PayG Mobile Phones: Pay As You Move

Things are changing fast around us and we are loving it. Mobile technologies are also getting updated quite at a regular interval. Few years back, we had to rely only on VGA cameras, but today we are experiencing the company of higher resolution cameras (as high as 5 megapixels) through our handsets. Music capabilities in mobile phones have also increased significantly with music player, FM radio, visual showing a good rapport under a common platform, that is the mobile phone.



We are not only making a rapid journey with the latest mobile phones, we are also enjoying good value for our mobile phone deals. Today, we have ample choice to get the advantage of our preferred mobile phone deal – thanks to the presence of a number of online mobile phone shop and the mobile outlets in or locality. Both the online mobile shops as well as the mobile phone outlets offer cost effective mobile phone deals to us, the users. Mobile phone deals like contract mobile phones, 12 month free line rental, pay as you go mobile phones all are becoming very popular all across the UK.



Those who are interested in a prepaid mobile plan, for those payg mobile phones are the best choice. As the name says, pay as you go mobile phones are mobile phone deals that come with prepaid airtime. As you get prepaid airtime, you can keep a complete tab on your mobile expenditures. The best thing in pay as you go mobile phone is that this deal also brings a number of free offers and free goodies for you. Free offers like free texts, free minutes prove beneficial for everyone. Pay as you go mobile phones come catapulted with other free gifts like free mobile accessories, free gaming consoles and so on. With so many gifts and offers on display, the choice is yours...

Motorola W213 Mobile Phone

The Motorola W213 Mobile works in GSM 900 and GSM 1800 networks. The mobile comes int the dimensions of 108x44x1.09mm.

The Motorola W213 Mobile has display size of 128x128 pixels and comes in CSTN-65k color, weighing only 78 grams.


The Motorola W213 Mobile has decent phonebook memory, capable in storing 500 numbers. The mobile also has call records option of 30 calls along with 1 MB user memory. The phone also has data connectivity options such as GPRS and USB & comes in Black color, the mobile also has FM radio.

The battery of the motorola W213 Mobile comes in standard-Li-ion type, has the talk-time upto 8 hrs 30 minutes and standby-time upto 350 hrs.

Source:http://technews.in/reviews/

Mobile Phone that talks to your jawbone

The Pantech A1407PT mobile phone lets you listen to your calls with your bones -- well, not all your bones, just your jaw bone.

The futuristic Pantech phone uses bone conduction. That means when the phone is placed against your jaw the mechanical vibration from the phone is conducted to your inner ear, which responds normally. The result is you hear the other person on the phone perfectly.

A bone conduction cell phone has an additional advantage; it makes it easier to hear phone conversations in a noisy room. The sound is conducted directly to the inner ear.

Designers around the world are busy designing the next generation of cell phones that will probably still drop calls, but look exceptionally cool doing it.

For example: the cellular phone robot.

You've never seen a cellphone like this one, but may in the very near future. It actually has little wheels on it; it can find its way to a recharger (on a table top) and can find the owner of the phone to take a call.

Source:

Google phone coming soon

Google built its empire on the search engine business, and now it appears to be quietly working on the product that Wall Street analysts say will help company shares break the $700 mark - the mobile phone.

Just hours after Lehman Brothers issued a report Tuesday stating that the so-called Gphone "could launch as early as February 2008," Google (Charts, Fortune 500) announced it purchased Jaiku, a Helsinki-based company that develops blogging software for the mobile phone.

"The mobile world has much greater reach than the wired Internet," says Avi Greengart, a principal analyst with research firm Current Analysis. "Google sees this as the future."

Google's bold entry into the cell phone market promises to shake up the $127 billion wireless industry. The company has made no secret that it believes mobile phones should be free to consumers, where revenues are generated through advertising and no single carrier has a lock on users.

In the short run, the Gphone also threatens to dethrone the Apple iPhone as the wireless industry's newest star. Google and Apple (Charts, Fortune 500) have worked closely in the past, but the Gphone could test that cozy relationship and force Apple to make the iPhone a more open device than it is today.

A Google spokesperson would not comment on the company's plans, but there's no question that the Internet giant has ambitious plans for the mobile market.
Google comes calling

The company has focused heavily in recent years on developing services like Gmail, video, search and map applications for cell phones. Now Google is signaling plans to bid on an upcoming auction of wireless spectrum.

CEO Eric Schmidt told analysts last year that Google sees the mobile market as its biggest growth opportunity.

"The key for Google is getting better distribution," Greengart says. "They already have several of their applications ported for mobile use, but the problem is that consumers have to go and download them themselves, and in many cases they don't do that."

That's why many are speculating that Google is making its own handheld device for the masses. Lehman analyst Doug Anmuth says the Google phone will be a "low-priced, simple form factor handset with an operating system specifically designed for Internet applications."

Anmuth, in a research report, said that a Gphone prototype has been developed and that Taiwan's HTC Corp. is the phone's likely manufacturer.
Tech, telcos ready to rumble?

Schmidt has not been shy about his vision for the mobile market. He's even gone so far as to suggest that cell phones should be given away for free in exchange for targeting mobile ads to the consumer. While free Gphones may get consumers excited, Google won't make any friends with the major phone carriers like AT&T (Charts, Fortune 500) and Verizon Wireless (Charts, Fortune 500).

That's why Peter Crocker, a mobile analyst with Venture Development Corp thinks Google will likely try to partner with smaller carriers first. "I can see how the cultural difference between Google and some of the large carriers would not mesh very well," he says.

A move into the hardware business could be risky for Google. Hardware manufacturing is fundamentally different from software development, which doesn't have to worry about inventory, factories and suppliers.

For this reason, some industry observers think Google won't get into the phone making business; instead, they predict the company will launch its own Linux-based operating system to provide mapping and search functions on phones.
Source:http://money.cnn.com/2007/10/09/technology/google_phone.fortune/?postversion=2007101108

Nokia E65 Price drops by 15 Percent

Nokia has announced that they have slashed the price of the Nokia E65 for around 15 percent.

The 3G Wi-Fi Smartphone is one of the most popular and best selling models of Nokia, who has sold over one million of E65 in the second quarter.

According to analysts, the price cut is because of the approaching festival season and this is the appropriate time to further boost its sales.

“This is normal for any product, the price varies at different stages of the product life cycle,” commented a Nokia spokeswoman. It’s been more than 6 months that the phone has released and the price drop is part of its normal price adjustments.

Earlier, Nokia has reduced the prices of the E61i, N73 and N73 Music phones this month. However, it is not as low as E65.

The actual price of the Nokia E65 3G Smartphone was around $400 (approx. Rs. 16,382) and now the expected price is around $340 (approx. Rs. 13,600).
Source:http://www.techgadgets.in/mobile-phones/2007/13/nokia-e65-price-drops-by-15-percent/

iPhone to cost callers £720

Apple's long-awaited iPhone launches in the UK today - but it won't come cheap.

The company has signed an exclusive supply contract with the Spanish-owned O2 network guaranteeing it up to 40% of the revenue earned from customers.

Although the price of the phone in the UK has been kept a closely-guarded secret, it is expected to retail for around £199.

But the bills do not stop there, for it is believed that buyers will have to sign up to an expensive long-term contract with O2.

This is likely to commit them to paying as much as £720 over two years for their iPhone services. It is understood that the new phone, which has won rave reviews in the U.S., will be sold exclusively through Carphone Warehouse.

The iPhone has been billed as a breakthrough technology, even the 'God machine', because of its beauty on the eye, many functions and unique touch-screen controls.

However, it is being launched into a crowded market of mobile phones which double as music player, internet browser, e-mail device, personal organiser and camera.

The major difference between the iPhone and its rivals is the fact that it has a touch-screen QWERTY keyboard which can be used, for example, to write e-mails.

It is thinner and sleeker than rivals such as the Blackberry and Treo, which tend to have real keyboards with miniature keys.

The 8 gigabyte version of the iPhone holds up to 1,825 songs. The beauty of the iPhone is the software, which means the phone is simple to operate and responds to a flick of a finger.

There is a 3.5-inch screen with a range of icons which can be accessed simply by touching them.

The fact that Apple has been able to negotiate a share of customer call revenue is unprecedented in the UK mobile phone market.

The exclusive deal with O2 should mean that the device will not work with any other network, limiting the ability of consumers to shop around for the cheapest call package.

A thriving internet community of techno-experts and consumer activists are offering advice on how to unlock the phones and use them with a rival network.

But while this will seem attractive to some consumers, it is believed that Apple will refuse to honour any warranties if the iPhone should break.

When the phones went on sale in the U.S., consumers celebrated after queueing for days to be among the first to own one.

