Before I start posting up all the pictures of this cute little phone here is our hands-on unboxing post and the video is below.

HTC Wildfire S Hands-on & Unboxing video

Hardware

To start off this thing is tiny, it only has a 3.2″ 480×320 resolution screen, comes in with a 600 Mhz processor, 512MB of RAM and ROM as well as an included 2GB SD card but for the price the specs and quality are quite nice. I’d put the Wildfire S in my top 3 for best mid-range offering that is for sure. Here are some photos for a better idea.

This isn’t the first or the last device that will come with a 3.2″ screen so some might be used to the size. Overall usage seems fine with the screen size and the images are crisp and clear given the slightly lower resolution. Flip the Wildfire S on its side and we have the micro-USB charging port as well as the volume rocker to the side.

Around top we have the power/wake button and the 3.5mm headphone jack and that is all except for the indent to remove the back cover. For packing everything into this small of a package the device is pretty thin considering its cost.

The bottom has a neat little design curve to it almost like a chin we have seen on devices in the past, then the microphone pinholes and that is all. The device is pretty sleek and simple and the design wont win any awards but it looks good doing it — whatever that may be.

I have always been a fan of HTC build quality and even though this device is aimed at a lower priced crowd they didn’t cheap out. It still feels extremely well made and solid, no cheap plastic or goofy designs here. HTC knows how to build a good product and this doesn’t disappoint. I do have one small complaint and that is the capacitive android buttons are too close to the actual screen and sometimes while typing I accidentally hit home, or while trying to hit home I’ll open the app tray but other than this I have nothing bad to say about this little guy, or girl.

Software & Performance

Out of the box we have Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread so things are quick, speedy and extremely fluid even though we only have a 600 Mhz processor inside. A quick note the processor was strong enough to play Angry Birds on this 3.2″ screen with ease so that should make a few people happy (Can’t forget the birds). It does not feature the latest HTC Sense UI 3.0 but it does come with Sense 2.1 and if you’ve ever owned an Android HTC phone as of late you will feel right at home.

In the app tray we have all those things we’ve come to expect from Google, as well as those all similar apps from HTC like HTC Hub, Friends Stream, HTC Music, Peep, and others. We even have Slacker radio and a few T-Mobile apps like T-Mo Mail. That is all and bloatware was kept to a minimum and for that HTC and T-Mobile — we thank you!

I did happen to run those things we love called Benchmarks and for a single core 600 Mhz CPU I was a bit surprised with how well it performed. While Linpack only scored like an 8 or so we got relatively good results from Quadrant. I was confused when this 600 Mhz phone was close in comparison to the Galaxy S, but then this is a newer generation Qualcomm processor so it should be a bit more efficient than the older Nexus One even though it has a much slower CPU. It’s safe to say this should be plenty for the average or light user.

Camera & Battery

We have a 5 MP shooter for the camera with LED flash and it takes great photos for only being 5 MP. Shooting a few here and there around the town it worked great even indoors, remember for only paying $79 or so from T-Mobile you are getting a pretty excellent overall package.

The only concern with the camera is it can’t record in 720p even though we have a 5MP lens. This is most likely due to the processor or to keep the device spec within budget, but video turned out decent and would make any FaceBook user or average family member proud.

I took a few photos real quick just so you can get an idea of image quality. I did have to wake the dogs but they sleep all day anyways so whats the big deal right?

Regarding battery life I think most of you will be pleased to hear we have a winner here. While it only has a 1230 mAh battery it only has to power a slightly lower resolution 3.2″ screen and a 600 Mhz processor. No dual-core power hungry stuff here so the device lasted me more than the entire day on first use. It has been powered on for over 15 hours and I’ve snapped photos, recorded video, ran a few benchmarks and yes i even played a little Angry Birds for the reviews sake of course.

Phone call quality is about average for T-Mobile, was loud and clear and the hear me now guy would be impressed even though its T-Mobile. For being a budget friendly device both the earpiece and the speaker phone quality was loud enough and I have nothing bad to report here. The phone even features a notification LED on the speaker grill, something I wish all android phones came with.

Wrap-Up

To wrap things up I’d have to give this device a thumbs-up. For a first time smartphone or first time Android user this would be the ideal device. Some might want something larger but for the size and everything you get it really is awesome. For someone coming from a feature phone or a Blackberry use to a smaller device and great battery life this would be a great first step. Then maybe the next phone can have one of those massive 4.3″ screens.

