Mobile Digest

Review: Sony Ericsson M600i

The propaganda

The business phone market has recently become a hard fought battleground for mobile phone manufacturers and the M600i is currently competing with several strong contenders such as the BlackBerry Pearl, the Samsung i320 and the Nokia E61. It has the now ubiquitous push email solution as well as a scroll wheel navigator on the side – another lesson learnt from BlackBerry.

For a 3G candybar handset, it is remarkably skinny at 105 x 15 x 54 mm. It also has things like a media player, document and spreadsheet editors, and A2DP standard Bluetooth connectivity.

The good

Visually, the M600i does itself proud. The absence of any major navigation buttons or joystick on the front gives it a very pleasing minimalist style. It is also available in either black or white – both of which looks extremely smart. The new Symbian OS is similarly effective and I find it is a lot less cluttered than some Windows Mobile powered systems.

Surprisingly – for a Sony Ericsson anyway – the battery life is pretty strong. Having owned SE phones almost exclusively for the last five or six years, I’m used to some weak battery performance, but the M600i is good for around 5 hours of talk time or over 300 hours of stand-by time. Compared to other business phones out there, that is pretty decent and should realistically allow you to go for a couple of days with out desperately hunting down a phone charger.

The bad

There are few things missing from this phone. The most obvious is the lack of camera. More and more companies are beginning to frown on the sheer number of espionage-friendly camera-equipped handsets out there, but I still think that this must constitute a pretty small market sector. And even if you rarely use your phone camera, it’s always nice to have something as a backup. Further more, the higher end P990i has an incredibly neat business card scanner function that equips its camera and this would have been a worthwhile addition to the M600i’s feature set.

Wi-Fi is also absent. That’s not a huge shock in such a small handset but it would have been nice, especially if you’re wanting to indulge in some extensive mobile internet use without racking up a big 3G data fee.

Lastly, the M600i has lost the full QWERTY keyboard in favour of the unique two-way rocker keypad. This is definitely one of those love it or hate it features – I know people who do swear by it, but I struggled to get my head round it. I’m sure that with a bit more practise it could quickly become much easier to use, but that doesn’t necessarily make it better than having smaller individual keys. The lack of navigation buttons on the front makes one handed control of the menus a little tricky too.

Geek Sheet

Dimensions: 105 x 15 x 54 mm

Weight: 112 g

Screen: 262,144-colour TFT, 240x320 pixel

Input: QWERTY, Touch screen, Handwriting recognition

Symbian OS

Connectivity: 3G, GPRS, Bluetooth (A2DP), USB, Infrared

Memory: 60MB internal, Memory Stick Micro (M2) compatible

Opera 8

Overview

The M600i is a very slick business phone and it benefits greatly from keeping its bulk to a minimum. Although it occasionally feels a little too stripped down, it has a core set of good features that should let it compete admirably with its rivals. The price tag of between £250 and £300 is also about spot on too.

O2 Ireland adds Napster to i-mode service

O2 has announced a deal with Napster that allows customers to download tunes from the Napster catalogue directly to their mobile handsets.

Unfortunately for us in the UK, the service is initially being launched solely in Ireland - but you can expect it to be moving across the water if successful. Napster Mobile will offer all of its 2.2 million tracks for access via the i-mode service, as well as a recommendation engine that informs you of new songs that might interest you based on previous downloads.

And from early next year, customers will also be able to access a copy of the mobile downloads on a designated PCs. For more details of the service, visit the O2 Ireland website.

Channel 4 goes live exclusively on Virgin Mobile TV

Virgin Mobile TV has been around for a couple of months now, but previously with a limited Channel 4 service. Not anymore - you can now receive a full, live version of the channel.

Virgin Mobile now has a five channel line-up of BBC One, ITV1, Channel 4, E4 and the recently-announced ITN News exclusively on its Lobster 700TV handset. The full Channel 4 coverage replaces Channel 4 Short Cuts - a previously available highlights package. The handset also has access to 50 DAB radio stations.

The Virgin Mobile Lobster 700TV is available now through Virgin Mobile Stores within Virgin Megastores and WHSmiths, its standalone stores or from The Carphone Warehouse. The mobile TV phone and service is free to customers on a contract of £20 a month or more, for the life of their contract. Alternatively, the phone is also available on pre-pay for £99.99, with three months free viewing, followed by a £5 per month charge.

Virgin Mobile website

LG and Prada partner up for next year's fashion phone

LG, makers of this year's fashion handset of choice - the Chocolate phone - is looking to corner the market again next year, with the announcement that it's teaming up with Prada to develop "an innovative and iconic mobile phone".

It's still in the planning stage right now (so no photos available), but according to LG, the handset will combine high-end technology with "avant-garde design". Rather than just sticking traditional phone technology into a new case, the two companies are working together on all aspects of the phone, including software, user interface and music as well as the design and packaging.

The result, they claim, will be "a unique, sophisticated and elegant phone" with an advanced touch interface replacing the conventional keypad. The initial launch is planned for early 2007, with distribution starting in Europe (firstly in Italy, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany). So you never know, we might well get our hands on this at the CES in January.

LG website

Vertu's Racetracks Legends phones for the rich and frivolous

There's obviously a strong demand for overpriced handsets amongst the rich and famous. Following on from Vertu's millionaire-friendly Signature Duo handset comes a whole series of handsets from the company, all themed around motor racing.

The Vertu Racetracks Legends phones are a limited edition range, covering six of the world's most famous racetracks. The series starts with Monza (red) and Silverstone (green), followed by Le Mans (blue) and Indianapolis (black), with Monaco (yellow) and Nuerburgring (titanium grey) bringing up the rear. The phones feature racing tread rubber detailing and a laser etched map of the phones respective race track.

