Unwired View

KT hopes to sell up to 500,000 iPhones in Korea

Ilinca Nita — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:25:58 +0000

KT, South Korea’s second largest mobile carrier and the only one to distribute the iPhone on the local market (for the moment, at least), expects to sell 100,000 to 500,000 units of Apple’s famous smartphone.

The iPhone will be available via KT starting November 28.

KT didn’t announce the price for which it will sell the iPhone, but analysts believe the handset will be sold for 350,000 to 400,000 KRW ($300 to $345) with a contract agreement and a data plan.

Hwang Sung-jin, analyst at Prudential Investment and Securities, says that if the carrier “offers rate plans ranging from 45,000 won to 65,000 won per month in addition to adequate subsidies for subscribers, stable demand will be created.”

In Japan, about 200,000 iPhones were sold since 2008, while in China (the world’s largest mobile market) 30,000 units have been sold since October 30 this year. These numbers may suggest that KT won’t manage to sell 500,000 iPhones anytime soon, but I guess we’d better wait and see.

Via Yonhap News

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New Samsung Diva phones: S7070 and S5150 Olivia

Ilinca Nita — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:16:10 +0000

Samsung has recently showcased two unannounced phones that are part of a new design line called “Diva” and obviously targeted at female customers.

Samsung S7070 is a full touchscreen phone with a 3 inch WQVGA resistive display, TouchWiz UI, 5MP autofocus camera, Bluetooth, microUSB, FM radio and MicroSD card support.

The S7070 should be launched sometime in the first quarter of 2010, for a price that’s not known at the moment.

The second new Diva phone, Samsung S5150 Olivia is a clamshell with a mirror-like case and a fancy external display.

The S5150 also features a 2.2 inch QVGA internal display and a 3MP camera. Like the S7070, Samsung S5150 Olivia should be available starting early 2010.

Via GSM Arena

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Motorola Motus shows up, specs included

Ilinca Nita — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:12:52 +0000

First seen in a leaked Motorola roadmap which included the Sholes Tablet and the Zeppelin, Motorola Motus has now appeared in a leaked photo, together with most of its specs.

Like the already-available Motorola Cliq, Motorola Motus should come with Android 1.5 and the Motoblur interface.

The Motus has quad-band GSM connectivity and – weird enough – it looks like it also supports the 850/900/1700/1900/2100 MHz WCDMA bands, which means that both AT&T and T-Mobile could launch it.

Other specs include:

3.1 inch touchscreen display with 320 x 480 pixels
Full QWERTY keyboard
Wi-Fi
GPS
Bluetooth 2.0
5MP camera with LED flash
528 MHz Qualcomm MSM7201A processor
512 MB ROM and 256 MB RAM

The phone’s QWERTY keyboard is actually a reverse flip keyboard with a “rear directional pad.”

Motorola Motus should be announced in the first quarter of 2010.

Via Android and Me

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Officially confirmed – Nokia will not exhibit at MWC 2010 in Barcelona

Staska — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:12:51 +0000

We’ve first heard rumbles, that Nokia may not have a stand at Mobile World Congress 2010, during Nokia World 2009 in September.

With sort of confirmations about this popping up now and then.

When asked directly whether they will be at Mobile World Congress Exhibition 2010, the official Nokia response is:

Nokia is committed to Mobile World Congress, as it has been since the event started. In 2010 Mobile World Congress (MVC), Nokia will focus on its infrastructure business and the congress programme of seminars and speaking opportunities, customer and media activities.

We have seen during the recent years that in Mobile World Congress we get the biggest benefit for the infrastructure part of our business. Therefore we will focus on this for 2010 and so Nokia Siemens Networks will continue to have a stand in the exhibition area.

Nokia remains committed in MWC and will be present in Barcelona in many ways.

Nokia has for more than decade hosted its own Nokia World event which has become a globally recognized leading mobile Internet forum. This forum is our primary forum for showcasing our vision, devices and solutions as well as meet with industry partners and customers.

Which sort of confirms, that only Nokia Siemens Networks will have a stand at MWC 2010. But still is pretty vague about the whole participation thing.

Well, MWC 2010 is less then 3 months away now, so I decided to finally make sure about this whole Nokia and MWC 2010 thing. First I checked MWC 2010 Exhibitor list. Yep, there’s no Nokia there, only Nokia Siemens Networks.

Then I contacted MWC PR agency about whether Nokia will be at MWC or not. Here’s their response:

Nokia will not exhibit at next year’s Mobile World Congress. However Nokia remains committed to Mobile World Congress and to the GSMA. Overall, Nokia will continue to have a significant presence at Mobile World Congress, in terms of leveraging the event to conduct business meetings and networking, as well as participating in the conference programme.

In terms of exhibition, Nokia’s strategy for the 2010 Mobile World Congress is to emphasize the infrastructure side of their business through Nokia Siemens Networks’ presence at the event.

Nokia speakers are also expect to present in the conference programme at the Mobile World Congress.

There you have it. Straight to the point – Nokia will not exhibit at MWC 2010.

So, what we can expect from Nokia at MWC 2010, are keynotes and presentations at the conference. And, hopefully, some Nokia organized events outside of the show grounds. Maybe even a device launch or two?

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BlackBerry Pearl 9100 in leaked photos, video

Ilinca Nita — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:32:54 +0000

RIM is getting ready to launch a successor for the popular BlackBerry Pearl 8100 / 8110 / 8120: meet the BlackBerry Pearl 9100, codenamed BlackBerry Stratus or BlackBerry Striker.

Like most of RIM’s new smartphones, the Pearl 9100 comes with an optical trackpad instead of a trackball. It has an overall glossy look, and a SureType keypad that looks larger than the one the 81xx models have.

The BlackBerry Pearl 9100 also features 3G and a camera with LED flash, but other specs are not known at the moment.

There’s no word yet on when RIM intends to announce the BlackBerry Pearl 9100, but, in the meantime, here’s a short video preview of it:

Via CrackBerry

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AT&T launches the Pantech Impact for $99.99 on contract

Ilinca Nita — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:01:35 +0000

First announced by AT&T at the beginning of October, the Pantech Impact will be available starting this Sunday (22 November).

The Impact is a weird messaging phone, featuring a “high-gloss faceplate” with haptic-enabled keys, and a full QWERTY keyboard. The handset also has two displays: a small external one and a larger internal one.

Other features include 3G, GPS, music player, AT&T HTML mobile browser, photo camera, video recording, and easy access to IM and email.

Pantech Impact will be available from AT&T in bright blue and soft pink, for $99.99 with a 2-yr contract agreement and after a $50 mail-in rebate.

Via Press release

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Google News updated for Android, iPhone, WebOS

Ilinca Nita — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:52:49 +0000

The Google mobile team has announced a new version of Google News for Android, iPhone and WebOS (Palm Pre).

Available in 29 languages, the updated Google News for mobile features “the same richness and personalization” that Google News offers on your desktop PC. There are now more stories and images displayed on the homepage, and users can easily access their favorite sections, play videos, find articles and so on.

To try out the new Google News for Android, iPhone and WebOS, just point your mobile browser to http://news.google.com

Google News for Blackberry, Windows Mobile and Symbian S60 will also be updated in the near future.

Via the Google Mobile Blog

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TomTom for iPhone 1.2 offers text-to-speech and other new features

Ilinca Nita — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:56:35 +0000

Perhaps in response to Google’s new and free Maps Navigation for Android 2.0, TomTom has just launched a new version of its iPhone application, TomTom for iPhone 1.2, which brings a set of new features.

