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Vobis Computer Announces the Highscreen Zeus, its Second Android Smartphone

Brad Molen — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 05:23:25 +0000

In July we reported on a new player in the Android market called Highscreen. Highscreen is a smartphone brand made by Vobis Computer, and in July released a device called the PP5420 that was virtually a Mobinnova Ice except with Android inside, and was launched in Russia.

Now the same company, Vobis Computer, has announced its next attempt at Android called the Highscreen Zeus, which will be launched in Russia at an unknown time for 13,990 rubles ($483 US). Needless to say, the Zeus has a much nicer ring to the name than PP5420 ever did.

Fortunately we were able to find a pic and some specs on this new device.

Some of the Zeus’ specs include:

Operating System: Google Android OS
Network: GSM / GPRS / EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) UMTS / HSDPA / HSUPA (2100 MHz)
Display: TFT, 3.2 inches diagonal, with a resolution of 240 x 400 pixels (WQVGA)
QWERTY-keyboard
Camera: 3 megapixel CMOS, Auto Focus
Navigation: GPS / AGPS
Processor: Qualcomm MSM 7225 (528 MHz)
RAM: 256 MB
ROM: 512 MB
Expansion Slot: microSD
Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, WiFi 802.11 b/g, micro-USB, 3.5 mm headset jack
Battery: Lithium-Ion 1010 mAh
GSM Talk time: up to 480 minutes for GSM
Standby: up to 400 hours for GSM
Dimensions: 110 x 55 x 15, 1 mm
Weight: 124.6 grams

Overall, it sounds like another average Android device, especially considering the inclusion of a 528 MHz processor. We also don’t know which version of the OS will be working on the Zeus.

Among the features of the Zeus will be a brand-new navigation service called iDA which will offer voice turn-by-turn navigation courtesy of a Canadian company by the name of Intrinsync. It will also offer detailed Russian city maps from Navteq.

We will keep you posted on any news of a launch date.

via Mobile-Review

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Samsung and T-Mobile Ready for Behold II Event on Nov 12

Brad Molen — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:44:54 +0000

I’ve always been intrigued by companies that like to announce that they will have an announcement. Especially in this case where Samsung and T-Mobile are partnering together to hold a press event on November 12 in which the Behold II will be the star of the show.

There have been enough leaked pics and videos of the Behold II that its overall look and feel are no longer in question, and certainly no longer a mystery. And we’ve already heard nearly-confirmed rumors that the device will officially be on sale beginning November 18. So now all that’s left is an official proclamation that the Behold II exists and really is coming out when we all expect it to.

Behold II. Tell your friends.

Just in case you need a refresher on what it looks like, check this pic out below:

via IntoMobile

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More Android: Saygus VPhone V1 Clears FCC, Headed to Verizon

Brad Molen — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:33:06 +0000

Today we have Droid and Droid Eris releasing on Verizon. Apparently that means it’s old news because already we have learned of another possible Verizon Android device coming down the pipeline.

This particular one is called the Saygus VPhone V1 and has already cleared the FCC for approval. Saygus is a relatively new player on the market, though this would certainly give immediate name-recognition to the brand.

Besides having EVDO Rev A, how can we be so sure the VPhone is coming to Verizon? Saygus’ own website is confirming it. They mention this to be not only the third Android phone to come to Verizon, but also the first to be approved via Verizon’s own Open Development Program.

We have specs and pics ready to throw at all of you. Specs first:

3.5-inch 800 x 480 capacitive touchscreen
624 MHz Processor
5 MP autofocus camera
512 MB ROM, 256 MB RAM
WiFi/Bluetooth/GPS/Possible MiFi
MicroSD slot
Front-facing camera (will this be omitted from Verizon’s final version?)
FM Radio
No 3.5 mm jack
Accelerometer/compass

Not bad. The processor could always welcome a nice bump up in speed, though 624 is still quite respectable for current standards.

Here are a few pics from the FCC files.

Likely release timeframe is set to be early 2010 as of now, but is not confirmed and always subject to change.

Are you intrigued?

via FCC File; via Slashgear

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AT&T May be Prepping $99 iPhone 3GS

Brad Molen — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:11:49 +0000

Boy Genius revived an old rumor again today, with not one but two sources to back the claim up. Generally the more sources there are, the more reliable the claim. The old rumor was that an 8 GB iPhone 3GS was on its way to replace out the 3G model; from what it sounds like, this could be happening before the holidays hit.

It seems more realistic now than when the rumor surfaced previously, mainly because now AT&T is concerned about the buzz around the Motorola Droid being comparable to the iPhone. A move like this would certainly continue to give the competitive edge to Apple and AT&T for now.

My thoughts: it’s about time. The holidays can’t come soon enough. My concern is, though, that only AT&T is rumored to be making the leap at this point. Are other iPhone carriers planning on releasing the 8 GB version of the 3GS as well?

Ultimately my dream would be for the 16 GB 3GS to drop in price to $99, and have a 64 GB iPhone 3GS come out just before the holidays at the $299 price point. But I’ll settle for an 8 GB in 3GS flavor for now.

via BGR

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T-Mobile Loses Customers in Q3

Brad Molen — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 06:59:43 +0000

As T-Mobile released its quarterly earnings and numbers today, it became much more apparent that there is a divide ever-expanding between the top 2 US carriers and the next 2. As AT&T and Verizon continue to grow its subscriber base from year to year, Sprint and T-Mobile are both losing customers.

For Q3, T-Mobile lost 77,000 subscribers. This is a stark contrast to last year’s third quarter in which the company gained over 670,000 subscribers.

Other numbers of note: T-Mobile ended the quarter with 33 million customers, and reported a net income of $417 million. They are still the #4 carrier in the US, behind Sprint, AT&T and Verizon.

T-Mobile blamed most of the loss on FlexPay customers.

via CellPhoneSignal

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Sprint Getting Blackberry Curve 8530 As Well

Brad Molen — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 06:47:12 +0000

Sprint heard Verizon’s announcement of the Blackberry Curve 8530 and decided the proper move would be to throw in its 8530 announcement early in response. Their version of the phone will also have EVDO and WiFi included.

We agree that was the right move. Verizon’s just having a heyday today with the Droid and Droid Eris coming out, as well as announcing several other devices. Sprint needed to do something to divert at least some of the attention away from Big Red.

No pricing set yet, but with Verizon’s model priced at $99.99 we anticipate a similar pricing on Sprint’s end, though it wouldn’t surprise us if Sprint undercut Verizon’s pricing by a small margin.

Sprint’s version will come in a choice of royal purple or black.

via news release:

Sprint 8530

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Blackberry Bold 9700 Now on Rogers; Prices Cut on Other Blackberry Devices

Brad Molen — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 06:27:16 +0000

After months upon months of rumors, previews and fanfare, and 2 weeks after the official announcement, the Blackberry Bold 9700 has found a starter home in Canada on Rogers.

Crackberry spotted the 9700 on sale on Rogers’ website, which is just about as official as you can get. Given the amount of love that Rogers and RIM have for each other, it’s no surprise Rogers would get first dibs at the Bold 9700.

And don’t forget that you getting your hands on such a premium Blackberry device when it first comes out will cost you roughly $299.99 ($281 US) on a 3-year contract and $599.99 sans contract.

So if forking out $300 or more for a new Blackberry isn’t really your style, perhaps you will instead be inticed to look at one of the other models Rogers sells, since Rogers just dropped the price of the Bold predecessor, Curve 8900 and 8520. Here are the new prices, which make those devices much more attractive:

BlackBerry Bold 9000: $99.99 (in black or white)
BlackBerry Curve 8900: $79.99
BlackBerry Curve 8520: $49.99 (in black or lavender)

It is nice to see those prices drop, so now there’s a Blackberry option for every price range.

Bold 9700 via Crackberry

Price Cuts via IntoMobile

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Sprint Defies Verizon, Will Not Raise ETF

Brad Molen — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 06:10:50 +0000

Yesterday it was reported that Verizon will likely be doubling its Early Termination Fee on “advanced devices” (read: Droid and other smartphones) to prevent possible online phone-flipping.

I was worried that this would have a negative ripple effect on the rest of U.S. telecom, causing every other wireless provider to follow suit. So far, 1 out of the other 3 major carriers has stepped up to the plate and rejected that notion.

