HTC Wildfire Night In Melbourne

More than a week ago, I was invited to attend the HTC Wildfire launch night hosted by HTC and Telstra at Rockstar Bowling at Melbourne Central. We had a great time playing with HTC’s first prepaid Android phone as well as getting the chance to hang out with some of Melbourne’s coolest bloggers (Duncan Riley, Buzz Moody, Phoebe Montague and Wolfcat were there!) and tech folk.

I really believe that HTC are on to something with the HTC Wildfire. Making an Android smartphone of this calibre so affordable (Only $349 Prepaid with Telstra) means that more and more people will be able to experience the Android platform – for the last couple of months we’ve seen the manufacturers focus a lot on the high end / more pricey devices. Expect to see more university students playing with Wildfires on their daily commutes!

For me, I loved the compact form factor, performance, choice of two colours, packaged improved torch widget and data transfer application. I’m definitely recommending this to anyone on a tight budget and can’t afford its bigger sibling the HTC Desire!

HTC Wildfire Highlights
Check Facebook, Twitter and Flickr at the same time with HTC’s Friend Stream
View friends’ Facebook updates, Tweets and Flickr photos in one organised stream, all on the same screen.

HTC’s next-generation Caller ID
Along with the traditional Caller ID features of caller name and number, HTC’s next-generation Caller ID now includes additional information such as friend’s birthday and Facebook status updates.  In addition, each contact viewed in HTC Wildfire’s address book includes a thread of recent communications with that person, including the last conversation, recent text messages and emails.

Recommend apps with HTC’s new app sharing widget
Apps can now be shared straight from the user’s phone to their friends by sending a link via Facebook, Twitter and a host of other social networking sites or Friend Stream, as well as email and sms. This link allows users to find the app on the Android Market™ with a single click and download it to their phone. There are thousands of apps available on Android Market – including games, social-networking apps and new arrivals every day.

Friends are just one tap away
The People Widget feature can be used to find group of friends straight from the home screen. Calling, texting or emailing is only one tap away.

Browsing is better
The HTC Wildfire comes with full Flash support for online video, pinch-to-zoom page resizing, and auto rotation from portrait to landscape. It also comes with useful reference tools including one-touch dictionary, translation and Wikipedia lookup.

Exclusive Telstra content and apps
Telstra customers enjoy a large range of unmetered BigPond® entertainment, including news, sport, music and weather. Telstra’s new Tribe® service offers customers free-to-browse social networking within Australia by bringing together Facebook®, Twitter™ and MySpace™  in a single mobile portal. Telstra customers can also subscribe to exclusive content including Mobile FOXTEL from Telstra and AFL and NRL apps.

Faster texting with Swype™
HTC Wildfire is the first Telstra smartphone to feature Swype™ text input technology. Swype allows customers to glide their finger across a virtual keyboard to spell words, rather than tapping out each letter. This can make it even faster to compose emails, text messages and to search the web.

Thanks again to HTC and Telstra for inviting us to the HTC Wildfire launch and making it fun!

Here are some photos from the ‘wild’ night!

Top Melbourne Bloggers at the HTC Wildfire Night

Showing off the HTC Wildfire

Yup, you're not seeing things. He has a HTC Wildfire attached to his forehead!

Lady Melbourne checks out the HTC Wildfire

Buzz leaves his computer basement to do some bowling - He's Ausdroid.net.au if you didn't know alreayd

There was even some dancing in the bowling lanes!!

We also got to celebrate Anthony Pett's Birthday!! (ANZ Sales and Marketing for HTC)

Mr.Gadget with the HTC Melbourne team!

Get more information from the HTC or Telstra Website.