Black and Blue
Can’t afford a Blackberry? Well, you might just be able to run to a Blueberry @9500, just don’t expect it to be compatible with Blackberry’s email service or apps. Yes, it’s a fake, and a pretty shameless one at that, and it’s not the first time the Malaysian company CSL has had a pop at Research in Motion, the Canadian manufacturer of the genuine article. On paper the spec is quite impressive, it has dual SIM slots, a Micro SD card reader, camera, optical trackpad, a number of ‘Islamic’ features, wi-fi and the cheeky beggars have even fitted it with an analogue TV tuner. It’s priced to sell, at around £120 but there’s not much danger of you getting hold of one in your local high street, at least not above the counter…
Windows Phone 7 Hands on Demo
Windows Phone 7 was unveiled to the world yesterday at the Mobile World Congress 2010 in Barcelona, Spain, marking a new stage in the evolution of Microsoft’s vision for smartphones. Joe Belfiore, the VP in charge of the program management and design for the next generation of Windows Phones, emphasized that Windows Phone 7 represented a new way for the Redmond company to look at its audience. In this context, with the Windows Phone 7 Series of devices and the underlying operating system, the software giant is attempting to produce more than a mobile platform, namely a complete, cohesive and expandable phone experience.
“We are super-excited to bring the design and user experience and feel of the phones really forward. We like to think that what we’re doing is building and delivering a different kind of phone that’s modern and takes advantage of people’s complex lives and their personalities to deliver something that’s unique and individual. And we think about two parts to this. (…) Read more
HTC Magic
The second device launched by the joint-venture HTC and Google – HTC Magic aka G2, suggests that the new Android-branded phones have great potential on the smartphone market. Updated to the latest firmware version, including Cupcake 1.5, HTC Magic is now shadowed by its new brother, HTC Hero, which features the new Sense GUI developed by the Taiwanese manufacturer. Still, Magic owners will be happy to find that HTC officially announced that they would be able to update their devices with the new Sense GUI, if their Magic smartphones were unlocked. Yes, those that got their devices from network carriers like T-Mobile or Vodafone will not be able to take advantage of the new GUI offered by HTC.
Announced in February 2009, HTC Magic hit the shelves three months later, in May 2009. The device is available in two classical colors: black and white. HTC Magic can be bought for around 450 USD, but that depends on location and plan. I suggest buying the unlocked version, so you can get the new graphical user interface that has been included with the Hero model. Read more
Motorola Man’s Phone
The thing with iPhones, for all their cleverness and shiny looks is that, well, someone had to say it, they’re a bit girly… What us blokes need is a real man’s phone, at least that’s what the guys at Motorola reckon, and lo and behold, they’ve come up with the hunky, chunky r75651S.
It’s a no-nonsense multi-modal mobile communications device, designed for mission-critical operatives who need a phone that’s rugged and durable. It’s designed to work in high-noise, hazardous, chemical or gaseous environments. It’s military spec, resistant to high and low temperatures, dust, shock, vibration, radiation, salt, fog and blowing rain, it says here. It’s a rough and tough, it ‘ll watch your back in a tight situation, buy you a drink down the pub and kick sand in the face of smartphones, just don’t get it angry!
Watch This Space
It’s not exactly a new idea and over the past few years watch phones have come and gone with alarming rapidity but two of the mobile phone world’s heavy hitters are about to re-launch the concept, so beloved of science fiction and not forgetting Dick Tracey who started it all. Within the next few weeks both LG and Samsung will be selling wristphones in the UK. Samsung are kicking off with the S9110, it has a 1.76-inch touch screen, built-in MP3 player, speaker, Bluetooth and at under 12mm thick, it’s one of, if not the slimmest offering to date. LG’s wristphone is the GD910 and it has a slightly smaller 1.4-inch screen, but it’s also very well equipped with voice recognition, MP3, Bluetooth and a text to speech feature. No word on whether they tell the time or not, but I think we can take that as read…Prices are expected to in the £350 to £400 bracket. Whether or not they catch on remains to be seen but I’m still a bit concerned about the odd looks you’ll be getting talking to your watch, not to mention letting everyone in earshot hear your phone calls, unless you pop in an earphone or Bluetooth headset, which sort of defeats the object…
Nokia N85 Review
One of the most acclaimed handset lineups, the Nseries from Nokia, got a new high-end device that strongly resembles the older Nokia N81. The fresh N85 kept the same slider form and keypad layout as its N81 predecessor, but this time, Nokia made an effort to get some stylish look into the handset. Also, the new Nseries device will be available on the market at a much lower price, even though it is stuffed with all the “goodies” of a usual high-end mobile phone. One of the best choices for those that are looking for a Nokia slider, the N85 is a much better pick than N81 as it lacks most of the latter’s negative points.
