HANDSETS

TOUCH MY TATTOO

HTC Touch2

HTC seems to have hit its stride in mobile handset design, finally hitting the sweetspot on an intuitive interface, fun, practical business use and a sexy look and feel. As devices like the iPhone break into the corporate market, some manufacturers are realising that just because it’s used for business, it doesn’t have to look and feel dull.

The HTC Touch2 uses Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.5, and allows the

business or social user easy access corporate and personal email. Email set up has been made as simple as inputting your email address and password, while Live Messenger for chatting and Facebook for tending to your social network are just a tap away.

Windows Mobile 6.5 also brings with it the long awaited Windows Marketplace for Mobile, which is the Microsoft app store essentially, a marketplace for searching, browsing and purchasing mobile applications using a Windows Live ID.

Touch2 is due out this month.

HTC Tattoo

HTC Tattoo is all about you, says HTC, just like…a tattoo! It’s the first phone that can be customised inside and out; users can customise the apps on the front page using HTC and Android Widgets, then bring out their inner artist and design a cool cover for the handset itself.

The Tattoo allows the user to make the device look the way they want to, inside and out. Users can design their own personal skin for the phone, which is definitely going to appeal to younger users and those that fancy making a statement.

The functionality of the Tattoo seems to be much like the HTC Hero, with a lot of integration and ease of use based on HTC Sense, for an intuitive,

seamless experience.

These features include the dedicated Search button that sifts through tweets in Twitter, locates friends in your contact list, finds emails in your inbox, searches through events in the calendar, and scours the web for info. Then there’s the profile feature called Scenes, allowing you to get pre-customised interfaces that you can tweak further and save. Pretty darn cool, really.

Tattoo is set to move from ink to skin in October.

MINI ME

Samsung Genio Touch

The youff of today get yet another handset designed just for them from Samsung, this time the Genio Touch, the first full touchscreen device for tweenies (those under 13 years old) and teens. Though this is aimed at youngsters, this handset is jammed full of capability rather than watered down.

This is Samsung’s first mobile handset designed to support the highly connected lifestyles of today’s younger mobile user. The Samsung Genio Touch, available across Europe since mid September, is a full touch handset that places users at the centre of the social media revolution with full support for a wide range of social networks.

Genio comes in hot cover colours designed to pull in younger users, including white, bright pink, yellow and orange. A wider variety of coloured covers and designs will be made available in the future. The focus on cutting edge design also extends to the handsets user interface, with a cartoon style user interface.

The 2.8-inch QVGA screen delivers a quality experience when browsing video content online, and its quad band connectivity and support for EDGE networks means that Genio users can stay in touch regardless of their location.

Nokia N97 mini

Now the Nokia N97 has a little brother, the Nokia N97 mini. This smaller device takes the functionality of the N97 and squeezes it into a neater, tidier package that will appeal to a lot more people.

The N97 mini is a smaller mobile computer with stylish stainless steel curves, featuring a tilting 3.2 inch touch display, QWERTY keyboard and fully customisable home screen.

Lifecasting with Ovi will be available for the Nokia N97 mini via Nokia Beta