Small in number, collectable, pitched at the millionaire set - you know the price is going to be high. Expect to pay at least £3,000 for each handset. And if the bug bites and you decide to pick up all six, there's a special case to store them all in, made of carbon fibre - the price of that to be confirmed, but don't expect a bargain.

Vertu website

Via Luxury Launches

iPhone trademark problem

After hearing just days ago that Apple's iPhone may be hitting the US as early as January (a date that is looking more and more unlikely) next year, it seems that the company may now have a rather large problem on their hands. Turns out that the Canadian company Comwave have already trademarked the name iPhone and the service - a Skype-like internet phone line - has been in use state-side for the past few years.

Comwave might just manage to swing itself a nice little deal out of this. After all, would Apple's phone by any other name have the same "must have" qualities? Unlikely. And you've got to wonder if Comwave foresaw Apples move into the mobile market. A quick search over at the Canadian Intellectual Property Office shows that it's not the first company to try and trademark the name, but the only one to succeed.

Via The Inquirer.

MessagePlus mobile texting system could prove popular with consumers

LogicaCMG have unveiled an extension to the hugely popular mobile SMS text messaging facility called MessagePlus, which they claim contains features that many users want and would be prepared to pay for - 70% of customers according to a recent MORI poll. They also say that mobile operators will like the system because it breeds consumer loyalty and generates cash.

Text messaging is expected to continue to grow in popularity until at least 2010, but it has remained largely a simple and static medium with few features. MessagePlus aims to change that.

Three of the innovations MessagePlus offers are:

Auto-Reply: Users can create an SMS alternative to an 'out of office' reply and use that to field incoming text messages. A business user might leave alternative contact details whilst a personal user might tell their mates that their battery is running low.

Auto-Copy: Users can elect to have text messages copied directly to an email account.

Sponsored Messaging: Users could send cheaper text messages in return for allowing the operator to add adverts to their message (oh joy)

The system is supposed to integrate easily into an existing SMS service. What do you think? Would you use (and pay for) services like this?

Related Stories: Pensioners embrace text messaging | Cancer charity turns to text | England's World Cup campaign skyrockets text messaging

T-Mobile introduce Sony Ericsson M600i

T-Mobile have announced that they've added the Sony Ericsson M600i to their business portfolio (yes that does sound a bit grand).

The M600i supports MS Direct Push email and Blackberry Connect. It comes with 80MB of memory and a 'full' QWERTY keyboard (of sorts, take a look at the picture). It also features an email setup wizard that allows for fast synching with Gmail, Yahoo, BT or AOL email accounts.

The unit is Web 'n' Walk enabled, giving users open access to the Net via T-Mobile's 3G network.

There's a voice service, MP3 player, and pre-loaded games, plus stereo Bluetooth for listening to music on an optional wireless headset. It comes with an expandable 64MB memory card.

The Sony Ericsson M600i is the latest addition to T-Mobile’s range of business devices which supports CoPilot Live, satellite navigation software that transforms the handset into an advanced communications-enabled and route planning system, offering accurate door-to-door guidance.

It's available now, costing up to £230 depending upon the mobile plan chosen.

T-Mobile

Related stories: T-Mobile MDA Vario and O2 xda Mini S go on sale | T-Mobile MDA Pro/O2 XDA Exec review | We want more Wi-Fi claims T-Mobile/You Gov survey

Alliance & Leicester to introduce mobile phone banking next year

The Alliance & Leicester has said that it plans to introduce mobile phone banking for personal customers in early 2007. Customers will be able to gain access to their current accounts, requesting mini-statements and checking their account balance at any time.

Customers will be provided with a pass code when they sign up for the service. Once personal details have been verified in any one transaction, they will be removed from the phone.

"Accessing banking details via a mobile phone is the next natural step and one we think our current account customers will embrace," said Ian Tandy, director of e-commerce at A&L.

Related stories: int offers credit card payments via sms messaging | First Direct launches online chat service | HSBC and First Direct offer banking via text message | British online shoppers take security seriously

No cancer risk from mobile phone usage, Danish study suggests

Every so often someone tells us all that prolonged use of mobile phones is bad for our health (it's usually in the Daily Mail or on This Morning, isn't it?).

Now, however, a two-decade study by the Danish Institute of Cancer Epidemiology which followed 420,000 mobile phone users for up to 21 years has concluded that there was no increase in various cancer risks - including brain, neck, eye tumours and leukaemia, amongst those who had used their mobile phones compared to that of the general population.

"We found no evidence for an association between tumor risk and cellular telephone use among either short-term or long-term users," said lead researcher Dr. Christoffer Johansen of the Danish Institute of Cancer Epidemiology. "Moreover, the narrow confidence intervals provide evidence that any large association of risk of cancer and cellular telephone use can be excluded."

Whilst that sounds like good news, I'm still not convinced that having a phone strapped to your ear, or stored around your waist (particularly if you're male) is such a good idea.

Related stories: Computer Keep Fit | Mobile Phones...

There's gold in them there recycled mobiles (sorry)

Today's horrifying statistic: less than 1% of discarded mobiles are actually recycled, despite being loaded not only with precious metals, but toxic sludge.  Hopefully by appealing to basic human nature - greed, that is - that can change. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that a whopping 500 million unused mobiles are lying around in desk drawers, which can be converted right into cash by companies such as The Recycling Factory.  (And while you're at it, sell off those used ink cartridges you've got lying around too.)  [GT]

Recycled Cell Phones—A Treasure Trove of Valuable Metals [via WorldChanging]

Related stories: Moto's biodegradable mobile | Send empty ink and dead mobiles to the Recycling Factory | 5 ways to recycle your mobile

UK mobile users download 1 million Tocmags

Last month we wrote about Tocmags: user-generated mini-magazines for mobile phones.

