HTC Touch Cruise (Polaris) 2009 - Tag the World

Another HTC innovation powered by Windows Mobile 6.1, the next series of HTC Touch Cruise or known as Polaris has fully make use of the great Windows Mobile 6.1 features. The jog button is especially a joy to use where most of the navigation can just be made by mere touch of the jog button in a circular motion - a feature which is very convenient and familiar especially for the iPod Nano 3rd Generation users.

When I first heard the geo-tagging features which is used to tag images taken from the mobile phone, I was awed. That’s something of an innovation of a totally useful function. HTC has taken geo-tagging up to another level by introducing HTC Footprints™ which allow users to record their adventure in precise and vivid details.

With the help of the improved HTC TouchFLO™ system, something which is not foreign to all HTC phones, navigations and user interactivity is made easy. The jog button is truly a joy to use as the whole phone navigation is operated through it. With Qualcomm 528MHz processor and 512MB and 256MB RAM/ROM respectively, running the resource intensive HTC TouchFLO™ and Windows Mobile 6.1 is a breeze. It responses almost instantly to every command.

Physical

It has a dimension of 102 X 53.5 X 14.5 mm (4.02 X 2.11 X 0.57 inches) and weight 103 grams (3.63 ounces) with battery. It comes with a cool casing where the plastic elements in the previous versions has been improved to a new shiny (still plastic) casing. Not only the features, but the look and the navigation smoothness of the jog button is also improved. Like any other latest PDA phones in its range, it has started to introduce the TFT-LCD screen with QVGA resolution for a crystal clear, crisps images and video playback on its touch enabled 2.8-inch screen.

Geo-tagging Device

The main selling point of the new HTC Touch Cruise (Polaris) is as a geo-tagging device. The moment you take a picture on your holidays, or whenever you feel like it, you can remember those moments at its exact location b pressing the HTC Footprints™ button which will then activate HTC Footprints™. This works through the GPS function in which the exact location of the image geographic location is then tagged. This function is made possible with the HTC Touch Cruise functions where you can take pictures with its 3.2 megapixel color camera with fixed focus and later tagged by HTC Footprints™ through its GPS chip.

The best part about HTC Footprints is that you can use them to find your way back to the hidden little café you visited last year, or the elm tree under which your loved one popped the big question. And if you want, you can simply flip through your collection and laugh about the times that helped create who you are today. HTC Footprints is like a journal of your life’s highlights, making them always within your reach.

More goodies

It is said that all HTC Qualcomm powered mobile phones are capable of running the Google Android OS Beta. The Google Android OS, which is touted to be one of the best and robust mobile phone OS boast the support of most of Google’s product. Google Maps is one of the main programs which you can use through your 3G data plan and the HTC Touch Cruise offers that through its A-GPS functions and HSDPA network if you decided not to use satellite navigation.

Feature packed

This device is full of features that is hoped for in any phones. It is media rich through various media playback support. It also has a 3.5mm ear-phone jack which can be connected to a bigger sound system. The media files can be transferred or connected through Bluetooth® 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate and A2DP for stereo wireless headsets, Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11 b/g, HTC ExtUSB™ (11-pin mini-USB and audio jack in one) or full-speed USB 2.0.

Verdict

The HTC Touch Cruise Polaris is must have for all tech enthusiasts. It has a full feature phone that is both geekily cool and also easy to use functions. The geo-tagging through HTC Footprints™ is truly great as you can straight away remember all the good moments and the exact place it happened. A revisit to the place is not a problem as you can find your way back to it through using GPS.

Google Android can also be run on this phone just incase you just wanted to try out the now hyped mobile OS while having the security of not losing the old faithful Windows Mobile. But I’m not sure if its legal or covered by warranty though ^_^!

To end this, you can have a look at the HTC Touch Cruise (Polaris) full specifications (Full spec from HTC Website):

Tagged as: footprints, geotagging, htc, polaris, touch cruise, touchflo