Mobile Phones

Acer Incorporated, the third largest computer manufacturer in the world after HP and Dell Inc, after acquistition of E-Ten intends to become another key player in the market of smartphones.

The company’s senior corporate vice president and president of IT product business group, Jim Wong, revealed that initial shipments of Acer smartphones will begin in Western Europe and Russia.

Wong doesn’t hint on any features or possible designs, but research tells us that Acer’s smartphone for Q1 2009 will feature a touchscreen like the iPhone and will likely cost EUR 500. Hopefully, the usual suspects let us in on any leaks so we can get a clear view of what Acer is preparing.

Well, well, what we have now? Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 got approved by FCC but that’s not all, you might not see it arrive that soon in your country. The FCC has approved a version Sony Ericsson X1i which is going to be released in Europe probably.

Xperia X1 will be without 3G support which doesn’t sound that good, does it.

But since the Sony Ericsson X1i was already approved we assume it’s only a matter of time until a North American version will be given the OK.

Sony Ericsson announced before that we won’t be waiting X1 too long and we’ll see it before Christmas for sure. It will arrive in most markets by the end of the year also.

Waiting for carriers to announce it.

Nokia introduced the a new smartphone - Nokia 5800 XpressMusic at the Nokia Remix event. This is the first device of the S60’s family 5th edition, which supports touch screen.

3.2-inch display will provide tactile sensation of impact when clicked, will prevent the operation of sensor closer to accidentally pressed, which contributes to energy saving.

Smartphone presented in conjunction with the launch of the service Nokia Comes With Music. Nokia 5800 XpressMusic supports microSD cards up to 16 GB, has a 3.5-mm jack for headphones and stereo speakers that provide powerful in the industry sound.
In addition to music, of course, supported are and other multimedia content. Flash, 3,2 Mp camera with optics Carl Zeiss, photos and video footage can be easily uploaded to Share on Ovi, Flickr or Facebook.

Specifications of Nokia 5800 XpressMusic:

Networks GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) and WCDMA/HSDPA (2100/900 or 850/1900 MHz)
The platform S60 5th Edition
3.2-inch touch-screen display with a resolution of 640×360 pixels and 16M colors
3,2 Mp camera with autofocus, Carl Zeiss optics and dual LED flash
81 MB internal memory
Memory card slot format microSD (up to 16 GB)
Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g), Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP and AVRCP
GPS-module, support A-GPS, Nokia Maps maps and voice prompts on the route
The connector MicroUSB, 3,5-mm jack for headphones
Time running conversation - up to 9 hours (GSM), up to 5 hours (WCDMA)
Standby time - up to 17 days
Playing music - up to 35 hours
Video playback - up to 5 hours
The size - 111×51,7×15,5 mm
Weight - 109 grams

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic supports 60 languages in the world and different methods of entering information from the virtual keypad and QWERTY in hybrid variations to the stylus. Release is scheduled in November, the recommended price of 279 euros, excluding taxes and subsidies.

So many rumors over the upcoming LG KC910 for the last couple of weeks since it was announced in August, but now we’ve got the official press release confirming LG Renoir. The LG KC910 has been officially announced, available first in Europe this month, then Asia and Latin America in November, followed by Africa and the Middle East in December and finally China in January.

North America isn’t included in this list. Why? We still don’t know.

An innovative approach Touch Shot is just wonderful addition to its 8 Mp Camera, which lets you determine what the camera focuses on by touching them on the 3-inch screen, then taking the picture by releasing.

The press release also acknowledges that 8-megapixel slider we’ve been seeing a lot of lately, the LG KC780, which will be slightly slimmer than the Renoir and also available in October.

The official specs of the LG KC910 are…

Wi-Fi
A-GPS (Jogging Buddy helps you track your running stats)
3G (HSDPA, up to 7.2Mbps)
8-megapixel camera (up to 120 FPS video recording, Schneider-Kreuznach lens, Xenon flash, auto and manual focus, up to ISO 1600, image stabilization, Face Tracking, Smile Shot and blink detection)
DivX video
Dolby sound
3″, 240 x 400 touchscreen display
13.95 mm thick (slimmest 8-megapixel cameraphone to date)

The LG KC910 Renoir is supposed to be LG Viewty’s successor, adding more megapixles to the camera and Wi-Fi for good measure.
It’s easy to get blown away by the Renoir’s camera, just remember that they put a lot of work into the video playback and sound, too - it should more than amply handle entertainment, and in terms of straight-up specs it gives the iPhone run for its money.

source lge.com via intomobile.com

The HTC Rose or S740 has been approved by the FCC.

HTC still believes in Windows Mobile and as all recent HTC devices inlcudeing and HTC Rose are based on this platform. The rose comes with a hybrid keybad/keyboard, GPS, WiFi and a 3.2 megapixel camera. 

  Add a slide-out full keyboard and a keypad and you get the Rose. You’d also have to remove the touchscreen to get a Rose. That last part you might not like!

The Rose is ready to be sold in the USA. All it needs now is some 3G support for the US since it only has quad-band (850/900/1800/1900Mhz) GSM/EDGE for now.

via mobilewhack.com

Another Samsung communicator formerly known as the BlackJack III will be available by operator At&T named Epix.

Apparently, this Communicator is much based on Samsung i780, with the same form factor with QWERTY-keyboard, optical joystick, supporting UMTS/HSDPA, GPS module and the operating system Windows Mobile Professional 6.1. While it’s still difficult to say what exactly will be different in At&T Samsung Epix from Samsung i780.

