Mobiac: News

Showing posts with label News. Show all posts

Showing posts with label News. Show all posts

Friday, February 1, 2008

New Diamond Cell Phone from Tiffany

Luxury cell phones are not a new thing anymore, but they keep on appearing to satisfy the fashion needs of those who have larger bank accounts. SoftBank, a leading Japanese mobile carrier,

partnered with Tiffany Japan to bring such a phone, that will be sold for 10 million Japanese Yens, meaning about $93,600. It cannot compete against the world's most expensive phone, Goldvish Le Million, which costs more than 1 million USD, but it's still a terribly expensive device.

The handset comes encrusted in no less than 400 diamonds, totaling a bit over 20 carats, and will be available starting this month, most probably before Valentine's Day, to make an extravagant gift.

There aren't many technical details about the Tiffany handset, except the fact that it's a 3G device. However, judging by the specs the other SoftBank phones announced for 2008 have, this diamonded clamshell might pack a good photo camera and even Mobile TV features.

The real manufacturer of the phone is unknown for the moment, but it sure isn't Tiffany, known mainly for being one of the most respectable US jewelry brands. It's hard to believe they have a secret cell phone division, so it is more likely that they only worked on the handset's luxurious cover. Most probably, as the phone seems to be a clamshell resembling the majority of the phones released in Japan (except the diamonds, of course), the non-jewelry part was created by a Japanese producer. So it could be a Sharp, Toshiba, NEC, Fujitsu, Panasonic, Sanyo or Hitachi. Hard to tell.

The new Tiffany phone is available only from SoftBank starting February, as a limited number edition, so the Japanese men who want to offer their lovers a flower and hundreds of diamonds on a phone should quickly pay a visit to their bank for a small withdrawal.

Source: softpedia.com

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BlackBerry Bluetooth music add-on

Research in Motion has developed a new BlackBerry add-on that look as if it will be coming to market soon.

Revealed in FCC filings in the States, the small new device is a consumer-friendly offering that's music-related.

The device, referred to in the FCC paperwork as the "BlackBerry Remote Stereo Gateway", is a Bluetooth receiver that will stream music from a BlackBerry phone to an audio system/speakers.

As the info has come been revealed as the device was going through the FCC approval process no other details, such as pricing or availability, have been unveiled.

The new product suggests that RIM plans to continue their push into the consumer market.

Source: pocket-lint.co.uk

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Google improves search facilities for mobiles

The new Google mobile search service that was launched in the US in March last year is now available in the UK, France, Germany and Canada, and has been improved.

The upgraded service is claimed to offer faster searches and "more relevant results", according to the BBC.

Previously, mobile phone users using Google had to specify a search type in advance, or afterwards choose between different indexes such as local results, images or websites. This has now been changed.

A Google spokesman told the BBC: "The big thing that people will notice is that they just get the results they want, without them having to think ahead of time what sort of information they are looking for.

"You don't have to click through so many pages on that tiny little screen and on those tiny little buttons."

He added that mobile phone users tend to want specific information as opposed to browsing, continuing: "If you are looking to buy a digital camera then you are not going to do all the research for it on your mobile phone - it's not practical.

"But if you are looking for a restaurant and you are out and about, it's as easy to access the number and address on your phone as it is to call a directory service."

As the statement suggests, the key improvement is more location based searches, as Google says that mobile searches are more often than not used to find something near to where the mobile user is - for example, a cinema and film listing.

This announcement comes after Google's chief exec told delegates at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss resort of Davos that location-based advertising on mobile phones was going to cause a revolution for organisations like his own.

According to the BBC, Google has now set up engineering groups in North America and the UK to develop new applications.

These may include offering results in the form of a timeline or map, says the BBC.

Source: pocket-lint.co.uk

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Wednesday, January 30, 2008

How Sony Ericsson PSP Could Look Like

In the Summer of 2007, rumors about a Sony Ericsson PSP mobile phone have appeared, allowing both Sony Ericsson and PlayStation fans to hope that, someday, a device that combines
the two brands' technologies could really exist. Since then, the PSP handset was confirmed, denied and almost confirmed again, so it has become a sort of a mobile myth. However, it is a general belief that the phone will exist sometime in the future, as officials from Sony Ericsson stated they seriously consider creating it.