That particular carrier is Sprint. Today it officially announced that there will be no change to its ETF policy in regards to this measure.

Sprint’s current ETF is set at $200 with it eventually decreasing to $50 when you are far enough through your contract.

via Sprint’s Official Twitter

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Only 2% of All Mobile Phones are Recycled, Says Report

Brad Molen — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 06:00:49 +0000

This is going to be a bit of a shocker to (we hope) everyone: a new report by ABI Research determined that only 2% of all mobile phones that are no longer being used. This means the vast majority of cell phones are probably either just thrown away or lying around in someone’s basement.

Another surprise is that only 6% of all mobile phones are being refurbished. Thus, only 8% of all cell phones worldwide are being disposed of properly. I don’t think I have to describe exactly what kind of impact this really is having on our environment, I’ll just leave it to you to imagine.

Fortunately this report isn’t all gloom and doom on the future; according to ABI Research, the number of recycled phones should double in 5 years and the total percentage of phones either refurbished or recycled will amount to 18%.

The future sounds much more acceptable, though I don’t believe it’s high enough. So then, what is the best way to dispose of your phone once you have moved on to the next? Most telecom companies offer a recycling program, and their retail stores typically have some sort of recycling bin. Many large electronics stores (Best Buy, as an example) will have a bin somewhere up front. If those options don’t fit your fancy, simply do an internet search for it and several alternatives will pop up.

In other words, there’s really no excuse not to recycle your phone if it’s not working or being of use anymore.

via ABI Research, via Environmental Leader

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Sprint to Begin Shipping Accessories in Greener Packaging

Brad Molen — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:42:54 +0000

Sprint has recently been named the 15th most green telecom company, and wants to get ranked higher in the future. Already the company has named several measures to become more environmentally-friendly; one such measure the company announced today is redesigning the packaging for its accessories to help save waste and money.

Beginning this month, Sprint will ship out these packages to all retail and online stores. The packages have become about 20 to 40 percent smaller, which will save 647 tons of waste each year; it will also help Sprint save 35% on packaging and shipping costs, to the tune of around $2.1 annually.

I do find it interesting that not only are these measures more eco-friendly, they will end up saving the company a load of money in the end as well. This is something every single telecom should be considering, if they aren’t already.

The new packaging will be available for several products, including:

Samsung Instinct HD Protective Carry Wallet
Blackberry Tour Holster
Motorola i856 Holster
Jabra C150 Behind The Ear Wired Headset
HTC Hero Silicone Gels
Samsung Reclaim Clear Ice Phone Cover
Samsung Instinct HD Gels
Samsung Intrepid i350 Silicone Gels
Micro-USB Vehicle Power Charger
Palm Micro – USB VPA
Mini USB VPA – Rim 7250/7520/7100i/Ppc6700
Samsung VPA – M300.M510

Sprint’s press release goes into a lot more detail about every little change that will make these packages environmentally friendly. Check it out here.

CORRECTION: I had written that Sprint was the 15th greenest telecom company, but I discovered that they were actually named the 15th greenest company in America by Newsweek. Here is the article.

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WAT: Why there ain’t more phones with Android 2.0. And there won’t be soon, if ever

Staska — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:25:55 +0000

This is another post in my “Wild arsed theories” (WAT) category. It’s a pure speculation, based on the stuff I see happening in mobile industry. And some of these posts will certainly be completely off base. So if you have some corrections, objections, or knowledge that I am wrong, do not hesitate to share them in the comments.

What the heck’s happening with this Android stuff? All was peachy with the Android 1.0, Android 1.1, Android 1.5 Cupcake, and even Android 1.6 Donut releases.

Google will make OS available, cellphone vendors will take the package and make cool smartphones with it. Everyone gets the same version and releases handsets with it, accordingly.

Then came the announcement of Android 2.0 running Verizon/Motorola Droid, release of Android 2.0 SDK to developers, and things started getting really confusing.

With much more advanced and visually appealing Android 2.0 available, and already running on one phone, one would expect other vendors to jump on the bandwagon, and announce Eclair running handsets as soon as they can.

But no, all others, announcing their Android smartphones, for some mysterious reason, are using the old 1.6 Donut version of the OS. Even for the high end models, that will ship only next year, like Sony Ericsson Xperia X10, or other Verizon Droid series handsets, like HTC Eris.

And I think, I know what this reason is.

There simply is no 2.0 version of Android operating system yet. At least in a way, we usually consider a software package to be ready for a version X.0 number.

What we do have as an OS, Google, Motorola and Verizon call Android 2.0 for marketing purposes, is a pre-release/beta version of the software, optimized to run on a single device by a single vendor.

If you think it’s unlikely that Google will give one vendor such a strong preference, to launch a competing device, with a more advanced version of OS, think again.

This is exactly the same thing Google did last year, when they really wanted to get their OS into the market, before the year/holiday season was over. Google worked directly with HTC, optimizing the unfinished operating system to run on a single handset. Then they called it Android 1.0, and launched HTC G1/Dream handset running on it. With tons of unfinished/absent features, bugs and all.

Even Andy Rubin himself admitted, that Android 1.0 wasn’t really a software package worthy of 1.0 tag. Android reached that level only with the release of the Cupcake 1.5/Donut 1.6 updates. That’s when all other vendors felt that the software was actually ready for their phones, and got busy releasing them.

The launch of Motorola Droid, is sort of a deja vu of the things that happened last year.

Close integration work exclusively for a single handset, from a single vendor. Advanced version of the OS, not available to other vendors. The feeling of a rushed job, manifesting in illogically unfinished/absent features (see the dismal multimedia/sync experience, camera issues, universal search limitations, laginess of basic UI elements, etc; that Gizmodo found on Droid).

All are the mirror thing of the problems the original G1 faced in November 2008.

So, to anyone waiting for another Android 2.0 handset to be released anytime soon, sorry. You won’t be seeing any of them this year. If ever.

My guess is, that Android 2.0 will remain exclusive to Motorola Droid/Milestone. Just like Android 1.0 was exclusive to HTC Dream/G1.

The rest of us, who will not pick up Droid, will have to wait for the release of Android 2.1/Flan, to get our hands on the next generation Android goodness. The handsets with which should be announced in February 2010, and start shipping sometime in March/April.

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T-Mobile to Add Own Channel, Carrier Billing to Android Market

Brad Molen — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:26:36 +0000

T-Mobile is serious about Android, and is making necessary investments to ensure everyone benefits from it. Announced today, the 4th largest carrier in the US will be adding a couple new features to Android Market on its own handsets.

In time for Thanksgiving, the company will be offering its own T-Mobile channel within the Android Market, which will offer recommendations on which content to download, in order to add ease to the customer’s experience in finding new apps and downloads.

But wait, there’s more. T-Mo will also be adding in support for billing the customer’s account as an alternative to using Google Checkout whenever downloading a purchased Android app.

Carrier billing is somewhat unusual in the States for App Stores. Purchases made on the iPhone App Store, for example, are billed to the customer’s iTunes account instead of AT&T directly. Venetia Espinoza, Director of Mobile Applications and Partner Programs explained that:

We are making it very easy to purchase apps. Historically, research has shown that with carrier billing, there’s a big uptick of 30 to 40 percent in app or content downloads….We’ve been working very closely with Google over the last several months to integrate the Android Market with our internal billing gateway.

Any interesting insights to the news? Do you believe the “research” that’s been done to prove carrier billing is more popular?

via MocoNews

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Samsung Jack Gets Dressed up in WM 6.5

Brad Molen — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:11:19 +0000

Samsung announced this morning that one of its existing smartphones will be getting a tuneup. If you own a Samsung Jack you will now be able to upgrade your phone to Windows Mobile 6.5 Standard.

To be honest, we weren’t expecting to see the Jack to be one of the first 6.1 phones pushed through to 6.5 by its manufacturer. Nothing against the Jack at all; it’s just running Standard since there is no touchscreen capability.

So what does the Jack and any other WM 6.5 Standard phone get? Improved Internet Explorer, full access to Windows Marketplace, and free access to AT&T WiFi hotspots.

Woohoo? Anyone excited about this one?

In order to download the upgrade, check out Samsung’s official place to do so.

