Sprint Instinct GPS vs iPhone Maps

Sprint has released a video comparing their Sprint Instinct GPS to using Google Maps on the iPhone. This video also shows off the nice slim look of the Instinct compared to the iPhone.

iwish concept blends PSP and iPhone

Joystiq reader Mat Brady sent in some interesting concept art he put together.

He calls it the iwish because "I wish Sony would get their act together and improve the PSP. So many people are doing such amazing and innovative things these days, and yet the only innovative thing to happen to the PSP since 2005 was that it got a little slimmer."

Mat then goes on to discuss convergence and the prerequisites for a converged device.

Personally I don't think we will have a true converged device until we have projected head-up displays (that don't look like dork glasses) along with virtual input devices - otherwise there is no way to fit a keyboard, a good sized high res touchscreen, and a game controller in a device small enough to carry in a pocket.

(mat's blog)

Continue reading "iwish concept blends PSP and iPhone"

Blackberry Curve on Verizon

Verizon promised us the Blackberry Curve in May and they delivered: it is now up on their site.

The curve is available for $169.99 with a two year contract (after $50 mail-in rebate) and features Dual-band 800/1900 Mhz 1x EV-DO networks, 96 MB Flash Memory/32 MB RAM, 2.5" 320x240 LCD screen, 2 megapixel camera, bluetooth and MicroSD slot. It's dimensions are 4.2" x 2.4" x 0.6" and it weighs 4oz.

(more at verizon)

9 HTC Touch Diamond videos

HTC has uploaded 9 videos from their London press launch of the HTC Touch Diamond to YouTube.

The first one is above and the rest are after the jump.

(via pocketpcthoughts)

Continue reading "9 HTC Touch Diamond videos"

Nokia 6600 fold video

NokNok.tv has put out a video of the Nokia 6600 Fold phone and it looks pretty good.

The phone features twin OLED screens, Quad band GSM, WCDMA 850/2100, and 2 megapixel camera.

If you are looking for a stylish phone that doesn't claim to be a smartphone and need a PhD to operate then you should take a look at the 6600 fold.

(via bgr)

Phone sim unlocking card

In most countries it is legal to unlock a phone that is locked to a particular network provider, but the network providers don't want you doing it as they subsidize the cost of the phones.

Software unlocking solutions exist for many phones but that messes with the phones firmware and breaks the warranty.

Another option is this universal SIM unlock card: you just insert it in parallel with your SIM card and it unlocks the phone so you can use it on a different network.

The unlock card costs $23 and works with a wide range of phones including the iPhone.

(list of supported phones, via techchee)

Blackberry 9000 reviewed by crackberry

You remember the ebay auction for a pre-release blackberry 9000 that we told you about last week?

Well it turns out that the winner of the auction was none other than the owner of crackberry.com, and he has received and started reviewing it.

Part 1 of his review just covers the unboxing and initial impressions along with a comparison to the Blackberry Pearl and Curve.

A full review will follow and we will let you know once that is posted.

(more at crackberry)

Engadget gets hands on with the HTC Touch Diamond

Engadget was at the press launch for the HTC Touch Diamond and have released some hand-on photos, some videos. and their first impressions of the new Windows Mobile 6.1 device.

"We had a little thumb-print orgy with the new HTC Touch Diamond immediately following its launch. Light and small, the Touch Diamond comes off as a unit with promise. Unfortunately, we'll have to wait a while to get our hands on this via a US carrier, but Orange users in the UK will no doubt be pretty happy with this new handset, the first of its kind to use Windows Mobile 6.1."

(more at engadget)

Continue reading "Engadget gets hands on with the HTC Touch Diamond"

HTC Touch Diamond official specs

With the under-whelming press event in London now over the HTC Touch Diamond is now officially official... it will be out on 5 networks in the UK shortly and out in the US some time this year.

Here's the officially official specs:

• Size: 102 x 51 x 11.33mm


• Weight: 110 g


• Connectivity: WCDMA / HSPA: 900/2100MHz. HSDPA 7.2 Mbps and HSUPA


• Operating system: Windows Mobile® 6.1 Professional


• Display: 2.8-inch VGA touch screen


• Camera: 3.2MP, with video calling


• Internal memory: 4 GB Internal Storage, 256 MB flash, 192 MB RAM,


• Bluetooth: 2.0 with EDR


• Wireless: WiFi 802.11b/g


• GPS: GPS/AGPS


• Interface: HTC ExtUSB™ (mini-USB and audio jack in one; USB 2.0 High-Speed)


• Battery: 900 mAh


• Talk time: GSM: up to 4 hours


• Standby time: GSM: up to 300 hours/100 hours with push email


• Chipset: Qualcomm MSM® 7201A™ 528MHz

We are officially unimpressed.

Continue reading "HTC Touch Diamond official specs"

Boy genius goes to London

Boy Genius from Boy Genius Report went all the way to London for the extremely over hyped press conference from HTC that was supposed to announce the most exciting product of the year.

All that got announced was the HTC Touch Diamond that we already knew all about.

