Pulling out its big book of alliteration, Samsung have declared their new D520 phone to be full of “Stylish Simplicity and Stunning Sophistication.”
The slim’n’trim D520 offers tri-band connectivity (GSM 900, 1,800, 1,900 MHz, GPRS) and measures just 101 x 46 x 15.9mm and weighs a lightweight 93g.
The sleek black Samsung sports a ‘slide-up’ design and a simple interface dominated by a 262k, 176 x 220 pixels colour screen.
There’s a 1.3 megapixel camera onboard, Video Recording (MPEG4), a music player capable of playing MP3/AAC/AAC+/e-AAC+/WMA files and Bluetooth stereo support.
Storage comes in the shape of 80MB of internal memory with USB connectivity but – strangely – no card expansion slot.
Kitae Lee, President of the Samsung Electronics Telecommunication Network Business, was positively beside himself with joy about the phone, “Samsung mobiles truly understand the wants and needs of our active consumers.
“Samsung is excited to present new slim models to our customers around the world, and we will continue to reveal new models to fit our customers’ needs,” he continued.
The SGH-D520 should be appearing on the shelves around Europe any time now.
SGH-D520 specifications
Network GSM 900 / GSM 1800 / GSM 1900
Size Dimensions 101 x 46 x 15.9 mm
Weight 99 g
Display Type TFT, 256K colors
Size 176 x 220 pixels
Ringtones Type Polyphonic (64 channels), MP3
Vibration Yes, – Dual speaker
Call records 20 dialed, 20 received, 20 missed calls
Card slot No – 80 MB embedded memory
Data GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 – 48 kbps
HSCSD No
EDGE No
3G No
WLAN No
Bluetooth Yes, v1.2
Infrared port Yes
Internet browser XHTML browser
USB Yes
Features Messaging SMS, EMS, MMS, Email
Browser WAP 2.0/xHTML
Games Yes + downloadable
Camera
Type: 1.3 Mpixel camera
Effects/camera settings
Quality settings
Mosaic photo
MultiShot
Night mode
Portrait mode
Phone display used as a viewfinder
Video recorder
Self-timer
Max. resolution: (camera) 1280 x 1024 pixels
Misc
– Java MIDP 2.0
– MP3/MP4/AAC player
– T9
– SyncML
– Document Viewer
– Organizer
– Voice memo
– Built-in handsfree
Battery Standard battery, Li-Ion
The Cloud has announced plans to roll out a new flat-fee Wi-Fi tariff in the summer, slashing the current high cost of accessing the Internet on the move. 
The extra freedom of the ‘pay as you go’ version comes with a sting though, with your twelve quid giving you just a week’s unlimited access. 
The Cloud’s chief executive George Polk said that his company has been working their Internet-enabled socks off to “make the Wi-Fi mobility world real” (whatever that means). 
Search engine big-boys Yahoo have unveiled a shopping site for consumer electronics backed up by expert advice and user-contributed reviews. 
The magazine-style site will use Yahoo’s tried and trusted community tools to help users find information about products and prices and share their opinions with friends, family and other consumers. 
Content
The new Yahoo! Tech is currently focussed on the U.S. market, with Houston saying that there are no imminent plans to expand into other countries. 
Proof that podcasting is moving further into the mainstream comes with the news that MP3 players from mobiBLU will be shipping with preinstalled software designed to download podcasts with just one click,. 
With a wagging finger and nodding head, Russell Holliman, founder and CEO at Podcast Ready sighed, “There is a huge perception that podcasts are for Apple users only, and if you’re not using an iPod it’s a difficult process.” 
The appropriately named mobiBLU Cube is, at 0.94″ square, one of the smallest in the world and comes with a large OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) display. 
In an attempt to grab a bigger slice of a music download market currently dominated by Apple’s iTunes, Napster is letting users gorge themselves on the 2,000,000+ tracks in their bulging catalogue. All for free. 
The freebie web-based service uses a Flash application to provide a basic music player interface along with windows for album art and the inevitable advertising. 
Gorog believes the boom in online advertising will pay dividends for Napster’s new advertising-supported business model, noting that their website currently averages 2 million visitors a month. 
Channel 4 is offering a UK online exclusive of the entire first series of the cult hit show, Lost. 
You’ll have to be quick to watch the new series online though, as episodes one and two will only be free to view for two weeks (until May 11th 2006.) 
Obsessive fans hoping to work out the dark complexities of the series by analysing each show in infinite detail will be disappointed to learn that it’s only possible to watch episodes for a 24 hour period on a single PC before the pesky thing goes into auto-destruct, 
Lost video is only available to UK users using Windows Media Player 10 or above.