Archive for September, 2007
Korean company Posdata has unveiled what it describes as the world’s first mobile WiMax gaming device. The G100 has a 4 inch touchscreen with slide out controls.
It seems that the G100 will allow users to connect to the net and download games over lightning fast WiMAX networks. What these games will be, and more importantly whether they will be any good, is anyone’s guess.
In case your G100 arrives before a local WiMAX network it also has the capability to connect over a conventional WiFi network or even Bluetooth.
The G100 will be available by the end of the year.
At the same time Posdata announced a USB WiMAX receiver - the U100.
Source: WiMAX Century
September 30th, 2007
Palm has had a hard time of it recently. There was a much publicised open letter from respected tech blogger Engadget which was highly critical of the path the company was taking. Then there was the embarassing U-turn on the Palm Foleo smartphone ‘companion’ which was canned only days before its planned release.Finally Palm has something to celebrate with the launch of their new Centro smartphone. Company shares rose 6% on the announcement.
With voice, text, IM, email, web, contact and calendar capabilities, a full-color touch screen and full keyboard, Centro brings Palm is targetting customers who want to stay connected with co-workers, friends and family. Centro will be exclusive through Sprint in the United States for 90 days and is available in onyx black or ruby red.
With Centro, Sprint customers can quickly and easily text co-workers and friends, manage email, keep track of their schedules, check stock quotes, watch videos on YouTube(TM), keep current on the latest news, capture and share pictures, browse restaurant reviews on Yelp(TM), and get directions on Google(TM) Maps–all in one small, compact phone. Centro operates on the Sprint Mobile Broadband Network — the fastest and largest national mobile broadband network - giving customers a fast and flexible experience with entertainment and resources on the go.
Centro is the smallest and lightest Palm phone to date. Centro has a modern, stylish look that feels comfortable in the hand, pocket or evening purse.
Centro was designed as a great phone, messaging, and organizational device, and is incredibly easy to use. It allows users to easily connect with friends, family and co-workers by voice, email or text. And with its full keyboard, Centro makes it easy to quickly and efficiently type text messages and respond to emails, communicating complete thoughts and ideas. Since Centro comes with the Palm OS, it offers all of the great organizer functionality that Palm is renowned for, such as a detailed and integrated Contacts list. Also, the simple and handy calendar makes it easier to manage increasingly busy lives, whether it’s juggling business meetings or keeping track of school activities.
As the newest member of the Palm family, Centro is expected to attract new users to the smartphone category. According to IDC, the smartphone market is shifting to the mass market; U.S. smartphone shipments will grow from 13.8 million in 2007 to 74.4 million in 2011.
“Palm Centro has the power of a broadband smartphone at the price of a standard 12-key phone,” said Ed Colligan, president and chief executive officer of Palm, Inc. “People looking to have all their contacts and calendar at the touch of a button, plus YouTube streaming videos and the Internet can now get it in a small, cool design with the trademark Palm ease of use. If you’re thinking about stepping up to a smartphone, the Palm Centro should be your choice.”
With Centro, customers can leverage the speed of Sprint’s Mobile Broadband Network - reaching more than 224 million people, 12,988 cities and 1,166 airports - to access helpful and exciting multimedia content, including the following:
* Sprint TV(SM) - Watch live TV or video-on-demand with full-motion video and vivid sound or catch the latest news, sports, weather, entertainment and movie trailers on the go. Choose from more than 50 live television channels and watch programs such as CNN mobile, FOX sports and E! Entertainment; access NFL Network and special programming via Sprint Exclusive Entertainment.
* On Demand - Set up personal preferences and get customized news, sports, movies, and weather updates all based on your zip code. Stay informed and connected regardless of where you are on the Sprint Mobile Broadband Network.
* Sprint Picture Mail(SM) - Share on-the-go experiences immediately. Take full-color digital pictures and store or send directly from your Centro. Customers also can order prints of their favorite digital photos and pick them up at leading photo centers.
* Sprint Mobile eMail - Get easy, mobile access to up to three email accounts from well-known providers, such as AOL, Windows Live (includes MSN and Hotmail), Gmail, Yahoo! and more. Sprint Mobile eMail is a free download for any Sprint data subscriber.
