Mobile Devices - Page 193

Things are certainly very hot and steamy on the mobile front with no signs of slowing down.

Nokia has just announced an update to its funky N810 Internet Tablet mobile device. It is a device to get Internet access pretty much anywhere with 4.13-inch touchscreen, slide-out QWERTY keyboard, built-in webcam for video calls, Mozilla-powered browser, integrated GPS / media player, 2GB of internal memory and a microSD expansion slot.

The last few days have seen an increasing number of articles hinting that Apple is close to releasing a new iPhone model, either to replace the current one, or as a high-end version of the current one. Those rumors are all because NAND memory manufacturers have received a large order from Apple. You can read more about it here or here.

Nokia's N95 enjoyed a massive amount of fanfare when it was first announced and released with it still being one of the most feature-rich mobile phones on the market, also with one of the highest price tags.

Months ahead of its release, the folks over at Mobile-Review.com have taken the upcoming N96 mobile phone for a spin in a heck of a lot of detail.

Apple launched the Software Developers Kit (SDK) for the iPhone last week.

It will allow independent software developers as well as home users to create programs to work on the iPhone and iPod Touch. The SDK was promised at the MacWorld convention in January earlier this year, and true to promises the SDK is now available for both the iPhone and iPod touch.

This report stemming from Reuters, gives a futuristic impression of what Nokia plans for mobile phones in conjunction with Cambridge University's nanoscience centre.

From a device that can "morph" to fit the function you need, it will fit on your arm as a wrist watch, then can be unwrapped to form a interactive PDA, furthermore is will be self-cleaning (with some sort of nano-membrane that will automatically disperse anything that comes into contact with it). To top it off, they predict it will be able to tell you if fruit is ripe or not through chemical sensors.

Take a look at this clip and see for yourself.

The whole project is believed to be based on scientific research currently in progress, so despite how fanciful it all seems, the future phones will incorporate some, if not all of these features within the next 10 to 15 years.

While Chinese phone maker Meizu was absent from CES in Las Vegas earlier this year, they promised to many a working demo at CeBIT in Germany and managed to deliver.

Thomas over at Engadget managed to spend some time with one of the company reps in the booth for a short video preview of the Apple iPhone-like M8 mini One phone. The phone which is on display is a very early prototype but it gives you an idea at what can be done when you have passion and the ability to copy others ideas.

They probably should have went along with a translator but take a look at the video that they uploaded to YouTube just below.

Tabbed as a premium "energized communication" experience for a mobile life, the new X1 from Sony Ericsson promises to be everything that the iPhone is and much more.

Of course it is based on newer technology than the iPhone and comes from one of the world's leading multimedia mobile phone makers, so it is bound to be a hit.

4 million iPhones have been sold to date according to Steve Jobs at the recent MacWorld conference in San Francisco. When considering the market was exclusively limited to the USA up until the third quarter in 2007, then this has to be considered quite a feat.

In addition, Apple has promised that towards the end of February they will release the Software Developers Kit (SDK) to allow developers to create iPhone applications on their own steam. This is definitely a good move to generate more support and enthusiasm from iPhone end-users (As if Apple really needs more buzz).

That's not all and according to Jobs, any iPhone or iPhone Touch user can upgrade their product by downloading the latest patch to tap into the following awesome features:

- Maps with location (Using Google and Skyhook databases through WiFi tower & Cell tower triangulation)
- Webclips -customized website settings.
- Customize your home screen with 9 different setups.
- Send multiple sms's at once.
- Navigate films via Chapter, activate subtitles and adjust language settings for your region.
- Lyrics support for any songs you can stream the lyrics below karaoke style while the song is playing.

If I owned an iPhone I would definitely fall under the Apple spell. I wish all companies could follow Apple's example and think of the customer and their desires first. Apple is in a very healthy state.

3G network operator 3 has announced a new Skype co-branded handset which goes under the slightly naff name of the 3 Skypephone. Nonetheless, it's a matter of what you get here that's the big deal, as it offers owners of the handset to make calls via Skype or chat with your Skype friends on the handset, for free.

Yes, you read that right, 3 is offering the Skype service for free, although there's of course a catch, although it's not as bad as you might think. Depending on the type of user you are, you either have to top up your pay as you go service with at least £10 a month (this being in the UK where the phone launches later this week) or just pay whatever contract you're on, which you'd be doing anyhow with a normal handset.