However, this pleasure was soured when the price of the 8GB phone was slashed from $599 dollars to $399 (£197), only ten weeks after it was launched.

Analysts suggest that the decision was made to give a shot in the arm to sales and deliver on a promise of improved turnover and profits.

The company subsequently apologised to those customers who had paid the full price and offered a $100 voucher against Apple products.

British consumers might well be suspicious that Apple will make the same move again, charging a high initial price only to cut the price later.

However, it would be a high-risk strategy to repeat an action which angered so many loyal fans in the U.S.

Source:http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/bbphone/article.html?in_article_id=424441&in_page_id=182

Next Big Thing With a Flip-Up Screen and a 2-Year Contract

Fans of the Sidekick series of cellphones are a rabid bunch. Blurry photos of the latest model from T-Mobile and Danger, the phones’ designer, have been popping up on the Web over the last few months, and phone nuts have studied them closely. Fans can now rest assured that the Sidekick LX will be available in late October for $299 with a two-year contract and does include some big changes.

This 6-ounce phone has the traditional Sidekick flip-up screen, but it is brighter and has higher resolution. The LX has a 1.3-megapixel camera with flash, as well as stereo Bluetooth for use with a pair of wireless headphones.

Like the older Sidekicks, the LX can connect to AOL, Windows and Yahoo instant messaging services and most major e-mail providers. It comes in blue and dark brown and runs on four cellular frequencies, meaning it can be used around the world. It is likely to be a favorite among Hollywood players — at least until photos of the next big thing leak onto the Web.
Source:http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/27/technology/

Motorola W377 Mobile Phone Gets FCC Nod

The Motorola W377 mobile phone gained FCC approval recently. Available in a flip design, the W377 offers USB connectivity (both data sync and charging the phone is possible). There's also a dedicated web browser key on the keypad. Goodies on the phone include a camera (with timer, even) and Bluetooth support.

There's also an FM radio receiver on the W377. It supports MMS and SMS messaging. Productivity tools include Calendar, Calculator, Stopwatch and others. Not the brightest bulb in the box, but hey, it was approved, so that should count for something right? Yeah, if you are looking for an entry-level phone.

Source:http://www.mobilewhack.com/motorola-w377-mobile-phone-gets-fcc-nod/

BlackBerry 8820 Smartphone with Wi-Fi Support debuts on AT&T

The BlackBerry 8820 bundled with AT&T is available right away. Launched in mid-July, the BlackBerry 8820 is the very first BlackBerry to include Wi-Fi Support (802.11 a/b/g).

A more developed sibling of the BlackBerry 8800, the 8820 smartphone is the thinnest device in RIM’s current range of smartphones. It features a full and highly tactile QWERTY keyboard (also available in AZERTY and QWERTZ configurations to support different language groups), large and bright display (320 x 240), user-friendly trackball navigation system and voice and data functionality. In addition, the smartphone also incorporates built-in GPS (Global Positioning System), RIM’s latest media player improvements, a microSD / microSDHC (microSD High Capacity) expandable memory slot that can support current and future generations of microSD memory cards up to 32GB.

The 8820 will be priced at $299, post rebate and includes a two-year contract from AT&T. The carrier offers data services abroad in 135 countries, beginning at $65 a month for unlimited overseas e-mail access, along with a voice contract. If the user just wants connectivity within the US, then personal e-mail and Web browsing start at $30 a month with a voice contract, or $45 a month for unlimited corporate e-mail access through the BlackBerry Enterprise Server from Research In Motion Ltd.

Furthermore, AT&T’s version of the BlackBerry also supports AT&T Mobile Music. According to RIM, voice-over-Wi-Fi calls will be offered at the discretion of the carrier, while AT&T says that the Wi-Fi capabilities on the 8820 are “data only” at this time. The smartphone supports up to ten e-mail accounts, including POP3, IMAP, and Web-based e-mail, while corporate e-mail access is available through the BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

“The new BlackBerry 8820 builds on AT&T’s leading domestic and international coverage footprint by giving customers the ability to link with their company’s wireless campus network or access e-mail and browse the Web at Wi-Fi hot spots even in the few countries in which we do not have data roaming agreements,” maintained Jeff Bradley, senior vice president- Marketing and Operations for AT&T’s wireless unit. “That makes the BlackBerry 8820 from AT&T an exceptional world phone for global use by business customers and individuals alike.”

Mike Lazaridis, president and co-CEO at RIM said, “The BlackBerry 8820 builds upon the sleek and performance-driven BlackBerry 8800 that has been embraced by business professionals around the world.” Adding, “This powerful new model has been eagerly anticipated by the market, and we are very pleased to be working with AT&T to launch the first cellular and Wi-Fi BlackBerry handset for customers in the U.S.”

The BlackBerry 8820 combines EDGE/GPRS/GSM cellular and Wi-Fi connectivity for data access and voice support via UMA (unlicensed mobile access) for fixed mobile convergence (FMC).

Source:http://www.techshout.com/

Latest Nokia Prism mobile phones

Nokia is bringing up new technologies, design and innovation. The vast range of Nokia mobile phones come with astonishing features and stunning looks.



The Nokia 7500 Prism is packed with the latest technology with a geometric design and high specification features. The handset sets itself apart from other handsets and appeals to a broader section of people.

The impressive host of features include 2.0 megapixel camera with support for video recording and playback, built-in flash and digital zoom. With an MP3 player, you can listen to your favourite music tracks, and with the FM radio, you can tune into their local radio station whilst out and about. The colour display allows viewing pictures and high quality video clips. Connectivity features like Bluetooth allows swapping pictures and video clips with friends. There is sufficient room for pictures, video clips and music tracks with the memory expansion upto 2GB.


The light weight handset weighs 82g and fits easily into your pocket. The Nokia 7500 Prism offers a web browser and Push email support so busy professionals would certainly benefit from it.


Another handset from the Nokia Prism collection, the Nokia 7900 is aimed at the style conscious consumers. This handset is a blend of style and state of the art technologies. The design of the handset features an Organic LED main display which supports up to 16 million colors.


The diamond-cut design, geometric patterns and graphic light refracting colors, ensure that the handset is a distinct phone. The Nokia 7900 Prism runs on dual band 3G, quad band GSM. The handset is more than just looks.

The Nokia 7900 is a real eye-candy with sleek and smooth design and sporting cutting-edge features.

If you are interested in buying any of these Nokia phones, just login into the online mobile shops and take benefit of the attractive deals on display.

Nokia 7500 prism

Nokia N76 Mobile Phone

See, the N76 isn't supported by any of the US mobile phone companies, so there's no discount for buyers. With the support of a phone company, the N76 could have been an attractive feature-packed value at $50. Instead, it's an underwhelming performer at $500. For that big a price tag, a phone needs to deliver a lot more than the N76 provides.

There's a lot to like about the N76, if not $500 worth. For starters, it's an attractive, sturdy clamshell with two displays: an external (1.4-inch, 160 x 128 pixels, 262,000 color TFT LCD) with handy music playback buttons underneath, and an internal (2.4-inch, 240 x 320 pixels, 16.7 million color TFT LCD) for most other tasks.

The phone is meant largely for music playback, and offers a microSD slot for adding up to 2GB of storage, sold separately (there's only 26MB of internal memory). Nokia's site says that the phone comes with a 1GB microSD card; ours didn't, which is common for review units, but check the contents before you get it home. This is a GSM phone, so it works with both AT&T and T-Mobile.

The N76 measures 4.2 x 2.1 x 0.54-inches and weighs 4.1 ounces. It feels especially sturdy in the hand, much more so than the Razr, the phone that kicked off the flat flip phone craze.

It is quite large when opened, yet is thin enough when shut to fit easily into a pants pocket. That extra real estate when opened has convinced the designers to add more buttons that usual around the dial pad, which wasn't a great choice.

Besides the usual left and right soft keys, start and end call buttons, and navigation pad, the N76 has buttons for calling up the menu, calling up a special multimedia menu, and editing text (something few will ever do). The keys are all flat, which makes selecting the wrong one easy. In fact, we had to give up trying to play games on it, since we kept hitting the menu button by accident.

As a music player, the N76 does a fairly good job. You can download songs from an online store or your computer, and you can use the headphones of your choice with the 3.5mm headphone jack. You won't be able to hold many songs, even with the maximum 2GB microSD card, so it's questionable how much value it has as a portable music player.

The N76 also tunes in FM radio, when the included headphones are plugged in (since the cord doubles as the antenna).

There's a 2megapixel camera which takes decent but slightly washed-out, slightly grainy shots. It's for emergency use only.

