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Mobile Phone News :HTC HD2 gets sold early. Lots of lovely videos of the hot device

admin — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 12:08:09 +0000

The HTC HD2 is a big screen in your pocket: 4.3 inches of high–resolution touch cinema, yet housed in an amazingly skinny shell. It is the world’s first capacitive touch technology to run under Windows …

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The HTC HD2 is a big screen in your pocket: 4.3 inches of high–resolution touch cinema, yet housed in an amazingly skinny shell. It is the world’s first capacitive touch technology to run under Windows Mobile 6.5 to be precise.

Also for the first time in Windows, HTC has allied the touchscreen with its HTC Sense concept: customising the HD2 with favourite apps on the home screen. It is undoubtedly impressive and user–friendly, with a logical layout and many one–touch operations to watch, browse and flip through your stuff.

YouTube user JDMiPhoner managed to snag his new HD2 at a Vancouver, WA Walmart a few days ahead of its March 24th street date.

You can order your UK version of the HTC HD2 here

Unboxing the HTC HD2

Click here to view the embedded video.

Powering up the HTC HD2

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Blockbuser App, Transformers 1 and 2 and MobiTV App demo

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HTC HD2 Voice Command demo

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Mobile Phone :Samsung Wave S8500 Review

admin — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 03:43:20 +0000

Late last year, Samsung announced their intention to launch their own mobile platform, an ecosystem designed to enable developers to create applications for Samsung mobile devices, which would further enhance the productivity and functionality of phones. Some questioned the viability

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Click here to view the embedded video.

Late last year, Samsung announced their intention to launch their own mobile platform, an ecosystem designed to enable developers to create applications for Samsung mobile devices, which would further enhance the productivity and functionality of phones. Some questioned the viability of bringing yet another mobile platform to an already over-crowded market, but Samsung followed through on their intentions and Samsung bada was born.

The name bada is Korean for ocean, and Samsung claim it conveys the limitless variety of potential applications which can be created for this new system. Which is all well and good but whether developers will want to invest in creating applications for yet another phone platform remains to be seen. Even so, Samsung are confident that bada will deliver something appealing to consumers, and at the recent Mobile World Congress they announced the first mobile phone to run on bada, the Samsung Wave.

In design, the Samsung Wave is very similar to the Vodafone H1, with similar stats in measurements and weight, although the Wave is 2mm thinner. The Wave sports a huge 3.3 inch Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, supporting up to 16 million colours and with a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels. The screen has auto rotate facility and supports multi touch input, which among many benefits makes gaming on the device a much better experience. The screen is covered with a scratch resistant surface, which should help the display remain clear and legible in the day to day knocks and bumps a mobile phone receives. Sitting on top of the bada OS is Samsung’s proprietary TouchWiz user interface, a smart, bright UI that will be familiar to many owners of previous Samsung handsets. One of the features carried over from standard Samsung devices into the Wave is Smart unlock. This nifty feature allows you to unlock the screen from standby and immediately launch into an application by tracing a letter onto the display with your finger. For example tracing an M could launch the music player, T for text messaging and so on.

Speaking of music, the Wave 8500 is a capable music player, and in fact a capable all round entertainment device. The music player supports MP3, AAC, eAAC+ and WMA amongst other formats, whilst the video player on the Wave will play back MP4, WMV, XviD and DivX files. Audio playback is enhanced by the inclusion of DNSe which has been seen in a few top end Samsung devices recently, and there is also a 3.5mm audio jack. The handset includes a stereo FM radio, which also has an FM recording option, too. Should you wish, the Wave supports Bluetooth with A2DP for stereo wireless streaming, avoiding any messy tangles with wires, and in fact the Bluetooth on this handset is the very latest 3.0 variant. There is ample storage space available on the phone for all your media files, with the Wave coming with either 2GB or 8 GB of internal memory, plus memory expansion via MicroSD memory cards up to 32 GB in size.

