HTC Apache
Encyclopedia
The Pocket PC Apache is a Windows Mobile
5.0 device, sold as the PPC-6700 by Sprint, and the XV6700 by Verizon Wireless and various other US carriers. This device was one of the first CDMA Windows Mobile 5.0 devices on the market, and the first to be released in the United States. It has a unique form factor, including a slide out keyboard.
The device was originally available in the U.S. as a Sprint PCS exclusive in October 2005. It is now offered by Cellular South
, Alltel
, Qwest
, Sprint
, Embarq
and Verizon Wireless
.
In Canada, the PPC-6700 was originally offered by Telus
in December 2005, Bell Canada
in April 2006, and Sasktel
in August 2006.
The upgraded generation of this model is the HTC Mogul, also known as the HTC Titan, the PPC-6800, or the XV6800 from Verizon Wireless.
Reference: Section 5.4 of the Verizon XV6700 User Manual (expansion slot compatible with miniSD and MMC cards)
A few months into the US launch, HTC changed the LED color from white to blue because of visibility difficulties. In daylight, there was not enough contrast between the white illumination of the alpha keys A-Z to the silver keyboard. As a result, HTC switched to blue LEDs. Unfortunately the change to blue created another problem.
When blue light passes through dark red plastic, the resulting color is purple. In the 6700, that purple illumination is so dim that the alternate characters are barely visible in the dark, degrading the usability of the keyboard at night. The Alpha keys, being clear plastic are brilliantly illuminated by the blue light which further diminishes the very dimly lit alternate characters, effectively making them illegible. HTC has failed to correct the issue.
Regardless of its flaws, it still is highly regarded as one of the most versatile Windows Mobile devices ever manufactured. Due to the overwhelming popularity of the device there are many unofficial Operating System releases found on the Internet. Most notably, Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional.
Windows Mobile
Windows Mobile is a mobile operating system developed by Microsoft that was used in smartphones and Pocket PCs, but by 2011 was rarely supplied on new phones. The last version is "Windows Mobile 6.5.5"; it is superseded by Windows Phone, which does not run Windows Mobile software.Windows Mobile is...
5.0 device, sold as the PPC-6700 by Sprint, and the XV6700 by Verizon Wireless and various other US carriers. This device was one of the first CDMA Windows Mobile 5.0 devices on the market, and the first to be released in the United States. It has a unique form factor, including a slide out keyboard.
The device was originally available in the U.S. as a Sprint PCS exclusive in October 2005. It is now offered by Cellular South
Cellular South
Cellular South Inc., doing business as C Spire Wireless, headquartered in Ridgeland, Mississippi, is the eighth largest wireless provider in the United States. C Spire has approximately 900,000 customers in Mississippi, the Memphis Metropolitan Area, the Florida Panhandle, parts of Alabama...
, Alltel
Alltel
Alltel Corporation is a wireless service provider, primarily based in the United States. Before an acquisition by Verizon Wireless, it served 34 states. After the merger, Alltel continues to serve six states, mostly in rural areas...
, Qwest
Qwest
Qwest Communications International, Inc. was a large United States telecommunications carrier. Qwest provided local service in 14 western U.S. states: Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.On April...
, Sprint
Sprint Nextel
Sprint Nextel Corporation is an American telecommunications company based in Overland Park, Kansas. The company owns and operates Sprint, the third largest wireless telecommunications network in the United States, with 53.4 million customers, behind Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility...
, Embarq
Embarq
Embarq Corporation was the largest independent local exchange carrier in the United States , serving customers in 18 states and providing local, long distance, high-speed data and wireless services to residential and business customers...
and Verizon Wireless
Verizon Wireless
Cellco Partnership, doing business as Verizon Wireless, is one of the largest mobile network operators in the United States. The network has 107.7 million subscribers as of 2011, making it the largest wireless service provider in America....
.
In Canada, the PPC-6700 was originally offered by Telus
TELUS
Telus is a national telecommunications company in Canada that provides a wide range of telecommunications products and services including internet access, voice, entertainment, video, and satellite television. The company is based in Burnaby, British Columbia, part of Greater Vancouver...
in December 2005, Bell Canada
Bell Canada
Bell Canada is a major Canadian telecommunications company. Including its subsidiaries such as Bell Aliant, Northwestel, Télébec, and NorthernTel, it is the incumbent local exchange carrier for telephone and DSL Internet services in most of Canada east of Manitoba and in the northern territories,...
in April 2006, and Sasktel
SaskTel
Saskatchewan Telecommunications is a provincial Crown Corporation operating under the authority of the Saskatchewan Telecommunications Act. It is the only remaining Crown Corporation in the Canadian telecommunications industry....
in August 2006.
The upgraded generation of this model is the HTC Mogul, also known as the HTC Titan, the PPC-6800, or the XV6800 from Verizon Wireless.