The N76 can also check e-mail and surf the Internet, but not all that quickly. The phone lacks 3G support, so you're stuck browsing at EDGE speeds. It's handy to have for a quick look-up, but that also is for emergency use only.

Nokia rates the battery for 2.8 hours of talk time and 200 hours of standby. That's not huge, but it ran for several days between chargings in our testing.

We found call quality to be good, with no complaints from our callers. We disliked how easily the phone smudged, however, and how hard it is to clean oily streaks from it. The screens are quite difficult to read in direct sunlight.

The N76 is an attractive phone, with a decent set of features, but it simply doesn't offer enough to warrant the $500 price tag. Unless you definitely want an unlocked phone with no commitment, you'll find better phones at better values from the wireless companies.

Source:http://www.pdastreet.com/

Reliance launches BlackBerry wireless solutions for the first time on CDMA network in India

Reliance Communications (RCOM) and Research in Motion (RIM) have launched the innovative BlackBerry wireless solutions for the first time on CDMA network in India. It will be available across 10,000 towns and three lakh villages, thus making it the most widely connected BlackBerry service in the country. Reliance Communications is the first to launch BlackBerry 8830 World Edition Smartphone in India that allows interoperability between the more data efficient CDMA and ubiquitous GSM network, delivering high Internet speed and international roaming.

Reliance Communications has also become the first CDMA provider in India to carry the Bloomberg Professional service on BlackBerry via Reliance Mobile. With Bloomberg on BlackBerry, subscribers to the Bloomberg Professional service can receive and send Bloomberg e-mail and Bloomberg instant messages, view their customised Bloomberg data, news, analyses, charts, monitors, market updates and other Bloomberg services wirelessly 24 hours a day.

With its dominant market share on the back of its fully integrated enterprise solution, Reliance is well poised to extend business applications through BlackBerry. The BlackBerry 8830 provides the industry leading email and messaging capabilities that are known of the popular BlackBerry solution the world over, along with premium phone features, web browsing and other mobile productivity applications. This sleek and stylish smartphone features a full QWERTY keyboard, large bright display, intuitive trackball navigation system, a microSD expandable memory slot and an advanced media player for listening to music, viewing pictures and watching videos.

Prakash Bajpai, President, RCOM, said, “As the first player to offer BlackBerry World Edition Smartphone in India, we are confident that our network will offer a superior value proposition to professionals on the move. Reliance is committed to provide world-class solutions on BlackBerry Enterprise server and we will take BlackBerry ‘beyond email’. For the first time in India, we are launching BlackBerry service with applications such as Internet-based online trading and Blackberry on prepaid. Many more such solutions will follow suit. And as modern day executives and entrepreneurs prefer to be kept well informed even while on the move, it is our endeavour to offer them the services they look for. Thus, Bloomberg Professional on our CDMA powered BlackBerry handsets gels with our philosophy of enhancing customer experience.”

The BlackBerry 8830 and 8703e handsets will be available in 16 cities to start with and will be expanded to other cities in phase II. RCOM has launched BlackBerry Pearl on its GSM network in a phase-wise manner starting with Indore.

“Bloomberg is extremely pleased to offer our customers in India the convenience and portability of Bloomberg on BlackBerry,” said Gerard Joseph Francis of Bloomberg. The Bloomberg service would be available on the newly launched models like BlackBerry 8100 Pearl priced at Rs 24,990, BlackBerry 8703E priced at Rs 22,990, BlackBerry Curve priced at Rs 24,990, and BlackBerry World Edition priced at Rs 33,990.
Source:http://www.exchange4media.com/

iPhone next week in Europe? Wait for Carphone Warehouse

Since NewsWireless first leaked a news of the 3G iPhone back in June, the world has been full of rival rumours, most of which have predicted that Orange and O2 plus T-Mobile will launch the product on September 16th. There looks to be a genuine story behind that - but it won't be the 3G iPhone. Instead, it looks like the iPhone sales in the US have slowed down - and so there is stock for European dumping.

There's widespread prediction this weekend that September 16th will mark the European launch, with guesses that this will be the 3G model. Sadly, though there may well be an announcement, it almost certainly won't be the wideband CDMA (WCDMA) 3G version.

The giveaway detail in the latest news - rumours of a T-Mobile advert for next weekend - is the lack of any mention of Carphone Warehouse, which is key to Apple's European distribution plans.

The original plan expected a million North American sales of the original "EDGE" technology iPhone to be announced back in early July.

At first, that looked highly achievable. Our sources reported huge sales in the first week, and predicted that the Euro iPhone would be revealed to the distributors as a 3G HSDPA phone, just one week after launch. That story named Vodafone as the prime carrier, and Carphone Warehouse as the high street outlet for Europe.

But the date for the announcement came and went, and no word was heard from Apple's German HQ, where the contract was being negotiated.

At that point, rumours multiplied, leaving most observers baffled in their search for the truth. Subsequently, authoritative Financial Times stories predicted that Apple had swung a deal with Orange for France, T-Mobile for Germany, and O2 for the UK. And there, most commentators left it, pending further official announcements.

What has thrown the market for new rumours into action again, is Apple's unpredicted major price cut for the North American iPhone - an announcement tucked away in the small print of the launch of the iTouch (an iPhone without the phone).

Naturally, the price cut infuriated those who already bought at the original high price. Steve Jobs has offered oil on the troubled water:

"We have decided to offer every iPhone customer who purchased an iPhone from either Apple or AT&T, and who is not receiving a rebate or any other consideration, a $100 store credit towards the purchase of any product at an Apple Retail Store or the Apple Online Store. Details are still being worked out and will be posted on Apple's website next week. Stay tuned."

SOurce:http://www.newswireless.net/index.cfm/article/3583

Luxury cellphones are turning tech savvy too

When luxury mobile phones first hit the market the goal was simple: make a gadget for those who don’t mind spending upwards of Rs 200,000 on a phone, give a finish that’s exclusive and throw in the diamonds for that snob appeal. Such gadgets fell short of impressing the tech savvy among the super rich.

Things are now changing fast at the top end. While more companies are launching the phones for ultra rich, they are also loading them with features that only money can by. Apart from Vertu (a division of Nokia) new players such as Bang & Olufsen, Gresso, Mobiado and GoldVish have entered the super premium market. Mobile phone manufacturers are partnering with luxury brands to produce a range of premium mobile phones, such as LG and Prada, Dolce & Gabbana (D&G) and Motorola, and Tag Heuer and Modelabs.

But how technically advanced are these? While diamonds are pretty much part of the top end phone, there’s a greater emphasis on smart ware — very exclusive features and exotic designs — are becoming the norm.

Danish electronics maker Bang & Olufsen has hooked up with Samsung to design the sleek but unconventional Serene. It looks like a compact face powder and has a built-in motor to assist the user in opening and closing the phone. However, it requires a special screwdriver to access the battery and the SIM card, and its circular keypad will take time getting used to.

The Lamborghini Nokia 8800 Sirocco is another special edition. It comes with the famous Lamborghini logo engraved on the front and the back, plus ball bearings from the auto company to enable the slider phone mechanism. The Lamborghini phone is a limited edition with only 500 being made.

It will come with Lamborghini graphics as wallpapers, screensavers, ringtones, and even a short video about the Lamborghini. While Gresso from Russia is made of gold and African Blackwood. They will be releasing a collection of five models called the Black Aura, designed in Italy.

Elsewhere in the world, phone makers are catching up — smartly converging luxury and technology. Canadian Mobiado Luminoso claims to be the world’s first 3G luxury mobile phone. The phone will work with any GSM network operator. It has WCDMA 2100 and tri-band GSM coverage on five continents (GSM/EDGE 900/1800/1900).

source:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/As_You_Like_It/Luxury_cellphones_are_turning_tech_savvy_too/articleshow/2330012.cms

Nokia's big day

Nokia shot to center stage of cell phone land today by unveiling a gallery of new handsets and services at an event in London. We can't get across the pond to cover the news in person (though we did get a very short preview of the handsets last week), but we'll bring you the highlights here. Be sure to click through to read more details on each announcement. Or if you prefer pretty pictures, take a gander at our slide show.

North America finally will get its own version of the powerful Nokia N95. Though it looks just like the existing N95, it adds a few extras, such as more RAM and longer battery life. It also offers 3G support for North American networks. Welcome also to a new N95 with a whopping 8GB of internal memory.

There are two new editions of the Nokia N81. Nokia showed off an 8GB model and a version that can accept microSD cards up to 4GB. Both will offer high-end features and will support Nokia's newly launched Ovi Internet brand, where you can download songs from the new Nokia Music Store and games from the company's new N-Gage service.

Speaking of which, the Nokia Music Store will offer millions of tracks from a variety of music sources. You'll be able to browse for music, buy a song directly over the air to your phone, or add a song to a wish list for a later download.