Recently, new images of how Sony Ericsson PSP might be like appeared in the January issue of Stuff magazine in the UK, showing a device that looks almost real. Unfortunately it's not, being only a very well done Photoshop rendering. However, this imagined PSP phone could be very close to the real one that Sony Ericsson will work on (or maybe it's already working on it and keeps everything secret until the device is ready – I believe no one would be upset about this).

The Sony Ericsson PSP conceived by the Stuff magazine looks simply beautiful and has a sliding design, a wide screen and a large, simple keypad that would surely be easy to use. When closed, the phone only reveals its game control keys, that can probably have phone functionality too. This new PSP handset looks different from the original concept, which has more rounded shapes and doesn't come with a sliding design, but with a touchscreen that rotates to offer both a phone and a gaming mode.

Whether Sony Ericsson PSP will indeed exist is a fact that no one can be certain of. But, as I said, all the PlayStation and Sony Ericsson fans are waiting for an official confirmation of the device that should bring excellent gaming and phone capabilities.

Source: softpedia.com

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Sunday, January 27, 2008

Manchester United Mobile Game Announced for April

Jump Games, an important developer of games across mobile platform and part of Reliance Entertainment, just announced that it was open for business in Europe
on the eve of the Mobile Gaming Forum. It also revealed an exclusive global deal to design, develop and distribute mobile games with one of the most popular football clubs in the world – Manchester United Football Club. The company announced that it intends to develop six Manchester United mobile games during 2008.

The European launch and global announcement of 'Official Mobile Games Partner of Manchester United' were celebrated in London in which a video message from Sir Alex Ferguson stated: "Manchester United, all of us, are delighted in our new arrangement with Jump Games. I think it's a fantastic venture. And to all our fans all over the world it's an opportunity to get yourselves involved in it."

There was also a presentation from 1990 World Cup central defender and ex-Manchester United player Paul Parker.

Commenting on the launch, CEO of Jump Games, Salil Bhargava said: "We’re pleased to be moving into a new phase for the business at a time when so much interest is focused on the mobile platform and its development beyond voice revenues. Our association with Manchester United is the ideal platform for us to further strengthen our offerings and reach out to a much larger set of audiences worldwide."

The first of the six Manchester United mobile games, called 'MANCHESTER UNITED Word It!' will be available on all top operators globally. On the occasion, MUmobile Manager, Mike Dunphy commented: "Working with Jump Games, a leading games developer in the mobile space, will mean that fans will be able to extend their experience of Manchester United, increasing their knowledge and enjoyment of the brand, wherever they are in the world."

There will be six games available in Europe in 2008. The first game will be priced between three and five Euros and around three UK Pounds. Other network charges may apply. Further IP partnerships will be announced during the course of the year.

Source: softpedia.com

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Saturday, January 26, 2008

Shinya Kasatani has developed PocketGuitar, a native iPhone virtual guitar

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Samsung G600 and its 5 Megapixel Camera Go Pink

Samsung announced that its 5 Megapixel G600 phone will be available in the UK in a new pink version, obviously preparing the handset for the Valentine's Day frenzy. So we have yet another Samsung

phone for girls, after the recently announced Samsung L310 and Samsung L320 or the older models that we lost track of. What the pink version of G600 brings new is the fact that it is UK's first mobile phone with a 5 Megapixel camera that gets dressed in this color.

As I'm not a girl nor a boy that enjoys pink too much, I don't find the new look of G600 too appealing, but I'm sure others will. Besides, the girly cover hides the same specs that the original phone does, which means it's the same high-end device that won the "Phone of the Year" title in 2007.

Samsung G600 measures 101 x 47.8 x 14.9 millimeters, weighs 104 grams and offers a 2.2 inch, 240 x 320 pixels TFT display. Its 5 Megapixel photo camera comes with Auto focus, image stabilizer, flash and video (VGA) recording, being one of the most evolved cameras integrated by Samsung into a mobile phone. The slider supports quad-band GSM connectivity (850, 900, 1800 and 1900 MHz) as well as EDGE and GPRS Class 10. 3G is missing, but under the pink case of the handset users will find other features like Media Player, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, USB 2.0, WAP 2.0/xHTML, NetFront 3.4 browser, e-mail capabilities, Java MDIP 2.0, Stereo FM radio, TV out, microSD card support and built-in hands-free.

We're not sure if the pink version of Samsung G600 will make it to other countries except UK, but we do know that those living there can buy the phone starting this month from O2, The Carphone Warehouse, T-Mobile, Orange, Virgin Mobile and Phones 4U.

