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UNWIRED VIEW: Don't Blink or you'll miss the explosion in wireless device technologyPosted by Betsey Merkel. |
Here is only one day of reporting on the top product innovations in the wireless device industry....
Unwired View |  |
Sony Ericsson W395 Walkman brings music to the masses Posted: 10 Feb 2009 04:10 AM PST As we said a bit earlier, Sony Ericsson announced three new phones today: C903, C901 and W395. Since we’ve already covered the two Cyber-shots, it’s now time to see what’s with the W395 Walkman phone. Previously known as Sony Ericsson Yao, the W395 is only an entry-level device that resembles the gaming-centric F305. Targeted mainly at young mobile users, Sony Ericsson W395 sports “large, powerful built-in stereo speakers” and, like most of the Walkman phones, it comes with dedicated music keys.
The handset’s complete list of features and specs includes:
Sony Ericsson will out the W395 this quarter, in two color versions: Blush Titanium and Dusky Grey. The phone’s price was not announced, but it’s said to be affordable – which is kind of logical, since the device hasn’t got advanced features. Via Press release Similar Posts:
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Sony Ericsson C903 and C901 Cyber-shot phones officially unveiled Posted: 10 Feb 2009 02:47 AM PST Why it looks like today is a good day for officially announcing phones. After Nokia’s 5630 XpressMusic, here comes Sony Ericsson with not one, not two, but three new handsets: Sony Ericsson C903, Sony Ericsson C901 and Sony Ericsson W395. For the moment, we’re gonna take a look at the two Cyber-shots, the C903 and C901. Both phones are equipped with 5MP autofocus cameras, but the C903 has a dual-LED flash, while the C901 comes with a Xenon flash. Sony Ericsson C903 (codenamed Frances) is a slider that looks quite stylish and, apart from that mid-end camera, offers lots of other nice features.
These include:
The C903 will be released sometime in the second quarter of the year, in three color versions: Glamour Red, Lacquer Black and Techno White. Sony Ericsson C901 (codenamed Filippa) is a candybar that measures 13mm in thickness. Apparently, it’s targeted for emerging markets, although its features are somewhat similar to the ones of C903 – only A-GPS and TV-out missing.
The C901 will be available in the second quarter of 2009, in the following color versions: Noble Black, Precious Peach and Sincere Silver. The retail prices of C903 and C901 are not known for the moment, but maybe we’ll find them out at MWC 2009, where the handsets will most probably be showcased. Via Sony Ericsson and USEB Similar Posts:
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Nokia 5630 XpressMusic announced: an S60 music-centric candybar Posted: 10 Feb 2009 01:50 AM PST Nokia’s XpressMusic family of handsets has just got bigger, with the addition of 5630 XpressMusic – a new candybar that we’ll probably see in the flesh during MWC 2009. The 5630 is ultra-thin (12 millimeters) and has a design that clearly says “hey, I’m an XpressMusic phone”. This being said, you’ll probably be surprised to find out that it runs on Symbian S60, thus being a perfectly legal smartphone. Apart from offering an “excellent audio quality” and dedicated music keys, the 5630 also comes with various shortcuts on the homescreen: N-Gage, photos, radio and Web.
Nokia 5630 XpressMusic will be commercially available starting the second half of 2009, for the retail price of 199 Euros ($256), before taxes and subsidies. It will have a Comes With Music edition too, but its price is not known for the moment. Via Nokia Similar Posts:
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LG Arena KM900 UI has multi-touch, dedicated multimedia chip, took 100 man years to develop Posted: 10 Feb 2009 01:46 AM PST It seems that LG just doesn’t want to get from the frontpages with it’s LG Arena KM900 multimedia phone. Since it fessed up about the existence of LG Arena in a blogpost on Friday, there’s already the third official communication about how cool the new phone is. This time LG talks about the coolness of it’s new “3D S Class” interface and confirms some additional device specs. The additional LG KM900 Arena specs include the confirmation of 5 megapixel camera, Dolby Mobile, 8GB of built-in memory and 32GB microSDHC memory card slot. It also reveals the European release date for LG Arena – March 2009.
The new details about 3D S-Class interface include (if my Google Korean is up to the task):
Well, that’s it for now. Let’s see what tomorrow brings us. Via LG Korea Similar Posts:
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Nokia 5800 with US 3G support to be launched this month for $400 Posted: 10 Feb 2009 12:54 AM PST Although Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is already available in the US, it’s only the European version that can be bought – for $349.99. This means you are forced to use it only on the GSM/EDGE bands, since European 3G frequencies are incompatible with the US ones. However, it looks like a North American version of the XpressMusic handset is on its way too. The Nokia Blog has it that a NAM Nokia 5800 will be available from US retailers starting the end of this month (around February 26).
