Devices

New devices to consumer digital media

Axia A308, World’s Smallest Windows 5.0 Wi-Fi Smartphone Announced
Fifth Media have announced the forthcoming unveiling of their AXIA A308 PDA Phone, proudly proclaimed as the (deep breath), “world’s smallest PDA Phone on Microsoft Windows Mobile 5 featuring Wi-Fi connectivity.”
Due to be seen at the CeBIT exhibition in Hannover next month, the quad-band AXIA A308 packs in GSM, GPRS and EDGE connectivity – as well as the all-important Wi-Fi connectivity – into its diminutive proportions.
Running on Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0, the pocket-rocket PDA also offers Bluetooth and IrDA-enabled connectivity, with the whole caboodle measuring just 20.8 x 48.8 x 113.3mm and weighing 128g.
Powered by a surprisingly nippy Intel PXA272 CPU 416 MHz processor, the Axia comes with a reasonable 128 MB of flash memory an 64MB of RAM, with a decent sized 2.2″ Transflective TFT LCD 262K colour running at 240 x 320 resolution.
Multimedia is taken care of with WAV/WMA/MP3 support and a basic, built in 1.3 MegaPixel CMOS fixed focus camera. Memory can be expanded via the miniSD flash memory slot.
The all-important battery life is claimed at 4 hours talktime with the removable/rechargeable 1500mAh Li-Polymer offering 120 hours of standby time.
On the initial specs, this looks like a very attractive phone – we like the ‘proper’ keypad and the fact that they’ve wedged in so much functionality into such a small form.
The built in Wi-Fi is already getting our wallets twitching and with a processor powerful enough to run Skype, we’ll be looking out for this one at CeBIT.
SPECIFICATIONS
PROCESSOR Intel PXA272 CPU 416 MHz
MEMORY Flash 128MB; RAM 64MB
DISPLAY 2.2″ Transflective TFT LCD 262K colour with 240 x 320 resolution White LED Touch Screen
AUDIO Microphone Loudspeaker for speaker function 2.5mm stereo headphone jack Support WAV/WMA/MP3 stereo
CAMERA 1.3 MegaPixel CMOS Fixed focus
BATTERY Removable/rechargeable 1500mAh Li-Polymer
Talktime: 4 hours*
Standby Time: 120 hours*
CONNECTIVITY
Quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)
Integrated GSM/GPRS/EDGE
Wireless LAN (IEEE 802.11b compliant)
Bluetooth (1.2 compliant, Class 2 transmit power)
IrDA
OPERATING SYSTEM
Microsoft® Windows® Mobile 5 Pocket PC
OS Microsoft® Pocket Internet Explorer
Windows® Media Player 10
Windows® Messenger
Transcriber software
DIMENSIONS 20.8 (D) X 48.8 (W) X 113.3 (L) mm
WEIGHT 128g
EXPANSION Mini SD slot
1 March, 2006
SPH-B1300 DMB Phone From Samsung, Flipping ‘eck
More flexible than a Russian athlete in a vat of oil, Samsung’s double-flipping DMB phone offers a novel twist on the clamshell format.
Naturally, we’re talking about a Korea-only release at the moment, but Samsung’s SPH-B1300 looks an interesting number serving up a DMB handset that flips two ways. A bi-flip-sexual, if you will.
The Samsung can function like a regular clamshell phone, with the colour display viewed in portrait orientation, or, with a clever bit of flipology, the screen can shuffle around into a landscape format – ideal for watching TV and videos.
As well as the DMB functionality, the Samsung SPH-B1300 serves up the usual advanced mobile feature set, complete with a two megapixel digital camera and built-in MP3 player.
It looks like the handset will be taken up by KTF in Korea (DMB is huge in Samsung’s home country), although those waiting for a UK release may be in for a very, very, very long wait (think, “eternity”).
We can expect more details about the Samsung SPH-B1300 to be revealed at the CeBit 2006 show in Hannover next month.
Glossary:
DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) is a digital transmission system for sending data, radio and TV to mobile devices such as mobile phones.
Operating via satellite (S-DMB) or terrestrial (T-DMB) transmission, DMB is based on the Eureka 147 DAB standard and shares similarities with the competing mobile TV standard DVB-H.
Samsung
CeBit 2006
28 February, 2006
What Software On Which PDAs? Survey
Handango has released their annual “Handango Yardstick”, a global snapshot of the state of the mobile content industry in 2005.