Here are some of his comments:

11:50 AM: We've pretty much confirmed Android will not be making an appearance here. Mmm.
12:15 PM: He just said the design is museum-worthy. We'll be the judge of that, fella.
12:26 PM: Marketing spin: "HTC Touch Diamond is Just Like Your Life." What, sad and lonely?
12:29 PM: Available in Europe and Asia in June. Rest of the world is later this year. What. In. The. Hell?
12:44 PM: Oh my god. We came all the way here for one phone. Where is my slide-out keyboard, damn it!

(more at boygeniusreport)

Handwriting recognition for the iPhone

Korean company Diotek has announced handwriting recognition software for the iPhone:

"This newly developed handwriting recognition software, DioPen™, is an input method that allows writing letters on capacitive touchscreen of Apple's iPhone by using bare fingertip. Currently, iPhone only provides QWERTY virtual keyboard without additional input methods such as handwriting recognition widely used in most other PDAs or mobile phones with resistive touchscreen.

DioPen™ can recognize Korean, Chinese and English/European characters and digits written in cursive, print or mixed cursive/print with extreme accuracy. In addition to Apple iPhone, DioPen™ can be easily implemented with other mobile devices with capacitive touchscreen as well as resistive touchscreen."

(via akihibaranews)

iPhone coming to ten more countries

Vodaphone has announced agreements to sell the iPhone in 10 new countries: Australia, India, South Africa, Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, New Zealand, Portugal, and Turkey.

The iPhone is currently only available officially in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Ireland, and Austria, although unlocked versions have been imported and sold on the gray market in many other countries.

(via Yahoo)

LG Vu now for sale on AT&T site

Yep, we're scraping the bottom of the barrel to provide "news" today as everyone else seems to be off drinking margaritas or celebrating communism.

AT&T has now made the LG Vu available for purchase on their web site.

The cost is $549.99 without a contract or $299.99 with a 2 year enslavement plus a $100 mail-in rebate.

This is one of only two phones that currently support the new Mobile TV service.

(at&t, via engadget)

LG VX9100 enV2

The LG VX9100 is now officially announced in the US on Verizon.

The VX9100 replaces the VX9900 enV and is 3G with a 2.4" 320x240 pixel LCD, 160x64 pixel secondary LCD, 2MP camera, microSD card slot, 8GB memory, QWERTY keyboard, and bluetooth.

It weighs 4.2oz and measures 4.0 x 2.1 x 0.7 inches.

We like the way it looks!

(via akihibaranews)

Goldstriker Goldeneye gold-plated iPhone

Goldstriker have brought out a new version of the 24 caret gold plated iPhone.

The Goldeneye has the front bezel and apple logo gold plated plus the rear is plated to match the "metallic winter gold" of the 2008 Jaguar XK Goldeneye car.

How much do you have to pay to get this ultra-shiny gold-plated thief chick magnet?

£749.95 (about $1500)

(via ubergizmo)

Novatel U727 EVDO stick reviewed

boing boing reviewed the Novatel U727 cellular EVDO USB stick that costs $280 (or $80 plus a $60/month 2 year contract with Sprint).

Overall they found it to be bigger than expected, installed easily, got good connectivity most of the time, and it doubles as a SD card reader.

If you live and spend most of your time in a large city this could be worth looking into.

(more at boingboing)

HTC Touch Diamond specs and photos

HTC are supposed to be making a big announcement this coming Tuesday and it is likely to be the HTC Touch Diamond whose specs and photos have just been leaked:

2.8-inch VGA display, Windows Mobile 6.1 Pro, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0, eGPS, FM tuner, Quad-band HSDPA 7.2, 4GB internal flash, microSD slot, 528MHz CPU, 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus, 10.7mm (0.47-inches) thick, supposedly also features an orientation sensor / accelerometer.

The specs are great but I'm not loving the look: too blocky for my taste.

(via newsmobile)

Continue reading "HTC Touch Diamond specs and photos"

More blackberry kickstart clamshell photos and info

Boy Genius Report has provided more info on the clamshell blackberry kickstart:

Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, "Next Gen" SureType keyboard, 2 Megapixel camera, 16-bit color LCDs, Internal LCD is 240×320, external one is 160×128, Wi-Fi b,g, 3.5mm headset jack, OS is 4.6.

The current speculation is that it will be out in September on T-Mobile.

(via bgr)

Free WiFi for iPhone owners

It appears that iPhone users are given free WiFi access at 71,000 AT&T WiFi hotspots including Barnes & Noble and Starbucks stores.

Instead of the usual login/payment screens iPhone users are seeing a new entry screen asking for their iPhone phone number and once the number is entered they get free access.

macrumors notes that this appears to be based on the "user-agent" setting of the web browser so this is easily faked on a laptop to get free access (as long as you have a valid iPhone phone number to enter).

(via macrumors)

AT&T launching mobile TV on May 4th

AT&T are launching two new handsets on May 4th that support MediaFLO Mobile TV: the LG Vu ($300 with 2yr contract) and the Samsung Access ($200 with 2yr contract).

