Mobile Digest

Will the iPhone do for mobile music what iTunes did for online music?

Media analyst Screen Digest has completed some interesting research into the global market for over-the-air (OTA) mobile music downloads, as well as speculating on what impact the iPhone may have on this market.

By the end of 2006, the global market for OTA mobile music was worth around £113m, most of which was generated by single track downloads in the US. The global online music download market was worth around £636m.

By 2012, Screen Digest forecast the global mobile music market will be worth over £1bn, the vast majority thanks to consumers in Japan and South Korea. The reasoning for this is primarily due to vastly superior mobile networks in those countries than European and US citizens have the luxury of. For this reason, Western consumers prefer to download music onto their PCs over higher speed broadband connections, and then synchronise with their music devices / phones.

Screen Digest forecast that subscription-based music services will emerge over the next three years, and account for two-thirds of total mobile music revenues worldwide by 2012. Something that Steve Jobs may want to take note of, as he has hinted at being interested in subscription music services, while saying Apple won't launch such a service at other times.

Screen Digest digital music specialist Dan Cryan says: “This is a really exciting time for mobile music and industry players are jostling to enter a rapidly growing market with the right products and business models. On the one hand we have Apple’s iPhone, the first generation of which doesn’t lend itself it to over-the-air music downloads."

I'd question his belief that the first generation iPhone doesn't lend itself to OTA music downloads. Though it's likely that most people, particularly on slower mobile networks in the US, will upload music to their iPhone via iTunes on their Mac or PC (as per iPod) the inbuilt Wi-Fi—plus the possibility of a 3G international version of the iPhone—means that OTA downloading of tracks straight to the iPhone should easily be possible with a tweaked version of iTunes.

With many predicting that the iPhone will revolutionise the mobile industry, could it do for mobile music what iTunes has done for online music?

Ironically, it will be iTunes that underpins music on the iPhone, so in reality it will be the software that needs to change to facilitate a successful iPhone experience.

Will Apple listen to a potential wave of new customers, perhaps including a number who haven't used iTunes before?

Will the lure of a piece of the potentially lucrative subscription-based music download service tempt Jobs (or any successor) to offer such a service to iPhone/iPod users?

Only time will tell, but it's in the area of portable music devices and accompanying software that Apple has, arguably, made its biggest mark amongst general consumers. Apple likes to set trends. How will the iPhone shape mobile music, or will mobile music shape future generations of iPhone?

First iPhone camera images spotted online

Pictures claiming to have been taken on Apple's forthcoming iPhone have tipped up on the internet.

The image, showing a man tucking into some jam on toast, was spotted by Mobile Guerilla, after constantly typing "taken with an apple iphone" into Google for over a month.

The pics were found on a Flickr account, and the EXIF data showed that device used was: "Camera: Apple iPhone". The images have since been removed.

Of course, it's not that difficult to fake EXIF info so it could just be a cunning ruse.

More: Mobile Guerilla

Review: Sony Ericsson W200i - Walkman phone for everyone

The propaganda

Not everyone wants - or indeed needs - a super phone in their pocket, loaded with features and raring to satisfy any and every multimedia whim at a moment's notice.

Some just want a decent enough camera, a bit of music and the ability to talk and text their friends. Nothing more complex or overblown than that. For that sort of person, the Sony Ericsson W200i will more than suffice.

The good

The W200i is a good, solid phone, first and foremost. It's got enough features to keep you occupied without bundling in so much technology that it pushes you into forking out a massive amount each month to get one free on contract.

Camera snaps are good enough to share with your mates and there's a built-in Walkman music player. The bundled headphones are basic, but you can plug your own into the 3.5mm jack on the hands free kit. The inclusion of a 128MB Memory Stick Micro card in a phone aimed at this market is fairly generous.

The bad

There's no escaping the fact that W200i has a rather utilitarian design. It's solid and sensible, but it's not going to win any design awards. While it's quite small front on, it's a bit thick which makes it feel a somewhat bulky.

The navigation joystick is recessed a little too much, making it difficult to move around menus. The screen stretches to 1.8in and the low resolution of 128x160 pixels feels a little cramped at times.

There's also no Bluetooth, which feels positively antiquated, with wireless communication left to good old infrared instead.

Geek Sheet

Connectivity: 900/1800/1900MHz GSM, USB, infrared

Internal memory: 27MB, 256MB MemoryStick Micro

Display: 1.8in, 128x160 pixels

Camera: 0.3 megapixel

POP3 email client

Battery: 7 hours talk time, 300 hours standby

Dimensions: 44x101x18 mm

Overview

Free phones on contract are great - but if you're not in a position to take one out you may find your handset choice more limited. If you're shopping for a Pay As You Go phone, or need a replacement handset without any ties then the W200i is a reasonable option. It doesn't have all the whizbang features you'll find from the latest models, but with a price tag of around £60 on PAYG it's considerably more affordable too.

Related sites: Sony Ericsson W200i

Shiny Video Review: Nokia 6300

Susi examines the Nokia 6300 and reports back for Tech Digest on this simple, straightforward but fairly limited phone.

Nokia

Nokia N76 - now with added Travis

When Nokia says it has teamed up with "one of the UK's most influential bands", I'm guessing not many of you out there would think of Travis. Well amazingly, that's who they mean.

Nokia has done a deal with Sony BMG to throw in five Travis tracks for anyone buying the N76. But it's typically not that simple - it's in the form of a voucher, you don't get to choose the tracks and you have to download from the MSN music shop. Surely pre-installing isn't that hard? At least you will get the band's new single, plus four other tracks from the band's back catalogue.

According to Tapio Hedman, senior vice-president Multimedia, Nokia and probably without his tongue in his cheek: "We're very excited about being able to offer music from Travis, a genuinely thought provoking and inspirational band, for mobile enjoyment with the Nokia N76. This compelling offer confirms the commitment Nokia Nseries has to music and developing devices that match the lifestyles of consumers"

The N76 can hold up to 1500 tracks and supports Windows DRM tunes.

See the full N76 specification

Samsung's SGH-i400 heads to Europe

Samsung has unveiled another smartphone - the SGH-i400 - which should debut in Europe sometime in late summer.

It's a slider handset, using the Symbian S60 operating system. Details confirmed so far include a two megapixel camera, dedicated MP3 keys, stereo speakers, A2DP Bluetooth, MicroSD slot and full web browsing courtesy of the 2.3-inch screen.

No word on connectivity as yet, but we do know it will make its debut in Russia in July, with Europe following soon after.

Samsung website

Via Engadget

Mobile phones cause forgetfulness

Here's a quick challenge for you - try and remember five numbers that are stored in your mobile phone. Tricky isn't it? If you're finding it a challenge, you're not alone.

Over two thirds of the UK mobile phone users - 69 percent - were unable to recall five numbers from their phone memory in a recent survey.

With thefts of mobile phones accounting for 40 percent of robberies and only four out of ten people backing up their contacts it's a bit of a recipe for disaster.

But all is not lost - ZYB is touting an online back up service that works with most phones and any UK network. You need to store you numbers on the phone memory, not the SIM, then sign up at the website and follow the instructions.

Given that on average we store 80 numbers in our phones, it's probably worth doing something about it sooner, rather than later.

LG KS10 - Google-packed slider phone

LG recently announced a tie-in with Google, offering pre-loaded Google Maps, Gmail, and Blogger mobile applications with selected new handsets. And it looks like the first of these is the LG KS10.

It's a slim slider phone with HSDPA connectivity and a Symbian operating system. Other features include a 2.4-inch LCD screen, two megapixel camera, stereo Bluetooth, multimedia playback and a microSD slot.

LG says this will get its debut in April in Italy, with a launch through the rest of Europe before the end of the year.

LG website

Via Engadget

Review: ZyXEL v660 - mobile and VoIP hybrid phone

The propaganda

VoIP may be great for keeping calling costs down - but it does mean you're shackled to your PC by a headset, which doesn't lend itself to long conversations.

ZyXEL is hoping to change all that with the V660 phone which combines a normal mobile with Wi-Fi and VoIP functionality. The idea is simple - when you're in range of a hotspot you can make calls cheaply over the internet and when you're out of coverage you can still be contactable via the standard GSM network.

The good

As the V660 runs Microsoft's Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system you get all the goodies you'd expect from a high end smartphone.

In addition to your normal phone functionality there's cut down versions of Internet Explorer for web surfing and Outlook for email on the go. With built in Wi-Fi, you can surf away without worrying about high data costs.

Wi-Fi also means you can use it with a VoIP service such as Sipgate which offers calls much more cheaply than normal mobile rates. Like most VoIP services, it depends on the speed of your internet connection and the sound does drop out at times, but it's still usable.

The bad

The V660 doesn't currently support Skype - perhaps the most popular VoIP service. Support is planned for later in the year, but there's no confirmed date at present.

Setting up the VoIP service is also fairly fiddly and involves entering seemingly random text into lots of different boxes to get it to work - although you only have to do it once, thankfully.

Battery life also wasn't brilliant - after just a day's moderate use with both GSM and Wi-Fi turned on it was down to half full so you'll need to keep it topped up regularly.

Geek Sheet

Connectivity: 850/900/1800/1900MHz GSM, Wi-Fi, USB

Internal memory: 64MB

Display: 1.9”, 176x220 pixels

Camera: 1.3 megapixel

POP3 email client

Dimensions: 44x107x15 mm

Overview

There's no confirmed price, but ZyXEL estimates it will sell for around £250 without contract which is fairly pricey considering most phones are given away free with a contract.

Design-wise it's fairly basic to look at, although it's relatively simple to use - especially if you know your way around Windows Mobile.

The VoIP functionality is a welcome addition, although lack of Skype support is disappointing and setting it up other services is quite complex and could be made easier.

Related sites: ZyXEL

iPhone? Nope, never heard of it

Nearly half of Americans adults have heard of the iPhone, despite the fact it's not even out yet, according to a survey. What's more, 17 percent said they already wanted to buy one - something that will not doubt delight the accountants at Apple.

However, not everyone is jumping at the chance to get their mitts on Apple's new baby - with only nine percent saying they'd be queuing up to buy one at launch. About 17 percent, however, were willing to wait until their current contract expires and a quarter would only buy it when their mobile company offers it.

Four out of ten people thought it was too expensive, though, and instead would wait for the price to come down.

Slightly bizarrely, the feature most people (37 percent) were after was its large storage capacity, followed by quad band support (36 percent). The shiny, much hyped interface only came in third at 31 percent.

The survey, conducted by Harris Interactive, quizzed over 1,000 US residents aged over 18 online.

** More iPhone news on our iPhone blog iPhonic

Video review: Orange SPV M700

Shiny Shiny's Susi and Katie take a peek and poke around the Orange SPV M700 (complete with nostalgic hints of a PDA).

Orange

Nokia 8800 Sirocco Gold - handset with 18-carat gold plating

I was looking at the millionaire-friendly Vertu handsets at the weekend, which might impress people in the know, but to most people, probably just look like any other handset. That's not the case with the Nokia 8800 Sirocco Gold.

That's because it dispenses with all subtlety - coming encased in an 18-carat gold plating. And that's not all, there's also white gold accents and a sapphire-coated, scratch-resistant glass display - put together, according to Nokia, with the techniques of watchmakers and jewellers.

Oh yes, there is a specification - and one that could never live up to the outer appearance. You get a a sliding mechanism that reveals a two megapixel camera, ergonomic keypad, 262k colour screen, Bluetooth and a co-ordinating Bluetooth headset and desk stand.

So essentially, it's all about the looks. If you want one, Nokia is quoting a price of around 1,000 Euros. It's unlikely to appear as a freebie from your network operator.

Nokia website

Samsung and Nokia work together on DVB-H technology

Will DVB-H technology ever make it to the UK? Who knows - it's been talked about for years and numerous handsets have shown off its TV-playing capabilities. Samsung and Nokia are certainly keen - announcing today that they have signed an agreement to work together to accelerate the technology to market.

The two companies will work together on DVB-H-enabled mobile devices and the open standards based Nokia network services system. The handset manufacturers will work together to support solutions based on the open OMA BCAST standard.

"Nokia warmly welcomes the collaboration in accelerating the adoption of DVB-H based mobile TV services to the market. We see that the OMA BCAST standard is essential in launching mobile TV services on a global scale," says Harri Männistö, Director, Multimedia, Nokia. "Further, the well-defined service and content protection profiles within the OMA BCAST standard such as the already now available OMA DRM, provides the ideal path towards standardized solutions enabling a coherent and open market for successful worldwide mobile TV deployments."

DVB-H technology offers high quality mobile TV broadcasts, but with low battery consumption and with the option to to simultaneously receive broadcasts while using other mobile services such as telephony and internet access on their device.

Nokia website
Samsung website

Londoners: Donate your old IT equipment to help others and stay green

Next weekend, 21-22 April, Maxitech.biz is encouraging London residents to donate their unwanted computer equipment and other technology, helping children, cash-strapped organisations, and being green - all at once.

In recognition of this year's International Earth Day, Londoners can drop off their old PCs, mobile phones, monitors, printers, digital cameras, and scanners at Maxitech's premises - 5 Clarendon Road, Haringey,
North London N22 - between 10am and 6pm on Saturday or Sunday.

The IT equipment will be professionally refurbished, with some being given to the NCH (National Children's Home), some being resold at low cost to UK-based organisations unable to afford brand-new computers, and those items which cannot be reused being recycled by a specialised recycling plant.

Proceeds from reselling the IT equipment will go towards Maxitech.biz's Edge Employer IT hardware training programme, which helps disadvantaged people
gain nationally recognized qualifications leading to jobs in IT.

The scheme is being supported by HP, and Dr Kirstie McIntyre, who heads up IT recycling and reuse programmes for HP in the UK, said, "“Refurbishing computer equipment and making IT accessible to the wider community is one of the most effective ways of reducing the impact of IT waste on the environment. It’'s something HP has been doing for many years, so we'’re really proud to be supporting Maxitech.biz in this initiative and hope that this will be the first of a series of events in the UK.”"

Related stories:
Green Phones recycles for fund raisers
There's gold in them there recycled mobiles (sorry)
Single-use cameras are environmentally friendly, Photo Imaging Council say
School computers are environmentally unfriendly and too powerful
Consumer electronics companies look to more environmentally friendly products

More on being an ethical consumer over at Hippy Shopper

OS X Leopard release slips 4 months thanks to iPhone

Last month we tried to stifle the rumours of an OS X Leopard delay, but now in an official statement, Apple has stated that its next generation operating system will indeed not ship until October.

The rumoured reason for the delay was to improve support for users wanting to use Vista, but the official reason cited by Apple yesterday is the iPhone.

Read on for Apple's official statement:

We can't wait until customers get their hands (and fingers) on it and experience what a revolutionary and magical product it is. However, iPhone contains the most sophisticated software ever shipped on a mobile device, and finishing it on time has not come without a price — we had to borrow some key software engineering and QA resources from our Mac OS® X team, and as a result we will not be able to release Leopard at our Worldwide Developers Conference in early June as planned. While Leopard's features will be complete by then, we cannot deliver the quality release that we and our customers expect from us. We now plan to show our developers a near final version of Leopard at the conference, give them a beta copy to take home so they can do their final testing, and ship Leopard in October.

Given the iPhone has a version of OS X on board, it makes sense that Leopard will almost be ready by then, as I presume many of its features will be available on the handset.

