Right then, so touchscreens are hot these days. And why shouldn’t they be? Expansive, bright wide displays, web pages and documents displayed in full splendour, portable computing in its truest sense. Except, when you start using it for any amount of serious work, specifically if you SMS or type a lot. It’s about then that you begin wishing you had a key here, one there, to peck at, just to get the job done faster and not glossier for a change! iPhone/HTC Touch (and the like) owners, I feel your pain. HTC TyTN II, this is your cue.

What’s striking about the TyTN II is that not only does it allow you one-finger operation a la the HTC Touch — using the finger for scrolling/panning and text input — you also get a full QWERTY slide-out keyboard. Nothing new you say? Slide out the keyboard, tilt the 2.8-in screen up to a comfortable 45° and set the TyTN II down on a table, and voila! No more hunching over the screen, the TyTN II (pronounced Ti-tan) is transformed into a mini-laptop, and with the slightly raised soft-touch keys, two thumb typing is a cinch within a few minutes of getting started.

It’s a simple but ingenious solution that allows you to fully exploit the keyboard of the device, say when you’re typing an e-mail, watching a movie, or even on the car dashboard, if you plan to use this for road navigation. That apart, I loved the inclusion of a scroll wheel towards the left of the screen, especially handy when scrolling down long web pages.

At 112 x 59mm and 19mm and weighing at 190gms, there’s no denying that its name TyTN II, reveals its rather titanic proportions. Much like the ship, this baby has and does everything, but the only hole it sinks is in your pocket. To be fair, sticker shock is now a commonplace commodity in the upper reaches of the smartphone segment, and the TyTN II impresses in what’s under the hood.

Running Windows Mobile 6, the TyTN II supports Wi-Fi and HSDPA(3G) for data transfer, along with the alphabet-soup regulars — A2DP Bluetooth stereo, a secondary VGA camera up towards the front for video telephony and useless mug shots, and an onboard GPS chipset (used with the MapKing R12 software). In a semi-serious move to attract photo enthusiasts, HTC packed in a 3MP autofocus camera, which produces rather average pictures that lack the contrast and range that some of the dedicated cam-phones provide.

Packed as it is on the connectivity and multimedia front, the TyTN II has an average 400 Mhz Qualcomm processor with 128MB of RAM, which produces performance that is acceptable, though nothing extraordinary. Fire up a few applications in parallel and see for yourself.

Windows Mobile 6 comes with a rich set of applications, and much like the Touch, HTC’s customised the home screen to quickly provide access to stuff like unread events, shortcuts to selected contacts and applications, dynamic weather updates and so on. Internet Explorer Mobile, Microsoft Office Mobile and Windows Media Player Mobile handle their duties ably, and you can always add tons of applications available on the Net for further functionality.

HTC bills the TyTN II as the ultimate mobile companion, and in some senses, they have delivered. With its new keyboard design, HTC has raised the bar for keyboard usability significantly. Connectivity features are excellent, and the inclusion of GPS rounds it off. Downsides? Battery life is a tad on the lower side, and even given that I had a number of battery hogging features (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, screen brightness on high) turned on, one couldn’t help but wish for a higher capacity battery for a beast such as this. I wish they had upped the resolution on the screen to a full VGA resolution, at least then the pain of carrying around something so heavy would have been redeemed. As I mentioned, the processor can tend to get sluggish, and that will detract from the ‘ultimate’ image.

If you’re looking for something that will keep you connected to work, while you browse the Internet to find out where to go, and use the GPS to get there, this is the phone that delivers on all three counts.

Quick Specs

• Processor: Qualcomm MSM 7200, 400MHz
• Operating system: Windows Mobile 6 Professional
• Memory: ROM: 256MB, RAM: 128MB SDRAM, microSD memory expansion
• Display: 2.8 inch, 240 X 320 QVGA TFT-LCD display with adjustable angle and backlight
• Network: GSM/GPRS/EDGE: Quad-band 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz, HSDPA/UMTS
• Device control: Finger scrolling and panning, 5-way navigation control, slide-out QWERTY keyboard
• Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.0 (with A2DP& ACRVP), Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, HTC ExtUSB (11-pin mini-USB and audio jack in one), internal GPS antenna
• Camera: Primary camera: 3MP CMOS autofocus camera, Secondary camera: VGA CMOS camera
• Software: Video Telephony, Business Card Scanner, Microsoft Office Mobile, Internet Explorer Mobile, Windows Media Player Mobile, Voice Commander, MapKing R12 etc
• Battery (GSM): 365 hours (standby), 420 minutes (talk time)
• Dimensions: 112 mm (L) x 59 mm (W) x 19 mm (T)
• Weight: 190gm (with battery)
• Rating: 8/10
• Price: Rs 33,000
• URL: http://www.htc.com/www/product.aspx?id=640

Small wonder

Wouldn’t blame you if you too did a double flip when you saw this baby — the pocket-size X-mini

Capsule Speaker starts off looking like an innocuous black yo-yo, but one sideways twist and the X-mini extended upwards, accordion-style to give you surprisingly boomy and full-bodied volume. Mimicking a sub-woofer, the

X-Mini hooks up to any music player via a 3.5mm audio jack and recharges over a retractable cable-USB plug. At 50gms and $25, this little David will teach your big Goliath-esque boomboxes a thing or two about making size count.

URL: http://www.x-mini.com
Price: $25

A clean sweep

In the home improvement mood lately? Pick up the Dulux PaintPod System, which pumps paint directly to its roller at the right consistent rate to avoid splatters and splodges. No more redoing the floor after you’ve painted the walls, no more fussing around with how much water to mix. And best of all, once you’re done, all you have to do is fill it with water and it cleans itself for you in just 10 minutes. Sure, it uses only specially formulated paint — $40 for white and $60 for colour — but tell me which other method is as much fun? Tom Sawyer would be pleased…

URL: http://www.dulux.co.uk/products/paintpod/index.jsp
Price: $136