Prior to the official launch, 125,000 Tocmags were downloaded in the 6-month beta testing phase, and generated entirely by word-of-mouth.

Now over 1 million Tocmags have been downloaded to mobiles across the UK, thanks to most users downloading several of them, and the fact that private Tocmags are apparently becoming popular as content-rich alternatives to SMS messaging.

Currently top of the ‘public’ Tocmag league is the ‘movies’ Tocmag (www.tocmag.com/movies). Published monthly by film buff Jennifer Burk, the six-page mini-magazine features reviews of the latest Hollywood releases and a trailer for Clint Eastwood’'s forthcoming WWII epic, Flags of our Fathers. The ‘movies’ Tocmag has generated nearly 15,000 downloads alone.

Tocmag's founder Brad Ells said that they chose to launch first in the UK because we're Europe's most advanced mobile nation (isn't that good to know?). We have the most advanced mobile Internet usage and handset technology. Also, in recent years the UK has demonstrated the most willingness to experiment with new medias.

Tocmag

Related stories: Tocmag: The mobile MySpace? | More Mobile Phones...

i-Kids GPS child safety device launched in the UK

Mobiles2Go have announced the availability of their i-Kids GPS gadget designed as a child safety device that will keep track of a child and give parents peace of mind.

i-Kids has a one-touch emergency button that will immediately put the child in touch with a parent by speed-dialling four pre-programmed numbers in sequence until the alert is answered. If none of the numbers are answered, the call is diverted to the i-Kids service desk where a trained operator can offer assistance.

The latest GPS functionality ensures that the device can be pinpointed to within 10-20 metres. This works even when the device is switched off, and can alert the parent by text message if a child moves out of pre-defined safety zones.

Children can be sent text and voice messages from the parent, but cannot send texts or make calls, nor receive texts from unauthorised people.

Commenting on the launch, Mark Gullickson, CEO of mobiles2go said: "Everyday we read about the increasing number of threats to child safety and this is fuelling the already prevalent fears of parents everywhere. There is a fine balance between keeping your child safe while gradually introducing the freedom and responsibility they need to enjoy a healthy and happy childhood. i Kids has already proven a very popular solution to this parental predicament in Australia, Netherlands, Germany, South Africa and Korea, by giving children the ability to communicate safely, with security features that give parents peace of mind.”"

The durable device is priced £99.99, with a monthly tariff of £15.75 on an 18-month contract.

Mobiles2Go
i-Kids

Related stories: Hannspree.z - child-friendly, zoo-themed TVs | Track your kids by mobile phone | Loc8tor tagging stops you losing keys, children, teeth..., | Parents need their techie kids' help

O2 launches blue Bluetooth headset with hot dialling

O2 has a new Bluetooth headset on the market under the name O2 blue, which offers fast access to important numbers and a lengthy battery life.

The O2 blue features "hot dialling", which offers instant access to three previously-selected numbers with the press of a button. It also comes with a USB charger, so you can power up if you're near a PC or laptop. A single charge should give you around 15.5 hours of talktime and a standby time of up to 22 days.

And just to add confusion, there's a white version of the blue, limited edition and only available in O2 stores. That version comes with that essential Bluetooth add-on, a free stuffed polar bear.

The headset retails for £50.

O2 website

Alliance & Leicester launches mobile banking service

Mobile banking seems to be the next big thing for our financial institutions. HSBC/First Direct announced a service a couple of months back, Mint followed up with credit card payments via handsets soon after and now the Alliance & Leicester are launching mobile phone banking, via the Monilink network.

Customers that register for the service will have on-demand (and secure) access to mini statements and balance enquiries from their mobile phone. The service is protected by a personal passcode and any information displayed is automatically deleted. No personal details are stored on the handset itself, ensuring that information remains secure, even if the handset is lost or stolen.

Ian Tandy, Director of eCommerce at Alliance & Leicester said: "The mobile phone is already a central tool in people's every day lives - we increasingly lead digital lifestyles with mobiles acting as the hub. Accessing banking details via a mobile phone is the next natural step, and one we think our current account customers will embrace."

Alliance & Leicester intends to extend the range of services available using Monilink, include the ability to access other accounts, the ability to transfer money or even to pay a bill directly from your handset.

Alliance & Leicester website

LG Chocolate U830 folder phone with HSDPA connectivity

LG has a new Chocolate phone on the market, just in time for Christmas. The new handset is the LG Chocolate U830, a 3G folder (or clamshell) phone that's HSDPA-friendly and at 14.8mm, one of the slimmest 3G handsets around.

It features the same touch-sensitive technology and styling that made the original so appealing, along with 185MB of on-board memory, a 2 megapixel camera and MP3/AAC music player (including stereo Bluetooth for wireless music) and a video player. There's also a 2.2-inch TFT screen inside, along with an outer 1.3-inch screen and a POP3 email client.

The U830 comes in a presentation box with a pair of stereo headphones, two batteries and a USB lead as standard. Initially, it's exclusively available from 3, with pricing dependent on contract.

3 website

More Chocolate phones:
LG KG800 Chocolate phone reviewed
LG KG810 - aka the Chocolate clamshell

Motorola launches red MOTORAZR V3i - fighting AIDS in Africa

More technology that helps in the fight against AIDS in Africa - following on from the red iPod nano comes the red MOTORAZR V3i, which again aims to raise money for the (PRODUCT) RED initiative, with £10 from the handset cost and 5% of the monthly phone bill being donated to the global fund.

The handset is available exclusively at The Carphone Warehouse. It's still very much the fashion phone, with the looks and slim design, but a fairly average specification, including 1.23 megapixel camera, 10MB of memory (which can be boosted by microSD card), MP3 player and MP3 ringtones.

