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Cellular related stories

SPV M700 Launches on Orange UK: Also In Black
The latest model in the SPV range has arrived on the UK Orange mobile phone network.
There’s been shots of the SPV M700 floating around for a while, but as of today it’s been confirmed that there will be a black version in the UK to partner the White.
As well as all of the goodies detailed below, the SPV M700 has Sat Nav built-in – one of the early phone to have this. The handset will be able to take advantage of Sat-Nav from Orange.
The Sat-Nav is powered by Webraska with all maps and live traffic updates are held on a central server and are downloadable from the Internet via WiFi, 3G, GPRS or the Orange EDGE network onto the mobile device. Initially only available to business users, it’s now open to all.
The M700 has a 2.8in, 240 x 320, 65,53-colour display, a 2.1 megapixel camera and secondary, VGA camera for video calls and runs Windows Mobile 5.0, so offers Microsoft Office applications including Excel, Word and PowerPoint.
With all of this on board Orange is billing it as helping “you work faster and more efficiently when you’re away from your desk.”
This 3G handset can offer data rates of up to 1.8Mbps (network allowing) There’s quite a few wireless networks supported including EDGE networks as well as UMTS, GPRS and WiFi.
You can get the SPV M700 from Orange shops and online at orange.co.uk. It’s free on contracts over £35.
Sat-Nav from Orange
28 February, 2007
USB Rules Mobile Phone Interfacing
USB rules the roost for people loading and unloading content on and off their mobiles phones. It was employed in more handsets than all other interface standards combined in 2006, according to iSuppli Corp.
While the wireless alternatives of WiFi and Bluetooth might grab the news headlines, good old-fashioned USB keeps doing the doo, primarily because some sort of USB is on pretty much any computer since it’s introduction ten years ago.
iSupply think this dominance will continue to the point where, by the end of 2010, USB will still be the leading local interface, being included 764 million of all handsets shipped that year. They also think that Bluetooth will be fitted to all handsets, while NFC and WiFi will become stronger that their currently weak position.
Alongside getting content on and off the phone using the varied interfaces, there will be a corresponding increase in flash memory add-in cards. iSupply are predicting significant increases, with the 186m units shipped in 2005 increasing to 640m units in 2010.
It was interesting to note that the whole range of new Sony Ericsson phones were fitted with Memory Stick Micro (M2), and not the now-standard Memory Sticks. When we queried it with company people, they said that was the trend, allowing the size of the handsets to shrink.
iSupply
23 February, 2007
Toshiba G900 WVGA Smartphone Guns For The iPhone
A cavalcade of new phones are continuing to spew forth from the 3GSM World Congress bash in Barcelona, and one that has especially warmed our toilet seats of desire is the ‘G900’ smartphone from Toshiba.
When it comes to the world of mobiles, Toshiba traditionally makes less noise than a mute mouse in a cotton wool box wearing marshmallow shoes, but their new G900 certainly looks like it might make a bit of a splash.
Sporting a horizontally sliding out QWERTY keyboard, the silver handset comes with a thumping great 3-inch WVGA screen serving up a huge 800 x 480 (WVGA) resolution – big enough to make web surfing a really practical proposition.
To ensure that the vast display is topped up with fast and fresh web pages there’s ultra-nippy HSDPA connectivity onboard (take that, iPhone!), with 64MB of internal memory and a miniSD card taking care of storage duties.
The main camera isn’t going to get mobile Muybridges salivating into their viewfinders at just 2 megapixels, but it should be good enough for general snapping duties, while the G900 also comes with a bog standard front mounted camera for video calls.
Extra security comes in the form of a rear biometric scanner, and there’s also Bluetooth with A2DP support, Wi-Fi, USB On-The-Go and Microsoft’s new Windows Mobile 6 OS.
We’re liking the cut of Toshiba’s jig here and reckon that the G900 may even be tough enough to take the iPhone around the back of the bike sheds for a bit of a duffing up, but we’ll be holding back the love until we know how big it is and how much it’s going to cost.
Toshiba UK
13 February, 2007
Samsung’s Ultra Edition II Range Is The Thinnest Yet
There may be controversy on the catwalks, but thin remains in with the design bods at Samsung, who have just unleashed a trio of anorexic handsets in their Ultra range, the U300, U600, U700 and ultra-thin U100.
