The Tattoo is HTC's second SIM-free Android-based device following in the footsteps of the Hero (http://blog.brightpointuk.co.uk/introducing-htc-hero). Aimed more at the consumer market than the Hero, the Tattoo is smaller, fitting any pocket thanks to the removal of the Google 'chin', including an FM Radio and also boasting a range of replaceable covers, reminiscent of Nokia's Xpress-On covers from yester-year.

This article is intended as a 'preview' only: the unit I am using being a prototype only rather than the final release. The hardware specs are the same, only the software revision is not the version that will ship to customers. Still, if you consider that this unit will offer a similar feature set to the Hero (perhaps minus the QuickOffice viewers), but running the newer Android 'Donut' operating system, you will now be able to enjoy support for VPN access as well as text to speech functionality....read on!

Specifications

• Processor - Qualcomm MSM7225, 528MHz
• Platform - Android
• Memory - ROM:512MB, RAM:256MB
• Dimensions (LxWxT) - 106 x 55.2 x 14mm (4.17 x 2.17 x 0.55 inches)
• Weight - 113 grams (3.99 ounces) with battery
• Display - 2.8-inch TFT-LCD touch-sensitive screen with 240x320 QVGA resolution
• Network
  • HSDPA/WCDMA
    • Europe/Asia: 900/2100 MHz
    • Up to 384 kbps uplink and 7.2 Mbps downlink speeds
  • Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE
    • 850/900/1800/1900 MHz

  Band frequency and data speed are operator dependent

• Device Control - 4-way navigation control with Enter button
• GPS - Internal GPS antenna
• Connectivity
  • Bluetooth 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate ad A2DP for wireless stereo headsets
  • WiFi IEEE 802.11 b/g
  • HTC ExtUSB (11-pin mini-USB 2.0)
  • 3.5 mm audio jack
• Camera - 3.2 megapixel colour camera
• Audio supported formats - MP3, AAC (AAC, AAC+, AAC-LC), AMR-NB, WAV, MIDI and Windows Media Audio 9
• Video supported format - MPEG-4, H.263, H.264 and Windows Media Video 9
• Battery
  • Rechargeable Lithium-ion battery
  • Capacity: 1100 mAh
  • Talk time:
    • Up to 342 minutes for WCDMA
    • Up to 390 minutes for GSM
  • Standby time:
    • Up to 520 hours for WCDMA
    • Up to 340 hours for GSM

  (The above are subject to network and phone usage)

• Expansion Slot - microSD memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)
• AC Adapter - Voltage range / frequency: 100 ~ 240V AC, 50/60 Hz. DC Output: 5V and 1A
• Special Features
  • G-sensor
  • Digital Compass
  • FM Radio

Getting Started

As with the Hero before it, the setup procedure is simple. You will be prompted to select your desired language:

calibrate the keyboard and set up wireless network access:

allow applications to access the GPS module and configure email accounts:

as well as configuring Social Networking applications and time zone information:

Once complete the Home screen will be displayed:

which, as with the Hero before it, features not one, but 7 screens, accessed by simply scrolling left and right with the thumb:

And in addition to 7 home screens, multiple profiles (or "moods") are available, including Play:

Work and Social:

and Travel:

Additional home screens can be configured from scratch too, if you wish.

Widgets

Widgets are Internet-enabled applications that can run on the Home Screen, providing at-a-glance access to weather reports, stock information, sports results, email, calendar appointments - you name it, you can put it in a widget.
Applications can also provide access to local information such as your Contacts list, Photos albums or just a search box. Android comes with a number of pre-defined Widgets and HTC have bundled a load more meaning that virtually any aspect of the device's functionality can be accessed directly from the Home screen if you wish.
As well as Widgets, you can of course add shortcuts to your favourite applications so they can be launched directly by tapping the icon rather than first accessing the Programs menu and then scrolling to the program's entry location.
Application shortcuts can be added to the Home Screen simply tapping and holding on the icon for the application. As soon as you hold, the program view will fade away and the home screen will be displayed. Release the icon to add a shortcut to the home screen.

When you take the sheer variety of screens, themes and widgets available, this platform offers an unparalleled ability to customise your device to how you want to use it.

Keyboard / Input

As with the Hero, the touch-screen keyboard is capacitive rather than resistive, meaning that the unit does not ship with a stylus, rather you use your finger or thumb to select keys.