But this particular version of the handset will be doing some good, as well as making you look stylish. Motorola and Carphone Warehouse is donating £10 from every red handset purchase, with 5% of the phones revenue also heading out to Africa. Motorola says the proceeds of selling just three handsets can provide a year’s worth of school materials and daily hot meals for a child orphaned by AIDS, while 5% of the average yearly phone bill can provide 180 treatments to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

The handset is available now.

Carphone Warehouse website

Zenum's "premium design" Opus smartphone to launch early 2007

Planned for a launch in November this year, Zenum's Opus smartphone will now make a stylish entrance early in 2007, the company has announced.

The reason? It still needs "some improvment". What will improve, we don't know. The current spec is a tri-band phone with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth (with A2DP wireless stereo support), a two megapixel camera, QWERTY keyboard, 64MB RAM, 128MB Flash ROM, miniSD support and a 700MHz Texas Instruments OMAP 750 CPU. It runs with Windows Mobile 5.0.

It's being billed as a phone with "premium design", doubtless to appeal to all those tax exile in its native Switzerland. Judging by the image, it’s certainly not without an element of style, but you can make your mind up in March 2007, when the phone will finally hit the shelves.

Zenum website

Via The Register

More smartphones:
Palm Treo 680 smartphone now available in the UK
E-Ten Glofiish M700 pocket PC with sliding keyboard and Wi-Fi

ANSA - ROK launches a new sms question and answer service

More for your mobile from ROK, this time it's ANSA - a text message-based question and answer service that promises you an answer via sms within 10 minutes.

To use the service, send your question to 83773. Each question you ask costs 50 pence plus the standard message charge. Initially, an answer to your question will be sought via ANSA's database. If that's not successful, the question will be sent to a suitable ANSA expert. The reply will then be checked by one of the ANSA moderators before being sent on to you.

All of this takes just 10 minutes. The expert answering your question gets 10p for their answer, with an additional 5p everytime it's used. If you fancy yourself as an expert, you can sign up at the website.

ANSA website

More from ROK:
ROK offers mobile TV over Wi-Fi
ROK launches Viper - the mobile VoIP service

Nokia World: Where camera phones and Post-It notes collide...

Another company exhibiting at last week’s Nokia World conference was Realeyes3D, which makes software for cameraphones. The company doesn’t sell it – instead, its business model is based on persuading handset makers to preload the software on their new phones.

It’s pretty nifty though. Among the apps on display was Phone2Fun Digitiser, which lets you scribble messages or drawings on paper, then take a picture of them with your cameraphone, and send a cleaned-up version of the image as an MMS message or email to friends.

"We've integrated it into the messaging clients of the new Nokia Series 60 3rd edition phones," says Katia Hilal, business development and alliance manager at Realeyes3D. "When you click on New Message, you get the option of sending a handwritten message. And besides writing, it's great for things like drawings or even maps, if you're sending someone directions."

An evolution of this technology is called Phone2Fun w-Postcard, which lets you take a normal photo, THEN do the handwriting thing and take a picture of that, and then combines the two so you have a photo with your scribblings overlaid on it – which you can then move around, make bigger or smaller, and change the colour of.

Katia says it's applications like this that could actually persuade mobile users to start using MMS more. I think it's tailor made for scribbling silly moustaches and schoolboy-style genitalia graffiti on photos of friends. In other words, it'll persuade mobile users to start using MMS more. Well, those of us who are juvenile, anyway.

Realeyes3D also has a more business-like application called, er, Realeyes3D Mobile Scanning. Well, it does what it says on the tin: lets you use your phone's camera to capture documents, notes, white boards etc, and then save them as photos within your handset, or send them on.

The company also has a technology that uses your phone's camera as a navigation aid, using it effectively as a motion sensor, allowing you to tilt and move the phone in order to move around large documents, images or web pages. It could be a solution to some of the problems of viewing 'proper' websites on a phone's screen, or alternatively as a neat navigation mechanic for mobile games.

Whether you can get your hands on Realeyes3D's apps depends on how their negotiations with handset makers go, however. "Our business model is for preloading on handsets," says Katia. "Particularly messaging applications are designed to be part of the messaging client on the phone, and very tightly linked in. It's not an application that you download and then have as an item on your phone."

Still, the chap who talked to Katia just before me worked for Nokia, and seemed very enthusiastic about the technology, so watch this space...

PREVIOUS NOKIA WORLD COVERAGE

Flash wallpapers and games on your phone
Hands on with the Nokia 770 internet tablet
WidSets bring the best Web 2.0 sites to your phone
Video of Nokia's future mobile concepts (part two)
Video of Nokia's future mobile concepts (part one)
Are you a life juggler or a technology stylist?
Geek TV crosses Miami Vice and Dom Joly with YouTube and, er, breasts
Hands On talks football, mobile advertising, and its Mobizines rival
Refresh Mobile talk about their award-winning Mobizines
Fancy a 100GB mobile phone with a built-in projector?
Next-gen N-Gage to work on 5-7 phones from Day One
Nokia declares war on the iPod!
Ruud Gullit on gadgets and marriage: "It's like warfare..."
Two mobile phones and one DJ Slow...
Nokia promises WiMAX handsets in 2008
Tech Digest goes to Nokia World

Nokia World: Flash wallpapers and games on your phone

Just polishing off some more interviews from last week's Nokia World conference today – there was so much happening at the show, I'm still working through transcripts. Let's kick off with Mobile Entertainment Factory, a German firm that's using Adobe's Flash Lite technology to create animated wallpapers and games/applications for phones.

Dr Hubert Weid, the company's CEO, ran me through a demo of the Flash wallpapers (pictured), which are cleverer than just having neat visual animations. One example was a wallpaper that actively links to your phone's time setting, and displays it as an analogue on-screen clock – good for those of us who've stopped wearing watches in favour of using our phones.

