Tag: phone
MWC 2009: LG's G910 "Touch Watch" and Arena phones get official
Wow, things move fast from prototype to production these days. The LG GD-910 that we saw at CES is now the LG G910 Watch Phone, and due for release later this year.
It’s got a 1.4″ touchscreen face, HSDPA, and video calling capabilities. There’s also a text-to-speech engine for reading out texts to a bluetooth headset, and voice recognition stuff too. For maximum geekiness, precede every voice command with “Computer:”.
As well as the Touch Watch, there’s also the Arena, previously written about here. We were promised specs and a release date, and by jove, we’ve got them. Or most of them, anyway.
There’s a 3″ touchscreen, running at WVGA resolution. It supposrts DivX and Xvid codecs. It can record DVD-resolution video, and video at up to 120fps for super-slo-mo playback. There’s 8GB of internal memory, and that can be expanded by another 32GB of MicroSD action.
There’s an immensely joyful 3.5mm headphone socket, and the aforementioned HSDPA, GPS and Wi-Fi. There’s a 5-megapixel camera, too, and geotagging for photos. There’s a tonne of inbuilt Google apps, too. All this is packed into a 105.9 x 55.3 x 11.95mm shell.
What’s missing? Well, I’d like a flip-out QWERTY keyboard, and maybe an upgrade on that camera, but beyond that, I can’t think of too much. The Arena seems like a very capable handset. I hope that it delivers on its promise, but I don’t think it’s topping the N97 in my “can’t wait for” phone list. How about you?
MWC 2009: HTC shows off Touch Pro 2 and Touch Diamond 2
This is the HTC Touch Pro 2, newly announced by HTC in Barcelona. HTC claims that it delivers “the most powerful productivity experience available on a mobile phone”, and who are we to argue? Let’s talk specs.
The phone has a 3.6″ touchscreen at WVGA resolution, Windows Mobile 6.1, 512MB of memory (but with a microSD card slot), HSDPA, GPS, Bluetooth, a 3.2-megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, FM radio and a five-row QWERTY keyboard. Phew.
Conspicuously missing when compared to rival phones are a 3.5mm headphone jack, decent operating system (Android, Android, Android), 5-megapixel camera and more internal memory. When put against the N97, this phone doesn’t really stand up too well.
Then there’s the Touch Diamond 2. It’s rather similar to the Touch Pro 2, but doesn’t have the QWERTY keyboard and has a slightly smaller touchscreen at 3.2″. It does have a slightly nicer 5-megapixel camera, though.
Other than that it’s mostly identical. Same WVGA resolution, Windows Mobile 6.1, 512MB of memory (with microSD card slot), HSDPA, GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and FM radio. Still no 3.5mm headphone jack.
Both are arriving this year, with the Diamond “Touch”-ing (sorry) down in Q2 and the Pro showing up in early summer. No pricing info yet. Personally speaking, I’d rather plump for the QWERTY over the 5-megapixel camera. How about you? Which is your favourite of the two? Let us know in the comments.
MWC 2009: Nokia takes the wraps off the 6710 Navigator and 6720 Classic
This is the Nokia 6710 Navigator, newly announced at MWC 2009 in Barcelona. It’s almost more of a satnav than a handset, because it’s packed with all sorts of mapping technology.
It comes with ‘drive and walk’ navigation, as well as full regional maps, a dedicated navigator button on the front of the phone, a touch area for zooming in and out, and a large display tuned to daylight viewing conditions.
Maps with Ovi will allow users to plan a journey on their PC and then sync it with their device, and the inclusion of a compass will mean that you won’t get lost when you fly south for the winter. In the box comes a car holder, and there’s also a car-mounted speakerphone available.
As for the 6720 Classic, it’s got noise cancellation and a curved design that Nokia claims will significantly improve call quality. Good battery life, “high-speed” internet, which I’m presuming means HSDPA, and TV-out capability.
No more specs than that yet, I’m afraid, but we do have prices and release dates.The 6720 Classic will show up in Q2 at an estimated price of €245 (£220) and the 6710 Navigator will appear shortly after in Q3 for not much more – just €300 (£270).
MWC 2009: Sony Ericsson announces new W995 Walkman phone
Just a few days after the fairly basic W395 Walkman phone comes the much feature-laden W995 Walkman phone from Sony Ericsson.