Though it's disappointing that Apple's next operating system won't be around until the autumn, and I can imagine Microsoft firing back a few shots after the hard time Apple gave them about OS delays, it's understandable. With all the hype, and potential revenue, behind the iPhone, Apple need to throw all of their resources at the launch.

LG unveils KE770 candybar Shine phone

Following on from the 3G Shine phone, LG has launched yet another variation of the phone - the KE770 candybar Shine phone.

It's just 9.9mm thick, compared to the original's 14mm. And apart from the new shape, that's about the only obvious development. So expect a 262,144-colour, 240 x 320 display, two megapixel camera with auto-focus, Bluetooth, 50MB of memory and a Micro SD slot for up to 2GB of add-on storage space.

It was launched in Russia this week, but as yet, it's not clear if this will make it to the rest of Europe. You'll be the first to know if it does.

LG website

Via The Register

O2 offer limited edition Ice Black candy bar mobile

O2 has announced a limited edition Ice Black mobile phone.

It's a candy bar style design, fully 3G, with inbuilt MP3 player, 1.3 megapixel camera with zoom, Bluetooth, 32MB of internal memory, and a microSD card slot.

Available for £59.99 on prepay from O2 shops, it's not the most advanced phone around, but it probably won't break the bank and could add a little bit of shiny black style to your summer.

O2 Online

T-Mobile and RIM offer exclusive white BlackBerry Pearl

T-Mobile and RIM have announced the availability of the white BlackBerry Pearl smartphone, exclusively to T-Mobile subscribers and available within its stores across the UK. It follows a similar deal introduced to the US earlier in the year.

Feature-wise, it offers the same key features of the original BlackBerry, including Internet access, email, smart dialling, conference calling, speakerphone, speed dial, and call forwarding, plus quad-band network support. It also uses T-Mobile's Web'n'Walk service.

The handset features polyphonic and MP3 ringtones, Bluetooth support, and an enhanced version of RIM's SureType QWERTY keypad technology designed to make typing messages or making phone calls quick and easy.

The handset will be available free with appropriate price plans.

T-Mobile

Orange to bring Samsung i600 smart phone to UK say reports

I'm sure the official announcement will follow in due course, but details of the Samsung i600 smart phone on the Orange network are already out in the wild.

The details of the Windows Mobile-based device aren't linked from the Orange site, but are listed on an Orange web page, spotted by Coolsmartphone.com, with a launch date of later this month a strong possibility.

But we do know what the device will offer - 3G connectivity, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, QWERTY keyboard, 320 x 240 display, Micro SD card storage, a 1.3 megapixel camera with 2x digital zoom, and a 0.3 megapixel camera for video calling.

We'll keep you posted on it.

Orange website

Via The Register

Butterfly cell phone - designed by a 15 year old

I made my first documentary when I was 13, so I'm not entirely shocked by the idea that the Butterfly mobile phone concept was designed by a 15 year old - and looks better and has more sensible design principles than most stuff coming out nowadays. Using existing tech such as Bluetooth and touchscreens (unlike many concepts which are doomed to remain concepts for lack of tech) and sporting an impressively polished interface, this is definitely my favourite non-existent phone to date. [GT]

Butterfly: A Social Networking Solution [via Slashgear]

Vodafone uses Sagem for own-brand handsets

Sagem annouced a couple of weeks back that it was designing entry-level handsets for Sony Ericsson. Now it has announced another deal - producing own-brand handsets for Vodafone.

Jens Schulte-Bockum, global director of terminals at Vodafone, said: "[Vodafone's] strategy is intended to use Vodafone's size and purchasing power to engage with the best white label handset makers and then use the power of the Vodafone brand to bring their products to market."

The first of the Sagem handsets, scheduled to be launched in June this year, features a slim case and 65K colours - and that's about all we know. But with such a quick turnaround, chances are that it's an existing model with a Vodafone badge.

Sagem website

Via The Register

LG to upgrade the Prada phone to the LG KS20?

Interesting story over on Shiny Shiny concerning LG's Prada handset. It's only just gone on sale in the Uk, but of rumours are to be believed, the phone is set for an upgrade - boosting the specification, but dropping the Prada affiliation.

The new KS20 keeps the style (or rather, the touch screen), but adds in Windows Mobile 6.0, two megapixel camera, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Whether this is all true - and indeed if it's about to appear sooner rather than later, we don't know.

But it does make you think twice about signing up for the original.

Read the full story at Shiny Shiny

Glasgow tops mobile phone theft league

Taking your mobile phone out tonight? Well, if your big night is in Glasgow, Belfast or Liverpool, I'd keep a tight hold of your mobile phone.

According to CPP Phonesafe figures, the three cities top the mobile theft league - but it's not exclusively there - across the UK, one in five people have had their phones taken, with half of those questioned knowing a victim of mobile theft. And the most vulnerable location? That's the pub, with 22 per cent suffering on a night out. And the worst times of the year are early May and late July.

Does your city make the top 10? Read on after the turn for the full listing.

Top 10 Cities for mobile phone theft

1. Glasgow
2. Belfast
3. Liverpool
4. Chelmsford
5. London
6. Bristol
7. Manchester
8. Leeds
9. Sheffield
10. Cambridge

CPP Phonesafe website

Vertu offers limited edition Ferrari mobile handset

Remember Vertu? Its the company that offers high-end, high status mobile handsets for filthy rich. A market where looks are much more important than specification. Probably summed up by this Ascent Ferrari 1947 Limited Edition - celebrating 60 years of Ferrari.

To match the year, there's 1947 of the phones being made - each with very little to offer technically beyond Bluetooth, limited memory, four hours of talk time and 270 hours on standby.

But that's not why you're buying it - it's the little things that tell the world you have cash to burn - like the sapphire-crystal display, stainless steel keys with jewelled bearings, the red and black leather, Ferrari Prancing Horse logo and a scaled-down, high-grade aluminium, Ferrari brake pedal on the back.

No price yet - but if you're a contender for one, price really shouldn't matter.

Vertu website

Via Stuff

LG Prada phone now available on the UK high street

The LG Prada phone - I bet you are sick of hearing about it. It's been on everyone's lips for a good four months, but not on our shelves. Well, until now that is.

Yes, LG has finally unleashed the fashionista phone onto our shelves and the more stylish British public. Which means you'll be able to spend your easter weekend impressing your friends and dodging muggers.

If you're after one, it's now available via Carphone Warehouse, Phones4U, Orange, 02 and T-Mobile stores. If you want to know more about it, check out our preview from January.

The price, as you would expect, is dependent on your choice of contract.

LG website

Smoker's mobile phone - with real cigarettes

Smoking might be on the run in the UK, but in China, there's still billions of keen participants. So many that it's viable to produce a mobile phone specifically for the smoking community.

Yes, it looks just like a packet of cigarettes - that's because it's essentially a hi-tech cigarette packet, same size and even carrying the health warning labels. But unlike your normal disposable pack, this one is a mobile phone with MP3 player, VGA camera and microSD slot for storage. There's even a colour screen.

It retails for the equivalent of around £90 - for that you get the phone, a packet of branded cigarettes and a lighter. Has their eve been a more unhealthy gadget?

Via Gearfuse

Nokia announces the "fun and function" 5070

Nokia has unveiled a new budget handset - the Nokia 5070 - which is aimed very much at "young consumer". By that, I think they mean it's a music phone that's good for texts.

Available in red or blue finish, the 5070, Nokia promises fast messaging - contacts found and messages posted in just a couple of clicks - along with fast voice messaging via Nokia Xpress Audio Messaging. There's also a camera on-board for picture messaging, but they're not specific over the pixel count, so we'll presume it's not high.

Other features include an integrated FM radio, MP3 player, stereo headset, java games, web browser, MP3 ringtones and a talk time up to 3.5 hours, along with a standby time of up to 12 days.

Expect to see the handset in the coming weeks, priced around 100 Euros.

Nokia website

Palm announces update to Windows Mobile 6 for Treo 750 smartphone

Still pondering the Palm Treo 750 smartphone six months after its launch? Well, here's something that might sway you - the company is updating the software to Windows Mobile 6.

Although details of networks offering it will only available later this week, it's fair to say it should be offered all who currently offer the smartphone. On some US networks, there will also be HSDPA connectivity. Again, we'll have to wait and see if that's the case here. Windows Mobile 6 paired with Exchange Server 2007 will offer email enhancements such as HTML-formatted email messages, the ability to set an out-of-office message remotely, and live links to Microsoft SharePoint documents. There's also newly-updated versions of Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

The device itself offers a touch screen, full QWERTY keyboard, mini SD slot, 1.3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth and media player. Check with your network of choice for availability - but maybe leave it until the weekend.

Palm website

Sony Ericsson launches W580 Walkman phone

Yet another addition to the ever-increasing Sony Ericsson Walkman phone family - this time the W580 "lifestyle" handset.

It's a slimline, quad-band slider phone (just 14mm thickness) with EDGE support, a 2-inch screen, enough memory to store 470 music tracks and a 2 megapixel camera that doubles up as a training partner for all you fitness fanatics.

According to Steve Walker, Head of Product Marketing at Sony Ericsson: “As well as letting you have your latest music with you at all times, the W580 steps in as your portable photo album and pocket gaming device. It will even serve as your training partner thanks to built-in sports applications that track running speed and distance.”

Specifics on date and price are still unclear, but expect to see it in the UK at some point later in the year - with more details of these "sports applications" too.

Sony Ericsson website

ZyXEL launches V660 VoIP-enabled smartphone

ZyXEL has unveiled the V660 - a converged quad-band smartphone that offers VoIP calling over your Wi-Fi network, along with all the mobile functionality you'd expect.

It's powered by Microsoft Windows Mobile Edition 5.0, so expect all the mobile Office functionality (Excel, Word, Powerpoint, pocket MSN and Outlook), along with Push email. And there's a 1.9-inch screen, 2 megapixel camera, video and MP3 player, 64MB of on-board memory, microSD slot for added storage and Skype software pre-installed for those internet calls.

“The growing army of mobile workers is placing businesses under increasing pressure to provide a single device to replace the many that currently occupy our bags and pockets,” said Rob Mackinnon, VoIP product manager ZyXEL. “Whilst most technical innovation creates as many problems as it solves, the V660 combines a myriad of devices and ensures that SMBs and consumers alike always have instant access to the world’s sources of information and entertainment.”

Availability will be announced in the latter half of 2007.

ZyXEL website

Sony Ericsson to license Sagem handsets for entry-level range

The problem with being at the cutting edge of technology is that you need to be constantly pushing those boundaries to stay ahead of the pack. And to help Sony Ericsson to keep doing that, the company has decided to sub-contract entry-level models to budget specialist Sagem.

Yes, Sony Ericsson and Sagem have signed licensing and ODM (Original Developer Manufacturer) agreements concerning entry-level GSM, GPRS & EDGE mobile phones. As part of the deal, Sagem Communication will license certain hardware and software technologies to Sony Ericsson and provide Sony Ericsson with a number of Sony Ericsson branded mobile phones.

"We chose Sagem Communication because their software platforms are mature, scaleable and flexible. In addition we were impressed with the quality and performance of their phones, which have been developed by a skilled workforce. Our co-operation with Sagem Communication will allow us to offer a mature range of phones right from the start," said Howard Lewis, Vice President and Head of PBU (Product Business Unit) Entry at Sony Ericsson.

Sony Ericsson also plans to establish a development unit for entry-level mobile phones near Sagem's premises in Cergy, France.

Sony Ericsson website

Want an iPhone? Get one on eBay

Well, sort of - if you're up for a punt. Computerworld managed to track one down on the auction site, but as soon as it notified eBay the listing was pulled.

The magazine managed to trace the highest bidder - whpub - though, who was quite happy to slap down $1,125 on the as yet unreleased mecha-must have.

The buyer reckoned the bid was low risk, high reward. "EBay insures up to $200 and PayPal up to $2,000 if the seller does not deliver," whpub told Computerworld. "Besides, there are rumors of iPhones being shipped as early as early April, and there's always a chance this seller managed to get one somehow."

EBay took it less philosophically. When asked for comment it said: "Thanks ... for informing us of the Apple iPhone listings. As we understand, the Apple iPhone will not be commercially available until June. Any such listings claiming to be selling the Apple iPhone are in violation of eBay's pre-sale policy which require sellers to guarantee shipment of the item listed within 30 days from the date of purchase. As such, all postings violating eBay's pre-sale policy will be removed."

Elusive iPhone is sold on eBay

** More iPhone news on our iPhone blog iPhonic

Sagem launches my215x handset with Vodafone

Another handset for the budget-conscious from Sagem - the my215x.

It's being billed as a low-price music phone, offering 256MB of storage for your tunes, with music-friendly controls built into the handset for adjusting the volume, skipping tracks and pausing. It's also got a strong battery life, with neatly four hours of talk time and around 255 hours of standby.

And apart from that - not a lot beyond the mobile phone basics. But at £40 from Vodafone, it's not a bad price for a music phone. If only it had an expansion slot - then it really would be great value.

Sagem website

Sagem introduces my401c clamshell handset

Another budget handset on its way from Sagem, this time the my401c - a clamshell handset available in a silver/black or silver/pink finish.

It's probably what you would call a "solid" handset, with all the essentials in place, but nothing to make it stand out. The features on the tri-band phone include an exterior and 128x160-pixel, 65K-colour interior screen with white-on-black text, VGA camera with 4x digital zoom, music player for multimedia, SMS and MMS, Bluetooth and Wap 2.0.

There's 1.5MB of storage, which can be extended with a microSD card, over three hours of talk time and 250 hours on standby. It's available from April on T-Mobile and Vodafone for around £49.99.

Sagem website

Orange offers Samsung's D840 with bonus travel guides

We previewed the Samsung D840 back at the 3GSM. If it caught your eye, then you'll be interested to know that Orange are now offering it exclusively in the UK, with some bonus Euro travel guides thrown in as part of the deal.

The slim and chrome tri-band handset features a two megapixel camera with digital zoom, video recording (up to an hour in high resolution), automatic slide, 80MB of storage (expandable via microSD card), media player and Bluetooth connectivity.

And as an added sweetener, Orange are throwing in four Time Out City Guides (Rome, Paris, Barcelona and Prague), a gift box and a chance to win a city break to one of the cities.

Price varies according to your contract, but is free on contracts over £30.

Orange website

Sony Ericsson W660 Walkman phone with snap-on speakers

Sony Ericsson has a new 3G phone on the market - the W660 Walkman phone, compatible with Sony's new snap-on phone speakers.

Available in a choice of Record Black and Rose Red, it features TrackID, which can identify a piece of music when you're out and about via the Gracenote Mobile MusicID database, storage for up to 470 tunes on the supplied Memory Stick Micro, album art support for the media player, FM radio, two megapixel camera, two-inch TFT display, picture blogging and RSS feeds that can be sent directly to your phone's "desktop".

It can also be used with Sony Ericsson's new MPS-75 snap-on speakers - a small plug-in speaker unit powered by your phone. or you can stream your music via Bluetooth.

The W660 Walkman phone will be available fro the middle of 2007, with the snap-on speakers released around the same time.

Sony Ericsson website

Currys to sell mobile phones in store

DSG, owner of Currys and Currys.Digital (formerly Dixons) stores, has said that it plans to sell mobile phones in up to 500 of its stores, with a major mobile presence already planned for its Manchester White City and Bournemouth Currys superstores.

