The Wildfire is HTC's latest Android-based "Superphone". Designed very much with social networking at its core, the Wildfire brings you closer to your online contacts with a raft of clever tools including the ability to view all of your Facebook, Twitter and Flickr updates all in one feed, organise emails, SMS text messages and photos by the person that sent them, as well as displaying contacts' Facebook status together with their caller ID when they ring. As HTC's own tagline has it: with the Wildfire, your friends have never been closer.

Technical Specifications

• Size: WxHxD 2.4 inches (60.4mm) x 4.2 inches (106.75mm) x 0.48 inches (12.19mm)
• Weight: 118 grams (4.16 ounces)
• Display:
  • Capacitive touch screen with pinch-to-zoom functionality
  • 3.2 inches
  • 240 x 320 QVGA
• Platform: Android 2.1 Eclair with HTC Sense
• Processor: 528 MHz
• Memory: 512MB ROM, 384MB RAM
• Expansion: microSD memory card (SD 2.0 compatible), supports up to 32GB
• Battery: Rechargeable 1300mAh lithium-ion battery
• Talk Time: WCDMA up to 440 mins, GSM up to 490 mins
• Standby Time: WCDMA up to 690 hours, GSM up to 480 hours
• Network: HSDPA/WCDMA: 900/2100 MHz, GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
• Internet:
  • 3G: Up to 7.2 Mbps download speed
  • Up to 384 kbps upload speed
  • GPRS: Up to 114 kbps downloading
  • EDGE: Up to 560 kbps downloading
  • Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11 b/g
• Camera: 5 megapixel colour camera, auto-focus and flash, geotagging
• Connectors: 3.5 mm stereo audio jack, standard micro-USB (5-pin micro-USB 2.0)
• Tethering: Internet sharing via USB
• Sensors:
  • G-Sensor
  • Digital compass
  • Proximity sensor
  • Ambient light sensor
• Bluetooth:
  • Bluetooth® 2.1 with Enhanced Data Rate
  • A2DP for wireless stereo headsets
  • FTP and OPP (object push) for file transfer
  • Other supported profiles: AVRCP, GAP, GOEP, HFP, HSP, PBAP, SPP, Service Discovery Application Profile
• HTC Widgets: Bookmarks, Calculator, Calendar, Clock, FM Radio, Friend Stream, Mail, Messages, Music, News, People, Stocks, Weather, Settings (such as Profile, Ringtone, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth) plus downloadable widgets
• Multimedia:
  • Gallery application for viewing photos and videos
  • Music
  • FM Radio
  • Audio supported formats: Playback: .aac, .amr, .ogg, .m4a, .mid, .mp3, .wav, .wma (Windows Media Audio 9) / Recording: .amr
  • Video supported formats: Playback: .3gp, .3g2, .mp4, .wmv (Windows Media Video 9) / Recording: .3gp
• Social Networking:
  • Facebook™ for HTC Sense
  • Friend Stream
  • Photo sharing on Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter
  • Video sharing on YouTube™
  • HTC Peep for twittering
• Location Services:
  • Internal GPS antenna
  • Google Maps
  • HTC Footprints™
• Special Features:
  • HTC Caller ID that shows the caller’s Facebook status and a birthday reminder
  • App Sharing that lets you recommend apps straight from your phone
  • Full Flash support on the web browser
  • In-built, dimmable flashlight
  • Ringer that automatically lowers the ring volume when you lift up the phone or mutes when you flip the phone face down

You can check up to date specifications on the HTC web site - http://www.htc.com/uk/product/wildfire/specification.html

To celebrate the launch of the Wildfire, tell HTC UK via their Facebook page what you would do if you could get all your friends together for a day...and they may make it happen! (http://www.facebook.com/htcuk)

Applications

The Wildfire comes with all of HTC's own social networking, email, productivity and media management applications as well as a number of new features including a flashlight application, a means of quickly recommending new apps and a data transfer tool to copy data via Bluetooth from an old phone. The complete list of applications is as follows:

• App Sharing - recommend applications you like via your social networking accounts
• Calculator
• Calendar
• Call History
• Camcorder
• Camera
• Camera
• Clock
• Desk Clock
• Flashlight
• FM Radio
• Footprints - organise and geotag your photos
• Friend Stream - access your Twitter, Facebook and Flickr accounts from one convenient interface and have status information and updates displayed throughout the device in the People and Phone applications
• Gallery
• Google Mail
• Internet
• Mail
• Maps
• Market
• Messages
• Music
• News - RSS reader
• PDF Viewer
• Peep - Twitter client
• People
• Phone
• Quickoffice
• Search People
• Settings
• Setup
• Stocks
• Talk
• Teeter
• Transfer Data - transfer data via Bluetooth from another device
• Videos
• Voice Recorder
• Weather
• YouTube

Home Screen

As with all HTC Android devices, the Wildfire offers not one, but 7 home screens accessed by swiping your finger either to the left or right. Each home screen can be customised with Internet-enabled widgets providing up to date, at-a-glance information without the need to launch a separate application to view emails, text messages, calendar appointments, stocks, news, weather, social networking updates, etc.

