New Telecom windows-based Okta next week?

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BDFL - Memuneh
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#93281 1-Nov-2007 13:06

I am at the Auckland aiport, waiting for my boarding sometime in the next couple of hours - boring!

The Okta launch was really great. The Telecom people there were really enthusiastic about the whole brand and experience. On top of that they demonstrated a great commitment with HTC, by bringing in David Lee (VP) and Ellie Hung (Manager Sales Asia). I was quite taken by this alone.

The big news was the Okta Touch, the CDMA version of the HTC Touch. everyone present at the launch received one of these devices, so expect a review coming soon - I was playing with in the cab on the way to the airport and it's quite cool - no WiFi though but lots of memory and a very thin profile when compared with the HTC Titan. It will certainly appeal to young business people or youngsters with a bit more in their minds than just SMS. It is quite a nice media player device in itself with Bluetooth A2DP (stereo) support.

Other devices included the Okta Agent, which we have already reviewed and is in stores now, and the Okta Boss, a Smartphone (no touchscreen).

Also interesting to note these are in effect the first Windows Mobile 6 devices to be released in New Zealand.

The Okta Touch ($799) and Okta Boss should be in stores on the 8 November.

Of course these are only the first ones of a series of Okta-branded devices coming from Telecom. I asked around and Okta Mobile is not a spin off, but just another division within the company.

All in all very impressed with those new devices - and the fact that Telecom have been working with HTC to bring this here, while the competition have been working trough third parties and we haven't seen anything "new" really.

I will upload some pictures shortly and post in the news section soon.

mule

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#93284 1-Nov-2007 13:13

Definitely want to get my hands on the Touch - and at $799 its pretty accessible. Wonder if it will accept a micro sd wifi card to allow wifi?

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#93286 1-Nov-2007 13:17

The official pictures:

Okta Touch:

Okta Boss:

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
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#93287 1-Nov-2007 13:18

You probably won't be able to use a WiFi card because the slot is internal.

paradoxsm

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#93307 1-Nov-2007 16:17

Very nice device, The first phone that has come in recent times that has tempted me to finally ditch my faithful Nokia 6275.

A super slim and light fully capable PDA at long last that has a certain "WOW" factor. It's not just soley a "touch screen" device and still retains all the old pocketPC features and most compatibility with the stylus..

The touch screen takes a little getting used to but works superbly. The on screen "12 key" keyboard on it is also very well done but the classic one is still there...

The price is also incredibly good. $800.

Time for Vodafone to play catch-up ;-) Telecom are certainly doing it "right" with handsets and pricing.

freitasm

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#93329 1-Nov-2007 19:56

And here is a short video showing the user interface. Remember that those "effects" are activated by finger gestures on the screen:

paradoxsm

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#93351 1-Nov-2007 21:29

Is that menu as jittery as the video suggests? I have not been able to even find how to access it on this one, I never found the fancy stuff in vista either so maybe i'm just dumb!

You can also "drag" the "desktop page formatting" webpage around with your finger and even "flick" it and the browser seems to be very capable.

I'm really liking this device, It's reminicent on the original i-mate PocketPC which I still occasionally use, runs the same stuff but it's tiny and EVDO and ultra-cool.

I have to obtain my own I think! I still like my N95 but it's kinda unloved due to having no network..

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riahon

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#93358 1-Nov-2007 22:02

Suddenly my Titan looks very old.

eeny meeny miiny moe.......

I read that the 'touch' feature only allows you to access the particular app you want, but to actually use the programme you still need to pull out the stylus - is this true with texting? Also dissapointed to hear no wi-fi.

The BOSS looks very practical but is the BOSS an improvement over the Titan?

paradoxsm

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#93367 1-Nov-2007 22:49

The Boss is a "Smartphone" with no touch screen or stylus. but it does have a phone keypad.
in addition it also has a "slide out" full keyboard just like the Titan does.

The Titan is the full blown "PDA" with a touch screen" but with no phone keypad or slide out keypad.