The TV broadcasts will be available in 58 cities and there are 10 channels available. The Mobile TV service will cost $15 a month for unlimited access.

One interesting thought: in an emergency (9/11, Katrina etc) the normal cellphone network gets overloaded, as MediaFLO operates on a separate network you would still be able to get CNN or Fox News to keep abreast of events if you were caught up in the emergency.

(more at myfoxutah, via engadget)

Continue reading "AT&T launching mobile TV on May 4th"

Gsmart thumb-friendly windows mobile

Giga-byte have announced a new ui for their gsmart windows mobile smartphones.

The smart touch interface is similar to the iPhone interface in that you use your fingers to activate and move 16 different apps.

Smart touch will be available in Europe in the next month.

(via theunwired)

Continue reading "Gsmart thumb-friendly windows mobile"

Blackberry Kickstart: it's a clamshell

Boy Genius Report truly is the guru of all blackberry info releases these days (but as you will see he needs a better camera). As if the blackberry 9000 specs weren't enough he comes back today with the unveiling of a new Blackberry, the kickstart, that has a clamshell flip open design so you can be more like Kirk with his communicator as opposed to McCoy with his tricorder.

Details are scarce but this is what he knows: crackberry suretype keyboard, external and internal lcds, trackball navigation, camera, and it will be out sometime this year.

(photo gallery at boygeniusreport)

Continue reading "Blackberry Kickstart: it's a clamshell"

Samsung U940 Glyde Verizon price and release date

The great looking touchscreen samsung glyde looks like it is going to be available on Verizon sooner than previously thought.

According to unwired view it will be available in May and will cost $299 with a two-year enslavement, or $429 without the aforementioned blood contract.

The Glyde not only has that 2.78" touchscreen goodness it also has a slide out full keyboard, 2 megapixel main camera, plus a front camera for video calls.

(via unwiredview)

Samsung P960 phone receives over the air digital TV broadcasts

The Samsung p960 is the first cellphone outside of Asia to receive and show over the air digital TV broadcasts.

This little slide phone sports a 2.6" QVGA (240x320) screen, GSM 900/1800/1900, HSDPA 2100, bluetooth, and microsd card.

The Europeans gets to play with this phone but hopefully there will be something similar in the US soon (are you listening blackberry and apple?)

(via gizmodo)

Full press release:

Continue reading "Samsung P960 phone receives over the air digital TV broadcasts"

Blackberry 9000 final hardware specs

Boy Genius sure is getting all the scoops on the Blackberry 9000. His lastest info is the final specs of this much anticipated fix for the crackberry addicts.

Radio - GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS/HSDPA, Bands - Quad-band GPRS/EDGE: 800/850/1800/1900MHz, HSDPA: 850/1900/2100MHz, Expandable memory - microSD, Display - HVGA Color LCD (480×320), TrackBall Navigation, Camera - 2MP, Wi-Fi - a,b,g, A-GPS, Battery - 1500mAh, "High quality material, high-end finish" and Software - 4.6

The launch carriers will be AT&T, NTT DoCoMo, and Vodafone with AT&T launching forst as the US exclusive carrier.

T-Mobile turning on 3G May 1st

Looks like T-Mobile is flipping the switch on their 1700MHz 3G data network tomorrow.

Initially it may only be turned on in New York but it may also be switched on in other large cities around the country.

(via boygeniusreport)

AT&T to subsidize iPhone 3G price

Fortune magazine is reporting that AT&T plans to subsidize the price of the next generation 3G iPhone by up to $200 in order to make it less attractive to unlockers.

If it does end up subsidized that could bring the price down to $199 (plus the average of $100/month that iPhone users pay for data and calls).

According to the same source the new iPhone will be 2.5 mm thinner than the 11.7 mm original. The iPhone will also have a GPS chip for navigation and other location-based services.

(via fortune)

HTC Touch Find specs and video

Telefonica let the cat out of the bag in regards to HTC Touch Find specs:

Quad band GSM 850/900/1800/1900, GPRS, EDGE, 3.6 Mbps HSDPA connectivity, 2.8″ QVGA 240×320, 65K color display, 128 MB RAM, 256 MB of ROM, Qualcomm MSM7200, 400 MHz CPU, 3 megapixel camera with autofocus, front camera for video calls, Built-in GPS, Tom-Tom navigation software, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, FM Radio, microSD memory card slot

In other words the HTC touch find is a repackaged HTC Touch Cruise.

(via msmobiles)

Continue reading "HTC Touch Find specs and video"

Blackberry 9000 confidential software specs

Boy Genius Report got the scoop on the software enhancements showing up in the Blackberry 9000, from browser enhancements, to improved wifi tools, to security enhancements, and much more.

He also heard that the launch date is now July not August but everything still seems up in the air on that.

(more at boygeniusreport)

Continue reading "Blackberry 9000 confidential software specs"

Next gen iphone to be smaller and plastic

According to a report in the Taiwan Economic News the next generation iphone will be smaller, nearly a third lighter, and will have a 2.8" screen instead of the current 3.5".

