By Slowly but surely, details are emerging about the HTC Dream for T-Mobile. Lets cut to the chase:
On September 17th, T-Mobile will announce the HTC Dream and pre-sale orders will begin immediately. ONLY existing customers will be able to pre-order and the Dream will cost $199 with a 2-year contract. Pre-orders will end on October 3rd at 5pm and the phone will become available at retail on October 13th. If you pre-ordered… your phone should arrive on the 13th as well.
Another thing… you HAVE to pre-order online. Sign up at HTC Dream for instant e-mail notification so you know when the pre-orders begin. T-Mobile isn’t exactly familiar with taking pre-orders for exciting new phones, so you’ll do yourself a favor by getting in early before any potential train wrecks occur.
A monthly $35 data fee is required for HTC Dream to work and you’ll receive unlimited data and messaging for your hard earned dollar. Actually, you can pay only $25 and you’ll receive unlimited data and only 400 messages but you get the idea.
HTC Dream Specs?
- – Touch Screen
- Full Qwerty keyboard
- 3G/ WiFi
- Full HTML internet capabilities
- Easy access to all Google applications (Gmail, Gtalk, search)
- Maps
- Street view
- You Tube
- IM/Text
- 3.0 megapixel camera
- Video (playback only, no recording)
- Music player & 1GB memory card pre-loaded
- Applications via Google marketplace (icon on the homescreen)
GPS isn’t listed in the specs we saw, but I don’t see how they can leave GPS out. SOOOO many of the Applications in the Android Developer’s Challenge are reliant on knowing the GPS location of yourself and your contacts. There’s a reason for this… the future of the mobile web is about providing information based on your current place/situation. You have to think that GPS will pop up on this device and if it doesn’t… its a huge loss for Google, Android, the Open Handset Alliance, T-Mobile and customers in general. It would be somewhat embarrassing to not have GPS on the first Android phone.
We can also see the phone supports only video playback and not video capture. Not necessary (like GPS) but with all the potential “life-streaming” apps that could pop up on Android, why leave it out? The first Android Phone should have been as feature packed as possible – perhaps they had difficulties including specs and decided it was better to release something less than optimal (first) than nothing at all?
A couple other quick notes:
- Available in Black, Brown and White
- You’ll need a GMail Account to use your Dream
- There is a one-time, $18 upgrade fee
- Shipping/Handling is FREE
The other big thing we’d like to see change is ship date of the pre-orders. Great, you’re rewarding existing customers by letting them pre-order… thats fantastic. But while you’re sitting at home waiting for your shiny new Dream to arrive, the rest of the world went to their local T-Mobile store bright and early and scooped up the device and now has it before you!
We understand it prevents you from waiting in lines… but for real, how hard could it be to ship the HTC Dream to those who pre-ordered a few days early? DO IT!
[Via TMOWorld]
It’s possible to provide LBS without GPS, as T-Mobile uses triangulation. This will allow T-Mobile to block non-approved location-based applications. The LBS API is optional in the SDK and having T-Mobile provide location only to their vendors is still within the spirit of the openness as defined by the OHA.
come oooonnnn! no gps…. that’s not an option! google have been talking that much about geotargeting that I cannot believe they would make that big mistake. Half of the apps made till now, no, 3/4 of apps are using gps and no one can make me belive that triangulation can make up for it. it’s not even close!
And not being able to capture video. hahhaha this must be a joke! even every low end phone can do that(oh, yeah, just stupid IPhone can’t and it can’t sand mms, can’ reply to a message, can’t send same message to multiple numbers, and ppl laugh at it). I would never buy a phone if it cannot do some basic operations, because it gets to my nerves!
Those are basic things and those are the problems with new platforms. They just need some time to catch up with everybody else. Nokia and SE would never make such mistakes! I remember when Samsung was trying to catch up with them looong time ago it had such problems too. Their phones could not vibrate and ring at the same time, when you hit the red button everything you typed in would be erased without saving to drafts,….
IPhone has similar problems, and Ardoid will too.
I just hoped it would not! And I still hope this spec is not complete or right.
chill out bojkic.
It will have gps and most likely video, if not video they will make a program for it.
Google will not let it out the gate without gps and video recording.