The Touch is a weird but cool hybrid of both. With the appearance of a basic PDA with touch screen + stylus but there is "phone keypads" on the screen. The "touch" functions are more just to do simple "daily" tasks but there is a very capable full blown PDA underneath all this,

Smartphones and PDAs all run the same applications but there are various restrictions like the smartphone not having a touch screen disables clicking on buttons inside an application for example. The first two "context menus" are indexed to the two smartphone softkeys.

hope that helps, I should do some screenshots of how applications vary between smartphone and touch screen PocketPC.

I'm glad I waited for this little beauty, I wanted a "smartphone size and function with PDA touch screen"
and this is pretty much it.

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#93370 1-Nov-2007 23:23

paradoxsm: The Titan is the full blown "PDA" with a touch screen" but with no phone keypad or slide out keypad.

nzbnw

tonyhughes

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#93378 2-Nov-2007 00:50

nzbnw:
paradoxsm: The Titan is the full blown "PDA" with a touch screen" but with no phone keypad or slide out keypad.

nzbnw

He musta snapped his keyboard off....

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#93389 2-Nov-2007 07:24

nzbnw:
paradoxsm: The Titan is the full blown "PDA" with a touch screen" but with no phone keypad or slide out keypad.

nzbnw

I think he wanted to write "Touch" and put "Titan" by mistake. We all know the Titan does have a slide out keyboard and the Touch doesn't.

freitasm

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#93391 2-Nov-2007 07:29

paradoxsm: The Touch is a weird but cool hybrid of both. With the appearance of a basic PDA with touch screen + stylus but there is "phone keypads" on the screen. The "touch" functions are more just to do simple "daily" tasks but there is a very capable full blown PDA underneath all this,

Smartphones and PDAs all run the same applications but there are various restrictions like the smartphone not having a touch screen disables clicking on buttons inside an application for example. The first two "context menus" are indexed to the two smartphone softkeys.

All Pocket PC Phone Edition (now Windows Mobile 6 Professional) have a phone keypad on the screen.

The "Touch" is actually an overlay to Windows Mobile. You are corect in that it allows access to three areas only in this version: main programs, multimedia, calling.

It does add some finger scrolling features. For example you open a page on Internet Explorer and you can use your finger to grab it and gesture up and down to move the page. You can do the same in practically any list on the screen.

When vieweing pictures you can use gestures to zoom in and out, or rotate the picture - pretty much what the iPhone does.

As for running same applications, not quite. The difference in user interface is enormous currently and developers who have not updated their environments to something such as .Net Compact Framework 2.0 and newer will have a hard time coding an application to cope with the differences in user interface (touchscreen and no touchscreen) between Pocket PC and Smartphone (or Windows Mobile 6 Standard versus Professional and Classis).

This "single code" for all devices in the platform is coming, but not in Windows Mobile 6 yet.

freitasm

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#93392 2-Nov-2007 07:31

riahon: The BOSS looks very practical but is the BOSS an improvement over the Titan?

The Okta Boss is running Windows Mobile 6 Standard (i.e. Smartphone, no touch screen). The Titan is running Windows Mobile 5 Pocket PC Phone Edition (touschscreen).

They are for very different segments. I would say the Titan is for high end managers or applications that need more power and the Okta Boss is for the person who needs practical access to their Exchange Server, e-mails and some multimedia in the mix.

freitasm

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#93393 2-Nov-2007 07:32

paradoxsm: Is that menu as jittery as the video suggests? I have not been able to even find how to access it on this one, I never found the fancy stuff in vista either so maybe i'm just dumb!

No, it is not. But I can only capture video at 15 fps, and this is hardly closer to the "smooth" frame rate we need for a decent movie (24 fps).

Slide your finger from the very bottom of the screen, starting from the word "OKTA". This will bring the menu up. Slideyour finger down from the top this will close the menu. Slide your finger across this will rotate the menu.

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