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Want a Droid on Verizon? There’s an ETF Hike For That

Brad Molen — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:55:51 +0000

In (presumably) an effort to discourage potential Droid-flippers from just purchasing the phone on contract only to cancel that contract and sell the phone online, Verizon has been planning to double the cancellation fee on “advanced devices”.

That’s right — for advanced phones such as the Droid and similar smartphones, the Early Termination Fee will begin at $350 and decrease by $10 per month per line, starting November 15.

We can’t help but assume that the only reason this ETF is warranted is to prevent anyone from flipping their fancy new Droids on eBay for profit, but it still seems the penalty is a bit harsh.

Just when we thought contracts were becoming more fair by way of prorated ETFs, this comes out of nowhere and blindsides everyone. Thus there is a legitimate fear in other carriers following suit. After all, the iPhone is being subsidized by $400, so it wouldn’t be too ridiculous to imagine AT&T copycatting Verizon on this one.

Here’s a solution, Verizon: if you’re so worried about losing money and customers but yet want to be fair about the ETF, demand a $350 ETF for only the first 4-6 months to ward off the potential flippers, and then drop the ETF down to the same cost as every other device.

via BGR

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Nokia N900 to be released in U.S. next week! Nov. 14th, to be exact

Staska — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:15:53 +0000

I know many of you have been waiting for Nokia N900 to finally hit the shops.

And were extremely disappointed, when Nokia delayed the release of N900 from October to November. Without even bothering to reveal more concrete release date, or even week.

Well, your wait is almost over. There are reports that Nokia N900 starts shipping in U.K. on Nov. 16th.

And now I have even better news for those, who have been eagerly awaiting Nokia’s N900 arrival to the United States.

Nokia N900 will be released in U.S. next week. On November 14th, to be exact, if the info on NewEgg website is accurate:

As you can see, NewEgg is having a pretty nice discount on Nokia N900, and says that it’s being released on 11/14/2009 – that’s next Saturday.

The wait seems to be almost over. Let’s hope this is for real, and there will be no more last minute delays by Nokia.

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Google Hard at Work on Android 2.1

Brad Molen — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:28:55 +0000

I personally love to see a tech company always a step or two ahead of itself. Google is rumored to be in such a position, currently hard at work at version 2.1 of its Android mobile OS even though version 2.0 won’t officially be out until Friday.

It really shouldn’t be a surprise to too many Android fans, considering the short turnaround time between 1.6 and 2.0. It’s natural to assume Google would already be hard at work getting the next available version ready for developers as soon as possible. This ability to quickly update definitely can be a sign of a healthy mobile OS with a load of potential.

Here’s how it was discovered: Android and Me’s webmasters were tracking the site’s analytics reports and found that 0.04% of its traffic was coming from Android 2.1, instead of any other OS. It seems like such an incredibly simple approach, yet it worked rather well.

There are no reports of any brand-new features in 2.1 as of yet; all that is known for sure is that 2.1 will be a minor update to fix bugs from 2.0 and will be ready by the end of 2009. Still, that’s a rather fast turnaround time for an OS to get all major bugs fixed that soon.

via Android and Me, via PhoneArena

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Haven’t Found E.T. Yet? Blame Mobile Phones

Brad Molen — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:08:04 +0000

Nature’s calling us, and we can’t even hear it. Why not? Because there’s a map for that.

The U.S. National Research Council (NRC) recently published a report which claims there are some natural signals, such as radio emissions from space and natural earth phenomena, are being impeded by consumer gadgets such as cell phones and other wireless devices.

These wireless devices are regulated, but the NRC is calling for stricter rules and regulations to ensure the devices won’t be bleeding into the same spectrum as these quieter natural signals that are crucial to collecting scientific data.

According to LiveScience:

The “electronic fog” of manmade signals could not only dampen scientific discoveries, but also threaten passive monitoring systems vital to agriculture, transportation and national defense.

Passive instruments listen for faint radio emissions from water, soil and atmospheric gases, as well as emissions related to atmospheric changes in temperature and humidity.

The NRC believes that while these manmade wireless signals are essential to the global economy and thus are necessary to keep intact, a certain balance must be achieved so that both sides can be appeased.

Proper balance could be wrought about in a few different ways: set aside more spectrum for these signals that can’t be reached by mobile devices; develop new technologies to allow both to co-exist peacefully; or simply allow scientists the ability to briefly turn off radio transmissions so they can collect data when a satellite passes over a given area. There are certainly many possible ideas to ensure scientists can continue in their work unimpeded by the latest technology out there.

via LiveScience

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Study Shows Touchscreen Adoption Growing at Exponential Rate in USA

Brad Molen — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:45:43 +0000

Think back to last year’s holiday season. Does it seem as though there are several more touchscreen phones available or announced this year than there were last year?

It’s not an illusion; according to comScore there are 24 million touchscreen devices in use within the United States, a 159 percent growth year-over-year from last year at this time.

That is a huge rate of expansion for a US cell phone market that has historically been slower to adopt new trends and technology than overseas markets in Asia or Europe. On top of touchscreen growth the US has also seen a 63 percent raise in smartphone use.

Frankly, it doesn’t take a lot of thinking to figure out the main contributor to this army of 24 million touchscreen phones. Did you guess the iPhone? You would be exactly right. It turns out that 32.9 percent of US touchscreen phones are iPhones.

The breakdown goes as follows: 32.9 % iPhone, 8.7% LG Dare, 7.8% LG Voyager, 7% Blackberry Storm, and 6.5% Palm Treo. Also on the list at 5 percent or lower are the T-Mobile G1, HTC Touch, LG Xenon, Samsung Instinct, and Samsung Glyde.

Of note in the study is how popular capacitive screens are over the more traditional resistive screens, and touchscreens in general are becoming much more popular for people under the age of 35 than those over 35.

Check out the link for complete lists of all the breakdowns in the study.

via Cellular News

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Sony Ericsson will open Xperia X10 Timescape and Mediascape UX apps to developers, port across Android and Symbian devices

Staska — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:12:38 +0000

The news reports about the new Sony Ericsson X10 Android handset today were mainly focused on it’s awesome specs and cool Timescape and Mediascape user interface apps, on top of Android 1.6.

And they are indeed pretty cool.

But today’s announcement actually gives even more hints, about how Sony Ericsson plans to go bout making new devices that should get it out of the current slump.

One of the first steps in SE plans, is making this *scape user interface, into an open UI platform, across multiple lines of devices.

Sony Ericsson head of portfolio planning has confirmed to Electricpig.co.uk that they do plan to port the new UI to Symbian handsets. And I will not be at all surprised, if their own high end feature phones will get the same UX too.

The other thing, revealed in Sony Ericsson communication to developers today, is that they plan to open Mediascape and Timescpe UI apps to third party developers, by releasing SDK sometime in 2010. According to SE:

We are keen to open up the APIs for these applications, and we welcome a dialog with developers to get ideas and feedback, with a view to launching a Sony Ericsson SDK in early 2010.

This common UI across multiple platforms approach, is actually nothing new. All major handset vendors are already doing it, in one way or another. HTC has the Sense UI, LG created “S-Class”, Samsung uses TouchWiz, which even has an SDK for third party widgets, etc;

But it’s good to see Sony Ericsson finally getting in tune with the industry trends with their multi platform user interface initiative and pretty cool devices. Both, Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 and Timescape/Mediascape UX apps, look good, albeit extremely laggy, in presentation and limited demos.

Hope they will iron out the bugs in a couple of months remaining before launch. Which was pretty nice.

Now comes the “easy” part. Implementation

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TwitterPeek device launched, costs as low as $99.99

Ilinca Nita — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:04:28 +0000

Peek Inc., the New York-based maker of handheld devices, has just introduced the TwitterPeek, touted as the world’s first dedicated Twitter device.

The TwitterPeek features a 2.5 inch QVGA landscape display, a full QWERTY keyboard, a trackwheel on the side, and a battery that should last up to three days.

So what can you do with it? Well, it’s a Twitter-only handset, so you can: read Tweets, send Tweets, reply, retweet, send direct messages, download followers and… that’s about it. When you receive Tweets, the TwittertPeek can vibrate, make a tweeting sound, and light up a blue light on the front.