Email

The Wildfire features the same HTC Exchange email client as that featured on the Desire, providing push-based bi-directional synchronisation of mail, contact and calendar data with Exchange 2003 and later. Contacts can also be searched online in the Global Address List.
Setting up the Exchange account is quick and simple, provided that you know your username, password, domain and mail server address details - contact your IT department if you are unsure:

When running the Mail application for the first time, you will be prompted to create an email account, select Exchange. You will then be prompted to enter your email address and password.
The wizard will attempt to determine the correct connection settings to use automatically. If the wizard is unable to determine the settings, you will be prompted to complete them:

The mail server address will be the same as that used by Outlook Web Access, or webmail, usually in the form "mail.company.com"

The domain will be the same as that used to log into your desktop PC or laptop (usually the third field underneath username and password).

The username and password information will be the same as that used to log into your desktop PC or laptop.

Once all of the details have been entered successfully, you will then be prompted to select which mailbox folders you wish to synchronise:

Your mail will then be synchronised. Access to all mailbox folders is possible:

Out of Office status and message can be edited directly from the device:

Schedule information can also be specified during which time mail will be pushed to the device, and separate delivery schedules can be set for peak and off-peak hours:

Application Sharing

App Sharing is a feature new to the Wildfire and allows you to recommend applications you have downloaded to your friends and contacts via your social networking accounts:

Utilities

The new Flashlight application on the Wildfire uses the camera flash as an adjustable torch, useful for finding your keys or even the keyhole!

The Data Transfer tool enables you to transfer contacts and other information from another phone via Bluetooth:

The Music Player provides MP3 playback as well as the ability to create Playlists, set music as your ringtone or share tracks via Bluetooth:

Google Maps offers all the features that the latest version of the application provides including Layers, Navigation, Latitude, Stars and more:

The News application provides up-to-date access to your favourite RSS news feeds:

With a set of headphones connected to act as an aerial, the FM Radio turns your device into a portable music player even if you have no tracks stored on your memory card:

The Footprints application allows you to group photos into events, combining them with GPS location details and comments:

Camera

The Wildfire features a 5 Megapixel auto focus camera with auto-focus and flash. The auto focus is operated by touching the optical navigation key once lightly, then again to take the picture. Alternatively there is also an on-screen button to take the picture. A number of image processing effects are also available.

Web Browser

The Wildfire also features a WebKit 3.1-based browser, supporting both JavaScript and Flash sites, as well as "pinch to zoom".

Pop-up windows can be blocked and web sites offering a "mobile view" can be viewed in either the mobile or full version optionally. Links can be shared quickly and easily via email, facebook, twitter or SMS text message. Multiple web pages can be opened simultaneously and toggled between using the Windows feature.

A nice feature when browsing a text-based page is the ability to highlight a word or paragraph, and send that text to Wikipedia, Google Translate or Google Dictionary with one tap:

Productivity

The Wildfire comes bundled with QuickOffice, a Microsoft Office document viewer supporting Word, Excel and PowerPoint formats. To edit and create documents a separate application will need to be purchased, such as DataViz's Documents To Go application.
A PDF viewer is also included as standard.
Using a free utility such as Dropbox or GDocs you can keep your device synchronised with your online documents quickly and easily so you need never be without that crucial presentation ever again.

The device can also be used as a USB modem with Windows allowing you to share the device's connection to the Internet from your PC, both via the cellular and WiFi capabilities of the Wildfire.
Connect the device to the PC via USB and select the option to connect the device in Disk Drive mode:

The device will be detected automatically:

Browse to the Tool folder on the device and run the HTCDriver application:

Once the installation has completed, remove the Wildfire from the PC, then reconnect it again, this time selecting the option to connect in Mobile Network Sharing mode. Windows will detect new hardware and install a network adapter:

You will now be connected to the Internet via your device. It really is that simple.

Visit the HTC web site for more information.

The Wildfire is available to order today from Brightpoint - +44 (0)870 849 0225