These new features include text-to-speech, Advanced Lane Guidance (for “extra clarity when navigating difficult junctions”), updated Tele Atlas maps for the US and Canada, and a Help menu that provides quick access “to emergency numbers and directions to the nearest emergency providers”.

TomTom for iPhone 1.2 can be downloaded as of today via the App Store. Thanks to new TomTom car kits that should be available soon, the app is compatible with all iPhone models and with the iPod touch.

The new TomTom iPhone app including maps of the US and Canada costs $99.99. Other regional versions may have different prices.

Via Press release

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Motorola Crush touchscreen phone announced for US Cellular

Ilinca Nita — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:21:07 +0000

Motorola has just unveiled a brand new touchscreen phone called Motorola Crush.

The Crush is an EV-DO Rev. 0 device with an interesting design, having the power and lock keys above its 2.8 inch, 240 x 400 pixels touchscreen display, and no keys at all below it.

The phone further features a virtual QWERTY keyboard, a tap-to-silence feature, stereo Bluetooth, music player, 3.5mm headset jack, 2MP camera, MicroSD card support (up to 16GB) and a 950 mAh battery.

Motorola Crush should be available via US Cellular before the end of 2009. The phone’s price was not announced, but Motorola says it will be affordable.

Update: US Cellular sells the Motorola Crush for $80 with a 2-yr contract agreement and after a $50 mail-in rebate.

Via Motorola

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Verizon announces the rugged Casio G’zOne Rock

Ilinca Nita — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:45:55 +0000

Verizon’s newest Casio phone is not the Brigade, as expected, but the Casio G’zOne Rock, a clamshell announced today by the largest US mobile carrier.

The Casio G’zOne is a rugged handset that features Triple Sensor technology and advanced G’zGear software which can operate in six modes: Earth Compass, Astro Calendar, Sunrise Sunset, Tides, Walking Counter and Thermometer.

The phone also features Push To Talk, EV-DO Rev. A connectivity, GPS, stereo Bluetooth, touch-sensitive music controls, and a 2MP camera with flash and video recording.

Casio G’zOne Rock will be available at Verizon starting November 20. The phone’s price is $199.99 with a 2-yr contract agreement and after a $50 mail-in rebate.

Via Press release

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Nokia Booklet 3G successful among corporate customers

Ilinca Nita — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:11:07 +0000

Recently announced for AT&T in the US, the Nokia Booklet 3G is one of the Finnish company’s most interesting products ever – mainly because is its first (and only, for now) netbook.

Nokia designed the Booklet 3G to be a consumer device, but it looks like it may become highly successful among corporate customers.

According to Reuters, Heikki Norta, head of Nokia corporate strategy, recently declared that there is a growing interest from various companies for the Booklet 3G, and that “there is clear demand” for it.

This being said, it looks like Nokia won’t have any problems selling those 100,000 Booklet 3G units recently ordered from Compal.

The Nokia Booklet 3G is currently available for about €575 in Europe, or for $299 in the US, with a 2-yr AT&T contract agreement.

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LiMo forms Korean Association, will launch the Samsung SCH-M510 via SKT

Ilinca Nita — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:01:12 +0000

LiMo Foundation announced the establishment of the Korean LiMo Ecosystem Association, together with major Korean mobile companies including Samsung, LG and SK Telecom.

The role of the Korean LiMo Ecosystem Association, which is supported by the Korean Government, is to “fully catalyze and empower innovation upon the LiMo Platform within the Korean mobile industry.”

As part of the new Korean initiative, LiMo foundation and SK Telecom will soon launch the Samsung SCH-M510 – Korea’s first LiMo phone.

Samsung SCH-M510 (not to be mistaken for the old Samsung SPH-M510) features a 3.5 inch WVGA AMOLED touchscreen display, accelerometer, Wi-Fi, support for various audio and video media types, Bluetooth and a 5MP camera with autofocus.

Unfortunately, there’s no image of the SCH-M510 available yet, but the specs suggest that the phone may be the Korean version of Vodafone’s Samsung H1.

Via Press release and Press release

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Fring finally comes to Android, available for download now

Ilinca Nita — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:35:14 +0000

Already available for Symbian and Windows Mobile, fring has now been launched for Android.

The fring Android app will allow you to make free VoIP calls over Skype, Google Talk or MSN, as well as to chat via ICQ, AIM or Yahoo!

Twitter is also integrated, and it looks like the fring app works with any version of Android.

There are some bugs that should be fixed in the following releases: Motorola Droid can’t support SIP and SkypeOut calls, and it can’t display GSM contacts in fring’s buddy list; also, the call disconnection tone may be heard several times when you terminate a call.

Fring for Android can be downloaded via Android Market, or directly to your phone at m.fring.com

A video presentation of fring for Android can be watched below:

Via fring

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T-Mobile Complete launched in the US, offering contract-free BlackBerries

Ilinca Nita — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:53:42 +0000

T-Mobile USA has just announced a new pre-packaged contract solution called T-Mobile Complete.

T-Mobile Complete doesn’t require an annual contract agreement and allows customers to buy four phone models starting at $59.99, with the first month of data being free.

Two of the phones included by T-Mobile in the new offering are the BlackBerry Curve 8520 (available for $299.99) and the BlackBerry Pearl (available for $149.99). The other two handsets were not unveiled, but they’re probably not made buy RIM.

T-Mobile Complete should be available across the US through Best Buy and select Walmart locations.

Via Engadget

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Sony Ericsson WebSDK for Android and Symbian launched

Ilinca Nita — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:47:38 +0000

Sony Ericsson announced the availability of WebSDK beta for Android and Symbian, which will allow developers to create apps for the company’s Android and Symbian smartphones – starting with the already-available Satio and the upcoming Xperia X10.

The WebSDK is created together with PhoneGap (an open source community) and enables devs to work with HTML, CSS and JavaScript programming for developing application.

The Sony Ericsson WebSDK beta can be downloaded here – where you’ll also find more info and documentation.

Sony Ericsson has also launched a Web App Challenge, which requires you to “download the WebSDK and make something fantastic for the XPERIA X10 by December 31.” The creator of the best app will receive $4000. More info here.

Via Press release

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ZTE to Bring Android Phone to US Next Year

Brad Molen — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:58:47 +0000

Really, at this point it would be more shocking to learn of companies that AREN’T planning to release an Android device in the near future. But without fail we go forward with further news that a relatively unknown player to most Americans is trying to come to the US in 2010.

The company, ZTE Corp., is a Chinese-based company that mainly deals with manufacturing base stations for wireless carriers but dabbles with devices on the side. And now it appears that ZTE is in talks with each one of the 4 major US carriers to bring its own Android handset to market sometime next year.

So where is ZTE’s handset division currently seeing success? You can find phones made by ZTE at UK’s Vodafone, Spain’s Telefonica, and China Mobile.

Dale Ying, ZTE’s managing director of handset business marketing, revealed in an interview that the company’s smartphone division is really starting to beef up and will continue to do so over the next few years. “We see big potential in the smartphone market. We are targeting to ship more smartphones in the coming few years which will help to improve our gross margin,” he said.

So now the question becomes if any of the big carriers will bite at the chance to sell ZTE Android handsets. I am curious to know if there is a reason the US doesn’t sell any ZTE phones.

via Total Telecom

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Microsoft Announces WinMo 7 Announcement Coming March 2010

Brad Molen — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:35:26 +0000

It’s always weird to hear that a company is announcing that it will make an announcement, but Microsoft doesn’t have to worry too much about little things like that, since any announcement the company makes receives an incredible amount of news exposure.