Regarding T-Mobile and mid-range phones this will absolutely blow away the Samsung Dart, I’m only being honest so sorry Samsung. T-Mobiles other mid-range offer in the Samsung Exhibit 4G might slightly out-class this and have 4G but for the price the Wildfire S is a for sure choice. For now I will leave you with those last words, say good job to HTC for making such a sweet little device and I hope you all enjoy the photos below.

We will keep this short and sweet, just like the phone is. The Wildfire S is a 3.2″ 480×320 resolution phone with a Qualcomm 600 Mhz processor, yes only 600 Mhz but it seems to chug along just fine. It packs 512MB of RAM and ROM inside as well as a 5 MP 720p capable camera on the rear with LED flash. It does however come with Android 2.3 Gingerbread and the popular HTC Sense UI we all know and love.

When we get into the full review I will go over everything with more details but this is a pretty basic device. It comes with a 2GB MicroSD card and a 1230 mAh battery that should be plenty considering the screen size and processor speed. It might not be the thinnest device but it sure is lightweight and small in every other aspect. Holding it after handling my Sensation 4G and its 4.3″ screen for so long it just feels extremely little.

This might just take the cake for the best low to mid-range phone over at T-Mobile. They have stuff like the Samsung Dart i recently reviewed and the Wildfire S just blows them away with build quality and how sleek it is.

While this is no HTC Sensation 4G you can clearly see the similarities. The rear cover has a similar design and feel, as well as comes off in the same odd fashion. For the low price this phone is being offered at, and the great build quality and overall design (not to mention HTC Sense UI) this is a pretty great mid-range phone and will probably be what I recommend to first timers unless I find any serious faults during my review. Here is the video and don’t forget to click the photo gallery below to see the photos in their full size goodness.

HTC Wildfire S hands-on & Unboxing video

This device will be sold on contract with a 2-year agreement with qualifying “Classic” voice and data plan. For more information on what T-Mobile will be working with for data plans, head to our post entitled T-Mobile Value plans make data an overage-free zone. This device rolls out the gate with a neat little 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen display and will have the same situation going on as the Euro version: one camera, on the back, at 5-megapixels large.

You can check out our full review of the HTC Wildfire S from a few weeks ago when Chris Davies got his hands on it for just about as early a look at it as you could possibly see. Now it’s on T-Mobile and all USA heck is breaking loose! You’ll be able to pick this device up in a couple of different color combinations, that being fully White at T-Mobile stores and in their online store, or Black at Sam’s Club, Walmart, and again at the online store at http://ww.t-mobile.com/.

This device is ready and raring to go up against the rest of the mid-range line T-Mobile has to offer, most recently the Samsung trio we’ve got reviewed up in the past couple weeks: Samsung Dart, Samsung Exhibit 4G, and the Samsung Gravity Smart. Will the HTC contender be able to take out its opponents? If the case is strong, the heart will prevail, HTC to the rescue!

Otherwise the spec sheet looks much in line with the original Wildfire; HTC is describing the Wildfire S as an “evolutionary” update, in no small part to maintain the smartphone’s low entry price. That means no front-facing camera or NFC, either, though HTC Sense is still present. The CPU is a 600MHz Qualcomm single-core, paired with 512MB of RAM and ROM, though you do get WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth 3.0. The rear camera is a 5-megapixel unit with auto-focus and flash.

Pricing and availability are yet to be confirmed, though HTC says to expect the Wildfire S in late Q2 2011. We’ve already had Vodafone UK confirmation that the carrier will be ranging the smartphone.

Press Release:

HTC LAUNCHES THREE NEW SMARTPHONES WITH HTC SENSE

HTC Desire S, HTC Wildfire S and HTC Incredible S deliver premium style, power and speed

BARCELONA, SPAIN – Mobile World Congress – February 15, 2011 – HTC Corporation, a global leader in mobile innovation and design, today unveiled three new versions of its most popular and advanced smartphones – HTC Desire S, HTC Wildfire S and HTC Incredible S. The new smartphones continue HTC’s commitment to expanding the market for advanced smartphones while providing distinct choices in design, power and value. Each phone also includes HTC Sense, HTC’s unique customer-focused user experience that puts people at the center by making phones work in a more simple and natural way.
“HTC developed the HTC Sense experience to bring cutting-edge innovation to our customers in simple and natural ways that just make sense – this is what HTC Desire S, HTC Wildfire S and HTC Incredible S represent best,” said Peter Chou, CEO of HTC Corporation. “These new phones offer an exhilarating mix of style, innovation and features that extend people’s mobile experience in ways that feel personal and completely original.”