Heck their will most likely be a program to upload videos recorded
on the HTC Dream phone that are tagged by the gps location they were recorded at.
So relax, take a deep breathe, and only listen to credible sources.(Google, HTC, T-Mobile)
Until then, just sit and wait like the rest of us.
The device may very well not have GPS. This would be a brilliant move by T-Mobile. It would mean that they could prevent any application that is not approved by T-Mobile (meaning it’s in their portal, getting a revenue share) from being LBS enabled.
the spec list is incomplete……… NOTICE BLUEBOOTH, GPS….ETC ARE MISSING…….. well the phone will most likey include these features……..
what does “message” mean? do you mean SMS or IM?
“A monthly $35 data fee is required for HTC Dream to work”
Does this mean that i have to pay a premium for the phone? I was thinking of getting it just for a normal voice plan without all the data/text and use the wifi for internet. Will this not be possible now?
“A monthly $35 data fee is required for HTC Dream to work” —- Is a total disaster. No way that I am going to give up
full internet access with my $495 WAP access, NO WAY!
as an open handset alliance member t-mobile cant prevent applications from running on the phone just like google cant. youy can put whatever you want on it.
Folks… in the grand scheme of things that $35 is NOTHING. For what you’ll be ABLE to do with Android and WANT to do with Android your phone is going to need continued/repeated access to the mobile web and this isn’t free.
Android will open doors but $35 is INCREDIBLY CHEAP for what you’ll get in return. You’ve got to pay to play as they say. But in reality… lets be fair… $35 is nothing for what will be offered. If you’re complaining about 35 bucks a month than you’re simply not a smart phone customer and should take a look at feature phones.
Oh yeah… those have data plans too. Nevermind. You’ll have to go back to the likes of the RAZR and such. Really, cmon, $35 is the LEAST of our concerns.
Actually the $35 plan is $10 cheaper than the ATT iPhone (3G) plan @ $45. Even better, for me, is the $25 plan, with 400 SMS, as that would more than meet my SMS needs.
Wait a minute… I am a TRUE data customer. I’ve had a Wing for almost a year, used an MDA for 2 1/2 years, and the Pocket PC Phone Edition for about 2 years before that. I’ve had $20.00 per month unlimited wireless data for all of that time. Is that $35 going to be on top of that? Because THAT would be a deal-breaker. See, my Wing records video, emails, opens and sends attachments, streams video, has a music and video player, Voice Dialing, takes up to a 2GB micro sd card, has touchscreen, full-querty, and only drops a call on this one bridge between Tampa and St. Pete, FL. (every time). I’d like a Dream, but I am not gagging for it. The Wing rocks. FYI, I’ve had t-mobile since Aerial Communications first went on line in 1997.
@Steve: no WAY will it be IN ADDITION to that $20 data plan. If you’re paying $20 for data now you’ll have to pay $15/month extra bringing you to the full $35 unlimited data. That would be my guess at least…
I know I’ll be getting this phone when my contract ends. I’ll get the Black one, but I’m not a tech guy so I have to play with it for a while to understand how to use it.
What will be the internal memory? Or how much do you expect….. 8 or 16GB ?
Steve, I have an 8GB uSD card in my wing and it works fine and recognized all 8 GBs of it. I’m not sure what the cap is as I can’t buy bigger than an 8 GB u SD card at this time.
Nerdster, WOW! I thought it would only take the 2GB card. Thanks for the info.
my wing uses 8gb microsd HC perfectly
I WILL NOT buy an android phone without GPS. Full Stop.
The $35 fee is simply comprised of the $20 data plan + $15 Unlimited Text feature, thats it. Which is why you could get the $25 fee that swaps out the Unlimited text for the 400 text feature…
Can someone send me all of the information that they know of. it sounds good. but i need it explained to me. my email is [email protected]. i would appreciate it
Any updates on the pre-sale?
Hey its the 17th and no pre order available to me.(tmobile customer for 5 years)
I even called t-mobile and they acted like they haven’t even heard of it. i was kind of pissed off. i wan’t to know what date i can pre order and save the extra $100 or so. i’m going to sell my wing and get this either way, for the technology. because my wing doesn’t have gps. and you will most likely be able to get video recording down the line. with android, there will be so many apps and things you can even think of to download. It really is the next big thing. T-mobile custome (5 years)