According to Mobile Today, it plans to play on its strengths in the home entertainment market by selling combined entertainment, broadband and communications deals for companies like Sky and Virgin Media.

John Lyngra, head of communications trading at Currys, said "Customers tell us they want clarity and value, and they do not trust the complexities and stealth pricing of most communications tariffs. We have designed our tariff guides to be ultra-transparent and fair, with a range of options to suit any customer."

Sony Ericsson K510i gets a Julien MacDonald makeover

Well, if you can't shift a handset the first time round, you can always give it a makeover to appeal to the fashion market, as is the case with this Sony Ericsson K510i, featuring a Julien MacDonald design.

The handset itself is around a year old, featuring a 1.3 megapixel camera with digital zoom, Bluetooth and an MP3 player. Except this time it casts off the dull exterior, replacing it with something altogether more colourful.

"The print I decided to use for the SonyEricsson K51Oi was taken from my spring summer 07 collection," says Mr MacDonald. "The print was inspired by exotic flowers, Orchids in particular, so thought it would be perfect for the spring launch of this handset."

And if you also think it perfect, you can pick one up for £50 from your nearest Orange store.

Orange website

Gucci to follow Prada in making a fashion phone?

Relax, fashionistas. It's still just an internetweb rumour based on nothing more than a couple of photos on Flickr, which may well be mockups. Still, with Prada having already teamed up with LG for a mobile phone, it wouldn't be entirely surprising if Gucci followed suit.

Where will it all end though? Surely it's only a matter of time before Armani, Chanel and Dior throw their hats into the ring too, while Kate Moss is presumably set to unleash her dazzling clamshell (not a euphemism) on the world at the same time as her much-anticipated Top Shop fashion range.

Hey, Naomi Campbell could put her name to a handset with a specially-moulded throwing grip, for those troublesome PAs...

(via Engadget Mobile)

O2 launches XDA Graphite smartphone

O2 is now offering its XDA Graphite smartphone, a Windows Mobile 5.0 device with all the usual add-ons.

Windows Mobile 5.0 means push email, MSN Messenger, the ability to view and edit documents plus music via Windows Media Player. In addition, there's a 2 megapixel camera, 2.2-inch screen and Bluetooth 2.0.

There's also video calling on 3G networks and a battery that offers around fours hours of talk time. You can pick one up in O2 stores now, price dependent on your contract.

O2 website

Video Review: Can the LG Prada phone beat iPhone at its own game?

Fashionistas are already getting themselves into a tizzy over LG's Prada handset, but those of us who don't change our wardrobes every season have got reason to follow its progress closely too. Can its tactile touch-screen interface rival Apple's iPhone? ShinyShiny's Susi takes a detailed look at LG's stylish new handset below.

Review: LG KE850 Prada phone

In certain quarters, it's the most hyped phone since the last hyped phone. And is likely to be, til the next hyped phone. So, having managed to check it out briefly at 3GSM, leaving Kat to manage in Milan, I was thrilled to have it in my hands for a full 24 hours in my care, to get a real idea of what it was like.

I found it an interesting experience. Disappointing in the same way that Christmas Day is never as good as you think it's going to be on Christmas Eve, but interesting nonetheless.

My initial reaction on getting it out of the box was the predictable 'ooh, it's so pretty, it's so shiny, it's so Versace. I mean Galliano. I mean Prada. Oh god, I wasn't born for all these gadget collaborations'. And they certainly have packaged it nicely, in a beautiful black box, which just cries out for an unveiling in the way few other phones do (although LG do seem to have the monopoly on those currently).

When you turn it on, it defaults to the black and white screen that Prada were so keen on, although there are several other coloured wallpapers available. It also defaults to the clock which floats around the screen, unless it's being dragged in another direction by your finger (it's a touchscreen, remember?). The bulk of the screen is used to display the clock and wallpaper, with the option for messaging, calling and settings laid out across the bottom.

There's also another option for your wallpaper, which involves a fish following your finger, although that wasn't working on the preproduction model I had.

The messaging was what I was most interested to try out, since no one I know has been overly keen on the thought of entirely doing away with a keypad when it came to SMSing. The results were mixed. Whilst concentrating, I found the touchscreen just as easy as a normal keypad - it's laid out in exactly the same way, with 2 representing abc, 0 being a space, in accordance with your normal T9 language. However, after a period of time, I forgot to be so exact, and found that I was frequently misspelling things. I don't need to tell you how annoying it is to have to go and retype texts two or three times over...

Apart from the texting, the touchscreen worked better than I thought it would. I didn't feel any particular lag, between hitting the buttons and the phone reacting, although there were several times where I had to tap something several times in order to get a response.

The menu icons were spaced far enough apart so that you didn't accidentally end up with your MP3s when you tried to turn on Bluetooth. Plus, several of the functions have external buttons on the handset itself, such as the MP3 player, camera and the screen lock.

The camera itself is an adequate two megapixels, and has a light. The size of the screen meant that the photos looked clear and bright, as well.

The build quality overall was impressive, as it's not only small and lightweight, but is only a few millimetres thick. One niggle I did have was how dirty the back of the phone got, which suffered the same fate as pretty much every 'Piano black' finished product ever - fingerprints everywhere. The button you pressed in at the bottom of the phone to release the back cover was also easily chipped, revealing that it wasn't metal, but a cheap spray job on a cheaper material.

And as for the inevitable iPhone comparison? Forget it. Yes. it's got a touchscreen, but that's where the similarity ends. This is a phone. And it's really nothing more than a phone. It's not aimed at people who want constant access to their emails, to be able to access their Outlook calendar, or to download at high speed (there is a simple browser included, and yes, I know the iPhone isn't going to have 3G). It's for those that are all about appearances. And there's nothing wrong with that.

It's slated to appear in select shops (including Prada... and Carphone Warehouse) from the end of March. SIM free it's expected to retail for 600 Euros (about £400), and pricing on contracts has yet to be released. They have said that it will be exclusively for 18 month contracts though.

The single best mobile phone review EVER printed

Sorry Samsung, it's your E900 that's getting a right royal kicking from Guardian columnist Charlie Brooker in a piece titled 'My new mobile is lumbered with a bewildering array of unnecessary features aimed at idiots'. That kinda gives you the general flavour.

"The whole thing is the visual equivalent of a moronic clip-art jumble sale poster designed in the dark by a myopic divorcee experiencing a freak biorhythmic high," he says, before going on to suggest that "the government is offloading these twittering handheld crapstones on to as many people as possible in a bid to whip us all into a state of perpetual, simmering anger in readiness for some kind of bare-knuckle street war."

Oof! Given Charlie's previous explanation of why he hates Macs, if the Guardian has any sense, it'll clear four pages for his iPhone review later this year...

Alcatel OT-C635 mobile phone launches

Who wants a purple mobile phone? Prince, maybe. But Alcatel is clearly hoping the market for its new OT-C635 mobile is bigger than one diminutive pop pixie.

Yes, it's purple, which is apparently one of this season's hottest colours (although those who take their fashion advice from the glossy women's mags rather than technology press releases can probably confirm or deny that).

Anyway, the OT-C635 is a clamshell handset, which offers fashionista looks over features – it doesn't have a camera, isn't 3G, and can't do video or music. Still, at £39.99 on Virgin Mobile and with a whopping battery life, it's got other things in its favour.

Alcatel website

O2 latest to offer BlackBerry 8800

Previously limited to Vodafone customers, RIM's BlackBerry 8800 is now available through the O2 network, the company has announced.

We previewed the BlackBerry 8800 at the 3GSM earlier this year. It features a full QWERTY keyboard, built-in GPS along with BlackBerry maps, media player and an expandable memory slot. There's also a high resolution screen with automatic light sensing technology for outdoor users and a trackball to speed up navigation.

It's available to purchase now for business customers. And as you would expect, pricing depends on your choice of contract, starting from free.

O2 website

Is the iPhone the only gadget launch that matters this year?

There are some folk round here who reckon that the only gadget launch that really matters this year is, you guessed it, the Apple iPhone.

So we have decided to give them their own blog. Over at iPhonic, Apple die-hard Andy Merrett will be waxing lyrical about Apple’s forthcoming phone. He'll be

* Highlighting its killer features (and, in the interest of fair play, its odd weakness)
* Focusing on its technology
* Gauging how much impact it will have on the mobile phone world on both sides of the Atlantic
* Checking out all the rumours and gossip
* Making predictions as to where Apple will take the iPhone

iPhonic will also keeps tabs on the iPhone’s rival handsets (Nokia N95, LG Prada etc) and also the mobile services that are set to take on iTunes.

All this and more on iPhonic

Does the Walkman brand still hit the right notes with consumers?

Stuart Dredge writes...

Once upon a time, Sony's Walkman was the most powerful music technology brand in the world. Everyone knew what a Walkman was, it was one of the most desirable and fashionable devices around, and it arguably changed the way we listen to music while it was at it.

Well, it saved millions of music fans from debilitating ghettoblaster-related shoulder pains in later life, anyway.

But isn't the Walkman old hat now? Apple's iPod is surely the biggest music brand of the 21st century, after all, having successfully fended off Napster, MySpace and The Cheeky Girls to secure its vaunted status.

Nevertheless, Sony thinks the Walkman still punches its weight, having just announced its new Walkman NW-A800 Video MP3 player, while Sony Ericsson has been pushing its brand of Walkman music phones.

Is Walkman still a powerful brand in the post-iPod world? I'd argue yes: here's why.

Let's start with those mobile phones. If you want evidence that Sony has successfully rehabilitated the Walkman, how does more than 20 million handset sales strike you? What's important is that many of those will be to people too young to have ever owned an original Walkman - or even remember the days when you could buy music on tape cassettes.

And that's the thing. If Walkman's going to mean anything to consumers today, it's got to be for what it is NOW, rather than what it was back in the 1980s. You can certainly argue that Sony Ericsson has succeeded in that goal, associating the Walkman brand with 'mobile music' in a way that no other manufacturer has yet managed.

Sony's efforts in other consumer electronics areas haven't been as successful. Sony has been branding various MP3 players as Walkmans for a while now, but a quick straw poll of gadgety friends brought the common responses of 'they're overpriced' and 'they're not easy to use' - the latter most likely because of Sony's earlier strategy of forcing people to convert their MP3s into the proprietary ATRAC format before they could be transferred to the firm's digital music players.

In that respect, the Walkman brand ended up looking like an embarrassing dad on the dancefloor - trying to get down to this new-fangled MP3 lark, but getting it wrong. Thankfully, Sony has since shifted its strategy to something more sensible, with recent Walkman devices much more desirable as a result. But it proved that a once-all-conquering brand is no use if the modern products badged with it aren't much cop.

So to the new NW-A800 Video MP3 player. Is the Walkman brand a help, or a hindrance? The sort of people buying video players may have warm memories of Walkmans the first time round, but does this make them any more likely to buy a handheld video player now?

To make Walkman truly relevant in this particular field, Sony'll have to convince people that the NW-A800 is better than similar devices from Archos and Creative. So rather than its brand, the NW-A800's success will rest on features like its battery life (eight hours for video), the quality of its screen, less than 1cm-thickness, and whether people really want to buy stuff from the Sony Connect music download store.

As strong as the Walkman brand was back in the day, you can't live on past glories alone in the modern gadget world. Sony's first MP3 players proved that, while Sony Ericsson's music phones have shown that you can reinvent yourself for a new market. We'll have to wait and see which category Sony's new video player falls into.

Motorola revives StarTAC for retro-obsessed Korean market

Can you really get nostalgic for an old mobile phone? Apparently so - well, at least in Korea, where Motorola has re-launched the StarTAC brand with the StarTAC III MS900 clamshell.

Except, it's not got a lot on common with the original in either looks or specification. It features an MP3 player, 2-inch 320 x 240 display and GPS on board. But don't despair, it does have the "distinctive StarTAC opening chime".

Mind you, the whole campaign is all over the place. According to the head of Motorola's marketing team: "Retro is the cultural movement of the 1960s, embodied by such celebrities as The Beatles and Twiggy. In a similar manner, Motorola’s StarTAC is being revived to become the timeless accessory in Korea.”

Perhaps someone should tell them that the StarTAC was released in 1996, not 1966.

Motorola website

Via The Register

Will Dell create the first modular mobile phone?

There's an intriguing bit of speculation over on Telecoms.com, suggesting that Dell may be looking to produce its own mobile phone. It's partly spurred by the news that Dell has recruited the former head of Motorola's mobile devices division, Ron Garriques, to take charge of Dell's new consumer products group.

It's also logical to assume that Dell might want to start making mobile phones – given that the company makes laptops and PDAs, it's not a huge leap to come out with a Windows Mobile smartphone.

The question is whether the way Dell traditionally does business – selling products directly to consumers, who can add and remove individual hardware and features on the firm's website - will suit the mobile industry, which has tended to be more focused around mobile operators.

Telecoms.com thinks that's not a problem, predicting that the number of phones sold directly through retailers or from manufacturers' own websites is going to increase rapidly.

I'll be blunt: few consumers would be excited by a Dell smartphone – it'd be no iPhone. But think about all those business users. It's also not a great leap to imagine Dell bundling an own-brand mobile phone with its PCs and laptops, in much the same way it treated MP3 players in the past.

Could its modular approach work with phones, though? Imagine going on the Dell website and selecting from a bunch of drop-down menus the features you want. Two or three-megapixel camera? 128MB or 256MB memory card? Built-in GPS, Wi-Fi, or both? I don't have the technical knowledge to judge if this is a pipedream, but if possible, that kind of customisation could help Dell make a mighty splash in the mobile market.

3G iPhone could come in early 2008

According to Apple Insider, they have it on good authority that a Swedish firm has been assured that they'll get their hands on a 3G version of th iPhone as early as January 2008.

Whether it will be the first model that those outside the US get their hands on, or not, remains to be seen. Will there be two iPhones, one with and one without 3G? After all, not everyone (so I've heard) is so bothered about 3G if they have decent wi-fi, and are more concerned about the entertainment potential of their mobile.

Apple Insider reports:

Apple's choice of cellphone networks would obligate it to use a particular form of 3G known as High-Speed Download Packet Access (HSDPA) [which] happens to represent Apple's best shot at selling the iPhone beyond American borders. In Europe, cheaper data rates and widespread 3G networks encourage Internet access from smartphones to the extent that many cellphone giants lavish more attention on their phone lineups for that continent than anywhere else. Nokia's range toppers, for example, are often badged as "multimedia computers" rather than cellphones.

Seems fair enough to me. Apple don't like to be left behind, and a second-generation, export version of the iPhone sporting 3G seems entirely plausible.

The inside story on the LG Prada KE850 mobile phone - from Milan!

If you're a secret fashionista you probably know by now that I was lucky enough to attend the Prada fashion show for Milan Fashion Week just last week. But, it wasn't just the sight of expensive designer frocks which rocked my boat, oh no, it was getting hands-on with the eagerly awaited mobile from the collaboration between LG and Prada which did it for me. Gosh, I'm such a geek. This was the first time I'd seen it in the wild, and wow, it was better than I could've ever expected. Your first time is always special, sigh. Read on below for my thoughts on the first-ever completely touch-screen mobile phone, information about the collaboration between the popular phone company and legendary fashion house, and just what LG think about the phone being touted as an 'iPhone killer'. Otherwise take a look at the quick video I shot with the phone in the hotel bar above, hopefully it can sate your appetite before this tasty piece of tech drops on March 18th!