HTC Desire S
As a successor to the popular and award-winning HTC Desire, the new HTC Desire S blends stunning design with power and speed. Inspired by the HTC Legend™ smartphone’s aluminium design, the HTC Desire S is sculpted out of a single block of aluminum making it feel solid and natural in your hand. With Qualcomm’s new 1GHz 8255 Snapdragon™ processor, the HTC Desire S offers snappy performance and power. It offers dual front and back cameras, High-Definition video recording and the 3.7-inch WVGA display presents multimedia content brilliantly.

HTC Wildfire S
Building on the popularity of the HTC Wildfire™ smartphone, the HTC Wildfire S smartphone is an affordable, compact and playful device that packs a powerful smartphone experience. It enables people to maintain and build connections and friendships through popular sites like Facebook®, as well as through voice and text messaging. You can instantly tag your friends in photos before posting them on Facebook, or share your latest discoveries from the Android™ Market at the touch of a button.

HTC Wildfire S is one of HTC’s smallest phones ever – measuring just 10.13cm long and 5.94cm wide – and boasts a distinctive 3.2 inch, HVGA display.

Celebrate your individuality and choose from a wide variety of colors including black, purple and white. The phone’s home screen is fully customizable with your favorite apps, widgets and content, while a 5-megapixel color camera with auto focus, expandable microSD™ memory and support for a variety of audio and video formats make a great all-around multimedia device that slips easily into any pocket.

HTC Incredible S
The alluring HTC Incredible S smartphone combines cutting-edge design with a premium mobile experience for those who dare to be different. Showing what can be achieved when engineers and designers work together to raise the bar for mobile phone design, the HTC Incredible S smartphone features a stunning, contoured body that highlights the internal hardware components of the device. Capturing and viewing video in crystal clear High-Definition has never been so easy and a bright 4-inch WVGA Super LCD display and stereo surround sound bring a vibrant cinematic experience to the palm of your hand.

HTC Incredible S also takes high quality pictures with its 8-megapixel camera with dual flash, and it easily enables videos, photos and music to be shared from the handset direct to a TV using DLNA® technology. Thanks to the HTC Incredible S’s front facing camera and video call functionality, users will constantly be able to chat with their friends face-to-face.

Availability
The HTC Desire S, HTC Wildfire S and HTC Incredible S smartphones, will be broadly available to customers across major European and Asian markets during Q2 2011.

About HTC
HTC Corporation (HTC) is one of the fastest growing companies in the mobile phone industry. By putting people at the center of everything it does, HTC creates innovative smartphones that better serve the lives and needs of individuals. The company is listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange under ticker 2498. For more information about HTC, please visit www.htc.com.

The 30-second video featured several HTC models including the T-Mobile G2, HTC Evo, and the Droid Incredible. However, in the first 5 seconds of the video, a device is shown that we have not seen before.

Speculation is brewing that the device may be a new version of the HTC Wildfire because it looks awfully similar except minus the optical trackpad. This speculation is further driven by the fact that the Mobile World Congress is coming up and HTC has promised an exciting new announcement.

[Via Pocket-lint]

HTC are promising a future update which will extend support for other Android 2.1+ devices in their range, but for now the Wildfire is the only one.  The app can now sync content from a specified folder or, alternatively, pull in playlists.  It’s not quite up to iTunes standards – and of course there’s no integrated music store as Apple offer – but it’s certainly better than manually dragging & dropping content across.

[via Android Community]

“We are working hard with our partners to update the HTC Sense experience on Froyo and distribute it to our customers as fast as possible. We expect to release updates for several of our 2010 models including Desire, Legend and Wildfire beginning in Q3″ HTC

The exact schedule for the new firmware’s release hasn’t been specified, only that HTC expect it to be launched sometime in Q3 this year (i.e. from July 2010 onwards).  Google announced this week that it was pushing out Android 2.2 Froyo as an OTA update to the Nexus One.