In addition, the casing will be plastic instead of aluminum-magnesium.

Sounds like a step backwards to me.

(more at cens)

Blackberry 9000 spotted on eBay?

It's gone now but for a few hours last night there was an auction on ebay for the upcoming blackberry 9000.

Here are the pics included with the auction, there is some speculation they are fakes but they look pretty realistic to me.

(via engadget)

Continue reading "Blackberry 9000 spotted on eBay?"

Asus P320 Windows Mobile Phone reviewed

Trusted Reviews has reviewed the Asus P320 Windows Mobile phone.

Here's what they thought:

"It all goes together to make a well-rounded smartphone that's just about the most pocketable Windows Mobile PDA phone you're likely to come across. Unfortunately, though, there's no getting around the fact that the P320's small screen makes using Windows Mobile Professional even more fiddly to use than it normally is. But if you don't mind getting the stylus out occasionally and want the push email and office document features of a Windows Mobile device without the bulk, it's a very solid option. And the inclusion of a GPS receiver in a device this small is just the icing on the cake."

(full review at trustedreviews)

Continue reading "Asus P320 Windows Mobile Phone reviewed"

Cardo S800 bluetooth headset reviewed

The Gadgeteer has reviewed the $40 Cardo S800 bluetooth headset.

Here's what they thought:

"Overall, I like the Cardo S-800 bluetooth headset. Its stylish, high-tech design, good call quality, noise canceling technology, and massive list of high end features and capabilities makes this device very tech-worthy. Add to that the fact it can be found for under $40, the S-800 is also a very good value."

(full review at thegadgeteer)

Continue reading "Cardo S800 bluetooth headset reviewed"

3 new nokia "beautiful to use" phones

Nokia has announced 3 new phones they are calling "beautiful to use".

The 275 Euro Nokia 6600 fold has a 2.13" OLED screen with 16 million colors, 3G support, and a 2 megapixel camera.

The 250 Euro Nokia 6600 slide has a 2.2" display, nokia maps, and a 3.2 megapixel camera.

The 175 Euro Nokia 3600 slide is the first Nokia phone with background noise cancellation. It also has nokia maps and a 3.2 megapixel camera.

(full press release after the jump)

Continue reading "3 new nokia "beautiful to use" phones"

Hand-Crank USB Power Charger

These days more and more gadgets are using a USB connection for charging, which makes emergency recharging extremely convenient.

The hand crank USB power charger from National Geographic allows you to recharge your phone or other USB charged gadgets anywhere there isn't power, and if power is available you can plug it in with it's AC adapter so you don't need to carry multiple chargers.

It is small (2.5" x 4" x 1.5"), light (6oz) and includes adapters for most Motorola, Samsung, Nokia, and LG phones.

(buy for $40 at national geographic)

Motorola A810 specs

Mobile Gazette snooped around the FCC website and found the specs on the Motorola A810 cellphone.

It appears to be a basic touchscreen phone with a linux based operating system, 2.2" 240 x 320 pixel screen, 2 megapixel camera, bluetooth, and microsd card. No GPD, 3G, or WiFi.

(more at mobilegazette)

Continue reading "Motorola A810 specs"

Sony Ericsson Z770i reviewed

Unwired View has reviewed the Sony Ericsson Z770i.

Here's what they thought:

"Z770i is a 3G model with support for HSDPA protocol; you can use the phone as a full-blown 3G modem for your laptop. There's no built-in camera for video calls, and these are not supported at all; nevertheless, the phone is perfect for 3G data transfer. If you are looking for a functional and stylish clamshell and you like Sony Ericsson, I suggest you consider this model."

(full review at unwiredview)

LG Prada II rumors

Eprice in Taiwan obtained a spec sheet of the upcoming successor to LG's touchscreen Prada phone.

The specs include: Quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900). WCDMA 900/2100, 7.2 Mbps HSDPA connectivity, 3″ WQVGA 400×240 px TFT touchscreen, 5 megapixel camera, front camera for video calls, Wi-Fi b/g connectivity, USB 2.0, Bluetooth, Full HTML browsing, FM-Radio, TV-out, microSDHC memory card slot (up to 8GB), slide-out QWERTY keyboard.

Looks and sounds good but expect LG to be trumped again by Apple and a new iPhone.

(via unwiredview)

T-Mobile to offer Google Android phone this year

T-Mobile confirmed today that they will offer a phone running the Google Android open source phone operating system by the end of 2008.

There are no details available about the phone itself although a number of major manufacturers including Motorola, HTC, Samsung and LG are members of the Open Handset Alliance and are expected to create phone that run Android.

(more at crave)

3G Blackberry delayed until August

According to Fortune magazine Blackberry have delayed the release of their first 3G phone (the 8900 codenamed Meteor) until August.

The reason for the delay isn't clear - it could be AT&T not liking call quality or it could be because AT&T doesn't want two new 3G devices at the same time.

Personally we are more excited about the touchscreen blackberry 9000 and wish they would hurry up and release that.

