HTC Desire C hands-on (video)

HTC gave us a quick session to play around with its latest handset, the Desire C. No, it's not part of the consolidated One series, nor is the company revealing precisely what that "C" stands for -- heaven forfend it's "cheap." While a humble 320 x 480 touchscreen and 600MHz processor might not set many smartphone obsessives' hearts a' racing, it still manages to eke out a HTC Sense-skinned Android 4.0 UI -- no mere feat, in our opinion. A 5-megapixel camera and expandable microSD slot are some other welcome specifications and it's all wrapped up in an attractive matte finish -- you can take your pick form black and white in the UK. Catch our quick video run-through of the sub-$300 handset right after the break.

(We mentioned in the video that the phone's running on a 6Mhz processor -- which is clearly madness. Just to reiterate, the Desire C runs on a 600MHz single-core processor.)

The phone felt slightly fuller in the hand compared to the recent glut of sub-10mm devices, measuring in at just under 12mm thick, but like Palm's HP's now defunct Pre range, it's a very comfortable fit in the hand. This was the NFC model and weighed in at precisely 100g (0.22 pounds). The 3.5-inch screen was bright, although noticeably grainier than HTC's more premium models. While a five-megapixel camera sounded like a boon, we were forewarned that it's of the fixed-focus variety. Despite that, it came with the same filter effects and dual-capture features seen on the likes of the One S. Despite the weedy processor and 512MB of RAM -- specs that echoed the ghosts of smartphone past -- it kept up with our swipes and several apps launched without much waiting around. The multitask button is also in attendance, with an interface similar to the One V: that is, more stock Android 4.0, less Sense sparkle. We were pleasantly surprised with the handset and it could strike a chord with phone buyers that fondly recall the larger, original Desire. However, there's no news just yet on the device making a trip over to the western side of the Atlantic.

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Kiss Aero goodbye: Latest Windows 8 build reveals minimalistic desktop UI

It's safe to say that anticipation is high for the upcoming Windows 8 Release Preview, which will become available in the first week of June. While we're still curious to see if Microsoft can better integrate the desktop and Metro environments of its latest operating system, the company has now revealed a significant change to the desktop portion of Windows 8 -- a completely restyled visual appearance. As you might remember from the Consumer Preview, window borders and widgets featured a simplified and subdued look in comparison to the glass-like materials of Aero, which Microsoft now calls "dated and cheesy." With the latest refresh, however, the company has pushed its modernistic philosophy even further to reveal a spartan (yet functional) interface that draws less attention to the chrome elements and allows the user to focus more on content.
Microsoft's latest reveal was made as part of a larger, retrospective look at its development of Windows and the evolution of the operating system. At every step, the company states that its emphasis has been on the overall "learnability" of the environment. As such, Microsoft claims that it's making great strides to ensure that consumers may quickly get up to speed with the latest OS, and hints that it has a number of reveals yet to be seen. In its very next breath, however, it also emphasized people's ability to adapt and move forward, which suggests the number of changes might not be as concilatory as some might've hoped. Regardless, we'll know for sure what Microsoft has in store in just a few weeks.

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Silicon Micro Display rolls out $799 ST1080 wearable display

It may still be some time before you can take Google's ambitious wearable computing project for a spin, but there's certainly no shortage of head-mounted displays out there for those looking to blaze a trail of their own. You can now add Silicon Micro Display's new ST1080 glasses to that list, a full 1080p display that will handle both 2D and 3D content (in a variety of formats), and also allow you to see through the glasses for augmented reality applications (albeit with just 10 percent transparency). As with most such glasses, however, you won't get head-tracking capabilities, and you'll have a couple of tethers to contend with (HDMI for video and USB for power, including via an optional battery pack). Those not put off by those constraints or the whole visor look can place their order now for $799.

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Packard Bell EasyNote LV, TV laptops bring Ivy Bridge to speed-hungry Europeans

Most laptops being updated to Intel's Ivy Bridge processors have come from international brands, so it may be some relief to European PC buyers that Acer's local Packard Bell badge has made the leap as well. The 15.6-inch EasyNote TV and 17.3-inch LV will each use the new 22-nanometer processors both to push performance that little bit farther as well as get a middling five hours of battery life. NVIDIA graphics in GeForce GT 620M and 630M flavors will spruce up the gaming side, however, and Packard Bell is delivering a 20 percent more responsive multi-touch trackpad, dedicated music / social keys and a bamboo-like lid pattern to add a little dose of style. The duo will surface in Europe during June at prices starting from €499 ($656). Acer has sometimes brought Packard Bell PCs to the US as roughly equivalent Gateway models and vice versa, so Americans shouldn't be surprised if they get counterpart laptops before long.

