Taiwan-based leader in smartphones HTC unveils its second full-QWERTY slider Android in the HTC Desire Z, a good 18 months after the first, the HTC Dream. Running the latest Android v2.2 Froyo, the new handset is powered by a Qualcomm MSM7230 engine clocked at 800 MHz. That’s a bit less muscled than the 1 GHz Snapdragon of the HTC Desire. From the aesthetics, it’s really a Desire that grew a QWERTY keyboard slider.

Great Flagship Features

Looking like the Desire when closed, the HTC Desire Z actually has the same the feature of the HTC Desire HD which is only distinguished by its larger 4.3-inch screen display. Instead you get a 3.7-inch capacitive S-LCD touchscreen with multitouch, WVGA (480 x 80) resolution, 16 million colors, accelerometer and proximity sensors.

Despite a set of flagship features, it is positioned as a more modest option than either the earlier Desire or its successor the Desire HD. It also boasts of social networking prowess that comes with Facebook, Twitter, Picasa, YouTube and Google talk integration.

The new HTC Desire Z is a cornucopia of data and telephony connectivity options. It’s 3G handset on the dual band UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA and a quad band GSM on 2G with class 32 GPRS/EDGE data speeds. Local connectivity gets WiFi 802.11 b/g/n with DLNA, Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP and microUSB v2.0 including GPS SatNav with A-GPS support.

Imaging gets a 5-megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash, face detection, geo tagging and video recording at 720p high definition while mobile entertainment gets the usual media playback features, a stereo FM radio with RDS and headphone listening in either wired (3.5mm jack) or wireless (A2DP) mode.

Internal memory gets 1.5 GB with 512 MB RAM and microSD expansion for up to 32GB. Its li-ion batters rated at 1300 mAh delivers up to 9.8 hours of call time on 2G, 6.6 hours on 3G with 430 hours on standby.

For years, the layout of the T9 keypad has been a simple and easy to understand style. While, the Nokia X3 Touch and Type will not be changing any standards, it is certainly a fine point in any argument that variation and deviation can often result in slightly more advantageous situation. In this case, it seems as if the new layout of the keys has made typing a whole lot easier on this handset.

Small Changes, Big Differences

The one thing that users will be able to point out at first glance is the fact that the bottom row of keys has been moved into a fourth column for the handset. The positions have also been altered slightly, instead of the zero/space button being placed in the center row; it is located on the bottom right –which actually turns out to be a lot more intuitive a position than in the center.

In practice, it is easy to say that the Nokia Touch and Type handset is a device that is easy to get used to. Just type with it for a short while and it will seem as if this is how the keypads on all mobile phones should be. Of course, it also helps that the display is a touch screen that complements the controls of the keypad.

Resistive Touch

It is pretty understandable that the initial public reaction to resistive touch screen technology is one of mild dismay. After all, the convenience of capacitive technology is quite outstanding. But when one realizes that the display on both the Nokia X3 and Nokia C3 Touch and Type has been designed as a complementary input method as opposed to being a primary, one can see how the combination truly works in favor of the handset –and how redundant having a capacitive touch screen would have been.

Digital camera technology has gone a long way since the very first digi-cams have been introduced to the consumer market. These days, it seems all too easy to slap on a camera on almost any handset. The average laptop and netbook comes with a built it webcam, even handheld gaming consoles such as the PSP and the DSi have cameras (in the case of the PSP, it is an external accessory; the DSi has it built in.) Naturally smart phones also have digital camera technology as well.

Nokia is already promising the industry a massive 12 mega pixel camera on the upcoming N8 and N9 smart phones (which use the Symbian^3 and MeeGo operating systems respectively). Sony Ericsson’s Vivaz and the Motorola Milestone XT 720 each bring an 8 mega pixel camera to consumers everywhere.

These days, taking a high resolution image of anything basically means simply pointing a phone at a subject and taking a quick snapshot. But for the more discerning graphic artists, the concern does not stop with the mega pixel count alone, having zoom, autofocus, LED flash and other additional features are also important.

