Thursday, June 25, 2009

HTC Releases Third Android Phone, Sporting New Look And Flash

Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC has released its third Android phone, the HTC Hero, which has been picked up by France Telecom’s UK carrier Orange, as the first Android device in its portfolio of phones, the companies said today.

The Hero also sports the smartphone maker’s new user interface, HTC Sense. The UI, which has been two years in the making will be used in all forthcoming HTC devices, and according to the company, will help set it apart from its competitors. Sense, for example, does not organize the phone’s interface by application, but rather by a person’s contacts. Instead of digging through various applications, all communications with a contact—whether through Facebook, Flickr photos, text messages, emails, or call history—are all organized in one view.

The HTC Hero is just one of a number of Android phones launching this summer. HTC’s new interface, however, gives a hint at the level of differentiation that handset makers can achieve with the operating system. One thing that the HTC Hero is also able to support is Adobe (NSDQ: ADBE) Flash, the technology that runs much of the video on the internet today, and has so far been conspicuously absent from the iPhone. Adobe has said it is still “committed� to bring Flash to the iPhone, though it needs help from Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) to do so.

Orange UK plans to begin selling the phone in July, when it will be available to customers for free on to a 2-year £39.15 ($64) monthly plan. The plan includes 1200 any network call minutes, unlimited texts, as well as unlimited internet access. The Hero goes on sale later this summer in Asia and will be available in the US by the end of the year.


Source: http://moconews.net/article/419-htc-releases-third-android-handset

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