Tag: phone
LG announces the GC990 Louvre with 12-megapixel camera
If you’re a fan of the LG Viewty Smart then you’ll definitely be interested in the news coming out of Warsaw, yes Warsaw in Poland, regarding LG’s unveiling of their GC990 Louvre handset.
The GC990 Louvre has a 12-megapixel camera that is also capable of HD video recording – surely this makes the Louvre the best camera phone in the word ever, ever, ever.
The camera is without doubt this handsets main strength. It is capable of auto and touch focus, has a xenon flash, records 1280×720 HD video at 30fps. It has LG’s new Intellizoom feature and has ISO up to 3200. Photos are geo-tagged and there is zero shutter lag.
Moving on from the camera, the smartphone has Wi-Fi, A-GPS, Bluetooth and TV-out as well as a 3.2-inch touchscreen. It also supports DivX and Xvid.
It’s only a concept at the moment, LG state: “The GC900 or ‘Louvre’ mobile phone from LG is a great example of the type of mobile technology innovation LG is developing. There are no confirmed plans to bring it to market. As we have further details on our camera-phone portfolio or other mobiles, LG will provide information on where and when they will be available to consumers.”
When it does get released expect us to be all over it in the usual Tech Digest way.
(via GSMArena)
RUMOUR: The Nokia 3720 Classic – a tough customer
Spec-wise the Nokia 3720 Classic is nothing to write home about – a handset with S40 OS, 2.2-inch screen, 3.2-megapixel camera, FM radio, Bluetooth and a microSD slot.
But it’s more than just another midrange Nokia release. It’s a rugged phone, designed to be both water and dust resistant. It will also withstand a bit of a bashing. The leaked photos show that it isn’t a bad looking phone either.
The following promo videos are rumoured to be of the Nokia 3720 – showing just how tough it is:
(via NokNok)
The Firefly glowPhone – a restricted phone for kids
The Firefly glowPhone is to be released in the UK by the end of the year. The child friendly handset which has become a big hit in Ireland (7,000 units sold) aims to tap in to the ever increasing children’s mobile phone market – over half of all under 10s in the UK own a mobile phone.
The phone has a fairly basic setup – perfect for younger children. It has just five buttons and two of these are dedicated for mum and dad. There is a 1.5-inch colour screen with 128×128 resolution that kids will be able to customise with their own wallpapers. Other features include built in games, customisable ringtones and a flashlight.
The phone has capacity to store up to 50 contacts although everything is pin protected so as parents can control all in and outgoing calls. Blocking texts is also a function on some models.
Not surprisingly there is some criticism for the phone. Not surprisingly a lot of this criticism is via The Daily Mail.
I think the phone is a great idea. It comes as SIM-free so parents can stick a PAYG SIM in it, put £5 credit on and restrict the calls to only allow ones to/from themselves and selected others. It’s just another expensive toy for kids to play with. I know my youngest nephew would love one.
The glowPhone will cost around £85 and should be available from Firefly direct.
(via ITProPortal)
Leaked: Image of the HTC Hero, aka the 'G3'
An image has surfaced on the internet, on the ‘Code Android Singapore’ website, of the HTC Hero. This device is a followup to the HTC Magic, and is referred to by many as the G3 because it runs Android – Google’s mobile phone operating system.
It’s a lot squarer than the HTC Magic, and it looks like the infamous chin from the G1 has returned. There’s no trackball, either, which could indicate that G1 users haven’t been overly fond of it as a control mechanism. Also in the shots, though, may be a slot for a 3.5mm headphone jack. That would be a fantastic addition to the handset.
(via Code Android Singapore)
Palm Pre Mini on the way too?
An interesting nugget of info popped up on the web this morning about Palm’s Pre and the company’s plans after the device is launched. It looks like they’re “very far along” in the development of a second Pre-like device that’ll be smaller and lighter.
There’s not much in the way of details just yet, except that this will most likely be targeting a completely different sector of the market to the Pre. There’s no word on whether it’ll have a physical keyboard like its big brother – the smaller devices get, the more uncomfortable physical keyboards are.
It looks like the device will be out in late 2009, possibly as soon as Autumn. We’ll have to wait and see whether it gets showed off at IFA in late August, but they’re unlikely to officially unveil it there.
(via TechCrunch)
Samsung announces Tocco Lite
Samsung’s Tocco did rather well last year, but its touchscreen interface hasn’t been a hit with absolutely everyone. Since then, though, it’s released the Tocco Pro and today it’s launching the Tocco Lite in an attempt to widen the market that give it a try.