The Wave also comes with a high quality 5.0 Megapixel camera incorporated, which offers support for autofocus, as well as face, smile and blink detection, to help you get that perfect snap every time. With a built in GPS receiver, the camera can Geotag images with location information, which can be viewed when your images have been uploaded to the web. The Wave is also a capable video recording device, offering high quality video capture, and the LED flash can also be used as a video light for recording in low level lighting conditions.

We’ve already mentioned the inclusion of GPS, and the Wave delivers with aGPS too, which works to locate your position in a faster way by not relying solely on GPS satellites but also uses network triangulation. Google Maps comes pre-installed on the Wave, and there is also a digital compass. Location based services comprise a large number of available apps for established platforms, and these features will be vital for such apps if they are ported to the bada OS.

To cut it as a top end smartphone these days, a device needs to be well connected and here the Samsung Wave also scores well. The phone is a quad band GSM device, offering dual band HSDPA on 900 and 2100 frequencies. The HSPA support allows for downloads at up to 7.2 Mbps and uploads at up to 2.0 Mbps, whilst the WiFi support includes 802.11 b/g/n. If you happen to be in an area that is not 3G enabled, the Wave offers both Class 10 GPRS and EDGE.

For a first device, the Samsung Wave certainly sets a high standard for subsequent bada based handsets. If Samsung do manage to deliver with an appealing set of applications for this new platform, they may just prove the naysayers wrong and make bada devices a viable alternative to the more established smartphone platforms.

The Samsung Wave is expected to release to market in late April 2010.

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Mobile Phone :The Apple iPad

admin — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 09:34:06 +0000

Apple do hype, really well. In fact, it is probably safe to say that amongst all major technology companies, the Apple hype machine is the most well oiled there is. And to a point, it’s all well and good. After all, it’s the feeding of our gadget habit that keeps us interested

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Apple do hype, really well. In fact, it is probably safe to say that amongst all major technology companies, the Apple hype machine is the most well oiled there is. And to a point, it’s all well and good. After all, it’s the feeding of our gadget habit that keeps us interested in the latest products, in particular for us, our craving is for the latest mobile phones.

The latest product from Apple is not a phone, so ordinarily we wouldn’t be looking at this device, but the hype surrounding this launch was so high, it’s worth a word or two. In the run up to the launch event, there was a lot of speculation and rumour about the device Apple was due to launch. Whilst most had guessed that there would be a tablet style device of some kind, there was also hope of news of a new iPhone perhaps, or at least detail on a new Operating System, version 4.0. Sadly, neither showed, but there is still time for 2010.

What we did get, is the iPad. Now, if someone were to say “What is it for?” I’d struggle to give them a proper response. I can tell you what it is, and I can tell you what it does, but what is it for? That’s not so straight forward. It seems to me, that Apple are trying to create a market that doesn’t really exist, and supplying a device for a market that doesn’t exist, with the expectation that the Apple name will generate enough interest that people will buy the product. Because it’s Apple. I don’t see it, maybe I am not ‘visionary’ enough, but I really don’t see the appeal. The iPad is too large to be portable, and if I’m going out I can use an iPod Touch, or an iPhone, or choose from a wide variety of capable, better connected mobile devices to use. At home, I have a PC, if I want to browse the web at home, or create media content, send emails, etc, I use my PC.

The main points of the iPad are as follows: it can run existing iPhone apps, it browses the web, and you can use it to check email, play music and watch videos. The screen is a large 9.7 inches, and it supports multi touch. The QWERTY keyboard is the same as found on the iPhone, but because of the larger screen it is much more comfortable to use. Apple are also launching iWork for the device, giving new versions of Keynote, Pages and Numbers, which is good for some people, I guess. The iPad is also an e-book reader, with the launch of iBooks. Apple has done a deal with some major big names in the publishing industry, such as Penguin, HarperCollins, Macmillan and Simon & Schuster. The iPad can be connected to a projector, and to a PC via USB, and all content can be sync’d as with an iPhone or iPod Touch, like photos, music, movies, contacts, calendar, TV shows, apps and so on. So really, apart from iWork and iBooks, it does all an iPod Touch can. It’s just bigger.