* Sprint IM - Extend instant communication from your PC to Centro with access to Yahoo! Messenger, AOL’s AIM service and MSN Messenger.
“Sprint customers can seize the day with Centro to stay on top of emails, use text or Sprint Instant Messaging for quick answers, manage appointments, view documents or to make use of a multitude of other productivity boosting and entertaining features all at SprintSpeed(TM),” said Danny Bowman, vice president of customer equipment for Sprint. “As the first provider of this unique phone, Sprint is demonstrating its commitment to giving customers the best products and service available on the Sprint Mobile Broadband Network, the fastest and largest national mobile broadband network.”(4)
Additional Palm Centro Features and Benefits
* Superior Phone - Centro’s touch screen and keyboard, combined with the simplicity of Palm OS, make it easy to use key features such as one-touch speakerphone, conference calling, ignore a call with text messaging and Bluetooth connectivity.
* Easy Text Messaging - Centro’s full keyboard makes typing out complete messages fast and easy when sending text, pictures, audio and video clips. Plus, Centro keeps all your conversations in a chat-style view, just like IM, so you can see the entire conversation unfold.
* Personal and Corporate Email - New users to the smartphone category now have an easy mobile email solution using Microsoft Direct Push Technology(5) for delivery of Outlook email as well as personal email, such as Gmail, AOL and Yahoo.
* IM with AIM, MSN, or Yahoo! - Compose messages quickly and easily with a full QWERTY keyboard. Instant message your buddy list with direct access to Yahoo, Windows Live Messenger or AOL’s AIM service.
* Web Browsing - Fast and easy web access on the Sprint Mobile Broadband Network at fast EvDO speeds. The full keyboard and touch screen provide quick access to online information. The built-in Google Maps application offers fast access to directions, traffic updates and local search.
* Multimedia - “Sideload” songs and manage music easily with Sprint Music Manager. Centro is the first Palm phone to include PocketTunes Deluxe, a $39.99 value. Shoot pictures or video with the built-in digital camera.
More information on Centro is available at www.palm.com/centro. Centro multimedia materials are available from Business Wire (http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=5502393), Palm’s Multimedia Library (www.palm.com/MultimediaLibrary) or Sprint’s media relations website (www.sprint.com/mr).
Pricing and Availability
Expected mid-October, the Palm Centro smart device will be available in onyx black or ruby red from all Sprint sales channels, Palm stores and online at www.sprint.com and www.palm.com/centro for $99.99 with a two-year service agreement, available discounts and promotions and required service plan. Centro customers may subscribe to any of the voice calling plans available on the Sprint Nationwide PCS Network. To take advantage of data capabilities, customers can add any of the available Sprint Power Vision packs, which range from $15 to $30 per month. Customer subscribing to any Power Vision pack plan of $25 or more per month will be eligible for the $100 mail-in-rebate offer. For delivering Centro users the ultimate value, Sprint recommends the Power Vision Pro Pack for $30 month, which includes unlimited text messaging, data access, web browsing, email, Sprint Picture Mail/Video Mail, On Demand, NFL Mobile, Sprint TV and Active Sync (data and content access without a Power Vision pack is subject to casual data charges).
Source: SmartPhoneReviewer.com
September 29th, 2007
Amazon has announced that it is going up against iTunes and Real by launching Amazon MP3, a music download service that doesn’t use digital rights management.
Unlike iTunes and most other MP3 sites, Amazon MP3 allows you to move your tracks from PC to MP3 player and onto another PC. As often as you want.
There are 180,000 artists on the site, which Amazon claims means that over 2 million tracks are available to download for less than a dollar.
“This new digital music service has already been through an extensive private beta (test), and today we’re excited to offer it to our customers as a fully functional public beta,” said Bill Carr, Amazon.com vice president for digital music.
September 25th, 2007
Intel has announced that it will be one of the main developers of the USB 3.0 standard when it is released in 2008.
USB 3.0 will increase data transfer speeds by a factor of 10 up to 4.8 Gigibits by placing fibre-optic wires alongside the traditional copper variety, leapfrogging FireWire in the speed charts.
Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Texas Instruments, NEC and NXP Semiconductors are also pioneering the new standard, which is expected to arrive for consumer use in 2009 or 2010.
USB 3.0 also offers significant power savings.