There's no point in rehashing the specs about the mobile - everyone else on Shiny Shiny has told you all the 'deets, so let's discuss some of the things you probably haven't heard about this must-have mobile yet. As explained in the video above, Prada were simply not content with having their logo welded onto the casing of a random mobile, (case in point - Motorola's Dolce & Gabbana Razr), they actually wanted to have input with the design process, to ensure it was worthy of being a Prada product.

According to the several LG representatives I spoke to last week, Prada had been approached numerous times by "several big players" in the mobile phone industry, but up until they met with LG, they felt that none of the companies shared similar aims in producing a fashion mobile. Plus, all the other companies were only offering limited input in the design process - Prada were quite keen to contribute to the interface, wallpapers, ringtones and everything else that defines a fashion mobile phone. Perhaps a little too much for LG's liking, if the story I heard was correct!

The story goes that in May 2006, LG approached Miuccia and co at the house of Prada, and presented them with their ideas, as well as the then-recently released LG Chocolate. Miuccia was apparently quite impressed with the Chocolate, as well as LG's idea for a revolutionary (read: completely touch-screen) mobile, that they decided then and there to do business with the electronics company which was "once best known for its washing machines".

From the lengthy play I had with it, Prada have definitely injected some of their high-end opulence into the mobile, right down to the ringtones. I was quite surprised by how industrial the eight ringtones were, they were almost sci-fi, and not the bubbly, almost euro-dance tunes I was expecting. After seeing the Prada fashion show that night however, I understood their choice of music for the phone, for they matched the 'choons played as the models sauntered down the catwalk. According to Style.com's runway review from that night, the music was 'a soundtrack of some very angry girls, chanting lines like "poke his eyes out"', all the more reinforcing something Miuccia Prada herself said about an earlier collection once, "I'm tired of being so sweet...we women should go back to strength - and the sober side. Stop trying to appeal to everyone, and go out into the world". As rumoured, the interface was monochrome, perhaps a little dull for my liking, but it certainly ties in nicely with the Prada image. Other themes include 'butterfly', a yellow and purple mixture containing a cute butterfly you could control on the screen with your finger, and my personal favourite, 'fish', which was light blue, and you could similarly guide an orange fish around with the touch of your finger.

You wouldn't be out of order to assume that the phone was only capable of displaying black and white images, due to the default themes, but thank goodness, that's not the case. The short trailer I watched on the screen, of Casino Royale, was spot-on, and much better than anything the iPod Video could ever hope to show! Once you select the video to watch, it displays the images horizontally, making the most of the capacious LCD screen. One thing I was keen to test was the camera, and suffice to say, it lived up to my high expectations. Containing a 2-megapixel camera, with an LED flash, the few photos I took in the hotel bar were very impressive.

Other multimedia features include an MP3 player, handy when used with the free headphones they supply you with, or simply when using the stereo speakers located on the phone - great news for those kids on the train busting out their grime and hip hop, bad news for those of us with taste. You won't be able to store much music on the phone mind, the internal memory is only 8MB, and whilst they do supply you with a 256MB memory card, the slot is only capable of receiving Micro SD cards, and as they're currently available with a maximum of 2GB, it's sadly not enough potential albums to store for my liking. But then, I'm not content with a 30GB iPod, so maybe I'm a little more fussy than most!

Obviously I couldn't refrain from asking the all important question, of what LG thought about the Prada phone being branded an 'iPhone killer', due to its completely touch-screen capabilities and levels of ultra-desirability. Yvan Juget, the Communications Manager for LG, was very flattered by the comparisons the general public have made between the two phones, and that they could ever be pitted against "the world's audio leaders". He did admit however that the Prada mobile was aimed at an entirely different market to that of the iPhone, those who demand not only a mobile phone, but also that of an exclusive fashion accessory.

It appears that LG are quite keen to stress the exclusivity of the mobile, with Yvan commenting that Prada were worried "it would be found in really small phone stores in Sicily", which I presume would be a major faux pas for the fashion house. Perhaps the equivalent of being found in an Argos in Hounslow? For those after the mobile, you'll have to visit a Prada store, or if you're a Blighty dweller, Phones 4 U, Carphone Warehouse, Orange, or O2, which, according to Yvan, all had proven track records and were capable of delivering such an exclusive product to the right market. No Tesco, then!

When it appears in late March across Europe - the 18th I believe, it should be retailing for approximately €600 sim-free, otherwise on 18 month contracts with a certain amount required upfront. As we've seen with previous LG phones, it's not unusual for them to whip out several differently coloured versions later down the track, and when asked about the possibility of the Prada phone dipping its toe into the paintbox, the answer wasn't a definite 'no', you'll be pleased to hear. The general consensus was that once LG monitored the sales of the initial black version, they may consider releasing some colours "at the end of the year". I put in my two-pence worth and requested a silver one, fingers crossed.

Unfortunately I didn't get to lay eyes on the all-important packaging, but from what I heard, it's bound to be a crowd pleaser. According to the aforementioned Yvan, "everyone gasps at the packaging", commenting that they've "never seen such nice packaging before". Prada chose the box apparently, and it's all black, made from "nice" paper. Prada are also controlling all the advertising, with previously used models in their handbag (female) and cologne (male) ranges being used again. Being a Milanese fashion house, they're hoping "it'll be a hit in Italy", and that those familiar with the brand will embrace this new business venture with credit card in hand. From what I heard, it sounds like it's already a successful collaboration, as they've already taken more pre-orders for the Prada phone than for the Shine in France, if that's anything to go by.

As mentioned previously, the mobile is not 3G or HSDPA, something I find is most probably the only flaw in the design. According to Yvan, it was discussed, however "Prada liked the thinness of it", so form won over function in this case - sob! When pressed for details about further collaborations with the fashion house, he was close-lipped, but did let slip that LG would certainly be open to any new ideas Prada ever brought to them. A Prada-branded washing machine, perhaps?

Long-term readers of Shiny Shiny might remember a list I created back in January of the top ten mobile phones of 2007 to look forward to, where the Prada phone was listed at a healthy number 6. I'm sure you don't need me to tell you after reading the aforementioned sickly-sweet review of the KE850 that it' been bumped up a fair few places after my hands-on review - iPhone killer, indeed!

LG electronics
Prada

Cisco and Apple finally agree that both can use the iPhone name

In a move that is probably of greater benefit to Apple, Cisco have agreed to drop their iPhone trademark lawsuit, allowing both companies to use the name for their intended purposes.

Both companies agree to drop any pending actions over the trademark, and the joint statement issued also alludes to 'exploring opportunities for interoperability', whatever that might mean. Though some commentators think that CIsco have got a raw deal, if Apple ever wanted to go into VoIP services using the iPhone, they might need to explore that avenue.

The rest of the agreement is confidential, so we'll never officially know whether money was involved, or what other terms and conditions have been put in place.

The best news for Apple and its fans, though, has to be that the name won't have to change. It's iPhone, and that's a fact.

Shiny awards 2007: WAG gadget - that'll be the LG Chocolate phone then

Well England's football team might have had a dismal World Cup, but at least the WAGs did the nation proud by epitomising the qualities that make us superior to every other nation on Earth - namely binge drinking, handbag shopping and hamming it up for the paps.

So to salute that fine squad of young women we institiuted the WAG gadget award. Trouble is there could only be one winner - LG's Chocolate phone. It started in the hands of the very definition of a WAG, before making its way into the handbags of every WAG wannabe and WAG willneverbe. It's got the strokeable touch sensitive controls, the colourful screen, and a free footballer comes with every purchase. Or at least I think that's the latest promotion Carphone Warehouse are running....

Full list of shiny awards winners are here.

Shiny awards 2007: ASBO gadget - Samsung's K5 (with a bit of help from Sony Ericsson's Walkman phones)

On paper putting a powerful speakers in an MP3 player sounds like a great idea.

But just as camera phone makers inadvertently created the fave ASBO past-time of happy slapping, so the Samsung K5 along with the Sony Ericsson Walkman range of phones have been unwittingly responsible for the new phenomenon of ‘Bus Blasting.’

This is when normally peaceful buses are turned into discos on wheels as young tearaways push their K5/Walkman speakers to the max, much to the annoyance of all the other passengers.

So far on north London buses we have witnessed sound offs, fights, heated debates about the merits of white rappers, and, it has to be said, a wonderful loved up vibe on the 1.30am N73 night bus.

Besides as annoying as it might be inflicting your taste of in music on your fellow passengers we suspect that true ASBO collectors prefer Heelys skate shoes, after all those wheels are really handy for quick getaways.

Shiny awards results in full here

Nokia 7373 Special Edition - fashionista phone designed by Giambattista Valli

Nokia has announced a new handset to coincide with Paris Fashion Week - the Nokia 7373 Special Edition, reworked by fashion designer Giambattista Valli.

The Nokia 7373 Special Edition comes in two colours and with a range of Giambattista Valli accessories. The Powder Pink version has a pearl necklace for a strap and a miniature pink skull. The Black Chrome has an onyx-like crystal strap and black skull. And if you're into your fashion, you might appreciate the phones being pre-loaded with images and video footage from the life of the designer. The rest of us might not.

Everything else is as the standard version - 262k QVGA screen, 2 megapixel camera with 8 x digital zoom, Bluetooth, music player and FM radio. it should be on sale in March, priced at 280 Euros without a contract.

Nokia website

Who wants a Wi-Fi digital camera when you've got a mobile phone?

Stuart Dredge writes...

This post started life as a rant about how cool Wi-Fi digital cameras are, spurred by news that Nikon is launching two new models, the Coolpix S50 and S50c.

After all, it's about time there were more Wi-Fi cams available for those of us who've been longing for the next generation to follow up Kodak's EasyShare-One, Canon's PowerShot SD430 and Nikon's own Coolpix P1 and P2.

Yet the more I wrote about the potential uses for a connected digital camera, the more I realised that mobile phones are already doing pretty much all of it, and what's more are more likely to soon include technologies like GPS that'll take wireless photo-sharing to the next level.

At a basic level, the benefits of a Wi-Fi-enabled digital camera are clear, if a little prosaic. You take a bunch of shots, then when you get home, you don't need a USB cable to transfer them to your computer – or even print them if you've got a Wi-Fi printer sitting around. This is useful stuff, even if reducing my USB cable count by one still means there's about 74 lying about the house.

But the coolest stuff that could be done with a Wi-Fi cam - or so I thought - was the sharing aspects while out on the go. Check Nikon's press release for the new S50 and S50c: "Users can share pictures with friends and family from just about anywhere by emailing images directly from the camera through open-access wireless hotspots".

Okay, so the lack of open-access hotspots is a bit of a barrier, but I'm sure that's surmountable if the camera manufacturers can do similar deals with Wi-Fi hotspot networks as that done by Nintendo for the DS.

In theory, Wi-Fi cams could cross the chasm between shooting and sharing. Imagine: you're out and about taking photos, and whenever you're in range of a friendly Wi-Fi network, the camera automatically uploads them to whatever photo-sharing service you're using (ideally you'd get a choice, although I'm guessing the camera firms would prefer to restrict you to their own proprietary online services).

Point, click, and share without even thinking about it. It'd be great. More Wi-Fi cameras, I say! But hang on a minute. My mobile phone already does this, having downloaded the nifty ShoZu application (pictured) a few months ago. Whenever I take a photo, it asks me if I want to send it to Flickr. Say yes, and off it goes.

The quality of mobile phone cameras is improving all the time. Once we reach five megapixels in mass-market handsets, that'll be enough for most people's needs – and certainly enough for online sharing. There are obstacles - such as crazy data charges from your operator if you upload too many images - but if you're yearning for a world where you can share your daily snaps without even thinking about it, it's doable right now if you're on a suitable tariff.

There are some great professional uses for Wi-Fi digital cameras (think news and sports photographers, for example), but when it comes to consumer uses, phones will surely trump them – not least because for the near future, you're far more likely to be in reach of a 3G network than a Wi-Fi hotspot.

Even once we have city-wide WiMAX networks and suchlike, there's no reason phones won't be able to use those too. In fact, it seems logical to assume that mobiles will also steal some of the useful ideas from Wi-Fi cameras, such as automatic photo synching when in range of your home network.

Plus there's that GPS. I for one can't wait until my phone can automatically associate geotagging data with my snaps, which can then be plotted against a Google Map or whatever once uploaded to the Web. If I allow it to be, of course. There's probably some privacy issues I should think more about before sharing location-enabled pics willy-nilly. But anyway, GPS will be in more phones sooner than it'll be in digital cameras.

The upshot of all this. If we're talking about connected photography devices, surely it's got to be phones if you're not a pro snapper? Wi-Fi cameras excite the gadgety geek inside me, but when it comes to thinking about what I'd actually get more use out of, the mobile wins every time.

Trade in your old mobile phone for Nectar points

Apparently there are 66 million unwanted mobile handsets in the UK, with phones being replaced on average every 18 months. But if you have a Nectar card, you can trade your old handsets in and buy something else. Like a new phone perhaps?

The new scheme is called mobile2points and is in conjunction with Greener Solutions, specialists in mobile phone recycling. You can visit the Nectar website to work out how much your phone will make in points, but as an example, an old Motorola V3 Razr is worth 3,000 Nectar points.

Once you have confirmed the trade-in online, a pre-paid envelope will be sent to you and points will be added to your nectar account in 28 days.

Nectar website

30 things we learned at 3GSM 2007

Phew. As ever, 3GSM was tiring both physically and mentally, with a barrage of new products and companies, plus an enormous venue to walk around. Honestly, if we believed in wearing pedometers, they'd have exploded by Tuesday.

So now the Shiny team is back in Blighty, what did we learn from this year's 3GSM? It's a chance to spot the hottest new mobile phones and technology, as well as suss out the most important mobile trends for the next 12 months. Here's our main thoughts.

1. There was no big theme this year

3GSM 2006 saw immense hype around mobile TV, with companies queuing up to proclaim it the Next Big Thing in mobile entertainment. The fact that it's since disappointed means that the lack of a single big hype this year isn't necessarily a bad thing. There was lots of buzz, but spread around a bunch of subjects, which is a healthier state of affairs.

2. Mobile social networking is a hot topic

There were lots of companies - many of them startups - promising to create MySpace-like communities for mobile. Meanwhile, the big players - the actual MySpaces, Bebos and so on - were undoubtedly at 3GSM, even if they weren't talking about their plans.

From our chats with companies like Cerkle, FunkySexyCool, Clicmobile and others, it's clear how new an area this is. People aren't sure if mobile-only social networks will succeed, for example, or whether mobile is just an add-on to existing web communities. 2007 should give some clues.

3. LG's Prada phone is better than you'd think

Don't take this the wrong way. We weren't expecting the Prada phone (right) to be awful. Just a bit gimmicky. Yet as Susi's video verdict makes clear, it looks and feels like Prada's been involved from the start. And that touch-screen is mighty purdy.

4. Mobile music is a bit rubbish

It seems us mobile users aren't as keen on downloading full tracks to our phones as the music industry would like us to be. Warner Music head honcho Edgar Bronfman Jr told 3GSM attendees that "it's expensive, it's complicated and it's slow", saying the iPhone will hopefully force operators and manufacturers to up their game.