At&T, after three months, confirmed that Samsung i907 as Epix, although earlier was rumored that the Samsung i907 will be the American version of Samsung i900 Omnia.

It seems that there really that actually Samsung i907 is better version of Samsung i780.

Release of At&T Samsung Epix is scheduled on 23 October.
Price will be $199, subject to 2 year of contract with the operator.

About smartphone HP Silver has not been heard since the beginning of the year, when it was found in the roadmap of Vodafone. And now, after nearly 10 months of the lack of news about this device, resource Engadget Mobile has published a small photo.

According to leaked roadmap of Vodafone, HP Silver should be announced in July, but it did not happen. One could assume that the device is canceled, but it seems Vodafone is still going to release this smartphone because it really looks like a  working and substance device.

Smartphone supports high-speed standard HSDPA (up to 7.2 Mbps), equipped with a GPS modules and WiFi, as well as a hybrid keyboard similar to the Blackberry Pearl.

HP Silver is running Windows Mobile Standard.

Good news from Apple. It just dropped the non-disclosure agreement for release iPhone soft and just freed hands of developers.

Here is the press release by Apple.

 —

To Our Developers

We have decided to drop the non-disclosure agreement (NDA) for released iPhone software.

We put the NDA in place because the iPhone OS includes many Apple inventions and innovations that we would like to protect, so that others don’t steal our work. It has happened before. While we have filed for hundreds of patents on iPhone technology, the NDA added yet another level of protection. We put it in place as one more way to help protect the iPhone from being ripped off by others.

However, the NDA has created too much of a burden on developers, authors and others interested in helping further the iPhone’s success, so we are dropping it for released software. Developers will receive a new agreement without an NDA covering released software within a week or so. Please note that unreleased software and features will remain under NDA until they are released.

Thanks to everyone who provided us constructive feedback on this matter.
——

More  we got from Canada and another LG phone - LG Wine will be available in Canada soon by Bell Mobility. The clamshell has a 2.2” display, GPS, 1.3 megapixel camera, external speakerphone, Bluetooth and picture messaging.

It’s price for both available colors - in black and gold is $79.95 with a 3 year contract.

Also Bell Mobility will also hold a creative contest with Fashion Week that gives its subscribers a chance to win a wine fridge.

via slashphone

Sony Ericsson C905 will be available in UK as early as in this month, reports one of the leading retailers of mobile phones in UK Phones4U.

This is another phone to take part in what is called “megapixel rush” and we all believe that only customers will win from this compatition as always. The new Sony Ericsson C905 with its 8 megapixel lens and a host of other photog-friendly features, not to mention the GPS with geotagging, will have a short wait until as early as October 10.
Other then famous Cybershot camera, the Sony Ericsson C905 also has WiFi, Bluetooth, HSDPA support, GPS, and TV-out functions.

It’ll cost around $800 sim-free.

The largest mobile phone producer in the world Nokia has announced that they are interested to buy OZ Communications – a provider of mobile messaging services in Canada.

The main functions of OZ consist on providing access to instant messaging programs such as AOL, ICQ, Windows Live Messenger, and also to offer email services that work with Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, and others.

We can only suppose that, all these features will be used in Nokia made phones.

At the moment OZ has large number of subscribers, estimated around 5.5 million, and Nokia will surely stimulate its growth.

After Nokia acquires OZ Communications, it will have a pretty good advantage to its competitors, as Nokia phones can provide all the messaging solutions for specific mobile phone models, the S60 and Series 40.

Full technical specifications of LG KP500 touch phone showed where the company was able to save - to make the price «affordable». KP500 does not support 3G-communications, has a screen with 256 thousand colors and resolution of 240×400 pixels. Support for Wi-Fi may not be available - data transfer can be arranged only with the help Bluetooh (v2.1 with A2DP).

The phone, contrary to previous reports, has a 3 megapixel camera, which captures video at 12 frames per second. 900 mAh battery provides up to 350 hours in standby and 3.5 hours of talk time.

Dimensions of the phone - 106,5×55,4×11,9 mm, weight - 89 grams.

Comparison with other similar size models are shown in the picture.

In the near future, the company LG is ready to pump the «arms race» in the field of mobile cameraphones with its  KC780 8 megapixel, which promises to be a fairly thin phone. Matrix of the camera will have a resolution of 8 MP. The unit is made in the slider form factor.

It is expected that the phone will resemble the features of LG Secret and only certain functions can be used to via  the touch menu. Details on the technical specifications must be followed up later.

GSM Arena has already published the first photos of the phone - including, in comparison with LG Renoir.

Motorola Q11 with QWERTY keypad and with asymmetric screen is ready to debut in Brazil - one of the few markets (except USA), where Moto feels relatively calm.

Brazilian site ClubeCelular.com is willing to share details. The device will support Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, but 3G data transmission will not be available (at least in Brazil). According to the report, the phone will be equipped with a 2.5 mm audiojack.

The verdict? «The new smartphone offers a few pleasant surprises, but leaves much to be desired in other aspects».

Smartphone Pantech Duo, which was for some time available by the U.S. operator At&T, seems, will soon have a successor. Recall that the smartphone is a dual sliderr  - from one side a regular digital keyboard, from another - QWERTY.

According to Boy Genius Report, the follower of Pantech Duo will be called Pantech Matrix C740. It will receive the same form factor, but unlike predecessor, which is based on Windows Mobile, in Pantech Matrix will used some own platform. Pantech Matrix C740 will be able to work in networks GSM/EDGE and UMTS/HSDPA, supports Bluetooth, is equipped with a 1.3 MP camera.

Presumably, its price will be approximately U.S. $80, subject to a contract with At&T.