"You could even have time-based wallpapers," he says. "We could combine four different wallpapers in one Flash wallpaper, so your phone would display a different one in the morning, evening and night-time, without you having to change it."

Mobile Entertainment Factory started life making Java games for mobile phones, but has recently diversified into Flash Lite games. Hubert says the two areas don't really compete with each other, although he warns against the common assumption that Flash games are just simple one-button games with no depth.

"I wouldn't say simple," he says. "It's more rich media. Of course, we're just starting out, so it's simple at the moment, but in the mid or long term that will change. We might not do sophisticated 3D shooters in Flash, but if you think about advertising games, this is the perfect tool. It's much nicer and better to watch, and avoids the complications of Java."

He showed me a few games, including a Spin The Bottle application – one for The Kids, I'm guessing – and a Simple Simon style memory game.

The games feature more flashy (sorry) visual effects than many mobile games, especially things like popping up speech bubbles or zooming in and out, which are easier to do thanks to Flash's vector graphics.

Adobe's Flash Lite player is making its way into more phones, particularly thanks to Nokia's efforts. But it's still very early days for Flash Lite games on mobile, not least because there's nowhere to buy them.

"It's very hard, because there are hardly any out there!" says Hubert. "As Flash players are pre-installed in more phones, the industry will wake up and start to see that there is new functionality here. But today, even the operator portals don't know how they should handle Flash games."

PREVIOUS NOKIA WORLD COVERAGE
Hands on with the Nokia 770 internet tablet
WidSets bring the best Web 2.0 sites to your phone
Video of Nokia's future mobile concepts (part two)
Video of Nokia's future mobile concepts (part one)
Are you a life juggler or a technology stylist?
Geek TV crosses Miami Vice and Dom Joly with YouTube and, er, breasts
Hands On talks football, mobile advertising, and its Mobizines rival
Refresh Mobile talk about their award-winning Mobizines
Fancy a 100GB mobile phone with a built-in projector?
Next-gen N-Gage to work on 5-7 phones from Day One
Nokia declares war on the iPod!
Ruud Gullit on gadgets and marriage: "It's like warfare..."
Two mobile phones and one DJ Slow...
Nokia promises WiMAX handsets in 2008
Tech Digest goes to Nokia World

Samsung launches Ultra Edition handsets - Ultra Music F300, Ultra Video F500 and Ultra Messaging i600

Samsung has launched three handsets under the Ultra Edition banner - the Ultra Music F300, the Ultra Video F500 and the Ultra Messaging i600.

The F300 and F500 are tri-band devices, each with a two megapixel camera. The F300 has a 2.1-inch touchscreen and the looks of a music player, with the keypad sliding out. It also features Bluetooth 2.0 audio (A2DP), FM radio, 100MB of on-board storage and a MicroSD slot to boost it further. The F500 has a 2.4-inch screen, a sliding keypad, music and video support and 400MB of storage, which again can be boosted via MicroSD.

The i600 is a 3G handset with HSDPA support. It has a 2.3-inch screen, QWERTY keyboard and runs Windows Mobile 5.0. There's a VGA camera for video calls, a 1.3 megapixel camera for snapping. plus Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0, 64MB of RAM and 128MB of Flash ROM.

No news on pricing or if these handsets will make it over to Europe. We'll keep you posted.

Samsung website

Via The Register

More Samsung handsets:
T-Mobile offers first non-PDA mobile broadband handset - Samsung Z560
Samsung i320 reviewed

Bluetrek G2 Limited Pink edition - more fashion-friendly Bluetooth headwear

From the people that brought you the Bluetrek Skin range (also known as 'fashion for heads') and the M2 headset ('changes with your moods') comes another fashionable piece of headwear - the Bluetrek G2 Limited Pink Edition, a limited edition version of Bluetrek's bestselling G2 headset in pink.

Available only until December 31st, this female-friendly headset only has a cosmetic addition, the technical side is just as it was. That means 13 hours talk time and up to 21 days standby time, a reversible/adjustable ear hook for a better fit and an operation range of up to 10m.

It weighs just 12g, has a dual colour LED to indicate charge, low battery, stand-by and communication and retails for £29.99. You can pick it up from 3, T-Mobile and John Lewis stores.

Bluetrek website

Diggnation leaks possible iPhone details

Popular weekly podcast, Diggnation, recently leaked details on the eagerly awaited Apple iPhone. Though not yet officially announced and technically rumour, the news is still taken as fact by many; Kevin Rose - founder of digg.com and one of the Diggnation presenters - was also correct when he let slip details on the Core 2 Duo Macbook and Macbook Pros in the past.

Details are few (Rose was scared he was going to get in trouble for releasing the information and held-back) but if he's right we know that the iPhone's features include 2x batteries (one for phone, one for mp3), flash memory, slide-out keyboard, touchscreen (on outside) and that it will be available in two capacities: 4Gb and 8Gb. Kevin also stated that the phone would be released in the US in January and that prices would be $249 and $449 for the two sizes.

View Diggnation #74 here.

Apple files patent for wireless handheld device

The EETimes has picked up upon Apple's latest patent filing, published today but rumoured since August, of a handheld computing device with wireless communications capability.

It's summarised as: "The portable computing device includes an enclosure that surrounds and protects the internal operational components of the portable computing device. The enclosure includes a structural wall formed from a ceramic material that permits wireless communications therethrough. The wireless communications may for example correspond to RF communications, and further the ceramic material may be radio-transparent thereby allowing RF communications therethrough."

Well, we've been talking about wireless iPods and iPhones for an age, so it's not that surprising. How it will come, though, is another matter. Maybe something else to look forward at MacWorld 2007 in January.