Meanwhile, mobile firm Omnifone was trying to do just that, unveiling what it reckons is a truly mobile iTunes-beater, which it'll be running for operators around the world.

Meanwhile, the music industry continues to rumble about whether it should scrap copyright protection for digital music - if it does, it would certainly have a positive impact on the number of people downloading tunes directly to their phones.

5. Cool new handset designs

Motorola's new Z8 phone has a 'kick slider' design, which is the first handset type to sound like it should be a trick in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. We're looking forward to Nokia launching a triple-back-kick olley grinder phone at 3GSM 2008...

6. Bring on the five-megapixel camera phones

By and large, we tried to steer clear of the really techy companies at 3GSM. After all, the chips and servers they make are only interesting to the likes of us once they're actually in products we can buy.

But a firm called OmniVision announced a five-megapixel auto-focus camera module, which it'll be flogging to handset manufacturers, and which it says is affordable enough to be put into mass-market mobile phones. We can't wait.

7. Don't hold your breath for a roll-up mobile display that can play video

Philips spin-off Polymer Vision got plenty of deserved buzz at 3GSM for its Readius roll-up display for reading e-books and RSS feeds (left). Both Susi (video) and I (interview) were impressed, although the company's goal of putting one in every mobile phone seems ambitious, given they're not expecting the screens to be capable of video for a good five years.

8. We should start getting a bit worried about mobile viruses

Worried you'll look like a n00b if your phone gets hax0red? You should be. Bubbling under the surface at 3GSM was growing concern about the possible impact of viruses in the mobile space - even if some of it was fuelled by the companies looking to flog technology to protect against them.

McAfee claimed at the show that there are now around 350 mobile viruses, worms or other malware, and also said that 83% of mobile operators have been hit by mobile infections.

9. Next-generation phone interfaces will look amazing

We swung by the NVIDIA stand to check out some of the demos running on the company's new mobile chipsets, which will be making their way into millions of handsets in the next couple of years.

One demo featured a user interface for phones that included multi-tasking windows, a 3D interface with snazzy transition effects, and 'fully accelerated translucent window compositing'. Want to know what that is? Watch our video.

10. The operators need to sort out their data-tariffs

If we're all going to be downloading music, video and games onto our phones from sources other than the operator's own portals, we don't want to be paying through the nose in data charges. Yet although T-Mobile and 3 have launched 'flat-rate' tariffs in the shape of Web'n'Walk and X-Series, the other operators are dragging their heels a bit.

Who wants to download a music track if it's going to cost you an extra £3 in data charges? Or, as Yospace CTO David Springall pointed out to us, who's going to upload their cool cameraphone video to YouTube if it costs them £12 to do it? Even Nokia and Sony Ericsson united to criticise the operators' complex tariffs at 3GSM this year.

11. Transformers RAWK!

The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift might be the best mobile game of 2006, according to 3GSM's Global Mobile Awards judges, but I'm more excited about the chance to play as Optimus Prime in the upcoming Transformers mobile game. Even if it is a bit unwise to turn into a truck midway through a platform game.

Mobile games were a bit quiet at 3GSM, with only a few publishers booking their own stands to show off new stuff. However, there's a quiet momentum building behind smartphone games - for example with a new Symbian version of Project Gotham Racing.

12. We still can't tell the difference between all the mobile VoIP companies

There are loads of startups aiming to be the mobile Skype. And speaking as a consumer, it's hard to a.) tell them apart, and b.) figure out why we shouldn't just wait for Skype to roll out a mobile application that provides ALL the features you get on the desktop version.

Rest assured, Tech Digest is going to be looking at this whole area very soon, to figure out who's who and what it's all about. For now, we remain confused. Which is why we haven't raced to sign up to any service.

13. Mobile TV is still underwhelming

Research firm M:Metrics surveyed 22,000 European mobile users before the show, and found that former mobile TV viewers now outnumber current mobile TV users. 45% of the people who've turned off say pricing issues were a factor, while 24% cite concerns over service quality and reliability.

From the technical demos we saw at 3GSM, mobile TV will be great. One day. But for now, it's provoking a lot of people who are interested in watching programmes on their phones to switch off.

14. Mobile blogging is growing, with photos and videos the focus

The problem with moblogging was always the assumption that people would type posts on their mobile keypad to upload. However ninja your texting skills are, it's not very appealing.

However, talking to a couple of blogging tech providers at 3GSM (including Motorola), people have twigged that moblogging is more about instant posting of photos and videos as (or just after) you capture them. Which when you think about it, makes way more sense.

That said, the Shiny massive are also converts to SpinVox's Spin-my-Blog technology, which converts your voice blatherings into proper text posts. So wordy moblogging could make a comeback soon.

15. If you want a phone with a full keyboard, you're spoilt for choice

All the manufacturers had the QWERTY bug at this year's 3GSM, including the usual suspecs (HTC), but also the likes of Nokia, Motorola and Toshiba. We blame the rise of mobile email.

16. It's quite seedy to hang around a stand leching on Russian booth babes

Although, yes, it's probably even worse to film them. Sorry about that.

17. YouTube and MySpace have work to do on mobile

The two biggest Web 2.0 brands clearly see mobile as an important part of their future, but mobile types aren't convinced they've got their strategy right just yet. YouTube has signed deals with Nokia and Vodafone, but mobile video-sharing site Yospace reckons it still sees mobile as simply a case of shoving its web vids onto phones.

Meanwhile, social networking firm Clicmobile warned MySpace that it needs to get mobile right, or it could die! The fact that these two companies' are in some form rivals to MySpace and YouTube doesn't mean their views should be written off, either. Figuring out what will make a great MySpace or YouTube mobile service will be one of the biggest challenges in 2007. We're sure it's possible.

18. Don't spunk all your new product announcements the week before 3GSM.

It might mean Susi can shoot videos on your stand without being jostled by 717 men in suits, but it doesn't give her much to talk about...

19. Thin is in

The fashion industry may be (reluctantly) booting underweight models off the catwalk, but Size Zero phones go from strength to strength. Top dog at 3GSM in the 'looks really cool even though you have a nagging suspicion you might end up accidentally snapping it in your back pocket' stakes was Samsung's U100 (left).

20. Us Brits like a night at the movies

And we use our phones to do it too. M-Spatial chose 3GSM to release its latest research on what local services UK mobile users search for using their phones. Cinema was the most popular category, followed by Fast Food, Drinking and Taxi. No, Museums, Opera and Bowling Greens didn't make the Top 10...

21. Mobile GPS navigation is buzzing

Also in evidence at the show was mobile navigation technology, whether applications for phones from the likes of Telmap, TeleNav and ALK Technologies, or GPS-enabled devices from Garmin, BlackBerry and Nokia.

Right now, it's mainly about providing the sort of turn-by-turn driving directions that you'd get in a regular satnav device, but the real potential is in using your mobile's data connection to provide live traffic info and updates, or at some point in the future, tying into mobile social networks (companies like Clicmobile and CityNeo are already looking to do this).

22. Techy mobile companies have a keen sense of irony

At least, I hope that's the case. How they come up with stand slogans like 'Shattering Tomorrow's Boundaries of Mobile Antenna Specification Solutions, Today!' if they're not having a laugh is beyond me.

23. Windows Mobile is gearing up for another big push

Microsoft launched Windows Mobile 6.0 at 3GSM, with all manner of on-stand demos showing off its new features, which we'll be looking at in more detail in the weeks ahead.

But equally importantly, Microsoft has signed up the likes of LG, Toshiba and HP to make Windows Mobile phones, with the first handsets using the new OS set to appear in the second half of this year, including some from previous licensors like HTC.

24. Creating your own mobile TV channel is more fun than watching what the operators are serving up

If mobile is such a personal device, why do I have to just watch simulcasts of terrestrial or digital channels, hmm? Some companies are exploring DIY TV, where you create a channel of video content to watch on your phone. One example is Vpod.tv, who'll have an interview going up on Tech Digest early next week.

Meanwhile, Dutch firm TNO unveiled a new tech called Farcast which works the other way around, taking video from your phone and turning it into a web-based TV channel.

25. DVB-H mobile TV is still frustratingly far away in the UK

We want it. We want it now. But despite the announcement of cool DVB-H handsets like Nokia's N77, don't expect to see them on sale here unless the powers-that-be in the UK broadcasting and mobile industries figure out how and when to roll the technology out here. Bah.

26. You can finally get Flash Lite content on your phone

You know Flash - it's ubiquitous on the Web. Adobe has had the Flash Lite tool for mobile phones for some time, which can be used for rich games and applications. Trouble was, nobody was really selling them, so you had to frequent developer forums to find stuff to actually put on your phone.

That's changing. At 3GSM, Adobe signed a deal with website Handango, which will be one of the first to sell Flash Lite content to mobile users. Hopefully more will follow.

27. Short films on your phone are cool

At 3GSM, the people behind the Sundance Film Festival unveiled five short films shot especially for mobile, which were immediately made available for download to mobile users.

You can have a gander by texting FILM to 07624 807 811, to get sent a link to their WAP site. Better still, you can freely share them with friends via Bluetooth. The idea of sitting down for three hours to watch King Kong on a phone is horrendous, but short, arty movies like this should find a healthy audience.

28. We quite fancy a simple mobile phone

All these cutting-edge whizzy multimedia handsets can get a bit much at times. Remember the old days, when your phone could make voice calls, send texts and.. well, that was it. Those days don't have to be in the past.

The mobile industry is putting lots of effort into low-cost handsets too, albeit mainly for countries such as India and China, which are expected to provide explosive mobile growth in the coming years. Motorola's F3 won an award at the show for being the 'Best Ultra Low Cost Handset', for example.

If you're thinking of going retro, Tech Digest's recommendation is the newly-announced Nokia 3110 Classic, which is a replacement for the classic 6310i. Ashley liked the big buttons. "If your dad wants a phone..."

29. Touch-screen phones are easy to use

Not sure about how you'd get on without a keypad? Soon you'll have the opportunity to find out. Besides the LG Prada phone, and of course Apple's iPhone, 3GSM also saw the debut of Samsung's F700, which admittedly also has a slide-out keyboard for messaging. But it's the screen that caught Ashley's attention, even from behind a glass screen.

Touch-screen phones aren't just about slinkiness. As mobiles try to be all things to all people - music player, TV, web surfing device etc - the traditional keypad interface is struggling to keep up. Touch-screens mean more flexible user interfaces able to adapt to whatever you're doing on the phone at the time.

30. Everyone thinks mobile advertising will be big. Nobody knows quite how it'll work

The advertising industry loves the thought of putting ads on phones. Not least because the young cool hipsters it likes to target aren't as susceptible to TV and print ads. Along with online advertising, mobile is the new buzz area. Trouble is, nobody's quite sure what kind of mobile advertising will work well, and what us users will put up with.

The mobile phone's a personal device, so any unwanted ads will feel doubly intrusive. Yet at the same time, the mobile industry sees adverts as a way to make mobile entertainment cheaper - or even free - to make more of us use it. Which would certainly solve those worries over mobile TV pricing (see earlier).

At 3GSM, there was lots of talk about mobile ads, but not that much action yet. 2007 will see a big growth in the sector though, whether it's free mobile games with ads on the loading screens, banner ads on your operator portal, or the Crazy Frog bursting into your voice calls every three minutes singing his latest ringtone. Okay, not that last one. Well, I hope not...

iPhone will raise the bar for "cumbersome" mobile music, says Warner Music chairman

So much for the mobile industry's attempts to persuade everyone to download music to their phones. According to Warner Music Group chairman Edgar Bronfman Jr, it's not working very well.

"It's expensive, it's complicated and it's slow," he told a panel audience at 3GSM this week. "It's amazing we've generated as much revenue as we have given how cumbersome the experience can be." He also pointed out that even buying a ringtone from your operator can often require up to 20 key-presses. The solution? iPhone. Well, kind of.

"Before it's even hit the market it has raised the bar in terms of what users expect with a user interface and what music phones should do," he said. "Now it's up to other mobile phone makers to meet users' expectations. "For those who invent with a similarly inspiring vision, the opportunity is immense."

(via Yahoo News)

3GSM 2007: HTC announces two consumer focused handsets

Susi takes a look at two consumer orientated handsets from HTC. First up is the P3350 sporting an FM radio, microSD slot, MP3 player and BlackBerry Pearl-a-like trackwheel. Then there’s the S710 which sneakily disguises a slide-out QWERTY keyboard beneath its innocent candybar exterior. Both are due out in Q2.

3GSM: our top five phones (LG, Samsung, Motorola and HTC)

Well, there's another hour or so of the majority of the Shiny Massive's (Susi, Ashley and Stu) time here at 3GSM (although Hard Core Stu is staying on for more mobile fun); just time enough for a quick reflection on our own personal Top Five Best Things What We've Seen. There's a noteable absence of certain big players, but we've looked deep into our souls and decided that's just the way it is.

1. LG Prada
Susi was very over-excited to get herhands on the LG Prada phone yesterday, and was not only not disappointed, but positively surprised at just how luxurious it was. The touch screen is a sleek black and white, and navigating it is a doddle. In actual life, I'll be interested to see how easy it is to text, but as an aspirational handset, it's a winner. Check out the video here.

2. Samsung F500
Samsung have brought out a couple of handsets with a screen on each side - one for the phone stuff and one for the media stuff. The F500 is their multimedia device, and boasts a swivelling screen so you can prop it up and indulge in some Brad Pitt on the move. The video is here.

3. Motorola Z8
Motorola had *a lot* of new handsets, and since they were one of the first people we saw, it's proving rather difficult to remember just what they were all about. The RIZR Z8 stuck in my mind though, for its ergonomic design and its rather lovely video playback capabilities. Watch the video here.

4. Samsung F700
It's a small miracle that a phone that we only saw from behind an electrified fence glass has made it into our Top Five, but it just goes to show its class. It's a touchscreening, QWERTY keyboard toting, five megapixel sporting piece of Samsung goodness. Ashley gets all excited on this 'ere video.

5. HTC S710
HTC make a late entry to the list with their new smartphone, the S710. It's slipped in a QWERTY keyboard in, as well as a 2 megapixel camera, WiFi and best of all it's going to run the new Windows Mobile 6 platform, full of IMing goodness. I took a look at it (as well as their new music friendly device) here.

3GSM - Samsung's phone line up - Ultra Edition II, card phones and more

One of the best, although some cynical bloggers would also say one of the worst, things about Samsung is they always launch so many phones. 3GSM has been no different with around a dozen or so new handsets taking their bow. The downside of this is that some times some phones get lost in the rush.

So to keep things simple here’s a quick trawl through the best of the new Samsung breed, along with our comments and, when appropriate, links to videos.

Samsung F700 - In our books this the one to watch for. Samsung has delivered a large touch screen phone (it has a 2.78 inch display) with its own pull out QWERTY keypad for when you need to do some proper work. Other than its screen it has very impressive looking five mega pixel camera, complete with auto focus, a decent looking web browser and the souped up version of HSDPA which in theory can run up to seven Mbps. The only downside is that you’ll have to wait until Q3 before you can get your mitts on one.