This particular time, Microsoft is announcing that Windows Mobile 7 will make its grand official appearance at the MIX 2010 conference in March 2010. This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to the most eager of WM7 fans, as the new OS was rumored to be announced in Q1, with a Q3 launch.

Complete with the confirmation of the announcement, Microsoft also gave us a sneak peek at a screenshot of Office 2010 for WinMo.

Turns out it was Microsoft Office Vice President Kurt Delbene that let the cat out of the bag. It was a little odd that the VP in charge of Office is speaking in behalf of WinMo, but we just assume they’re a pretty tight-knit bunch.

via Neowin via WMPowerUser

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Will Maemo bring Nokia N-Series Mojo back? It’s all about software and services now

Staska — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:30:52 +0000

When Nokia first introduced the N-Series, they were all about pushing the limits of what a mobile phone should be. But it was mainly, on the hardware side, with software running the devices, taking a back seat.

A digital camera with Carl Zeiss optics (N90), music player with built-in hard drive (N91), mobile television set (N92), or a digital camcorder (N93) recording Mpeg-4 VGA quality video at 30 fps, are shining examples of this.

And then there was N95. The ultimate N-Series device, that defined what a high end smartphone should be, for more then a year. 5 megapixel camera, GPS, Wi-Fi, accelerometer, TV-Out, Mpeg4 video playback …

If you look at the basic hardware specs of N95 , and compare them to the specs of high end smartphones of today, they are not that different. Yes, cameras got a tad better, they might have more storage, memory, faster CPU. But, more often then not, it’s only an incremental improvement on the same basic N95 feature set.

But the success of N95, was also the beginning of problems Nokia faces today.

Before 2007, when N97 started shipping, the competition in the cellphone business was mainly about two things. Handset design and hardware, with hardware specs leading the way. You could have a huge hit with killer design and mediocre specs (just look at Motorola RAZR), but you could have even more hits, with OK design and ever improving hardware specs.

Nokia N-Series were the forefront of hardware innovation in mobile industry. The problem is, with Nokia N95, the hardware in mobile devices has become “good enough”. Yes, it took competitors about a year to catch up and offer full N95 feature set, but they have caught up by the end of 2007, beginning of 2008.

In the meantime, starting with the iPhone, competition in mobile industry (especially at the high end) has moved from the hardware platforms, to software, services and user experience. And Nokia, with it’s hardware company roots, have been caught flat footed.

Yes, Nokia probably have seen it coming even then. But to see it, and then to quickly do something about it, for such giant as Nokia, are two different things.

The launch of OVI is the best indication of that. Nokia announced that they are becoming internet company in 2007. And even went on a buying binge, snapping various companies to bolster their internet service offerings. But, if you look at the results two years after the announcement, they are very mixed, at best.

As for the Nokia N-Series handsets? After getting close to “good enough” of what a user may need, it became very hard for the Finnish hardware wizards to excite users with what they will offer next. Nokia N82 and N95 8GB where a cool improvements, showing off what a mature N95 hardware platform has to offer. But after that? N78 and N79 – nice, affordable smartphones, but not much more. N81, N96, N85? … Duh. Nokia N86? Good camera smartphone, by all accounts… among many other good camera phones.

Even their flagship for 2009 - N97, from what I heard, fell prey to Nokia hardware company genes. As the story goes – the hardware platform and specs for N97 have been finalized long ago, as was the software, handset creators were initially planning to run it. But then the shift to the online services, web runtimes, apps, etc; happened, and suddenly the device hardware was having trouble keeping up with increased software requirements. While software itself was still buggy, and not ready for primetime, even on shipment date.

But this slow decline in the “coolness” of Nokia N-Series may be coming to an end soon. With the help of Maemo OS. A slip-up by someone on Nokia Maemo team, telling us that there won’t be anymore N-Series Symbian devices after 2012, is an indication of that.

Hardware guys, Symbian and S40, may still rule on the mid to low end devices, Nokia’s main cash cow. But when it comes to “far out”, pushing the limits stuff, software guys seem to be taking over. Starting with Nokia N900 Maemo 5 handset.

According to Ari Jaaksi, head of Maemo at Nokia, even the device design process for Maemo handsets is different from what Nokia is used to. Instead of building a shining piece hardware, with multi mega pixel camera, etc; and then tweaking a software to run it, they do it the other way around. First, building and/or envisioning the software and service capabilities, and then looking at what kind of hardware is required for “these capabilities to shine”.

If you look at the hardware specs on Nokia N900, there’s really nothing special to it. Yes, it has top of the line CPU, lots of storage space, good camera, etc; But so do tons of other high end phones like iPhone, Palm Pre, Droid, Samsung Omnia II, Jet, Toshiba TG01, or Acer Liquid. Yet, the excitement about Nokia N900 is higher then about any other Nokia phone. Including heavily promoted and subsidized N97. Because of the software that runs N900.

Every other open mobile OS, even those claiming to be “Linux based”, like iPhone, Android or WebOS, are just that. Operating Systems, created for mobile devices, requiring their own set of development tools, and having capabilities that are significantly below of what any desktop OS is capable of. And they are usually created by one company, behind the closed doors, with both users and developers, guessing about upcoming features until the launch date.

The OS running Nokia N900 is a bit different. It is a standard Debian Linux OS, that would run on any PC. Nokia took this standard Debian Linux distribution, created a new user interface, optimized to run on a small screen devices, added 3G connectivity and some other stuff like power management to it. But it still is that same standard desktop OS underneath. And they have been actively involving open source community all along the way.

The results speak for themselves. Ease of use, flexibility, the best browser in town, and impressive multitasking capability of Maemo 5/N900 , won accolades from almost all early adopters, developers, tech writers and bloggers, who had a chance to put their hands on it. Even in this intermediate, unfinished form that is step 4 in Nokia’s grand five step plan for Maemo.

It looks to me, that Nokia N-Series are getting back to what they were meant to be in the beginning – pushing the limits of what’s possible on a mobile device. Only now, when hardware in the devices reached this “good enough” plateau, the limits are being pushed in software and services available on the mobile device.

And that’s what this gradual takeover of N-Series by Maemo OS is about.

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Sony Ericsson to close four facilities, fire 2000 people

Ilinca Nita — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:23:37 +0000

Sony Ericsson is getting ready to fire about 2,000 employees worldwide and close four of its facilities.

The affected locations will include two facilities in the US (the Research Triangle Park facility in North Carolina, and a small Miami facility), plus operations in Chennai (India) and Kista (Sweden).

The Research Triangle Park facility will be closed sometime in the second half of 2010, when Sony Ericsson’s North American headquarters will be moved to Atlanta. Some employees will be offered the chance to apply for jobs in other locations, while others will receive severance packages.

Sony Ericsson is currently the world’s fourth largest phone maker, behind Nokia, Samsung and LG, but ahead of Motorola. The company hopes to re-conquer its lost market share with new handsets planned for a 2010 – including the Android-based Xperia X10.

Via Engadget

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Nokia N900 officially available in the US

Ilinca Nita — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:49:21 +0000

Nokia N900 is now finally available in the US, after a slight delay (one month, to be precise) and several rumored release dates.

The Maemo 5 smartphone costs $649 unlocked and customers can find it via Nokia Flagship stores in New York and Chicago, as well as online and through independent retailers and e-tailers (Amazon included).