It will be entirely backward compatible with USB 2.0.
September 19th, 2007
Navman has acted to keep up with the lead pack by revamping its sat nav range and coming up with the new, slimmer S-series.
There are four models in the new series, from thetop of the range S90i at £300 to the budget S30 at £150.
Navman claim over 500 enhancements including new maps, PIN codes, anti-glare widescreen displays, new slimline designs, spoken voice directions, auto dimming displays, traffic information and the now ubiquitous bluetooth connectivity.
All but the cheapest model also features Navman NavPix technology which allows you to upload geotagged pictures and download geotagged images from Flickr.
The full range:
Navman S90i: (£299.99)
- Stylish, intelligent design
- Safe, easy to use menu
- Brilliant, sharp 4.3-inch high quality touch screen
- Latest 2007.4 European maps pre-installed
- Built in real-time traffic receiver – sub free
- Integrated Bluetooth hands-free calling
- Text to Speech (TTS) – speaks “next turn” road names
- Preloaded safety camera data – free trial
- Route traffic overview
- NavPix technology – navigate to pictures
- Integrated NavPix camera
- New Navman Desktop Manager inc. Mileage reporter
- PIN code lock
Navman S70: (£199.99)
- Stylish, intelligent design
- Safe, easy to use menu
- Brilliant, sharp 4.3-inch high quality touch screen
- Latest 2007.4 European maps pre-installed
- Real time traffic information (optional)
- Integrated Bluetooth hands-free calling
- Preloaded safety camera data – free trial
- Route traffic overview
- NavPix technology – navigate to pictures
- New Navman Desktop Manager inc. Mileage reporter
- PIN code lock
Navman S50: (£179.99)
- Stylish, intelligent design
- Safe, easy to use menu
- Brilliant, sharp 4.3-inch high quality touch screen
- Latest 2007.4 Regional maps pre-installed
- Real time traffic information (optional)
- Integrated Bluetooth hands-free calling
- Preloaded safety camera data – free trial
- Route Traffic overview
- NavPix technology – navigate to pictures
- New Navman Desktop Manager inc. Mileage reporter
- PIN code lock
Navman S30: (£149.99)
- Stylish, intelligent design
- Safe, easy to use menu
- Crisp clear map display on 3.5-inch touch screen
- Latest 2007.4 Regional maps pre-installed
- Preloaded safety camera data – free trial
- Intelligent day / night display
- New Navman Desktop Manager
Source: Sat Nav Reviewer
September 18th, 2007
There are reports that the new Linux-based Palm OS will not see the light of day until the end of 2008 at the earliest.
Palm this week told the Guardian “it will be 12 to 18 months” before the new OS arrives. This may well see it slip into the psychologically-damaging territory of 2009.
Half of Palm’s product lines use the ageing Garnet OS while 50% are currently running on Windows Mobile. With little chance of Garnet keeping up with progressions in smartphone technology, Palm will be relying on Windows Mobile to plug the gap for some time.
September 18th, 2007
The iPhone will launch in the UK on November 9 after an exclusive deal was announced today with O2.
O2 has signed a multi-year deal with Apple to carry the iPhone - the exact length is unknown - in exchange for 40% of iPhone revenue.
The iPhone will be sold direct by O2 and Apple, as well as by the Carphone Warehouse.
There were few surprises in the announcement. Some had predicted that Apple would not dare to release anything less than a 3G version, but they were disappointed. The European iPhone will be resolutely EDGE based, lumping us Brits with the same 2.5G version as our unlucky US cousins. However, in an attempt to soften the blow Apple announced that all iPhone users will get free WiFi access via The Cloud. Expect to see iPhone users clustering around coffee shops like flies.
The UK iPhone will be the 8GB version costing £269 for the handset. The minimum term contract will be 18 months and on the cheapest price plan that means shelling out nearly £1000 over the lifetime of the contract.
“We are coming to the UK and we wanted to pick the best carrier for the product,” said Apple CEO Steve Jobs speaking in Apple’s flagship UK store in Regents Street, London. “The one that we felt most comfortable working with is O2. We had a lot of choices to make regarding networks across Europe, and I think we made the right ones. A lot of it was about finding partners that fitted with Apple ethos.”