Source: softpedia.com

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New Virtual Keyboard Imagined by Nokia

Nokia keeps on filing patent applications with the clear intention to make future improvements in the way users interact with mobile phones. After a patent filed in December

2007 for a 2 in 1 keypad idea, now the Finnish company has another keyboard-related idea, but this time we are talking about a virtual one (the keyboard, not the idea).

The new concept requires, first of all, a phone with a built-in camera and optical sensors and comes to enhance the way we write text messages or e-mails on our phones – we all know it's not really the fastest way to do it, due to handsets' reduced sizes. Samsung has found a way to overcome this drawback, by adding projectors to phones, in order to project a virtual (and large) display that will enable easy text input. However, this is also just a concept and it will be a while until it can be functional.

Nokia, in return, comes with a virtual keyboard that doesn't require additional equipment, since photo cameras are now becoming common for most mobile phones. The patent application, entitled "Mobile device with virtual keyboard", reveals an entirely new concept: the main idea is to use the built-in camera for capturing user's fingers movement. As seen in the picture from the patent, the phone would sit in a special cradle, in a vertical position, while the user types behind it, allowing the camera to record its moves and send the data in real time to the phone's screen, where both a virtual keypad and the entered text are displayed. Furthermore, the handset would also come with sensors capable of capturing vibrations and sound generated by users and translate them into input commands, but we don't have more details about how exactly this works.

While some might say that text input could be simply done with a hardware QWERTY keyboard (like the ones packed in Nokia E90 Communicator or HTC TyTN), the new virtual keypad from Nokia might be a much better option. Or at least that's how it seems now, when the keypad is only a concept. Nevertheless, this idea is surely interesting and may really improve the text input on mobile phones but, as any new concept, it has to overcome many implementation difficulties until it becomes usable.

Source: softpedia.com

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Friday, January 25, 2008

BlackBerry Pearl 8110, of which we first heard at the end of 2007, was officially released by Vodafone Spain and RIM, coming as one of the smallest and lightest smartphones to date and the first Pearl handset with built-in GPS.

Despite the fact that it measures 107 x 55 x 14 mm and weighs only 91 g, BlackBerry Pearl 8110 packs lots of goodies, starting with the GPS capabilities that, together with the Vodafone GPS Navigator, will provide quick searches for business locations and other points-of-interest as well as audible directions while driving. The handset also comes with a QWERTY SureType keyboard and the BlackBerry trackball navigation system to offer an excellent mobile experience. A 2 Megapixel camera with enhanced flash, 5x digital zoom and video capture support will allow users to take pictures at a decent quality and make clips at a maximum 240 x 180 resolution.

The feature list for the new BlackBerry goes on and unveils EDGE, GPRS, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, 3.5 mm stereo headset jack, Media player and Media manager, SIVR (Speaker Independent Voice Recognition) for Voice Activated Dialing (VAD), Document viewer (PDF, Word, Excel and Powerpoint) and microSD/SDHC card slot for up to 8GB of extra memory. Unfortunately, we have no 3G in this little Pearl, although many BlackBerry fans hoped for it. However, the other features that the device packs can still make it perfect for customers on the move.

Vodafone Spain offers the Pearl 8110 for 89 Euro (about $130), but only with a BlackBerry data plan and a "25 Más" voice plan, so we should expect the smartphone to have a much higher retail price. There are no details about the future markets to get the BlackBerry Pearl 8110, but it will surely be available soon in other European countries as well as in North America.

Source: softpedia.com

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Nokia Finally Reached 40 Percent of the Global Market Share

Nokia announced its financial results for 2007 and reported that it has reached 40 percent of the global market share, a goal that the company had
for some time but never managed to achieve it. This was possible thanks to the excellent sales from the fourth quarter of 2007, when a total of 133.5 million Nokia devices were sold.

According to the press release from the Nokia website, the total number of mobile devices shipped by the company world-wide in 2007 raises to 437.1 million, which represents a new annual volume record. This is an increase of 25.8% when compared to the 374.5 million units sold in 2006. Furthermore, the 2007 net sales have reached a value of 51.1 billion Euro, with 23% more than the net sales from 2006.

Besides the overall increased sales, which sure make Nokia officials satisfied, the Finnish company also reported a surprising decline in sales on the North American Market, where only 19.4 million handsets were sold during 2007 – with 23.3% less than in 2006, when 25.3 million units were shipped. However, all the other markets reported increased sales for 2007, especially Middle East & Africa, where 75.6 million handset were sold, and Asia Pacific, where no less than 112.9 millions Nokia handsets were bought.