Pricing on the new device is still set in dollars, it will be interesting to see how the price converts when it launches here in the UK. WiFi comes as standard on all the devices, as does Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR, the 16GB model will retail for 9, 32GB for 9 and 64GB for 9. Interestingly, the device can be purchased with a 3G module built in, but this is for data only, and adds 0 to the cost of each device. Apparently the device is unlocked to any network, and compatible with Micro SIM cards. Now, I’ve been working in the industry for some time, and I do not know what a Micro SIM card is, and neither do any of the technology links I follow on Twitter. Whether any of the UK networks support Micro SIM cards, I just don’t know. If what is meant is the standard SIM we use now, as opposed to the old credit card style SIMs of years gone by, then great, but we could have done without the confusing terminology!

And that was it. I have to say the whole thing left me completely underwhelmed, and my own personal opinion is the iPad is nothing more than a glorified, overly large, iPod. It will sell, but not in great numbers I don’t think. But then, if only 5 percent of iPhone owners were to buy one, that would still be a fairly healthy return. But the iPad is most definitely not on my wishlist.

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Mobile Phones News :Samsung S5550 Shark 2 Review

admin — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 12:21:08 +0000

We now come to the third phone in the new Shark handsets from Samsung, the S5550 Shark 2. Although by numbering this handset sits in the middle of the line-up, by specification it is the most powerful handset of the three. So, as is our custom by now, we are going to take a closer [...]

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We now come to the third phone in the new Shark handsets from Samsung, the S5550 Shark 2. Although by numbering this handset sits in the middle of the line-up, by specification it is the most powerful handset of the three. So, as is our custom by now, we are going to take a closer look at what the S5550 brings to the table.

The device shows a return by Samsung to a more traditional styling that is common in so many of their phones, with the S5550 being a slide style device. The compact slider measures in at 102 x 49 x 15mm, and weighs a pocket friendly 99g. The display on the phone uses AMOLED technology, which assists with battery performance; such displays need no backlight, and are less demanding on the battery generally to power them. AMOLED displays also tend to offer a crisper, clearer colour representation, and so it is on the S5550, although the colour support is only up to 256,000 colours. The display itself is of average size, 2.2 inches, and with a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels. Under the display sit the two soft option menu select keys, and below those are the call send/end keys. These flank the main navigation key, a design that is at the same time simply Samsung whilst reflecting designs found on newer devices like the Blade and the Jet.

The S5550 is a top mobile device, and this is reflected in the features it offers. Chief among these is a high quality 5.0 Megapixel camera, with autofocus, and an LED flash included. The camera also has support for face and smile detection, and image stabilisation, to help ensure the very best image results. The camera is enabled for video recording, taking video at 30 fps in QVGA resolution. There is also a secondary, front facing camera, giving support for the much under used video call facility.

Entertainment and connectivity is a theme that has run central to all the Shark series phones, and so it should come as no surprise to find these features well covered on the S5550 Shark 2. A full media player is included on the device, with playback support for multiple formats of audio and video, including MP3, AAC, WMA, MP4 and WMV. There is ample storage on the phone for all video and audio files, with an internal capacity of 110MB supplemented by MicroSD memory card expansion offering an extra 16GB of storage. The S5550 also includes an FM radio with an FM recording option. Social networking integration, as on the other Shark handsets, allows for quick access icons to be stored on the main standby screen with live updates from your favourite services. The Communities app is included, so sharing your content is a simple and straight forward process. Although popular these days, Social networking is but one of the ways we use to communicate with friends and family, so it is pleasing to find an email client included on the phone, which offers support for multiple email accounts.

The quad band S5550 has support for 3G and HSDPA Mobile Broadband, and also includes GPRS and EDGE, pretty much the only data option not included is WiFi. The handset offers Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, for stereo audio connectivity.