Features
- CDMA 1xRTT/EVDO
- BluetoothBluetoothBluetooth is a proprietary open wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances from fixed and mobile devices, creating personal area networks with high levels of security...
- 802.11b Wi-Fi abilities
- 1.3 Megapixel cameraCameraA camera is a device that records and stores images. These images may be still photographs or moving images such as videos or movies. The term camera comes from the camera obscura , an early mechanism for projecting images...
/CamcorderCamcorderA camcorder is an electronic device that combines a video camera and a video recorder into one unit. Equipment manufacturers do not seem to have strict guidelines for the term usage... - Built in QWERTYQWERTYQWERTY is the most common modern-day keyboard layout. The name comes from the first six letters appearing in the topleft letter row of the keyboard, read left to right: Q-W-E-R-T-Y. The QWERTY design is based on a layout created for the Sholes and Glidden typewriter and sold to Remington in the...
Slide out keyboard (but no hardware ctrl key) - Blue LED keyboard backlight
- 2.88" 64K color TFTTFT LCDThin film transistor liquid crystal display is a variant of liquid crystal display which uses thin-film transistor technology to improve image quality . TFT LCD is one type of Active matrix LCD, though all LCD-screens are based on TFT active matrix addressing...
TouchscreenTouchscreenA touchscreen is an electronic visual display that can detect the presence and location of a touch within the display area. The term generally refers to touching the display of the device with a finger or hand. Touchscreens can also sense other passive objects, such as a stylus... - Speakerphone
- USB and infrared dial up networking
- MiniSD / MMCMultiMediaCardThe MultiMediaCard is a flash memory memory card standard. Unveiled in 1997 by Siemens AG and SanDisk, it is based on Toshiba's NAND-based flash memory, and is therefore much smaller than earlier systems based on Intel NOR-based memory such as CompactFlash. MMC is about the size of a postage...
Card Slot
Reference: Section 5.4 of the Verizon XV6700 User Manual (expansion slot compatible with miniSD and MMC cards)
Specifications
- Band: CDMA 800/1900
- Weight: 6.07 ozOunceThe ounce is a unit of mass with several definitions, the most commonly used of which are equal to approximately 28 grams. The ounce is used in a number of different systems, including various systems of mass that form part of the imperial and United States customary systems...
- Dimensions: 4.25" x 2.32" x 0.93"
- Battery Type: Lithium Ion Polymer 1350 mAh
- Display Resolution: 240x320 16-bit QVGA
- Built in memory: 128 MBMegabyteThe megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage or transmission with two different values depending on context: bytes generally for computer memory; and one million bytes generally for computer storage. The IEEE Standards Board has decided that "Mega will mean 1 000...
(Flash memoryFlash memoryFlash memory is a non-volatile computer storage chip that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. It was developed from EEPROM and must be erased in fairly large blocks before these can be rewritten with new data...
), 64 MB Ram
Design modifications, usability concerns
The HTC 6700's oversized keyboard was touted as the most usable keyboard of any mobile phone device. The product contained white LEDs behind a "dual-shot" plastic key set of both clear and red plastic. The white light shone through the clear keys creating white illumination for the Alpha characters. The translucent red plastic, when combined with white light created a red glow for the alternate characters and together the keyboard was brilliantly lit and quite usable in dark conditions where a backlight is intended and needed.A few months into the US launch, HTC changed the LED color from white to blue because of visibility difficulties. In daylight, there was not enough contrast between the white illumination of the alpha keys A-Z to the silver keyboard. As a result, HTC switched to blue LEDs. Unfortunately the change to blue created another problem.
When blue light passes through dark red plastic, the resulting color is purple. In the 6700, that purple illumination is so dim that the alternate characters are barely visible in the dark, degrading the usability of the keyboard at night. The Alpha keys, being clear plastic are brilliantly illuminated by the blue light which further diminishes the very dimly lit alternate characters, effectively making them illegible. HTC has failed to correct the issue.
Regardless of its flaws, it still is highly regarded as one of the most versatile Windows Mobile devices ever manufactured. Due to the overwhelming popularity of the device there are many unofficial Operating System releases found on the Internet. Most notably, Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional.
US production rights
As of July 7, 2008 UTStarcom no longer supports the HTC Apache for US customers.External links
- Manufacturer's Site
- Product Page
- Microsoft Windows Mobile
- Custom Rom Enthusiasts
- HTC Custom Rom Kitchen
- AIG Investments Support Page for Default Firmware and Documentation on both the PPC6700 and XV6700
- UT Starcom support link for Verizon Wireless - Deprecated
- UT Starcom support link for Sprint - Deprecated
- Running Linux on the HTC Apache phone
- Chinese xv6700 website