As always, Europe comes in the first place when talking about Nokia phones sold, with 117.2 million handsets shipped. This fact might change in the next years, as Asia-Pacific is a blooming mobile market that already has an important role in Nokia's business.

The 2007 net sales increasing for all the Nokia products and services (including services from the Nokia-Siemens joint venture) brought a net profit of 7.2 billion Euro to the company, a 67% increase compared to the 4.3 billion Euros in 2006. So it seems that things are brighter than ever for the Espoo-based manufacturer, at least when it comes to financial results.

Source: softpedia.com

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Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Fujitsu F705i is World's Slimmest, Waterproof 3G Cellphone

With a thickness of only 13.7mm, the F705i is the slimmest, waterproof phone ever made. Our little wonder meets IPX5 and IPX7 waterproof standards; the phone should continue operating after being sprayed with water or plunged underwater (1m max for 30 minutes). Perfect for those who use their phone at hot springs (Japanese onsen) or in the bathtub.

The F705i also features the Super Clear Voice and Super Clear Mike, which automatically adjusts the volume of an incoming caller’s voice according to the ambient noise level.

Our device also receives a 1.3Mpix camera, the Quick Zoom (in order to increase or decrease the size of the text displayed on the screen). 106x49x13.7mm, 111g, 170min of talk time and 100min for videophone.

Source: gizmodo.com

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Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Yamaha NX-B02 portable Bluetooth speaker

With 10 watts of "unsurpassed audio excellence" Yamaha's compact new NX-B02 claims to "breaks the sound barrier" set by the plethora of portable speakers on the market offering "feeble" sound quality.

With the option to directly connect to mobile phones and laptops via Bluetooth and iPods/MP3 players via a 3.5mm input jack, the NX-B02 offers Yamaha's patented "Charged Capacitor Amplifier" technology and Yamaha's SR-Bass technology reproducing what they claim is the deepest bass ever from a remarkably small unit.

Power is supplied from the supplied AC adaptor or via batteries, options which give you extra flexibility as to how and where you want to listen.

Source: pocket-lint.co.uk

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Mobile phone with pull-out e-paper display to launch

Like Amazon's Kindle, the Readius has a so-called electronic paper screen, which displays black-and-white text and images that look almost like they have been printed on paper.

The device -- which will also just make phone calls -- connects to the Internet using the third-generation mobile phone networks with high data speeds.

The company said it was talking to retailers as well as mobile operators to sell the device. Like Apple's iPhone, the gadget offers the chance for operators to boost data usage, which is more profitable than voice revenues.

Users will be able to set up their email accounts, news sources, podcasts, audio books and blog feeds at home on their computer, and the data is then pushed to the device whenever it is updated.

McGoldrick said the company opted to use this approach -- which rules out quickly browsing the Web on the go -- because it was simpler in a mobile environment.

"I see these devices with 50 buttons on them. We have eight," he said, adding that the company plans to add a keypad to future models.

Source: Reuters

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Monday, January 21, 2008

Sony Ericsson W520i Concept: Touchscreen and Music

A new Sony Ericsson concept phone appeared these days, Sony Ericsson W520i, a handset that should integrate into the Walkman series if the Swedish-Japanese manufacturer will ever decide

to produce it. If not, we'll be left with just a concept, but at least it's a very nice one, as all the latest Sony Ericsson concepts are.
This new W520i handset, imagined by Muhammad-Oli of the Esato forums, lacks a full keypad, and instead offers a wide display with touchscreen interface that enables finger navigation and typing on a virtual keyboard, just like on Apple's iPhone, Samsung F490 and all the other touchscreen phones. Unlike the iPhone or Samsung F490 though, W520i offers some basic hardware keys, so navigating without using the touchscreen is also possible. Sony Ericsson W520i's screen dimensions were not "imagined" yet by its creator, but, by the way it looks in the picture, the display should be at least a 3 inches one, so if the phone is to be produced someday it will surely have a high pixel resolution.

The music features of Sony Ericsson W520i include the new Walkman 3.0 Touch Screen software, Bluetooth with A2DP, SensMe (creates playlists based on users' mood), Shake control and TrackID. Moreover, the phone has FM Radio with RDS and a new MP3 ring tone application that allows users to personalize and create their own ring tones. Four stereo speakers are integrated in the back of the phone to make the mobile audio experience complete.