Fully compliant with Java 2.0, the handset comes pre-installed with Google Maps, although there is no built in GPS receiver, a move which helps to keep the costs down on the device. A simple Bluetooth GPS unit will compensate, if required. One of the striking features of the Shark series handsets has been the focus on device security, which is to be applauded. Security is often lax on devices, and considering how much personal information is stored on the average mobile phone, it is prudent to be security conscious. As with the other handsets, the S5550 includes Mobile Tracker, which helps to trace a lost or stolen mobile by alerting the user whenever the SIM card is changed, and in addition, an SOS Message can be programmed to send a distress alert to a pre-selected emergency contact, enabling quick and discreet requests for assistance.

The Shark range of handsets have been created to attract the style conscious, younger mobile user, delivering easy, constant access to social networks, blending power and function in a unique style phone. Each of the three Shark devices offers something for all, and there should be a Shark device to fit most budgets. The S5550 Shark 2 is expected to be available in January/February 2010, on both contact and PAYG.

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Mobile Phones :BSNL Launches 3G Services in Kerala

admin — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 04:03:31 +0000

BSNL is launching 3G services in Kerala this month, connecting 21 cities across the state, BSNL (Kerala circle) general manager C Sunitha said today.The service to be launched here on January 4 will help 2.65 lakh 3G mobile phones subscribers in the state avail the latest 3.5G technology,

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BSNL is launching 3G services in Kerala this month, connecting 21 cities across the state, BSNL (Kerala circle) general manager C Sunitha said today.The service to be launched here on January 4 will help 2.65 lakh 3G mobile phones subscribers in the state avail the latest 3.5G technology, Sunitha told a press conference here.BSNL has invested Rs650 crore for the project in Kerala, apart from expanding the existing 2G network to cover more than 95% of BSNL mobile phone subscribers.Using the 3G services, one could make video calls, access the internet with speed up to 3.6 Mbps, watch live TV on mobile handsets and download contents, the official said.

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News on Mobile Phone :Introducing the Google phone – The Nexus One

admin — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 04:03:26 +0000

December may have been a slow month for phones, but the New Year is kicking of in style as the much anticipated Nexus One Google phone has been officially confirmed and is available to buy right now! The Nexus One is the phone that has dominated net chatter related to mobile phone

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December may have been a slow month for phones, but the New Year is kicking of in style as the much anticipated Nexus One Google phone has been officially confirmed and is available to buy right now! The Nexus One is the phone that has dominated net chatter related to mobile phone concerns over the past few months, but in truth, the Google Phone has been top of the rumour mill for well over a year. Now that we have confirmed spec and release on this device, we can take a closer look and see what all the fuss has been about.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The temptation with the Nexus One is to instantly compare it with the Apple iPhone, and already the device is being labelled as the ‘iPhone killer’, as if there isn’t room for both devices on the market. This is a poor attitude to take; we firmly believe that both devices will maintain their own ‘fanboi’ army, whilst giving the not so blinkered consumer a real choice on which platform to spend their hard earned cash on. Seeing that our top three phones from 2009 were two Android devices, plus the iPhone 3G S, we have a foot in each camp, and can see the pluses and minuses of both products. And whilst there is a lot of crossover in terms of functionality and usability, there are distinct differences between the products; the advantage Android has is in the multitude of devices being released running this OS, which will be attractive to application developers, plus the speed with which new devices are being released that are ever improving in terms of hardware.

But the iPhone still has an important place within the general smartphone/superphone market, so we shall try to resist making any comparison here between the Nexus One and iPhone. The Google Phone will stand or fall by its own merits.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Design wise the Nexus One is very smart to look at, and has that instant appeal that will attract users. This is not a clunky, box shape phone, it is smoothly designed with eye pleasing rounded edges, and the two tone colour is also pleasing to the eye. Google seem to realise that for a phone to be successful it has to match power features with top design, and HTC, in manufacturing this handset, have done a good job in producing this with the Nexus One. The screen on the device is a real beaut, measuring in at an impressive 3.7 inches, with a display resolution of 480 x 800 pixels.

The Nexus One uses AMOLED technology, which will help with battery standby times, as an AMOLED screen doesn’t need a backlight, and generally consumes less power. Underneath the screen is a trackball, which will light up with various colours for different alerts, but otherwise is pretty much defunct. Where it will come in useful is for assisting web browsing by making selection of links on poorly optimised websites easier. There are four navigation keys at the bottom of the display, which are touch sensitive, and these are used for general navigation option, a back option, search button, and so on. The display also utilises an accelerometer for auto display rotation, plus there is a proximity sensor which disables the screen when you are making a call.

