SHINY PREVIEW VIDEO: HTC Hero with HTC Sense

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HTC pulled out all the stops today for their gala launch of the HTC Hero Android phone and HTC Sense secondary OS. They even got out the smoke machines.

The handset seems to have just about everything you could want, except a flash – no idea why smartphone manufacturers keep leaving that out – and. essentially. it’s got all the same internal build as the Magic. But you can read about these things forever, so take a closer look here…

The outsides are all very well and good. I did feel it was a little underpowered and laggy with a slightly dead touchscreen but I’ll wait for a review for the final words on that. What I feel this handset’s going to live and die by, though, is the HTC Sense Android toupee.

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It looked fantastic in the demonstration and everything the HTC product designers said made perfect sense. The idea of integrating all of your communictions from each contact looked excellent and the degree of customisation looks beyond anything offered so far.

The trouble is that when I got the Hero into my hands it just seemed a little overcomplicated and rather ruined one of the beauties of Android which is its relative simplicity and ease of use. Now, bear in mind this was only a three minute play, so I’ll give you more on that when I’ve had the chance of a proper review.

I’ll get some more vid up of the Sense as soon as I can but, for now, you can take HTC CEO Peter Chou’s word for it. Chou like.

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HTC

SHINY PREVIEW: iPhone 3G S & iPhone 3.0 software

You’ll have to wait till the end of the week before we bring you the full review of the iPhone 3G S and iPhone 3.0 software but, until then, I can certainly offer any potential purchasers of Apple’s latest handset plenty to be getting on with.

I met up with a chap named Eric from Apple, San Francisco, who talked me through all the new hardware and software features on the phone that currently sits by my side. Seeing as it was a rather complete briefing, I thought I’d share the footage before I add my tuppence-worth at the end of the week.

So, they sorted the camera to 3-megapixels and added some good features and the mini-video editing looks pretty swish too. Still no flash, though. Let’s hope that ISO is up to it. Tune in at the end of the week for the final say but, for now, what do you think?

Apple | O2 |
Carphone Warehouse

SHINY PREVIEW VIDEO: LG GD900 transparent mobile phone

For something that looked so light and placcy, I’m rather impressed with the see through LG GD900. Do forgive my colleague for her bytes/bits slip. Rest assured she will be disciplined. That said, nice demo of the features from Lady Za Za.

The motion finger control action, for which LG appears to have no name, does look a little on the gimmicky side but then, let’s face it, so’s the idea of a transparent mobile phone. Fortunately, the 8-megapixel shooter hoiks the it up into the realms of the serious and I’m sure, all in all, it’s a handset that’ll go down very nicely with Joe and Jane Public.

As the lady says, it’s out from 1st July from them over at the Carphone Warehouse.

LG

Sony Walkman X Series – hands on VIDEO

It used to be a fairly obvious choice if you wanted a high end MP3 player. Like them or not, Apple seemed to be making all the good looking ones. Then along comes CES 2009 and suddenly we have two contenders in the form of the Samsung P3 and the one that hits the shelves today – the Sony Walkman X Series as modelled by Zara.

There’s no denying the specs of the thing but the reflection and smudge factor on that screen could be an issue in the sunlight after a good thumbing. We all like a good thumbing.

The price is also depressingly in line with the iPod Touch, so keep an eye out for the P3. That’s my tip.

X Series on Amazon

HTC Magic Video: Hands on with the UK's second Android phone

I met up with Vodafone this morning to take a look at one of the hottest handsets of the summer, the HTC Magic known to some as the G2, known by all as the second Google Android phone available in the UK.

Straight up, it’s obvious that this handset is the looker of the two Android siblings at the moment. It may not be a particularly orginal form with the iPhone two years old now but I like the way they’ve taken “the chin” and turned it from a jutting Jimmy Hill to a more handsome Robert Redford. Take a look.

This missing flash will wind you up if the camera is the most important feature for you but otherwise there’s very little to complain about. It comes loaded with Android 1.5, aka Cupcake, meaning you can take video and upload straight to YouTube and Picasa, and there’s no longer the need for a hard keyboard. The virtual one seems certainly no worse than the iPhone’s.

The battery’s a slight improvement on the G1 with a 1340 mAh capacity which should see you out a a full day of heavy use before it’s time to plug in again.

A single small USB port at the bottom means you’ll have to use the in-box 3.5mm adaptor to fit your preferred headphones in, but it’s good to see they’ve had the issue in mind.

All in all, an A1 phone. Still time to get a fiver off the monthly tariff if you order today. £30 a month for 18 months grabs you a free handset, 600 mins and “unlimited” data and texts to the tune of 500MB per month and around 3,000 messages.

The handset is only available in white in the UK but that’s no bad thing until you dirty it up with your muddy paws.

HTC Magic spec sheet

SHINY VIDEO PREVIEW: HP Pavilion DV2 12.1" notebook

This week sees the launch of the hotly anticipated, 12.1″, entertainment notebook from HP, the latest in the Pavilion range. We had a glimpse of the DV2 at CES a few months back but nothing beats a closer inspection with Shiny Shiny’s Zara, so here she is for a tour of the £499 piece of computing kit.

It seems to have a good selection of ports and, although the screen isn’t up to HD content, I’m glad to see an HDMI port in case you’d like to strap the thing to your TV for all your downloaded high res programming, of which you’ll have space for up to 500GB. The other option is the external optical drive which can be upgraded to Blu-ray presumably at moderate cost.

Got to say that the whole package looks rather sexy and it’s always good to see trust in an AMD processor. Looking forward to having a play with this one first hand

HP DV2

SHINY VIDEO PREVIEW: Philips Ariaz and Opus GoGear

Lucky old Zara's in Lisbon. Am I jealous? Yes, I'm jealous, but it's not the jet-setting, room service and warm weather that I'm annoyed about missing out on…well, sort of…it's that she gets to play with all the new toys.

The latest transmission she's beamed back to Shiny HQ is a little look at two new MP3 players from Philips with stereo Bluetooth, QVGA screens, noise cancelling…

SHINY VIDEO PREVIEW: Canon PowerShot range

Yesterday, Dan got to check out Canon’s PowerShot range of cameras in person in Soho. You can see his thoughts in the video above – the conclusion of which is basically “they’re alright”. His favourite was the SX200 thanks to the decent zoom, wide angle lens and fully manual operation.

At the same event, Susi got her hands on Canon’s IXUS range. I’ll have that video up momentarily.