The Lite is very much just a downgrade of the original handset. For starters, there’s no mention of 3G connectivity, which in 2009 is rather surprising. The 5-megapixel camera has been downgraded to 3.2-megapixel, and the onboard memory is now just 50MB. That’s still upgradable via an SD card to 8GB.
Alongside the spec decrease, the price will have gone down too. But Samsung hasn’t told us how much that’ll be just yet. I’ve emailed them. If they let me know, then you can bet your bottom dollar I’ll tell you, too.
Samsung Mobile
Nokia 5800 Star Trek edition beams down
It’s a handset, Jim, but not as we know it. Nokia are releasing a limited edition version of the 5800 ‘Tube’ with Star Trek branding all over it, to coincide with the release of J.J. Abrahms’ Star Trek movie.
Available exclusively from Phones 4U stores, the handset will include four special animated screensavers, three wallpapers, eight ringtones, including ‘red alert’ and ‘phazer shot’, and there’s also a special ‘Phazer’ application.
It’ll come in blue, red and black/silver, and will be free on £25/month contracts from May 1st. No word on how much they’ll be charging for Data, or whether it’ll have N-Gage functionality. Beam me up, Nokkie.
Samsung launching i7500 and S8000 Android handsets
Phones don’t just jump straight from ‘unheard-of’ to ‘rumoured’ to ‘confirmed’, there’s a whole host of grey area in between. Samsung has two phones on the way that’ll be running Google’s Android OS, and they’re both about half-way between ‘rumoured’ and ‘confirmed’, i.e. pretty much certain.
The i7500 will be out first, in June, and will be just 11.9mm thick. It’ll feature no hardware keypad at all, so it’ll be rocking the latest version of Android – “Cupcake” – which packs an on-screen keyboard.
Other than that, it’ll have a 3.2″ capacitive touchscreen, GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a 5-megapixel camera, 3.5mm headphone jack, microSD card slot and 8GB of internal memory. Specs-wise, it’s basically an N95 8GB with a touchscreen and Android welded on.
Interestingly, the price seems to be set (in Germany) at just €300 (£270 or so), which is rather cheap for a handset with those specs. That’s what dumping proprietary operating systems will do for you.
Then there’s the S8000 which, as the name suggests, is an upgraded version of the i7500. It’s got a 3.1″ AMOLED touchscreen running at 480 x 800 resolution, meaning that the colours will look incredible while still consuming very little power.
Specs-wise it’s nearly identical. GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a 5-megapixel camera, and 3.5mm headphone jack, but only 2GB of internal memory and no mention of an SD card slot. It will again be running Android, which takes us to two of a promised ‘more than three’ Android handsets from Samsung this year.
(via Unwiredview, i7500 and i8000)
Samsung launches "Solid Extreme" handset
Rugged phones are a quite specialised market and even if their biggest markets are builders and extreme sports enthusiasts, there’s still a competition for features that mirrors the main phone market.
The Solid Extreme is Samsung’s first entry into that market, and it’s a pretty good one too. There’s your regular temperature insulation, dust and water resistance and protection from drops of up to 2m.
On top of that, there’s a torch, extra-loud speaker, noise cancellation features, and glove-friendly keypad. Spec-wise, there’s a 1.3-megapixel camera, MP3 and video player, FM radio, Bluetooth, microSD support and Li-ion battery. It weighs just 103g.
The handset will launch in red and black from April, and will be available on Vodafone and O2.
Samsung Mobile
The lowdown on the HTC Magic – pricing, release dates and contract info
We’re eagerly awaiting the Vodafone HTC Magic, which is basically the G2, so that there’ll be a little more choice in the Android chunk of the mobile phone market. The G1’s all well and good, and I like it more the more I use it, but evolution – even if it removes the lovely keyboard – is good too.
The HTC Magic will go onsale in the UK on the 1st May. Before that, you’ll be able to pre-order the handset from the 17th April, though I’m thinking that it’s fairly unlikely there’s going to be queues around the block, so you’ll probably be able to get one on the day itself.
It’ll be only available on an 18 month contract for £30 a month (totalling £540). That’ll get you 600 minutes, though, as well as “unlimited” texts and “unlimited” emails. Those will have some sort of crappy and overly restrictive fair-usage limit, no doubt. I hope Vodafone’s prepared for G2 users to hit that internet limit.
(via UK Gadgeteer)