In case you don’t know yet, the N900 is Nokia’s latest Nseries flagship device, featuring a 800 x 480 pixels touchscreen display, GSM and HSDPA connectivity, full QWERTY keyboard, Wi-Fi, GPS, 5MP camera with Carl Zeiss optics, and 32GB of internal memory.

For the moment, there’s still no word whether Nokia plans to launch the N900 via a US carrier or not – but it’s still a good thing that the smartphone is available unlocked.

Via Press release

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HTC Hero and HTC Tattoo launched in Australia

Ilinca Nita — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:17:51 +0000

Australian customers who want to buy the HTC Hero or the HTC Tattoo will soon be able to buy both of them, as HTC has just announced their upcoming availability in Australia.

Running Android and using HTC’s Sense UI, the Hero and the Tattoo “are focused on personalization and accessibility.”

HTC Hero features a 3.2 inches capacitive touchscreen display with 320 x 480 pixels, HSDPA, Wi-Fi, GPS, 3.5m headset jack and a 5MP autofocus camera. The Hero will be available in Australia for AUD 799 ($745).

The HTC Tattoo has a smaller display (2.8 inches, resistive, with 240 x 320 pixels) and a 3.2MP camera, but it also features HSDPA, Wi-Fi and GPS.

The price of HTC Tattoo in Australia will be of AUD 599 ($559). Users can buy personalized covers for it here.

Via Press release

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Opera Mobile 10 for Windows Mobile available now

Ilinca Nita — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:29:13 +0000

Not long after the version for Symbian S60 was launched, Opera Mobile 10 beta is now available for Windows Mobile too.

Similar in look and feel to Opera 10 for desktop and Opera Mini 5 beta, Opera Mini 10 for Windows Mobile comes with many new features that should provide a desktop-like browsing experience.

Opera Mini 10 beta for WM has a new interface, tabbed browsing, Speed Dial, password manager, pan and zoom, and Opera Turbo (for offloading your page renderings to Opera’s servers). The new Opera Mini is also compatible with Windows Mobile touchscreen phones.

Opera Mobile 10 beta for Windows Mobile is free and can be downloaded to your phone via m.opera.com/mobile, or here if you want to download it through your PC.

Via Press release

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The Google Phone is reportedly “very real”. Wouldn’t that make Andy Rubin a liar?

Ilinca Nita — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:55:49 +0000

Despite Andy Rubin’s recent “we’re not making hardware” statement, the rumors about a Google Phone just won’t die.

According to TechCrunch a “pure Google-branded phone” with Android is “absolutely confirmed” for early 2010 – although it should have been launched this year.

Reportedly, the handset will be manufactured by a major company – LG or Samsung, most probably – but only Google’s branding will be visible on it. There are no details about the smartphone’s design and features, but it’s said that Google is in charge of every little aspect regarding the device.

Rumors also have it that Google plans a big advertising push for its phone, and we could see this as early as January 2010.

OK, so if all this is true, wouldn’t it mean that Andy Rubin lied when he said that Google won’t have an Android phone of its own? I guess we’ll have to wait until next year to see what exactly is going on.

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Apple allowed to sell the iPhone in South Korea

Ilinca Nita — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:32:13 +0000

Although KT’s executives confirmed the release of Apple’s iPhone in Korea several months ago, it’s only now that South Korea’s telecom regulator approved the sale of the smartphone on the local market.

The approval process was slow because the South Korean authorities were concerned about iPhone’s location-based services (like FindMyiPhone and Maps), which may have presented privacy-related issues.

In the end, the Korea Communications Commission decided that “infringements of privacy would only be minimal, as the services on the iPhone are provided in a way that can not differentiate one user from another.”

The iPhone could be on sale in South Korea as soon as November 28, when KT is expected to launch service plans for Apple’s handset.

Via Yonhap News

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Hands-on Review of T-Mobile Samsung Behold II

Brad Molen — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:09:52 +0000

My friends, we are in the middle of an Android revolution; the Google-powered OS is starting to overtake the world. Up until last month it was a slow but sure process, with very few actual Android handsets coming out over the last year. Since October, however, we’ve seen a huge spike in new devices with the likes of Motorola, HTC, and Samsung.

Samsung is just getting around to launching the Behold 2 on T-Mobile today, but it’s as if the device is already starting from behind. So how does it fare against some other Android strongholds now on the market?

Unwired View was honored to have an opportunity to try the Behold II before it was released, and there’s been plenty of good and bad to go with that. And we have pics and juicy details to share with you.

Android

Now that we’ve experienced the joys of version 2.0 in the Motorola Droid, it’s hard to go back to earlier versions. This doesn’t make it a terrible phone, but it has nowhere to go but up from this point on.

We won’t discuss the ins and outs of Android much in the review, but Samsung decided to add its proprietary TouchWiz UI to the Android OS, which could be a good or bad thing depending on your views of the UI itself. I found that the TouchWiz has been changed a bit, with a much larger widget box, in order to fit the needs of Android’s interface. The dial pad was also changed, as well as the SMS app, photo albums, and others. My opinion of TouchWiz on Android? Sluggish. It just seems to eat up processor capacity for breakfast. I have found faster performance on stock Android devices with roughly the same processor speeds.

In fact, my first impression of the TouchWiz was mistaking it for the stock Android app drawer. The difference was that this one was on the side instead of the bottom, and the performance was not all that great. It’s as if Samsung had been trying to add too much to a good thing.

Samsung has also added in its new 3D Cube feature to the interface, and even has its own dedicated button on the front. The idea of the cube is that each side is its own shortcut: YouTube, the Amazon MP3 store, music player, video player, web browser or picture gallery. It’s a clever little 3D graphic that you can spin around to find what you want to use. You can also shake the phone and the cube will spin until a random application is picked. While it’s an interesting premise, I don’t see much point to it since the home page has plenty of space to fit shortcuts.

Design

Samsung elected to throw in a 3.2″ AMOLED screen, which was definitely a good idea. At a 320 x 480 pixel resolution and complete with 16.7 million colors, the screen is gorgeous; it’s much brighter, crisper and easier to see as a result.

The Behold II itself is very well designed. It feels good in my hand and doesn’t feel bulky or awkward at all. The lack of physical keyboard helps keep the phone as thin as possible.

The buttons are the huge weakness in the whole design. There are a lot more on the front than I think is necessary. In addition to the usual call/end buttons, Samsung adds in a Menu (options) key, previous/go back, home and the Cube. Also present is the circular D-pad. My feeling is that there should be less buttons on the front and more screen to take up the critical real estate. But beyond that, I was very impressed by the look and feel of the device itself.

On the left side we find the volume keys and spot to put a lanyard.

Up top there’s a 3.5 mm headphone jack (which I was able to plug my stock iPhone headset into) and a MicroUSB charger port.

Over to the right there’s a lock key and camera button.

The plastic back features the camera lens and flash, next to a stylish (depending on your idea of style, I suppose) map of the world.

Underneath the hood there’s the battery, SIM card, and MicroSD card slot. The phone comes with a 2 GB card already installed, and fortunately you don’t have to take the battery out in order to access that memory card.

The Behold II weighs 4.2 oz, which in comparison is 0.5 oz lighter than the iPhone 3GS.

Features of the Samsung Behold II

Camera

One of the strengths of the Behold II is its camera app. It sure doesn’t hurt to throw in the 5 MP camera that the original Behold had, either. The camera app is the same as most other Samsung devices, with the left and right sidebars showing options like flash, timer, shooting mode, and other effects. When Samsung discovered the strength of the camera apps, the company decided to stick with what worked. Smart move.