[via Android Community]

It’s hard to argue with the specifications, certainly. At the launch of the Wildfire, HTC told us they’d pushed their engineers – and suppliers – hard to pack as much as possible into the smartphone without driving up the price. To that end, you get a 3.2-inch display, like the Legend, only using a QVGA resolution LCD panel rather than the aluminum phone’s HVGA AMOLED; you also get a capacitive touchscreen, rather than the resistive touchscreen of the Tattoo. There’s also 384MB of RAM paired with a 528MHz Qualcomm processor; well below the 1GHz chips we’re seeing on many new Android devices, but – HTC reckon – comfortably enough for the sort of non-3D activities the Wildfire will be doing.

HTC Wildfire unboxing:

There’s also a 5-megapixel autofocus camera complete with an LED flash, dualband HSDPA (900/2100), quadband GSM/EDGE, WiFi b/g and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR. GPS, an accelerometer, digital compass, proximity and ambient light sensors and a 3.5mm headphone jack are all standard, as is the microUSB port and FM radio. The WIldfire only gets 512MB of ROM but there’s a microSD slot that supports up to 32GB cards.

It’s a deceptively small phone if you’ve only seen photos, not least because of its strong resemblance to the HTC Desire and Google Nexus One. Like the former it has an optical joystick, while like the latter it gets touch-sensitive buttons for home, menu, back and search under the display. Happily these are more responsive than those on the Nexus One can be, and require less precision in your aim to hit correctly. Overall the Wildfire measures 4.2 x 2.4 x 0.48 inches and tips the scales at 4.16oz complete with the 1,300mAh battery.

HTC Sense continues to be the company’s differentiator from other Android devices, and the Wildfire shares the usual straightforward start-up process and general ease of use. The sort of entry-level owners tempted in by the Wildfire’s affordability shouldn’t have any great trouble following the initial setup wizard, which walks through adding in (or creating) your Google account, inputing Facebook, Twitter and email settings, and then drops handy tips about how to use the seven homescreen panes. That includes the “helicopter view” – a zoomed-out overview of all seven of those panes, triggered by a pinch-zoom gesture on the homescreen – and HTC’s various preloaded widgets.

Widgets are perhaps what Sense is best known for, and they turn what could be a bargain basement smartphone into a well-connected performer out of the box. Friend Stream, as we’ve seen on the Desire, EVO 4G and other HTC devices, pulls in all recent Twitter and Facebook updates from your contacts, which the Wildfire automatically goes through and pairs up from each network. Any overlooked or mistakenly connected individuals can be quickly linked up or separated. It’s a system that works far better than rival social networking apps on other Android devices we’ve tried, though it does lack some of the scope of MOTOBLUR which covers more online networks (like MySpace, for instance).

With Android 2.1 underneath you get screenshots in the Android Market, Google Maps Navigation with free turn-by-turn directions and – in the most recent update – public transport scheduling for some transit providers, and all the usual Google apps like Gmail and the YouTube player. HTC also weave their magic over the browser, which gets Flash Lite support for in-page video streaming, though as before we found heavier pages could get bogged down and frame rates suffer. HTC’s Exchange support is also better than bare Android’s, including Calendar sync – which otherwise you’d need 2.2 Froyo for – together with neater handling of Mail and Contacts.

Of course, the flip side of Sense – or indeed any third-party customization to an Android device – is that it can significantly delay firmware updates to the latest version of the OS. HTC Hero owners are only this month getting the Android 2.1 update they’ve been long promised, and while the company has confirmed it will be updating this year’s devices to Android 2.2 there’s no definitive timescale for that to take place. Froyo brings with it improved overall performance and neat additions like wireless connection sharing, though arguably the Wildfire’s target audience may not require the latter.

As for performance as it stands, despite the 528MHz processor the Wildfire doesn’t feel particularly sluggish. Browsing through homescreen panes or flipping between apps is generally lag-free, and the smartphone only began to suffer when we tried some of the more demanding games from the Android Market. If you’ve stepped to the Wildfire from the Desire, you’ll notice a lack of immediacy, but in general it wasn’t too frustrating. HTC’s big change on the Wildfire is the new App Sharing tool, though it’s not exactly the most dramatic of applications. Basically, it allows you to pick any third-party software you’ve downloaded from the Android Market and send a Twitter, SMS or other message to a friend suggesting they download it.