Forget the lacklustre 2-megapixel camera straight away, for this baby comes with an 8.1-megapixel camera (very important, that ‘point one’) with up to 16x digital zoom. Granted, digital zoom — especially on a mobile phone — isn’t much to get excited about (how much grain do you want on that picture of your best mate’s left nostril hair anyway?) and there’s no mention of optical zoom in the preliminary specs, but you do at least get auto focus, face detection, flash, image and video stabilisation, video recording (rate unknown) and video light.
OK, enough on the decent enough camera. This is a Walkman phone, after all, so what about the audio? Well, Sony is debuting its new Media Go application on the W995, letting you “effortlessly and automatically” transfer audio, pics and vids between phone and computer. Yep, something proprietary but then of course you can say the same about iTunes…
Two Nokia touchscreen phones leaked by… er… Nokia
In the video above, Nokia N97 designer, Axel Meyer, is interviewed, but also appearing completely unnannounced are a couple of new touchscreen phones. Sources are suggesting that these might be Ivalo and Madeleine – codenames for upcoming smartphones that emerged in a leaked roadmap last year.
Ivalo will have 32GB of storage, GPS, FM radiio, 5-megapixel camera, 3.5″ touchscreen and Wi-Fi. High spec, but no QWERTY keyboard like the N97. The Madeleine is more mid-range, with Wi-Fi and GPS, a 3.2 megapixel camera, and N-Gage functionality. No official info on either yet, but perhaps we’ll see them at MWC next week.
(via GSMArena)
Even smarter Samsung Tocco Ultra Edition announced
The Samsung Tocco has done rather well since release, becoming the best-selling contract device in the second half of 2008. Guess it’s due for an upgrade, then, and here it is – the Samsung Tocco Ultra Edition. The biggest change is the addition of a slide-out keypad, like the N95, which complements the 2.8 OLED touchscreen nicely.
There’s also an 8-megapixel camera with associated features, HSDPA, GPS, DivX and Xvid playback, FM tuner, and support for 16GB of microSD action. It’s also remarakbly thin, at just 12.7mm. Clearly, this is one of the smartest of all the smartphones. Sadly there’s no Wi-Fi, and no 3.5mm headphone jack, but if you can live without those then you’ll find a lot to like here. It’ll launch in the UK in March, and price will depend, most likely, on contract.
Samsung Mobile
More about Samsung: Samsung Acme i8910 info spills out | Samsung Memoir gets official
Garmin and Asus team up for satnav phone
Garmin, maker of satnavs, and Asus, maker of the Eee PC, are teaming up for an assault on the smartphone arena. They’ve just announced an alliance to design, manufacture and distribute location-centric mobile phones. They’ll be called the Garmin-Asus nüvifone series, and will be on the market before the end of the year.
The idea is pretty simple – when you’re in the car, it goes into a dock and works as a satnav, but when you get out, you take it with you and it works like a phone. Garmin already has a product that does this – the nüvifone, which will be rebranded as the nüvifone G60 and delivered in the first half of this year. Beyond that? Well, we’ll have to wait and see.
GarminAsus
More on the nüvifone: Garmin’s first mobile phone with web browser and navigation | Garmin to launch Android mobile, too
Tech Trumpet: Touch Tone Mix
Welcome to Tech Trumpet, where I attempt to make vaguely musical sounds using a variety of gadgets and computers.
After today’s news about a DJ selling the 867-5309 number, I thought I’d compose something using DTMF “Touch Tone” dialling tones.
Well, “compose” may be a bit much…
Samsung Memoir gets official
Samsung’s got a decent line in cameraphones going on, with last year’s Pixon and Omnia, and now it’s throwing this – the Memoir – into the mix. It’s got an 8-megapixel sensor, 16x digital zoom, and a xenon flash, along with full touchscreen and aGPS.
There’s five shooting modes, and uploading your snaps to the internet is easy, with Flickr, Kodak Gallery, Photobucket and Snapfish integration. There’s 3G for uploads, but no Wi-Fi sadly, so you might consider uploading in low-quality, at least until you can get home. No word on pricing, but it should be arriving this month.
(via BGR)
Man killed by exploding mobile phone
A man in his twenties in Guangzhou, China, has died after an exploding mobile phone severed an artery in his neck. He’d just replaced the battery after charging it. It’s unclear what make or model the phone was, or if it was a dodgy third-party battery, but police are investigating.
Amazingly, it’s the ninth recorded death by exploding phone in China since 2002. One man died when his battery overheated due to the heat of an iron mill he worked at and blew a hole in his chest. Since this incident however, newspapers have published advice on how to avoid mobile phone explosions that I think we can all take on board. Click through to see them over the jump.