The Music Store will be available through the Ovi brand of Internet services, which is also the focal point for reviving Nokia's unsuccessful N-Gage brand. But instead of bringing us another awkward N-Gage device, Nokia is developing a new N-Gage gaming platform. You'll be able to browse through a wide selection of game titles, download free trials, and purchase games directly from Nokia. The service will also offer community portal for playing games with friends, or even strangers.

Finally, Nokia also introduced two new Xpress Music devices. The 5310 and 5610 offer the nifty, high-end multimedia features you've come to expect from the Xpress music line. The 5310 has a slim candy bar design, while the 5610 is a slider phone.

All phones and services should be available beginning in the fourth quarter of this year. We don't have specific North American availability information, but we'll pass on the details as soon as they come. And you can bet that we'll have full reviews of the phones as soon as we can get our hands on them.

Source: http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9768004-1.html

Nokia 5610 XpressMusic mobile phone

Nokia has announced three new handsets today at its Nokia: Go Play event in London. Pocket-lint was invited to have a first hand look at the new models. So will these be the handsets we all crave in the coming months or ones that fade into the background? We get playing to find out.

The Nokia 5610 XpressMusic phone is the company's music slider, and like the Nokia 5310, also announced at the same event, sits beneath the company's multimedia N series handsets.

Packing 3G connectivity, the Series 40 interface and a bump in digital camera specs from 2 as found in the 5310 to 3 megapixels, the idea behind the phone seems to offer music with a little extra.

The package makes sense and in our brief play was easy to use performing well.

Central to the design is a slider switch that sits beneath the 2.2-inch bright and crisp QVGA screen and above the menu keys on the top half of the slider.

The idea is that you slide the switch from side to side to access the next screen in a very similar way to how the HTC Touch and Apple's iPhone works, but without the touchscreen.

It's like the poor man's alternative and no doubt anyone down the pub with either in a couple of months time with make sure you know it.

According to Nokia the new interface is all about allowing the user the chance to see other features of the phone they might not be aware of, while at the same time being keen to point out that the interface is as easy to use as ever.

Playing on this further, the phone has a quick application launch button that allows you to scroll through applications, like you do with alt-tab on a PC, quickly from the home screen. You can also type in a URL straight from the home page without having to visit the browser first - a nice touch.

As for that music focus, the phone supports up to 4Gb microSD cards via its expandable memory slot, enough for around 3000 tracks and like the 5310 it's got dedicated music buttons, although not as clearly marked.

There is also an FM radio and stereo Bluetooth to complete the package.

Built quality on the units that we played on came across as a bit on the plastic side, especially the keypad although it was easy to use and well spaced out making texting easy to do. Strangely the build quality wasn't as good as the cheaper 5310 model also launched at the same event.

However real music fans, will be disappointed, as the 5610 isn't one of the new handsets capable of accessing Nokia's new dedicated music download store also launched at the same event.

Because the 5610 uses the Series 40 operating system rather than Series 60, it won't be able to benefit from the Ovi feature set and that means no maps, no games and no music.

Users will be able to "sideload" music bought from the Nokia Music Store via their PC, however they won't be able to download them directly to the phone.

It's a strange omission considering the company is now supposedly all about "Music".

Source:http://www.pocket-lint.co.uk/reviews/review.phtml/2572/3596/nokia-5610-xpressmusic-mobile-phone.phtml

Nokia 6131i With Near Field Communication Technology

Big deal, right? It's just another flip phone with a rather standard set of features? Wrong! The Nokia 6131i is pretty darn special, because it is the world's first business mobile phone integrated with Near Field Communication technology.

Set for launch in China ( Xiamen, Guangzhou and Beijing), the Nokia 6131i can use its Near Field Communication (NFC) technology to make, as you can probably guess, close-range data transfers. This can be used for beaming media files, making secure mobile payments, or whatever else you're little heart can dream of. NFC operates at 13.56MHz, beaming 1s and 0s over at rates as high as 424kbps. The communication between compatible devices is said to be intuitive, simple, and safe.

In order to initiate the connection, simply wave or touch the two items together (they must be within 4cm of one another). After that, communication can continue through Bluetooth or WiFi as well.

Source:http://news.trend.az/cgi-bin/readnews2.pl?newsId=985319&lang=EN

LG Viewty 5 MP Touchscreen Camera Phone Launched

LG has unveiled its latest professional-level featured camera handset, called the LG Viewty. The sleek touchscreen mobile phone is also known as LG KU990.

The first feature-oriented handset sports 5.1 megapixel camera, manual focus and image stabilizer, 3-inch touch screen with the engine of Mobile XD. It has the combination of amazing functionality and style. Viewty has the ability to click high-quality images.

This is not it, the camera phone offers ultimate editing features that allow the consumer to modify or enhance the photographs of their choice. It also comes with HSDPA-enhanced 3G broadband data capabilities.

Dr. Skott Ahn, CEO of LG Mobile, comments “This is a very exciting time for us. The LG Black Label Series and our collaboration with PRADA have cemented our position as an innovator in design and style. With the launch of the new LG Viewty we are now also proving our commitment to technical enhancement and look forward to taking the feature phone category by storm.”

Moreover, KU990 mobile phone provides the world’s first 120 fps video recording feature. Users can also connect their camera mobile phone to YouTube through just-one-click. This helps the owner to share their videos with others on Internet.

The LG Viewty will hit UK stores later this year. LG is planning to reveal the KU990 during IFA 2007 in Berlin on August 31, 2007.

Source:http://www.techgadgets.in/mobile-phones/

LG Chocolate VX8550 mobile phone

The LG Chocolate VX8550, available in the US from Verizon for $250 - £125 - with a two-year contract, eschews a button-oriented navigational ring for a navigational wheel. We found the LG VX8550's wheel a mixed blessing. It simplifies navigation in some menus, but makes it more onerous in others. Sometimes it's easier to press the wheel like a four-way button to navigate up/down and left/right. The top half of the LG Chocolate VX8550 slides upward to reveal the phone's keypad. LG has added an extra row of buttons at the top of the keypad, for send, camera, and end/power. To use the phone for functions such as playing music, though, you have to push up the slider first so you can power the phone up. The LG VX8550's standard 3.5mm headphone jack is a welcome feature; and a new microSD card slot, protected by a sturdy cover, can handle 4GB high-capacity cards. Otherwise, much remains the same in the LG Chocolate VX8550 as it was in previous LG Chocolate phones. A 240x320-pixel, 11-line display with 262,000 colours; a 1.9GHz CDMA PCS, 800-MHz CDMA (Digital Dual-Band) radio; high-speed EvDO support; a surprisingly capable 1.3Mp camera/camcorder with serious shutter lag; and stereo Bluetooth. The phone supports web-based email and instant messaging. The LG VX8550 sounded clear in our informal tests, even under windy conditions on a local street corner. The LG Chocolate VX8550's four capacitive touch buttons include a dedicated speakerphone, which the first Chocolate lacked. Audio sounded clear in our informal tests. In our formal talk-time battery tests, the LG Chocolate VX8550 lasted five hours, 12 minutes - nearly twice as long as the first LG Chocolate. On the back of the LG Chocolate VX8550, you'll find its speakers. Sliding the phone upward reveals its 1.3Mp camera and camcorder. In the US, the included V Cast Music service charges $1.99 and up for music downloads from Verizon. You'll also get charged for airtime minutes for the download, unless you step up to the VPak music and video service, at $15 per month. As yet there's no word on when the LG Chocolate VX8550 will launch in the UK.

Source:http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/reviews/index.cfm?reviewid=1147

Nokia 6120 classic

Nokia could be causing a bit of a problem for itself in that its mid range consumer focussed phones are often very, very good, while its higher end more expensive ones can be a bit iffy.
Sometimes there are exceptions. I wasn't a fan of the low-to-mid range 7373, but in recent months the 3110 classic and the 6300 have both shown themselves to be lovely little mobiles. Meanwhile, two of its flagship handsets; the N76 and the N95 have both left me rather nonplussed.

What this does for Nokia's confidence at the higher end of the consumer market and for its profit margins are not for me to speculate on here, but from the point of view of the consumer looking for a good deal and a small, friendly but highly capable Nokia handset, arguably things have never looked better.

Take the new 6120 classic for example. This is a quad-band mobile with 3G and HSDPA support, is based on the S60 platform, and comes with the cable and software you'll need to synchronise diary and contacts with a PC.

Yet it is available from free on some pretty affordable contracts - as low as £15 for 18 months on 3, for example (Orange listed it as ‘coming soon' with no pricing at the time of writing). I don't have a SIM free price from the Nokia online store at the moment, but it is likely to be relatively affordable, and is a sign that the smartphone, done Nokia style, really does come within everyday grasp.