Nokia has finally started to ship the 8GB version of its N81 as well as the standard version of the N81 globally. Both handsets features a wide range of multimedia features and Nokia even goes as far as calling them multimedia computers which we can't quite agree with. None the less, the N81 series has support for audio and video playback and supports a wide range of formats such as MP3, AAC, ACC+, WMA, WAV, RealVideo 8/9/10, MPEG4, H.263 and H.264.

But one of the big sellers is the inclusion is Nokia's gaming platform, N-Gage and the handsets ship with Space Impact Light and demo versions of Fifa soccer 2007 and Asphalt 3: Street Rules. More games will be available for download later this year. The N81 series also uses a new 3D multimedia menu system which Nokia claims will make it easier to use digital content and internet services on the N81.

Creative has officially launched its Aurvana X-Fi noise canceling headphones today and these premium headphones will go up against products like the Bose Quiet Comfort 2. They're priced at the same costly US$299.99, well, the Aurvana's are actually 99 cents more expensive than the Bose Quiet Comfort 2's. Creative better prove that they're worth the money if they intend to sell them, but the features are quite impressive.

To Creative's defense, the Aurvana X-Fi's features Creative's X-Fi Crystalizer and CMSS-3D technology which should help improve the quality of most sound sources, something no other noise canceling headphones does. All features are easily enabled via three buttons on the side of the headphones, although we're not sure how you're supposed to see the blue LED's when you're wearing them. There's also a built in volume control, again located on one of the headphones rather than on the cord.

Sandisk has just announced its latest Sansa player, the View. It seems like Sandisk, just like Creative, decided that a short and snappy name was the way to go. Although the original View was a much larger device, it seems like Sandisk has taken the tried and tested approach with the View and just improved upon the e200 series. Mind you, this is by no means a bad thing as the e200 was a real competitor for the iPod nano over a year ago.

What you're looking at is a very slim player, although not quite as slim or as small as the iPod nano, but still smaller than the new Zen from Creative. The View measures 108 x 49.5 x 8.8mm and it weighs in at 82.2g. But this isn't really what makes it stand out, as this just gives it a rather slim and stylish design. It has a 2.4in QVGA LCD display, that's 0.1in smaller than the Creative Zen and 0.4in larger than the nano.

If you haven't already noticed it, Apple has launched a range of new iPod's and updated some older products. There's a new range of colour option for the iPod shuffle, which otherwise didn't receive any updates and the price is still US$79. The iPod nano on the other hand got a real overhaul.

If you saw the early spy-shots, then you'll know what we're talking about. It looks somewhat like an iPod cut in half now and gone are the slim, sleek lines of the previous nano's. It has a 2in QVGA display now, that's 320x240 resolution, it can play videos and it has a new user interface. The new nano comes in 4 and 8GB flavours and it's available in five different colours, although the 4GB model only comes in silver/grey. The 4GB model is priced at $149 with the 8GB coming in at $199.

Last night we had the opportunity to experience in person just how easy it is to hack and modify an Apple iPhone to work on networks other than AT&T in the United States.

The whole process took 20 minutes to complete - we will walk you through the process we saw from the undisclosed location hidden in the back streets of somewhere. I was blind folded during transportation to the location, I swear!!

First of all, let me say I am quite aware there are already three methods of iPhone enabling, hacking, modifying or however you would like to put it. The first to surface was the soldering trick but this seems a little impractical for most consumers. The second was software modding the iPhone and paying a fee to do so but it seems AT&T has already shut that down or is in the process of doing so. The third which surfaced recently is similar to what we are going to show here but a little different - it involved modding your SIM with a special module adapter but we are unsure of all the details on the procedure of that mod... until now.

A little bit later than initially expected, HTC has finally launched the TyTN II Windows Mobile 6 Professional smart phone. To call it a smart phone is almost an insult, as the TyTN II has more features built in that some budget notebooks. It's a quad band GSM, tri band 3.5G handset with HSDPA, GPRS and EDGE for data connectivity. It also features 802.11b/g Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0 for wireless connectivity.

It's powered by a 400MHz Qualcomm MSM 7200 CPU and comes with 256MB of ROM and 128MB or RAM. It has a 2.8-inch 240x320 LCD touch screen that slides out to reveal a keyboard and it can even be tilted for better usage on a desk. The TyTN II also has a 3 Megapixel camera with auto focus, a first as far as we know from HTC, as well as a front mounted VGA camera for video calls.

Creative is about to launch a pair of new headphones in the Aurvana series and these ones are simply called Aurvana X-Fi. It's the first set of headphones to features built in X-Fi technology from Creative, although Creative did promise a wide range of X-Fi enabled products at the time when the sound cards launched.

