HTC, the company behind many of today’s most popular Windows Mobile smart phones, is known for offering a broad range of devices. It has done petite, thin, and powerful, and it’s even gone above and beyond traditional smart phones, as we saw at CTIA 2007 with the introduction of the HTC Shift and HTC Advantage. And now, the company has once again pushed the limits of design with its latest project: the HTC Touch.

Under the hood, the Touch isn’t that different from its HTC and Windows Mobile 6 sibling, the T-Mobile Wing. Yet the HTC Touch makes its mark by offering TouchFLO, a brand-new user interface that allows you to operate the smart phone just by swiping your finger on the device’s touch screen. It’s innovative and cool, but it’s also flawed. Our main concern is the lack of a sizable keyboard, which is a huge drawback for messaging fanatics, and it even slows down simple tasks such as entering new contacts.

HTC is hoping to capture a broader consumer audience with the Touch–someone who is thinking of making the leap from a cell phone to a smart phone–and it’s certainly a step in the right direction. It’s fun to use,…

Twenty-four hours after teasing us with news of a major product announcement, Nokia officially took the wraps off its mystery smartphone on Tuesday at the Nokia World 2008 conference in Barcelona, Spain. And despite some close guesses, no one got it quite right, so without further ado, let us introduce you to the Nokia N97.

Part of the company’s high-end N series of multimedia computers, the N97 trumps all previous models with a slide-out full QWERTY keyboard and a tilting 3.5-inch touch screen (anyone else reminded of the AT&T Tilt or Sony Ericsson Xperia X1?). Yes, there’s the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet, but the N97 includes phone capabilities and is designed for the “needs of Internet-savvy consumers.”

For example, the smartphone provides easy access to a number of social-networking sites, and the Web browser supports streaming Flash videos. The N97 also introduces something Nokia calls “social location,” which uses the capabilities of the integrated A-GPS sensors and electronic compass to automatically update users’ social networks, or let them share their location via photos or videos with friends.
The Home screen can be personalized with widgets of favorite Web and social-networking sites. Finally, the N97 is fully compatible with Nokia’s Ovi Internet services, which…