Watch video here

Samsung F500 - Now this is clever. It is one of Samsung’s split screen handsets, see also the F300 music phone, which has the phone on one side and a large multimedia ready display on the other. It also has a top that twists enabling the user to set it up as a stand to make watching vids easier. It is also compatible with a range of video formats including, for the first time on mobile apparently, DiVX. It also has plenty of storage on board (410MB) and is HSDPA compatible. Video here.

Samsung F300 - This is also very clever. Its another split phone with one side looking like a Samsung MP3 player from a year or so ago, and the other side housing all the essential phone gubbins such as the key pad. It is also A2DP compatible, so you can listen to music wirelessly via your Bluetooth earphones, and it has an on board FM radio. I am slightly disappointed with the storage (just 100MB which of course can be uprated via a MicroSD card) and the lack of 3G/HSDPA. Video here.

Samsung U100 - Now this is bonkers, it is the size 0 of mobiles and is just 5.9 mm thick. It is also not the most feature filled mobile, but it does had a 3 mega pixel camera, music player, 70MB of storage and a TV out socket. Video here.

Samsung P310 - Yep the card phone is back. The P310 is skinny, comes with its leathery-type carry case and, in our eyes anyhow, is rather cool. Unfortunately it is not as retro-looking as its predecessor the P300 and it is GPRS rather than 3G. Nevertheless with its bonus battery (built into the case) and striking design it is still one of our 3GSM highlights, It goes on sale via Vodafone in a couple of months time.

Samsung U700 - This has biz phone written all over it. It is a stylish slider with HSDPA, a 3 mega pixel camera and decent web browser on board. Like all phones in Samsung’s Ultra Edition II series it is very skinny.

Samsung I-520 - And last, but by no means least, is this Symbian powered smart phone. It is super slim, HSDPA friendly and stacked out with smartphone style facilities. It comes out in April.

HTC to provide BT Fusion devices

HTC have announced that they have signed a deal to provide Windows Mobile 6 devices for their BT Fusion service. The VoIP service allows you to make calls over WiFi when you're in the range of your house, switching to a mobile signal when you fall outside the range, with no break in service.

The first handset to come as a result of this agreement will be the S650, which was introduced in the second half of last year. Windows Mobile 6 enables users to take advantage of Windows Live as well as full HTML emails. It's also significantly faster than previous versions. The full product will be available through BT in the second quarter of the year.

3GSM 2007: Samsung's F500 multimedia phone

It's a bit of a Samsung love-fest here at the moment, as Susi and Ashley are getting hands on with some of the brand's recently announced mobiles. The latest cat out of the bag is this rather sleek F500 multimedia phone, which features a handy swivel function, allowing you to view videos while it's propped up on a table. It can play DivX files, although with the micro SD memory slot, it limits those files to just 2GB. Still, it's a nice piece of kit, one I'd personally love to check out in detail at a later date.

3GSM 2007: Samsung's D840

Susi has made a recent discovery over at 3GSM - could this be an LG Shine killer? Samsung have displayed unfortunate timing by announcing their D840, which, whaddyknow, has a highly reflective mirror finish, slide function, and design which resembles something we know all too well by now.

3GSM 2007: BlackBerry's 8800

Not to be confused with Nokia's 8800, BlackBerry have just announced their new version, the 8800, which apparently contains 'GPS goodness', according to our woman of the hour, Susi, who obviously needs a long nap, judging by this video. Bless. The mobile appears to be a mash-up of the Pearl, and previous model, the 8700g. Expect to see this glued to your nearest businessman's ear shortly.

3GSM 2007: Samsung's U100 Size 0 mobile phone

Ever the comedian, Susi has pronounced this U100 mobile from Samsung as being so thin, it 'verges on taking up minus space'. Wowsers. If this U100 were a woman, she'd be stumbling down the London Fashion Week catwalks in a semi-drunk-coked-up haze right about now.

3GSM 2007: Samsung F300 music phone

Still hovering around the Samsung stand at 3GSM like a hobo 'round The Ivy's garbage cans, Ashley has his mitts firmly clamped on the F300 music phone from Samsung. This hybrid of a mobile phone, and music player on the flip-side is 'quite strokable' according to him, although with the storage capacity of only 2GB, a little disappointing.

Shiny at 3GSM: Samsung's F700 Smartphone

Remember that Samsung F700 smartphone we mentioned last week, with the slide-out qwerty keyboard and 5-megapixel camera? Well, Ashley is a lucky little sod, as he's got within inches of one over in Barcelona for 3GSM. That's right, he got within breathing space of the F700. Try not to fall off your chair next time, readers.

3GSM 2007: Vodafone first to launch BlackBerry 8800

We previewed the new BlackBerry 8800 yesterday, unsure at the time which networks were going to offer new device. Well, now we know at least one - Vodafone.

The BlackBerry 8800 features a full QWERTY keyboard, built-in GPS and BlackBerry Maps, a multi-media player and an expandable memory slot. The high resolution screen uses automatic light sensing technology for easier viewing, while the handset's trackball should speed up navigation. It can also access up to 10 supported personal and corporate email accounts (with support for attachment viewing) and work with most Instant Messaging services.

"The BlackBerry 8800, with its slim design and full QWERTY keyboard will be an absolute must for many of our corporate users," said Kyle Whitehill, director of Vodafone UK's Enterprise Business Unit. "We're pleased to expand the choice of BlackBerry handsets for our customers with the powerful and stylish BlackBerry 8800."

For details of pricing and contracts, visit the Vodafone website.

Vodafone Business

3GSM: Motorola's ergonomic RIZR Z8

Shiny Susi checks out the Motorola RIZR (pronounced ‘riser’) Z8 at 3GSM. HSDPA technology is what everyone is talking about at this year’s show and the RIZR comes equipped. It also has an ergonomically designed sliding system that looks flat and then kind of fits round your face… It’s hard to explain, so watch the video to see it in action:

3GSM 2007: HP announce new iPAQ smartphone

HP have shown off their new iPAQ 500 series Voice Messenger smartphone at 3GSM.

The phone features VoIP, "push" email, voice-to-text recognition, and the Windows Mobile 6.0 operating system. It also has a 1.3 megapixel camera, wi-fi, Bluetooth, USB, and microSD slot. Disappointingly, it doesn't appear to be 3G.

Many of its functions can be controlled by voice commands, and presumably this is a reasoning for losing the QWERTY keyboard. Some will love being able to work via voice, others will probably hate it.

This definitely seems to be aimed at the business user, and doesn't sound as if it has many 'fun' features. It's not the most excitingly-styled phone either, but if it does its intended job well, that's fine.

It's due in the Spring in the US for arund $300-$400, but no news on international availability yet.

More news from 3GSM 2007

3GSM: a first look at the LG Prada phone

We know the specs, we know the hype, but what's it like seeing the Prada phone in the flesh? I took a very brief look at it, which it is now my pleasure to share with you. Overall impressions are that this is not the phone I thought it was - it's better. Designer partnerships have a habit of being a bit gimmicky in the mobile phone world, but Prada seem to have really been involved from the beginning, rather than sticking their logo on at the end. And there really is no sign of a keypad - it's touchscreen in the truest sense of the word.  Yes, it's true, I'm a little bit in love.

3GSM: Sneak peek at the LG Prada

The hotly anticipated iPhone lookalike, the LG Prada, has put in an appearance at 3GSM. It’s stylish, it’s touchscreen, it’s sexy and it’s secured safely away behind a glass panel. Damn. Shiny Susi takes a look:

3GSM: Motorola SLVR L9

The Motorola SLVR has had a bit of makeover and now looks a lot a shinier and sports a 2.0 megapixel camera. There’s a  card slot to support up to 2GB of removable memory and an intriguing thing called a MegaSIM… Shiny Susi talks us through it:

3GSM 2007: Nokia's E61i smartphone

The Nokia E61 got a bit of a makeover, and has now made an appearance in its new guise, as the E61i. It's a bit sleeker, a bit shinier, and a bit better. It even has a camera. Ashley takes a look.

3GSM 2007: Motorola Q9

Another launch from Motorola, who have without a doubt been the most active of the big boys here at 3GSM. This one is the Q9, which offers a whole host of serious business functions, all packed into a none-to-ugly design.

3GSM 2007: Motorola unveils MOTOSLVR L9 multimedia handset

The only new handset launched by Motorola at 3GSM 2007 without HSDPA connectivity is the MOTOSLVR L9 - but it's still got plenty of useful features on-board to make it worthy of a look.

The MOTOSLVR L9 is a GPRS/EDGE handset with an integrated music player, FM radio and a stylish design with mirror-reflective finish. The FM radio supports RDS for station information on the go, while Bluetooth lets you play your music player tunes wirelessly. Also featured is a 2 megapixel camera with 8x digital zoom, video recording with 4x zoom and full-screen landscape playback.

The L9 also uses Motorola's new CrystalTalk technology, making it easy to hold conversations in noisy environments. There's 20MB internal memory, with a microSD slot to boost further.

The MOTOSLVR L9 is expected to be available in Q2 2007. No news on pricing as yet.

Motorola website

More from 3GSM 2007

3GSM 2007: Nokia 3110 classic - back to basics handset

Another new handset from Nokia, this time the Nokia 3110 classic, an everyday handset covering all the basics.

According to Nokia, the tri-band phone with 2.2-inch colour display is built for reliability, including details such as a thicker plastic casing and a larger antenna. That doesn't mean it is completely without features, it's just not particularly cutting-edge. What you do get is a 1.3 megapixel camera, music player, FM stereo radio, USB and Bluetooth connectivity.

If reliability is your main concern when buying a mobile phone, you can pick up the 3110 classic in the second quarter of 2007, priced in the budget bracket.

Nokia website

More from 3GSM 2007

3GSM 2007: RIM launches BlackBerry 8800 with BlackBerry Maps

Research in Motion has launched the BlackBerry 8800 - the first of the company's full QWERTY keyboard devices to feature a trackball design based on the Pearl handset.

The 8800 is a quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE device with Bluetooth 2.0 and a 320 x 240 display with "vibrant colour" - good enough to view detailed directions on the bundled BlackBerry Maps application, a handy tool that ties in with other applications - find someone in your address book and Maps will show you how to get to them.

Other features include a music player (AAC/MP3) and video player, with files stored on microSD card (just 64MB of on-board memory). There's also a speakerphone with built-in noise-cancellation technology, voice-activated dialling and a talk time of up to five hours.

Expect it on the shelves this month, pricing and networks to be confirmed.

RIM website

Via The Register

More from 3GSM 2007

3GSM 2007: Motorola adds to Q range with q9 and gsm smartphones

Motorola has added two new models to its Q range of smartphones - the q9 and gsm handsets, for HSDPA and GSM networks respectively.

The Q q9 operates on the new Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 platform, along with Motorola's Good Mobile Messaging technology, promising "easy and intuitive" personal and corporate email, calendar access and content management wherever you are. It's slim at just 11.8mm thick and features a 2 megapixel camera with digital zoom, video capture and playback at 30fps, music player, USB and Bluetooth connectivity, up to 2GB of storage via microSD card and of course, HSDPA connectivity for fast data transfers, streaming media and web browsing.

The MOTO Q gsm is a quad-band GPRS/EDGE device, again using Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 and featuring a soft-touch metal casing, electro-luminescent keys, full colour screen, ergonomically optimised QWERTY keyboard and a side thumb wheel. There's also a 1.3 megapixel camera, video clip capture and playback, music player, Bluetooth and USB connectivity, dual stereo speakers and mini-SD removable memory card slot.

Both MOTO Q q9 and MOTO Q gsm are also fully customisable, with over 300 applications available. The MOTO Q q9 will be available in Q2 2007, with the MOTO Q gsm available in the second half of 2007.

Find out more

More from 3GSM 2007

3GSM 2007: Motorola's MOTORIZR Z8 - "fit-to-face" entertainment slider phone

Motorola has launched the MOTORIZR Z8, described as a "fit-to-face" slider and optimised for the entertainment market.

The handset is Motorola's first "kick slider", a new design concept that matches the phone to the contours of your face. On the technical side, there's HSDPA connectivity and 16 million colour 35x50mm QVGA full screen display, with video playback speeds of up to 30 frames per second.

And it's Sky-friendly. Motorola's partnership with Sky will allow users to access Sky's mobile content services - on-demand clips plus to Sky's range of live mobile TV services via Sky's 'Anytime' application. In addition to its 90MB of internal memory, the device also supports expandable memory up to 4GB using MicroSD. There's also stereo Bluetooth, a built-in music player, a 2MP digital camera with dedicated side camera key and MPEG-4 video recording.

The MOTORIZR Z8 will be available from April 2007.

Find out more

More from 3GSM 2007

Shiny product launch sneak preview - Samsung's Lily phone

Shiny Katie is a wonderful human being, who is far too witty and entertaining for her own good. She does however have one tiny flaw - she has a real thing about 'girl phones.' And by girl phones I mean the kind of low-end stuff makers bash out in a bid to nab women (and some men) who don't understand that a mobi is measured not by its cuteness, but by how loud its speakers go when playing back MP3 tunes.*

Exhibit A is Katie going all weak at the knees when handling Samsung's latest Lily phone. Sure it looks delightful, but it only has a VGA camera for goodness sake, and where's the integrated GPS? And what about its HSDPA modem facility? Aah well. Each to their own, I spose. * Preferably when sitting on the back of a bus

Samsung F700, their latest Ultra mobile phone

Samsung have announced a new addition to their Ultra range of mobile phones, with the Ultra Smart F700. The phone, which they're calling 'revolutionary' (doesn't every manufacturer?), will be showcased at next week's 3GSM World Congress, so we're sure to hear more about it, and get our mitts on it then.

The phone features a full touch screen user interface on its 2.78 inch colour display (440x240 pixel resolution), has a slide-out full QWERTY keypad, and VibeTonz technology that provides tactile feedback to the user.

They've utilised a 'drag and drop' interface allowing easier menu navigation, music play list control, and other functions. Is this sounding like the iPhone to you? Touch screens certainly seem to be the 'in thing' right now; I wonder how many more manufacturers will beat Apple to it...

Anyway, back to the Samsung. The Ultra Smart F700 features HSDPA giving a maximum data transfer speed of 7.2Mbps. This means a 4MB song could be downloaded in around 4 seconds.

The phone has a full HTML web browser, a whopping 5-megapixel camera with auto focus, Bluetooth, WAP, Java, and USB. It features microSD expansion, and measures up at 104 x 50 x 16.4mm.

No exact word on availability yet, and price will depend on who you get it with. Looks very nice though - anyone want one?

LG's Shine handset officially launches in the UK

As we predicted last month, LG has just launched its Shine handset in the UK - and you can head off to your local dealer and pick one up straight away.

Shine (also known as the KE970) is the latest handset in LG's premium Black Label series. And the premium aspect is very much about the looks - a full-metal bodied (and very thin) slider phone. Saying that, the specification isn't bad either. Shine features a 2.2-inch reflective screen - slide it open for the brushed metal keyboard with the keys that (according to LG) are "bathed in a cool blue light".

The GPRS/EDGE handset also has a Schneider Kreuznach 2 megapixel camera with auto focus, music player with MP3, WAV and ACC++ compatibility, Bluetooth and USB connectivity plus a microSD slot to expand the memory.

It's shifted more than 200,000 units in Korea since its November launch - and it will probably shift a good number in the UK too. Priced from free dependent on your contract.

LG website

LG launches KE800 Chocolate Platinum - same looks with extra functionality

With all the attention on Sony's new handsets, we almost missed the official launch of the LG Chocolate Platinum, the latest addition to the Chocolate Phone range.