Top that off with the following: this is a simple looking candybar mobile with no swivels, twists, or other fancy, geeky gizmos. The shiny black and sliver livery of my review sample is understated and appealing. At 89g I think it must be the lightest S60 handset I've ever come across. At 105 x 46 x 15mm it is small for the hand and pocket.

After that little lot you might expect me to end up absolutely gushing about this mobile. That isn't the case, however, and I do have some grumbles.

While the screen displays 320 x 240 pixels and 16 million colours is somewhat small for serious smartphone usage. Reading email and web browsing are both activities that benefit from a larger screen.

Source:http://www.trustedreviews.com/

Samsung launches HSDPA slider phone

DUBAI — Samsung Gulf Electronics said its regional sales increase of 30 per cent during the first half of 2007 surpassed the market growth rate of 26 per cent.

Unveiling its new mobile phone — Samsung U700 — the world's slimmest HSDPA slider style phone, Sandeep Saihgal, general manager, Samsung Telecommunication Division, said the Korean brand was on track to sustain the trend for the whole of 2007.

Samsung U700, which is now available in all major electronics outlets across the Middle East and is retailed at Dh1699, comes with an advanced 3.5G HSDPA technology which allows the user to enjoy a high download speed. "The 3G technology provides a high-speed wireless mobile broadband internet access. "Due to the growing demand of 3G enabled phones, Samsung is paving its way to the forefront of HSDPA technology. We are certain that the new U700 will mark a great advancement in the HSDPA platform," said Saighal.

The new phone has a mirror-like coating surrounding the 2.2-inch LCD screen which adds a modern polished finish. The screen displays 262,000 colours with a resolution of 240x320 pixels. Its connectivity options include a USB 2.0 cabled connection and Bluetooth 2.0 wireless connection to maximise the speed of HSDPA technology.
Source:http://www.khaleejtimes.com/

Sony Ericsson Mobile Phones

Sony Ericsson is one of the largest mobile manufacturing companies in the world satisfying the mobile needs and requirements of millions of people globally. In the last couple of years, the company has unveiled several high end mobile phones with a plethora of features. Be it clamshells, sliders or simple candybars, Sony Ericsson have shown its worth in every segment. A big point for the growing popularity of the Sony Ericsson mobile phones is that these handsets smoothly back up as your personal music players, cameras, gaming devices, mini computer for web browsing and so on.

Sony Ericsson shot up to instant fame with its launch of K-Series range of handsets. Although the initially released K-Series phones were not that much feature rich, yet they served as a true precursor to the present day mobile scenario. Just see the latest K-Series handsets like Sony Ericsson K850i, K550i, K550im, K610i, K750i, K790i, K800i and K810i -all these phones are equipped with almost all the latest and high end features that a modern mobile phone is expected to carry.

If music calls you and you want to explore it, then there is no better tool than the Sony Ericsson mobile phones to satisfy your musical inside. Sony Ericsson proudly showcases an exquisite series of mobile handsets with stupendous musical potential in the form of swanky Walkman series. These Walkman Series phones like Sony Ericsson W580i Grey, W550i, W810i, W830i, W850i, W880i, etc. have showered the music lovers with superb musical effects. Just turn them on, you are all set to groove into the beat.

Sony Ericsson has also incorporated the revolutionary Cyber Shot camera feature in some of its K-Series mobile phones. Now you can take nine continuous snaps and then select the one that you like-isn't that a great advantage for those photo lovers. Sony Ericsson mobile phones are great in connectivity as well as other important features like memory space and web access. And the best thing is that all these phones now can be purchased online with attractive mobile phone deals like contract phone deals and pay as you go mobile phone deals. Sony Ericsson sim free mobile phones are also easily available on the web for you.

Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/cell-phones-articles/sony-ericsson-mobile-phones-technology-marries-functionality-192281.html

Nokia 6275i mobile phone

Nokia 6275i mobile phone : Nokia and Leap Wireless International, a leading provider of innovative and value-driven wireless communications services, announced the availability of the Nokia 6275i handset, a slim candy-bar phone for Cricket customers. "We are very pleased to offer this sleek, classically designed Nokia handset to our Cricket customers," said Al Moschner, Leap's executive vice president, sales and marketing operations. "The Nokia 6275i offers state-of-the art technology that will help our customers take full advantage of Cricket's unlimited value. The handset also has a rich feature set, and is the perfect complement to Cricket's affordable wireless service that doesn't require credit checks or long-term commitments."

Nokia 6275i mobile phone
Ideal for efficient, hassle free communications, the Nokia 6275i phone has a user-friendly Nokia menu structure, animated wallpapers and screensavers and picture-enabled caller ID. The Nokia 6275i phone also features a high-resolution, 2.0 megapixel camera with digital zoom and flash, integrated FM radio and MP3 stereo, 21MB of on-board memory for user data, and flexible connectivity via USB, infrared or Bluetooth. "The Nokia 6275i phone is a powerful communications device wrapped in a compelling package for consumers," said Dirk Williamson, Vice President Sales, Nokia Mobile Phones, North America. "We are excited about the opportunity to make this new handset available to Cricket's dynamic subscriber base."

Nokia 6275i mobile phone - Price & Availability
The Nokia 6275i phone is also compatible with Cricket's nationwide roaming service, and is Java capable for downloadable wallpapers, screensavers, games and ringtones directly over the air to add to those already included on the phone. The Nokia 6275i measures 4.29 x 1.68 x 0.677 inches and weighs 3.7 ounces-with digital talk time up to 4 hours and standby time up to 10 days. The Nokia 6275i phone is available at select Cricket retail stores and Cricket dealers immediately for $199.99.

About Nokia
Nokia is the world leader in mobility, driving the transformation and growth of the converging Internet and communications industries. Nokia makes a wide range of mobile phone devices and provides people with experiences in music, navigation, video, television, imaging, games and business mobility through these devices. Nokia also provides equipment, solutions and services for communications networks.

Source:http://www.letsgodigital.org/en/15472/nokia-6275i/

HTC Touch multimedia smartphone

With a touch screen and gesture controls, the HTC Touch has some obvious similarities to other recent phones. Is it a Windows Mobile phone worth getting your hands on?

For many recent phone releases, comparisons to the Apple iPhone seem irresistible, even when misplaced. The HTC Touch, however, was launched in the build-up to the iPhone release, and features a touch sensitive interface, complete with gestures, laid on top of Windows Mobile 6. Besides iPhone comparisons, the Touch is a strange beast in the Windows Mobile world, as versions of the OS exist for phones with no touch screen, or touch screens with no phone, but not for a phone with a touch screen but no keyboard. Of course, everything works, thanks to the stylus and pop-up onscreen keyboard. Still, it was hard to tell when problems with the touch were due to design problems from HTC, or just the general weakness of Windows Mobile 6 in dealing with a keyboard-free phone experience.

Design – Good

It is a cute phone. Openly codenamed the "Elf," before its recent touch overhaul, the phone is smaller than either the Apple iPhone, or the LG KE850 Prada phone. The 2.8-inch QVGA display looks very sharp, though fonts can appear a bit jagged. The phone has a five-way button centered below the screen, and to tiny green and red "send" and "end" buttons. The red also acts as a Windows "OK" button. The screen has a very resistant glass cover that stretches well past the lit pixels. In fact, the gesture to activate TouchFlo, HTC's touch-sensitive Today screen, relies on dragging your finger from below the LCD, which took us quite a few tries to figure out.

Which brings us to the touch screen. Though it looks great, it seriously lacks in sensitivity, especially compared to the iPhone. Whether this is due to the screen's hardware, the phone's processor, or Windows Mobile 6 is beyond us. We just found the screen to lack sensitivity in every area, from activating TouchFlo to navigating windows to working with programs. Occasionally, there was a delay in responding to our presses, and often we had to press firmly to get a response. TouchFlo, which is supposed to jump to life at an upwards swipe, and switch between screens with sideways gestures, almost never worked properly. We usually had to swipe sideways seven or eight times to get the screen to rotate and change. Downward swiping to close TouchFlo never once worked.

And then, beneath every slick icon and menu on TouchFlo's surface, you find Windows Mobile 6, which is a functional OS, but a graphical letdown. The onscreen keyboard is the standard pop-up from Windows Mobile, which requires you to break out the stylus, a very un-touch-like procedure. Navigating the phone without a stylus, except for the few functions available on TouchFlo, was impossible. Thankfully, HTC has ported their activity monitor drop down menu to the Touch. We first saw this feature on the T-Mobile Wing, and immediately found it indispensable on Windows Mobile. Basically, it lets you close active programs from the Today screen, which is nice because WM6 lets open software pile up, and the Touch lacks the RAM to deal with a heavy workload.