The patent goes on to talk about the device's ceramic properties:

"It should be noted that ceramics have been used in a wide variety of products including electronic devices such as watches, phones, and medical instruments. In all of these cases, however, the ceramic material have not been used as structural components. In most of these cases they have been used as cosmetic accoutrements. It is believed up till now ceramic materials have never been used as a structural element including structural frames, walls or main body of a consumer electronic device, and more particularly an enclosure of a portable electronic device such as a media player or cell phone. There is a need for improved enclosures for portable computing devices," the filing explains. "Particularly, enclosures that are more cost effective, smaller, lighter, stronger, and aesthetically more pleasing than current enclosure designs."

So there you go. What will it materialise into?

Related stories: Apple iPhone to sport 2 megapixel camera? | iPhone tantalisingly close as Apple register trademark. Dual model rumours start | Apple iPhone would flop, UK survey suggests | Apple iPhone rumours continue: ready by January 2007?

Yahoo! services come to Nokia S40 range of mobile phones

Yahoo! have announced that they're extending their relationship with Nokia by bringing a range of their services, including Mail and Messenger, to the S40 series of devices.

Yahoo! services will initially be available on the new Nokia 6300 handset, the Nokia 5300 XpressMusic, and the Nokia 5200.

Moving forward these services and the ability to synchronise Yahoo! contacts, tasks and calendar on the PC and phone will be added to an even wider range of Nokia’s Series 40 devices.

“Since the Series 40 platform was introduced in 2002, Nokia has sold more than 400 million mobile phones which operate using the platform,” says Kai Oistamo, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Mobile Phones, Nokia. “In addition to the millions of users who can add Yahoo! services to their S60 smartphone, today’s announcement empowers tens of millions of people with the ability to enjoy their favourite Yahoo! services on an even broader ranges of Nokia devices.”

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3'S X Series Launch pricing - they got it right shocker

Comment from David Murphy of Mobile Marketing Magazine

I wouldn't want to be working in one of 3's stores over the next few weeks. Because if the mobile network operator, or mobile media company as it prefers to style itself, makes a decent fist of promoting its X-Series package, its staff are going to face a stampede of customers looking to sign up.

When we first wrote about X-Series a couple of weeks ago, we criticised 3 for not releasing pricing details. Price, we said, was all-important. At £25 or £30 a month, the service could really fly. Well when you add in a voice tariff, that's what 3 is asking, for the first 6 months at least.

On the Silver package, which costs £5 a month, the minimum voice and text tariff is £20 for the first six months, £35 thereafter. On the Gold package, which costs £10 a month, it's £25, rising to £40 after six months. For anyone who likes to go online with their mobile, X-Series looks irresistible.

At the mobilemarketing 2006 conference the other day, several delegates were talking about the lack of pricing transparency for data charges. If you respond to someone's mobile marketing campaign and download their admittedly gorgeous Java brochure to your handset, chances are it could be costing you £5 or £6 to do so.

Well here's a package that costs less than that for a month which, within reasonable limits, allows you to download Java brochures till the cows come home, and surf the web and make Skype calls to boot.

Sure, there are only two handsets to choose from initially, (only one, the Nokia at launch) but they look pretty good, with a 3.2 Megapixel camera on the Nokia and a 4GB digital music player on the Sony Ericsson, and there will doubtless be more to come.

3's move could be the best thing that¹s ever happened to the mobile marketing business. Surely the other operators can't just sit back and accept it. Currently, only T-Mobile's web 'n' walk package comes anywhere close to what 3 is offering. If the cost of going online on your mobile becomes as affordable, and as transparent, on all networks as it is now on 3, it can only encourage consumers to get involved in mobile marketing campaigns.

As Jonathan Bass, MD of mobile agency Incentivated put it when I called to get a quote: "You want a quote from me? One word: hurrah!"

Related stories

3's X-Series pricing announced 3's X-Series live blog

Simon Webbe launches 3's MPops - the mobile Top Of The Pops

We previewed Mpops a couple of weeks back, said to be 3's version of Top Of The Pops for mobiles. Well, you can find out for yourself if it lives up to the hype, with the show available to view from today, with guest presenter Simon Webbe (the bloke that used to be in Blue) .

The interactive mobile broadcast will go out live every Friday afternoon from today (December 1st), but only to 3 customers. In the first episode of MPops, Simon Webbe will run through the top selling tracks of the week, previewing an exclusive video, interview or behind the scenes gig. Viewers will be able to interact during the show with instant downloads of the tracks featured, including videos and realtones as well as competitions.

According to Graeme Oxby of 3, "The Top of the Pops’ audience hasn’t disappeared - they simply aren’t sitting in front of the TV anymore. So instead of having to sit around waiting for the audience, we’re taking a chart show to them"

3 website

X-Series from 3 - flat-fee broadband internet and services - pricing announced

Two weeks back, 3 announced the X-Series, answering most questions about its flat-fee mobile broadband and data-hungry services except one - the pricing. Well, now it's out in the open.

There are two packages, both of which are on top of your 3 phone package - X-Series Silver at £5 per month and X-Series Gold at £10 per month. If you opt for X-Series Silver, you get unlimited Skype calls with other Skype PC users and to any other Skype 3 mobile customer. There is also unlimited instant messages, to or from Windows Live Messenger or Yahoo! Messenger, to another X-Series handset or a PC, along with unlimited internet access. The X-Series Gold package adds in access to your home TV with Slingbox and your home PC with Orb for £10 per month.

There are a couple of other things worth noting. If you're new to 3, you'll be signing for a minimum six months and if you buy a Slingbox with X-Series Gold, there is a 12 month minimum contract. That's because you get your Slingbox reduced - just £99. And of course, there is 'fair use'.

It's available from today, but with just the Nokia N73 right now, followed by the Sony Ericsson W950i in January..