Applications

As I mentioned earlier, this unit is not running the final shipping version so I won't give a list of installed applications, but you can rest assured that the unit will include at the very least:

• Albums - browse and sort your photographs and images, upload to FaceBook or Flickr
• Browser - access the world wide web in stunning multi-touch quality
• Calculator - number crunching
• Calendar - never forget Gran's birthday again
• Camcorder
• Camera
• Clock - featuring a world clock, timer, stopwatch and several individually-configurable alarms
• FM Radio - radio gaga
• Mail - POP, IMAP and Exchange Server ActiveSync Exchange email accounts
• Messages - SMS/MMS client
• Music - audio file player
  
• Peep - Twitter client
• People - address book
• Voice Recorder - record voice notes and use the device as a dictaphone

The Albums feature allows you to browse and organise your photographs, both taken with the built-in 3.2 megapixel camera or saved to the SD memory card. Pictures can be set as the home screen wallpaper or uploaded to Facebook or Flickr.
Indeed, as with the Hero, Once logged in, you can access any social networking services from within any other 'socially-networked' application - be it uploading a photo to Flickr directly from within the Albums application, replying to a contact via Twitter directly from the People (Contacts) application, or viewing a contact's Facebook updates directly from your contacts list.

The Music player allows you to organise your audio files into playlists, shuffle songs, set files as your default ringtone, or as the ringtone for a specific contact.

The FM Radio, provided that you have a set of headphones connected to act as an aerial, can be used to access any FM radio station and save it as a Preset:

Email

The Tattoo supports both POP and IMAP email accounts as well as featuring a Server ActiveSync client enabling bi-directional push-based synchronisation of Contacts, Calendar and Email with Microsoft Exchange (2003 SP2 or later).

When adding a POP or IMAP-based email account, provided that your account is with a 'popular' provider such as Hotmail, Tiscali, Virgin or whoever, then the setup procedure is simply a matter of entering your full email address and password and the Hero will do the rest for you - even getting the correct outgoing mail server settings for your mobile operator, something that trips up a lot of users when having to enter the settings manually.
Alternatively you can complete the settings yourself should you want to set up a private server.

Setting up an Exchange account is not much more difficult - if you enter your Exchange email address and password the Hero will attempt to determine the server settings to use automatically, using the Microsoft AutoDiscover service.

Should the client not be able to determine the settings automatically, you will be prompted to enter the address of the server manually, as well as your domain, username and password - as you would have to on any Server ActiveSync client.
There are a number of 'little touches' on the Tattoo, as with the Hero, that make using it that much more intuitive and shows that the developers have clearly put some thought into. For example, when running through the Exchange manual setup, by entering in your email address of 'name@domain.com', the server address is automatically completed with 'domain.com' and the cursor placed at the beginning of the line, so that all you need to enter is the server name, ie 'mail.domain.com'.

Once you have entered all of the required information, the device will verify that it is able to connect to the server using the supplied credentials. If your Exchange server is using a self-issued, or non-root-trusted certificate, you will be warned to that effect and be prompted to accept the connection:

Once the connection has been established, you will the be prompted to select which mailbox folders you wish to synchronise:

and then be taken to your Inbox:

As with other ActiveSync clients you can specify a schedule for your mail delivery - having mail pushed as it arrives or every xx minutes:

VPN Access

Running the "Donut" version of the Android operating system, the Tattoo includes support for PPTP, L2TP and IPSec-based VPN connections:

Camera

The overall response time of the camera and camcorder has been improved in Android 1.6, and it is possible to switch between camera modes without the need to close one application and open another, simply by selecting the switch in the corner of the screen:

As with the Hero, photos can be uploaded to FaceBook or Flickr directly from the Albums application.

Miscellaneous

Also present in Donut is the inclusion of Text-to-Speech at the operating system level, meaning in theory that any application can be configured to "speak" to you:

Another feature not present in earlier models is support for MacOS: when connected to my Snow Leopard machine the SD card inserted in the Tattoo was mounted automatically as a USB drive:

Which also means that as soon as I took a picture with the camera, connecting the Tattoo caused iPhoto to launch on the Mac (as that is how I have the mac configured, you don't need to have this happen)

Summary

As I mentioned earlier, this article is intended as a "sneak peak" only. I will be blogging about the Tattoo in full once I get my hands on the final release version of the handset, but you can see from this prototype that the handset is going to provide unparalleled customisation options as well as all the power of the Android platform.