Calling – Very good

Calls on the HTC Touch sounded very good on AT&T's network in central New Jersey. The Touch loses nothing from Windows Mobile 6's calling features, and speaker-independent voice dialing, Bluetooth, conference calling and a speakerphone are all included. There was no dedicated button for voice dialing, but HTC's Today screen allows you to assign programs top-level icons, which solved the problem. Unfortunately, one of the best Windows Mobile 6 features, live search, is hobbled by the Touch's keyboard-less design. Live search allows you to begin typing in many programs and returns search results as you type. From the Today screen, this usually means you can start typing a name and get the number quickly. The Touch doesn't offer a keyboard on the Today screen, so the feature is lost. On the TouchFlo screens, the contact list is easily the coolest looking feature. Basically a "Hollywood Squares" grid of your favorite faces, the contacts screen offers a great, fun alternative to speed dial, and is a feature that takes advantage of the touch sensitive screen in a cool way.

Messaging – Mediocre

There are simply better choices for phones if you want to type. Typing on the Touch, however, is miserable. The phone does an excellent job displaying messages, and thanks to Windows Mobile 6, you get threaded SMS conversations and HTML e-mails, both of which were long-awaited. Still, if you have to reply to an e-mail in more than a few words, you're going to want to wait until you're back in front of the desktop, as tapping out letters on the Touch's tiny, boxy keyboard gets tiresome quickly. Windows Live brings MSN messenger support, but other IM protocols are lacking. Probably for the best, as we can't stress enough that the Touch should be a read-only affair.

Productivity – Mediocre

The HTC Touch isn't lacking any of Windows Mobile 6's excellent productivity tools, they simply aren't as usable on the device without a keyboard. You get the full Office Mobile suite, but we can't see using the device for creating, or even seriously editing, a document, though reading worked very well. For scheduling, you get the standard Outlook calendars, which pack robust features, but again, you probably won't find yourself creating too many appointments on the Touch, thanks to its lack of keys.

Multimedia – Very good

To improve on Windows Media Player, HTC has added the Audio Manager app, which basically acts as a music player with large buttons, to facilitate using it on the touch screen. Otherwise, the phone has all the synchronization options you'd expect on a standard WM6 device, and can play all the usual file formats. The touch screen isn't really sensitive enough for good shuttle controls, and of course the Windows Mobile software lacks the visual flourish of numerous competitors. Still, it gets the job done.

The same can be said of the Web browsing experience. Though Internet Explorer is just as capable as we've seen on any WM6 phone, scrolling through pages on the touch screen was not smooth. Occasionally, we'd get a grab-and-throw sort of action like we saw on the iPhone. Some times, though, only the scroll bars worked properly, and these were small enough that our fingers had trouble tapping them accurately. Also, we wish HTC would have tied zooming into the touch features, as Apple did.

Getting one

The Touch is available unlocked, and will work with local EDGE networks. Even better, the phone uses Wi-Fi, so internet access won't be hard to find. We found our review unit through Dynamism, at Mobile Phone Shop. At the moment, Dynamism can get one for you for $530, with a lead time of less than a week. We've had no technical problems with our review unit, but Dynamism stresses their lifetime customer service if you have any problems with your device.
Source:http://www.infosyncworld.com/

A touch of convenience

For anyone eyeing Apple's iPhone in this part of the world, HTC's Touch is the only game in town so far. We get a feel for it and wonder if it'll leave us hungry for more.

Under its new HTC banner, the former Dopod company has just released the Touch, a Pocket PC phone that tries to be a little different from the rest.

What makes the Touch different is that HTC has redesigned the usual Pocket PC interface to be a little more finger-navigation friendly.

This means that comparisons to the also just-released Apple iPhone, which shares a similar finger-centric design, are inevitable.

It might actually be a coincidence actually, since product development cycles are such that it would be next to impossible to design and ship a product like the Touch from the date of the iPhone announcement.

However, as we'll see in the review, finger navigation is where the similarity ends, since the implementation of the interface in the Touch is completely different from the iPhone's.

Also, both products have a completely different operating system from each other.

Touch me

Setting aside the interface enhancements for the moment, I have to say that the Touch is a very pretty device – it's very small (smaller than any Pocket PC that I can think of) and so thin that it is slimmer than most candybar-style cellphones.

Then there's the finish. The Touch comes with the silky, matte-black finish found on Motorola's RAZR phones, which means you can not only get a good, non-slip grip on it, but it is also a hard-wearing finish that can withstand scratches.

The other thing you'll probably notice is that unlike most Pocket PCs, the Touch's screen is flush with the rest of the body.

This makes it easier for fingertip navigation since your finger is never stopped by a raised bezel on the side of the screen when swiping, but this also means that the screen is pretty much unprotected if the phone ever falls to the ground.

Look closer and you'll be forgiven for thinking that the Touch doesn't have a memory card slot – actually it does but you first have to slide off the battery cover at the back, then open a silver door on the side of the device to access the MicroSD card slot.

It is a bit of a hassle, but thankfully you don't have to turn off the Touch to gain access to the memory card slot.

Source:http://star-techcentral.com

The Nokia N95 and ultra convergence

Ultra convergence, as exemplified in the Nokia N95, is a topic I've commented on in the past, and not always in a positive way. Read on for some thoughts on the recent v12 firmware upgrade and a link to a very relevant essay...


The story so far: the Nokia N95 gets released, with v10 firmware and, while everyone applauds the sheer wonderfulness of the hardware, there are problems. The battery life is very disappointing, there are a number of serious camera bugs, GPS lock took an eternity, the limited RAM impinges on almost everything you try and do, from zooming into an image to using Web, I could go on.

The result was that I used the N95 for a short while and then got frustrated, switching to a less complicated smartphone, the E70 (which itself has had a bit of a chequered firmware history, but that's another story!)

Ah. A month later, v11 firmware appears on Nokia Software Updater and I upgraded in and instant and tried using it day-to-day. Not bad, RAM use seemed better, crashes were less frequent, but the GPS was still very slow and some camera bugs remained. The N95 got shelved once again, while I played with the E90 (something of a Nseries to Eseries theme seems to be developing here....)

Another month goes by and v12 appears. With Assisted GPS, with the N95 using a data connection to bring down the time taken to find the satellites, to great success. And even RAM usage seems a lot better, with terrific image zooming and Web use with almost no memory limits. And the camera 'sharpness' bug was finally fixed, hoorah.

Unfortunately, new bugs have crept in. There's now a hugely annoying missing-keypress bug, in which one in every couple of dozen keypresses gets err... 'missed' by the OS. And doing 'Search by category' inside Nokia Maps causes the phone to restart. Just as bad, I was using the camera last night to take some video at my daughter's school open day and, ten minutes after finishing shooting, the N95 was still very warm, symptomatic of some software process inside the device that's still running flat out, with the battery seemingly having gone from full to one bar inside half an hour, I've seen this sort of behaviour before on my old N93. Removing and reinserting the battery seemed to do the trick, with the phone obviously now returning to normal temperature and even showing three bars of battery left now that the rogue processor load wasn't present.

So, reluctantly, for the third time I've had to set the N95 aside, yet again for an Eseries device(!), this time the E61i.

Which is the one I picked in this week's hardware consensus article, if only because it's a one piece design that's virtually bulletproof and none of its features are so cutting edge (read N95-alike) that they're still immature.

You'll remember that I bemoaned the complexity of modern smartphones (and yes, even the new iPhone reportedly crashes quite a bit) in 'The way of the modern world', six months ago, in which I tried to rationalise the way that modern devices are now so complex that they can't be expected to work perfectly 100% of the time. Although at the time I was referring to the N93 as my main example, the same essay holds true today for the Nokia N95.
resource:http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/news/item/5579_The_Nokia_N95_and_ultra_conver.php

Top Ten Motorola Mobile Phone Accessories

Music and multimedia phones like the Motorola Q, Samsung Blackjack, BlackBerry Pearl and LG Chocolate require more power and memory than traditional cell phones, which is driving our memory card, charger and extended battery business.

