After the QTrax debacle, we were a little wary when we started hearing rumbles about a similar service from OmniFone called MusicStation Max that promised, flat-fee, unlimited downloads from all the major labels to your cellphone with no expiration dates — but color us surprised, it’s for real. OmniFone’s MusicStation is already a player in the European mobile music game, partnered with giants like Vodafone, and the MusicStation Max launch seems like a natural evolution in the vein of Nokia’s Comes With Music program: consumers will buy a pre-licensed MSM phone — the first will be available from LG in a few months — and be able to download away for 12 to 18 months, with the ability to sideload back to a computer or to other licensed phones. The exciting part, of course, is that unlike almost every other subscription program on the market your music will still play when the license expires. Add to that the fact that everything from the tracks to playlists to friend recommendations will be backed up on the network in case you lose your device, and we’re definitely intrigued — but we’ll wait to see how well all this DRM actually works before we call this thing a winner.
Samsung doesn’t want to leave that iPhone-like phone look all to LG, now does it? You know, straight lines, round corners, chrome trim, shiny touchscreen. We’ve already seen the Armani handset and now we have the F480.
This time round, the screen’s a 2.8in, 240 x 320 job ready to show snaps from the F480’s five-megapixel autofocus camera – there are going to be lot of these this year. Worried about shot quality? Don’t be – this boy has image stabilisation tech on board.
The 95.9 x 55 x 11mm unit also has an RDS-equipped FM radio on board, Bluetooth 2.0 and not only tri-band GSM/GPRS/Edge but also 3G with HSDPA downloads at up to 7.2Mb/s.
Expect the SGH-F480, as it’s more fully known, in the coming quarters.
And don’t forget Samsung’s F490, launched in January at CES. It too is a 5Mp cameraphone, but has a larger, 3.2in screen than the F480 but has an HSDPA-enabled radio that only goes to 3.6Mb/s.
Samsung’s rumoured G810 – a phone the firm calls an ‘infotainment’ handset – has made its anticipated appearance at the Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona this week.
The stainless steel styled handset – shades of Shine here, we’d say – sports a 2.6in, 240 x 320 display on which it displays the Symbian OS’ S60 user interface. It has tri-band 3.6Mb/s HSDPA 3G connectivity backed by slower GSM, GPRS and Edge.
Perhaps its most impressive specs are its camera’s: a five-megapixel sensor with autofocus, a xenon flash and a 3x optical zoom. The G810 has GPS on board too, and if you don’t want to use it for navigation, you can let it stamp your snaps with the location from which they were taken.
The 103 x 52.9 x 7.9mm handset’s not the slimmest slider we’ve seen, but by putting up with the thickness you get a 3.5mm headphone jack and a TV output port. The G810 also has Bluetooth 2.0, for wireless transfers.
At the Mobile Conference Motorola is making a splash with its introduction of the Mobile TV DH01n device. This pocket-sized device combines a personal media player with advanced navigation capabilities including: 2D or 3D GPS and TeleAtlas map views, points of interest and voice-activated directions. With it, you can watch live TV, on-demand video and personal media content on the go and find your way with GPS navigation. It sports a high-quality widescreen LCD display with stereo sound.In addition, the lightweight pocket-sized Mobile TV DH01n supports:
- High-quality live digital video broadcast over the DVB-H standard
- 90 minutes of video on a 256MB card
- Convenient automatic channel scan and channel listing
- Personal content like video, music and pictures on SD/MMC cards
- Recording, pausing and playing back live TV signals with secure memory card support
- Four hours of playback time.
Motorola Mobile TV DH01n is available now to broadcasters and services providers.
LG is stealing the show at Barcelona with its display of the full touchscreen multimedia handset LG KF700. It sports a display with unusual, better then QVGA – 240×480 pixel resolution and will probably be positioned as LG’s main multimedia handset. 16 million color display, full divx playback, tons of storage and other interesting stuff is expected out of it. Since info on this one is scarce right now, expect updates soon.
Upping their 2008 lineup Samsung has gone ahead and announced the new flagship Soul cellphone that peaks up the Ultra Editions. This one will be a quad-band GSM phone with 7.2Mbps HSDPA; 2.2-inch QVGA display; 5-megapixel, image stabilized camera with Power LED flash and face detection; FM radio; microSD; Bluetooth, and more in a 12.9-mm thin slider form. Magical Touch interface that adapts to your usage (music, camera, etc) will also be included. Also a jumbled-up Google icon for search and Gmail access is in there.
