It is a rarity in today’s day and age that a handset maker is actually capable of breaking the mold and creating something that you actually want to buy. Apple consistently revisions current hardware prior to re-design, aiding the ‘sheep’ mentality of it’s supposed customers (myself included) where companies like Samsung do their best to replicate Apple without infringing. Then you have HTC, the Taiwanese juggernaut that dropped a bomb on us with the One series essentially reinventing themselves and the modern smart phone.

The One X is HTC’s latest flagship handset, they’re repeating the history that they made with the EVO 4G on it’s initial release with Sprint. The device boasts a 720p display that is one of few handsets capable of rivaling Apple’s retina technology. It is by far one of the best mobile displays on the market, even rivaling the retina display on Apple’s new iPad. HTC has come up short quite frequently in the past with their displays, but they really knocked it out of the park on the One X. Comparing to the iPhone from all feature standpoints is comparing apples to oranges but due to Apple’s resilient reign over smartphone users, it’s a solid baseline to utilize for our purposes. It’s difficult to not compare the two greats to one another.

Sense 4.0 is a refreshing installment of what was once an overbearing nuisance that HTC insisted on adding to all of their phones. Sense used to make me hate life every time I picked up an HTC handset, regardless of how solid the hardware felt in my hand. Now that they have come to an understanding that their skin is something that should help the user, not burden them, they’ve got something delightful on their hands. Using the new variation is fantastic — while it’s easily noticeable, it also isn’t troublesome to navigate. It actually looks good as opposed to being over-bearing large fonts and icons designed to make the user feel mentally challenged.

The new Sense keyboard, for example, is one of the best Android keyboards that I have ever used. The previous rendition was great, it was one of the few highlights of Sense, but the new version is much, much better. Android 4.0/Ice Cream Sandwich is the first time that typing on an Android handset isn’t a royal pain in the ass — it’s now comparable to the iOS or Windows Phone typing experience — something that Android has long been lacking and now makes for a refreshing experience.

The hardware is nothing short of beautiful — thin, solid, and a great hand feel. It isn’t feathery light like a Samsung device, so it doesn’t feel cheap while holding it, or like you’ll break it if you tap on the display wrong. The sleek one-piece design takes a page from Apple’s book — they’ve created something that’s actually visually appealing, like what Apple was going for with the iPhone 4’s design. When smart phones are nothing but slabs with large displays it’s difficult to find ways to create them and maintain a certain visual appeal and differentiation, HTC has achieved that with their One X.

The One X has Beats by Dre audio integration, which is supposed to make for a better music listening experience — this is just a gimmick, nothing you couldn’t achieve yourself by adjusting the equalizer but it makes for a good branding strategy. Your mileage may vary, but for those that aren’t interested in manually adjusting equalizers or don’t quite know what the different options mean, the Beats integration is perfect for you — pending you have a pair of Beats headphones.

All in all; if you’re an iPhone user looking for something new or an Android lover wanting the latest and greatest, this is the phone you want. There is currently no better Android phone, or any phone for that matter, on the market. Whether you use the international HSPA+ version or the LTE variant available in the USA and Canada you will be pleased with your purchase. From the beautiful display, to the solid hardware, to the fast data speeds, to the graceful user experience. This is one handset that anyone would recommend to friends and enemies alike.

The HTC One X is available exclusively through Rogers in Canada and can be picked up here for $169.99 on a 3-year term.

BlackBerry 10 Alpha Developer Device

MOTOLUXE Smartphone to Launch in Canada

A date with the BlackBerry Porsche Designed P’9981 Smartphone

BlackBerry World 2012: Day 1

RIM Launches BlackBerry 10 Platform

BlackBerry World 2012 – Live Blog

Hands-on with the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha Developer Device

Alec Saunders rocks out at #BB10JAM Keynote

Q&A session with RIM CEO Thorsten Heins – Live Blog #BBWC

Day 2 of BlackBerry World 2012 is about to get underway.  What’s been an action packed conference full of announcements (and parties), now brings something a bit more toned down with an intimate Q and A session with RIM CEO Thorsten Heins.

Stay tuned and follow-suit for our live blog as the session starts in about 20 minutes.

10:21 – Thorsten has arrived

10:25 – Very relationship based, very focused. Crowd-sourcing answers, from bloggers, alliances and partnerships. 20,000 RIM employees now

- RIM has never really had focus in listening to what users’ want.

- RIM’s drive is centered around the success of their BlackBerry brand, and how to leverage relationships for mutual growth.

- BlackBerry’s are designed around multi-tasking and getting things done

Goals:

- With QNX and BB10, quality matters. RIM is in no rush. Much more to come.

- objective is to bring BB10 to market this year

- focused on typing experience. they want “best in class”

- RIM has no plans on abandoning their physical keyboard implementation. They are focusing now on making the best touchscreen typing experience as well.

Now the questions begin!

If Mr. Saunders ever wants to change career paths, public speaking should be a consideration – the man has charisma. What started with a “We’re worth the wait”  rock ballad music video, laced with sharp points on why BlackBerry is the way to go over the “other” OS’s, continued straight into a lively keynote whose sole focus was on the strengths of the forthcoming OS and of course, how well BlackBerry World (and the Apps) are actually doing.

As you can see above, the proof is in the numbers – 74k + apps were submitted last year into the BlackBerry App World.