The folks over at PC Mag already had the chance to play with a TwitterPeek. Reportedly, the device is very easy to set-up, but it’s “painfully slow” after that. When you’re viewing the main list of tweets, you can only see the first three and a half words of each tweet – you have to hit the Return key to read more. Also, you can’t search for trending topics, can’t view photos other than the ones stored on Twitpic, and can’t view full HTML pages.

TwitterPeek costs $99.99 with 6 months of free service, or $199.99 with lifetime service. You can buy the device via the Twitter Peek website.

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Over 50% of European consumers want a touch UI for their next phone. More than half who tried a touch UI don’t want it anymore

Ilinca Nita — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:19:48 +0000

Touchscreen phones are becoming more and more popular with each month that passes by, and the latest survey unveiled by Canalys shows that more than 50% of consumers want their next phone to have a touch-based UI – well, at least in Western Europe (more exactly in France, Germany and the UK).

The survey shows that, from over 3,000 phone users, 38% would prefer a finger-based touchscreen phone, while 16% want a stylus-based touchscreen phone.

However, from the customers who have tried a touchscreen UI, only 47% would choose it again for their next phone.

Interestingly, most of those who tried touchscreen phones from Apple and HTC want to continue with touch UIs, while only 27% of the users who had Sony Ericsson touchscreen phones would stick to the same type of UI.

“The results suggest that consumer awareness of touchscreen UIs is very high, driven by the marketing of Apple, Samsung and others, and there is no doubt that the changes in device design we have seen over the past couple of years have produced some very exciting products. But it is also apparent that, with experience, a significant proportion of users have not been totally won over by some of these devices. This is to be expected, as it is quite a big shift for many users to make, but a poor experience with one touchscreen device may dissuade users from trying another one in the future and it is imperative that vendors focus on usability and practicality as well as visual appeal, and continue to enhance their interfaces. There has always been a question mark over how well touchscreens would work among an SMS-centric audience and the results indicate the transition has not been totally smooth,” declared Canalys senior analist Pete Cunningham.

(Sony Ericsson Xperia X10)

Virtually all major phone makers have touchscreen handsets in their portfolio, and the years to come will probably see touch UIs getting closer to perfection. Will this lead to the extinction of classic cell phones? Probably not, but it’s obvious that the future isn’t made for non-touch handsets.

Via Press release

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Dell Mini 3iX Android phone turns up in Brazil. With tri-band 3G/HSDPA and Wi-Fi

Staska — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:56:56 +0000

We already know that Dell has an Android based smartphone in the works.

We saw a Wi-Fi and 3G less Dell Mini 3i officially launch in China, and we’ve heard that it may soon come to the United States.

But the U.S may not be the first country in Americas to get the new Dell handset.

Dell Mini 3iX just turned up on a site of a telecoms regulatory authority in Brazil.

And the X branded version comes with those things we missed most in it’s Chinese sibling – Wi-Fi and 3G UMTS/HSDPA connectivity. With no less then 3 bands of it – 850/1900/2100 MHz.

We are not sure about the rest of the specs, but if they remain unchanged, Dell Mini 3iX should come equipped with:

3.5 inch touchscreen display with 640 x 360 pixels, 262K colors and handwriting recognition
Multi touch User Interface
Virtual QWERTY keyboard
A-GPS
Microsoft Exchange support
Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR, USB 2.0
3MP autofocus camera with flash and 30fps video recording
MicroSD card support
122 x 58 x 11.7 mm
103 grams

And now we wait for the official announcement of Dell Mini 3iX. The holiday season is almost upon us, so it shouldn’t take long.

Via Cellular Cafe

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Motorola Milestone (Droid) officially launched in Europe. Gets multi-touch, loses free navigation

Staska — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:09:40 +0000

We already knew that the Motorola Droid handset won’t featured only on Verizon network.

There were enough trustworthy sources and hints, claiming that this hot Motorola Android 2.0 handset is headed for Europe too.

We just didn’t expect to get it across the pond quite so fast. Motorola Droid was just announced by Verizon last week, and today it already launches as Motorola Milestone in Europe.

Motorola Milestone is is not exactly the same phone as Verizon Droid. In one way it’s better – Motorola Milestone comes with multi-touch pinch&zoom gesture support, which, for some reason, was disabled in Droid.

But it loses free turn-by-turn navigation from Google, probably because this feature is not ready for primetime in Europe yet. Instead Motorola Milestone comes with a trial version of MOTONAV turn-by-turn navigation, which is free for the first 60 days, but then a license fee kicks-in.

Otherwise Motorola Milestone is the same old Droid with:

WCDMA/900/2100, GSM 850/900/1800/1900, HSPA, GPRS connectivity
Android 2.0 OS
3.7″; WVGA (480 x 854 pixels); 16:9 widescreen; PPI 267
5 megapixel camera
Wi-Fi, GPS, Accelerometer
1400 mAh battery

And all other goodies original Droid had.

Italy and Germany will be the first markets to get Motorola Milestone,other markets will have to wait for it a bit.

Via: Motorola

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290.5 million phones sold in Q3 2009, Samsung and LG break new records

Ilinca Nita — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:09:32 +0000

The mobile phone market showed slight signs of recovery in Q3 2009, as 290.5 million cell phones were sold during the quarter – a 5.6% increase when compared to Q2 2009.

All five major handset vendors sold more phones in Q3 than in Q2, save for Motorola, which slipped to fifth place, previously occupied by Sony Ericsson.

Samsung and LG, the two South Korean giants, both broke new records. Samsung shipped more than 60 million phones in a quarter for the first time, so it now controls more than 20% of the market, as expected. LG shipped only 31.6 million units, but it is its highest number to date.

Here’s the top five handset vendors for Q3 2009:

Nokia – 108.5 million units, 37.3% market share
Samsung – 60.2 million units, 20.7%
LG – 31.6 million units, 10.9%
Sony Ericsson – 14.1 million units, 4.9%
Motorola – 13.6 million units, 4.7%
Others – 60.1 million units, 21.5%

Expectations for the fourth quarter of the year are high:

“We forecast 300 million handsets to be shipped worldwide in Q4 2009, growing 3% from 294 million units in Q4 2008. We believe this will be the first time the industry has returned to positive growth since Q3 2008, signaling an end to the handset recession after 4 quarters of decline. Consumers and handset vendors are gradually regaining a little confidence,” declared Neil Mawston, Director at Strategy Analytics.

Via Press release

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Verizon: Our 3G Network Can Handle Large Droid Demand

Brad Molen — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 05:55:34 +0000

Certain smartphones have become so popular in the US that the large amount of demand was too much for the data network supporting it, thus causing slower internet downloads and dropped calls. Verizon has made it perfectly clear that it is fully prepared for whatever strain its new Motorola Droid will inflict upon its network.

Considering the general public’s concern on the drain the iPhone’s demand has been on AT&T’s 3G network, Verizon Director of data services for the Illinois-Wisconsin region Arvin Singh is attempting to put those concerns to rest.

He says Verizon expects heavy demand of the Motorola Droid, and it has long architected its EV-DO Revision A network to handle these kinds of capacities.

“We’re anticipating the Droid will be a blockbuster, but we’re not adding any new backhaul or new EV-DO carriers for the launch. We’re not anticipating the network will take a hit on this.”

Obviously Verizon is rather confident in its network. So the big test is coming. They expect a blockbuster phone, and there is a very good chance the Droid will live up to the expectations. Now we sit back and see how right or wrong Verizon was in making those claims.

We know it would be difficult to be any worse than the iPhone’s strain on AT&T’s current data network, but will Verizon be any better off? VZW is almost cocky about its network, but AT&T is usually just as confident about its data capabilities.

via TelephonyOnline

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Analyst Predicts Verizon iPhone Deal in 2010

Brad Molen — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 05:36:26 +0000

The only way the “Verizon iPhone in 2010″ rumor will go away is if by December 31, 2010 we still haven’t seen a Verizon iPhone. Otherwise, the rumor will stick around and offer continuous debate until we are completely sick of it.

Until that happens, we’ll still report the latest developments in that rumor. This latest go-round in the series of rumors is from Brian Marshall, an analyst for Broadpoint AmTech. In a research note, he predicts iPhone exclusivity will drop in the US and Verizon will pick it up, though at a different subsidy than AT&T currently uses.

