The HTC Desire has speculatively surfaced on the Modaco community forum. What was thought to be the HTC Bravo, is said to be the HTC Desire which was also the code-named HTC Droid Eris, but formerly known as the Bravo. Is this beginning to sound like a soap opera yet? All that really matters is if it actually does surface at the Mobile World Congress which kicked off today in Barcelona, Spain and when will it reach North America?

The Desire will be similar in size to the HTC Hero, with the desired HTC Sense UI, an FM radio, 1GHz SnapDragon processor from Qualcomm, 512MB ROM and 576MB RAM, a beautiful 3.7″ AMOLED screen and what looks to be like a miniature optical trackball.

This would be a serious contended for Google’s Nexus One phone, and with such convincing renders, I’m even more excited about this release.

Note: The date on the rendering shows February 16th, does that mean HTC plans to launch it tomorrow?

HTC Desire (Bravo) Specifications

• CPU Speed – 1 GHz
• Platform – Android 2.1 (Éclair) with HTC SenseTM
• Memory – ROM: 512 MB, RAM: 576 MB
• Dimensions – (LxWxT) 119 x 60 x 11.9 mm (4.7 x 2.36 x 0.47 inches)
• Weight – 135 grams (4.76 ounces) with battery
• Display – 3.7-inch AMOLED touch-sensitive screen with 480 X 800 WVGA resolution
• Network – HSPA/WCDMA:
  • Europe/Asia: 900/2100 MHz
  • Upload speed of up to 2 Mbps and download speed of up to 7.2 Mbps
• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE:
  • 850/900/1800/1900 MHz (Band frequency, HSPA availability, and data speed are operator dependent.)
• Onscreen navigation – Optical Trackball
• GPS – Internal GPS antenna
• Sensors -
  • Proximity sensor
  • Ambient light sensor
  • G-Sensor
  • Digital compass
• Connectivity – Bluetooth® 2.1 with FTP/OPP for file transfer, A2DP for wireless stereo headsets,
  and PBAP for phonebook access from the car kit
• Wi-Fi® – IEEE 802.11 b/g
• 3.5 mm stereo audio jack
• Standard Micro-USB (5-pin micro-USB 2.0)
• Camera – 5 megapixel color camera with auto focus and flashlight
• Audio supported formats
  • Playback: .aac, .amr, .ogg, .m4a, .mid, .mp3, .wav, .wma,
  • Recording: .amr
• Video supported formats
  • Playback: .3gp, .3g2, .mp4, .wmv
  • · Recording: .3gp
• Battery – Rechargeable Lithium-ion battery
• Capacity – 1400 mAh
• Talk time:
  • Up to 390 minutes for WCDMA
  • Up to 400 minutes for GSM
• Standby time:
  • Up to 360 hours for WCDMA
  • Up to 340 hours for GSM
• Expansion Slot – microSD™ memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)
• AC Adapter Voltage range/frequency – 100 ~ 240 V AC, 50/60 Hz
• DC output – 5 V and 1 A
• Special Feature – Friend Stream

The post HTC Desire, is it really here? with Android 2.1 too? appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Not wanting to be over shadowed by the news that Motorola CLIQ will be running Android 2.1 next month, HTC has announced that their Hero phone will also be getting the Android OS.  And although there were previous rumors that the HTC Hero will be getting Android 2.1 it was always just speculation.

Now with the official announcement that ‘Android 2.1 will be coming to HTC Hero in mid-March’, we will expect some sort of showing at next weeks Mobile World Congress 2010.

Additional features that will be included with this update, such as Friend Stream, which helps you monitor your Facebook & Twitter accounts, the same Sense UI and improved Microsoft Exchange support.  An update for the phone itself is that there is said to be a slightly quicker Qualcomm MSM 7227 600MHz processor in the new HTC Hero that will make video capture and graphics perform faster.

The post HTC Legend spotted; Hero 2.1 update next month appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Looking at the handset from just about every which vantage point, we don’t see any specific branding, but I think we’d all agree that it looks an awful lot like the HTC Hero. The kicker is that this is a GSM phone, possibly pointing toward an heroic launch, so to speak, through AT&T.

Yes, there is already a GSM version of the HTC Hero available overseas, but that one doesn’t play friendly with our North American 3G airwaves. If this is indeed a GSM HTC Hero, we could be seeing a pending launch through more North American carriers.

The screen isn’t turned on, but we’re assuming that this gets the Android treatment. The spec sheet does make mention of quad-band GSM, 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, TV tuner, dual cameras, LED flash, 1GB of internal memory, 512MB RAM, and a 1600mAh battery. Both a black and a white version are shown as well.

Speculate at will.

Source: BGR

The post GSM Version of HTC Hero Seeks FCC Approval? appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

We already knew that a chin-free version of the HTC Hero is being destined for Sprint, but we weren’t entirely sure what was happening over at Big Red. We knew that Verizon and Google were getting together to bring Android to “the network”, but this is a pretty big leak!

In this picture, we see Eric Schmidt of Google and Lowell McAdam of Verizon and both of them are holding Android devices. The HTC Hero looks clear enough on the left, taking on the same chin-free variation as Sprint, but I’m thinking that phone on the right is some variant of the Motorola Sholes, Tao, or Droid.

We thought that the Android Revolution was already well underway, but now that so many other carriers and handset manufacturers are jumping into the arena, we could be seeing a whole lot more Google in our cell phone selection in the very near fture. Look out, iPhone?

Source: MobileCrunch

The post HTC Hero Android Phone Destined for Verizon appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Presumably, this is based on the vanilla version of the HTC Hero with the distinctive Android chin and not the chin-free version that is on its way to Sprint, since the latter isn’t even available yet.

As you know, the HTC Hero is equipped with Google Android as its operating system and then it gets topped out with a trackball, 3.2-inch touchscreen, five-megapixel camera, and plenty of Android apps at your disposal too. The Stuff judges say that the Hero is just “as clever and as sexy as the iPhone.”

To make the awards slightly more confusing, the HTC Hero did not win the Stuff Phone of the Year award. That honor went to the Apple iPhone 3GS. In this way, I guess they’re more impressed with the Hero for its gadget-y goodness rather than its ability to, you know, call people.

Source: Gadgetreview

The post Stuff Mag Names HTC Hero Gadget of the Year appeared first on Mobile Magazine.