Samsung Ultra Edition 5.9 (U100)
Making the phone in your pocket look like a pie-scoffing lardarse is the Samsung Ultra Edition 5.9 (U100), which claims to be the slimmest phone in the world.
Getting just a tad carried away with the hyperbole, Samsung reckon that the U100 employs some sort of Romulan cloaking device, insisting that it is, “thin enough to disappear if turned on its side.”
Back to the real world, there’s no denying that the U100 is an impressive piece of engineering – and purdy as a picture too – packing in a 3 mega-pixel camera, a 1.93″ color TFT screen and 11 hours of music play time into its 5.9mm wide frame.
Ultra Edition 12.1 (U700)
The second phone in the Ultra Edition II range is the U700 slider, a comparative porker at 12.1mm, offering HSDPA internet connectivity up to 3.6Mbps, video telephony and a 3 mega pixel digital camera with auto focus.
The phone comes with Bluetooth, a “cool wheel” for zipping around the menus, a bundled MP3 player and a rather stingy 20MB onboard memory, expandable to 1GB via a MicroSD card.
Samsung’s Ultra Edition 10.9 (U600)
Once again, we suspect the Samsung PR may have been dabbling with funny dust when they were writing the press release for the U600, insisting that the phone was “inspired by the shine and shimmer of the crown jewels.”
Adjusting the BS output to ‘stun,’ the press announcement tells us that the handset apparently exudes “elegance and modern style… for the ultimate sophistication” and comes in a suitably daftly-named set of colours, including sapphire blue, garnet red, platinum metal and copper gold casing.
The slider phone comes with a 3.2 megapixel camera, 2.22″ wide TFT LCD widescreen, 60MB internal storage, Bluetooth and Smart Messaging all packed in a slim 10.9mm case.
The Ultra Edition 9.6 (U300)
Wrapping up the new line-up is the U300, a 9.6-mm clamshell with a 3-megapixel camera, Bluetooth, TV-out capability and 70MB of onboard storage (but no MicroSD slot).
The 2.2-inch LCD comes with a large 240×320 resolution backed by an external 96×16 OLED.
The Ultra Edition II range should be taking up shelf space in UK and European stores during March/April 2007.
13 February, 2007
i-mate Lets Rip With Its Five-Strong Ultimate Range
In an advanced Hedge-Betting exercise, i-mate has announced its new range of Windows Mobile devices, with a set of designs mirroring just about every handset currently available on the market.
Working on a “Oooh! Suits you sir”, philosophy, it looks like consumers will be hard-pressed to not find a form factor they feel comfortable with, although the gold metallic and black styling may not be to everyone’s taste (we have to say we’re not feeling the love).
Christened the “Ultimate” range, the WM6-powered devices – all five of ’em – are numbered 5150, 6150, 7150, 9150, and 8150 (clockwise from the upper left in the compilation photo) – if you’re bored, you can play “spot the inspiration” and see if you match i-mate’s new offerings to current designs by other manufacturers.
Back to the new phones, you can’t knock the i-mates for lacking in functionality, with the handsets sporting a minimum of 256MB of ROM, beefy 262k VGA displays (480×640 pixels), tri-band 3G radios, Bluetooth 2.0, FM radios and, we assume, Wi-Fi.
Full details of the whole range are still dribbling through, but we’ve learnt that the Ultimate 5150 slider comes with an Intel Bulverde 520MHz CPU, VGA screen, 256MB ROM and 128MB RAM, Wi-Fi, microSD memory card slot and a 2.0 megapixel camera.
[Via]
13 February, 2007
Nokia N77 And E90 Communicator Announced
Nordic big-knobs Nokia have knocked out another two handsets for your delectation today.
First up is Nokia’s shiny new 3G N77 handset, packing DVB-H mobile broadcast technology in its boxy black and silver frame.
Running on the tried and trusted S60 3rd Edition OS, the handset is dominated by a beefy 2.4-inch, 16 million colour display, with what looks like a bit of a fiddly keypad below.
Lurking on the back is a 2 megapixel camera, with the N77 delivering on the multimedia front, offering visual radio and support for MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+ and WMA media.
For annoying bus passengers, there are integrated stereo speakers onboard as well as a standard 3.5-mm headphone jack for adding that extra “Tscch-tschh-tschh” sound to someone else’s journey on public transport.
