Mobile Phones News Blog

Archive for August, 2009

After being launched in countries like Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam (in July), the Samsung Omnia 2 i8000 is now ready to conquer many other markets around the world.

Samsung has just announced that the new smartphone would be available in 20 new markets, starting this month. Australia, China, the UAE, Netherlands and Turkey are among the countries where customers will be able to buy the Omnia 2 this August.

In case you don’t know them yet, the main features of Samsung Omnia 2 are:

* Windows Mobile 6.1
* Large 3.7 inch AMOLED touchscreen display with 480 x 800 pixels
* Tri-band HSDPA (900 / 1900 / 2100 MHz)
* Wi-Fi and GPS
* Opera 9.5 browser
* 3.5 mm audio jack
* 5MP autofocus camera with dual LED flash and DVD-like video recording
* 800 MHz ARM processor

The smartphone uses Samsung’s TouchWiz 2.0 UI and is upgradeable to Windows Mobile 6.5.

Already available in US, LG Canada today announces the Keybo2 clamshell QWERTY messaging phone for Telus Canada. The Keybo2 comes with a full, compact QWERTY keyboard with large, widely-spaced keys and a 2.6” internal screen. Packed with features, the Keybo2 includes a 3.0 megapixel camera with video capture and adjustable features, TELUS mobile music with shuffle and repeat functions, and a Favourites key to quickly connect with most frequent contacts saved in the 1,000 entry Phone Book.

The LG Keybo2 also includes:

* Expandable microSD slot to store music, pictures and videos (up to 8GB card support)

* Picture and video messaging to share media and text from phone to phone or phone to email

* 99 customizable speed dial entries

* Available in black or pink

The LG Keybo2 is available at TELUS for $99.99 with a 3-year plan.

Verizon Wireless has announced the availability of a new Mobile Broadband USB modem that features global connectivity.

Called AD3700 and made by ZTE, the modem provides access to EV-DO, GSM, GPRS, EDGE and UMTS/HSPA networks in more than 175 destinations around the world.

Compatible with Windows Vista, XP and 2000, the USB modem comes with VZAccess Manager software, allowing “easy connection management and automatic installation.”

The AD3700 global modem is priced at $79.99 with a Mobile Broadband plan for 2 years, and after a $50 mail-in rebate. Verizon will sell the modem starting tomorrow, August 14.

China Unicom seems to be ready to launch Apple’s iPhone as early as next month (September).

According to International Business Times, the carrier has bought 5 million “WCDMA standard iPhones” from Apple, paying about 10 billion yuan (1.463 billion US dollars) for them – 2,000 yuan ($292) per unit.

A final agreement with Apple hasn’t been reached yet, but China Unicom plans to sell the 8GB iPhone for 2,400 yuan ($351), and the 16GB iPhone for around 4,800 yuan ($702). So it looks like Chinese customers won’t be getting the iPhone 3GS, but the older iPhone 3G – since an iPhone 3GS 8GB was not announced (although there are rumors about it).

Or maybe China Unicom will sell the iPhone 3G 8GB alongside the iPhone 3GS 16GB? We’ll see.

Reportedly, the iPhones will be sold via Carrefour, as well as through various large retail outlets owned by China Unicom. As already mentioned, the first batch of Apple’s smartphones should reach China in September.

A few weeks ago, we’ve stumbled upon some images showing a so-called Motorola A3300, said to be a Windows Mobile smartphone.

Well, the A3300 is a real device after all, and Motorola is getting ready to launch it in China, as A3300c.

The Motorola A3300c was recently showcased at a press event, apparently held by China Telecom.

According to Sina, the second largest Chinese carrier will soon launch the A3300c, although its price and exact release date are not known.

Feature-wise, Motorola A3300c offers the following:

•3.2 inch touchscreen display with 240 x 400 pixels
•Windows Mobile 6.1 (or maybe 6.5?)
•CDMA/EV-DO connectivity
•Wi-Fi
•GPS
•5MP camera with flash
No word yet if the Moto A3300 / A3300c will reach other countries beside China

Until now, we’ve found out that the Android-powered Huawei U8220 is coming to T-Mobile Europe as T-Mobile Pulse, but without having details about its price and release date.

Well, it looks like the unannounced Android smartphone will be available starting October this year. At least that’s what a report from Tweakers.net says.