The suggested retail price of the US 3G-rocking 5800 is said to be of $399, so you’ll have to pay $50 more than for the European version. If it’s worth it or not, it’s up to you to decide. Similar Posts:
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Nokia Maps 3.0 Beta - major update released Posted: 09 Feb 2009 03:11 PM PST Nokia Maps 3.0 Beta, first outed at the beginning of December 2008, has just received an important update. And although this doesn’t change the number version (it’s still 3.0 Beta), it brings many improvements, as well as synchronization with Ovi Maps. The list of the devices supporting Nokia Maps is now larger than ever, including both S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1 smartphones (like E71, E66, 6110 Navigator, N82, N95 and N95 8GB) and S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 ones (i.e. N96, N79, N78, N85, 6650, 6210 Navigator and 6220 Classic).
So, the novelties brought by the update are as follows:
For downloading the latest Nokia Maps software, just hit this link. Via Nokia Beta Labs Similar Posts:
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Microsoft My Phone and Google Sync mobile cloud services announced Posted: 09 Feb 2009 01:30 PM PST 2009 is shaping to be the year when Mobile Internet/Web/Cloud services really started going After success of Apple, everyone and their grandma is lunching their own mobile app stores. Music and games delivered to your phone via operator’s data connection is a nobrainer for most of the mobile players. And let’s not get started about Mapping/Location based/Social thing. . The next frontier is creating a cloud service for all that data on your smartphone and syncing it, so it’s safe, up to date and accessible from anywhere. Nokia tries to do this with OVI, Apple has Mobile.me. Now Microsoft and Google is joining the fray.
Microsoft will be launching the beta version of it’s MyPhone service for syncing information between mobile phone and the web during MWC 2009 in Barcelona next week. Microsoft already has a preview site running and says that the the new service will allow you to “…back-up and restore phone’s information to a password protected website, access and update appointments through the web and share the photos on your phone with family and friends…” For now service is free and works only with Windows Mobile handsets. But these things will probably change in not too distant future. Careful wording on MyPhone site – “…we do not charge for the My Phone service at this time” suggests that there may be a paid offering in the future. Probably with basic free version and more advanced paid one. I also have it on pretty good authority that the exclusivity of Windows Mobile phones on this service is not a permanent thing. Microsoft will open My Phone to third party/OS handsets through ActiveSync Exchange as soon the service is ready. Google today also announced their own synchronization service – Google Sync (beta) for iPhone, WinMo and SyncML phones. iPhone and WinMo phone owners can sync their contacts and calendars with GMail and Google calendar. All the data will be updated via push technology over the air, using two way connection. So your data on the phone and PC will be always fresh and synchronized, without the hassles of manual updates or wired connections. Unfortunately other phones with SyncML support are not so lucky and will not get calendar sync just yet. Only contact updates are available for them. For now Google Sync service seems rather limited compared to offerings from Microsoft, Nokia and Apple. But everyone appears to be moving in the same direction with their mobile cloud services, and the clash between the big players in this field seems imminent. My guess is that this year all of them will continue rolling out and integrating various mobile/cloud offerings, with the real showdown and fight for the user attention starting sometime next year, probably around MWC 2010. Similar Posts:
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Archos to come with breakthrough Android Internet Media Tablet Posted: 09 Feb 2009 01:21 PM PST Archos, the French manufacturer best known for its portable media players, has just become the latest company to announce a device that will come with Android on board. Said device is not a regular smartphone, but an Internet Media Tablet (IMT) that has mobile phone capabilities, thanks to the fact that it merges “Google’s Android telephony stack and Archos’ multimedia framework”. The name of the new Android device was not unveiled, and there’s also no image of it yet. However, Achros did mention most of the specs and features that the IMT will have. First of all, it will be based on a Texas Instruments OMAP 3 platform, which is a perfect platform for advanced multimedia and communication capabilities.
(this is just a mockup, not the real Archos Android IMT) So, what else should we expect from Archos’ first foray into the Android land? Here’s what:
Archos and Texas Instruments say that their Android IMT (you can also call it MID – mobile internet device) should be commercially available starting the third quarter of this year. Perhaps the device will be showcased at MWC 2009 – and if that’s the case, we’ll surely bring more info about it soon. Source: Press release via Engadget Similar Posts:
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Samsung Eltz S7220 and Samsung Marcel in the wild Posted: 09 Feb 2009 06:58 AM PST We’ve just got word about yet another two new Samsung handsets that are said to be readied for a showcase at MWC 2009 (thus in one week from now): Samsung Eltz S7220 and Samsung Marcel. Neither of them are high end (like the S8300 Ultra Touch, for example), although the Eltz S7220 does come close to what you’d call an advanced device. Unfortunately, the S7220 has a candybar design that’s simply boring – or at least that’s what the available images lead us to think. And speaking of images, here they are, in all their blurriness:
The rumored specs and features of Samsung Eltz S7220 include:
Samsung Marcel (pictured below) is a thin slider that has a 2.2 inch screen and a 2MP camera.
It should come as a successor of the J700 model. No other details for the moment, but we’ll probably know all there is to know at MWC 2009, so stick around. Source: Leaked Mobile Phones Similar Posts:
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