X-Series website

Nokia World: Hands on with the Nokia 770 internet tablet

Slipping out of one Silicon Valleyspeak presentation today ("Push the envelope!", "Innovation!", "Quadrants!"), I took the chance to get hands on with Nokia's 770 Internet Tablet. I hate the name – could it sound any more nerdy? – but the device itself is genuinely appealing.

It's a lightweight landscape handset, designed principally for web browsing, messaging, and multimedia. It's hard to say how it felt in the hands, as it was attached to one of those heavy security devices that stop journalists from walking off with brand new Nokia phones, but it did seem eminently pocketable.

Web browsing was pretty seamless, using a pop-up on-screen keyboard to type URLs in, with websites being reconfigured to fit the screen. Not all looked absolutely spiffing – *cough* Tech Digest – but it felt more intuitive than, say, the PSP's web browser.

RSS seems to be playing a big role too, as there's a mini-application dedicated to setting up your feeds, which can then be displayed on the 770's home screen. It seemed like you had to know the exact address of a site/blog's RSS feed though, rather than just the main address, which isn't that user-friendly. But I might not have had enough time to find that particular option.

The device was playing radio too, although I'm a bit vague as to whether this was internet radio streaming via Wi-Fi, or FM radio with Nokia's new station database saying what it was. Either way, it sounded good through the supplied pair of Nokia headphones.

I'm still not sure about the 770 though. Like I said, it's an appealing gadget, but for many of its options - particularly messaging - I'd want a pop-out keyboard rather than an on-screen one that you poke at with a stylus. Maybe you can use a Bluetooth keyboard with it, but then that means carrying around two separate gadgets.

PREVIOUS NOKIA WORLD COVERAGE
WidSets bring the best Web 2.0 sites to your phone
Video of Nokia's future mobile concepts (part two)
Video of Nokia's future mobile concepts (part one)
Are you a life juggler or a technology stylist?
Geek TV crosses Miami Vice and Dom Joly with YouTube and, er, breasts
Hands On talks football, mobile advertising, and its Mobizines rival
Refresh Mobile talk about their award-winning Mobizines
Fancy a 100GB mobile phone with a built-in projector?
Next-gen N-Gage to work on 5-7 phones from Day One
Nokia declares war on the iPod!
Ruud Gullit on gadgets and marriage: "It's like warfare..."
Two mobile phones and one DJ Slow...
Nokia promises WiMAX handsets in 2008
Tech Digest goes to Nokia World

Nokia World: WidSets bring the best Web 2.0 sites to your phone

There’s been a lot of talk at the Nokia World conference about the coming together of Web 2.0 and mobile. But a lot of it’s just that: talk. It seems logical that people will want to do similar things on their mobiles that they will on Web 2.0 services, albeit with extra elements of location and/or search thrown in to take advantage of the mobile phone.

But in a less high-profile corner of Nokia, the Emerging Business Unit, they’ve already created one application that’s attacking this convergance head-on. It’s called WidSets, and its nearest parallel is the Dashboard widgets on Mac computers, in that it pulls down information from websites to your phone, via RSS feeds, into the WidSets Java application.

You can pull down news stories, blog posts, Flickr photo streams, emails and weather forecasts, to name a few examples. Okay, so it might just be a slick RSS reader with a graphical user interface, but it’s easy enough to use that it could appeal beyond the tech-head community. I talked to Nokia’s Kaj Haggman to find out more.

“We were all using Web 2.0 services within Nokia, and at the stage when we were thinking of what to launch next, we thought it would be really cool if you could get Web 2.0 services to the phone very easily,” he says. “And we had been using the widgets on Apple Macs, and also Yahoo widgets, so...”

The way WidSets work is you go to the website and enter your phone details, get sent a text with a WAP link to download the application itself, which works on any phone that supports Java MIDP 2.

Then, you browse through the library of existing widgets (WidSets is the application, and widgets are the individual thingies that get content from sites) and choose the ones you want, and hit the synchronise button to transfer them to your phone. From now on, they connect automatically to find new content whenever you run WidSets.

One clever aspect is that you can create your own widgets on the website, for example if you have a particular blog you want to read, and it’s not already one of the 900+ widgets in Nokia’s library.

“People ask me what’s the difference between a widget and a full browser,” says Haggman. “If someone tells me there’s something cool on the Web, I’ll go there with a browser to take a look. But if I’m interested in just one part of a website, and want to check it regularly, then I’ll define it as a widget so I don’t have to go back every day and check if there’s something new, but instead my phone will be updated.”

Don’t worry if you’re on an unfavourable data tariff either – there’s a traffic monitor which shows how much data each widget has used up, and an alert to warn you if you’re nearly reaching a predefined limit (useful if, say, you have a data limit of 5MB a month, beyond which you start paying arms and legs).

Most of the widgets are for individual websites or blogs, but Haggman says WidSets also has a proper Java scripting language, which people have used to create search engines, traffic cameras, and even games. There’s a Sudoku game already, and a simple fruit matching game too. But hang on, there’s whizzy stuff afoot...

“You can compare your high scores with everybody else who’s been using WidSets,” says Haggman (pictured left). “Our next idea is that we want to connect people to each other too, so they can play together.”

At the moment, you subscribe to the different widgets using the WidSets website, although there is a simple feature on the phone to add any of the most recently-created widgets from the handset. However, the next version - due to be released this week - will change that, allowing you to browse the entire library of widgets from your phone.

How about video and social networking though? They’re two of the biggest website categories – think MySpace and YouTube – but they’re not that well represented at the moment on WidSets. This is partly because Nokia isn’t targeting the biggest websites, says Haggman, and also a technical restriction on using the Java application with video. Memory restrictions, apparently.