Containing specific reports for each of the five major mobile operating systems – BlackBerry, Palm OS, Symbian OS and Windows Mobile Pocket PC and Smartphone – the Yardstick offers stats on the top devices downloading software and digital content, best-selling applications and ringtones and software sales by category etc.
Their 2005 report reveals that multimedia was the hot new category for 2005 with fast-rising sales on all platforms.
Across the board, MP3 and music players; DVD/video converters and viewer and ringtone managers topped the best sellers list, with multimedia content ranking seventh in the top ten sales by categories
The big hitters included Ring Tone Megaplex for BlackBerry, Ringo Pro for Palm OS, Pocket-DVD Studio for Windows Mobile Pocket PC and SmartMovie for Symbian OS.
The Yardstick reported an overall increase in the average selling price (ASP) of mobile applications, surging upwards from $16.96 in 2004 to $20.03 in 2005.
The dynamic nature of the smartphone/PDA industry was reflected by the fact that only four of the top ten devices adding content in 2004 – the Palm Treo 600/650, O2 XDA, Sony Ericsson P900/P910 and Palm Tungsten T Series – stayed in the list.
New additions included the Motorola RAZR V3, the BlackBerry 7100 Series and the BlackBerry 7250/7290 (the first BlackBerry smartphone to ever make the top ten).
Palm
The Palm Treo 650 shunted the Treo 600 into second place as it grabbed the title of the number one device adding content, with the Palm Tungsten E, Palm Tungsten T3 and Palm Tungsten T5 trailing behind.
Although more than 2,125 new applications were created for the Palm OS in 2005, this represented a hefty 89 percent decrease from last year.
Here’s the top ten best-selling applications for Palm OS according to Handago:
- 1. Agendus Professional Edition
- 2. Treo Voice Dialing
- 3. AOL for Treo 650
- 4. Agendus Standard Edition
- 5. PocketMirror Standard Edition
- 6. Diet & Exercise Assistant
- 7. SplashID
- 8. KeySuite
- 9. SOLITAIRE PACK
- 10. Ringo Pro
Palm Yardstick [PDF]
Windows Mobile Pocket PC
A total of 3,024 new applications were launched on Windows Mobile Pocket PC platforms in 2005 – down on the previous year’s total by 17 percent.
The top ten Windows Mobile Pocket PC applications were:
- 1. Spb Pocket Plus
- 2. Battery Pack Pro
- 3. Agenda Fusion
- 4. Pocket-DVD Studio
- 5. SBSH PocketBreeze
- 6. Microsoft Voice Command – US Edition
- 7. Pocket Informant
- 8. eWallet
- 9. Pocket Controller-Professional
- 10. Spb Weather
Pocket PC Yardstick [PDF]
Smartphone Yardstick [PDF]
BlackBerry
The Handango Yardstick reported a busy year for BlackBerry with 462 new applications contributing to a 67 percent increase over last year.
The top three BlackBerry devices adding content in 2005 — the BlackBerry 7250, BlackBerry 7290 and BlackBerry 7100t — were also three of the top smartphones adding content across all platforms.
The top ten best-selling applications for BlackBerry were:
- 1. Ring Tone Megaplex
- 2. WebViewer
- 3. Aces Texas Hold’em – No Limit
- 4. IM+
- 5. Acrobat PDF Graphical Attachment Booster
- 6. CryptMagic + PC Desktop
- 7. Sol Mania
- 8. Ascendo Photos
- 9. Requwireless Value Bundle
- 10. PocketDay Professional Edition
Blackberry Yardstick [PDF]
Symbian Yardstick
Handago
20 February, 2006
Volvo Penta IPS: Joystick Boat Control
When it comes to Friday, our thoughts are drawn to life on the sea with the inevitable weekend sojourn to Monte Carlo (doesn’t everyone weekend there?).
Did you know that Yacht owners can be very snooty about those who own motor launches – floating gin palaces is what they call them. I’ve never figured out if this is a class-thing, or jealousy, but I do know that they are dismissed as flash-Harry’s. Yachties take tremendous pride (probably correctly) in controlling their craft, having invested years to learn the fine art. As far as they see, motor boat owners turn up, turn the key and drive off – far too easy, with not enough suffering.
The latest innovation from Volvo Penta is bound to add extra ammunition to the yacht-owners dislike of Motor boats and their owners. It looks like it makes it a doodle of maneuver a boat, with almost super-human skills.