Samsung’s Soul will hit European retail in April but you can catch it this week at Barcelona’s Mobile World Congress. Source :engadgetmobile
HTC has taken its turn at Mobile World Congress to release one new phone and upgrade two of its crossover devices. Spotlighted in the show is the P3470; originally codenamed the Pharos, the touchscreen phone centers on GPS mapping and supports either TomTom or CoPilot software for its navigation. A navigation wheel also helps it navigate through large lists more quickly than possible with just a directional pad. HTC also delivers a 2-megapixel camera and microSD storage with the phone, which ships first to Europe later this month but will support quad-band GSM and EDGE data for a possible rollout in North America. Accompanying the P3470, the Advantage X7510 is a significant overhaul of the original X7500. It doubles the built-in storage to 16GB and now sports a new touch-sensitive keyboard with haptic (vibration) feedback; TouchFLO from the HTC Touch series is also onboard and is accompanied by a new VueFLO version that auto-rotates the interface based on the phone’s position. Opera Mobile 9 and Google Maps for Mobile are also standard. The device is otherwise similar and boasts a large 5-inch touch LCD, 3-megapixel rear and 0.3-megapixel front cameras, GPS with TomTom navigation software, and tri-band HSDPA Internet access (with Wi-Fi support) that supports North America in addition to most world frequencies. HTC has penned a launch for Europe in March but should support the Americas later.
A more modest update is in store for the Shift. The ultra-mobile PC gains Microsoft’s Origami Experience 2.0 front-end, which adds a finger-controllable web browser, RSS feeds, and media jukebox as well as a quicker way to access the most common features. The 7-inch system is otherwise similar and packs Windows Vista Business on to a 40GB hard drive along with tri-band HSDPA and Wi-Fi. Already available in the US, the Shfit just now reaches Spain and the UK and should ready soon for Italy. Prices in mainland Europe are set at 1199 Euros ($1,742).
Samsung’s semiconductor branch tonight helped launch Barcelona’s Mobile World Congress with a new mobile platform destined for smartphones and other high-end handhelds. The S3C6410 merges both a 667MHz ARM processor as well as a hardware Multi Format Codec decoder/encoder block that offloads much of the work that would normally be given to the main CPU. In addition to driving playback of video formats such as H.264, MPEG-4, and VC-1, it can also record standard-definition (640×480) video at full speed — including while playing back video at the same time, Samsung says. The feature explicitly opens the door to two-way video calling at TV resolutions while simultaneously improving battery life versus older processors.
In addition to videos, the hybrid ARM chip improves 3D graphics, scaling, and other visual tasks that would otherwise slow down the system. It also sports dual RAM ports that give enough memory bandwidth to handle high mobile resolutions without bogging down the whole device, according to the company. Samsung notes that the S3C6410 supports “all major high level operating systems” in the mobile space and expects to sample test chips in May, with mass production underway during the summer.
While no customers have yet been named for the processor, the Samsung introduction may prove crucial for Apple. The California firm is known to use a similar Samsung ARM processor in the iPhone and iPod touch based on earlier technology, and is believed to still be dependent on the ARM architecture as the backbone of the devices until at least the successor to Intel’s Silverthorne ultra-mobile processor is available for use in phone-sized devices in 2009. [photo viaiFixit]
Nokia this morning made an aggressive start to its launch at Mobile World Congress through two key Nseries smartphones. The N96 (pictured) is Nokia’s long-anticipated sequel to the N95 8GB and doubles its built-in storage to 16GB; with a microSDHC slot and an 8GB card (including a new card of Nokia’s own), the device can hold up to 24GB data by itself. Several design changes also improve its handling of media playback: in addition to a built-in kickstand for long video playback, the N96 adds a native 3.5mm headphone jack, simulated 3D sound speakers, and a DVB-H tuner for receiving over-the-air digital TV in Europe. An electronic programming guide allows the handset to record up to 40 hours of video. Like the N95, the updated phone sports a 5-megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, and GPS with a data assist mode; however, a new button layout and a new look (borrowed from the N81) prep the device for eventual support for the N-Gage gaming service. Nokia plans to ship the phone during the summer for 550 Euros ($799). Regional launches have not been announced, though the device supports North American GSM and EDGE and should be available in the US as an unlocked device. 3G access (over HSDPA) is only supported in Europe for the initial N96 version.
A second phone, the N78, is designed as a budget alternative to the N82: also resembling the N81, the new phone uses a lower-resolution 3.2-megapixel camera and strips most built-in storage in favor of microSDHC cards. It nonetheless uses assisted GPS, Wi-Fi, and a native 3.5mm headphone jack; in a unique twist, it also sports an FM transmitter for broadcasting its music to other devices. Nokia bundles the N78 with a 2GB microSD card and ships the phone during the spring for 350 Euros ($508).
The Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 is one of the most exciting Windows Mobile phones since the Blackjack 2 and the (phantom) i-mate 9502. With a 800×480 pixel display, it is probably going to be the new reference in terms of productivity and entertainment. Users can control it the way they want: Touch screen, joystick or via the elegant Arc slider QWERTY keyboard. Finally, it has WiFi, 3.5G and assisted-GPS – features that will make a big difference, given that web browsing and location based are popular apps these days.
Highlights
3” touch display 800×480 pixels
QWERTY keyboard
GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 + HSDPA (3G)
WiFi, Bluetooth
Windows Mobile
Touch screen
3.2 megapixel camera with Auto-focus
Joystick navigation
Assisted GPS
Bluetooth, WiFi
110 x 53 x 16.7 mm, 145g
The Sony Ericsson XPERIA™ X1 will be available in “selected markets” from the second half of 2008.
The first official video of the new Sony Ericsson XPERIA windows mobile smartphone showed up on the web. The phone features a QWERTY keyboard, a superb 800×480 touch display and assisted-GPS.
Sony-Ericsson opened the Mobile World Congress today by unveiling the XPERIA X1, its first true touchscreen-focused cellphone. Following a deal with Microsoft, the handset is Sony-Ericsson’s first device to use Windows Mobile for its OS but also uses a custom interface of “XPERIA panels” rather than the default Microsoft front-end: users simply tap panels with their fingers to access calling, media, and other functions, according to the phone designer. Though dominated by its 3-inch, 800×480 touchscreen, the device also includes both optical and physical navigation pads at the bottom as well as a unique arc-slider QWERTY keyboard that tilts outward for more comfortable typing. The X1 is also the most Internet-connected Sony-Ericsson device in history, the company boasts: unlike even most advanced 3G phones, it offers HSUPA (High Speed Upload Packet Access) that sends video and other media almost as quickly as it comes downstream. Wi-Fi is onboard for short-range networking and is backed by assisted GPS for route finding. A 3.2-megapixel camera with autofocus and a microSD slot (versus Sony-Ericsson’s favorite Memory Stick Micro format) round out its key features.
The first XPERIA phone is expected sometime in the second half of 2008; with quad-band GSM and an unprecedented five-band HSPA/UMTS connection, the device should be available both in North America as well as Europe and includes the key 1,700MHz band needed for T-Mobile USA’s upcoming 3G service.
Meizu’s long-delayed M8 (or MiniOne) smartphone may be reaching store shelves in its native China, according to international trading firm AliBaba. The close shadow of the iPhone is already listed as on sale from suppliers including Fuzhou ZhongTianLi, Longxiang Shoes, and Samsin Trade, suggesting that the touchscreen device has advanced well past the prototype stage seen in December and has retained many of the features promised by
Meizu in early 2007. Minor contradictions exist between the suppliers, including disputes about the screen size and color. However, most point to a custom interface placed on top Windows CE 6.0, a 3.5-inch, 720×480 touchscreen, and a 3-megapixel camera.
Connections are supplied over GSM for calls as well as EDGE and Wi-Fi for Internet access. Whether the phones are widely available or will support cellular access in North America is unknown, though the devices have already been described by Meizu as coming with a minimum of 4GB of internal memory. No models are likely to be sold natively in the US due to expected copyright disputes with Apple.
According to ZD|Net Cisco is going to come out with a mobile phone, Android powered, that looks similar to the iPhone, but is meant for enterprise use. The demo Dave Greenfield was shown comprised of a 3 way video call, we can assume the device has a camera in the front for video calls, and many business tools such as email, calendering, todo’s, etc, all integrated.
One to watch out for, just a reminder: we’re going to be at Mobile World Congress, hopefully catching this baby on camera.
It seems Sony Ericsson is preparing to surprise many of us later in the day. Their press conference is scheduled to start withing couple of hours and there they may announce the first waterproof Cyber-shot phone. Apparently, the upcoming device will sport a 3.2 megapixel camera with flash and… that’s about it, as far as we know.
You don’t mess with the Germans, they’ll find some way to stab you in the back. The Nokia N96 specifications have been posted on Nokia’s German site and here they are for your pleasure:
Quadband EDGE
Dualband HSDPA 850/2100 MHz
DVB-H Class C
92 cc volume
125 gram weight
103 x 55 x 18 mm
16 GB internal memory AND a microSD slot; 24 GB total if you spend an extra $80
950 mAh battery
6.1 cm (2.8 inch) 320×240 display with 16 million colors
3.5 mm headphone jack
WiFi (802.11b/g)
AGPS
5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens that also does VGA video recording at 30 FPS, Dual LED flash that can also be used when video recording!