The Pulse U8220 has just appeared on pre-order at a Dutch retailer’s website, priced at €257 (about $366) – free of contract, but locked on T-Mobile’s network.

Although resembling the previous photo of the Pulse, the images made available by the retailer seem to be showing only a reference design, so the final product may look different.

Here’s what we’ve got so far regarding the specs of T-Mobile Pulse / Huawei U8220:

* 3.5 inch touchscreen display with 320 x 480 pixels
* HSDPA 7.2 Mbps and HSUPA 5.76 Mbps
* Wi-Fi
* GPS
* Microsoft Exchange support
* Bluetooth 2.0
* 3.2MP camera
* MicroSD card support

All in all, the Pulse seems to be worth the €257 – I’m actually surprised that its price is so low. Now let’s hope that this is indeed the price for which it will be sold.

Gresso, the Russian manufacturer of Luxury mobile phones, announced the release of a new collection dubbed Gresso Grand Monaco.

Inspired by F1 racing, the Gresso Grand Monaco phones are made from materials borrowed from the world of racing: “titanium superalloy”, high-tech ceramic and carbon. Other materials include steel and hand-polished 42 K sapphire crystal (framing the display).

The phones have flat keypads and feature stuff like: GSM/GPRS/EDGE connectivity, 2MP camera, Bluetooth, email and “an outstanding menu design”.

The Gresso Grand Monaco collection includes two models: “Metallic Ceramic Black Carbon” and “Metallic Ceramic Black Carbon”. They cost $2,100 each and can be ordered via Gresso’s official website.

While still in development, the phones that became Samsung Jet S8000 and Samsung Omnia II i8000, were part of the line of products under the “Cubic” codename.

And they had one more sibling – Symbian based full touch handset – in their midst. Samsung M8000.

Well, today Tweakers.net had dug up some more info about this new high end Symbian phone. As you may remember, it looks very similar to Jet and Omnia 2.

According to Samsung M8000 UAProfile, the new Symbian handset is running on S60v5 OS, has 640×360px resolution touchscreen display and standard S60 Webkit browser.

Since it is part of the same “Cubic” family, other specs should be similar to those handsets and include that fast 800 MHz Samsung CPU.

Unfortunately, Samsung M8000 may never be launched.

If what I am hearing from Eldar is correct (and he mentioned this several times in his podcasts and personal blog), Symbian based Samsung Cubic has been cancelled, when Samsung has decided to change it’s strategy and not release any more high end Symbian phones.

Which, considering that other Cubic phones have been announced more then 2 months ago, sounds true.

In a video on YouTube, A fellow by the name of Matt Janssen shows off a parlor trick with the iPhone OS 3.0 where a deleted email magically remains on the device. This security flaw frightens lots of iPhone or iPhod users, especially those government workers and secret lovers.

Let’s see how it works:

1. Pick an email from your iPhone or iPod touch running the 3.0 OS and remember the subject line.

2. Delete that email, then go to the trash folder and delete it there too.

3. Go to the Home screen and slide over to Spotlight.

4. Search for a word from that subject line.

5. Your deleted email appears in the search and you can tap on it and access it like it was never deleted! Magic!

It’s widely known as a bug, but I consider it as a hidden feature. For me, when I move an item to the trash I fully expect and want it to remain on my device. Besides, this information allows me to be a detector, digging out others’ secrets. Of course, that’s why they call it a bug.

Computer maker Dell (DELL) was expected to launch a Android-based mobile phone in China a few days ago, but it hasn’t happened yet. However, it seems that this device is all but ready since the specifications list of the device have emerged, along with some photos.

Specifications:

* Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE class 12

* Size: 68.6cc

* 103g grams weight

* Dimensions: 58 x 122 x 11.7mm

* Display: 3.5″ nHD 640×360 LCD, 18-bit, 262K colors

* OTA capable

* Microsoft Exchange support

* Google, AIM, Yahoo and MSN IM support

* 3 megapixel auto-focus, flash, 8x digital zoom camera with 30fps video shooting mode, built in photo editor

* USB 2.0, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR

* A-GPS

* On-screen QWERTY keyboard, hardwriting recognition, multi touch UI

* MicroSD slot

Though it is only available in China now, there’s a chance that this or a similar Dell device will be hitting stores stateside.

Image From BGR