They’ve launched the IPS, complete with joystick, designed to ease the handling of motor boats. The Inboard Propulsion System, to give it it’s full moniker, enables the captain to finely control the boats movements by twiddling a joystick.
They’ve taken the idea beyond simple X-Y joystick movements to incorporate a twisting action and a couple of buttons. X-Y provides the obvious forward/backward, plus an interesting side-to-side action, which doesn’t swing the boat around, but literally slides it sideways – neat.
The joystick’s twisting action rotates the boat, seemingly on a six-pence, in either direction, right or left – again, most impressive.
The joystick is only part of it. The rest of IPS secrets are hidden under the boat using what those in the know would call ‘two forward-facing contra-rotating propellers per unit’. To you and me, that’s a couple of engines that you can point in different directions.
With the engines able to act independently, when combined with the joystick, the IPS provides the ability to maneuver with tremendous precision.
We looking forward to getting our hands on it for a full review and are think which of the Digital-Lifestyles boats would benefit from retro-fitting this.
Volvo Penta IPS
17 February, 2006
Guitar Hero: PS2 Release In Europe
It’s rare that there are inconsistencies in the Digital-Lifestyles clan, but there’s one subject that brings a split consensus. Some of us, me included, think that different forms of controllers for video game is a trend that is just starting – a more natural way of working with the games console is inevitable, like the Reebok CyberRider we reviewed at the start of 2003. Others think they’re just a plain daft idea, to be forgotten in the twitch of a joystick.
Guitar Hero on the PS2 has re-ignited the subject as it features a guitar controller modeled on the classic Gibson SG.
Rock-power-fiends will set their fingers a flyin’ around the five frets, strum-bar and whammy bar. Beyond the buttons, there’s an alignment sensor used to gain extra style points when it’s played vertically. Expect the inducement of dizziness as heads are thrown around in a frenzy.
Gameplay for single players includes a ‘career’ mode, taking you from playing small indie club on your path to the rock-mega-god status of playing stadiums.
With the Multiplayer mode seeing two players facing-off in what are described as ‘an electrifying series of guitar duels’, it’s quite unclear what will happen over artistic differences, or even usages of the power axe (otherwise known as guitar) as there’s only one shipped with the software.
The game format will be familiar to anyone who’s ever played or even seen a game like Dance Dance Revolution. Different coloured objects move down the screen towards you and actions have to be performed to match these object.
Initial previews have been strong and it’s gained from PR boosts with the like The Darkness talking about on MTV Overdrive. It looks like there’s high hopes from this one.
Guitar Hero will be released in the UK in April 2006, priced £49.99 (including SG controller). Rollout throughout Europe will follow shortly.
We’re looking forward to getting our hands on it.
Guitar Hero Games
(There’s a video of The Darkness talking about Guitar Hero on MTV Overdrive, which due to Geo-locations filters, we are unable to see in the UK as ” MTV Overdrive is currently unavailable in” our “territory”>
16 February, 2006
Sony VAIO VA1 Series Wireless Home Entertainment PC
Sony has announced the new VAIO VA1 Series, a wireless home entertainment desktop computer.
Looking like it was knocked out by designers in a hurry to get home, the chunky machine seems to lack Sony’s usual flair for design, but underneath the less-than-glamorous exterior lurks a novel hybrid machine, boasting analogue and digital TV tuners, a DVD rewriter and capacious hard drive.
The display is a big Sony 20″ screen with true 16:9 aspect ratio, X-black technology and double lamp illumination, with a nippy 2.8GHz Pentium D 820 processor powering the PC.
Graphics are taken care of courtesy of an ATI Mobility Radeon X700 with 128MB RAM, with the integrated TV tuner offering both analogue and digital channels, with built in Freeview.
Running on Microsoft Windows XP Media Centre Edition, there’s a high capacity 250GB hard drive inside and a dual layer DVD DVD±RW rewriter, capable of recording up to four hours of DVD-quality TV in one go.
High definition audio is provided by Sony’s Direct Stream Digital (DSD), a technology developed by Sony in conjunction with Philips.
Despite its all-in construction, some expandability options are provided with space for a second hard disk and slots for more RAM.
In line with its home entertainment pretensions, the machine includes a wireless keyboard with built in touchpad, a wireless mouse and remote control.And to keep things neat and tidy, the whole caboodle uses a single plug. Nice.
Full details, comprehensive specs and product photos are (as you can see) somewhat thin on the ground as we went to press, but we’ve heard that the Sony VA1 should be available from February, priced at around £1,500 ($2,620, €2.185).