Our biggest problem with the Wildfire is the resolution of its display. While at 3.2-inches it’s the same size as the HTC Legend’s panel, that handset uses an HVGA display; in contrast, the Wildfire’s QVGA is significantly shorter on pixels, and the end result is significantly blocky text. It’s most noticeable in the photo gallery and the browser, the latter being a less pleasant place to review your images than normal – despite HTC’s multitouch controls – and the latter requiring significant zooming and panning in order to deal with smaller website text. Pages that, on the Legend, can be read with minimal zooming require more effort on the Wildfire, and the end result is a less pleasant browsing experience.

Cameras have never been HTC’s biggest strength, and the Wildfire’s 5-megapixel shooter sadly doesn’t break the mould. As ever, low light results in grainy, poorly-focused shots and the LED flash does little to lighten the scene unless your subject is within its relatively narrow sweet-spot. Outdoors and during the day, however, and results are more impressive; the Wildfire seems to handle colors better than some of its predecessors, and HTC’s modifications to the camera UI do at least allow for a little tweaking should the defaults not suit. Video, meanwhile, is captured at a diminutive 352 x 288 and at around 15fps, with the resulting footage being as mediocre as you can probably predict. Still, if you’re looking for 720p HD capture then HTC will happily introduce you to higher level models in its range.

In a way, it’s a compliment to the Wildfire that we found ourselves dwelling on these particular shortcomings: the handset has more than just the basics catered for, and with the exception of the display there are times when it overlaps considerably with HTC’s more expensive handsets. The QVGA resolution, however, could prove the biggest stumbling block; Sense is a visually rich UI, and the Wildfire’s screen simply doesn’t show it off at its best. There’s an argument to be made for waiting for the Hero Android 2.1 update to go live and then picking up the older device – which nonetheless has basically the same specifications – and enjoying its higher-resolution HVGA display.

Nonetheless, the HTC Wildfire is a strong budget phone and a worthy entry-level model in HTC’s line-up. The key will be pricing: SIM-free and unlocked it comes in at around £200 ($300), which is in fact less than a similarly unlocked Hero, while at least one UK carrier is offering it “free” with a new, £20-per-month agreement. Impressive stuff, but the same carrier also offers the HTC Legend – complete with its brilliant AMOLED display and gorgeous unibody aluminum chassis – on the same priced contract. There’s a bigger price difference SIM-free, but we’re guessing most among the Wildfire’s target audience would be looking for a contract handset. Despite the Wildfire’s charms we’d still plump for the Legend in preference.

Video unboxing after the cut

Build quality is high, it’s a reasonably attractive design and the screen – though low resolution – is bright and, thanks to using an LCD rather than AMOLED panel, actually a little more viewable while outdoors than that of the Desire or Nexus One.  Keeping things ticking is a mere 528MHz Qualcomm processor, so while in its raw state things appear to be swift, we’ll be keeping an eye on how the Wildfire performs when it’s loaded up with apps.

Still, on paper at least you’re getting a lot for your money, so the Wildfire has plenty to live up to.  There are more first-impressions and live photos over at Android Community, so head over there for all the details!

HTC Wildfire unboxing & hands-0n:

Meanwhile Virgin Mobile are yet to confirm the exact launch date for their Wildfire, and nor have they confirmed pricing, but we’d imagine that the handset will be roughly the same as it is on T-Mobile and at around the same price.  The smartphone has already shown up for SIM-free preorder at Expansys, priced at £249.99 ($357) and expected to arrive on July 26th.

The HTC Wildfire has a 3.2-inch QVGA capacitive touchscreen supporting multitouch, WiFi b/g, Bluetooth and UMTS/HSPA.  It runs Android 2.1 complete with the latest version of HTC Sense, and includes a new Application Sharing app that makes recommending third-party software easier.  More in our hands-on report.

