The Touch Cruise, a Windows Mobile-based 3.5G smartphone, is the third member of HTC Corp's family of wireless handsets with an advanced touch-screen interface. It will not challenge Apple's touch-screen marvel, the iPhone, in terms of design, but there is still plenty to like about it. Right direction The Cruise is the first in HTC's Touch series to offer personal navigation with an integrated Global Positioning System receiver, which taps into signals from the Navstar GPS Earth-orbiting satellites. Mapping software must be installed by users based on their network provider's GPS service. Once installed, users can find the fastest route from A to B and locate friends, restaurants and other points of interest. Cruise control By simply sweeping a finger across the 2.8-inch, backlit screen, a Touch Cruise user can scroll through and browse messages, documents, contact lists, weather forecasts and Web pages. The animated, three-dimensional interface provides three screens, one each for contacts, media and applications. Based on the proprietary TouchFLO technology, the interface also allows a user to view photos and slideshows using on-screen controls, and swiftly zoom in on, and rotate, images using only one hand. Power trip The device, which measures 110mm by 58mm by 15.5mm and weighs 130 grams with battery, is powered by a 400-megahertz Qualcomm MSM 7200 chip and runs Microsoft's Windows Mobile 6 Professional operating system. It also features a 3-megapixel camera, a second camera for video-conferencing, a four-way navigation wheel, a microphone and speaker, Bluetooth, Wi-fi and USB connectivity and an FM radio. The Touch Cruise costs HK$5,580.