For now, WidSets is available as a Java application which should work on most new phones. Next year, a more advanced Symbian or Series 60 version will come along. But for now, it’s well worth taking a look, downloading it to your phone, and seeing if Nokia is along the right lines with this whole Web 2.0 on mobile thing.

PREVIOUS NOKIA WORLD COVERAGE
Video of Nokia's future mobile concepts (part two)
Video of Nokia's future mobile concepts (part one)
Are you a life juggler or a technology stylist?
Geek TV crosses Miami Vice and Dom Joly with YouTube and, er, breasts
Hands On talks football, mobile advertising, and its Mobizines rival
Refresh Mobile talk about their award-winning Mobizines
Fancy a 100GB mobile phone with a built-in projector?
Next-gen N-Gage to work on 5-7 phones from Day One
Nokia declares war on the iPod!
Ruud Gullit on gadgets and marriage: "It's like warfare..."
Two mobile phones and one DJ Slow...
Nokia promises WiMAX handsets in 2008
Tech Digest goes to Nokia World

Nokia World: video of Nokia's future mobile concepts (part 1)

The presentations at the Nokia World conference have just finished – I've got a stack of stuff to post up in the next few hours, so keep checking back. But in the meantime, here's one of the animated videos shown by Nokia's head of design Alastair Curtis, showing where they think this mobile lark is heading in the next few years.

This was the 'Live' video, and shows how we'll be touching each others' phones to pass messages in clubs in the future, rather than hitting each other with Bacardi Breezer bottles. An improvement, I think. Click below to watch it.

PREVIOUS NOKIA WORLD COVERAGE Are you a life juggler or a technology stylist? Geek TV crosses Miami Vice and Dom Joly with YouTube and, er, breasts Hands On talks football, mobile advertising, and its Mobizines rival Refresh Mobile talk about their award-winning Mobizines Fancy a 100GB mobile phone with a built-in projector? Next-gen N-Gage to work on 5-7 phones from Day One Nokia declares war on the iPod! Ruud Gullit on gadgets and marriage: "It's like warfare..." Two mobile phones and one DJ Slow... Nokia promises WiMAX handsets in 2008 Tech Digest goes to Nokia World

UK mobile survey suggests people want mobile Internet freedom

A survey from m-Send suggests that only 51% of 16-24 year olds and 53% of 25-34 year olds want to access the content provided by their own mobile network operator via an Internet mobile. The number rose to 76% of over 55s who'd prefer to only get their own operator's content.

This concurs with other research that shows the younger generations want the freedom from the so-called 'walled garden' of content that their mobile operators present to them.

It was also noted that more people in the south, south east, midlands and Wales preferred to access web content and interact with their favourite brands over their mobile, in the same way that they do on a computer, than those in the Scotland, the north of England and the south-west.

Earlier this month Google slammed mobile operators for their 'walled garden' approach, but Chris Astle, MD of m-send, also puts it down to user's lack of knowledge of what's available: "At the moment we are in a similar situation to the early days of consumer use of the internet when most people used CompuServe as it was simple, easy to use and correctly formatted. However, users soon realised that there was much more available to them outside of this walled garden, as companies realised that it was actually very easy to create websites themselves. “The result of this survey shows that at the moment the vote is split, but we firmly believe that as consumers become more aware of how easy it is to use the mobile internet, they will be demanding access beyond what is offered by their network operator. Getting the offering to those consumers right, will definitely give some companies a competitive edge."

M-Send

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Teen texting survey reveals a celebrity following

A new survey of texting teenagers by Hotxt has revealed what teenagers think about text messaging and etiquette (or lack of it).

Amongst the musical celebs that teens would most like to add to their texting circle of friends, Lindsay Lohan beat Paris Hilton as the most popular female (22.8%), with Lily Allen in second place (20%).

In TV celeb land, Charlotte Church (I thought she was a musician, oh well) came number 1 with 17.8%. Declan Donnelly came second with 14.7% though Ant was in 7th place (7.4%). Slightly worrying (surely) is that Simon Cowell came third with 12.3%. Why?? Louis Walsh was the least favourite of all, though. Jamie Oliver came 4th with 10.7%.

Teens were also surveyed about who they thought would be the greatest 'text pest', and, oh dear, the Hoffmeister (David Hasselhoff) was voted top with 29.3%. Russell Brand was voted second (23%) with Robbie Williams in third place (21.1%).

These results show that most young people now prefer to express their feelings emotionally via text rather than picking up the phone to tell someone how they feel about them. Certainly when it comes to flirting, texting is the perfect way to send a cheeky text to someone you fancy! As many as 87.2% 16-24 year olds use texting as the best way to flirt with someone rather than over the phone.

Southampton, Sheffield then Newcastle and are home to the biggest text flirts, but on the flipside, as many people as 22.8% think it is acceptable to dump someone via text message. The survey reveals that teens from Plymouth are the worst contenders for this kind of behaviour.

Doug Richard, co-founder of Hotxt and entrepreneur of Dragon’s Den fame, comments "“This Hotxt celebrity-focused survey is an indication of the significance texting plays across all aspects of teenagers’ lives today. Texting has created a new and preferred platform for communication, an opportunity for social networking and starting new relationships as well as a means to finishing them in an easy and impersonal way, such as the simple text from Britney Spears to her husband to end their marriage."

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Garmin offers free software for receiving texts on a sat nav

Garmin satellite navigation systems can now download a software update that will allow them to send and receive SMS text messages when paired with a compatible Bluetooth mobile phone. And some of them will even speak those text messages (though how it's going to cope with text language I don't know)

The new service is available on the nüvi 660, 360 and 360T and the StreetPilot c550, which all feature the text to speak functionality.

The free download is available from Garmin's support site at www.garmin.com/support/, and a list of compatible m