S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 (Flash Lite 3 enabled web browser included)
Sony-Ericsson this afternoon claimed to have some of the best music and web phones yet with the announcement of two more devices in its Mobile World Congress lineup. The W980 clamshell is the device maker’s new flagship Walkman phone and includes 8GB of built-in flash memory to hold most users’ whole collections without needing an external card. Audio-enhancing functions as well as premium earbuds also provide better listening than most devices in the class, the company touts. In an unusual spin for Sony-Ericsson phones, an FM transmitter is built in along with a receiver, allowing the W980 to beam music to nearby stereos or even other phones with FM radios. An external LCD and controls let owners quickly skip tracks or check caller ID without having to flip open the handset; shake control from other Walkman phones also allows quick song changes without touching a button. With a 3.2-megapixel camera coming as standard, the W980 is due in the summer and is likely to appear in North America with quad-band GSM and EDGE data support.
A second device, the Z770 [link active soon], is focused more on the web: it adds 3G-level HSDPA and UMTS data for Europe and includes a unique direction pad interface that provides a “magnetic” mouse pointer onscreen, replicating some of the experience of browsing on a computer without an expensive touchscreen. It also boasts ActiveSync support for Microsoft Exchange contacts and e-mail, as well as Google Maps for Mobile. Including a 2-megapixel camera, the Z770 is due to reach Europe in spring.
Sony-Ericsson has finished up its announcements in Barcelona with word of a 3G ExpressCard line and a stereo headset. The EC400 and its GPS-equipped counterpart the EC400g are Sony-Ericsson’s first mobile Internet cards to provide HSPA while using the ExpressCard format; both plug into the EC/34 slot of Mac OS X and Windows PCs to provide up to 7.2Mbps downstream in peak conditions as well as up to 2Mbps for uploads. An auto-configuring process ensures a near pain-free setup process, the company explains.
Either is capable of full world roaming at all speeds, including legacy EDGE and GPRS connections; the GPS of the EC400g allows GPS-aware apps to find their position without a separate receiver. Sony-Ericsson ships the broadband adapters by mid-2008.
Music- and video-capable phones are served by the newly unveiled HPM-77 Stereo Portable Handsfree headset, Sony-Ericsson says. Already bundled with the W980, the wired headset is meant to provide better audio quality than stock earbuds but also sports an in-line mic to take calls. It ships as a separate item in June.
At last we have a phone that dares to call itself ‘indestructible’. The Sonim XP1 is a perfectly well built phone that can handle a lot of strain and pressure and hurdles and just about every kind of abuse on could subject a phone to. The display image is brutal enough to leave us wondering what this phone’s made of. I wonder what the specs of this phone may be like since it doesn’t really have a lot of style as far as looks are concerned. But surely, it lives up to its name of being a tough baby.
The Sonim XP1 isn’t out yet but we can be assured that it will be a real treat taking it to a trek or probably to a camping trip without worrying of it getting drenched or crushed.Source :Gizmodude
The man who invented the ubiquitous USB flash drive has now come up with a concept that he says would “change the cellular market”: A tiny cell phone that pops into interchangeable “jackets” so that consumers can cheaply transform them into bigger, smarter phones as a messaging device, a music player or a gaming device – or even into other gadgets to connect them to the Internet. Dav Moran, founder of the Israeli company Modu, announced Thursday that it will launch the phone, also called Modu, in October in three countries – Italy, Russia and Israel. The Modu is slightly smaller than the current iPod Nano and weighs 42 gms. It has a small color screen and a limited keypad, which allows it to work as a rudimentary cell phone on its own. The jackets that will come with the Modu look like cell phones, with standard numeric keypads and other features like cameras. But they lack the antenna and chips that communicate with a wireless network. This is where Modu comes in – it pops into a slot, turning the jacket into a fully functional phone. Moran said the Italian carrier is excited about the concept because it can make cell phones more like fashion; tempting consumer to update their looks every few months. The jacket is cheap to make, has almost no electronics, and doesn’t need to be tested to see that it conforms to its network standards.
Although Modu supports only GPRS now, Moran said the company is working on upgrading it to full 3G compatibility. And yes, he added that an upgraded Modu would work with jackets and mates designed for the first-generation unit. This tiny cell phone that will retail for around $280.
Some shoppers who have decided to upgrade from their current 4 or 8GB iPhones to the 16GB model are experiencing problems, anecdotes indicate. Although users should be able to insert their old SIM card into the new phone, and resume calling after identifying themselves as an existing AT&T customer, confusion reigns over whether or not the new phone automatically adds another two years to a person’s AT&T contract. While some people have claimed no extension whatsoever, others have been angered to discover an extra obligation.Part of the confusion may be attributable to the employees of Apple Stores and AT&T, some of whom are delivering contradictory messages on whether a contract extension is required; it may in a few instances be possible to negotiate no added contract length. A few users, though, are reporting trouble using their old SIM cards at all, in which case Apple is asking people to simply use the new card, and once again identify themselves as an existing customer.
