Telus gets Touch Diamond first in North America
updated 03:30 pm EDT, Thu July 3, 2008
Touch Diamond for Telus
Telus today made a surprise announcement that it will be the first North American provider to carry the Touch Diamond, HTC's new flagship touchscreen phone. The news jumps Telus ahead of expected announcements from Sprint and Verizon and makes the Canadian firm the first known to get the CDMA version of the Diamond, which should have advanced 3G access through EVDO Revision A while keeping nearly all other features.
The Diamond is HTC's first Windows Mobile 6.1 native device and comes with a newer TouchFLO interface as well as a built-in 4GB of memory and a 3.2-megapixel back camera; the fate of the front VGA camera from GSM versions isn't known and may see the camera dropped without support from Telus or other carriers.
Telus ships the Diamond later this summer and will sell it for $150 on a three-year contract; unlimited web, e-mail, and messaging on the device will be available for $30, while messaging alone costs $15.
Please explain..
07/03, 04:13pm reply
..how this is Mac news.
ebeyer
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jun 2004
Re: Please explain..
07/03, 05:15pm reply
It has the word Touch in it.
t6hawk
Dedicated MacNNer
Joined: Jan 2001
If I don't get an iPhone.
07/03, 09:57pm reply
In Canada this really is Mac news because Telus is (in half of Canada) basically the only competitor to Rogers – who have the iPhone. If Telus has more affordable plans on their pretend-iPhones, then Rogers might lower their rates. Then I might leave Telus and get an iPhone.
Accordion Noir
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Feb 2008
Good news
07/04, 09:00am reply
This is a good alternative to iPhone in Canada. Hopefully it will help but downward pressure on data prices. The other good thing is that this should come preloaded with Opera Mobile, which, is a very very good browser.
ehoppe
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jul 2008
I am sick of c*** phones
07/05, 03:27pm reply
One of the reasons I'm livid with Rogers right now is because I'm stuck currently with a Motorola Razor crippled by Rogers bundled software preventing me from having a decent music player on the device or adding my own ringtones. I feel that companies should not be allowed to cripple phones with crapware and then charge full price either upfront or subsidized.
As livid as I am with Rogers, I plan on negotiating for an early upgrade to an iPhone because the iPhone is one of the few non-crippled phones to be offered in Canada.
aristotles
Senior User
Joined: Jul 2004
Re: Good News
07/05, 03:31pm reply
Decent browser or not, it will still be crippled with addon software from Telus and they will disable some features before giving it to you.
I hope that Apple standing up to the telcos with regard to sofware bundling will set a precedent for other handset companies to follow to give consumers the features they paid for rather than a small subset of features tied into the telcos own download services.
aristotles
Senior User
Joined: Jul 2004