Last week I graduated, it was on the hoe... it was sunny bonus... I made my parents proud... the end. (actually I really enjoyed it thanks for asking)
HTC Touch Diamond:
For over a month now I've had the pleasure of owning one of these, having previously attempted to get on with a Windows Mobile phone I was slightly reluctant to start using another one. However after the odd Youtube video here and there, some online reviews and the sales people in Phones 4 U I decided to once again attempt to get on with this type of phone. So I bet your reading this and thinking great thanks for this great insight into your personal life! Well the reason I write this is because of eventually finishing the Mentorship Project (see previous post) I've now had a chance to have a play with this device. With the Aid of XDA developers I've managed to unlock the potential of this phone and more importantly of how to use this device from an E-Learning perspective.
Phone review:
The actual phone is very thin and because of this it fits in your pocket well without you actually noticing its there at all! The phone supports a huge screen (for mobile phone standards) which displays at a whopping 640x480 resolution (higher than the Iphone) that's just two stops down from the resolution on the Ibook I'm writing this post on the phone has built in G-Sensors like what you would find in a Wii remote, it a has GPS and a light sensor (to control screen brightness) other than these specs everything else on the phone is like all other smartphones, 3G, Wifi, bluetooth, touchscreen etc. I'm really getting on well with this phone it works as well as I'd imagine a microsoft based product to work and looks good while its doing this. Two area's it falls down slightly is that to cram all its features into such a small package the phone can only really last 24hours without being plugged into the wall which is fine during the week with leaving it plugged into the USB on my comupter whilst sat at my desk however on the weekends i'm quite often left with a dead phone. However this can be rectified by purchasing a larger (in size and capacity) battery. The second small issue I have with this phone is lack of keyboard however I'm slowley getting used to texting and emailing using its onscreen keyboard.
Anyway this handy YouTube video should be a little bit more usefull at showing you the phone and its features....
Hacking & ELearning
This phone out the box could be used as a quality E-Learning resource (much like all smart phoens), with its high res screen and ability to view full html websites, open all office documents, PDF's and flash lite applications. However one of the things which has made me jump out my seat and go I should write a post about this on my Blog is this:
By using the G-Sensors within the phone you can figure out what the angle of the phone is and from this create a fake 3D object which by tilting the phone you can navigate around it. Imagine a programme which uses this feature but to navigate around a human organ or likewise.
I'm just waiting for the friendly guys on the XDA forum to patch the tilt/g-sensors into flash lite so i can start developing using the sensors, otherwise I'm going to have to get on learning C# or whatever language you use when programming for windows mobile.
Well this has been quite a long post all to say that my phone has G-Sensors which could be used for elearning, well watch this space I might have an application to share in the not so distant future which uses these sensors.......... YEAH RIGHT. But seriously if you think you might have a project which could use this idea then please get in touch I'd love to at least attempt such a project.