(more at fortune)

Glofish M800 reviewed

Phone arena has reviewed the Glofish M800 Windows Mobile 6 smartphone with VGA resolution 640x480 2.8" screen 64MB RAM 256MB ROM, 3.5G HSDPA / UMTS plus quad-band GSM with GPRS, the SIRF Star III GPS, WiFi 802.11b, twin cameras (QVGA in front and 2Mpix flash at the back), all run by a Samsung 500 MHz ARM mobile CPU.

Here's what they thought of it:

"Is the M800 revolutionary device – definitely not. Is it worth upgrading from X800 – only if you really want QWERTY (there’s nothing else new). Is it worth getting? It depends, if you are on the market for a (Windows Mobile) smartphone, the M800 is still a nice device. Although it is neither the fastest, nor the prettiest (and yes, we don’t like the capacitive keys!) it is one of the few out there with a high-res (VGA) display. Of course, it has some negative sides, but it is a matter of compromise. Overall, the TyTN II is better, but only if you could live with the nowadays mediocre QVGA display. We leave the decision to you."

(full review at phonearena)

Continue reading "Glofish M800 reviewed"

Acer to create WM6 smartphone

While announcing their first quarter earnings yesterday Acer President Gianfranco Lanci announced that the company would launch their first Windows Mobile 6 smartphone within the next 12 months.

Acer intends for smartphone to account for 10 percent of company revenue next year and it looks like they intend to achieve that growth by dropping all PDAs from the product line of recent acquisition E-Ten (who make smartphones and PDAs under the brandname Glofish) and instead focus them solely on smartphones.

(more at cnet)

Comcast getting into wireless?

It looks like Comcast has reversed direction on wireless and hired the former CTO of Telefonica O2 Europe, Dave Williams, as the unit’s CTO SVP of wireless and technology strategy to “explore wireless options” for Comcast.

Obviously Comcast wouldn't hire someone so experienced if they were looking to resell or rebrand another phone companies offering.

So what is Comcast planning?

(via gigaom)

Who needs a camera anymore?

..... when your phone has a 5 megapixel camera with face recognition and the ability to shoot DivX video at 120fps.

The LG Secret KF750 has just that plus an auto-rotating 2.4" touch screen, slide out keypad, and bluetooth. It should be released in Europe sometime later this year, followed by Asia and South America.

Full press release after the jump

(via engadget)

Continue reading "Who needs a camera anymore?"

Blackberry 8110 Pearl available through AT&T

AT&T is now selling the GPS enabled crackberry 8110 pearl. The 8110 has a built in GPS to enable location-based applications and services:

"Ring ring"

"hello"

"this is Starbucks, we see you are walking down Bleeker St and just passed our store, if you turn around now and come inside we will give you a grande coffee of the day for the same price as a venti coffee of the day".

"Cool, thanks AT&T and blackberry, without you I would never have coffee".

(press release after the jump)

Continue reading "Blackberry 8110 Pearl available through AT&T"

Sony launches Z780 and G502 cellphones

Sony Ericsson just announced the launch of two new HSDPA phones.

The Z780 is the global version of the European Z770 featuring UMTS/HSDPA 850/1900/2100 and quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE radios, google maps for mobile, aGPS, bluetooth, and 2 megapixel camera.

The G502 probably wont find its way to the US and offers UMTS/HSDPA 2100 and GSM/GPRS/EDGE 900/1800/1900, google maps for mobile, bluetooth, and 2 megapixel camera.

Not exactly exciting but if you want to read the full press release it is after the jump.

Continue reading "Sony launches Z780 and G502 cellphones"

Elektrobit promises windows mobile satellite phone in 2009

According to gearlog Elektrobit is promising to have a dual cellular/satellite windows mobile phone available in 2009.

Gearlog writes:

"The most striking feature of the Elektrobit device is its antenna: it doesn't seem to have one. This is a slim, light (4.7 x 2.5 x .8" HWD) phone that runs on HSDPA high-speed cellular networks and uses Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional (yes, it has a touch screen) but also happens to connect to an upcoming satellite network being launched next year by Terrestar across North America. Or that's the plan, at least: this is a reference design, and the satellites aren't up in the air yet.

Other features of this concept include Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, a MicroSD slot, a 3-megapixel camera and voice controls. Of course, Elektrobit could also be claiming it comes with a pony and cake, and we wouldn't be able to contradict them until next year at least. At least they don't seem to be ripping off Apple's iCal icon."

(more at gearlog)

Hands on with the Siemens SX66 (XDAIII)

Lots of people have been waiting for the XDAIII pocket pc cell phone with slide out qwerty keyboard to become available in the US.

As we mentioned previously it is now available throught Cingular Wireless and we got to try one out yesterday.

The SX66 is a quad-band (850/900/1800/1900MHz) GSM phone that will work almost anywhere in the world, the windows mobile software and 3.5" QVGA 320x240 pixel touchscreen allows it to operate as a pocket pc/pda with all the usual features such as web browser, email, contacts, calendar, pocket word, pocket excel etc.