Here are some pictures taken with the Behold II camera. I decided to take a couple pics of my house since there are plenty of different colors around to accentuate.

Voice Dial/Search

Both voice dial and Google voice search options are included in the phone, which are both very nice to have, and worked out beautifully. For instance, I did a voice search for “T-Mobile Behold 2″ and without any problem or delay it took me straight to the browser already pointed at google.com with the proper search results.

Memory

The Behold II comes with 153 MB of internal memory, so definitely make use of a MicroSD card. It supports as much as 16 GB.

Streaming

Both audio and video streaming are supported. I had no trouble using apps like YouTube and Pandora, and there didn’t seem to be any latency.

Google syncing

This was absolutely the simplest thing I did on the Behold II, though it’s more of an Android feature than the phone specifically; all I had to do was put in my Google login information and all of a sudden I had my Google Contacts, Gmail and Calendar all synced up on the phone. On top of that, any Google app I downloaded from the Market (including Voice) already assumed I wanted to use the same Google account, which made it that much easier.

Messaging

The Behold II supports threaded messaging, which is definitely crucial when doing a lot of texting.

Connectivity

There is support for WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS. Much like the iPhone, GPS is usable in the Google Maps application as well as various Android apps that can be downloaded. For Bluetooth, A2DP and AVRC are present to offer the best possible experience with stereo bluetooth headsets. WiFi was much more bearable than T-Mobile’s 3G network, which will be discussed later.

Apps

Google’s Market for Android phones is very well built up; while it may not have 100,000 apps like iPhone’s App Store does, it still has a very healthy selection of pretty much anything you would ever need or want your smartphone to do. Downloading apps via WiFi was incredibly fast, and I never had to wait longer than 30 seconds for an app to fully download to the phone.

Quick List

On the phone’s home page, one can find shortcuts to the dial pad, contact list, web browser and “Quick List”. Quick List is essentially a menu with the look and feel of a non-smartphone, and offers a few lesser-used shortcuts that could come in handy.

Web browsing

The Behold II uses HSDPA but maxes out at 3.6 Mbps. The only concern I have here is that if T-Mobile follows through on its promise of upgrading the HSPA network to 21 Mbps next year, the Behold II will be left in the dust.

Browsing the web was okay with the stock browser, though there are plenty of other available third-party browsers that can be downloaded through Market.

Social Networking

While it doesn’t come with Facebook or Twitter clients pre-loaded, it does have Google Talk and IM clients already installed. It’s easy enough to download apps from the Market, but I was hoping to see a couple options like the Motorola CLIQ did.

One cool feature thrown into the Behold II was the ability to upload photos directly to an online cloud of your choice. Flickr is the most popular, but a few other services are compatible as well.

Performance of the Samsung Behold II

Let’s get to the meat and potatoes of the review.

Phone performance

Fortunately it’s a world phone, which should always be expected for a device at this price point. Beyond that, I was able to make clear calls without any hassle. I didn’t have any issues of static audio quality or fuzziness.

The Behold II has Visual Voicemail, and after a few attempts I was able to get mine to work. Sadly I was unsure whether it was user error or something going on with the phone. Once set up, the voicemail feature is a breeze and very convenient to have access to it.

T-Mobile 3G/WiFi

The Behold II includes compatibility with T-Mobile’s 3G 1700 frequency but also throws in 2100.

While I had a great experience using the WiFi at my house, I was incredibly disappointed by the performance of the T-Mobile 3G network in my local vicinity. Running a couple speed tests revealed that the upload was faster than download, with the 3G downloading 300 kbps and uploading 650 kbps; it was barely faster than EDGE.

Battery Life

With a 1500 mAh lithium ion battery, the Behold II is rated for 6 hours talk time and 100 hours standby. On a typical day, I used the phone moderately and the battery was down to one bar of service by 6 or 7 PM; in other words, it’s getting about the same battery life as my iPhone, so it’s nothing spectacular. Not great, but not terrible either.

Processor

Packing a 528 MHz ARM 11 processor, it has an average performance amidst all the other Android devices that are also out.

Touchscreen

I haven’t discussed the touchscreen at all yet, so this is a good opportunity to bring it up since it has a great deal to do with overall performance and first impressions. As most phones with touchscreens get compared to the iPhone, it’s natural to do so with the Behold II. The menus and capacitive screen are just about as intuitive and easy to use as the iPhone, though I did find times that I had to press more firmly on the screen in order to scroll effectively. That didn’t occur all the time though, just every once in a while.

The touch keyboard also was difficult to get used to. Using the keyboard in landscape is almost a must, as using it in portrait resulted in pressing the wrong key 8 times out of 10. This will likely be something I could get used to after time, but first impressions were not very good on the portrait on-screen keyboard. Fortunately the transition from portrait to landscape and vice versa were smooth enough, as it only took a second or two for the transition to take place.

Multimedia/Email

In short, the audio quality when playing music or YouTube videos was rather nice; at least, nice enough not to notice any little nuances that were lacking. The UI itself on the media player was okay, but not really inspired.

Setting up email seemed to be easy, especially when having multiple accounts. Once I finished setting up the first email, all I had to do was hit the menu key and choose to add a new account. I was able to put two email accounts on there just fine and was able to differentiate the two. Any business user will easily be able to set up Exchange, which rounds out every possible option for email on Android. The only thing that was a bit annoying to me was that since I had synced up my Google information to the Behold II, my Gmail was separated from the default email client. If there was a way to combine them, it is beyond me.

Overall Impressions of the Samsung Behold II

In a sea of brand-new Android handsets, it’s critical to find a way to stand out of the crowd. It’s difficult to come out with a standard stock Android device and expect to turn heads, so it’s natural for Samsung to have vested interest in using TouchWiz to see how it works out. Sadly, that was probably not a good choice, considering it was more sluggish and a processor-hog.

Strengths included the camera, beautiful OLED screen, and the overall weight and feel of the device.

Weaknesses were the Touchwiz UI, gratuitous use of buttons on the front, small and cramped portrait keyboard, and average (but still slow) processor.

The Behold II will be on sale at T-Mobile for $229 starting today. Overall it was a decent enough device that anyone would be relatively happy with, but my concern is that it didn’t have enough of a WOW factor to turn those heads that may be turned in the direction of the Droid. Frankly, for the same or even lower cost, the Droid seems to have nicer specs. If you are a happy T-Mobile customer that doesn’t want to switch, the Behold II is one of the better Android devices T-Mobile has carried thus far.

What do you think so far? Have you seen one at a local store? Let us know if you’re planning on getting one.

Check out the gallery below for all the other pics of the Behold II.

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HTC to launch Brew-based phones for Verizon and Sprint in 2010

Ilinca Nita — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:50:12 +0000

We first heard about a possible HTC featurephone back in April, when rumors had it that the Taiwanese smartphone maker wants to launch a Brew-based handset in Q4 2009.

Some new info points out that we won’t see any dumbphone from HTC this year. Instead, there will be several in early 2010 – and apparently both Verizon and Sprint will launch some of them in the US.

According to DigiTimes, the reason for the handsets’ delay is Qualcomm Brew’s “relatively immature application service platform offering for telecom carriers.”

Qualcomm is currently working with various software developers for launching dedicated Brew apps related to web browsing, GPS and mobile community services.

Let’s hope the HTC Brew phones will worth the wait.

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Dell readying a MID for AT&T?