The emergence of certain wireless innovations like A2DP Bluetooth is also driving interest in newer accessory technology, like stereo headsets and high-performance batteries specifically designed to support the significant processing power found in the new smartphones.

list of Top Ten Cell Phone Accessories this summer:

1. Motorola H350 Bluetooth Headset (all colors)

2. Car and Travel Chargers (particularly for RAZR, BlackBerry Pearl, LG Chocolate and Samsung Blackjack)

3. Cases and Holsters (particularly for RAZR, BlackBerry Pearl, LG Chocolate and Samsung Blackjack)

4. Jabra BT125 Bluetooth Headset

5. Kingston 1GB Micro SD Memory Cards

6. Anycom Aris-21 Bluetooth Headset

7. Motorola H500 (Project Red)

8. Motorola Mobile Phone Tools 4.0 Software

9. Seidio High-Performance Extended Capacity Batteries (for Treo, BlackBerry and other smartphone devices)

10. Wi-Ex zBoost Wireless Signal Boosters

The appearance of Motorola's Mobile Phone Tools 4.0 on the top ten list indicates a change in the way cell phone users view their phones. In offering a powerful synchronization solution, Mobile Phone Tools is perfect for people who store entire address books, calendars and other personal information on their cell phones, and consistently send data from PC to cell phone, or vice versa. Also, many phones now come with A2DP Bluetooth, which means they stream stereo sound to Bluetooth Stereo headphones. Customers that take advantage of these phones and headphones can listen to their music without a cord.

The Messiah phone cometh

Andrew Lim previews Apple's 'revolutionary' iPhone handset

This week Apple's highly anticipated iPhone will hit US shops, arriving in Europe at the end of the year. Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO, announced the 'revolutionary' handset back in January at the Macworld Conference & Expo. Ever since its unveiling the iPhone has generated an unprecedented level of media coverage for a mobile phone, impressively picking up nicknames such as the Messiah phone, the Jesus phone and even the God phone.

To the uninitiated it may all seem a little over the top but Apple claims to have ‘reinvented the phone' and given its pedigree and Steve Jobs' eye for detail, the iPhone could indeed be the phone that everyone's been waiting for. It combines Internet, music, telephony and video access with a large 3.5-inch colour touchscreen, in an attractive package that looks like it will fit in well with the rest of Apple's trendy product portfolio.

Unlike any mobile phone touchscreen you may have used before, the iPhone's touchscreen is far more finger-friendly, letting you tap it, brush it sideways and simultaneously touch it with two fingers, expanding or contracting images using a pinching motion. Turn the screen on its side and it automatically changes the screens layout from portrait to landscape, which is particularly useful when you want to view content in widescreen.

While the majority of mobile phones claim to have music players, Web browsers and other similarly useful apps, the iPhone appears to deliver on this promise. The on-board iPod app, for example, which you can listen to using a standard pair of headphones, has all the features associated with a standalone iPod but integrates iTunes' Cover Flow feature, and lets you search through tracks by flicking your finger up and down an album or track list on the screen.

Mobile phone users have traditionally used WAP sites. These are typically ugly and useless stripped-down versions of real websites. Even those with a more advanced phone are still forced to stare at a small portion of a full sized page, scrolling around a site as if peering at it through a tiny peep-hole. Apple have gone some way to changing this. The Safari browser displays the whole page at a reduced size and lets you zoom in on the bits you want to see properly by tapping the screen. Safari on the iPhone also supports Web 2.0 apps, although none have been officially announced yet.

Other noteworthy applications include Google Maps that lets you find directions and obtain location based information. If the iPhone has a 'killer app', it may be YouTube. Given how popular the video hosting site is and how good the videos look on the iPhone's large screen, Apple may find that 'Tube-addicts' lap this product up. If you want to send a friend a link to a funny video, then you can do it via the iPhone's email client. The email client supports POP3 and IMAP accounts, including Google Mail and Yahoo.

Let us not forget that this is also a mobile phone and compared to other phones it offers some pretty impressive services. The user interface is geared towards making calling and messaging straightforward. There's the option to set up a favourite contacts list, giving you quick access to your nearest and dearest. Conference calling is a cinch and you can go through your voicemails in a list format, selecting the specific one you want to listen to rather than have to listen to them all.

Add to all the above, 8GB (or 4GB depending on what model you buy) worth of on-board memory that can store up to 2000 songs, Wi-Fi connectivity, a snazzy docking station and a pair of headphones that lets you listen to music and make or receive calls, and what you have is a very impressive device indeed. But every silver lining has a cloud and many sceptics have pointed out a few flaws with the messiah phone that could possibly see it tumble from the heavens.

For starters, touchscreens can be fiddly to use and don't provide the reassuring tactile feedback you get from mechanical keys. There have also been murmurs about the 3.5-inch widescreen display getting scratched and phone geeks are angry about the piddly 2-megapixel camera, the relatively large design, the lack of 3G connectivity and FM radio and the hefty price tag that stands at £250 for the 4GB model and £300 for the 8GB model, not including network charges.

Battery life has also been vigorously questioned, particularly since the iPhone aims to be everything to everyone. If you listen to a couple of hours worth of music during your daily commute, make phone calls throughout the day and watch YouTube videos in the evening while you sip a pint with your mates, then how long is the battery life really going to last?

In an attempt to appease any pre-launch doubts, Apple recently released a tour-guide-style video on its site that shows how easy the touchscreen is to use, and announced that the display will be protected by optical-quality glass, which should lessen the chances of it getting defiled. They have also put up a battery life chart that shows the iPhone's battery life supersede that of several major competitors and expressed confidence that their pricing plan is fair, comparing any raised eyebrows with the reaction to early iPod price plans.

As for the other issues, there are rumours that a 3G model will be available by the time the iPhone reaches the UK but unfortunately, no word on an FM radio or improvements on the camera. Regarding the iPhone's size, speculation is rife that Apple has already designed a nano version of the iPhone, which will be made available possibly some time next year.

Whether or not any of these potential problems get in the way of Apple taking over the mobile phone market, as they did the MP3 player market, has yet to be seen. If there are any major problems with the iPhone, people and in particular journalists will be quick to raise the alarm. But if the iPhone fails it won't break Apple, it will just tarnish its clean and fresh image. Judging by how excited people have got over a product they have never seen in the flesh, the Messiah phone should find itself rich in disciples.

Source:http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Motorola Introduces The Vista Of Music In Mobile Handsets

Motorola, Inc. the renowned frontrunner in wireless and broadband communications and also the mobile sponsor at the Music Matters 2007 forum in Hong Kong today announced here of a key upgradation to its motomusic.com.cn portal. It has been found giving an open call to an assortment of leaders of the music business to join with Motorola and mobile network operators around Asia for the creation of a music renaissance.

Motorola is renowned throughout the world for its innovative techniques and leadership in wireless and broadband communications. Being inspired by the vision of Seamless Mobility, the name of Motorola has become synonymous to get and stay connected simply and seamlessly to the people, information, and entertainment. The company excels in this by designing and delivering "must have" products, "must do" experiences, and powerful networks -- along with a full complement of support services.

The announcement of its new ROKR brand of music-optimized handsets and accessories and highlighted by the powerful ROKR Z6 was followed by the announcement of its upgradation and expansion of its online entertainment portal. It has come to the knowledge that the MOTOMusic site in Mainland China is at present offering over 100,000 music tracks for the sake of purchase and download while making safe the portal's position as the one of the most important online commercial music services in the entire country.

Speaking on the occasion to the Press gathering Michael Tatelman, the Corporate Vice President and President of Motorola Asia Pacific Mobile Devices said, "In the face of the changes that digitization has wrought on the music industry, we must work together to create new ways to experience the music we all love, ways that are relevant to the way Asians live today." "Making that happen is going to take more than outstanding mobile devices – it demands that manufacturers, operators, artists, labels, and service providers share a vision that recognizes that the future of music is mobile, and that we must make mobile music even better than the music experiences we grew up with, " he added.

From the official sources it is revealed, that Motorola's accomplishment in the delivery of an impeccably integrated music experience is indebted at best to the work the company has undertaken for the building of a comprehensive mobile music ecosystem.
Source:http://www.wallstreetactivist.com/motorola/motorola_introduces_the_vista_of_music_in_mobile_handsets_20070607_164_121.html

Big Brother Mobile Phone: Samsung u600

After seeing this phone a few times on big brother 8 I am left wondering “What Features does the Samsung U600 have?“, well as this has been the main phone on all big brother 8 advertisements I thought we best give it a mention.

On the 25th of May Phones Review reported that the Samsung U600 Ultra Edition II is the number one top seller in the UK which knocked the Nokia N95 of the top spot.

Now with the heavy promotion of the Samsung U600 mobile phone on Big Brother 8 this phone is just going to get more popular.

