This morning at CTIA, HTC announced the all new Windows Standard Phone, the HTC Snap (US version is the S522). This is the true successor to the very popular HTC Dash and sports some impressive specifications, a sleek new look and a pretty darn cool story behind it.

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While at Mobius last week, I was given an HTC S740, code name “Rose”. Although I thought the phone was attractive enough when opening the box, I honestly didn’t see how it could ever replace my iPhone. But being game to try something new, I got Vincent to pull out a paperclip (which he carries for this purpose in his wallet, can you believe it?) so I could remove my iPhone’s SIM and give the S740 a try. I’ve reached almost a week of solid use, and I figured that it was time to post some impressions…

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We started the day with device presentations from members of the group that had not already presented yesterday morning.

This is something that has turned into a bit of a tradition – we all bring a gadget, our current PDA, or an accessory that we think is neat.

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I’m presently in Seattle attending Mobius with a group of 20-something other bloggers. I am not sure how much of the discussion will be NDA or open for posting, but I will update as possible…

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When I arrived at the conference area to grab breakfast before entering, Tim McAfee was there to greet us, handing out REDFLY t-shirts. I was hoping for a medium, but some of the other guys had already beat me to them; he made it up to me by giving me two larges. Ha! After getting set up and then eating my food, I settled in with the others to listen to the first presentation on the Microsoft Zune.

Creative Strategies Presentation

Ben from Creative Strategies started a two hour discussion with the question “How is technology going to better integrate and improve people’s lives.” He gave a quick overview of the personal computing experience over the past couple decades, and about how many of the systems we had bought were basically versions of the current enterprise models. In the last few years, the trend has become about choices – colors, configurations, various sizes, making the whole experience more optimized and personal for each individual.

CS’s view of the Digital Future is that “No device is an island,” meaning that all of your information will be synced with all of your devices, in all of your locations. I’m ready for that…

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This wasn’t from a presentation, but I thought it was something you all might enjoy. Michael Oryl of Mobile Burn recently received a Samsung Soul, a European Market fashion phone that looks really amazing. He pulled it out on one of our breaks and shared it with me; I found it to be a very sexy little feature phone. The various materials from which is it composed give it a satisfying in-hand weight, and the textures that your hand encounters make it feel…for lack of a better word…”posh”.

Michael says, “Samsung’s new SGH-U900 Soul gets its name from Samsung calling the device the “Soul Of ULtra”, a fitting name for what the company says is the last handset in its original Ultra line of thin profile feature phones.”

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Terry and Dave from the Zune team opened our day by giving a brief overview of the device’s history, interface, 2.5 update, software, and models. A detailed overview was given of the Zune “my social | my profile” page on the Zune site, exploring the networking aspect of the player and discussing ways that it will more deeply explore the whole “social” aspect. They have also added quite a bit of playlist functionality and user experience upgrades in the Zune software, and they are adding ways to connect with networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, etc..

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This is going to be a much quicker unboxing than I usually like to do, mainly because it is almost 3am Texas time, and I have to be up in 5 hours to get ready for the next Mobius session. Anyway!

After our dinner tonight, Matt Miller, Ed Hardy, Joel Evans and I met up in Matt’s suite to geek out with our new HTC Advantage 7510s. I managed to capture the unboxing photos, which I wanted to take and post before I really started using the device tomorrow…

This picture of Matt is specifically for Mike Cane.

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Eric Lin, who is himself a former member of Mobius, spoke to us about the new HTC Diamond’s evolution, as well as his new role with the company. Eric said that we can expect to see many more innovative devices coming from HTC, but the Diamond is their first foray into the fashion phone market. After handling the phone, I have to say that the UI is gorgeous, and the phone is much smaller than I expected. The facets on the back are not as pronounced as I thought they would be, and overall, it’s not a bad looking device…but it is a total fingerprint magnet.

Still getting milage out of that picture of Eric in a suit

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Were you aware that O2 was purchased by eXpansys? As part of the purchase eXpansys acquired everything, and has now rebranded the company as MWg. According to their site, “Mobile & Wireless Group (MWG) is a Singapore based start-up company established to develop and market premium, converged mobile devices. Founded by the team responsible for O2’s ground-breaking range of PDA-phones, MWG will meet growing global customer demand for customized devices with an emphasis on design, technology, reliability and service.” We were led in a group session by Roger Butterworth, of MWg, who wanted feedback from us about where devices needed to go as far as usability and features. They want to focus on the design and service.

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While we were still sitting eating the remnants of our lunch, R from Sony-Ericsson gave a presentation on their new SE XPERIA X1. W00t! He gave us demos of the interface and most of the issues we had seen with lagging screens (mainly from Mobile World Congress reports) seem to have been resolved. They said it at the time, that this was not a finished device and that it was a work in progress, so it is great to see that progress is indeed being made.We tried to pin him down on a date for the release, but second half of the year was as specific as he would get. We did find out that the name XPERIA does not specifically mean Windows Mobile devices, it could be other mobile OSs; but all Windows Mobile Sony Ericsson products will be XPERIAs. Got it?

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Last night, as is the custom, we had an informal meet & greet. Today marked the first day of actual Mobius meetings…and we jumped right in.

John Starkweather gave us a formal introduction as he welcomed us to the 2008 Seattle Mobius, teased us with a quick REDFLY demo, and then jumped right into a Windows Mobile 6.1 walk-through and discussion.

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Today I will be flying to Seattle for a Microsoft facilitated Mobius Event. I hope to be able to share a lot of Windows Mobile coverage with you over the next few days, but at the moment I have no idea exactly what or which companies will be covered. I just know that John Starkweather and the gang will have once again managed to line up an exciting list of OEMs who will speak with us directly. Whatever happens, I will share everything with you that I can.

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I just got this hilarious photo from a Microsoft MVP who, in order to protect his identity, shall remain nameless.

(view Larry Liaw’s original picture here)

His quote: “You’re now our “Queen of the Nerds” (hope you’re not offended by the attached picture of you).”

Offended? I love it! I got a huge laugh on an otherwise long Friday afternoon. Thanks!

On the last day of Mobius 2006, John Starkweather, Jenneth Orantia, Derek Snyder, Joel Evans and I went to the Phuket Cobra Show. What happened next was nothing short of amazing!

Click these links…if you dare!

My new friend, the photo-op snake

One guy, two cobras

One guy, three lightning fast vipers

One guy and a really huge king cobra

Pay no attention to our squeals as the snakes do their thing. And just to keep this post relevant, here I am with my JasJar…and my new bud, the Phuket photo-op snake! ;-)

To add to the fun, Nandini at Born Rich has posted another snake picture (minus the JasJar).

If you would like to see more pictures from Mobius 2006, click here. For a few more home movies from the trip, including several from an evening of Muay Thai boxing, please click here.