Ilinca Nita — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 07:30:53 +0000

We already know that Dell will launch an Android smartphone via AT&T in 2010 (most probably, the Mini 3i). Well, it turns out that the world’s second largest PC maker and AT&T may also introduce a MID next year.

China Times is reporting that Dell will actually have a variety of MIDs produced by Taiwanese manufacturer Qisda.

While there are absolutely no details about the MID for AT&T, this might be the Dell Streak (pictured below), recently appeared in Vietnam and featuring Android 2.0, 3G, Wi-Fi and a 5MP camera.

Of course, we still have to wait for an official confirmation on all this.

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Google Earth for iPhone updated to version 2.0

Ilinca Nita — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 06:22:17 +0000

Launched more than one year ago, Google Earth for iPhone has now reached version 2.0, coming with new features and support for a total of 31 languages (including Russian, Japanese, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese and Hebrew).

Google Earth for iPhone 2.0 lets you view custom maps (created by your or by others) via the My Maps interface. Moreover, it offers improved performance and enhanced icon selection – “when you touch an icon, a small glow appears under your finger to let you know which icon you have picked.”

A review of Google Earth for iPhone can be found here, while the app can be downloaded here (iTunes link).

Google Earth for iPhone is a hugely popular application, so we’re wondering how long it will take until Google launches a version for Android, too.

Via the Google Mobile Blog

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LG Shine II announced, AT&T gets it on November 22

Ilinca Nita — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:19:07 +0000

Appeared in some leaked photos back in the summer, the LG Shine II has just been officially announced by LG USA and AT&T.

Like the older, original LG Shine, the new Shine II comes to make a “fashionably smart statement with its glossy exterior and versatile utility.”

The phone’s features include a 2.2 inch display, AT&T Navigator, “music player with customizable equalizer, music recognition and ringtone creator”, Java 2.0 support and a 2MP camera with flash.

AT&T will start selling the LG Shine II on November 22. The phone’s price will be of $119.99 with a 2-yr contract agreement and after a mail-in rebate – kind of expensive if you think about the iPhone 3G, which costs $99.99 on contract.

Via Press release

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Nokia E72 available now

Ilinca Nita — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:42:34 +0000

Only few hours after announcing the upcoming release of Nokia 5330 Mobile TV Edition, Nokia has also announced that the E72 is now in stores – although it didn’t say what stores exactly.

Officially presented back in July (at the same time with the Nokia 5530 XpressMusic and Nokia 3710 fold), Nokia E72 is the Finnish company’s newest Eseries smartphone and it should, theoretically, replace the E71.

The new E72 is as thin as the E71 (10mm), but comes with better features, like HSDPA 10.2Mbps and HSUPA 2Mbps, 5MP autofocus camera, 3.5mm headset jack, 250MB of internal memory and a 600MHz ARM processor.

Other features include a 2.4 inch QVGA display, full QWERTY keypad, Wi-Fi, GPS, Nokia Maps and Nokia Messaging.

Unlocked, the Nokia E72 should be priced at about €350 ($524).

Via Press release

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Nokia 5330 Mobile TV Edition features DVB-H, costs €155

Ilinca Nita — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:18:17 +0000

Today Nokia announced the 5330 Mobile TV Edition, a new phone that features DVB-H technology, allowing users to watch TV shows while on the go. The handset also comes with Nokia’s Electronic Program Guide (EPG), which lets you create personal channel lists.

The other specs of 5330 Mobile TV Edition are similar to the ones included in the Nokia 5330 XpressMusic: 2.4 inch QVGA display, 3G, 3.5mm headset jack, 3.2MP camera, access to Ovi Store, YouTube, Facebook and MySpace.

Nokia 5330 Mobile TV Edition will be available for €155 ($232). Nokia didn’t say when exactly the phone will hit the market.

Nokia and Nokia Siemens Networks currently provide Mobile TV services in Austria, Finland, Netherland, Switzerland, Italy, India, Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria and Philippines. Nokia expects to complete commercial launches in over 20 new countries in the next 12-18 months.

It’s estimated that more than 300 million people worldwide will watch TV on their mobile phones by 2012.

Via Press release

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LG GW550 launched in South America and Asia

Ilinca Nita — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:10:16 +0000

LG GW550, the Windows Mobile 6.5 smartphone first announced in September, was just released in South America and Asia, and it should be available in Brazil and Argentina starting today.

Other 20 countries will follow shortly, including countries in the Middle East (weird enough, Europe is not mentioned at all).

The GW550 is a 12mm thin handset that features GSM and HSDPA connectivity, a 2.4 inch QVGA display, full QWERTY keypad, A-GPS, Wi-Fi, push email, 3.2MP camera and MicroSD card support.

LG didn’t announce the price of GW550 – it will probably depend on the country you buy it from anyway.

Via Press release (in Korean)

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Samsung Galaxy Spica i5700 available in Europe. Samsung Go announced for AT&T

Ilinca Nita — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 07:38:25 +0000

Samsung has just unveiled that its Galaxy Spica i5700 Android smartphone is now available in Europe and CIS, and will soon reach the Middle East and Asia. The announcement comes not long after the i5700 was officially presented in Russia.

The features of Galaxy Spica include a 3.2 inch HVGA touchscreen display, HSDPA connectivity, Wi-Fi, GPS, Google mobile services, an 800 MHz processor, DNSe 2.0, 3.5mm headset jack, a 3.2MP camera, MicroSD card support and a 1500 mAh battery. Moreover, Samsung i5700 is the first Android smartphone to support DivX.

Samsung didn’t say how much the Galaxy Spica i5700 costs, but we previously heard that its price is of around €320 ($479).

Another new Samsung product announced today is the Samsung Go, a netbook that will be available via AT&T starting November 22 – at about the same time with the Nokia Booklet 3G.

The Samsung Go features Microsoft Windows 7 Starter Edition, 3G, a scratch-resistant display, Intel Atom processor and a battery that can last up to 4 hours. No word yet on the price of AT&T’s new netbook.

Via Press release and Press release

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Upgraded Samsung Corby announced in Korea with 3G, WQVGA screen and more

Ilinca Nita — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 16:42:22 +0000

In Europe, the Samsung Corby S3650 may be a 3G-less, entry-level phone, but, for South Korea, Samsung decided to upgrade it a bit.

Announced as Samsung SCH-W900 / SPH-W9000 / SPH-W9050, the Korean Corby features a 3 inch WQVGA display – as opposed to the 2.8 inch QVGA screen of the European version.

Furthermore, the improved Corby has 3G connectivity, Haptic UI, DMB TV and more than 100MB of internal memory (the European version has 50MB).

(image from Aving)

The Samsung Corby SCH-W900 / SPH-W9000 / SPH-W9050 will be available in several color versions, including Minimal White, Cupid Pink, Jamaican Yellow and Energetic Green.

Via Samsung

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Nokia N97 Mini to be launched in India on November 16

Ilinca Nita — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 16:14:39 +0000

It looks like the Nokia N97 Mini will be launched in India on November 16 (and yes, that’s tomorrow), during an event called Nokia N-Tourage.

Coming as N97’s little brother, the Nokia N97 Mini features a 3.2 inch touchscreen display with 360 x 640 pixels and 16 million colors, full QWERTY keyboard, GSM and HSDPA connectivity, Wi-Fi, GPS, stereo Bluetooth, 3.5mm headset jack, 8GB of internal memory, and a 5MP autofocus camera with Carl Zeiss optics, dual LED flash and VGA video recording at 30fps.