The concept phone also packs a 2 Megapixel camera with LED flash, Auto focus, photo fix, image stabilizer and VGA video recording at 30 frames per second. Along with the Sony Cyber-shot interface, the above mentioned features make W520i's camera a great one, even though it only offers 2 Megapixels. Other specs of W520i reveal that it should be a quad-band GSM phone with EDGE, but no 3G.

As in the case of all concepts, Sony Ericsson W520i has little chances to become a real phone, but let's hope it will in the end, because it looks like a very nice device that shouldn't come with a high price.

Source: softpedia.com

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Asus Officially Unveils Its Nokia E90 Competitor

Asus M930, the smartphone with a full QWERTY keyboard announced last year to be a tough competitor for Nokia's N90 Communicator, is now officially unveiled and should be

commercially available in March 2008.

Leaked specs about the smartphone appeared for the first time back in November 2007, and the official ones that now surfaced are pretty much the same. What doesn't coincide is the nature and power of its processor: while rumors said it's going to be a Marvel PXA27x 520 MHz one, the real processor is a Texas Instruments TI2431 one at 450 MHz, so we have less power than expected. Anyway, Nokia E90 runs with a processor at only 330 MHz, so the M930 is clearly a winner from this point of view.

Another worthy feature that Asus M930 comes with is its unusual design that allows you to open it at both 90 and 180 degrees to reveal the QWERTY keypad. However, the rest of M930's features are pushing it away from the high peak Nokia E90 stands on. First of all because of its screens, an external 2 inch QVGA one and an internal 2.6 inch WQVGA one that offers a 400 x 240 pixel resolution. When compared to E90's 4 inch (800 x 352 pixels) internal display, the Asus one doesn't stand a chance.
An unpleasant surprise is that the new Asus smartphone works on Windows Mobile 6 Standard, hence it has no touchscreen capabilities. Also, the built-in camera that the phone packs is not as good as rumored (a 3.2 one was expected), bringing only 2 Megapixels and Auto focus. Other specs include 3G / HSDPA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 113 x 54 x 18.7 millimeters and 158 grams. Good features, nevertheless, but the Taiwanese producer could have done much more.
Asus M930's retail price is unknown for the moment and we don't have info about the markets the handset will be available for. But it will probably be presented at the CeBIT in March and by then all the details should be known.

Source: softpedia.com

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The New Toshiba Portege Handsets Officially Presented

The Italian division of Toshiba recently presented, in Milan, the new Portege handsets announced a few months ago: Toshiba G910 / G920 and Toshiba G710,
plus Toshiba G450 – a USB modem with phone functionality.

It seems that the G920 and G910 names hide the same device, and its naming will differ depending on the market it's launched for. Since in Italy (hence Europe) the handset was just presented as G910, the US will probably get it as G920.

The official specifications for Toshiba G910, as presented in Italy, are: 3 inch touchscreen TFT display with a 480 x 800 pixel resolution, 2 Megapixel camera, 3G/HSPDA, built-in GPS receiver, GPRS, Bluetooth, VoIP (via Wi-Fi), Media Player, Java (MIDP 2.0 and JSR179), Mobile Outlook and ActiveSync. The handset measures 117 x 64 x 19,8 millimeters, weighs 183 grams, packs a full QWERTY keyboard and can offer up to 6 hours of talk-time and up to 460 hours of stand-by time. Toshiba G910 runs on Windows Mobile 6 Professional and will be available in Europe starting April 2008 for a retail price of about 600 Euros ($880).

Toshiba G710 is the second handset from the Portege series that got an official presentation, and it's a compact-form GSM/EDGE smartphone that runs Windows Mobile 6 Standard. The device offers a full QWERTY keypad, GPS receiver, a 2.4 inch TFT display with QVGA resolution, photo camera with 2 Megapixels, stereo Bluetooth and microSD card support for up to 2GB of extended memory. Toshiba G710 measures 115 × 62 x 13 mm, weighs 130 grams and will hit the market in March 2008 for an estimated price of 300 Euros (about $440).

Toshiba G710 is the second handset from the Portege series that got an official presentation, and it's a compact-form GSM/EDGE smartphone that runs Windows Mobile 6 Standard. The device offers a full QWERTY keypad, GPS receiver, a 2.4 inch TFT display with QVGA resolution, photo camera with 2 Megapixels, stereo Bluetooth and microSD card support for up to 2GB of extended memory. Toshiba G710 measures 115 × 62 x 13 mm, weighs 130 grams and will hit the market in March 2008 for an estimated price of 300 Euros (about $440).

