Tag: phone
Zumba phone promises secure, accurate voice control
Designed on an industrial estate in Hereford, the Zumba is the world’s first fully hands-free mobile phone. It comes in two sections – an earpiece and a body. The body is about the size of a credit card and looks a bit like an MP3 player. The earpiece is more like a hearing aid.
Voice recognition tech navigates you through the menus and your contacts are securely stored on a website called “Zumba Lumba”(!). The manufacturers claim that if lost, the phone is useless to anyone but you. It’ll be in shops before the end of the year, and there’s no price tag yet.
(via Reg Hardware)
Related posts: FineDigital launching sat-nav with speech recognition | Yahoo announces upgrade to OneSearch 2.0 voice-recognition mobile search software
Sony's Ericsson's super-garish S001 8megapixel Cyber-shot mobile – with OLED screen
Black, pink, green, gold, with squared-off silver buttons? It would appear that “bling” culture is alive and well in Japan, where Sony Ericsson has revealed its latest OTT camera-slash-phone-slash-TV-slash-media-player-slash-ladies-fashion-accessory hybrid mobile conversation piece.
Boasting a decent eight megapixel Cyber-shot-branded camera, the S001 slider features a TV tuner because the Japanese are totally into watching TV on their mobiles, Bluetooth, a GPS receiver and the screen is a whopper – a 3″ OLED…
Samsung W7900 "Show" – a projectorphone with OLED display and digital TV tuner
If you’re a fan of media consumption on the move, then you’ve likely got some sort of big screen PMP like an Archos 7. If you’re not invested in a particular device yet, though, then you could do worse than consider the Samsung W7900, aka the Show, which comes packed with a 3.2″ 240×400 OLED display, 5-megapixel camera, 3G, HSDPA, and most notably, a 10 lumen 480 x 320 projector, that’ll project upto a 50″ diagonal.
It also has a digital TV tuner so you’ll be able to watch telly on a (dark) bus, and all that is crammed into a body just 4.4″ x 2.2″ x 0.7″ thick. Impressive! Although it’ll initially only be available in Asia, here’s hoping that it’ll make it over this side of the world at some point over the next year.
(via PopSci, who have a great hands-on video)
Related posts: Samsung stretches out its OLED display technology to a whole 40 inches | Samsung P3 media player
LG has 'modular' VX9600 Versa in the works
Smartphone buyers have so many choices – do you want a touchscreen? A QWERTY keyboard? External media buttons? 5-megapixel camera? 3.5mm headphone jack? In many cases, the features you need dictate the phone you’re getting, before usability, software and design even come into it.
That’s why I’m quite excited by the VX9600 Versa, which promises to be ‘modular’, meaning you’ll be able to plug in whatever features you want when you need them. In the image above, you can see a plug-in QWERTY keyboard and gamepads and stereo speakers are rumoured too. Sounds promising, but there’s absolutely no ship date yet, so the chances of this appearing in the near future are slim.
Howard Forums (via MobileCrunch)
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Small queue forms for the Tube (the Nokia 5800 Xpress Music, that is)
Despite being slap-bang in the middle of the target market for the Nokia 5800, there’s something about it that just doesn’t hit the spot for me. It might be the sluggish performance, it might be the the lack of keyboard, it might be the lack of internal storage. It just seems defiantly last-generation with a touchscreen slapped on, which is why I’m holding out for the N97.
Some people aren’t though, because the launch of the Nokia 5800 was this morning in Regent Street and Heathrow terminal five. It wasn’t iPhone-worthy, but a respectable hundred people or so showed up at the Regent Street branch.
If you didn’t fancy queuing in the rain, but you still want one, then you can get it from Simply Electronics for £350 or so, unlocked. Alternatively, Phones4U are offering it free on an £35 a month, 18-month-long, contract with Orange, or there’s a £20 a month, 18-month, contract with Vodafone.
(via the Inquirer)
Related posts: Nokia 5800 ‘Tube’ finally touches down in the UK | Nokia 5800 XpressMusic coming very soon, in time for Christmas perhaps?
