#CTIA09: HTC Snap/S522 with Inner Circle
When arriving at the HTC booth at CTIA 2009 we were certainly expecting to see new handsets such as the Maple make its debut and receive all the buzz. Yesterday we were handed a curveball however when HTC instead announced the Snap, also to be called the S522 in the US. The HTC Snap appears [...]
RIM reports strong growth, 3.9 million new BlackBerry subscribers
As expected, Research In Motion’s results for the fiscal year 2009 (ended on February 28) are quite impressive, despite the global economic recession. The Canadian company has announced it added 3.9 million BlackBerry subscriber accounts in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009, while shipping about 7.8 million smartphones worldwide. Overall, 26 million BlackBerry handsets were [...]
Orange to launch Application Shop – its own app store
Orange is the latest major company to announce an upcoming application store for mobile phones. The service is simply called Orange Application Shop and it should go live in France and the UK starting the next few weeks. Orange’s app store will be initially available only on four handsets: Nokia N96, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, HTC Touch Diamond [...]
Verizon Mobile Web Games and Apps Store launched
The same day Orange unveiled the upcoming launch of its Application Shop, Verizon Wireless announced the availability of Mobile Web Games and Apps Store. The Games and Apps Store is presented by Verizon as “another easy and fun way for customers to access the games and applications it offers.” So, yeah, it’s obviously an app [...]
Skype for iPhone blocked by T-Mobile in Germany
Although Skype for iPhone is now available for download, not all iPhone owners can use it. Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile, the smartphone’s exclusive carrier in Germany, does not allow the use of VoIP applications on its network. And since Skype is such an application, T-Mobile Germany’s customers can’t enjoy its features – unless they want their [...]
Nokia: WiMAX is doomed, will go the way of Betamax
Sprint (alongside Intel and other companies) may believe WiMAX has a bright future, but Nokia, the world’s largest phone maker, thinks otherwise. Not only that Nokia has chosen LTE as the preferred network for its future handsets, but the Finnish company also believes WiMAX is a doomed technology (despite being itself a member of the [...]
Virgin Mobile USA to offer Opera Mini on select phones
Although Opera initially said it has no intention to announce a partnership with a US mobile carrier at CTIA 2009, the company did announce one in the end – not with a major carrier (like Verizon or AT&T), but with Virgin Mobile. Following the agreement, the largest US MVNO will distribute the Opera Mini browser on [...]
AT&T starts offering netbooks for as low as $49.99
AT&T, the former No.1 US mobile carrier, announced it now sells 3G netbooks (mini laptops) via select shops in Atlanta and Philadelphia. The available netbooks include the following models: Dell Inspiron Mini 9, Dell Inspiron Mini 12, Acer Aspire One and LG Xenia. With a 2-yr contract agreement and the AT&T Internet at Home and [...]
Movement gestures in iPhone OS 4.0 or 5.0?
If you think about it, the accelerometer that was in the iPhone from the very beginning, haven’t been put to a good use by Apple’s programmers. Sure, it helps to switch between landscape and portrait orientations. And some game developers are having a blast with it. But as far as the iPhone operation and the [...]
#CTIA09: Samsung Impression for AT&T
Checking out a phone that’s named Impression should incline me to use the phone’s name as an adjective or description (used in a sentence: “I was impressed by the Samsung Impression”). But don’t worry, folks — I won’t put you through that. Seeing the Samsung Impression A877 was a genuinely good experience, however. This year [...]
#CTIA 09: LG Neon Pictured, Video’d
Being such a simple messaging phone has its perks, but when it gets announced with five other tantalizing handsets it seems to be pushed out of the limelight as a result. This is what I feel happened with the LG Neon as it was announced to be one of the newest additions to AT&T’s bulging [...]
#CTIA09: Nokia E71x for AT&T in the Flesh
This week AT&T came out with the announcement that 6 different phones are ready to be welcomed into the loving arms of the GSM giant’s already potent lineup of phones, and many of these phones have been on display at CTIA 2009. One of those six featured phones is the Nokia E71x, the latest Symbian [...]
#CTIA09: Motorola QA4 Evoke Revealed
Motorola didn’t have a whole lot of new stuff to show off this year at CTIA, but we were happy to track down a QA4 Evoke that poked out of its hole to say hello. The Motorola QA4 Evoke was leaked a month ago and officially announced earlier this week, which we’re sure was meant [...]
#CTIA09: Samsung Propel Pro Hands-on
At the Samsung booth for CTIA 2009 I had the opportunity to take a sneak peek at another upcoming AT&T handset, coming out sometime this month: the Samsung Propel Pro. While the Propel Pro features the same form factor and QWERTY keyboard with the AT&T messaging-centric phone that shares the same name (sans Pro), that’s [...]
#CTIA09: LG Xenon for AT&T
Also in the LG booth at CTIA 2009 I discovered the forthcoming LG Xenon for AT&T. This is a very promising messaging phone that should be coming out sometime this month. The Xenon features a full QWERTY keyboard along with touch screen very similar to the LG Vu. In fact the UI is pretty much [...]
#CTIA: LG GD900 Hands-on Video
At CTIA 2009 LG had a couple working models for its brand new GD900 phone, complete with transparent keyboard and touchscreen. I was able to play around with the LG GD900 phone and see it work for myself. We captured video and picture footage to share with you. First, a few thoughts about the GD900. [...]
HTC Snap / S522 QWERTY smartphone announced
HTC Snap is a brand new Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard smartphone that was announced today by HTC at CTIA Wireless 2009 (where else?). The device measures only 12 millimeters in thickness and it looks like that HTC Maple leaked a while back. Its feature-set is by no means impressive, but that’s because HTC will probably launch it [...]
Kyocera G2GO M2000 and Laylo M1400 officially presented
Two new phones from Kyocera have been announced today at CTIA Wireless – the G2GO M2000 and Laylo M1400 – both of which are made for North America’s CDMA networks. Coming to replace the Lingo M1000, Kyocera G2GO M2000 features a horizontal sliding QWERTY keyboard, music dedicated keys and accelerometer. It will be marketed as [...]
Nokia Messaging now supports Hotmail; will be available for Nokia 5800 XpressMusic
Apart from announcing the interesting Point & Find beta service and the entry-level 1661 candybar for T-Mobile USA, Nokia has also unveiled today new features for the Nokia Messaging service. The most important novelty is the compatibility with Windows Live Hotmail (previously known as MSN Hotmail). The Finnish company also said its Messaging service will be [...]
Nokia Verizon Superman phone to feature new Nokia Linux OS, Snapdragon CPU and more
OK. April Fools’ Day is over already. So have in mind this one was our AF prank. Almost totally our imagination; and if you’ve followed the links, it was easy to spot. But, where there is smoke usually there is some fire. So there are some rumors we think are true included in this post. CTIA [...]