Like the N97, Nokia N97 Mini is a Symbian S60 5th Edition smartphone.

The price of an unlocked Nokia N97 Mini in India is expected to be between 20,000 INR ($433) and 25,000 INR ($541).

Via Cell Passion

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GSM Palm Pre Coming to North America November 27

Brad Molen — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 07:12:06 +0000

So a Palm Pre is finally coming in GSM flavors to North America. Specifically, it’s coming to Mexico’s Telcel on November 27.

I know many people were hoping to hear it would be coming to the US, but no such luck as of yet. At this point, the best option is now to find one sold in Mexico under Telcel and is now unlocked. Who knows how much that option will cost, but it’s the only way to get one here in the States.

But if it’s coming to Mexico, there’s a very good chance we’ll see it in a neighboring country sometime in the near future. Don’t hold your breath on it because there’s a lot of wishful thinking in that statement, but it would certainly be nice.

Of course, now that we’re seeing the Palm Pixi for sale here in the US on Sprint, the Pre seems a little outdated; too outdated for most people to even care.

via Engadget

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Blackberry App World to Get Carrier Billing Soon

Brad Molen — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 06:59:27 +0000

Currently, the only way to download an app onto your Blackberry from App World is to enter in all your Paypal information first to make sure you have enough to pay for the app itself. What if you’re not an avid Paypal user? Or perhaps it’s frustrating enough just to have that one extra step in between?

Jim Balsillies, RIM CEO, announced at the Blackberry Developer Conference that in 2010 carriers will simply be able to bill you whenever you download an app off App World. This allows for spontaneous purchases and gets rid of the Paypal middleman approach.

Also announced was a new Blackberry Theme Studio to offer more customizable options on the Blackberry UI, as well as a new advertising service to aid developers in integrating ads into their apps.

No word on when next year we’ll be seeing the transformation, although I expect to see it deployed to one or two carriers at a time instead of all at once.

via WirelessWeek

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LG Promises Another Watchphone in 2010

Brad Molen — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 06:41:14 +0000

The mobile community was blown away at last year’s CES when LG daftly showed off its new creation, the GD910 watchphone. With touchscreen and bluetooth capability (not to mention way-too-high pricetag), it pioneered an onslaught of several watchphones to come to market in 2009.

Now LG would like to do it again. The company announced Thursday that there would no doubt be more styles of the innovative watchphone coming out in 2010. While no other details were unsurprisingly announced, it was interesting to note that LG mentioned additional styles in the plural instead of singular.

So what does CES 2010 have in store for the mobile community? Perhaps not just one watchphone, but several.

LG also offered further confirmation on Thursday that there are several new Android touchscreen devices in the works and will be out in 2010, including a little brother to the GW620 (aka Etna). This particular handset is rumored to contain Snapdragon as well as be a touchscreen-only device.

via AndroidCommunity

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NTT DoCoMo to Develop Phones with Self-Healing Paint

Brad Molen — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 06:20:49 +0000

Have you ever scratched your phone? Chances are you have, and you were probably cursing the fact that phones seem to be way too vulnerable. We here at Unwired View love new ideas that could someday innovate the way we use and benefit from mobile phones.

The latest idea is from Japan’s NTT DoCoMo, which has announced plans to license Nissan’s special scratch-resistant paint in order to use the technology on its own mobile phones.

Nissan’s paint is called Scratch Guard and was developed by Nissan alongside the University of Tokyo and Advanced Softmaterials, Inc. Scratch Guard contains a special type of resin that when scratched, is able to self-heal typically overnight (for extreme scratches it can take up to a week).

It probably won’t show up on every phone; the paint will be a value-add feature for future NTT DoCoMo devices, though. It’s doubtful that we’ll see anything similar outside of Japan for a while, but we love this idea and hope that others will follow suit.

via Gizmag

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Nokia Rumored to Consider Palm Buyout

Brad Molen — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 06:05:45 +0000

I’ve always been amazed at how stocks can be influenced by mere rumors, but Palm’s stock skyrocketed today by 8% amidst speculation that the struggling company may be bought out by Nokia.

Now, this wouldn’t be the first time we’ve heard this rumor, but for some reason it’s resurfacing; word of a Palm takeover had been talked about as early as September 2008.

It is interesting to note, however, that the two companies don’t have a whole lot in common. For instance, Nokia is heavily invested in Symbian and Maemo while Palm already has established WebOS as its current OS of choice. Would Nokia be willing to takeover WebOS and make it its own?

We do know, though, that Nokia is having its fair share of problems getting any sort of stronghold in the smartphone market with heavy competition such as the iPhone and the large number of Android devices now emerging. If there is any merit to the rumor, it would likely mean Nokia is hoping to add strength to its smartphone market share.

via Electronista

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Nokia Ovi Player launched; Nokia PC Suite supports Windows 7

Ilinca Nita — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:32:47 +0000

The Nokia Music PC suite has been updated and renamed to Nokia Ovi Player.

The Ovi Player comes with several new features, including support for Microsoft’s latest Windows 7, “some new views to help you navigate and enjoy your music collection”, a “filter column” (which should help users browse their music collection easier), and redesigned player controls.

Nokia Ovi Player can be downloaded from here (the website still says that it’s called Nokia Music, but the download link points to the Ovi Player app).

Nokia has also updated the Nokia PC Suite to version 7.1.40.1 – the suite now supports Windows 7, too, and can be downloaded from here.

Via the Ovi Blog, All About Symbian

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Motorola MT710 oPhone is like a keyboard-less Droid for China

Ilinca Nita — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:55:24 +0000

The Motorola Droid is certainly one of the hottest phones Moto ever had, and perhaps that’s why the company plans to launch a similar handset in China.

Said handset is called Motorola MT710 and it’s an oPhone, meaning that it runs an Android OS customized for China Mobile.

The MT710 resembles the Droid, but it has no sliding QWERTY keyboard. Its features are similar as well, including a 3.7 inch touchscreen display with 845 x 480 pixels and Wi-Fi. The smartphone will also feature TD-SCDMA connectivity and CMMB (China Multimedia Mobile Broadcasting) support.

Details about the exact release date and price of Motorola MT710 are missing.

Another Moto Android phone that should be released soon in China is the Motorola Zeppelin.

Via Tech.qq, Engadget

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Dell Mini 3i officially announced for Claro Brazil, China Mobile

Ilinca Nita — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:03:46 +0000

Dell has finally issued a press release, confirming the fact that its Dell Mini 3i Android smartphone is coming to China and Brazil.

The carriers that will launch the Mini 3i are China Mobile and Claro (part of America Movil).

Dell says that its first Android smartphone will be available in China in late November, while Brazilian customers should be able to buy it before the year’s end. The handset’s price was not announced.

Apparently, China gets a 3G-less and Wi-Fi-less Dell Mini 3G, while Brazil will have a version that included both these features – a version probably called Dell Mini 3iX, which may also come to the US, via AT&T, in early 2010.

Via Press release

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Samsung to make 100 million touchscreen phones in 2010, 65% of them with capacitive screens

Ilinca Nita — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:27:11 +0000

We recently told you that Samsung plans to sell about 270 million phones in 2010, and it looks like 100 million of those will be touchscreen handsets.

According to Telecoms Korea and a Shinhan Investment report, Samsung should ship about 57 million touhcscreen phones by the end of 2009, and it plans to almost double this number in 2010 to reach the aforementioned 100 million mark.

65% of Samsung’s touchscreen phones sold in 2010 should have capacitive displays, notes the report.