Dual-SIM LG-KS660 mobile set for the European market
Next to the very smiley Japanese lady in the picture to the right are two LG-KS660s, newly announced in Japan from LG. It’s headed for Europe but other than that, we don’t have tonnes of info yet sadly.
What we do know, aside from its dual-SIM nature, is that it’s got a touchscreen, 5-megapixel camera, 8GB of internal memory, TV-OUT and USB connector. It’s basically a touchscreen version of the Nokia N96, in most respects.
We don’t have any pricing or release date info yet, either. Personally speaking, if I was in a bath, and I’d heard the news this was available, I wouldn’t jump out and head straight for the local Carphone Warehouse. I’d wait till I was done in the tub. Even then, I might make a cup of tea and dry my hair first.
(via Akihabara News)
Related posts: Dual SIM mobile phone could make dual tariff use less of a pain | LG jumps the wall mount bandwagon with the DV4M and DV4S DVD players
INQ1 heading to more networks
The INQ1, which I loved just before Christmas, looks like it’s getting a release on other networks, as opposed to Three, which currently has it exclusively. INQ is in talks with “at least two major operators” about launching the ‘Facebook phone’ to a wider public.
INQ head honcho Frank Meehan said:
“Talks with operators are going very well, and we definitely expect it to be available on other networks this year. We’re privately owned and well funded though, so we’re not in too much of a rush. The important thing is to get the right business”.
Promisingly, there’s also more INQ phones planned, including one with a QWERTY keyboard, and one with a touchscreen. They’ll likely show up in the latter half of 2009.
(via Trusted Reviews)
Related posts: INQ1 Facebook phone available from 3 as of today | SHINY VIDEO REVIEW: INQ1 Facebook phone from 3
Sony Ericsson Playstation phone nipped in the bud by… Sony
In the past, we’ve written a few times about the possibilities of a Playstation phone surfacing. For the moment, though, those dreams will have to be dashed on the rocks, as sources suggest that Sony refused to allow Sony Ericsson the use of its Playstation brand.
Sony Ericsson’s done quite well with its Cybershot and Walkman phones, and many assumed that a Playstation gaming phone would be next, but it’s been claimed by Sony Ericsson that Sony would only allow the use of the Playstation brand if the experience on a handset is sufficiently high enough and matches the experience of Sony’s standalone devices.
That kind of tech isn’t quite possible yet, and Sony Ericsson is in the midst of cost-cutting measures, so for the moment, I’m labeling this one “Fail”. Sorry mobile gaming enthusiasts, you’ll have to wait for the perfect gaming phone – we’re not there yet.
(via MobileToday)
Related posts: PlayStation Phone is on the cards, says Sony | Sony Ericsson PlayNow arena to sell DRM-free music, hints at PlayStation Phone
The $30 "Yes We Can" Kenyan celebratory Barack Obama Mi-Obama mobile phone
Kenyan mobile supplier Mi-Fone is the latest company to have a go at cashing in on Brand Obama, launching this curious Barack Obama themed mobile phone in the region.
The Mi-Obama phone will help Mi-Fone “forge new frontiers in African urban youth market,” apparently, although unlike the man whose slogan the phone carries, the low-spec handset is unlikely to change the world for the better and have people sobbing with joy.
It’s a generic dual-band GSM piece, and you know there’s nothing to get excited…
Sony surveys fans on PSP2 features
Sony has been roundly beaten in the handheld and the… er… non-handheld markets by Nintendo (seriously, we need a better name for full size consoles than that – suggestions in the comments). What’s the best way for them to fight back? That’s the question that Sony is asking its fans, with a survey floating several new feature ideas for the PSP2 and asking people to rank them.
Some of the new features include GPS, bluetooth, internal storage, touchscreen, a content download service and a social network including home support. Personally speaking, I’d rate GPS and social network features high, if only to compete with the growing influence of mobile phones on the gaming-on-the-go market. Adding in Skype features could just make the fightback possible.
(via Kotaku)
Related posts: Sony planning to revise PSP again in 2009 – with proper “PSP2” to follow later | Sony strengthens firmware portfolio – PSP hits v5.00, PS3 now goes up to v2.50