The SX-66 also has a 400MHz processor, 64MB ROM 128MB RAM, 802.11b wireless, bluetooth, SD/MMC card slot, is 2.82" x 4.92" x 0.74", and weighs 7.4oz.

The SX-66 feels good in the hand and the keyboard has a good feel but the keys are so small they would take getting used to, especially if you have large fingers. Despite that it is a lot better than no keyboard at all and we think this is the best pocket pc phone available in the US today.

Continue reading "Hands on with the Siemens SX66 (XDAIII)"

New Samsung Phones

We don't spend a lot of time covering phones on ShinyPlastic so instead of repeating things being said elsewhere we are going to send you over to PhoneScoop who we met last night at CES Unveiled and who have some nice photos of Samsung's new goodies:

"The i730 includes EV-DO high-speed data, as well as Bluetooth, an SDIO slot, speakerphone, and stereo speakers. On the PDA side, it runs Windows Mobile 2003 Pocket PC 2nd Edition, supports landscape mode, and packs in 64 MB of RAM memory."

More at PhoneScoop

Motorola e1000 Phone

Trustedreviews has reviewed the new Motorola e1000 phone in the UK:

"My handset is a second generation 3G phone, but if the new Motorola E1000 is anything to go by, things are set to improve with the third generation of handsets that are now being launched. The E1000 is a traditional “candy bar” phone while most 3G phones so far seem to have been of the flip variant. If this is a good thing or not tends to be down to personal taste, but Motorola has come up with some interesting additions to a traditional design.
The first thing you notice about the E1000 is the large screen and at 34 x 44mm, with a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels, this 16bit display is excellent in use and very clear and easy to read. The second thing you notice is the odd button layout – there’s a row of four buttons on each side of the display, which is similar to the design of the Siemens SX1, although not quite as brave as having the whole keypad down the side of the phone."

Full Review

Siemens SX66 (XDAIII) from Cingular

Our search and referrer logs tell us that a ton of people find ShinyPlastic when looking for info on the XDA III (aka Blue Angel) Pocket PC Phone.

If you are one of those people you will be happy to hear that the Siemens SX66 (basically a rebadged XDA III / Blue Angel) is now available in the US through Cingular Wireless.

The Siemens SX66 runs Windows Mobile Pocket PC 2003 Second Edition, has a slide out QWERTY keyboard, 64MB ROM and 128MB RAM, WiFi Bluetooth and IrDA connectivity, 400MHz processor, 240x320 color screen, and operates as a Quad-Band phone with 4 hours talktime (not enough for my wife!).

You can get the Siemens SX66 through Cingular Wireless for $549.99 with a 2 year contract.

(firstadopter via engadget)

Sony Ericsson S700i Camera Phone

LiveDigitally has taken a look at the new Sony Ericsson S700i 1.3 megapixel camera phone that works on the GSM 900/1800/1900MHZ bands.

This is a great looking phone and it does that cool swivelling thing, but unfortunately in the US you can only read the review as it isn't available here (or should I say not available from any of the cellular providers, T-Mobile and Cingular operate in the 1900MHz GSM band so I think you could buy an unlocked phone and a prepaid SIM card and use it here).

Here's a taste of the review:

"In one phrase: "The phone simply oozes sex appeal!" Simply put, the S700i is an excellent phone for all the features it packs (especially the camera). It's great for commuters who can listen to MP3s or FM radio while on the go. It has all the expected PIM and connectivity features and much more. In other words this phone packs quite a punch."

Check out the full review at LiveDigitally

Bluetake BT400 Bluetooth Headset Review

I4U has a review of the Bluetake BT400 Bluetooth Headset.

The review looks at the headset from the viewpoint of someone non-technical:

"Conclusion
Bottom line, the Bluetake BT400 G3 is well worth the price of around USD 60. It is easy to set up and use, light weight and comfortable to wear and features a very good sound quality and range."

I4U Review

Hands on with the Blackberry 7100t

The blackberry 7100t is the new blackberry device that is actually useful as a phone as well. This has been my main sticking point with blackberry in the past: their devices just didn't work as phones so you would have to carry a seperate phone as well as your blackberry.

A lot of the reason for the increased phone usability is the reduction in size achieved by implementing a new keyboard where every key is used for 2 letters and software tries to work out which letter you wanted.

I tried out the new blackberry 7100t and found it really easy to use.

5 photos of the Blackberry 7100t from the Digital Life show are below.

Continue reading "Hands on with the Blackberry 7100t"

Dallab DP900 PocketPC Phone

msmobiles discovered a new Pocket PC Phone: The Dallab DP900.

If you haven't heard of Dallab before they are a Malaysian company that until now has produced only bluetooth equipped accessories.

The Dallab DP900 is a tri-band (GSM 900/1800/1900MHz) 300MHz intel xscale, Pocket PC running Microsoft Pocket PC 2003 Phone Edition.