LG also intends to ship more touchscreen handsets next year, but only 20% of them will have capacitive screens.

Both Samsung and LG have touchscreen phones that were sold at record paces this year: the Samsung Star, pictured above (10 million units until now), and the LG Cookie (more than 5 million units). Interestingly, both the Star and the Cookie have resistive touchscreen displays, not capacitive.

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Nokia’s vision of 2015? Nokia is already working on BIONETS self-evolution capable services to make it happen

Staska — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:10:18 +0000

When I was watching Nokia’s “The way we live next” vision of 2015 video, they key theme – the ability of Nokia services and devices to self adapt to user, needs based on usage patterns – sounded somewhat familiar.

I checked my notes, and yes, indeed – it was a familiar topic. The visions of 2015 was not just a promotional video of cool things that will somehow come about in 6 years.

It is actually a visualization of the stuff Nokia research labs, and some of it’s partners, are working hard to bring about. They have been doing it from 2006, at least. And have the patent apps to prove that.

One of them, called “BIONETS architecture for building services capable of self-evolution” became public recently .

It describes:

“… the development of one or more flexible architectures that can support service creation/development and provisioning in addition to self-evolution. Therefore, various embodiments allow for continued self learning, customization and adjustment of BIONETS services to the needs and expectations of users in accordance with characteristics such as those exhibited by biological organisms, for example, the ability to continuously adopt itself to an ever-changing environment “

The basic idea behind BIONETS architecture, is to split the actual services into a small components called “service primitives”. Those service primitives are combined into an actual service by “Expert/Decision making manager” module. Mobile devices have a BIONETS enabled client software which tracks service usage by individual users.

The tracking includes the steps user made to access the service, activities he performed just prior to it, the duration it took to perform the operations, whether the action was completed, etc;. Aggregating this data from a big number number of devices, the Expert/Decision making module can derive optimal service usage patterns and underperforming service primitives. Then it can automatically reconfigure the service primitives used to provide the actual service to fit user needs better. Or even create new services from observing the people use their devices, without intervention of the service provider.

One simple example of such a service could be a stock ticker application:

“User may utilize a “stock ticker” service that provides the user with periodic or constant updates which inform the user of a particular stock’s value at a given time. The stock ticker service may evolve by monitoring the user’s interaction with the stock ticker service. For example, it may be noticed that the user oftentimes will execute a calculator application in parallel with the stock ticker service and utilize that calculator to multiply stock values by a certain number (e.g., the number of stocks held by the user). After observing this behavior of executing the calculator application in parallel with the stock ticker service a pre-determined number of times, the stock ticker service can undergo self-evolution by deciding to improve the services it provides by embedding calculator functionality and a corresponding UI in its stock ticker service. Moreover, the stock ticker service may by default, automatically multiply a given stock’s value by the earlier observed value representing the number of stocks held by the user, thus preempting the need for the user to manually perform the multiplication operation herself.”

That’s just one, and relatively simple application. Combining self-evolution capable services with a widely spread passive and active sensors, and millions of exceedingly capable mobile devices, might lead us to that future of those “truly unique user experiences, from highly local traffic reports, to global weather trends..” Nokia was talking about in 2015 video.

But that’s for 2015.

For 2010 I’ll settle for a real improvement of OVI services, so all of them are well integrated, work seamlessly and intuitively on my next Nokia device.

The BIONETS architecture is a part of a bigger 6.9 million EUR BIONETS research project financed by European Comission Framework program, that has been running since 2006. It involves multiple partners, including Nokia, Sun Microsystems, Telecom Italia and a number of European research institutes and Universities.

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New Mozilla Add-on Challenge can get you a free Nokia N900

Ilinca Nita — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:38:10 +0000

Mozilla has recently announced a new contest, called the Mobile Add-on Developer Challenge, through which it will offer 10 free Nokia N900 smartphones.

What you need to do is develop a Mozilla Firefox add-on for mobile and send it to Mozilla (or you can participate with an already-developed add-on).

The contest is open until December 7, 2009. A team of Mozilla judges will then select 10 add-ons that should “best represent user experience and innovation on Firefox for mobile devices.”

Sure enough, this contest won’t help regular mobile users (who can’t develop apps and add-ons), but there will surely be many devs out there happy to know that they can get a free Nokia N900.

More info about the Mozilla Add-on Challenge can be found here, while the Contest Rules are here. Note that, for one reason or another, the contest is void in Province of Quebec (Canada), Cuba, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, Iran, Union of Myanmar, as well as “where prohibited by law”.

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Bellperre Finest Woods luxury phone series launched

Ilinca Nita — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:58:35 +0000

Bellperre announced the availability of a new luxury phone series, made out of “the very finest authentic materials”, including hand-crafted wood (Walnut, Elm, Zebrano or Wenge).

The new Finest Woods Bellperre phones weigh 120 grams and measure 100 x 44 x 15,3 mm each, and can be customized with hand-polished Steel, Yellow Gold, Rosé Gold or Platinum. 110 types of genuine exotic leathers can be added (shark, lizard, alligator or buffalo). Moreover, Bellperre can add “diamonds and gemstones or initials, logos or personal messages on request.”

Feature-wise, the Bellperre phones offer tri-band GSM connectivity 900/1800/1900, a 2 inch Sapphire Crystal scratch-resistant display, stereo Bluetooth, email and a version of Windows Mobile.

Bellperre says that its phones are handmade in Holland. No word on the price of the new luxury handsets, but interested customers should try and contact the manufacturer via its official website.

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Vodafone UK launches the HTC HD2, free on select plans

Ilinca Nita — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:01:54 +0000

Today – not long after HTC announced that its high-end HD2 is shipping in Europe – Vodafone launched the smartphone in the UK, thus becoming the first British carrier to offer it to its customers.

With a contract agreement for two years and a monthly plan of at least £35 ($58), the HTC HD2 is free. You can get it for free with an 18-month contract too, but only with monthly plans of at least £40.

The new Windows Mobile 6.5 handset is available online here.

Vodafone UK doesn’t offer the HD2 on Pay As You Go for now, and there’s no word if it ever will.

O2 and T-Mobile will probably launch the HTC HD2 in the UK as well, but the exact release dates are not known at the moment.

Via Pocket-lint

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Samsung Corby WEP490 Bluetooth headset announced

Ilinca Nita — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:47:50 +0000

Samsung currently has three Corby phones (well, four, if you count the B3310 Corby Mate too), and it will soon introduce a Corby Bluetooth headset as well.

Named Samsung WEP490 Corby, the headset comes in various color versions, to match the colorful Corby phones.

The WEP490 Corby features a status LED indicator, echo cancellation, noise reduction and automatic volume control. It can provide a talk time of up to 6 hours, or a stand-by time of up to 10 hours.

The Samsung Corby WEP490 Bluetooth headset should be available soon in Russia for about $45.

Via Samsung Hub

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Flash 10.1 for Palm WebOS to come in the first half of 2010

Ilinca Nita — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:39:48 +0000

Announced by Adobe at the beginning of October, Flash 10.1 for mobile will be available for Palm’s WebOS smartphones starting the first half of 2010.

At least that’s what Adobe says to WebOS users who are currently trying to access Flash-based content on their handsets.

And in case you’re wondering, there’s still no word on when Apple’s iPhone will get Flash support. However, it would be somewhat funny if WebOS (which has been around for less than a year) gets Flash support before the iPhone does.

Until now, Palm announced only two WebOS devices – the Pre and the Pixi – but we’ll probably see more of them next year.

Via PreCentral

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