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HTC Touch Dual: iClone or Genius?

By Tim Conneally, BetaNews

October 2, 2007, 12:53 PM

Today, HTC announced a new Windows Mobile 6-equipped touch screen smart device. The HTC Touch Dual is the latest in the company's line of TouchFLO devices, and will be available in Europe later this month.

HTC works with Devicewire and Expansys as direct retailers of its product line. Unfortunately for United States consumers, the Touch Dual only comes with support for European HSDPA/GSM/EDGE networks.

The handset itself uses a 2.6-inch QVGA touch screen, has a 2 Megapixel front-facing camera optimized for video calling, Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR, and has an HTC ExtUSB interface, which is a mini-USB 2.0 and audio jack combined.

Most painfully obvious is the similarity between this device and the headline-hogging iPhone. Even the product demo on HTC's site is almost identical to an iPhone demo from several months ago. For a side-by-side comparison, view the HTC TouchFLO demo against the iPhone Commercial.

HTC Touch DualThe TouchFLO technology has been expanded from the previous incarnation on the HTC Touch, as it now includes photo slideshows and image manipulation with on-screen controls, and simple touch browsing of both the device and the internet.

Unfortunately, due to the similarity to the iPhone, a device that could stand on its own merits may just be written off as a Windows-based iClone. But HTC has combined the idea from one of the most popular devices in recent history with a mobile version of one of the most popular operating systems available.

A Pablo Picasso quote of dubious origin says: "Bad artists copy, Great artists steal." Some may take a look at this new device and see that it goes beyond the realm of copycat and into the realm of genius.

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By khetos

edited Oct 3, 2007 - 10:05 AM

does anyone know any software that you can use on your pc, to make it act like a bluetooth headset?

like using a bluetooth adapter in a carpc, the software required, i have tried phoco, but it does not work with most the phones i have tried on it, and one that actually did, the v710, it offered no audio transfer, just used the phone for the call, not through the speakers and mic.

thats what i want to do, use the speakers and mic, on the pc, at home, as my headset :)

Score: 0

By jucaro

edited Oct 3, 2007 - 4:02 AM

so will the w960i be tagged another i-clone when sony-ericsson releases its w960 phone which has been scheduled for long before the iphone came out?

Score: 0

By Kushan

posted Oct 2, 2007 - 8:24 PM

I hate how some people think Phone + Touch screen Must = iPhone. HTC has had touch screen devices for a lot longer than the iPhone has been released.
This phone looks and acts nothing like an iPhone. What's really sad is that apart from the form factor (which is a slider with a touch screen, probably been done before), there's actually nothing new in this phone either, it's just a different combination of existing technologies focused at a specific user group (that, believe me, will have almost nothing in common with the majority of iPhone users).
This is a great example of an article that contributes nothing other than conjecture and FUD that Apple fanboys will lap up.

Score: 0

By khetos

posted Oct 3, 2007 - 9:52 AM

yah uh, the HTC P4000, was out way before the iphone, and it was a touch screen phone, and uh.. there was a few out before that as well... soo iphone is a theif! (haha) no but seriously, they designed nothing new for a touch screen phone, sept itunes intigrations etc.. but the touch screen is nothing new..

Score: 0

By pitdingo

posted Oct 2, 2007 - 10:24 PM

sorry the truth bothers you so much. it is obviously a blantant attempt to clone the iPhone, which fails miserably btw.

Score: 0

By khetos

posted Oct 22, 2007 - 7:16 AM

im sorry if you belive that sniffing coke, and typing garbage makes you belive your right, but myfriend, unless they are time traveling now, to steal ideas, i dont think they are stolen, tell my, wich came first, ipaq blackberry, htc, or iphone...

Score: 0

By jbenfield

edited Jan 18, 2008 - 3:48 PM

"tell my, wich came first, ipaq blackberry, htc, or iphone..."