Although the Aurvana X-Fi headphone only features the X-Fi Crystalizer and the CMSS-3D technology, these new headphones also features active noise-canceling, which means they're ideal for using in-flight. If you've ever spent over 12 hours on a plane, you'll know why you'd want a pair of headphones with noise-canceling technology.

The X-Fi Crystalizer restores the highs and lows that are lost in compressed audio formats and although you won't get the quality of uncompressed music, in can in most cases improve the overall quality of your compressed music files. The CMSS-3D technology is simply Creative's 3D surround sound technology, although it's one of the better yours truly has heard.

The noise reduction system will lower the ambient noise by as much as 20dBm which is quite a lot and it should as such be able to remove the annoying background humming noises you get onboard airplanes. And for those long flights Creative has fitted the Aurvana X-Fi's with cushioned ear cups and a padded headband. The speakers consist of a 40mm element for each ear driven by Neodymium magnets.

Also supplied is travel case, an airplane audio adapter, a 6.3mm adapter and a 1.5m extension lead. No release date has been set, but the Creative website is listing these as coming soon. Expect them to be expensive, as the previous Aurvana earphones and Aurvana DJ headphones are both priced at US$99.99.

You can find out more here

Boy Genius Report has scored some real information as well as some pictures of the upcoming Blackberry devices which have been heavily rumored. The trio of new devise is the updated Pearl (no real name given as yet), the Curve 8310 (already available in Europe) and the 8820, which coincidentally launched in Spain on the Orange network a couple of days ago.

The new Pearl will be available in two different versions, one for GSM/GPRS/EDGE networks and it will have Wi-Fi as standard. However, we can't but feel sorry for those looking at getting the CDMA version, as it won't have Wi-Fi. In its place is a GPS receiver, which as handy as it may be will never replace Wi-Fi.

Other new features include an externally accessible microSD card slot, a 3.5mm headset jack, a 2 Megapixel camera with better flash, twin speakers, a spell checker, better wind noise protection and an improved SIM card holder. Looks like a full on upgrade then and it's expected to be available within the next couple of months. It's just a shame that it's still missing 3G.

The Curve 8310 has been available in Europe for a little while now and it's pretty full on in terms of features with GPS and Bluetooth built in, a 2 Megapixel camera with flash and a microSD card slot. Still no Wi-Fi or 3G to be seen.

The 8820 is apparently the first BlackBerry device with GPS and Wi-Fi in the same device and it features 802.11 a/b/g and as far as we know, this is one of the only handheld devices to support 802.11 a. Again, this is a quad band GSM handset with GPRS/EDGE support, but no 3G. It features the latest version of RIM's software and it allows for VoIP, but only for UMA networks.

UMA stands for Unlicensed Mobile Access and allows for VoIP calls over Wi-Fi, but it's tied in with your network provider's service and it's meant to be unobtrusive as the calls should be able to move freely between the various networks. There's also the possibility of cheaper calls via Wi-Fi, but this would be down to the network provider.

You can check out the full post with a lot of pictures and more info here

According to a news post on Smarthouse.com.au, Palm is about to release a Windows Mobile 6 update for its Treo 750 and it will be available first in Australia to customers of 3. The update should be available in the next couple of weeks from Palm's Australian website and apparently other customers will be able to download it from next month.

Palm's Country Manager for Australia and New Zealand, Olivier Rozay said,

Nokia has announced its latest fashion phones today and they're part of the new Prism Series. Both phones are made up of straight geometric shapes and look rather odd to say the least. You'll definitely be noticed if you're using one of these, but if it's because people like your phone or not is a different matter.

Anyhow, onto the technical details, first up we have the Nokia 7500 Prism, which is to the left on the picture below and it has "bright, interchangeable color accents" and a 2Megapixel camera. It has a microSD card memory card slot and will handle 2GB cards. Apparently it has enough battery power to play music for nine hours straight. It should be available some time in Q3 for a price of €210, or US$289.

Samsung seems to be very busy these days and is apparently working on a new Symbian based smartphone, the SGH-i570. It does look similar to its Windows Mobile 6 based sibling, the SGH-i620. Both phones features a slide-out keyboard and somewhat similar styling, but in all honesty, the SGH-i570 looks like the dogs in comparison in stylish gunmetal black over plastic iPod white for the SGH-i620.

The SGH-i570 will be running Symbian 9.1 and it should feature Wi-Fi, HSPDA, EDGE and Bluetooth. Pretty good specifications in terms of connectivity and the only thing missing is a mini-USB port. It also comes with 160MB of built in memory and it takes microSD cards if that's isn't enough.