Both Toshiba G910/G920 and Toshiba G710 are created mainly for those who need devices with business functionality.

The third Portege device that was unveiled by the Japanese company is Toshiba G450, which is a USB modem, a MP3 player and a mobile phone – all in one case that measures only 98 x 36 x 16 millimeters. The handset supports GSM, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS and HSDPA connectivity, comes with a USB mini interface and can provide 3 hours of talk-time and about 300 hours of stand-by time. The interesting aspects about Toshiba G450 are its unusual rounded design, unusual rounded split-keypad and its more than unusual tiny OLED display with the 96 × 36 pixels resolution.

Aside from the interesting aspects about Toshiba G450, there's a strange one too. About a week ago, at the CES 2008, UTStarcom showcased the UTStarcom HSM 180 device which, in my eyes at least, looks exactly the same as the G450 exposed by Toshiba. Moreover, the HSM 180 was presented with the same functions the G450 is said to have, which makes me wonder what in the name of mobility is going on? I searched the web for references regarding the device's resemblance and I haven't found anything except some info on two Russian sites, but they're as confused as I am. I believe many other mobile users will be confused too, so either Toshiba or UTStarcom should say something about the matter.

Source: softpedia.com

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Saturday, January 19, 2008

Apple Sells 4 Million iPhones: Software Update Announced

During his keynote address at MacWorld 2008 today, Steve Jobs announced Apple has sold 4 million iPhones since the smartphone’s introduction late June of last year. That's an average of 20,000 iPhones per day over 200 days.While that number is not unexpected, it is still wow inducing. It also places Apple, with 19.5 percent of the market, behind only smartphone leader Research In Motion and its BlackBerry devices in the U.S.Jobs also confirmed Apple's intention to release a software developer kit (SDK) in February. The SDK would allow for the creation of 'official' native applications by developers.

Currently, only unofficial software can run directly on the iPhone, which you must jailbreak first—a process too complicated, too much trouble or too much of a risk for many iPhone users.
As expected, Jobs officially announced the latest software upgrade for the iPhone, version 1.1.3. A video outlining a leaked version of this upgrade appeared a couple of weeks ago. The new features added in the actual update closely matches what the unofficial video walkthrough showed.

Here's what iPhone users gain with the upgrade:
First up, and perhaps most significantly, is the addition of Google's "My Location" service. This upgrade to Google Maps uses cell phone tower triangulation rather than GPS satellites to determine your location.
While less accurate than GPS, this technology is capable of determining your general position and displaying it on a map.
Apple is partnering with Skyhook Wireless in a bid to improve accuracy of the service by leveraging Skyhook's data about 23 million Wi-Fi networks to compliment the information provided by the cell phone towers.
You can also now send SMS or text messages to more than one person simultaneously. Unfortunately, the update doesn’t add support for MMS (picture & video) messaging to the iPhone, which still, by the way, can't take videos.

Other improvements include the addition of support for song lyrics to the iPhone's iPod function and the ability to create as many as 9 custom home screens. A simply flick of the finger allows you to go through them. Home screen icons can now be rearranged as well.
Apple also adds a button in the Safari Web browser to allow users to save bookmarks, called Web Clips, directly to the iPhone's home screen(s). This should be very convenient for those who've made good use of the thousands of so-called Web 2.0 applications—this is software that runs through Safari from a remote location, available for the iPhone.

In addition to the new features listed above, upgrade 1.1.3 brings the iPhone's Mail, Notes, Stocks and Weather applications to the iPod touch. As the iPod touch isn't a phone, Google’s "My Location" service relies only on Wi-Fi wireless to attempt to determine a user's location.
Unlike with the iPhone, Apple is charging iPod touch users $20 for the upgrade. Doesn’t seem very fair, does it?
Both the iPhone and iPod touch will support a new iTunes movie rental service, also announced by Jobs today.
Apple gives you a month to view a movie, which costs $4 for new and $3 for older films, once it has been downloaded. After you start viewing it, Apple allows you to watch the movie as many times as you like.
You can learn more about iPhone/iPod touch update 1.1.3 here.