Marshall predicts in contrast to the typical $400-450 subsidy AT&T provides to entice customers, Verizon would likely offer a $300 subsidy. In essence, Verizon’s iPhone would cost more to a new customer than one with AT&T.

While Marshall is positive this deal will happen, not every analyst shares his enthusiasm. Many argue that the recent Droid launch and future partnerships with Google will cause a rift between Verizon and Apple, thus keeping them from selling the iPhone anytime soon.

On top of that, other rumors point to Apple wanting to wait until Verizon’s LTE network is officially launched before offering the iPhone to the company. This could happen later in 2010, but it’s highly doubtful the LTE network would be running at full speed next summer (the time of year Apple has released each model of the iPhone thus far).

So who is right? Who is wrong? Frankly, analysts seem to think they know everything even while their associates may disagree with them completely. So I don’t look at analysts as portals to the future, but it is always intriguing to hear their professional opinions and predictions.

via Computerworld

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Sprint Plans New App Store on its Smartphones

Brad Molen — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 05:16:26 +0000

Sometime early next year, Sprint/Nextel plans to scrap its current Sprint Store and trade up to a new App Store that, according to claims, will be more open and managed by a third party.

When the change happens, Sprint will stop shipping smartphones with pre-installed apps already on them, which would be a huge move for any carrier in the US; every mobile provider typically likes to throw in several of its own apps on branded handsets.

It will be interesting to see if Sprint’s new app store will complement the already-existing marketplaces on Android and WebOS. Will they help each other, or cannibalize one another?

Currently Sprint is promising a turnaround time of one week to review and approve apps that have been submitted to the store, which would be a huge difference from Apple’s App Store that typically takes 10-14 days, if not longer.

Does this new app store stand a chance?

via AppAdvice

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Motorola to Launch 20+ Smartphones in 2010

Brad Molen — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 05:01:06 +0000

So it appears the Motorola Droid is just the beginning of the company’s rebirth back into mobile phone prosperity, as indicated by a statement by CEO Sanjay Jha during the press announcement of the Droid yesterday.

At first Sanjay mentioned the number of new smartphones would be in “multiple tens”, before clarifying that at least 20 would be released.

This seems to be a rather good indication that Motorola is back on the right track, and is ready to pull some hefty competition on everyone else.

So here’s the thing: given Motorola’s dumping of virtually every OS but Android, we’re wondering how many of these 20+ smartphones will be Android and how many will be WinMo. We know Moto isn’t interested in 6.5 but most likely is waiting for 7 to come out; will it be a 50/50 split between WM7 and Android?

As you know, I love to speculate and ask questions. Only time will be able to answer those questions, but my hope is to spark conversation in our comments about this. My brain tells me it’s too soon for Motorola to make such a large commitment before posting some good quarterly numbers, but it shows that Moto is very confident in its future, and that should be applauded.

via Gearlog

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HTC: No Android HD2 For You!

Brad Molen — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 04:41:55 +0000

Yours truly reported a rumor circulating a few days back that the HTC Passion, the CDMA equivalent of the Dragon, would be coming to Verizon as Android’s version of the HD2. According to a recent interview however, that rumor has been dispelled by HTC’s CEO.

Peter Chou conducted an interview with Forbes yesterday and talked about quite a few aspects of the smartphone industry. But what was most interesting to us was his declaration:

Technically, we could make the HD2 an Android phone, but I have to take care of Windows Mobile.

Blammo. Just like that, all hope has been lost. Or has it?

I personally got a couple things from that nugget. He mentioned the HD2 specifically won’t be an Android phone. There will only be one flavor of HD2, and that’s Windows Mobile. But the rumor I mentioned specifically about the HTC Passion, was supposed to be an “equivalent” of the HD2; not actually the HD2 itself.

So my opinion is that the HTC Passion could be very real still, and could easily be on its way to Verizon. Technically it’s not the HD2, just a heck of a lot like it.

I also found it interesting when he said “I have to take care of Windows Mobile”, as if he were in The Godfather. As if he owes Microsoft something. This statement hints at some sort of mandatory contract or agreement HTC has with Microsoft to carry a certain number or percentage of Windows phones in a given year. I wonder if there’s any validity to that.

Thoughts? Feel free to call me out if there are flaws in my logic.

via Forbes

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Rumor: Droid Eris to sell at $99

Brad Molen — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 04:56:42 +0000

Hey, remember the Droid Eris? You know, that phone that’s launching the same day as the Droid, but isn’t getting as much attention? We may have some news that will certainly grab your attention.

Gdgt has a source on good authority that knows the Droid Eris will be available with contract for $99, compared to the $199 price point of the Droid.

This actually makes a lot of sense. For one, the Eris will be a hard sell if it’s offered at the same cost as its more popular Android cousin. Especially if it isn’t rocking Eclair right from the get-go.

We want to hear from anyone who is planning on buying one of the two new Droid-series handsets. Would the $99/199 pricing make a difference on your decision? Which one are you going to go with?

via Gdgt

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HTC Hero, Android 2.0 to Come Together

Brad Molen — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 04:41:39 +0000

Not everyone enjoys Twitter, but I find that the popular social networking service is a great platform for breaking news. Take this golden gem of news from HTC:

The rumors are true! Hero will be getting an Eclair update. We ask for your patience as we update Sense for the fancy new Android OS.

Less than 140 characters long, yet it tells so much more. We just recently learned that HTC has been using Android 2.0 in-house for some time now and would be putting it in models in the near future.

Up until now the only device known to have the Eclair update on it is the Motorola Droid, just announced yesterday. So as far as we know, this will be the second device to have Eclair. That is, unless some other phone comes out with it first.

How will Sense UI fit into Eclair? And will we now see a huge flood of other Android devices following suit with 2.0 updates?

via HTC Twitter

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Google announces Android 2.0 Eclair support in the Android SDK

Ilinca Nita — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:23:22 +0000

Android 2.0 OS is now available to developers, as Google has just announced that Android SDK supports the latest version of the OS, also known as Eclair.

Android 2.0 comes with new developers APIs for sync and Bluetooth, as well as lots of new user features.

The new features include: support for multiple accounts (Google and Exchange), search functionality for SMS and MMS, improved virtual keyboard, camera enhancements (scene mode, digital zoom, color effects, white balance and macro focus), refreshed browser UI, support for HTML5, support for double-tap zoom in the browser and so on. All the new features of Android 2.0 can be found here.

Most probably, the first phone to come with Android 2.0 is Verizon’s Motorola Droid, which should be officially announced tomorrow.

Meanwhile, here’s the Android 2.0 official video promo:

Via the Android Developers Blog

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HTC Touch Diamond2 is Next to Get WinMo 6.5 Treatment

Brad Molen — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:16:02 +0000

Just a couple nights ago we reported that Windows Mobile 6.5 has finally been getting some love by current 6.1 handsets such as Vodafone’s version of the HTC Touch Pro2. Now that love is starting to spread to other HTC products.

This particular update will be available for the Touch Diamond2, and not for just one carrier; it looks like it will be for most European countries.

For reference, here are the version numbers for each specific country.

Germany 2.16.407.1

Denmark 2.16.403.1

United Kingdom 2.16.405.4

Sweden 2.16.413.1

Norway 2.16.409.1

Portugal 2.16.410.1

HTC’s website has all the download details, but here are some words of warning before you perform the upgrade:

* Please note that this upgrade will erase any data stored on the device. Once you proceed with the upgrade, the system can not be downgraded again.

* Please back up your data first before upgrading your device. Before you run the ROM Upgrade Utility (RUU), make sure you check and do the following:

* The USB sync cable is connected to your device and PC. If your PC is running Windows XP®, ActiveSync® will run automatically to establish a connection. If your PC is running Windows Vista™, then Windows Mobile Device Center will establish the connection between your device and PC.

* All running applications on the device have been closed.

* Make sure that the battery level of the device is at least 50%. To check, tap Start > Settings > System tab > Power.

* The update will take up to 30 minutes, DO NOT interrupt the update process, make/receive phone calls, disconnect the device from the PC, or press any buttons until the process has been completed.