HTC Wildfire demo:

[via SlashPhone]

Compared to the Tattoo, the Wildfire does feel like a step up.  The HTC design heritage is obvious: from the front and sides the handset looks like a blend of the HTC Desire and Google Nexus One, while the back is reminiscent of the HTC HD2 with its contrasting horizontal panel running across the phone.  At 3.2-inches the display is the same size as that of the Legend, though it’s lower resolution and can be a little pixelated; you’ll definitely need to zoom in on webpages in the browser before you can comfortably read body-text.

Specifications include the usual array of Bluetooth, WiFi b/g and GPS, together with European-spec UMTS/WCDMA for data connectivity.  There’s also a microSD card slot under the battery cover and a 3.5mm headphone jack on the top edge.  The battery is a 1,300mAh pack, though HTC aren’t quoting estimated runtimes as yet.

While Application Sharing may sound like some exciting remote multi-player gaming system, in actual fact it’s merely a way to tell other Android users about apps you’re enjoying.  You can choose different titles installed on your phone from a list, then send out an update from the usual “Share” menu; that means via email, SMS, Twitter or through any other social networking app you may have loaded.  HTC say they’ve kept the functionality simple so that no matter what brand of Android phone your friends are running, they’ll be able to read the message and hit the link to go straight to the app in the Android Market.  There’s a demo of Application Sharing in the video below.

HTC Wildfire hands-on:

Other software changes are minor.  HTC have added to their calling display, so that a contact’s latest Facebook status is shown on incoming and outgoing calls as well as their photo, but other than that it’s Sense as we’ve seen on the Legend and Desire.  The company says they’ll be looking at rolling out the tweaks to other handsets in due course.  The capacitive display makes a significant difference to usability in comparison to the Tattoo’s resistive panel, and we were pleased to hear HTC’s Eric Lin say that, as far as he’s aware, there are no plans for resistive panels to be used in future handsets from the company.  Similarly, HTC intend to keep using Sense rather than pushing out a barebones Android device of their own, using the UI as a differentiator from the rest of the market.

Speed-wise, the Wildfire uses the same 528MHz Qualcomm processor as the HTC Hero, though with the 3D graphics and effects stripped from Sense, and the relatively low-resolution display, things are kept moving at a reasonable pace.  It should also help keep the price down, as does the absence of contact charging points on the base of the handset (instead the microUSB port is on the side).  It’s not as slick or satisfying an experience as, say, we found the Desire to be, but then again it’s targeted at the “my first smartphone” market and – viewed by those criteria – holds up well.

The Wildfire is expected to go on sale in Europe come Q3 2010; no word on official pricing as yet.  As you can see from our hands-on photos, it’ll arrive in black, white, red and brown.

Press Release:

KEEP YOUR FRIENDS CLOSE WITH HTC WILDFIRETM

Share apps, updates and experiences with the latest social powerhouse from HTC

HTC Corporation, a global designer of smartphones, today introduced HTC Wildfire™, a new HTC Sense-based Android phone that integrates the most popular social networks to help bring your friends closer to you. HTC Wildfire closely follows the success of the acclaimed HTC Desire and makes the company’s signature HTC Sense experience accessible to a younger audience.

“Today’s social networks provide an essential forum for friendship with more than 400 million users* – many of whom are young adults – actively sharing their lives with their friends through Facebook,” said Florian Seiche, Vice President, HTC EMEA. “HTC Wildfire makes the HTC Sense experience available to young mobile users for the first time. It brings all your communications into one place, whether it’s through Facebook, Twitter, text messages, images or email, ensuring that you are never far away from the conversation and always close to your friends.”

HTC Wildfire helps you stay connected with those who are most important to you through HTC Sense, a user experience focused on putting people at the centre by making phones work in a more simple and natural way. You won’t miss out on the fun as HTC’s Friend Stream application seamlessly gathers and displays content from social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr into one organised stream of updates. HTC Wildfire enables you to stay up to date with your friends’ posts, comments, alerts and photos, wherever you are.

In addition, each contact viewed in HTC Wildfire’s address book includes a thread of recent communications with that person, including when you last spoke, recent text messages and emails, and social network updates. When your friend calls, HTC Caller ID displays their Facebook profile photo and latest update, as well as a reminder if their birthday is fast approaching.

Thanks to a new app sharing widget, HTC Wildfire enables you to recommend an application by email, text message or over social networks. Your friends will receive a link allowing them to find the application on the Android Market with a single click and download it to their phone.