8 February, 2006
Camera Phones Disappoint
Although cameras are considered to be an essential part of modern mobile phones, a new study has revealed that only a tiny percentage of camera phone snaps are actually being stored or sent.
A survey undertaken by market research firm In-Stat found that less than a third of camera phone owners shared picture messages with friends.
“People who haven’t yet purchased camera phones are very enthusiastic about all the uses for their images,” says David Chamberlain, In-Stat analyst.
“However, once they start using their new phones, they are turned off by perceived poor picture quality, slow network speeds, and the difficulty of creating and sending pictures. Our survey found that very few pictures actually make their way out of the handset to be shared with others,” he commented.
The stats bear out the disappointment, with only 28% of camera phone users sending and sharing their photos against the 60% that initially purchased a camera phone for that purpose – and only one in 20 camera phone users are bothering to print their snaps or store them on carrier-provided websites.
After seeing the dire quality of the pictures taken with our i-mate JAM smartphone we can see his point, although the study didn’t ask what phones they were using (we’d imagine people would be making a lot more use of photos taken with capable camera phones like Sony Ericsson’s 2 megapixel K750i).
The survey also found that owners of ‘proper’ cameras – suitably un-wooed by the blurry pics from their camera phones – are less likely to replace their phones in the near future than other users.
Consumers wanting to be able to take and send decent quality photos are hit by a double whammy: camera phones capable of taking high quality phones aren’t cheap, and the higher resolution files they create end up costing a bomb in network carrier costs. Best solution? Take along a ‘real’ camera and email it when you get home.
The report estimates (rather wildly) that by 2010 there will be from 300-850 million mobile users sending at least one image per month across the carrier network.
A recent report by IDC forecasted that global camera phone shipments will climb from 270 million units in 2004 to nearly 766 million in 2009.
Tutorial: Fixing photos taken on camera phones [Adobe]
7 February, 2006
PDA Sales Plummet Again
It’s been spluttering and wheezing in its sick bed for what seems like an eternity, but the latest figures from research firm IDC confirm that the prognosis isn’t good for the Personal Digital Assistant (PDA).
The figures show the worldwide market for handheld PDAs continuing to plummet, with sales dropping for the fourth consecutive year in 2005.
IDC’s research reveals that just 2.2 million devices were shipped during the last three months of the year, with annual sales falling 16.7 percent to 7.5 million units – substantially down on 2004’s figure of 9.1 million.
Although a bright Christmas period saw sales grow 37.6% over Q3, the trend remains resolutely downward, with the declining market segment driving PDAs into a market niche.
Industry pundits put the slow but steady decline of PDAs down to the exponential growth of smartphones, with the convenience and features of converged handhelds proving more alluring to punters.
According to Gartner’s figures, a massive 72 million smartphones will be shifted this year, compared to just 6.6 million units in 2003.
But don’t go ordering flowers for the PDA funeral quite yet, as IDC research analyst Ramon Llamas insists that it’s not all over for the PDA market, with plenty of smaller vendors remaining committed to a more niche PDA market.
“The departure of other worldwide vendors has opened the door for smaller vendors to improve their position within the market. During the course of the year, several smaller vendors remained within striking distance of beating each other for the number four or five position, and even posed a challenge to some of the worldwide vendors,” commented Llamas.
Palm – whose market leading Treo 650 smartphone has just been ported to Windows in the shape of the Treo 700w – remains the most popular PDA brand, securing 43 per cent of the market last year, with HP in second place at 25 per cent.
Elsewhere, Mark Nelson, the founder of Ovid Technologies who owns 8 percent of Palm’s stock, has urged Palm to consider selling its business to big boys like Research in Motion, Dell or Hewlett-Packard while its stock is high.
With Palm winding down its PDA business and concentrating on its Treo smartphone range, Nelson argues that Palm will have difficulty competing against deep-pocketed rivals like Dell and HP who are currently ploughing big R&D budgets into similar products.
Palm declined to comment, but Todd Kort, an analyst at Gartner, reckons that Palm’s independence is a positive advantage, making them, “faster on their feet” with the ability to “turn on a dime a little faster than Nokia can.”
In Europe, Nokia still rule the smartphone roost, but as we reported last year, the Treo remains hugely popular in the States.
Kort suggested that Palm’s lean’n’mean size gives it the edge to adapt to quickly changing market trends and target high-end customers.