Alec (and RIM) have also made a very strong commitment to the previously disgruntled app development community, having made a $10,000 promise:

Should a company submit a “Quality” app, that has its own marketing push NOT make at least $10,000 in sales via App World, RIM will reimburse the maker of the app for the aforementioned app. RIM is so serious about this promotion that they have allotted $100,000 towards this initiative, just to kick-start it.

From what I have seen so far, I am impressed with the direction RIM is taking with this. More shots if you keep reading.

What can be said about the titled device? Honestly, not much, since all it is is a shrunken down version of the long-released PlayBook. The sole reason for this devices to even exist is to seed out to developers and get them developing their apps for the forthcoming BlackBerry 10 OS. Specs of this model include a 4.2″ touchscreen display at 1024×768-pixel resolution (same resolution as the PlayBook). The Dev Alpha that you see above (and below) is running a stripped down version of the PlayBook OS, which when loaded, features only the web browser and camera as apps. Ironically, this device has 16GB of internal memory, similar to the PlayBook device seeded out to attendees of BlackBerry World last year.

As for testing apps? Developers are able to side-load and as the launch of BlackBerry 10 phones nears, they will also receive OTA updates to support stability and growth.

Thorsten Heins, CEO of RIM has taken the stage to start his keynote

- the one big thing that BlackBerry actually delivers: BlackBerry is all about success; creation and empowerment.

- Productivity, Responsiveness, agility

- When you empower users’ with time, big things can happen.

9:15: The architecture behind the BlackBerry OS allows for piece of mind; less battery worry; faster response. Everything done now is to leverage the power of the BlackBerry backend. Enable and empower personal success.

9:16: Clarence So of Salesforce.com has taken the stage

- Salesforce to go HTML5 instead of being a standalone app – make the CRM experience more fluid

9:20: Cisco has taken the stage

- Cisco has begun building Web-Ex for BB10; also

Hot on the heels of the keynote, RIM has just announced what everyone has been waiting for: the BlackBerry 10 platform. As for official BlackBerry 10 devices? RIM is now stating the latter end of 2012.

See official press release below:

BlackBerry World 2012 / BlackBerry 10 Jam – Orlando, FL – - Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today unveiled its vision for the BlackBerry® 10 platform at the BlackBerry World™ conference in Orlando, Florida and released the initial developer toolkit for native and HTML5 software development. The toolkit is available in beta as a free download from http://developer.blackberry.com.

“BlackBerry 10 builds upon the core values and exceptional user experiences that have attracted more than 77 million BlackBerry customers around the world today,” said Alec Saunders, Vice President, Developer Relations and Ecosystems Development. “Developers building for BlackBerry 10 will be able to easily create the kind of cutting-edge apps that deliver truly engaging experiences and ‘wow’ customers, whether through integration with native features and other apps like BBM or by leveraging the new signature design elements of this new and powerful mobile computing platform.”

Day 1 of RIM’s annual celebration of all things BlackBerry, BlackBerry World 2012,  is gearing up to launch here in beautiful Orlando, Florida! After a great press launch last night, all the sponsors and my fellow bloggers are eager to hear what RIM CEO Thorsten Heins has to say for his first keynote speech since taking over the reigns as head of the company.

Stay tuned for more as things develop – we’ll be posting as it happens!

Though I’ve never actually posted my thoughts about it, when it was first announced that RIM had plans on releasing a high-end Porsche designed BlackBerry, I scoffed at the idea. Why would a struggling brand build – and put effort towards marketing – a product that was completely unnecessary? They could have looked across the pond at Nokia’s struggling Vertu brand to get an example first hand. There is little to no market for over-priced, excessive devices, that do exactly the same thing as current in-market ones that are a fraction of the cost. In Vertu’s defence, however, for the money you’re paying they do offer a membership to a valet service.

Anyway, the point is that I was kind of turned off by the idea that it was in fact a reality, and paid it no mind when I saw posts and reviews begin to circulate; I just didn’t care. That is until I held it in my hand today at BlackBerry World.

I’ll hand it to RIM. Over-priced or not, they make good handsets. The device feels a bit heavy; but in a strong, defined way. Almost like that first taste of scotch you get from your father – at first taste, though bold and charismatic, you don’t actually know what to make of it. But as you sip more and more, you grow accustomed to the boldness and learn to appreciate it. Only after a few moments of playing around with the P’9981, with its leather backing and stainless steel body, did I really understand and appreciate what they (RIM) was aiming for.

RIM wanted art. RIM wanted refined class. RIM wanted something that would ultimately stand out from the pack. RIM didn’t want – or expect – everyone to own this device. RIM was directly targeting the customers who look at class and design, not a price tag. So, they strategically partnered with Porsche, the automotive epitome of class, and created the P’9981.

So now, in retrospect, I can admit to being wrong for pre-judging the existence of this device. Yes it’s tad excessive, but I can respectfully give a hat-tip to RIM and Porsche for conceiving it I have had hands-on time with many of the words best brands of cellular phone, but this one took the cake; it just felt right – that’s really the best way to describe it and I am going to leave it at that.

More to come from BlackBerry World 2012 as day 1 officially begins tomorrow.

Motorola announced today the newest edition to their Android family of phones: the “MOTOLUXE” handset. With a 4-inch screen the device is packaged and ready to let you connect to friends and family at any given moment. It also has a device-specific LED notifier which allows the user to differentiate between calls, emails, tweets, etc as they come in.

The MOTOLUXE is scheduled to launch in weeks and more information can be found here