Gizmodo: htc diamond

HTC Touch Diamond Backlights Permanently Dying, No Fix Yet

matt buchanan — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 11:40:00 EST

At Giz Gallery, Tom alerted us to a serious problem with HTC Touch Diamonds: After a few minutes, the backlight becomes permanently dim, making the phone unusable, and there is no fix yet.Updated 9:15AM

Tom's unlocked Touch Diamond that he showed us was a sad little brick, barely readable, and absolutely impossible to use in the daylight. Interestingly, according to the mod wizards at XDA, the issue doesn't appear to be a hardware cock-up—it's apparently a firmware problem that HTC has yet to fix. Modder efforts have also been unsuccessful, since a standard firmware flash seems to leave the problematic code untouched.

Worse, HTC's support system is broken as well. They're not able to fix the phones, and have been directing users to deal with carriers—which leaves people with unlocked phones effectively screwed. Tom was simply told to buy a new one, even though his is just a few months old, and, you know, an unlocked Diamond costs several hundred dollars. BTW, Sprint Diamond owners, how are things on your end? I suspect this issue might be behind the delays there.

This stupid backlight problem illustrates two seemingly contradictory points about today's tech. We live in a beta culture that leaves us constantly waiting for updates and fixes to crappy firmware and software shoved out the door, and that it's safer than ever to buy first-gen hardware, since refinements in design and manufacturing mean most of the problems we run into as early adopters are the kind that can be updated or patched.

Not that this makes it any less goddamn infuriating. Fix your ducking phones, HTC.

Update: HTC responds to the issue:

"HTC’s tech team has looked at the XDA developer thread and determined that the problem is limited to people installing cooked ROMs that do not match the firmware on the HTC Touch Diamonds. Apparently very few people have experienced this problem..."

[XDA Developers - Thanks Tom]

HTC Diamond's Hidden Multitouch Revealed

Mark Wilson — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 08:22:00 EDT

If you're reading the back of the HTC Diamond's box, it doesn't show some little child laughing with glee as he pinches in and out of webpages or draws with two fingers at once, in fact, it doesn't even list multitouch as a feature at all. But just because you can't see something doesn't mean it isn't there. When using the program NavDbgTool, HTC's secret weapon is uncovered—the entire front case supports tandem touching:

It's not necessarily the easiest feature to market, but hopefully future firmware updates will take advantage of the newly revealed tech. [mobiletopsoft]

Red Sprint HTC Diamond Spotted?

Mark Wilson — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 10:20:00 EDT

Maybe it's real. Maybe it's a Photoshop. Either way, here's a red HTC Diamond with a Sprint logo on it. The image goes along with months of rumors about a Sprint-based HTC Diamond—one that will have a more curved case than its GSM counterpart along with a battery boost from 900 mAh to 1340 mAh (over 30%). But whether the image is confirmation of these rumors or just a product thereof is not yet known. [Brighthand]

HTC Diamond To Lose its Crinkles, Get Smooth Back-Side, Codename Victor

Kit Eaton — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 09:30:00 EDT

The HTC Diamond isn't even out yet in the US, but a leaked photo shown over at BoyGeniusReports seems to show that HTC is planning a new version that doesn't have the Diamond's trademark crinkly, angular shape. The smooth-sided, round-reared phone is dubbed "Victor" apparently, and seems to be in every function identical to the Diamond. Except being perhaps a little less pointy to hold. [BGR]

Verizon and Sprint Both Getting Blessed With HTC Touch Pro and Diamond

matt buchanan — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 20:01:00 EDT

If you're craving HTC's Diamond or Touch Pro (aka Raphael) it looks you're going be satisfied no matter what carrier you're on. Phone Arena says the CDMA flavors of both will hit Sprint AND Verizon, so there's no need to bounce to another carrier to get your hands on one. No word on the dates. In a side note, Moto's Blaze is due on Big Red by Sept. 22, if you're interested in a meh touchscreen phone. [Phone Arena, Thanks Matthew]

HTC Diamond Has Ultra-High Density Display

Elaine Chow — Sat, 03 May 2008 18:00:00 EDT

The first "official" photos and specs for the HTC Diamond have been leaked, complete with a 2.8-inch 640 x 480 pixel screen (twice the lines of the iPhone in smaller surface,) Windows Mobile 6.1 and 3G connectivity. Could this be the most important product of the year HTC said it would reveal in London on Tuesday? The fabled iPhone Killer? Addy will be liveblogging the event, so we will discover it then. It certainly seems like a good cellphone, judging from the specs.

• large 2.8 inch VGA display (640x480 pixel resolution)
• Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional
• Quadband GSM/GPRS/Edge and UMTS/HSDPA
• Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0
• 3.2megapixel camera with autofocus
• extra VGA camera in the front for video telephony
• QWERTY keyboard
• Qualcomm 528 Mhz CPU
• 4 GB of internal memory plus a MicroSD slot
• FM Radio
• an accelerometer sensor (like the iPhone's)

[newsMobile— Thanks Giancarlo!]

HTC Launching Most Important Product of the Year Next Month

Jason Chen — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 12:40:52 EDT

The Taipei times quotes HTC's own financial executive Cheng Hui-ming at an investor's conference as saying they will launch "the most important product for HTC this year" at an event on May 6. Cheng wasn't too forthcoming with details, but it seems like it's going to be a "Touch" phone—as in one of the HTC Touch models—and be called the "Diamond". He says that it's going to be so good, he's "confident of landing orders from most major carriers," but warned about possible delays because they haven't gotten certification for the phone yet. Sounds very interesting. Could it be this phone? [Taipei Times via Engadget]