We have been testing the latest version of Microsoft’s new mobile operating system, Windows Mobile 6, this week on what we believe is an excellent new mobile device called the Touch from HTC. The Touch is an innovation in touch screen PDA’s with a new front end user interface for the Windows Mobile platform. First of all, a look at the physical device.

Out of the box the HTC Touch is a surprisingly small and sleek device. When purchasing a Windows Mobile PDA phone one always expects something relatively large and heavy but the Touch impresses in this area immediately. It’s just 13.9mm thick which puts it firmly in the BlackBerry realm and weighs just 112 grams. The majority of the front of the device is covered with a large screen and there are just three keys on the front of the handset, send call, end call and a 4-way clickable scroll key.

On the one side you have a cover for the SIM card and memory card slots and a camera activation button, and on the other side a volume adjust key. The top of the device has a power button and stylus slot and on the back the lens for the built in camera. Finally on the bottom of the device you’ll see a mini USB slot, so it’s pleasing to see a universal connector and not something proprietary which was a big let down on Palm’s Treo 750 handset.

In terms of what you get for your money it’s nice to see that HTC have included just about everything in the box which you would want, and therefore you don’t have to spend extra cash on accessories. In the box you’ll find:

• Stereo headset
• USB cable
• Charger
• Carry case
• 1GB microSD card
• Screen protector
• CD of additional software tools

This really is excellent value and while it’s not uncommon to expect to see a memory card in the box, it’s not often you would get such a large capacity card included.

In terms of power the HTC Touch is powered by a 200MHz processor with 64MB of RAM and 128MB of Flash ROM. Expansion is via a microSD slot with a 2GB capacity.

The core operating system on the HTC Touch is Windows Mobile 6 Professional edition. This latest edition has some excellent new features. The Professional edition of the platform replaces what was PocketPC edition of Windows Mobile 5 – what this basically means is that Professional edition carries the Mobile Office suite of applications (Word, Excel and PowerPoint).

One of the much needed features of Windows Mobile 6 is that Windows Update is embedded which allows the device to be more self sustaining than ever before. While undoubtedly there are some ROM updates that will require a cable synchronisation to a desktop PC running either XP or Vista, there are at least some updates which can be applied over the air which is an excellent new edition.

One interesting element to Windows Update is that the user can configure whether or not they wish to use their mobile phone line as the connectivity source to download any automatic updates. This is particularly interesting as one of the common user concerns is how much data they are likely to consume transmitting emails, surfing the internet and anything else at their disposal which can swell data usage. This is a massive concern when roaming abroad as well, when data usage costs may be considerably higher than the home network, so this type of safeguard is a massive benefit to the end user (or whoever pays the bill).

One of the other massive technology leaps with Windows Mobile 6 is the ability to view HTML email. Until now emails on mobile devices have been plain text only, and one of the many reasons why the jump to HTML has never occurred is again down to the size of the email – again another rocket for data usage. None the less, from a technology perspective this is a big step forward and the example email below shows how well HTML renders on the HTC Touch device. To conserve data, HTML can be switched off.

The real eye opener with the HTC Touch is how you navigate around the operating system and its graphical user interface – both of these elements are exclusive to the HTC Touch and are not a standard component of Windows Mobile 6. To complement the operating system HTC have developed their own front end GUI for Windows Mobile 6 called the Touch Cube. This is a three dimensional ‘shell’ which can be pulled up and closed at any time on the screen. Each component of the shell links through to the relevant Windows Mobile application or screen and as a result you’re not forced to pull out the stylus and tap the Start menu, go in to Programs, etc, etc. This is a big time saver and also makes the device a lot simpler to use. For all their technological functionality Windows Mobile devices have always been a little painful to move around within and at times they can simply be frustrating. A big downside to having a touch screen device is that you can’t use it one handed, and this is one of the things which makes competitors such as BlackBerry so appealing. To complement the Touch Cube HTC have their own navigation system called TouchFLO. TouchFLO allows you to use your finger instead of the stylus to move around menus on the device, and it’s this navigation system you use to access the Touch Cube. Slide your finger vertically from the bottom to the top of the screen and the Touch Cube interface appears in front of you. Once the Touch Cube has opened you slide your finger horizontally from side to side which then scrolls through 3 dimensional screens.