Sidenote: Australia’s Telstra has also updated their HTC Snap to WinMo 6.5. Go here to get the download.

via WMExperts

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Verizon to Launch Droid, Droid Eris on Nov 6

Brad Molen — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:01:36 +0000

When hearing rumors, one must ask themself: What would BGR speculate? This particular rumor brought to us by BGR is rather juicy, as it indicates that both the Motorola Droid and HTC Droid Eris (Desire?) will be launching on November 6.

Previously we expected to see two different launch dates on these handsets, with the Droid quite possibly around tomorrow-ish. But we can completely understand a double Droid-launch to start the new Droid series off strong.

How confident is BGR on this rumor? They say it’s the closest they can get without having an official announcement. That is particularly strong. Keep you posted.

via BGR

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iPhone App Store Reaches 100,000 Apps

Brad Molen — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 06:23:02 +0000

We all knew it was just a matter of time before the milestone was reached, but several app analytics sites are reporting the number of apps that have been approved for use in the App Store have surpassed 100,000.

There hasn’t been any official announcement from Apple yet, though it is possible we could hear something from them at any time about this. It seems a hefty enough milestone to at least mention somewhere.

Naturally this is a great deal ahead of any other mobile OS out there, by an astronomically large margin. Given the fact that most other platforms based their app stores on the one found on the iPhone, this is no surprise by any means.

But it is something worth celebrating. The fact that there are so many different apps available to allow you to customize your iPhone virtually any possible way you’d like, is what makes the iPhone so unique and has brought in such a large and loyal following around the world.

Is there a ceiling to how many apps can be supported in the App Store? It’ll be interesting to see the evolution of the Store over the coming years.

via Mobile Entertainment via PhoneArena

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SIM Card Tray for Next-Gen iPhone Found

Brad Molen — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 06:02:33 +0000

Normally a SIM card tray isn’t a very huge deal. It houses SIM cards, so who could care about something as insignificant about that? Rumor chasers, that’s who could care. And they certainly do.

Spotted in the wild, we have photographic evidence of some kind of SIM card tray, quite possibly for a next-gen iPhone or iTablet.

I think it’s for the tablet, and here’s why:

This tray is larger, indicating it is for a larger device
iPhones are currently coming out each summer, and it seems a bit early to begin iPhone next-gen rumors as small as SIM trays
If the tablet really comes out early 2010 as rumored, this would be ideal timing for a SIM tray to be leaked

If the SIM tray really is for the tablet, it will be cellular-based, not just WiFi/data-based.

There is far too little information to come to any conclusions, but if it is a bona fide SIM card tray, it’s either for the tablet or for a brand new iPhone coming out earlier in the year.

What do you think? Sound off in the comments!

via IntoMobile

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Telus Launching HSPA Nov 5; iPhone is on the List

Brad Molen — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 05:47:41 +0000

When we last mentioned that Telus would be upgrading its network to a full HSPA+ spread in November, we had no idea when exactly during the month we would see it. Finally we know.

The magic date is November 5. This particular day will welcome not only the new network but several handsets to support that network with it.

Among the most notable of handsets is the iPhone 3G and 3GS, launching for the same exact price as on Rogers ($99, 199, 299 for 8 GB 3G, 16 GB 3GS and 32 GB 3GS, respectively).

In addition to the highlighted phone, we also have a great supporting cast: the HTC Hero, LG New Chocolate (BL40), Blackberry 9700 and Nokia E71, as well as a USB laptop card.

Not too shabby for an opening launch, Telus; not too shabby at all. We hope you can have all the bugs worked out of such a huge day before it actually happens.

Telus official website

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InPulse Blackberry Watch is Official, Taking Pre-Orders Now

Brad Molen — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 05:29:49 +0000

It’s been exactly a week since we heard more firm rumors about a Blackberry watch that went by the name of InPulse, and today we stumbled across the watch’s website and it is possible for you to pre-order it right now.

The watch isn’t actually a phone like the LG GD910 is. Instead, it is designed to connect wirelessly to your phone by BlueTooth, alerting you instantly to incoming emails, SMS and calls.

Crazy enough, however, the InPulse isn’t RIM-made by any means; it’s made by a company named Allerta. It just works best when paired up with a Blackberry running OS 4.3 or better.

The InPulse features a 1.3″ OLED screen, and is customized directly from your Blackberry. It will have a 4 day battery life.

You can pre-order your InPulse now at their site. While you don’t have to pluck down hard-earned cash quite just yet for the watch, expect to be paying $149 in February 2010 when the InPulse starts shipping.

via PhoneArena

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HTC Confirms its Involvement With Android 2.0

Brad Molen — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 05:09:24 +0000

We find ourselves being a little perplexed at Google’s system of releasing updates to its Android OS platform. Perplexed, because there’s no rhyme or reason to it, and different handsets are being released with different versions on them.

With this said, we learned today that HTC is officially speaking out about its involvement with Eclair, the anticipated Android 2.0 update, that they have had it around for some time now and plan on releasing it on future phones.

Yet we see brand new handsets such as the Samsung Moment currently being released with Android 1.5, while 1.6 is currently out and then devices like the Motorola Droid will come out very soon with version 2.

What the heck is going on? Different carriers are getting different versions of Android, or so it seems.

Gearlog wrote about this very issue today, questioning whether or not Google is playing favorites by letting certain manufacturers have access to Eclair before others. Certainly it’s difficult to confirm because officially Samsung hasn’t come out with any word as to whether or not it currently has Eclair to play with.

At least now we know for sure that it isn’t just Motorola playing around with V2, but there are still a lot of unanswered questions. But one thing’s for sure — if Google isn’t being open with its “open platform”, there will be some serious issues to be addressed soon.

via Gearlog

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T-Mobile USA launches Even More and Even More Plus plans

Ilinca Nita — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:09:19 +0000

T-Mobile has introduced new suits of plans for its customers in the USA, plans that are called Even More and Even More Plus.

The T-Mobile Even More price plans require a 2-yr contract agreement and let you buy phones at discounted prices. Starting at $59.99, Even More individual plans offer unlimited calls.

The T-Mobile Even More Plus plans do not require a contract agreement (and you can’t get discounted phones). Unlimited calls for individuals start at $49.99 per month. To get unlimited texts you’ll have to pay $59.99, while at $69.99 you also have unlimited web.

To find out more about T-Mobile USA’s new plans, visit the carriers’ official website.

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Vodafone Updates Touch Pro2 to WinMo 6.5

Brad Molen — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 06:32:04 +0000

Any of you who have a HTC Touch Pro2 with Vodafone, we know you have been patiently waiting for your handset to get Windows Mobile 6.5. And finally Vodafone has an update ready for you to download.

What you’ll need to do to download 6.5 on your Touch Pro2 is follow this link leading you to a download site with some instructions on how to properly update it without losing information and totally screwing up your phone.

Also nice to know is that if you’re too concerned about updating it on your own and messing it up, just simply take it into a local store and they will update it for you.

The instructions are:

You need a broadband connection.
We recommend that you backup all important content – contacts, photos, ringtones, games etc – stored on your phone before you start.
You’ll need your phone’s USB cable. If you don’t have one you can buy one from your local Vodafone store.
You’ll also have to download an application to your PC.
Make sure your battery level is at least 50%, if not higher.

On the site is a PDF file that may include a couple other friendly reminders. We recommend being as thorough and prepared as possible when making such an important update.

Let us know how it works out!

via Vodafone

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HTC Files Patents for Screen-Locking Capabilities

Brad Molen — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 06:10:15 +0000

With the iPhone and other similar touchscreen phones popping up all over the place, each with their own way of unlocking the screen after it’s been in your pocket/purse/etc. it’s always interesting to see new patents filed about this very process.

This time we see patents being filed from HTC; 3 of them, to be precise. But all 3 have something to do with unlocking screens that have been turned off. It’s quite possible that any of these three could make it into a new build of the Sense or TouchFLO UI somewhere down the road.

WMPowerUser suggests these will be implemented in Sense UI and will be sooner rather than later.

Underneath we have provided a pic of one of the patents as well as abstracts for each.