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LG announces Optimus LTE2, coming to Korea mid-May with True HD IPS and 2GB RAM

Unlike today's other phone announcement, we can't say we were expecting to see LG come out with something of its own -- and it's a bit of a doozy, at that. Samsung's Korean rival decided not to let the Galaxy S III have the full spotlight for long, officially unleashing the Optimus LTE2. The mind-blowing portion of the spec sheet is its inclusion of 2GB RAM, a milestone we haven't yet seen in a smartphone. Additionally, the LTE2 will feature the company's "True HD IPS" display, WPC-backed wireless charging capabilities, Android 4.0 and a 2,150mAh battery that LG claims will increase the battery life by an astounding 40 percent. We haven't received word on which CPU will be used, though we're hopeful that a quad-core beast (or Krait, perhaps?) will complement the astounding amount of RAM. The LTE2 is due to land on at least three carriers in Korea sometime in mid-May, but we haven't heard any pricing or additional country availability at this time. We'll keep you posted as we learn more. In the meantime, check out LG's Flickr page down below for more images, and start thinking of ways to take advantage of the extra horsepower.

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HTC launches kickstand-tastic One S cases, we go hands-on

Kickstand lovers rejoice! Not content with jazzing up its One X flagship, HTC just sent us a set of cases made specifically for its lovely One S. These come in four colors -- gray, granita (red), navy blue and black -- the latter featuring a tweaked design with an integrated kickstand. Unlike most third-party products, build quality is top-notch -- the accessories use a precision-molded flexible plastic shell covered in a soft touch finish. The kickstand is made of a metal alloy and is spring-loaded, but blocks access to the micro-USB port when in use. While the cases protect the back and sides of the One S, the front remains exposed to potential damage. Availability is slated as "soon", but pricing is $24.99 for the plain model and $39.99 for the kickstand version. Enjoy the gallery below.

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Samsung Galaxy S III software impressions Hands on

So, you nodded agreeably when all those hardware specs were listed, but are a bit more intrigued by what Samsung's done to the Android 4.0 interface. In short, TouchWiz is still here, but there are some noticeable differences between it and the legacy version seen on the Galaxy S II that bring the GSIII closer to a stock Android experience. But, there are also some things that are a rehash of what we saw on last year's Gingerbread-powered hardware. We've delved into this latest interpretation, and tried out Sammy's S Voice and S Beam features along the way. Our deeper impressions are after the break, where you'll also find a quick video rundown and can see the new software in action.
There are several welcome additions that are obvious as soon as you turn the screen on -- a quartet of lock-screen shortcuts. Customizable, and available with a swipe, those shortcuts aren't the only way to access things in a pinch, however, as Samsung's new "human" gestures are on board as well. For example, one of these gestures lets you jump straight to your camera from the lock screen by pressing and holding a fingertip to the display and rotating the handset into landscape mode. The physical button layout below the screen -- much like the global Galaxy S II -- dictates a similar navigation ethos, with multitasking accessible by a long press on the home button. The base style remains unmistakably TouchWiz, but there are some extra twists. Unlike stock ICS, there's now a settings option immediately available in the drop-down menu, and there are new gesture menu and sharing options, but the remaining look and layout is largely unchanged -- save for little details, like on-off switches, that have been tweaked for Samsung's own design reasons. Samsung's added in Google's own ICS widgets alongside its own versions if you're picky about exactly which calendar app displays on your home screen.
The camera app has been beefed up with more instant-access settings and is where Samsung's push for increased social connectivity comes through strongest. We've outlined these new features in detail, and suffice to say, they look to be traits many folks will be using often in their day-to-day.
It's hard to describe S Voice as anything but Samsung's interpretation of Siri. The preview software wasn't able to unlock itself via our verbal command, although Samsung tells us this is one of its abilities. We had more luck launching apps and asking the voice assistant to perform other tasks like grabbing weather info. As with Apple's version, you need a data connection to get it working, and the voice detection worked reasonably well during our time with the device. Alongside the ability to play video clips in a window on top of any app, S Beam looks to be the highlight among the GSIII's new software offerings. The ability to shoot files wirelessly through a combination of NFC and WiFi is quite handy, assuming you've got a friend with the same phone and a wireless network within reach. Sending video files between handsets only takes tapping them together, and the ensuing transfer is fast -- we shot a 1080p sample video from one phone to the other in a matter of seconds.

So, while Holo fans might balk, it looks like TouchWiz isn't going anywhere soon, because Samsung's looking to prove that it has something to offer beside top-shelf hardware specifications. The company's aiming towards a more, surprise, surprise, Apple-like strategy by focusing on "human" functionality and phone interaction. While gesture functions, S Voice and the like will help separate the company's flagship from both rivals and its existing smartphone line-up, Samsung's still got its work cut out to convince us that these will become desirable and core features of smartphones in 2012. That said, we're intrigued, and are looking forward to testing how well these software additions fare when we can put them through their real-world paces in our forthcoming review.

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