The tri-band GSM / EDGE with UMTS 2100 MHz phone should start shipping to “countries were DVB-H services are available” in Q2 for around €370 ($481).
Nokia E90 Communicator
Nokia has also announced the official specs for their S60-series E90 Communicator.
As befits such a pocket bulging beast, there’s a ton of functionality onboard for sharp suit-clad corporate schmoozers, with this latest version of the Communicator range getting a mean, business-like, all-black retread.
Globe trotters will heart the quad-band GSM, WiFi, and HSDPA connectivity, and there’s a 3.2 megapixel camera (with flash) and a more basic camera upfront taking care of photo/video duties.
There’s also integrated GPS and Nokia Maps wedged into the chunky handset, but all those features are going to come at a wallet-whipping price, with the E90 expected to be priced at around a stratospheric €750.
Via
13 February, 2007
Motorola’s 3G MOTORIZR Z8 Announced
We reckon there could be moist spots breaking out in the gussets of mobile phone freaks everywhere with a veritable onslaught of new phones being announced today.
First to catch our eye was Motorola’s bendy-shaped 3G MOTORIZR Z8 phone sporting a novel ‘kick-slider’ (a what?!) and purring along on a Symbian OS handling up to 3.6Mbps HSDPA.
The curved profile is supposed to make the phone sit more snugly against your noggin, with the 15.3-mm thin form factor ensuring you can grab a place on the Cool Dudes Table.
Decked out in a natty black body with green trim, the MOTORIZR Z8 features a 1.4 x 2-inch, QVGA 16 million colour display and a twin camera set up, with a 2 megapixel camera on the back (with 8x zoom and lumi LED light) and a lower spec’d VGA jobbie up front for video calls.
The handset can record in either MPEG-4 or 3gp (for MMS) and includes 90MB of internal memory and a MicroSD expansion slot to keep you stocked up with up to 4GB’s worth of photos, video, and tunes on the move.
There’s also A2DP stereo Bluetooth audio onboard, support for SMS, EMS, MMS 1.22 messaging and SMTP, POP3, IMAP4, SSL/TLS2 email.
The Moto boys claim a battery life of up to 5-hours 3G talk time or up to 16 days standby, but the cheeky monkeys haven’t come clean about what network frequencies are supported yet.
Motorola
12 February, 2007
Nokia 6110 Navigator Smartphone Offers Free Downloadable Maps
Nokia, the undisputed heavyweight champs of the mobile phone world, have taken the wraps off their new 6110 Navigator smartphone.
Jostling for some elbow room amongst the potentially cash-raking real-time positioning services market, the phone comes with high speed data connections, maps and full navigation software.
Expected to begin shipping in the second quarter with an upmarket price hovering around the €450 ($585) mark, the 6110 Navigator will use Nokia’s new smart2go navigation and mapping software.
smart2go
The software lets users put maps and route-finding services onto their phones for nowt, but Nokia would force users to creak open their wallets for more advanced services like voice commands and turn-by-turn car navigation.
The basic application lets users view where they are on a map, search for points-of-interest around them and then create a route to shuffle over to the marked interesting places.
According to Nokia, they will be offering the smart2go on Nokia S60 and Windows Mobile 5.0 devices, and then rolling out support for most of the major mobile OS platforms including Nokia S60/S40, PocketPC, Linux and other Windows Mobile devices.
Super G
Keeping the data hurtling down the line faster than an amphetamine fuelled ferret down a greased drainpipe will be HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) technology (otherwise known as ‘Super 3G’).
~~There’s no sign of any pictures of the Nokia 6110 Navigator yet, so here’s a link to some pretty bunny rabbit pictures instead.~~
UPDATE: Image through now …. der dah!
[From: Reuters]
WCDMA 3G/HSDPA trials in France
Elsewhere, Nokia and French operator SFR have successfully carried out a series of tests on WCDMA 3G/HSDPA voice calls on the 900 MHz band in SFR’s network.
What this means in English is that the increased coverage of the 900 MHz band will reduce network deployment costs significantly, improve indoor reception and help rural French farmers plan their next country-stopping protest.
[via]
12 February, 2007
Omnifone Announces Rival To iPhone/ iTunes Service
You may not have heard of them yet, but feisty Brit mobile music company Omnifone have announced one of the first big challengers to Apple’s soon-come iPhone/iTunes Store service.