6 February, 2006
i-mate PDA-N GPS Pocket PC
They’ve been bustier than Jock McHasty in a rush at i-mate, as the PDA/smartphone vendor releases another addition to their range, the i-mate PDA-N – the company’s first GPS PDA.
Aimed at swivel-action business types and people who sit in cars all day (sorry, “road warriors”), the PDA-N positively bristles with connectivity, including built in GPS, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
The units come with Skype pre-installed, letting users make free VoIP calls over wireless connections.
Running on Windows Mobile 5 Pocket PC Edition, the PDA-N comes bundled with the full Office Mobile suite and runs on a 300MHz Samsung processor.
The front of the slim device is dominated by a 2.83″ 240×320 pixels transmissive TFT-LCD screen supporting 64k colours, with a row of four buttons and a joystick below.
Unusually, there’s no camera onboard (least not one we could see), but there’s a fair range of multimedia support onboard, with the device able to play back WAV, WMA, AMR, and MP3 music files, as well as M-JPEG/WMV video files.
Onboard memory is a bit skimpier than we would have liked – just 128MB of ROM and 32MB of RAM – but there is a SDIO/MMC expansion slot available.
According to I-mate, the PDA-N notches up a rated battery life of 5 hours in GPS mode and 8 hours playing a looped video.
The PDA is scheduled for release in April.
Specs:
Dimensions: 109.7mm(H) x 59.4mm(W) x 17.6mm(T) (same as i-mate JAM)
Weight: 126g w/ battery
Processor: Samsung SC32442X33 300Mhz
Memory: 128MB embedded Flash ROM, 64MB embedded SDRAM
Screen: 2.83″ 240×320 pixels, 64K – colors Transmissive TFT-LCD
Interface: SDIO/MMC card slot, One Audio jack (3.5), MiniUSB connector
GPS: Embedded GPS antenna,Support NMEA 0183 version 3.0 or above, WAAS-enabled, 12 parallel channel GPS receiver:
Acquisition time
Hot start: 8 seconds, typical TTFF
Warm start: 60 seconds, typical TTFF
Cold start: 120 seconds, typical TTFF
GPS Accuracy:
Position: < 15 meters, 95% typical
Velocity: 0.05 meter/sec steady state
WAAS Accuracy:
Position: < 5 meters, 95% typical
Velocity: 0.05 meter/sec steady state
Battery: Removable rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery, 1,100mAH
GPS mode: > 5 hrs
Standby time: > 200 hrs
WMV playback: 8 hrs
WMA playback: 12 hrs
Connectivity: Infrared IrDA SIR, Bluetooth v1.2, WiFi 802.11b
i-mate
1 February, 2006
i-mate JAMin PDA/Smartphone Expected Soon
A week ahead of its scheduled launch, smartphone bigwigs i-mate have revealed details of their latest model, the JAMin.
Despite its name, the PDA/phone doesn’t come with Bob Marley ringtones or blow sweet wafts of ‘erb in the owner’s direction, but certainly offers redemption in the spec department.
According to i-mate’s site, the JAMin has a top rankin’ set of features, offering quad-band (850/900/1800/1900MHz) GSM/GPRS/EDGE, 64MB of RAM and 128MB of ROM.
Switching from a 416 MHz Intel processor to a 200 MHz TI processor (we know it sounds like it must be slower but they’re not directly comparable), i-mate have stuck with the JAM form factor, adding a different button layout and twice the ROM.
With Bluetooth 2.0 and 802.11g Wi-Fi connectivity onboard, there shouldn’t too much waiting in vain, with the PDA-style smart phone purring along on Windows Mobile 5.0.
Also known as the HTC Prophet (and O2 XDA Neo), the phone shouldn’t stir it up in the pocket department, measuring a compact 10.8 x 5.8 x 1.8cm and weighing 150g. Memory expansion is taken care of courtesy of a SD IO slot
Powered by a 1200mAh battery, the JAMin comes with a large 2.8in, QVGA (240 x 320 pixel), 65k-colour display.
Users looking to shoot the sheriff can take advantage of the two-megapixel camera – with macro shooting mode – fitted on the back of the phone.
We’re couldn’t get any positive vibrations out of the rubbish camera provided with its predecessor, the JAM, so let’s hope i-mate have stirred it up in the resolution department.
The JAMin is expected on the streets of Babylon soon for around £440 ($770, €643) without an airtime package.
i-mate JAMin
31 January, 2006