Here are the patents:

1. Unlock the screen by swiping your finger down vertically.

MOBILE ELECTRONIC DEVICE, METHOD FOR ENTERING SCREEN LOCK STATE AND RECORDING MEDIUM THEREOF

Abstract

A mobile electronic device, a method for entering a screen lock state and a recording medium thereof are provided. In the present method, an input signal is received through a touch panel of the mobile electronic device. Then, a movement track of the input signal is obtained if a starting point of the input signal is located in a non-display area of the touch panel, and a vertical displacement of the input signal is calculated if the movement track contains a specific direction. Finally, a screen lock frame is dragged and displayed, and the mobile electronic device is switched to the screen lock state if the displacement reaches a predetermined value. Thereby, an intuitional way for locking the screen is provided, and accordingly, the convenience in operating the mobile electronic device is improved.

2. Method to change wallpaper on the lock screen, without actually unlocking the screen to do so.

METHOD FOR SWITCHING WALLPAPER IN SCREEN LOCK STATE, MOBILE ELECTRONIC DEVICE THEREOF, AND STORAGE MEDIUM THEREOF

Abstract

A method for switching wallpaper in screen lock state, a mobile electronic device thereof, and a storage medium thereof are provided. In the present method, an input signal is received by a touch screen when a mobile electronic device enters a screen lock state. Then, whether the input signal is located in a specific area of the touch screen is determined. A moving track of the input signal is detected if the input signal is located in the specific area. Finally, wallpaper of the screen lock state is switched according to the moving track. As a result, a user can switch wallpaper arbitrarily even if the mobile electronic device is in the screen lock state, so as to increase convenience of switching wallpaper.

3. The typical method of unlocking a screen.

METHOD FOR UNLOCKING SCREEN, MOBILE ELECTRONIC DEVICE USING THE SAME AND STORAGE MEDIUM THEREOF

Abstract

A method for unlocking screen, a mobile electronic device using the same and a storage medium thereof are disclosed. First, at least two signal input areas on a touch screen of the mobile electronic device are defined. When an input signal is detected within at least one signal input areas, a moving range of a trajectory produced by the input signal is calculated. And the touch screen is unlocked when the moving range reaches the predetermined value. Thus, the present invention provides a user with more virtual manner to close the screen locking function so as to promote the usage convenience of the mobile electronic device.

Okay, so the first two I can see being patented because I haven’t actually seen them implemented on any other touchscreen device. But the third one, unless I’m mistaken, sounds exactly like the usual method for unlocking screens. If that’s true, then I would be very surprised if a patent doesn’t already exist by somebody somewhere.

via WMPowerUser

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Rumored HTC Passion Coming to Verizon, is a HD2 With Android?

Brad Molen — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 05:44:37 +0000

It appears that Verizon really DOES have a change of heart on its smartphone lineup. Even so soon after we heard about the upcoming Droid phone series starting off with a couple solid choices (Droid and Droid Eris), another fresh rumor is starting to surface about a mystery device from HTC making its way to Verizon.

That device is being called the HTC Passion, which is actually the CDMA version of the HTC Dragon and is thought of as the Android equivalent to the HD2.

This past week we found leaked shots of the Dragon — or so we thought. It turns out, after TheUnlockr did some additional digging, this particular leaked handset is really the Passion instead.

What does this mean? It means an Android HTC HD2 (of sorts) with 1GHz Snapdragon processor is coming to Verizon sometime soon. And given the carrier’s urgency in bringing Android devices to market, it could be sooner than we think.

One thing to keep in mind, however, is that TheUnlockr is only 90% sure after its research that this really is the Passion. It’s not a lock yet, but it’s as close as most rumors will get to being one.

via TheUnlockr (via PhoneArena)

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LG Aims to Boost Marketing Budget, Add Celeb Endorsements

Brad Molen — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 04:59:32 +0000

Consumer electronics giant LG has announced plans to change marketing strategy and significantly increase its marketing budget for next year.

LG has two different methods of marketing it will focus on the most: celebrity marketing and specific sponsorships.

The company feels that it will be more effective at reaching customers by having Hollywood celebs endorse LG’s flagship products.

CMO Dermot J.M. Boden said “LG has been increasing the budget at a time when everybody else is reducing. The recession has been a key issue for everybody, but our market shares this year went up in every category.”

LG’s second strategy will be to set sights on sponsoring Formula 1 motor racing in a five-year deal as well as ICC (International Cricket Council) running to the end of the 2015 ICC World Cup.

via KoreaTimes

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Symbian is getting totally awesomely open

Staska — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 18:30:13 +0000

When I look at the way Symbian Foundation and it’s employees talk in public about the development and future plans of their platform, I am constantly pleasantly surprised.

Symbian Foundation is pretty happy to tell everyone around, that right now they are just a small new star-up. And, despite the fact that they own the biggest smartphone OS on the planet, shipping in more then a 100 million devices a year, they seem to act like it.

If you look at all other major mobile device platforms, and try to find out about their future plans, roadmaps or even when we can expect the updates, you get nothing.

Of course, the owners of the platforms probably talk to their partners and developers, and, inevitably, things tend to leak. So we know, that Windows Mobile 7 is coming sometime next year, that it will probably include multi-touch, support for capacitive touchscreen displays, high requirements for the hardware, and may have Zune services integrated in it. We know, that Android 2.0 is coming, maybe next month maybe in Q1 2010, it will be more “social”, and we’ve seen some screenshots of it. But that’s about all we know about the platform upgrade, that will be released in a few weeks. And we know the the next iPhone OS upgrade will have …, wait, sorry, we do not know crap about it.

And when I say “we know”, I mean that we’ve heard rumors, saw leaks and hints about possible features from company execs, and report on those we think are true. But we actually do not know anything at all about the future of those mobile platforms.

Well, with Symbian we already know the approximate dates, and key features of major platform releases up to 2011, with tons of technical details available to those who care and understand them. So we already know that there is huge compatibility break coming in Symbian^4, when they replace platform UI, sometime in late 2010/early 2011. And we even may hear what’s coming in Symbian^5 (for 2012 devices) next week.

Another difference in a new Symbian, is how their employees talk to the press.

Reporting on this stuff for a few years, you get a feel of what you can and can not expect when talking with someone from the company on the record. Lower level employees are mostly allowed to only troll the official company PR line, basically the stuff you read in press releases, and not much more. Higher level company execs might be trusted to expand on that a bit, and hint at some cool things to come in the future. And you never ever talk much about competitors, if asked, you may acknowledge their products a bit, but then quickly move on to extolling the virtues of your own stuff.

Well, that is different at Symbian too, where, whenever I tried, quite a few people were ready to explain about the things I wanted to know. Heck, when they think that you don’t really get something you wrote about, they might proactively seek you out.

And then there was this short Lee Williams interview with Om Malik this weekend. I haven’t had this much fun watching company CEO interview in a long time:

Dissing Apple, openly taking Android to task… oh my. You can tell that even Om was shocked at the openness, asking Lee whether he knows that they are recording this. LOL

I can’t say that I agree with everything that was said in the interview, but it certainly is refreshing when you are used to deciphering the usual big corporate speak and obfuscation. I really like the approach Symbian is taking in communicating their own message.

Though, whether this translates into a business success, remains to be seen. I do not buy into the Symbian’s demise story, permeating most of the tech and business media these days. In fact, I am very optimistic as far as Symbian’s market share and device volumes go, in the next few years.

On the other hand, most of the Symbian’s success outside of Japan to date, has been achieved on the back of Nokia. Which might have been a blessing before, but soon might become a curse, hindering Symbian’s adoption by other vendors, if it continues to be seen as Nokia’s OS.

And so far, I’ve yet to see some clear signs, that Symbian is on the way of stepping out of the Nokia’s shadow. While other vendors are flocking to Android and even lowly Windows Mobile, Symbian gets ignored. This year ,we already have something like 30 new WinMo devices announced, and about 20 Android handsets are coming. Aside from Nokia, Symbian has … two. Sony Ericsson Satio and Samsung Omnia HD i8910.

Granted, Symbian is still in transition to open source. And they admitted earlier, that OS ^1 and ^2 versions are not really meant for the new adopters, and, for now, is best to those who already has the experience of working with it. So it might be too early to hear about any significant adoption wins. There’s also that major touch interface revamp coming in Symbian ^4, so things should get much more interesting as we move into 2010.

I expect to start seeing some signs of that already next week, when Symbian hosts their main event of the year – SEE 09. I will be there, looking for those signs and report back.