Size wise the Nexus One measures up at 119 x 60 x 11.5mm, and weighs in at a fairly hefty 130g. As well as looking good design wise, the Nexus One also looks good in terms of menu, with a lot of mainly useless but pleasing to look at menu animations. One of the most talked about of this is the ‘live wallpaper’ offered, which is basically animated wallpaper, which moves as you browse through the phone. There is no point to this other than it looks nice, but a plain, boring menu system is just dull, and I’m a fan of menu animations when this has no effect on overall phone performance.

Accessing the menu is slightly different on the Nexus One than on previous Android devices – Google have done away with the pop up drawer, instead the menu icons appear overlaid whatever you currently have on screen, and yes, this appears in another animated manner. When scrolling through the menu, the top and bottom of the screen have a kind of 3D curved action, which kind of reminded me of the old fashioned blackboards we had at school, free standing ones that could be scrolled over to reveal a new board. The Nexus One now offers 5 standby screens instead of the traditional three found on Android devices to date, and there are dots at the bottom of the screen to help you orientate yourself as you move from one screen to the next. A long press on these brings up a little card style animation, so you can instantly move from the first screen to the last, just by pressing the screen you want. Again, it looks good, adds a nice touch to the menu navigation, and helps enhance the overall look of the device.

The Nexus One, though, is not all about fancy menu animations and good looks. Beneath the Teflon coated exterior is a powerful smartphone, packed with the best in mobile technology. The handset has a powerful 5.0 Megapixel camera, with autofocus and LED flash. Smile detection and geotagging support is included, and first examples of captured images look pretty good. The camera is also enabled for video recording, and is able to capture clips at D1 resolution (720 x 480) at a minimum of 20 fps. The media capabilities are on a par with the majority of modern smartphones, with support for MP3, AAC and MP4 files, although disappointingly there is still no native support for DivX files. The gallery on the phone has been given a bit of a facelift, and offers a few different ways of scrolling through your photo album, although sadly the music player still looks the way we see it on current devices. Usable, functional, but not really inspiring. There is also a stereo FM radio with RDS support, plus a 3.5mm audio output jack.

The handset is a capable browsing device, offering EDGE, GPRS, 3G and HSPA, 7.2Mbps for downloads and upload speeds of 2Mbps. The Nexus One also offers WiFi, and the spec suggests it will be the first device to offer WiFi 802.11n. Bluetooth 2.1 is on board, and the device uses MicroUSB connectivity a move away from Mini USB seen on previous Android phones. Memory on the handset is 512MB internal, with support for 32GB MicroSD cards. Applications are still limited to being installed on the internal memory, although Google say there will be a system update available soon which will allow apps to be installed to the memory card, which is welcome news indeed, allowing developers to bring larger, and more feature rich apps to the Android platform.

As expected, the Nexus One will offer all the usual Google services on the device, such as Mail, Calendar and Maps, plus the new Android 2.1 will bring Google Earth app to the Android platform, too. One of the cool things the Nexus One brings is Voice entry, allowing you to use voice control on many parts of the phone, from entering text in a message to searching the web. You can also use voice search on Google Earth; just say the name of a place, and the app zooms in. All of the power running through the Nexus One is handled by an onboard Qualcomm Snapdragon 1GHz processor, which should allow for speedy, smooth navigation throughout the phone.

One of the unique aspects of the Nexus One is the way it is being sold; Google are entering into mobile retail, selling the device SIM free, direct. Available in the US and UK amongst others, there is currently a contract subsidy deal available to T-Mobile customers in the US. In Europe Vodafone will be the first network to offer the Nexus One, and should be available sometime in the Spring. The mobile market continues to evolve at pace, and the Nexus One is just the first of many Google devices. It will be interesting to see this time next year just how much of an impact this device, and the Android OS in general has on the industry.

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