The tri-band/EDGE LG KE800 (to give it the official name) is a luxury version of the original, keeping the glowing red touch keypad and adding the "Chocolate" name plus a couple of extra features. It now has an SD card memory slot, an upgraded 2 megapixel camera with auto focus, night mode and multi burst, an FM radio and twice as much on-board memory as the original Chocolate handset (256MB rather than 128MB).

It also has an upgraded class-leading MP3, MPEG4 and AAC music and video player and stereo Bluetooth functionality, if you want to play your music via a wireless Bluetooth headset. The music player also features a 5-band graphic equaliser, along with voice and keyword search for finding your favourite tunes.

No news on a shelf date - we'll keep you posted.

LG website

Samsung launch Ultra Edition D840 mobile phone

Samsung have announced their new Ultra Edition D840 mobile phone, the 'sexy and stylish older brother' of the Samsung D900.

Crafted from featherweight materials including magnesium and fibreglass-infused plastic, the phone has metallic looks and enhanced durability in a lightweight shell, and is just 11.9mm slim.

Its slider design features a 2.12" 262k colour TFT screen with 240x320 pixel resolution, has a 2 megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom and built-in flash, and the ability to record up to 1 hour of video.

The extra large screen offers enough space to view 12 lines of text together and is fully capable of displaying text/photo/video caller ID, plus any multimedia stored on the phone.

There's a multi-format music player with microSD expandable memory, plus a PIM, vCard, and vCalendar, document viewer, and TV output. Connections wise, there's Bluetooth and USB.

It will be available this month from Vodafone, Orange, and the Carphone Warehouse. Pricing will vary depending upon contract.

Samsung Mobile

Sony Ericsson launches four entry-level handsets - K200, K220, J120 and J110

Sony Ericsson has four new candy bar handsets on the market, aimed very much at those who just want the basics for a budget price - the K200, K220, J120 and J110.

The K200 is a camera phone - but with a very basic VGA camera. The camera and the on-board photo album are accessible with just one click, with enough included memory to store around 40 snaps. There's one-touch access for your phone book (which can store up to 300 contacts) and a talk time of 8 hours. It should be available in the second quarter of 2007 in either Metallic Black or Light Champagne. The K220 is similar, but adds an integrated FM radio with RDS and 10 pre-set stations. You can also use it as a radio alarm clock. Again available in the second quarter, this time in a choice of Frost White or Ocean Blue.

The J110 is a 'back to basics' phone with large, legible keys and one-click access to commonly used features such as the text message menu, ring volume and alarm clock. And as it doesn't have much in the way of features, that means a longer talk time of 9 hours. The J110 will be available from the second quarter of 2007 in Soft Cream, Smooth Grey or Precious Purple. The J120 follows a similar specification, but adds an FM Radio, a stereo headset and loudspeaker. In Night Black, it's also available in the second quarter.

Sony Ericsson website

Asus shows off Aura concept mobile phone

It seems like the introduction of Apple's iPhone and to a lesser extent, LG's Prada phone has seen a return to the drawing board for mobile phone designers. And over at Asus, that drawing board has produced the Asus Aura handset.

The phone, produced by Hungarian design company Egy Studio, is not unlike Apple's handset - but does add a few extra whistles and bells. That includes movable navigation buttons and a sliding QWERTY keyboard, but maintaining a very thin device - just 6mm thick.

Other features include a 3.9-inch touchscreen display, 2 megapixel camera, HSDPA connectivity, along with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth plus a microSD memory slot.

That's all very well - but can they turn all that into a retail handset? We'll keep you posted.

Asus website

Via Unwired View

Microsoft Zune phone coming by end of 2007?

(Picture from CrunchGear)

CrunchGear broke the story yesterday and now it's spreading around the Net like wildfire: the very real possiblity (according to sources) that Microsoft is working on a Zune mobile phone that could be ready by the end of the year.

CG's sources suggest that it'll be a smartphone that works with the Zune marketplace and can sync with the Xbox 360. It will run an interface similar to that of Zune, rather than Windows Mobile, which makes sense if it's building on the Zune's capabilities.

CG's sources suggest that it'll be a smartphone that works with the Zune marketplace and can sync with the Xbox 360. It will run an interface similar to that of Zune, rather than Windows Mobile, which makes sense if it's building on the Zune's capabilities.

The rationale behind allowing it to sync with Xbox 360s? Market penetration, and the ability to stream movies over the net via the Xbox and get them onto the phone.

As with all rumours and whisperings, there's not much more to go on than that at present, but I'm sure we'll be hearing much more about it over the coming months.

What's interesting is that neither Apple nor Microsoft have their own mobile phone on the market, so it could be argued that the playing field could be more level when it comes to how they compete with one another. They'll both be playing catch up to the major mobile players though, and it'll be interesting to see how they both attack the market.

What Apple have is a loyal following, and a huge hold on the MP3 player market - something Microsoft can't yet say about their Zune. If both companies choose to play on the strengths of their respective media players, Apple has the upper hand.

Microsoft certainly have the clout and the cash to bring something to market in this time frame, particularly if there's been R&D going on behind closed doors. It'll be a very busy year for them, though, with lots of shiny new offerings: Vista, Office, Zune, Zune phone.

How much will Ballmer shout and jump about in 2007?

Rumour: Apple iPhone could be released early?

Think Secret speculates on rumours that the iPhone may be available in the US earlier than the announced June date. The tipsters have suggested that a release date as early as April might be possible. It certainly wouldn't be the first time Apple has delivered products earlier than announced - take the switch of Macs from PowerPC to Intel processors, for one.

And in related 'news', My!Phone thinks they've traced an Apple UK employee willing to divulge a UK release date of October 2007.

It could all be totally made up, mind you, but then that's the best bit about Apple rumours, isn't it?

Related stories: iPhone is not a smartphone, say analysts | Microsoft's CEO laughs at the iPhone, makes bold Zune claims | Can Google's Switch mobile compete with Apple's iPhone?

Sagem launches my501x and my401c handsets with T-Mobile

A new year and a selection of new handsets from Sagem, the first of which are the my501x and my401 - both available at a budget price point from T-Mobile.

The my401c is a clamshell tri-band handset that's WAP-enabled and comes with all the basics, including a music player (MP3 format), VGA camera and Bluetooth. Weighing in at under 85g, it's available in black and silver or silver and pink, priced at £49.99.

The my501x is a tri-band phone with a slightly improved specification - MP3 player, video player, 1.3 megapixel camera and Bluetooth. Only available in white, it retails for £59.99.

T-Mobile website

New survey suggests UK users are technology-shy

A new survey from PayPal (quite what the significance is I'm not sure) suggests that Brits wish they could turn their back on modern technology because it's become too complicated.

One in three people can't set their defunct VCR, and 77% haven't a hope of getting their DVD recorder to work.

61% of UK mobile phone users don't use more than voice, text, alarm clock, and camera on their phone, whilst 40% don't even realise there is a camera on their phone.

Said Neil Edwards from PayPal: "It's a worrying sign for Britain that so many of us are baffled and therefore turned off by technology. There's no hiding from technology so burying your head in the sand won't make it go away. We all must embrace technology or risk becoming the tech illiterates of the world."

I expect it depends who you ask, though, as there are plenty of surveys around that suggests us Brits are embracing and pioneering technology in our everyday lives.

(Via Mad4MobilePhones)

Related stories: Dual SIM mobile phone could make dual tariff use less of a pain | Germany proposes mobile roaming price caps | Yell launches new mobile search service

Motorola's Ferrari-themed handset - MotoRAZR MAXX V6 Ferrari Challenge

If the cost of Vertu's Racetrack Legends handsets was a bit rich for your tastes, there's another motor racing-themed phone on the market - the MotoRAZR MAXX V6 Ferrari Challenge.

The Ferrari aspect isn't much more than the outer branding and the red leather carrying case, plus a selection of Ferrari bits and pieces pre-loaded, including wallpapers of the F430 engine, Ferrari bodywork and a collection of 30 action shots in the photo album. And as for the handset, that's got HSDPA connectivity, music player, 2MP camera, VGA video camera, a microSD slot for storage and Bluetooth.

And one last thing - you get a Ferrari engine noise when you power the thing up. Nice touch. You can buy one now for £300.

Full specification at the Ferrari Store

Via Stuff

Dual SIM mobile phone could make dual tariff use less of a pain

Unless you like lugging round two handsets, or fiddling with your mobile SIM cards, there's not really an easy way to manage two mobile phone contracts.

Now Chinese company Doubao has released what it claims is the first dual-SIM mobile phone with full functionality. It means you can squeeze the best bits out of two different tariffs and forget the rest.

The 728 phone, on which it appears, also features a 2.2in touch screen with support for handwriting recognition, a microSD slot, and a VGA camera. As Trusted Reviews say, it's not a spectacular phone. What's important is that it's the first in its class.

Whilst they don't reckon it'll make it much further west, the concept could be an attractive one for other manufacturers. Whether the operators will be as happy? Probably not.

Related stories: Germany proposes mobile roaming price caps | Yell launches new mobile search service | One Minute Video Review: Samsung Z560 mobile phone

Verizon rejected Apple's iPhone advances two years ago

Various reports suggest that about two years ago, Verizon rejected a deal from Apple to market the coming iPhone.

They weren't against the iPhone itself, merely the terms of the agreement that Apple laid out, which are said to have included a share of the monthly contract fee, a say over how and where the iPhone could be sold, and a control over the relationship with iPhone customers.

What's interesting, other than the fact that Verizon may well have missed their chance now that Cingular have the exclusive rights to market the iPhone in the US, is that Apple were talking to operators two years ago.

No wonder iPhone rumours have been around for so long. Of course, a phone without a provider isn't great, but I wonder why Apple didn't choose to develop an unlocked mobile phone. They could still control the official channels where the phone was sold, plus develop a relationship with iPhone owners.

Or maybe Verizon couldn't stomach marketing such an expensive phone. Time will tell whether they end up kicking themselves for missing out on a hit Apple product.

(Via TechWhack)

Related stories: iPhone is not a smartphone, say analysts | Can Google's Switch mobile compete with Apple's iPhone? | Apple's decision to 'lock down' iPhone to developers a wise security move

iPhone is not a smartphone, say analysts

Whilst the coming iPhone may be an impressive, if expensive, iPod-capable mobile phone, it's not a smartphone - no matter what Steve Jobs says. That's according to analysts at ABI Research.

ABI Research's definition of a smartphone is a cellular handset using an open, commercial operating system that supports third-party applications.

The main reason for this conclusion is that the iPhone is locked down to developers. Though it will sport a version of OS X, it almost certainly won't be freely opened up to third-party software developers, and that's the problem.

The iPhone is a 'feature phone', not a smartphone: "Feature phones have third-party applications too, but these are relatively weak and limited applications that work with the middleware such as Java and Brew," said Philip Solis, principal mobile broadband analyst.

Stuart Carlaw, wireless research director, added, "Apple must get the phone engineering part of the equation right, and it is difficult to see how it will accomplish this with no track record in the industry."

Does it matter? It's only one opinion, and there are still sure to be plenty of people who want to get their hands on the iPhone.

Related stories: Apple iPhone: The full specifications | Nokia responds to Apple iPhone - 'it is a surprise that the iPhone is not 3G' | Microsoft's CEO laughs at the iPhone, makes bold Zune claims

Shiny Video Review: SideKick 3

Paris Hilton had one. Nicole Richie had one. Lindsay Lohan had one. No, not a high-flying celebutard lifestyle filled with personal assistants, nights out at Hyde, and a seven-figure bank balance. A SideKick! And now you can decide if the SideKick 3 is up your street, as we have the honour of presenting you with a video review.

Use a hand-held mobile in the car - get points on your licence

It's been an offence for around three years to use a hand-held mobile phone whilst driving in the UK, but the threat of a fine doesn't seem to have put people off. However, the threat of three points on your driving licence might make a difference.

New penalties for using a mobile in the car will come into force from February 27th. As well as the points, fines will be doubled to £60. According to Transport Secretary Douglas Alexander: "It's quite simple - it's impossible to do two things at once and do them well."

New laws against using mobile phones in cars came into force in 2003. Research shows that 92 per cent of people support the law - but 21 per cent of those surveyed have admitted to breaking it. Home Office figures for 2004 show that nearly 74,000 fixed-penalty notices were issued in England and Wales for illegal use of a mobile phone while driving. However, a Liberal Democrat study last year suggested this meant only 1.1 per cent of those who admitted to the offence were being caught.

Via BBC

Hands-free in the car:
Pioneer DEH-P75BT Bluetooth car stereo system
Parrot's car stereo with Bluetooth

Top 10 mobile phones of 2007 we can't wait for

Everyone's been talking about it the last few weeks - the blogs haven't buzzed this much since the Lonelygirl15 scandal; the chippies are wrapping pieces of cod in newspapers' sycophantic gushings about it, heck, even your own Aunt has asked you how integrated the OS X will be in it. Yep, we're talking 'bout the iPhone. However, in the shadow of Steve Jobs's phallic phone, many worthy mobiles have been cast aside - until now. Take a look under the jump for Tech Digest's list of the Top 10 Mobile Phones Of 2007 We Can't Wait For. And, err, admittedly the iPhone is on the list, not just to sate the Apple fans' thirst for More, More, More Pictures of The Great Shiny Object, but because it's actually a pretty great phone once you ignore all the buzz. Read on, fellow mobile geeks!

1.) LG Shine. A favourite amongst us Tech Digestians, and not for the obvious reasons, this Black Label mobile (our beloved Chocolate is also part of this range) features a 2 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, MP3 playback, 1GB of onboard storage space, and is also able to set user-recorded video as the phone's wallpaper. Pure bliss on a stick. Available in the UK 7th February, expect our full review shortly.

2.) Sidekick 3. Already available in the States, this baby was set to descend on Blighty back in December, but has been pushed back to late January. Featuring all the goodies we're used to in Paris and Nicole's phone du jour, it's got email, a 1.3 megapixel camera, MP3 player, miniSD slot, and T Mobile's Web'n Walk feature. Available late January 2007 in the UK, expect our full review shortly.

3.) Nokia N93i. The hugely-antipicated update to the N93, it possesses MPEG-4 VGA video capture at up to 30 frames per second, a 3.2 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, 3x optical zoom, 1 GB miniSD card (hurrah!), Wi-Fi, and an MP3 player. Thankfully, it's been on a diet, and is much slimmer than its predecessor. Available in 2007's first quarter.

4.) Apple iPhone. You knew it was going to be included in the top 5, but are you surprised it's not at number 1? As you no doubt know, it will have a 3.5 inch diagonal touch screen, 2 megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, and run Apple's Mac OS X system. There'll be two versions available, a 4GB, and 8GB, handy for all those tunes you're likely to store. Available in UK Winter 2007, if that.

 

5.) LG enV. Another phone which has been available in the US since November, we're including this on our list due to its smartphone capabilities - it's got a full qwerty keyboard, 2 megapixel camera, integrated GPS, wireless synchronisation for emailing purposes, and of course, Bluetooth. Check out our video of it at CES. No word on UK availability, but we guess around Spring 2007.