Stay tuned.

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Which Blackberry Devices are Getting 5.0?

Brad Molen — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 04:57:42 +0000

Blackberry OS 5.0 is coming not only to new devices but several existing devices as well. If you’re anxiously awaiting this update, you’re surfing the interwebs to find out if your Blackberry is one of the chosen devices to receive the update.

Kevin from Crackberry was gracious enough to compile a list of Blackberry devices that will be updated. We did report yesterday that the Storm 9530 will be getting 5.0 updates Sunday, but what about the rest of the phones?

Here it is:

Bold 9000 series
Storm 9500 series
Tour 9630
Pearl Flip 8200 series
Curve 8330
Curve 8350i
Curve 8530
Curve 8900

Chances are there will be a lot of angry Curve 8300/8310/8320 users who won’t be getting a 5.0 update; the reason why the above devices will get it is because the OS will require sufficient memory — greater than 64 MB, to be exact — to perform efficiently. And sadly, early Curves and Pearls only have 64 MB max.

But as Kevin puts it, it’s probably better off not having 5.0 on those devices because it would just bog down the device’s performance. So would it really be worth upgrading to an OS that just gives you more hassle down the road? It’s doubtful.

There’s no guarantee that each wireless service provider will offer updates, so you may have to find other ways to update your device if necessary.

Blackberry Official Site

via Crackberry

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Emblaze Mobile’s first Else Intuition vaporware on the way become Gizmondo #2

Staska — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 12:25:11 +0000

Yesterday I heard about quite an interesting product being launched.

It seems that we have a new super duper Linux based smartphone OS and device coming up soon, from a little known Israeli company Emblaze Mobile and Japanese software company Access.

The new handset, “First Else”, running a new Linux based “Else Intuition” OS, is a new category of mobile device, that actually becomes an application (?) and is able to match the functionality of standalone off-the-shelf dedicated devices, such as digital cameras, top-ranked MP3 players, best-in-class GPS devices, and more, while maintaining an exceptional ease and simplicity of use.

Picture credit – Impress

While describing First Else device, CEO of Emblaze Mobile, Amir Kupervas was downright poetic:

Imagine a device that is not a phone surrounded by gimmicks you will not use; where the camera literally replaces your digital camera; you get real-time push email wherever you are on the globe; almost every song and film in the world is one click away; and any one of its multitude of features is reached with no more than one light gesture of your finger and not buried deep inside folders within folders. If you imagine this, you imagine the first ELSE™ and the capabilities created with ELSE INTUITION™

Well, Apple, Palm, RIM, Google and Nokia, please step aside. It seems that we have a new gadget in town. And it sounds so much better then the crap you produce, there’s no point for you to continue.

Except for one smallish thing. Who the heck is Emblaze Mobile, and how were they able to make such a revolutionary device, without anyone getting a clue?

Well, actually, we have already heard about a new revolutionary Access Linux based handset from Emblaze, called Edelweiss. It was a year ago, when they were ready to revolutionize mobile industry and take over the mobile market, first in Russia, then the rest of the world. Unfortunately, except for the prototypes demoed at launch in Russia, I have not heard about a single Edelweiss device ever to ship.

And they’ve already been hard at work on the second revolutionary handset, called Monolith then. Well, I guess the Monolith is here, and it now has become First Else. Unfortunately, if the fate of Edelweiss is any indication, the probability of us seeing anything beyond a few prototypes, is pretty close to zero.

Then there’s Emblaze Group itself. They claim that they are very well known hi-tech company in Israel. And that is an absolute truth. The thing they do not tell us, is how they are known there. And Emblaze Group in Israel is hardly a pillar of high tech business community in Israel. Actually, judging from these articles in Israeli and British press, Emblaze and it’s founder Eli Reifman, seems to be a rather shady figures.

According to those reports, Emblaze has raised anywhere between 400 and 700 million US$ at the height of dotcom boom, blew through something like 200 mil. since, bought a bunch of other companies, never made a profit, and has been doing some stuff in mobile and tech industry.

Their subsidiary, Emblaze Mobile, responsible for the creation of Edelweiss and First Else, has been around since 1998, doing some stuff in mobile industry too. Among the accomplishments of Emblaze mobile are:

development of first ever mobile video/audio application processor and graphics accelerator
launch of the world’s first ever video phone for Samsung
selling of advanced telecom infrastructure for mobile media delivery to operators in over 50 countries worldwide
acquisition of a Korean OEM with vast experience in mobile development, manufacturing and distribution in far eastern markets
leadership of large scale projects that included delivering far-east OEM products to Europe’s leading operators according to their specifications. Clients included top tier brands such as Virgin Mobile, Dixons, O2 and more (?!)
mobile handset distribution network and trading business in Europe
worked with top tier operators such as Vodafone, Orange, 3, O2 and many others

If it sounds a bit vague, it’s because it is. And hardly a profile of a company set to take over Apple, Google and Nokia to revolutionize mobile industry.

To me this all sounds eerily familiar, like something on the way to become Gizmondo #2. The similarities between the story of Gizmondo and this Edelweiss/Else stuff are really interesting:

a supposedly revolutionary product, set to take over a very hot industry, years in the making, but never progressing far beyond a few prototypes
hundreds of millions in investor money, collected in private placements in London
a shady founder, playing fast and loose with shareholder and borrowed money, eventually ending up in jail

Well, I might be wrong on all this. And first Else with Else Intuition might indeed turn out to be the products they are hyped to be. But for some reason, I feel that it is much more likely to end up in a scrap heap of overhyped high tech wannabees.

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Blackberry Storm OS 5.0 Firmware Coming Sunday

Brad Molen — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 05:30:11 +0000

Are you a current Blackberry Storm owner and don’t plan on upgrading to the sequel quite just yet? Just in time for the upcoming Blackberry Storm 2 (or 9550), a new Firmware upgrade called OS 5.0.0.328 will be available for download this Sunday, October 25.

I suppose it’s never too late, but it is pretty darn close to the launch of the Storm 2.

This particular upgrade will resolve a lot of the current issues plaguing the Storm, such as:

Improved browser
Flick scrolling
Threaded texting
Loads apps faster

Sadly, the upgrade will not be available OTA. It will need to be done via the computer. All of the user’s data will be backed up and restored during the update, and apps will be saved. So no need to fear, everyone; feel free to update to your heart’s content.

There are two places to find the OS 5.0 download:

1. Go to www.BlackBerry.com/storm/updates and download; then load from computer into your Storm

2. Wait until Desktop Manager notifies you of an update and it will do it for you

Who’s excited? Who’s getting the update?

via Erictric

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Droid Passes FCC With AT&T 3G

Brad Molen — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 04:50:42 +0000

It’s true, Droid news is flying all over the place like crazy. Ready for some more?

If any of you in the US are hoping for a version of the Droid on AT&T, you’re in luck. While a GSM version had passed the FCC just a few days ago, it only had 3G support for Europe; fortunately though, another version of the Droid was being pushed through at almost the same time. This particular version is all ready to go for North America.

Now we wait to see if it will be picked up by AT&T and/or Rogers. It will be interesting to see what happens in the coming months.

Below is a sample of the FCC document approving the “Sholes”. As you can see there’s not much to look at, just a couple things confirming the name and frequencies it was approved for.

FCC Link; via MobileCrunch

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MicroUSB Standard Now Backed by ITU

Brad Molen — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 04:40:18 +0000

It’s going one step at a time, but we certainly can see progress is being made at a fast enough pace. We reported a couple weeks back that the CTIA has declared war on proprietary chargers and vowed to have every wireless device use a MicroUSB standard by 2012, and now we have another group that’s backing them up on this: the ITU.

The ITU, better known as the International Telecommunications Union, is the tech branch of the UN. Thus, having such an organization accepting one standard charger is again a huge step in the right direction.

Not only will it be nice for consumers to keep the same chargers for longer than 1-2 phones, it will greatly reduce waste from old chargers being thrown away. The ITU also mentioned this universal standard will be more energy efficient. “UCS chargers will also include a 4-star or higher efficiency rating – up to three times more energy-efficient than an unrated charger,” the ITU said in a statement.

It’s a win-win situation for everyone — except for manufacturers that have been used to making a pretty penny off proprietary chargers.

via PC Mag

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