Source: SmartPhoneReviewer.com
September 18th, 2007
SanDisk has entered the PMP market with a new cut price ‘video mp3 player’.The Sansa View has a vast array of features and generous capacity marrying MP3 player attributes with full-motion video support (typically found in larger portable media players), a larger screen, long battery life and generous capacity - all in a thin, easy-to-carry package.
Expected to be available in October, the Sansa View will carry a manufacturer�s suggested retail price of $199.99 MSRP for a 16GB flash-based player and $149.99 for the 8GB. It’s hard to argue with a price like that.
A significant step-up from the company�s award-winning Sansa e200 music player series, the slim Sansa View features music, photos, FM radio and audio books, plus easy video transferring capabilities and hefty memory capabilities of up to 24GB (by using an optional 8GB microSD/microSDHC card).
“The Sansa View is a new video MP3 player that combines all of the great characteristics of a MP3 player with the video capabilities of a PMP, and packs it into a pocketable device,” said Eric Bone, vice president of marketing for SanDisk’s Sansa audio/video product line. “What’s more, we’re once again showing that category-leading technology can still be very affordable.”
SanDisk’s Sansa View video player innovates beyond the typical video loading procedure, making it easy for consumers to transfer videos natively using widely available software. Most popular formats are supported via embedded player functionality (H.264, WMV and MPEG4), or via a one-time software download of the Sansa Media Converter which quickly transcodes numerous video files, including DivX.
Consumers can purchase and insert one of SanDisk�s microSD/microSDHC cards to play up to 24GB of music, video and photos on their Sansa View. (Today, SanDisk has announced microSD/microSDHC card capacities of up to 8GB.) In addition, the microSD card allows users to easily move their content to a cell phone or other mobile device.
A MP3 player at its core, the Sansa View device comes equipped with all the soup-to-nuts features typically found in the Sansa audio line. The smooth, backlit scroll wheel and vibrant 2.4� widescreen display make it easy to navigate to: a music library; video collection; digital photos; digital FM radio with 20 pre-sets; an integrated microphone and voice recording, and Audible audiobooks.
The device supports many music download and subscription services, including Rhapsody To Go�, Napster, eMusic and others.
The Sansa View player will come in two capacities, 8GB and 16GB, and is expected to be available from retailers in the U.S. in early fall with other regions to follow shortly thereafter.
Source: Media Center PC World
September 11th, 2007
The iPhone continues to set records. This time it has reached the one million sales marker and within the time scale predicted by Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO.
Apple’s baby was released on June 29, just 75 days ago, and in that time it has sold more units than Apple sold iPods in the first two years of their being on sale.
“We can’t wait to get this revolutionary product into the hands of even more customers this holiday season,” said Steve Jobs.
Just a few days ago Apple slashed a couple of hundred dollars off the price of the iPhone in a move that was seen by some as weakness, but by others as brilliant marketing. It certainly was not seen in a favourable light by the almost one million early adopters, that was until Jobs announced that they would all receive a credit for the difference.
Apple declined to speculate on whether the price cut had fuelled a late rush for iPhones and whether or not that price cut had been designed to help Apple reach its targets.
Source: SmartPhoneReviewer.com
September 11th, 2007
The brief, but spectacular, Palm Foleo story took its final remarkable twist overnight when Palm CEO Ed Colligan announced on the company blog that the ’smartphone companion’ was to be scrapped before it had even reached the shelves.
Announced earlier this year, the Foleo received a lukewarm reception at best from the technical press. “What exactly is it for?” is the question that was most often raised about the laptop that wasn’t quite a laptop.
Palm stuck to their guns and a launch date was announced for this month. Then the rumours started of a delay caused by a bug preventing the Foleo from synchronising with some of Palm’s most popular products. This was denied wholeheartedly and the launch date was confirmed for later in September.
Now, in a shocking U turn, Palm have cancelled the whole project to allow what Colligan describes as ‘focus[ing] all of our energies on delivering our next generation platform and the first smartphones that will bring this platform to market.’
The comments on the blog are mixed.
Some are disappointed that the Foleo will not see the light of day. Others are delighted that Palm is going back to its roots.
Whatever the response, Palm has taken a brave gamble and is taking a £10 million hit as a result.
Source: SmartphoneReviewer.com
September 5th, 2007
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