One screen covers functions such as email (which links to Outlook) and Internet access (which links to Internet Explorer), one is a quick dial keypad where you can set up nine speed dials, and the third screen is for media. To minimise the Touch Cube you simply slide your finger vertically from the top to the bottom of the screen.

This is a graphically very rich user experience and the HTC Touch is extremely intuitive when telling the difference between a stylus and a users’ finger – this is probably the closest experience you could have to an iPhone, albeit a lot earlier than you’ll get hold of an iPhone and undoubtedly a lot cheaper as well. The processor deals with the rich graphics well with little or no lag when flicking between screens and the experience was fluid and accurate.

There are plenty of connectivity options at the users’ disposal with the HTC Touch. One of the early impressers with this device was the auto configuration of network specific connection settings. With all non branded devices (that is to say a device which has not been branded and configured for a particular mobile network), a user has to manually enter all of the connection details to set up GPRS on the device. We were pleasantly surprised when we inserted a SIM card in to the HTC Touch as the device automatically prompted us for the settings.

We even attempted to catch it out by changing to another network SIM card but the HTC Touch auto configured every time. This is quite a time saver if you’re an IT Administrator and have a whole batch of devices to set up.
As this device runs Windows Mobile it can of course be configured to work with Exchange Direct Push if your organisation runs either Exchange Server 2003 with Service Pack 2 or Exchange Server 2007. This is a GPRS class device but does have Wi Fi if you need to connect to a higher speed connection. Some may view the lack of 3G or HSDPA as a negative, however the browsing experience is nice and smooth and (as we’ve already used the iPhone for comparison), Apple Inc’s mobile phone will only have GPRS as well when it launches in the US at the end of June. Bluetooth is of course a given and as we mentioned earlier, physical connections are through miniUSB.

This is an excellent, well thought out and well designed handset from physical design through to the user interface. HTC have made a bold move with the Touch and many would be hard pressed not to love this device after just a few minutes of playing with it. Too often Windows devices frustrate with their slow navigation, small fonts and the constant requirements of tapping away at the screen with a stylus. While you still need a stylus to complete some functions on the HTC Touch, the user experience is significantly better as a result of the TouchFLO system and Touch Cube interface, and overall this device really is an innovation for the Windows user interface. If anything, one wonders why Microsoft cannot make a better job of making Windows Mobile more user friendly instead of relying on a device hardware manufacturer to tweak it for efficiency. Nonetheless, the results here are excellent, and in terms of features, build quality, box contents and the user experience the HTC Touch really does offer value for money and good productivity.

If there was one concern about Windows Mobile 6 itself, it would have to be how keen it is to swallow data. At a time when mobile phones in general have a greater ability to access mobile content through GPRS, 3G, HSDPA or whatever the connectivity speed through a given mobile network, there is always a concern over how much data a user may consume. This is nothing new – data card users for example are advised to disable automatic Windows Update services to avoid Windows automatically downloading the latest security patch of ‘x’ megabytes and chewing through a users inclusive data bundle without their knowledge. If anything it’s the responsibility of the user to be conscious about the connections their device may be automatically making, be it a mobile phone or a data card but this can be difficult. Data tariffs and bundles are of course significantly better than ever before, and various ‘unlimited’ data packages can dismiss such worries from a users mind, but perhaps those on lower data bundles need to be aware. These types of concerns have found their way back from end users to providers, providers to networks and, finally, networks to the manufacturers themselves. It is now more common to see ‘usage meters’ built in to various software to help provide a user with an indication of their usage, although these are not always 100% accurate. Having the ability to disable Windows Update through the mobile phone line in Windows Mobile 6 is an indication of this awareness, particularly on a platform where the compression ratios which can be achieved are not as impressive as, for example, BlackBerry solutions.

What is useful is that included in the box with the HTC Touch is an applications CD. One of these applications is called Spb GPRS Monitor. This is a clever tool you can install on your Windows Mobile device which monitors your data usage, run reports and advise you of warnings if you near your inclusive data allowance limits.

We have begun testing this application and intend to compare what the application claims to the call records for the mobile phone lines we’re testing it on. This is an ongoing test, so we have yet to see how accurate this software is at deciphering and reflecting data usage, but in principle this is an excellent and useful idea.e 5 ‘PocketPC