Announced in August 2008, Nokia N85 was made available on the market in October 2009. The slider can be bought for around USD 500, but you can get it for less in case you opt for a certain plan. There are two colors available for users to choose from: Copper and Black. Read more
Nokia N97 and N86 8MP
Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia has recently announced the upcoming availability of two of its newest and most attractive devices, the Nokia N97 and Nokia N86 8MP, and now we learn that both of them can be purchased in the UK. The Nokia N97 is the second touchscreen device from the company to come with the Symbian S60 5th edition operating system, while the Nokia N86 8MP is the first handset from the maker to pack inside an 8-megapixel photo snapper.
A lot of Nokia enthusiasts out there have been waiting for the two phones to become available on the market for some time, and now some of them are able to enjoy them. While already being available in the US, after a few weeks of pre-order availability, the high-end Nokia N97 hits the shelves in the UK along with the N86 8MP, and those who would like to purchase them should head towards the company’s flagship stores in the country to get their units. Read more
LG GD910 Watch Phone
According to the latest news on the Web, South Korean mobile phone maker LG Electronics is set to start shipping its LG GD910 watch phone on the European market as soon as next month. The device will come to European users on the airwaves of Orange, and it is expected to become available in Asia, Middle East, Australia and Latin America later this year.
The main selling point of the LG GD910 is the wrist watch shape it comes in, complemented by the 7.2Mbps HSDPA capabilities and the video calling functionality, which, even if it is not very practical, is still a nice feature on such a piece of hardware. In addition, the phone also comes with a 1.43-inch touchscreen display, and TTS (Text To Speech) capabilities. Read more
Windows Mobile 6.5 SDK
Redmond-based Microsoft has released into the wild the Windows Mobile 6.5 Developer Tool Kit so that third-party developers that would like to make applications for the upcoming operating system can start their work. Given the fact that the platform is completed and the Windows Marketplace for Mobile is on its way to come live along with the first WinMo 6.5-powered handsets, it was only a matter of time before the software giant made the SDK available.
According to Microsoft, the Windows Mobile 6.5 Developer Tool Kit now available for download “adds documentation, sample code, header and library files, emulator images and tools to Visual Studio that let you build applications for Windows Mobile 6.5.” The SDK can be used on Microsoft’s Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2, Windows Vista and Windows XP Service Pack 3 operating systems, and comes with support for six languages, namely Chinese Simplified, English, German, French, Italian and Spanish. Read more
Live Photos of Nokia 6790
The Nokia Mako was spotted into the wild only a week ago, when most of AT&T’s roadmap for 2009 surfaced on Engadget, and the handset already made it into a series of live pictures that BGR has recently published.
Nokia 6790, codenamed Mako, comes to the market with a sliding QWERTY keypad and with 3G capabilities, and it seems that it will be heading towards AT&T’s lineup in a slightly different design than what anyone would expect from a Nokia mobile phone. Even so, there are a lot of features that remind us of any other handset coming from the manufacturer.
Interestingly enough, it seems that the new Nokia Mako will not come to the market as a high-end device, as one would expect, given its looks, but, BGR says, it rather fits in line with mobile phones like the Samsung Propel, LG Xenon and Pantec Matrix. Read more