For users who like to upload straight from the phone to a Flickr account or in Facebook, a smart phone with integrated social networking features are recommended, as well as having pre-loaded image editing software (which would really help a lot when it comes to sizing down images to make them viewer friendly as full resolution images shot with an 8 mega pixel camera takes a while to load).

In both cases, it pays to have hot swappable micro SD cards. While 32GB cards will take a while to fill up, they eventually will. And having other media such as music and videos are certain to fill up the cards as well (most phones are also capable of recording video in 720p, 30FPS, which is also pretty space consuming).

According to recent news, it seems that the Google Android operating system will now be able to run many existing Facebook Apps; thanks to the release of the Facebook SDK. With this latest development, many Facebook based applications will be directly available for viewing and access on Android handsets –as well as Facebook itself.

Okay, now that may seem pretty confusing, after all, one can already access Facebook from the Android’s browser. But what the release of the SDK means is that a standalone app for accessing Facebook and all of its features can now be made. Imagine not only being able to access your account to see the latest updates and upload one of your own, but also the ability to instantly manage your friend lists, tags, privacy settings, user profile, change your photo and even play some Facebook apps directly from a specialized app as opposed to manually accessing the features from the web browser.

The difference between the browser and an app lies in the fact that any smart phone browser is simply a lite version of the internet. Compared to a netbook or desktop counterpart, mobile phone’s browser delivers a slower, bite sized version of the website. An app on the other hand, has been designed from scratch to be used on an Android smart phone –making access to features, as well as the user interfaces, an easy thing to handle and use.

The released version of the SDK is currently an alpha version which means that developers should keep checking for new libraries or even full updates to be released. Still, the initial version already provides a lot of access to Facebook’s key features. This new update also could not have come at a better time; Facebook has recently upgraded its privacy setting pages, making the social networking site more encouraging to use.

While there are many ways to inform people about your current mood, social networking site posts are definitely at the top of the list. There are several ways to update your myriad of site accounts. You can either manually post in each and every one of them, make use of a system which auto updates all your accounts from a single post (such as Seesmic’s Ping.fm) or you could use the Buddy Radio.

For those who are always on the go, another gadget to bring along for the ride may be a total waste of space. But for those who really cannot bring themselves to manage their social networking sites through their mobile phones (basically, those who are too lazy), the Buddy Radio system may be of use.

The Buddy Radio is brought to us by the folks over at Sidekick Studios. The device looks exactly like a small, white radio but it is able to not only update your Facebook, Twitter or IM account statuses; it is also able to text and email your friends. This gives them an idea of how you feel on a particular day and is meant to inform your contacts of your mood.

All of this is done with the simple turn of a dial. The mood of the day is likely to be seen in hospitals wherein health care professionals are in close contact with the patients and have a need to gauge their daily mood.

The system is able to collect data to allow for an overall self analysis. It is able to give mental health care givers, family members and peers an idea for possible response or treatment.

This system was recently given a contract courtesy of the NHS London. The contract gave the Buddy the thumbs up sign to be used on a trial basis for substance abuse and mental health services by Maudsley and South London.

According to Facebook, they will now be sharing the personal information of users in specific “pre-approved web sites”. The announcement has met the ire and criticism of many users, for good reason.

Facebook is ultimately a social networking website. Nobody signs on to Facebook in order to create a comprehensive web browsing experience. People simply log in so that they can connect with friends and family, share links, videos, images and the occasional poke. But nobody really wants Facebook to tell its partner site who they are, when they were born and who their friends are.

Simply put, such data is meant to be private, and if Facebook is not going to protect that privacy, then users might as well start turning every single piece of info they have into public. Despite Facebook’s assurance that the policy would only apply to specific websites, it does not make things any better. In fact, it is a complete betrayal of the trust that users have put into the site.

Even if the end user agreement page on Facebook does declare that the social networking site does have the right to use its data in the way that it is proposing that it would do, it is still unethical and something that Facebook would need to think over lest they feel like MySpace should make a comeback.

The saddest part about this is that the change might happen without many users understanding what is going on. Even worse, many users are still unfamiliar with the internet and are not yet aware of how “dangerous” having their account details logged into external sites can be. For now, many protesters are still trying hard to make other Facebook users of the major change.

Find out more about the change in the privacy policy of Facebook at Bernama.