[cough]Apple Newton[cough]

No, I'm definitely not an Apple fanboy and I think that HTC innovates the hell out of everyone in the phone/PDA space today. But, credit where credit is due. Apple did the whole PDA thing long before the world was ready for it. They even had rumors of a Newton Phone, but it never really caught any interest.

I see almost no comparison between the Touch and the iPhone. The iPhone is an overblown consumer toy (a very sexy one), but the Touch Dual is a viable business tool. Just mho, of course. It's like the difference between a Blackberry and a Sidekick. Different tools for different purposes. Comparing them cheapens both.

Score: 0

By saeed201

posted Oct 3, 2007 - 5:01 AM

"Even the product demo on HTC's site is almost identical to an iPhone demo from several months ago."

HTC even copied the iPhone's iBlackBackgroundInAdvertisement.

Score: 0

By khetos

posted Oct 22, 2007 - 7:17 AM

haha, um well this could be the one true fact, yes if they copied the look of the advertizement, congrats, but the phone is nothing new, nore cloned..

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Oct 2, 2007 - 11:46 PM

....and El Dingo calls *me* a Tool.

*laughs*

Quick, tell me "I don't get it" again and call me an M$ (Sorry, DJ) drone. We know you're dying to.

Score: 0

By GS5

posted Oct 2, 2007 - 7:35 PM

I just love the fact that Apple can take an existing technology and convince the world that it's their invention. And also that every other product out there is copying Apple's products. It's just amazing, I love it!!! Steve Jobs is truly a great bull$h!t artist. (I'm not being sarcastic or bashing it's an actual complement.) LOL

Score: 0

By xyzcb1

edited Oct 2, 2007 - 4:32 PM

If there is clone, it's Apple copying from HTC.

Score: 0

By Paul Skinner

posted Oct 3, 2007 - 2:32 AM

^This^

Score: 0

By drumcat

posted Oct 2, 2007 - 3:58 PM

HTC has been an industry leader, and this hardly will get mistaken for an iPhone.

Funny; "headline hogging". Pot, kettle, black!

Score: 0

By ladylust

posted Oct 2, 2007 - 3:57 PM

Ummm my palm pilot phone is a touch device and has been out years before the Iphone. I guess the Iphone is a Palm clone?

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Oct 2, 2007 - 4:29 PM

That, I believe is the joke implied in the headline. :)

Score: 0

By phenomnaruto

edited Oct 2, 2007 - 2:29 PM

So every touch-enabled device is now a iphone clone?

thats funny.

So i'm guessing windows mobile stole its calender idea from the Iphone too, right?

oh wait ... thats the other way around.

Score: 0

By drumcat

posted Oct 2, 2007 - 3:57 PM

That looks NOTHING like an iPhone. What a fake headline.

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Oct 2, 2007 - 4:28 PM

He's talking about the tech behind it, not the look.

Score: 0

By khetos

posted Oct 22, 2007 - 7:11 AM

ok, soo if you take a 7 year old ipaq, wait.. 7 years old.. with a stylus and touch screen... um, soo apple takes it and says its an iphone, and changes the interface a bit, thats nice, whos cloning who?

who cares if htc really cloned everything about the iphone, its not the first, NOT any where near the first, and thus this is a redundant article, and a joke that so many belive iphone was the first.. BS!, almost all those aplications are on other phones first.. just not apple branded..

Score: 0

By TIM

posted Oct 2, 2007 - 7:06 PM

Again, PC_Tool understands what I'm on about!

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Oct 2, 2007 - 11:44 PM

what I'm on about

Heh...

We know a little more about you now... :p (or can at least jump to wild conclusions, which I'm sure you've noticed we are *really* good at here)

Score: 0

By templar™

posted Oct 2, 2007 - 1:16 PM

Well, they claim to have been developing the touch technology for a few years. After all, the HTC Touch did launch before iPhone did. Only iPhone was announced first.

Score: 0

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