Other features of the Dallab DP900 are 64MB RAM, 64MB ROM, 1100mAh removable battery (that can be switched without the phone losing its connection or power), 240x320 pixel 3" screen, SDIO/SD/MMC card slot, and a VGA digital camera that rotates up to 180 degrees.

The Dallab DP900 weighs 5oz, its dimensions aren't known but it look pretty compact considering its small 3" screen size.

No info yet on whether the Dallab DP900 will be offered by any US phone companies.

Dallab DP900 Product Page

(via msmobiles)

Stowaway Bluetooth Keyboard Review

PocketPcThoughts has reviewed the Think Outside Stowaway Bluetooth keyboard.

The Stowaway Bluetooth Keyboard is a very small (5.5" x 3.9" x 0.5") box that folds out for form a good sized (9.9" x 5.8" x 0.5") 4 row QWERTY keyboard.

The Stowaway Bluetooth Keyboard should work with any bluetooth equipped pocket pc (or a pocket pc wit a socket bluetooth SD or CF card) as well as many bluetooth equipped smart phones.

The list of compatible devices on the Think Outside site is a little out of date and doesn't specifically mention any of the new VGA Pocket PCs although they should work with the keyboard without problems.

(pocketpcthoughts full review)

Bluetooth Blackberry 7290

So, does that make it a blueberry?

Research in Motion have just released the first Blackberry phone/organizer that has bluetooth built-in: The Blackberry 7290.

The Blackberry 7290 is being offered through O2 in the UK, Ireland and Germany from November 2004, and surpisingly in the US through Cingular from October.

The Blackberry 7290 is 4.4 x 2.9 x 0.8 inches and 4.8 oz. It has 32mb RAM, 5 hrs talktime, color display, and QWERTY keyboard.

Price of the Blackberry 7290 in the US will be $190 with a new 2 year service agreement.

(via engadget)

Audiobooks on your Cellphone

Audible has started working with Sprint to put spoken word audiobooks on Sprint PCS smart phones.

The first device that will work with Audible audiobooks is the Samsung SP-i600 smartphone. It will be interesting to see how usable the interface is and how much you can store on your phone: the SP-i600 only has 32mb memory, a lot of which could already be used for photos, email, contacts etc.

You can get $50 off the Samsung SP-i600 when you commit to an Audible subscription.

Audible.com

(msmobiles.com via Engadget)

MDA Compact Pocket PC Phone

Brighthand has got the info on the MDA Compact Pocket PC Phone from HTC (formerly known as "magician").

The MDA compact is going to be smaller than most Pocket PC phones on the market: 4.25" x 2.3" x 0.7", and will weigh 5.3oz.

The MDA compact will also be more powerful than some competitors: packing a 416MHz XScale processor, and offering 64mb RAM, 64mb ROM, and has an SDIO expansion slot for more storage space and/or Wi-Fi functionality (bluetooth is already built-in).

The phone portion of the MDA Compact will be Quad-band (850/900/1800/1900 MHz), making it usable in Asia, Europe and the US, and the MDA Compact will run the Phone Edition of Windows Mobile 2003.

The MDA Compact will be available in Europe in November and I hope it will be offered in the US sometime after that (hint hint T-Mobile... please).

HTC Vivida

Info showed up on the FCC site for a new HTC built Smartphone OS powered phone codenamed Vivida.

The HTC Vivida has a sliding front that reveals a numberpad, has 2-3 hrs talktime and 100hrs standby (short battery life), SD / MMC memory card slot, 640 x 480 pixel camera and 352 x 288 pixel video recorder, and will come with a charging cradle.

The HTC Vivida is going to be offered by Verison in the US but there is no info yet on release date or price.

(via msmobiles)

Treo 650

Pictures have leaked of the new Treo 650: a new smartphone using the Palm operating system rumored to be oming from Sprint this fall.

The Treo 650 is rumored to have a 312mhz processor, 32mb R320 x 320 pixel screen, 1 megapixel camera, DS memory card slot, removable battery, built-in querty keyboard, and built-in bluetooth wireless.

More pictures and info at treocentral.com (scroll down the discussion)

JVC e228 Cellphone

GadgetryBlog found a new cellphone in the UK, the JVC e228, that has a feature I find difficult to understand:

It has two digital cameras, one in the front and one in the back. My phone has a digital camera but I've only used it a couple of times and only then for the "new toy" factor.

If I want to take a photo I will use a digital camera that produces a nice photo, not a cellphone that produces a photo as bad as my Casio QV-11 did 5+ years ago.

T-Mobile Customer Service

Joel Johnson over at Gizmodo set out to review the Sidekick II (available only with T-Mobile service agreement) and ended up so frustrated he cancelled his service agreement with T-Mobile for all his phones.

At the end of the day it came down to customer support people lying to him, and I can relate to that...

When I wanted to buy a new phone through Sprint I was lied to by their telephone customer support (hello? I want to give you people every month for a minimum of two years and you still lie to me!).

So, what is it with all cellular service providers having such bad customer support?

Oh, by the way, Joel really liked the Sidekick II.

