The X1a also includes a stylus for the small buttons on the screen that your fingers just can’t press. One big disappointment is that the LCD screen is not flush with the surface of the phone. This causes dust build-up around the edge of the screen which can be fairly hard to clean.

The X1a features an optical track pad which can be very useful when browsing through websites. The track pad also acts as a enter button with 4 surrounding d-pad buttons. There is also the answer and end key as well as an ok button, 2 soft-keys and X-Panel button which will bring up custom panels for your home screen.

Messaging:

Sony hasn’t changed anything with text messaging. The Windows Mobile 6.1 software features threaded text messages though and will help you organize your text messages. The messaging application is very organized. It has a drop-down menu which provides you subfolders including inbox, outbox, as well as drafts and sent items. Email is also easy to setup like any other windows mobile device.

X-Panel:

The Sony Xperia X1a features a customizable home screen called the X-Panel. These home-screens can be downloaded off the Sony mobile website on the phones browser. Each panel has a specific use can can be customized to your liking. Application like Facebook also have there own panel which can be downloaded off the mobile browser.

Keyboard:

Sony has implemented a large slide out 4 row qwerty keyboard that is very helpful when typing long messages. Unfortunately, the Sony’s on-screen virtual keyboard requires the stylus provided with the phone because of the extra small letters. I have even missed a few letters when typing with a stylus because of how small the on-screen keyboard is. The slide out keyboard has rectangular keys and are easy to use and keys are spaced out apart nicely. I found that the keys are somewhat to flush to the phone and sometimes have a hard time typing quickly. I liked how Sony has provided a large space bar as well as a large enter key which helps typing quicker.

Call Quality:

I found that call quality is superb and passed my expectations. I was able to hear the other person very loud and clear without distortions and the other person was able to hear me perfectly. Dialing is also easy and contacts are sorted alphabetically. My one problem was that the signal was not as good as what Sony Ericsson has done before. I compared signal strength between this and the Sony K790a through basements and secured storage rooms and found that the K790a outperformed the X1a even though its only a tri-band phone.

Camera Quality:

The Sony Xperia X1a has a 3.2 megapixel with LED flash. Picture quality is as expected, amazing. The camera is a bit slow when loading up, auto-focusing and selecting options in the settings menu. The camera has a macro mode as well as sport, black and white and others which gives this phone a great photo capturing experience. One thing I really didn’t like about the camera was that there’s no auto-flash. The camera must be set to either having flash on or off which can be annoying when taking pictures in mid/low light.

Battery Life:

The battery life on this phone is by far one of the best I have used on any Windows Mobile smartphone. The phone was able to last almost 2 full days with normal usage and 1 full day with extreme browsing, streaming, and music playing out loud with the speakers. When not touching the phone at all. It was able to last 5 days on stand-by without a single charge which is amazing for any smartphone. The phone has a 3.6v 1500/1450mAh Li-Polymer battery and is fairly large. The Sony BST-41 battery goes for $89.99 USD at SonyStyle which is pricey for a battery but for how long the battery charge holds. You won’t be needing to worry about that for along time.

Conclusion:

The Sony Ericsson Xperia X1a is the top-of-the-line phone on the Sony Ericsson line-up. The phone is very well built and is fully made of metal and some small pieces of solid plastic. The sliding mechanism is well built and will be able to withstand your daily sliding. The phone has some weight to it which makes it solid and durable. I believe that this phone has lots of potential because it is well built with quality material without any lack of features, but the main problem of this phone is that Sony has chosen to use Windows Mobile 6.1 OS which brings this amazing piece of gadget down a few levels. The slowness of navigating through menu’s makes this phone almost impossible for me to use as a daily gadget and unbearable to even make a phone call. I do see that this phone has potential and can be customized and maybe somewhere out in the internet world. Someone will be able to create a better OS that doesn’t lag or have as much freezings.

Photo Examples: