App TV: 2011 Internet services on TVs compared

Today, many TVs are able to connect directly to the Internet. A few of them include QWERTY keyboard remotes and actual Web browsers, but most lack these PC-like extras. Instead they're designed around a "walled garden" of apps like Facebook, Picasa, and casual games; streaming services like Netflix and Pandora; and an interface meant to be browsed using one thumb and a standard TV remote. Increasingly, they also offer app stores with paid and free apps as well as, in one case so far, actual shopping.

Of course a lot of other devices, especially Blu-ray players and dedicated boxes like Apple TV and Roku, also offer apps and streaming. The advantage of these boxes compared with a TV is cost: you can add them to an existing TV without having to upgrade, and if they become obsolete, the replacement cost is a lot lower.

But if you're buying a new TV and want built-in services without having to connect an extra box, you may be interested in how the various walled gardens stack up. We've reviewed a few this year, with more to come, so here's a quick-and-dirty look in order of which ones we like best so far. All include Netflix and the differences accumulate from there.

Panasonic Viera Connect: We're fans of the simple approach used by Panasonic. The main home page is arranged around tiles that will be familiar to any iPhone user, and you can arrange them so your favorites are on top. Unfortunately there's no Vudu or Hulu Plus client, and it still uses the old Netflix interface, but overall we think it's still better than the alternatives we've tested. The app store has potential and is the first we've seen that lets you purchase physical merchandise, but we wouldn't recommend paying extra for those Gameloft games.
Wi-Fi: USB dongle included

LG Smart TV: Like Panasonic, LG keeps its interface simple, with a tile-based Home page layout we actually liked better than Panasonic's. It's customizable and well-laid-out, especially if you use the unique Nintendo Wii-like remote included in models like the LW5600 below. The remote also allows drag-and-drop and makes using the surprisingly decent built-in Web browser easier. On the downside, LG's app store is the lightest content-wise among the top three (although we love its star rating system for apps), Pandora is mysteriously absent for now, and Search is even less impressive than Samsung's.
Wi-Fi: USB dongle included

Samsung Smart TV: If Panasonic and LG take the simple Apple approach, then Samsung is like the sprawling, more capable but also more impenetrable Android. Samsung offers a video search and a sort of IMDb lite with TV and movie information, but search is disappointing and it's rare for any of the TV shows or movies listed to actually be available to watch. The major missing service is Amazon Instant, but otherwise Samsung offers more apps than anyone, and its potential upside, for example with 3D streaming, is the highest among any we've seen. The UND6400 linked below is missing the browser and QWERTY remote found with the high-end UND8000.
Wi-Fi: Built-in on select high-end models; USB dongle $80

Sony Bravia Internet Video: Unlike Panasonic and Samsung, Sony didn't make any major improvements to its Internet offerings. There's no app store and no integrated home page for Internet content, but streaming selection is quite solid (with the exception of Vudu), and there's a cool Gracenote app that can identify songs much like Shazam on your phone. Most of the other add-ons use a separate Yahoo widgets interface, and the streaming services themselves are bound to Sony's design--a good thing for consistency, but often, as in the case of Netflix and Amazon, the cover art is just too small.
Wi-Fi: Built-in on select high-end models; USB dongle $80

Sharp Aquos Net: Sharp's service doesn't offer YouTube, Hulu Plus, or Amazon Instant, and the selection of apps is relatively sparse in the main user interface. On the other hand, the TV also offers a separate smorgasbord of apps from Vudu, with a better interface but no ability to combine live TV with apps on the same screen.
Wi-Fi: Built-in on all models

Philips Net TV: Our least favorite service so far in 2011 includes even fewer apps than Sharp, and while it also offers Vudu Apps, the rest of the pickings are slim. Although it isn't strictly an app or part of Net TV, Philips' Wi-Fi MediaConnect feature is worth mentioning here since it can let the TV display whatever is on your laptop screen without wires.
Wi-Fi: Built-in on all models

Thank you :
http://reviews.cnet.com/2795-6482_7-677.html?tag=mncol;txt

HTC Sensation 4G (T-Mobile) Review

The good: The HTC Sensation 4G boasts a sleek, high-quality design with a gorgeous 4.3-inch qHD display. The Android smartphone also features a 1.2GHz dual-core processor and 8-megapixel camera, and the HTC Sense user interface brings some thoughtful and useful new features.

The bad: The smartphone doesn't offer much internal memory, and the phone's speakers are pretty weak.

The bottom line: Its excellent design and user experience, coupled with its solid performance, make the HTC Sensation 4G one of the best Android phones yet and a top pick for T-Mobile customers.

HTC and T-Mobile first introduced the HTC Sensation 4G back in April, and we were instantly enamored of the Android smartphone. Not only did HTC give the phone a dual-core 1.2GHz processor and 4.3-inch qHD display, but it enhanced the user experience by adding some great features to the HTC Sense user interface. We've had to wait two long months since that fateful day in April, but T-Mobile customers will finally get the chance to get their hands on the HTC Sensation 4G starting June 15 for a price of $199.99 with a two-year contract and after a $50 mail-in rebate. Needless to say, we were excited to get our own hands on the Sensation again, and we're happy to say it does not disappoint.

Design
What can we say; it was love at first sight. The HTC Sensation 4G is one of the best-looking and most well-built smartphones we've seen to date, and it's not because of any flashy gimmicks, but simply a solid and sleek design. Like a number of HTC handsets, the Sensation 4G has a unibody aluminum chassis with a streamlined and high-quality construction. What's most notable about the phone, though, is how sleek it is for a 4.3-inch touch-screen device.

Unlike some 4.3-inch-screen smartphones, such as the HTC ThunderBolt and Samsung Droid Charge, the Sensation doesn't feel heavy or bulky. It's similar in size and weight (5 inches tall by 2.6 inches wide by 0.4 inch thick, and 5.2 ounces) to the T-Mobile G2x and Samsung Galaxy S II, but even so, the Sensation has a more premium feel and its tapered edges make it more comfortable in the hand.

Part of what allows the smartphone to be so slim is the 16:9 qHD (540x960-pixel resolution) Super LCD touch screen. The display features a contour design that gives it a concave shape, making it comfortable when held against the cheek, and also prevents scratches when the phone is placed screen-side down. More importantly, it looks gorgeous. Text and images look sharp with vivid colors, and we were still able to read the screen outdoors. The iPhone's Retina display and Samsung's Super AMOLED Plus touch screen offer finer detail and better color saturation, but the Sensation's display is still no slouch, and we suspect most people will have no objections to it.

The touch screen was responsive, as we were able to easily navigate the menus and launch applications with a single tap. Scrolling through lists and using the pinch-to-zoom feature was also smooth. For text entry, you only get the choice of HTC's supplied virtual keyboards--full QWERTY, phone, or compact--but no standard Android keyboard or Swype. That said, while it's not immediately obvious, the HTC keyboard has a feature called Trace that acts very much like Swype where you can drag your finger from letter to letter. As with Swype, we found Trace to be faster and easier and even more accurate than pecking away at each key.

Below the display, you'll find touch-sensitive buttons for the home, menu, back, and search functions. The left side holds a volume rocker and a Micro-USB port, while the right side is devoid of controls. The top of the device houses a 3.5mm headphone jack and power button, and just below it, on the upper right side of the screen, is the front-facing camera. The 8-megapixel and dual LED flash are located on back.

T-Mobile packages the HTC Sensation 4G with an AC adapter, a USB cable, a preinstalled 8GB microSD card, a wired stereo headset, and reference material.

Software and user interface
The HTC Sensation 4G ships with Android 2.3 Gingerbread and the latest version of HTC Sense. Sense has always been our favorite custom skin for Android, both for its aesthetics and useful functions, and now HTC has made it even better.

A lot of the new features of Sense can be found on the lock screen. Aside from a display of the date, time, and other vital statistics, you now get shortcuts to four of your favorite apps. By default, the shortcuts are set to phone, mail, camera, and messages, but you can change them in the phone's Personalize menu. To open a specific app, you can simply drag the icon to the ring at the bottom of the screen, instead of having to unlock the phone first.

In addition to the shortcuts, HTC also wanted the lock screen to showcase more user content, so now you can personalize the screen with your photo gallery, friend stream, favorite stocks, or weather. The content then floats by or flies by (depending on which option you choose) onscreen.

Once you unlock the phone, you'll find even more enhancements. For example, much like the HTC Flyer, the Sensation features a 3D carousel so you can more quickly flip through the seven home screens, rather than swiping through each panel. (Of course, you can also use the Leap screen function.) The pull-down notification tray has a second tab called Quick Settings where you can manage your wireless connections and access other settings. The mail app and widget now give you a preview of each message, and the photo gallery widget features a flip-board effect.

There's much more to HTC Sense, but for the sake of brevity we won't detail every new feature here. That said, we found the new functionality to be both useful and well integrated into the system, making for a great user experience on the Sensation 4G.

Features
The T-Mobile Sensation 4G offers world roaming capabilities, a speakerphone, conference calling, voice dialing, video calling via Qik, and text and multimedia messaging. Bluetooth, GPS, and Wi-Fi are all onboard, and there is support for Wi-Fi calling. T-Mobile doesn't charge extra for this feature, but be aware that the minutes are deducted from your regular voice plan.

Thank you :
http://www.ppcgeeks.com/2011/06/15/t-mobile-htc-sensation-4g-50-off-for-new-customers/
http://trendsupdates.com/t-mobile-bringing-the-stunning-htc-sensation-4g-for-just-200-this-month/
http://socialbarrel.com/t-mobile-sets-contract-less-htc-sensation-4g-price/9017/
http://411droid.com/tmobile-launches-htc-sensation-g-today-now-available-stores-online/
http://www.popherald.com/htc-sensation-4g-t-mobile-usa-release-date/6567
http://reviews.cnet.com/smartphones/htc-sensation-4g-t/4505-6452_7-34640312.html#reviewPage1

HTC Arrive (Sprint) Review

The good: The HTC Arrive features a durable design with a responsive QWERTY keyboard and a tilting screen. It's the first Windows Phone 7 device to ship with Microsoft's cut-and-paste feature.

The bad: The HTC Arrive's heavy and bulky body will weigh some people down, and it requires some pressure to slide open the keyboard. Its camera could be better, and we were hoping for 4G WiMax support.

The bottom line: The HTC Arrive, Sprint's first Windows 7 phone, is a solid effort that largely delivers, although it will disappoint those looking for a 4G smartphone.

Editors' note: This review focuses on the HTC Arrive's design, performance, and differentiating features. For more on its operating system and core functions, please read our full review of Windows Phone 7.

First known as the HTC 7 Pro at its New York unveiling, the HTC Arrive is Sprint's inaugural foray into the brave new world of Windows Phone 7. And the Arrive also represents two other minor "firsts": it's the first CDMA Windows Phone 7 phone in the United States, and it's the first Windows Phone 7 model to ship with Microsoft's cut-and-paste update.

As a result there's a lot riding on the Arrive's rounded shoulders, and for the most part it succeeds in carrying that weight. Like the HTC Surround, the Arrive is a thick chunk of handset, but that extra bulk makes possible a responsive keyboard and a screen that tilts for optimal typing and media consumption. While the data speeds are fine, we were a little disappointed that 4G WiMax isn't an option.

While there's a lot to like, the Arrive also has its drawbacks, some having to do with the handset's construction and some stemming from the Windows Phone 7 OS. For the most part, though, it acquits itself well as a Sprint newcomer.

Design
The HTC Arrive looks good, and looks strong. Rimmed with shiny, dark-gray paint, the handset has a glossy appearance and feel. It has barely rounded corners, like the iPhone 4, and two cutouts that reveal the front-facing speakers. On the back, a swath of brushed stainless steel and a decorative screw reveal that this is not a phone to be trifled with. And if there were any doubt, the phone's dimensions (4.6 inches tall, 2.3 inches wide, 0.6 inch thick) and weight (a whopping 6.4 ounces, nearly half a pound)--attest that the Arrive is one brick of a phone. Its bulk makes it a bit less comfortable to slip into a pocket, but you won't have to worry much if you drop it. We noticed, however, that the gray paint that rings the face easily flaked off in our bags and under our nail.

At 3.6 inches, the WVGA capacitive touch screen is slightly smaller than that of the HTC Surround, but has the same 800x480-pixel resolution. While it's a fine screen that shows off bright colors and sharp edges, it doesn't have the richness or pop of the Super AMOLED display on the Samsung Focus.

Below the screen are three touch-sensitive buttons for Back, Home, and Bing search. A camera trigger button is on the right spine, and the Micro-USB charger and a large volume rocker are on the left. Up top there's a standard 3.5-millimeter headset jack and the power button. The Arrive's back houses a 5-megapixel camera and a flash. As with all Windows 7 phones, there's no card slot for expanding the phone's memory, but the 16GB built-in storage should be enough for most casual users' needs.