Source:blackberrytoday.com

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Friday, January 18, 2008

Motorola and Angstrom Bring the First Fuel-powered Mobile Phone

Angstrom Power Inc., a company based in Vancouver, Canada, together with Motorola, the US mobile manufacturer, have completed a six-months trial using a new technology that promises to reinvent the way mobile phones are powered. Angstrom developed a revolutionary mobile solution intended to replace the standard Lithium batteries with a platform that uses hydrogen to provide the needed power.

The "Micro Hydrogen" platform includes a refillable hydrogen storage tank, advanced micro-fluidics and an innovative fuel cell architecture. Angstrom and Motorola implemented the new platform on a MOTOSLVR L7 (Motorola SLVR L7) phone, without changing the phone's looks and size (and we must say that MOTOSLVR L7 is a slim handset, having only 11.5 millimeters in thickness). With the hydrogen-powered platform, the phone managed to provide twice the talk-time than it does when equipped with a standard Lithium battery.

"As consumer demand for smartphones and multimedia devices grows, so does the need for efficient powering solutions that help enable 'always on' experiences," said Jerry Hallmark, Manager, Energy System Technologies, Motorola Mobile Devices business. "Motorola is working with Angstrom to develop fuel cell technology that will support the increasing energy demands of next generation devices."

"Our research shows that insufficient battery run time ranks as one of the leading considerations in the adoption of handheld devices with rich multimedia functionality," said Stuart Robinson, Director of Handset Component Technologies at Strategy Analytics. "Development of Lithium batteries is too slow to meet the growing energy demands of cellular handsets. Angstrom's achievement, the world's first successful integration of micro fuel cell technology into a standard mobile handset, demonstrates the potential of micro fuel cells to provide a better solution for demanding mobile energy applications."

Using hydrogen as fuel for mobile phones has also been considered by Samsung last year, when the South Korean company filed a patent application regarding this technology. Apparently Samsung works silently on this project, as we haven't heard about it since then.

The Micro Hydrogen platform from Angstrom Power Inc. is expected to be commercially available starting 2009 and the Canadian company foresees that by 2010 it will become highly popular. That's very likely to happen, but we must say that another method of powering mobile phones could be soon available too, as researchers from Stanford University discovered a new way to use silicon nanowires in batteries and provide a huge stand-by time. These being said, I can't help thinking that we might see a Hydrogen vs. Nanotechnology battle in a few years. May the best man.... pardon me, the best technology win!

Source: softpedia.com

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Thursday, January 17, 2008

Morph your mates with T-Mobile and Facebook

T-Mobile is celebrating the launch of a new tariff with a Facebook application that lets you pick your five best mates and then merge them into one person (terrifying!).

T-Mobile's MyFaves Mate Morpher application is now available online.

You can morph between two and five friends, so can have hours of fun freaking yourself out as to what a mix between you and your partner may look like, or play safe and morph celebrities.

T-Mobile has developed the application to celebrate its new tariff MyFaves, which gives customers unlimited calls, texts and MMS to their five selected 'MyFaves', regardless of network.

MyFaves has a selection of call packages to choose from: MyFaves 25, 35 and 40.

Alongside the unlimited contact with your top five, MyFaves 25 offers an allowance of 25 minutes and 50 texts, MyFaves 35 offers 100 minutes and 200 texts and MyFaves 45 offers 200 minutes and 400 texts.

Source: pocket-lint.co.uk

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Samsung i900

An Italian website (called Cellularmania as you might have gathered from the subtle watermarking on the product shot) has got the gossip on the new handset.

Offering a 3.5-inch 240 x 400 touchscreen and a Windows Mobile OS, the i900 looks as if it will rival both Apple's iPhone and HTC's Touch range.

According to the site, the i900, measuring a slimline 112×56x12.5mm will offer quad band GSM/UMTS and mega-speedy 7.2Mbps HSDPA connectivty.

These speeds - only available in certain areas in the UK - would make it one of the fastest, if not the fastest, handset on the market.

Other connectivity comes in via Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR and Wi-Fi and it will offer a 5-megapixel camera, integrated GPS as well as FM radio, TV out, microSDHC up to 8GB and will run Windows Mobile 6.1 and an boast Opera 9.0 mobile browser.

Skeptics might think the specs, as well as being wish-list ideal, are a little confused. We'll have to wait and see if this has been mocked up by a fan, or is the real deal. Pocket-lint will be attending the World Mobile Congress so will bring you all the news nearer the time.

Source: pocket-lint.co.uk

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