HTC Polaris to become Touch Cruise

The HTC Polaris, first disclosed months ago in an early roadmap, is being renamed the Touch Cruise, company executives have confirmed. The phone should mark the second expansion of the Touch line, following the Touch DUAL; one of its features will be the introduction of an improved TouchFLO interface, with extra gestures such as half-turns for object rotation and complete turns for zooming in and out.

The design of the Cruise has not been finalized, but it should be a quad-band GSM phone with tri-band UMTS, supporting both HSDPA and HSUPA. Inside should be a 400MHz CPU, with 128MB of RAM and 256MB of ROM; external memory is tapped to be microSD/SDHC. The screen measures 2.8 inches, and cameras include a VGA model on the front for video calls, plus a three-megapixel autofocus unit on the back, handling stills. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth receivers are present, but the rumored GPS abilities have apparently been scaled back, limited to assistive functions. Release is expected in late November. [via Unwired View]