HTC Incredible Simulator

Gotta try it before you pre-order it, but can't touch one yet? Try the simulator! 


Not really a simulator, but still fun to look at.

Engadget Droid Incredible review, plus it does tethering

Engadget gives the Incredible a generally very positive review. Particularly the Sense UI. They did not review:

• Tethering
• Friend view
• Footprints
• FM Radio

Here are some notable comments:

HTC has included a handful of its own widgets alongside some of the familiar stock ones which Google offers. Of course, the widgets (and their corresponding apps) which HTC offers generally offer far more functionality than Google's options, and they're also tied together with Sense in way that makes the experience of using them within the OS feel complete -- something notably missing from the Google-only experience. To say that this UI is competitive with something like iPhone OS 3.1 (or 4 for that matter), or Palm's webOS is an understatement; in many ways it's superior to what Apple and Palm are offering.

Besides just the cosmetic stuff, HTC has also done seriously heavy lifting in the details department, continuing to improve the music, video, and photo browsing options on their devices, as well as making their fantastic on-screen keyboard even better in this higher resolution version. We found finger tracking and typing speed to be considerably improved, as well as word prediction and correction. Apple, watch your back... HTC has done a damn good job of sneaking up on your tech, and maybe improving on it. We can't stress this enough: HTC has made a really good OS (Android) into a truly amazing and competitive OS.

Overall the experience with 2.1 and Sense was a complete pleasure -- using the phone felt fast and efficient. We'd like to point out that we've been running the Incredible without any third party task managers, and without manually killing any applications. Android is designed to multitask without the need for utilities of the sort, and based on Steve Jobs' words from the recent iPhone OS 4 event, we were extra curious to see how this brand new build of the software would fare. We can tell you this -- it hasn't let us down yet, and we're not seeing any sluggish behavior or force closes on apps. If this OS has a need for management of its processes, we haven't experienced it yet.

Still no official word on cost (or lack of cost) for tethering, but it is something the phone can do and Verizon is saying so publicly.

Hey ars, Qualcomm's Scorpion is not a Cortex A8 processor

The tech blog arstechnica.com gets a lot of stuff technically right. But as they do in their latest post, Google at the crossroads: a review of the Nexus One, they often incorrectly refer to Qualcomm's Scorpion CPU as a "Cortex A8".

With a 1GHz Snapdragon (ARM Cortex A8) processor, it should have enough power to get through nearly any task that a mobile user might throw at it.

Scorpion is not a Cortex A8. Cortex A8 refers to ARM Holdings Inc's implementation of their ARMv7-A cpu architecture. As one of handful of companies holding an ARM architectural license, Qualcomm has built its own "clean sheet" implementation of the ARMV7-A architecture. That means it is instruction set compatible - but not that it is a copy of the Cortex A8.

A fair review none-the-less! Go Snapdragon!

News and Observer talks up Lenovo Smartbook

The News and Observer right here in Raliegh reports about Lenovo's big bet on Smartbooks. The report includes a mention of Lenovo's site in Morrisville:


Although the Chinese computer maker is at the forefront of this new category, a flurry of competition is expected to emerge next year because of the market potential. Lenovo has a headquarters in Morrisville, where it employs 1,500.

However, they do not mention that we developed the Scorpion CPU and the Snapdragon chip going inside that Lenovo smartbook right here in Raliegh.

I was disappointed!

Verizon Android Devices Look Good

A while ago I said that Verizon did not have the iPhone but I'd be tempted by an Andriod phone. I'm also most interested if the phone has a chip in it that I worked on.

Recently news broke that I'm likely to get my hands on just such a phone. The HTC Passion. Looking at video of the HTC Hero vs. the iPhone 3Gs (for the OS review), I'm getting very excited about seeing the Passion in person. I really like the contact centric and back-ground app capable Android OS vs the iPhone's app centric approach.

Seeing this mini intro to Android 2.0, which the Passion will have, really gets me excited. It looks fantastic.

Judging by Apple's market share, it seems these Andriod phones can't come a soon enough. I don't mind Apple cleaning everyone else's clocks - but choice is good too. Better is a choice between two good phones - rather than settling for a bad phone because you want the good network (Verizon).

Looks like HTC also gets it.

I'm looking forward to giving up my Chocolate, finally. What about you?