Sense for Windows Mobile isn’t a full port of the Hero’s interface for Android; it’s a nebulous design philosophy, with “pillars” and a “vision.” But don’t worry! It—taking the form of TouchFlo 2.6 here—isn’t as lame as it sounds.

A few months ago, rumour was that HTC would bring Sense to all its products, regardless of OS. This was actually a mistranslation, from PR speak to English—HTC planned to adopt certain aspects of Android’s Sense—the social networking integration, primarily—across its product line, not to replicate it on Windows Mobile. What that leaves us with is a fresh version (2.6) of the venerable TouchFlo 3D, seen here on the HTC Touch Diamond2, but eventually destined for the mysterious “Leo” handset that’s been confusing everyone for the last few months.

The changes from the already great 2.5 are actually fairly hefty: there’s a new, Hero-like homescreen with a fresh widget system, and new graphics scattered throughout. And although it feels like a strange thing to get excited about in 2009, HTC has added colour to some of the more drab parts of the interface, giving TouchFlo a generally richer feel. Of course, Windows Mobile 6.x still lurks under all this gloss, but hey, at least it’s got nice clothes. [PocketNow]

TouchFLO 3D 2.5 also allows for more customisation than before, including three user-defined buttons on the home screen. Hopefully we’ll be seeing it in action sometime in August. Check out the video below to see it in motion, though be warned: Them fellas aren’t speaking English. [PocketNow

The Synergy functionality on the Palm Pre really kick-started this craze back in January, when Palm debuted the system of integrating all your web services into their native UI. This week, at the CTIA phone show in Vegas, it seems like everyone wants a piece of this action. Lets look at some of the contenders.

Yahoo Mobile Apps
Yahoo released a torrent of apps on the public this week, which aim to reinvent how you access their services on a mobile basis. Yahoo’s Mobile Apps and Portals allow you to:
• Look up your Yahoo contacts
• Check statuses of those contacts and look up your own
• Access yahoo mail and messenger
• Sign into your Oneconnect account for social media updates
• Import RSS feeds and Yahoo content modules for news, sports scores, weather and all that crap

All of this comes together in one place so you don’t have to launch 10 different mobile apps to manage this stuff. Good if you’re a heavy user of Yahoo services. This service is available via mobile browser, plus there’s a standalone app for the iPhone and a Yahoo Go app for the other major platforms (WinMo, Blackberry, Symbian, etc…) which gather all the services into a navigable UI.

3deep
3deep was one of the most impressive mobile apps at CTIA. The idea behind it is that you can manage your calendar, contacts, social media and mail all from a single app, with location-aware integration. It’s coming out for Windows Mobile, Blackberry, iPhone, Symbian and Android in the coming weeks, if all goes according to plan. Some of the features include:
• The ability to track location, availablilty and presence—meaning it knows where you’re going, what your doing there, how long you’ll be there and who you want to meet with most
• “Tell Me When” functionality gives you alerts when selected contacts arrive at a specific location, when they’re available to talk/meet, or conversely, will send a shout out when you do the same
• Informatilon on whether it’s best to call, SMS, email or IM a selected contact
• Updates from Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, etc….
• Calendar and mail management. Plus auto-integration from your computer and phone cals
• Open API so any developer can make their service compatible with 3deep

While a live demo wasn’t available, 3deep reiterated this app would be available as a free download sometime in the next couple weeks. This is some serious Stalker 2.0 right here. Facebook has nothing on 3deep.

HTC TouchFlo 3D
HTC’s updated (and upcoming) TouchFlo 3D continues to streamline its design so that it’s easier to get pertinent contact info from a single screen. Now using their new tabbed contact screen, you can quickly get up to speed with your friends, including the ability to:
• Check call, email and SMS history.
• Check updates and activity to social media services (Facebook, Skype, etc…)
• Easily send emails, text messages and place calls from the same screen.
• Check upcoming calendar events for a selected contact (if you have their shared cal)

TouchFlo 3D will be available on the Touch Pro 2 and Touch Diamond 2 when they launch in the second half of 2009.

The emerging trend is making sure you can communicate and collaborate with your contacts through a variety of mediums and services, all through one control panel. For the most part, it’s done with a degree of visual polish. This is good, because if Web 2.0 can’t move to the mobile space gracefully, we’re all in for some headaches.

New HTC Touch 3G gives greater variety and choice

18th November 2008 — HTC Corporation, a global leader in mobile phone innovation and design, today introduced the HTC Touch 3G™. Continuing HTC’s touchphone tradition, the Touch 3G utilises TouchFLO 2D, HTC’s finger-touch optimised navigation experience enabling quick, one-touch access to the people, messages and information people want.

“The HTC Touch 3G embodies our commitment to build a family of touch phones that are powerful and stylish but also offer something to everyone,” said Anthony Petts, Sales and Marketing Director ANZ, HTC Corporation. “Whether you’re a professional or a student you can now get an HTC touch phone with a beautiful touch user experience.”

HTC Touch 3G
The Touch 3G offers an uncompromising touch phone experience with powerful internet capabilities. As part of this browsing experience users can zoom and pan websites with one hand. This true mobile broadband experience allows users to navigate more easily, leveraging the mobile internet in a variety of ways. With the Touch 3G, customers can search for and watch streaming video from YouTube, get directions and mapping using Google Maps for mobile and stay updated on the latest news with the integrated RSS reader.

HTC Touch
HTC is also introducing a new version of the Touch, the world’s first phone to feature intuitive touch screen technology. The new Touch includes HTC’s TouchFLO 2D user interface and Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, so users can easily synchronise their calendar, contacts, emails and more with their personal computer. A firmware upgrade will be made available from the HTC website for existing Touch series II users.

Availability
Both devices are available now from authorised Brightpoint mobile phone retailers and dealers. The Touch 3G has an RRP of $799 and the Touch has an RRP of $599.

Product Specifications

HTC Touch 3G
• Size: 102 x 53.6 x 14.5 mm
• Weight: 96g
• Connectivity: GSM/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz & WCDMA / HSPA: 900/2100MHz. HSDPA 7.2 Mbps
• HSDPA 7.2 Mbps
• Software/Operating system: HTC TouchFLO with Windows Mobile® 6.1 Professional
• Display: 2.8 inch QVGA screen
• Camera: 3.2 megapixel
• Internal memory: 256 MB flash; 192 MB RAM
• Memory card: microSD™
• Bluetooth®: 2.0 with EDR
• GPS: GPS/AGPS
• Interface: HTC ExtUSB™ (mini-USB and audio jack in one; USB 2.0 High-Speed)
• Battery: 1100 mAh
• Talk time: WCDMA: Up to 360 minutes*** / GSM: Up to 400 minutes***
• Standby time: WCDMA: Up to 450 hours*** / GSM: Up to 365 hours***
• Chipset: Qualcomm® MSM7225™ 528 MHz

For a Windows Mobile device, this is one of the best available, thanks to the fact that TouchFlo 3D essentially hides WinMo deep within its interface.

Being a Telstra exclusive (at the moment), it’s only available on an $80 plan over 24 months (or $999 outright), which as you’d expect from the big T, doesn’t include any real data allowances ($10 on a business plan). Considering that HTC were pushing this as a real web browsing machine when they launched it in Australia, that’s (another) missed opportunity from Telstra.

Hopefully the other networks will remedy the situation when the exclusive arrangement ends in a couple of months…

[Telstra]

Review [Gizmodo]

Taiwan [Unwired View]

US [Unwired View]