Mobile Devices - Page 372

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.