Joel's T-Mobile Problems

iPaq h6315 is slow

It turns out the iPAQ 6315 that had seemed so promising is in fact really really slow, with the processor operating at a paltry 168mhz (around a quarter the speed of the 624mhz Dell Axim X30).

Other specs for the version of the iPAQ 6315 offered in the US by T-Mobile for $499 with service agreement are: 4.6 x 2.9 x 0.7 inches, 6.5 ounces, upto 5 hrs talktime, 64mb ROM/64mb RAM, Quad-band GSM/GPRS phone, 802.11b and bluetooth 1.1 wireless, 640x480 camera, SDIO card slot, removable keyboard.

Hi-Res Screen for Pocket PC and Phones

Samsung have released a picture of their new 2.6 inch, 300 dot per inch, 640 by 480 pixel VGA screen (by comparison a PC screen usually has 72 dots per inch, which means this screen can display a lot more in a small space, or make the same amount of information a lot clearer/smoother).

The screen also has a 200:1 contrast ratio and 150cd/m2 brightness which means it should look better than current small screens in direct sunlight.

This will be going into full production in December of this year and should show up next year in small Pocket PCs (current VGA Pocket PCs have a much larger and poorer quality 4 inch screen), smart phones, and high end mobile phones.

Also interesting but not announced yet is that the same 300 dots per inch would allow a 4.2 inch 1024x768 screen on a larger pocket pc or a 7.3" Wide-XGA 1080p HDTV screen combined with the new 60gb 1.8" hard drive for an uber personal video player or portable DVD player.

press release

Verizon XDA3 Pocket PC Phone

The FCC has approved a version of the XDA3 Pocket PC phone and the photos show a Verison logo, so guess who will be offering this CDMA phone to their US customers (probably for $600+).

Some specs are as follows:

Continue reading "Verizon XDA3 Pocket PC Phone"

Audiovox PM-8920

Sprint has just released the first 1 megapixel cellphone in the US.

The Audiovox PM-8902 has a 1.3 megapixel camera, capable of taking pictures at 1280 by 960 pixels (much better than the 640 x 480 on most camera phones.

Price will be $300, or $150 after the usual new subscriber rebates.

Sprint Press Release
(Thanks SprintPCS Info)

iPaq h6315 Photo

Update 7/26: The iPAQ 6315 has been released and T-Mobile will start selling it in August at $499 (presumably with a new 1 year contract/service agreement).

Update 8/15: More info available here.

ipaqabilities.com has found a photo of the upcoming ipaq h6315 on the T-Mobile web site.

Description is "HP iPAQ h6315 Pocket PC is a Microsoft� Windows� powered Pocket PC that integrates GSM / GPRS, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth wireless technology to give you high-speed wireless voice and data connectivity at home, at work, and on the go."

Release date is rumored to be July 27th.

If I hadn't just bought a new Dell Pocket PC and a Sprint PCS phone I would be very interested in this.

New Phone: Sanyo PM-8200

After using the same crappy old Sprint PCS phone for almost 3 years I finally caved in and got a new one. Of course Sprint didn't make it easy for me:

New customers can get a $150 instant rebate, existing customers who have owned their phone for 18 months (even if they are still under a 2 year subscription agreement) can get a $150 instant rebate, should have been easy for me, right?

Wrong!. Because I had cancelled my account 18 months ago (because work provided me with a free phone) and then got a new account 12 months ago (when I left that job) Sprint counted my phone as being only 12 months old (even though the phone was physically 3 years old and was a model they hadn't sold in 2 years).... so I was refused the rebate.

Let me say that again: A new customer could get a rebate, a customer still under a subscription agreement could get a rebate, but a customer (me) with a 3 year old phone and no subscription agreement couldn't get a rebate.

Even crazier: I could get a rebate by going to one of their competitors as a new customer, but I couldn't cancel my current Sprint account and get a new Sprint account. I wanted to sign a 2 year agreement, I wanted to buy a $280 (before rebate) phone, but they wouldn't let me!

In the end the phone agent suggested I go to a Sprint PCS store, and after arguing my case with the store manager he relented and gave me a $75 instant rebate and a $75 mail-in rebate.

So, after much wailing and gnashing of teeth I am the proud owner of a cute little Sanyo PM-8200, it takes photos, I have put peoples pictures on there and created unique ring tones, I have downloaded games, created my own screensaver, I can even remember my new phone number!

More on the Sanyo PM-8200

Talking to God?

Cnet reports that Verison Wireless cell phone customers will soon be able to get the Pope's daily message:

"To use the service, Verizon Wireless subscribers address a text message to "24444." Within a few seconds, a message returns containing that day's "nondenominational...inspirational message of prayers and guidance," according to a description of the service circulated Tuesday by Acotel."

Motorola V600 Cellphone

The latest greatest cell phone is finally available for sale from AT&T Wireless.

The Motorola V600 is small but packs a VGA resolution camera, bluetooth connectivity, MP3 ringtones and much more.

Will be available online soon, but can be ordered now direct from AT&T wireless for $299 with a 2 year service contract.

Continue reading "Motorola V600 Cellphone"