Called MusicStation, the new service will dish up an “all you can eat” menu for European users, with music downloads starting at £1.99 ($3.88) per week
Initially launching their service in Europe and Asia this year, the London based company says that it’s already secured partnerships with 23 mobile network operators giving them access to a customer base of 690 million subscribers in 40 countries.
“MusicStation will give users of any music-capable mobile phone the ability to legally access, download and enjoy an unlimited amount of music, from a global music catalogue supported by the music industry, all for a small weekly fee, wherever they are,” enthused Omnifone Chief Executive Rob Lewis.
“We will ensure the vast majority of Europeans have the freedom to choose MusicStation by the time iPhone arrives in Europe. We will give consumers the choice they deserve,” he added.
Users subscribed to the service can search, download and play tunes on their mobiles with the option to sync content with home PCs to create playlists sharable with other MusicStation users.
Unlike the iPhone service, MusicStation lets users download tracks over the air across a data network, giving music-hungry punters an instant fix, wherever they are.
“By leveraging the hundreds of millions of handsets sold every year by operators to deliver MusicStation into the global market, we believe we can give Apple a run for its money in digital music provision,” chest-thumped a tiggerish Lewis, adding, “except that with MusicStation users don’t need a credit card, computer or broadband connection.”
Predictably, music tracks will come with digital rights management and be delivered in the eAAC+ format (that’s enhanced advanced audio coding, in case you’re into knowing that kind of thing).
As well as music, the service will feed punters personalised news, new release details, ticket sales and concert listings, along with recommendations for new songs based on their listening habits.
With songs and playlists being held on a centralised server, content can also be recovered and downloaded in the event of some steenkin’ tea-leaf nicking their phone.
MusicStation say that music content will be supplied by both major and independent labels – including Universal Music Group – as well as local artists.
http://www.omnifone.com/
12 February, 2007
Vodafone Mobile Services Expansion: The Why
Vodafone has made three days of surprising announcements. Three of them for Web services soon to be accessible over their mobile network (MySpace, eBay and YouTube) and the other relating to the building out of their 3G networks in the future (analysis).
We thought it would be worthwhile taking a look as to why this might be happening and why it’s come at this time.
Why the push?
Well, lots of other companies are moving in to tread on Vodafone’s toes – example – Virgin Mobile now with NTL/Telewest TV/broadband/telephone service – as all forms of communication converge.
Vodafone is pretty much a mobile only company. They’re trying to change this, through deals with BT to offer fixed-line broadband and similar offerings in Italy and Germany. In the converged game, they’re pretty weak.
This weakness is leaving their previous highly-profitable dominance of the mobile space threatened.
They’ve been aware of the benefit of differentiating their service through providing access to content for a while, but these recent moves mark a serious step forward.
Previously it’s been about them providing the means of accessing content from third parties, games, music, etc. These most recent deals are about access to services.
I know content is being accessed, a la YouTube, but they’re actually providing access to the service … one that happens to be providing content.
What’s the benefit?
There’s many advantages to Vodafone on this.
Short term it’s about making people associate Vodafone with being on the leading-edge – “Wow, they’ve got MySpace and YouTube!”
It’s unclear how far this benefit will extend into the future, as more phones become easier to browse the Web, where these services live.
eBay, MySpace and YouTube all have fanatical following. When people become embroiled in them, they _must_ find out what has _just_ happened. They’re a modern day replacement for TV soap-operas.
Obsessions like these drive people to choose mobile phones that enable them to get access – and Vodafone will be shouting this from the roof tops to encourage people to switch to them.
Interestingly, those three services are also used by a great deal of people who don’t have a strong technical understanding. People who don’t know that the whole Internet is available through the Web Browser on their mobile phone. This changing is just a matter of time.
Another short-term benefit for them is the amount of revenue they’ll end up generating. We imagine that it’s cost Vodafone a pretty penny to get exclusives from all three services, but this will be made up by the seriously boosted data charges that they’ll be clawing in.
MySpace is pretty rich with bandwidth hungry media – lots of photos, and many many pages to check. Same for eBay.
The real earner for them will be YouTube. You’ll struggle to find an application that uses as much data as video and with the ability to pass links to favourite videos, subscribers will be helping their friends run up big data charges too.
9 February, 2007