More than anything else, what makes the HTC Arrive stand out is its tilting screen. HTC is no stranger to this design; it brought us the AT&T Tilt and HTC Tilt 2, much ballyhooed back in 2007 and 2009, respectively. Those two handsets ran Microsoft's earlier Windows mobile operating systems.

As with its predecessors, the Arrive's screen slides out to expose a full QWERTY keyboard before tilting up 30 degrees (previous models tilted up 40 degrees.) You simply push the front face flat and slide it back over the keyboard when you're done. It takes a fair amount of pressure to open, and our thumb kept slipping on the phone's square design on our first few tries. The Arrive's tilting mechanism appears to be fairly sturdy, and makes a metallic click when you lay the face flat.

The tilted display is best when you're typing with the phone in your hand or setting it down to watch a video play; be aware, however, that the handset will rock back slightly if you put it down and then tap on the screen in the open position.

Below the display, the Arrive's keyboard manages to be spacious without being overly wide. Keys are fully separated, but barely rise above the surface. The backlit buttons are smooth and very responsive, although a skosh less comfortable than buttons with a more rubbery feel. There are dedicated buttons for emoticons and diacritical marks, and for adding currency symbols for euros and pound sterling.

Interface
We've examined Windows Phone 7 in depth elsewhere, but there are several features worth noting here. First, the Arrive comes with Microsoft's copy/paste feature installed, the first Windows Phone 7 device to ship with it. Touching a word on a Web page or in a document presents tags that you can easily drag to select an area. Highlighting a word also causes a "copy" icon to pop up. Tapping it then saves the selected text to the clipboard for later pasting. Finally, a "paste" icon appears when you tap an input field, like a Word document or a search field.

Copy/paste works intuitively and smoothly, and we love the visual panache. You can paste the same text multiple times. However, the functionality isn't strictly systemwide, although it does appear in the obvious locations, like the browser, e-mail, documents, maps, contact cards, and search results. For instance, copy/paste doesn't appear as an option in some of the settings menus, so you can't use it when configuring your e-mail--something we could do with both Android and iOS.

Thank you :

http://upnextmobile.com/2011/02/sprint-launches-its-first-windows-phone-7%E2%80%8E-smartphone-htc-arrive/
http://www.bgr.com/2011/02/24/htc-arrive-brings-windows-phone-7-to-sprint-on-march-20th-199-99-on-contract/
http://www.infosyncworld.com/reviews/cell-phones/htc-arrive-brings-windows-phone-to-sprint/11818.html
http://gadgetian.com/10074/htc-arrive-wp7-sprint-wirefly-pricing/
http://todayspopularbelief.blogspot.com/2011/04/7-days-with-wp7-htc-arrive-sprints.html
http://reviews.cnet.com/smartphones/htc-arrive-sprint/4505-6452_7-34195351.html#reviewPage1

Nokia prepares £80m brand repositioning campaign

Nokia is plotting an £80m overhaul of its brand positioning, as it looks to relaunch following the announcement in February of its partnership with Microsoft.

The Finnish handset manufacturer plans to roll out a major global integrated campaign in October, when it is expected to launch its first phone running on the Windows 7 operating system.

The six-month campaign is being created by several agencies from its global roster. In the UK, Nokia works with Wieden & Kennedy, Fallon and R/GA, among others.

The repositioning comes as Nokia battles to retain market share in the face of competition from rivals such as Apple, RIM, and HTC. In April, Nokia's chief executive, Stephen Elop, announced the loss of 7000 jobs, including 700 in the UK.

Nokia hopes its partnership with Microsoft will help it regain share from Apple iOS and Android-based devices.

A Nokia spokesman said: 'We are excited about the Nokia with Windows phone, but it's not our policy to comment on specific campaigns for unannounced products.'

Separately, Nokia this week unveiled a campaign for its Qwerty range of smartphones.

In the ad, by Wieden & Kennedy, a flock of sheep passes through Godalming in Surrey, as Nokia users alert their friends via instant messaging and Facebook, or seek an alternative route. It ends with the line 'Apps. Maps. Social. Completely connected QWERTY.'

Adam Johnson, head of brand and campaigns at Nokia, said: 'Nokia is committed to authenticity in our communications, using characters and situations that the British public can relate to.'

Thank you : http://networkedblogs.com/kkChD