Samsung U600 Features Include:

* Up to 3 hours 30 minutes talk time
* Up to 250 hours standby time
* Yahoo search, Business card recognition, Organizer, Document viewer (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF) plus Voice memo and Built-in hands free
* FM radio, Java MIDP 2.0, T9
* MP3/AAC/eACC/WMA player
* 2.2 Inch TFT, 256K colors - 240 x 320 pixels Display
* GPRS, EDGE, Bluetooth with A2DP and USB
* 3.2 MegaPixel Camera with 2048×1536 pixels
* 81 Grams - 103.5 x 49.3 x 10.9 mm
* microSD (TransFlash) Card Slot

Source:http://www.product-reviews.net/2007/06/08/big-brother-mobile-phone-samsung-u600/

Nokia Launches Three New Phones

Beyond the fashionable surface attributes of the Nokia 8600 Luna, the new handset offers several useful features, including a micro-USB port that enables charging, audio, and data connectivity through one connection. In addition, the Nokia 8600 Luna offers quad-band GSM, EDGE, GPRS, and HSCSD, as well as a 2-megapixel camera.

Mobile phone Nokia maker added a moon goddess, a slider, and a classic to its lineup on Thursday. One model, the 8600 Luna, is a high-priced, stainless-steel-and-glass "fashion phone," and the other two, the 6500 classic and the 6500 slide, are intended for the midrange of the market.

Using language more often employed to sell a hot new sports car, Nokia describes the 8600 Luna as having a "mysterious allure." Beneath a semi-opaque smoked glass case, "a gentle keypad illumination pulsates" like a "heartbeat" as this "organic, virtually alive form" waits for a call.

Nokia Senior Vice President Heikki Norta said that the company had an "obsession" for every detail in this device. "We took painstaking effort to ensure that the experience delivered by every surface -- from the smoothness of glass against the face to the warmth of the stainless steel in the palm to the superior tactile feedback of the keypad -- would surpass any and all expectation."

Nokia's Fashion Statement

Beyond the surface attributes that Nokia compares favorably to its namesake, the Roman goddess of moonlight, the Luna offers several useful features, including a micro-USB port that enables charging, audio, and data connectivity through one connection. There is support for quad-band GSM, EDGE, GPRS, and HSCSD, as well as video-recording capabilities, a music player, and a 2-megapixel camera.

The cell phone is "the most personal of personal technologies," said Avi Greengart, an analyst with industry research firm Current Analysis. "You carry it with you all the time, so manufacturers can differentiate it primarily on the basis of fashion." He compared the mobile world to the car industry, where, once users could assume all cars had the ability to provide basic transportation, differences emerged and purchase decisions were often driven on the basis of style.

"Nokia has done extraordinarily well with the fashion phone," he noted, "especially in Asia." Greengart said that the U.S. market, in contrast, is dominated by the carriers, and the carriers don't generally offer fashion phones.

Greengart noted that the Luna is the successor to Nokia's 8800 series, which has sold "well over a million units." In contrast, he said that Motorola started with the fashionable Razr and "turned it into a volume play" by lowering the price. But now, he suggested, Motorola is left "with no fashion phone" because the Razr price is so low and the model is so widely accessible.

Classic and Slider Phones

The other two new Nokia phones, the 6500 classic and 6500 slide, are being touted by Nokia as having been created "with maximum usability in mind." They feature large keys, "ergonomically correct dimensions and surfaces," and WCDMA technology.

The 6500 classic offers a seamless case of anodized aluminum, dual-band 3G for fast connectivity, quad-band GSM for roaming worldwide, a 2-megapixel camera with dual LED flash, a music player, a micro-USB connector, and 1 GB of memory.

In the 6500 slide, a 3.2-megapixel camera is equipped with Carl Zeiss optics, dual LED flash, and 8x digital zoom. A TV-out jack enables images or video to be seen on any TV set with RCA inputs.

The 8600 Luna is expected to go on sale in the second quarter for 700 euros (or about $940), with the 6500 slide and classic following in the third quarter. The classic will be about 320 euros ($430) and the slider about 370 euros ($500).

Source:http://www.sci-tech-today.com/news/Nokia-Launches-Three-New-Phones/story.xhtml?story_id=00100040PGOA

Nokia updates E-series

Nokia updated their E-series mobile phone series with three new models, the E65, E61i and nokia E90, all of which feature Nokia's Series 60 interface, based on the Symbian operating system.

According to Nokia, the new series is supposed to bring a "life-work balance" by offering mobile office applications for business users as well as being multimedia capable for entertainment.

The most conventionally designed of the three is the E65, which is a slim slider-style phone with a regular alphanumeric keypad.

On the hardware side, the E65 is quad-band with GSM/3G/EDGE/GPRS, comes with a 2-megapixel camera, Bluetooth, WiFi and a QVGA (240 x 320pixels) screen.

Included applications for business include document viewers and the ability to synchronise contacts and calendar events with your desktop PC.

For those who prefer a more Black berry type experience, the E61i, with its Qwerty style thumb keyboard would be it.

The E61i is sleeker and slimmer than its predecessor, and comes with almost the same features as the E65 (Bluetooth, WiFi, quadband, 3G/EDGE/GPRS and a 2-megapixel camera) except with a more e-mail-centric design and interface.

The most major revamp in the Nokia E-series range is the E90 Communicator, which is the successor to the venerable 9000-series Communicator phones.

The list of changes in the E90 over its predecessor is long. — the phone is quad-band but also comes with high-speed HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) support in addition to regular 3G/EDGE/GPRS, WiFi, a 3.2-megapixel main camera with a real xenon flash, mobile office applications and a built-in GPS receiver with mapping software.

The E90 still shares the same basic flip-out design with a large built-in Qwerty keyboard as the phones it replaces, but now comes with a 240 x 320pixels external display and a huge 800 x 352pixels internal display for a vastly improved surfing and mobile office experience.

All the phones are available in a choice of two colours — mocha or dark red — except for the E61i, which is only available in mocha.

The Nokia E65 and nokia E61i are available now at a retail price of RM1,799 each while the E90 Communicator is slated for release at the end of June.

No price has been set for the E90 as yet.

Resource:http://star-techcentral.com/tech/story.asp?file=/2007/5/21/prodit/20070521112427&sec=prodit

Specs War! Motorola RAZR 2 vs Nokia N95 vs Apple iPhone

So, you’ve heard about Motorola’s announcement of the RAZR 2 handset, and you’ve hopefully read our initial take on the device. But how does it compare to its major rivals? Read on to see how Moto’s slimline new phone stacks up against two of the most-hyped competing handsets: Nokia’s N95 and Apple’s iPhone.

Design
Motorola has kept faith with the original RAZR design for the new edition, albeit making it 2mm thinner (and it was already mighty slim). The clamshell design feels a bit old hat now, mind.

Meanwhile, Nokia’s N95 boasts a more startling two-way sliding design, with music buttons popping out of the top, and a regular mobile keypad sliding out from the bottom. It’s sleek, although will still make a bulge in your pocket.

Lastly, the iPhone... well, it’ll have Apple fans in raptures over its slinky feel and tactile touch-screen interface, although the unconverted will point out that it’s still a hefty size.
Source:http://techdigest.tv/2007/05/specs_war_motor.html

Nokia first to offer energy-saving alerts on mobile phones

Nokia Corp. announced the first mobile phones that feature energy-saving alerts to encourage consumers to unplug the charger once the battery is full.

Starting with the new Nokia 1200, 1208 and 1650, the alerts will be rolled out across the company product range, in a move that could save enough electricity to power 85, 000 homes a year.

"Around two-thirds of the energy used by a mobile phone is lost when it is unplugged after charging but the charger itself is left in a live socket," said Kirsi Sormunen, VP of environmental affairs at Nokia. "We want to reduce this waste and are working on reducing to an absolute minimum the amount of energy our chargers use. The new alerts also play an important role, encouraging people to help us in this goal by unplugging their chargers."

The alerts are one of a series of environmental initiatives that mobile manufacturers, led by Nokia, agreed to take action on this year. The Finnish company is the first of these manufacturers to implement the alerts into its products. The new models are targeting high volumes of sales in fast growing markets like India, China and Latin America.

The alerts are the latest in a series of energy-saving initiatives from Nokia. Last year, the company's newest range of chargers was awarded an Energy Star by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the United States for their energy efficiency. The chargers, in use since 2005, exceed the EPA standards by using 50-70 percent less energy than the Energy Star requirement, and also meet the European Union standards.

The company has set ambitious goals to further reduce the energy consumption of its chargers. By 2010, it aims to have reduced by an additional 50 percent the amount of electricity a charger consumes while still plugged into the mains but not the phone.

Recently, major companies announced plans to become more environment-friendly. Apple's Steve Jobs detailed plans for a 'greener' Apple, while IBM Corp. disclosed plans to make its data centers more energy efficient.

Source : http://www.eetasia.com/ART_8800464282_765245_93f23862200705_no.HTM