Florian Seiche continued, “We understand that people need a better way to navigate their way through the tens of thousands of applications that are currently available on the Android Market. In fact, our own independent research found that consumers are not only hungry for the latest and most popular applications that their friends are using, they want an easier way to find and download them. For the first time ever, you can recommend the newest and coolest apps to a friend or group of friends with HTC Wildfire. With so many applications to choose from, there’s a world of content to discover and pass along to your friends.”

HTC’s latest advanced smartphone is great for viewing and sharing photos on Flickr and for surfing the internet thanks to its 3.2-inch capacitive touch screen. A five-megapixel camera with auto focus and LED flash allows you to capture special moments, while a 3.5mm audio jack and micro SD card slot mean you are never without your favourite songs.

Availability
The new HTC Wildfire will be broadly available to customers across major European and Asian markets from Q3 2010.

Notes
*Source: www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics. More information is available on request.

About HTC
HTC Corporation (HTC) is one of the fastest growing companies in the mobile phone industry. By putting people at the centre of everything it does, HTC creates innovative smartphones that better serve the lives and needs of individuals. The company is listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange under ticker 2498. For more information about HTC, please visit www.htc.com

The Best of R3 Media

Has the HTC Wildfire Been Outed? HTC took a different route with naming a future handset. Instead of keeping it internal like they usually do, they decided to talk to their Facebook fans. They published a list that showcased different names for devices. The Wildfire won that little contest. And sure enough, HTC’s just got a new, previously unheard of device being approved by the FCC. Could be the Wilfire. Or, it could be something completely different. [via Android Community]

Facebook Shifts Videos to HTML5: The Facebook iPhone OS app is one of the most popular for the platform, but the company has yet to create an iPad application. So, that means that most people with the magical tablet from Apple have been utilizing the mobile Safari to access their social networking content. The only trouble with that is, up until today, the videos that people added to their pages have been Flash-enabled. That’s all changed, though. They’ve hit the switch, and now the videos –all videos– are coded in HTML5, which means viewing them in mobile Safari, on the iPad or iPhone or iPod Touch, won’t be a problem at all. Now, how about that iPad app? [via Everything iPad]

The Samsung Galaxy A is Almost the Galaxy S: We’re eagerly awaiting our close, personal time with Samsung’s Galaxy S Android 2.1 handset, but for those in South Korea, you can pick up something a little bit like the real thing. The Galaxy A features Android 2.1, and it’s technically the company’s first Android 2.1 handset. It’s got a 3.7-inch AMOLED Plus One touchscreen display, and TouchWiz 3.0. So, like we said, it’s almost like the Galaxy S. No 1GHz processor, though. The Galaxy A has an 800MHz processor under the hood. [via SlashPhone]

The Dredge Net

LTE Has More Longevity Than WiMAX: Probably not good news for Sprint, but definitely good news for Verizon Wireless. According research firm IDC, it seems that WiMAX’s current spotlight in the news isn’t going to last. The company suggests that spending on LTE equipment is going to exceed WiMAX spending by the end of 2011. That’s a good bit of distance from now, but in the long-run, it’s still not that good for companies utilizing WiMAX for their 4G technology. As it stands, over 100 operators around the world are using LTE, which include nine of the top 10. An additional dozen are said to launch just this year alone. So, it seems that WiMAX may want to keep on running, because LTE may just leap over them before they know it. [via Gearlog]

New PS3 Firmware to Add Background Download: The PlayStation 3 keeps getting updated. It’s a bit over the top now, but we like new things way too much to turn them down. This time around, it’s just good news. According to rumors, the new update will add background downloading for patches to your favorite video games. Right now, it’s about as much a rumor as a rumor can be, but we’ve got our fingers crossed that Sony’s going to let us download our patches while we play the game of our choice. Especially considering those patches aren’t necessarily always that small. [via PS3 Blog]

The Zune HD gets Solitaire, Labyrinth, and a stopwatch: When you look at your Zune HD, the one thing you know it’s missing is the game of solitaire, right? Well, thankfully Microsoft has heard your inward pleas for justice, and have officially added the game to the roster. On top of that, there’s a labyrinth game, too. And, for all those moments when you need a stopwatch, they’ve got you covered with that, too. So, hurry up and go download the new goodness. [via CrunchGear]