6.) LG KE850 Prada. The recently announced mobile from LG, made in conjunction with the fashion house Prada, will pip the iPhone to the post to being the world's first completely touch screen mobile. It's got a 3 inch display, with a 2 megapixel camera, LED flash, Bluetooth, and a player supporting MPEG 4. Due February 2007 in the UK.

7.) Sony Ericsson SO903iTV Bravia. Based on Bravia technology (you remember those telly ads with the bouncing balls, right?) the SO903iTV boasts a 3 inch screen, with a slide function for horizontal viewing. It's got a 2 megapixel camera, and microSD card slot for storing those all-important pics of your friend downing three Sambuca shots in a row. Available in Japan in June, let's hope it launches here sometime this year.

8.) Samsung Ultra Edition 12.9. Formerly known as the D900, this new model is only 12.9 mm thin, with a 3 megapixel camera, 2.1 inch screen, quad-band, and not only that, claims it's the world's slimmest slider phone with a 3 megapixel camera. Due out sometime late 2007.

9.) Google's Switch. Ok, so it hasn't been announced yet, but with shady photos cropping up all over blogs, and stories about it being made by Samsung, yet branded as Google, we will hold our breath for a 2007 launch UK-side. It's rumoured to have GPS with Google Maps based navigation features, a contact application using Gmail, Google Talk, and traditional messaging, and absolutely no internal memory, as everything will be served up over the network. No word on availability, as it's still just a rumour, d'oh!

10.) Samsung SCH-W559. It's the first touchscreen mobile to use Immersion's VibeTonz, a technology which provides tactile feedback for touchscreen interactions. This is good news, as there isn't a traditional keypad on the mobile, it's an LCD display, and with the VibeTonz feature, it ensures your touches will feel real, like actual keys. Not only that, it's got handwriting recognition, Bluetooth, a 1.3 megapixel camera, and audio and video playback. No word on availability, but it's sure to launch in 2007.

Mobile phones to be banned from British Open golf tournament

Following complaints from players during the 2006 British Open in Hoylake, organisers of this year's event at Carnoustie will be banned from taking their mobile phones on to the course.

Director of Championships for the Royal & Ancient organisers said, "We have so far resisted the call to ban mobile phones on the grounds that it may be an inconvenience to the public. However, after receiving complaints referring to the numbers that were in use as play was proceeding, we feel there is no other reasonable option than a complete ban."

Security checks will be carried out on spectators upon entry. Presumably the public aren't trusted to keep their mobile phones switched off, so they have to be banned completely.

Related stories: Solar-powered golf bag | USB golf simulator | Wi-Fi hits the golf course

Thief returns stolen mobile phone and belongings after receiving 21 text messages from owner

In China, a young thief returned the belongings of a Chinese teacher he had stolen from after she sent him 21 text messages asking for the items to be returned.

Pan Aiying, a Chinese teacher at Wutou Middle School in Qihe county, had a bag containing her mobile phone, bank cards, and 4,900 yuan (about £350), snatched by a motorcycle rider.

She tried to call her stolen phone, but was disconnected. Before calling the police, she sent a text message to the phone: "Hey buddy. I'm Pan Aiying, a teacher from Wutou Middle School. You must be going through a difficult time. If so, I will not blame you"

And a second: "Keep the 4,900 yuan if you really need it, but please return the other things to me. You are still young. To error is human. Correcting your mistake is more important than anything,"

Another 19 messages were sent, all without reply. She gave up, planning to call the police the next morning. However, on her way out the next day, she found a parcel containing her bag, phone, cards, and money, all intact.

"Dear Pan: I'm sorry. I made a mistake. Please forgive me. You are so tolerant even though I stole from you. I'll correct my ways and be an upright person,"

A rare and touching story.

(Via News.cn)

Samsung's super-slim Ultra Edition 6.9, 9.9 and 12.9 mobiles

Exactly how thin are mobile phones going to go? It's like watching all those Hollywood starlets waste away – at some point, the public will put their foot down and say 'ENOUGH!'. But not yet. Witness Samsung's new Ultra Edition 6.9, which is a 6.9mm-thick candybar handset.

It's a 2.5G phone with a two-megapixel camera, 1.9-inch screen, Bluetooth, 80MB of internal memory and music/video playing capabilities. It's teeny-tiny! Although heaven help you if you stick it in your back pocket then forget to take it out before sitting down. The 6.9 is joined by two other new Ultra Edition handsets: the 9.9 and 12.9.

The UE 9.9 is a clamshell phone, which has near enough the same features as the 6.9, except with a MicroSD memory card slot, and a flash for the camera. It also boasts a TV-out port, making it ideal for showing your home-shot clips on bigger screens. And yes, it is 9.9mm thick. Finally, the UE 12.9 (you can figure its thickness out for yourself, surely) is quad-band (the other two are tri-band), and has a three-megapixel camera, a 2.1-inch screen, Bluetooth including A2DP stereo audio support, and touts itself as the world's slimmest slider phone with a three-megapixel cam. Which frankly is a bit cheeky as claims go. All three handsets should be out later this year, and eagle-eyed readers may have spotted that they're renamed versions of the X820, D830 and D900 Samsung phones. (via Engadget)

Sony Ericsson launches SO903iTV Bravia TV phone

We mentioned last week about the lack of excitement (and sales) for Virgin's Lobster mobile TV handset. Well, here's how it should be done - the Sony Ericsson SO903iTV Bravia TV phone.

In a very bold shade of red, the SO903iTV features a display based on Bravia technology. The screen is 3-inch, with a slide function for horizontal viewing. It also features time-shift video recording, a 2 megapixel camera and microSD card slot for storing your data.

It's scheduled for a June launch, but here's the bad news - so far it is Japan only, via DoCoMo. But if it goes down well over there, who knows?

Sony Ericsson website

Via Cnet Asia

Microsoft's CEO laughs at the iPhone, makes bold Zune claims

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's erratic CEO, laughed at Apple's iPhone during a recent TV interview with CNBC, mainly because of the price. He then claimed that the Zune claimed 20-25% of the high end music player market.

He wasn't exactly convincing, though:

""I don't know, but I think most estimates would say we took about 20-25 per cent of the high end of the market. We weren't down at some of the lower price points, but for devices $249 and over we took, you know, let's say about 20 per cent of the market."

Tell it like it is, Steve. Or like you think it possibly might be.

It's an interesting figure, given other reports that suggest otherwise.

If you fancy watching it, it's miraculously found its way onto YouTube:

Hitachi W51H hi-res mobile phone

Hitachi don't sell their mobile phones here in the UK, but their latest model, the W51H, makes me wish they did. It's just been announced in Japan, and is a clamshell phone with a monster 2.9-inch display with 480x800-pixel resolution. That's dribbleworthy in itself.

The phone also has a fingerprint-scanner to stop people nicking your sensitive data (i.e. saucy text messages), a two-megapixel camera with LED flash, 30MB of internal memory, and voice-activated GPS that lets you speak your destination, with the software then figuring out how to get you there.

It's only available on Japanese operator KDDI at the moment, and given Hitachi's regional focus when it comes to phones, don't hold your breath for a UK release.

(via Newlaunches)

Can Google's Switch mobile compete with Apple's iPhone?

A slightly fatuous question perhaps, given that Google Switch is still a rumour, albeit one with a freshly-minted set of allegedly-leaked photos. According to Engadget, Switch will be a touch-screen device made by Samsung, but branded as Google.

It'll have built-in GPS, allowing Google Maps based navigation features, with a contact application that's a cross between Gmail, Google Talk and more traditional text messaging. Oh, and there won't be any internal memory: everything will be served up over the network. Hopefully that'll be 3G then, unlike the iPhone...

Whether this is it or not, there's little doubt that a Google-branded mobile phone will appear at some point. The company has ramped up its mobile activities in the last year, albeit focusing on signing deals with operators like 3, Vodafone and T-Mobile.

Now that the iPhone has crossed the line from myth to real product, perhaps we can spend the next 18 months dreaming up cool ideas for the GooglePhone. Like built-in WiMAX, to make use of all those city-wide networks that (we're told) will spring up in the next few years.

Or a direct interface to Google-owned YouTube, letting you watch vids but also upload the ones you've shot using the phone. It would have a camera, right? Or a dynamic version of Google Earth that lets you swoop over the Himalayas and send text messages to the Yetis. Okay, maybe that last one's a bit ambitious. But I can dream... For now, feast your eyes on the screenshots via the link below.

(via Engadget)

Apple's decision to 'lock down' iPhone to developers a wise security move

A researcher at Symantec has said that Apple's decision (based on what Steve Jobs said) to 'lock down' the forthcoming iPhone is a smart move and will help to keep them secure.

"If the iPhone remains a closed device, with not even Java applications or widgets let alone native code, the risk of infection becomes orders of magnitude lower," said Eric Chien on the company's Security Response Weblog.

Steve Jobs had previously told reporters, "These are devices that need to work. And you can't do that if you load any software on them. It doesn't mean we have to write it all, but it means it has to be more of a controlled environment."

Chien expects that malicious software will find its way on to the iPhone, but not in such vast amounts as on other mobile devices. Limiting access to the operating system gives hackers less opportunity to find vulnerabilities.

Security or not, however, this decision is sure to disappoint many OS X fans who were hoping to port over some of their desktop applications to their shiny new iPhone.

Disgusting fact: Average mobile phone contains more bacteria than toilet seat

I suppose it depends on how clean you keep your toilet seat, but new research shows that the average mobile phone contains more bacteria than the trusty throne.

Dial-a-Phone conducted this vital research, taking swabs from everyday objects and testing them for bacteria.

Seems that the ubiquitous mobile has more bacteria on it that the average door handle, keyboard, shoe sole, or toilet seat.

Of course, the phone also ends up touching more parts of the human body than those other objects.

"The phones contained more skin bacteria than the any other object; this could be due to the fact that this type of bacteria increases in high temperatures and our phones are perfect for breeding these germs as they're kept warm and cozy in our pockets, handbags and brief cases. These bacteria are toxic to humans, and can cause infections if they have the opportunity to enter the body," commented Joanne Verran, Professor of Microbiology at Manchester Metropolitan University.

There's a simple solution, though. Clean your phone thoroughly with an antibacterial wipe more than once a year. Easy!

Related stories: Clean your screen with Alpine Innovations Mini Spudz | Lockup Cup stops people from sharing your coffee | Getting dirty at the office: Content of your PC keyboard could make you ill

LG's KE850 Prada phone gets official unveiling - and imminent European launch

Can't wait for the iPhone to arrive? Well, you can get your hands on another very fashionable handset much sooner when the LG KE850 Prada phone arrives in Europe next month.

Like the iPhone (but beating it to market), the KE850, sized at just 98.8 × 54 × 12mm, is a touchscreen-only mobile phone, in this case using a 3-inch display with 240x400 resolution. The display is a minimalist white on black - no iPhone-style coloured icons here.

In terms of specifications, the KE850 is tri-band, EDGE compatible and features a 2 megapixel camera with Schneider-Kreuznach lens and LED flash, Bluetooth 2.0, an MPEG4 video player and an audio player with MP3/ACC/ACC+/WMA/RA support. There's also a document viewer supporting Microsoft's PPT, DOC, XLS formats, plus PDF and TXT. Memory is via SD card - none built-in I'm afraid.

According to LG, the phone will hit mobile stores and Prada shops in Europe from the end of February. The price quoted is 600 Euros - but we'll probably have a better idea of that and which networks are opting for the handset as that Euro launch date approaches.

LG website

Via Engadget

Apple aiming for 10 million iPhone sales in 2008

So, Apple announced its 'fiscal first quarter' results yesterday for the last three months of 2006. The key news was that the company shifted over 21 million iPods, which is 50% up on the same period in 2005. In the US, this made up 72% of the digital music player market, while Apple reckons it now accounts for more than 85% of the legal music downloads.

However, the company also talked iPhone, saying it wants to sell 10 million of the handsets during 2008, and said that the reason the iPhone isn't 3G is because 2.5G networks are more widespread in the US than 3G. On behalf of all Europeans who are keen to get an iPhone, cheers for that Apple.

However, the company did say it will "be where the technology is over time", which cynics may suggest means a revamped 3G version a few months after millions of people have splashed out on the first-generation version.

Oh, and Apple had stern words for Cisco, which is taking it to court over the iPhone trademark. "We think the Cisco trademark is silly. We believe Cisco's US trademark registration is tenuous at best." Oof!

Other stats from the results and subsequent conference call: Apple sold over 1.6 million Macs in the last three months of 2006, thanks to strong sales of laptops, particularly the MacBook Pro. Apparently Apple was pleasantly surprised by the 1.6 million figure, which was way above its own expectations.

Finally, Apple described its upcoming Apple TV product as the DVD player of the 21st century, and said there are now over 4 million songs, 350 TV shows and 250 films on the iTunes Store. That's in the US, obviously. No news on when they'll finally roll out the telly and movies here in Europe.

(via AppleInsider)

GMEA: it's a mobile phone with a sliding-puzzle keypad

God bless designers. If they weren't coming up with crazy concepts for new gadgets, the world would be a much less fun place.

Meet GMEA, which its creator describes as "the first ever real game phone". Does that mean 3D graphics, an attached DualShock joypad, and a slot for Nintendo DS cartridges? Sadly not.

Instead, it's got a keypad that mimics a sliding puzzle! Bear with me on this, it's genius. Really. You can move them around to arrange them however you like, although the right positions are marked underneath, so you can get them back into place if necessary.

It's the brainchild of Russian designer Dima Komissarov: click on the link below to see a moving demo, then ring up Nokia and DEMAND they incorporate this into their next handset. Or not, as you prefer.

GMEA concept mobile

DoCoMo to bring touchscreen clamshell phone to market

Japan's DoCoMo has unveiled a clamshell mobile phone featuring two touch-sensitive screens and able to be controlled with either a stylus or finger.

Characters are input by writing on the screen, or a virtual keypad can be called up to dial a number.

DoCoMo said that users would be able to send handwritten notes and pictures to other phones.

The D800iDS, manufactured by Mitsubishi, features similarities with the Nintendo DS game console, though the operator said that the DS stood for "direct and smooth".

Touch screen phones, smartphones and PDAs weren't new when Apple announced their iPhone, and you can bet this phone, due on sale in Japan in February, certainly won't be the last.

One thing the iPhone doesn't feature is aroma, unlike Sony Ericcson's SO703i which comes with scented sheets designed to relax users during phone calls.

Related stories: Apple iPhone: The full specifications | Play iTunes songs on your Nintendo Wii | Nintendo DS sets sights on VoIP

Vodafone launches three special edition McLaren Mercedes mobile handsets

To celebrate the new Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Formula One racing team, Vodafone have unveiled three new special edition mobile phone handsets.

The handsets are:

* The Vodafone McLaren Mercedes 770SH from Sharp (top picture)
* The Vodafone McLaren Mercedes GX29 from Sharp (second picture)
* The Vodafone McLaren Mercedes SGH-Z720M from Samsung (no picture yet available)

The Sharp GX29 is a 2G clamshell phone with a VGA camera, games, and USB 1.1/Bluetooth 1.0.

The Sharp 770SH sounds fairly entry-level 3G, being a clamshell phone with a 1.3 megapixel camera, USB 1.1 and Bluetooth 1.0.

Finally, the Samsung SGH-Z720M is a 3G/HSDPA slider phone with a 3 megapixel camera with auto focus, USB 2.0 and Bluetooth 2.0, and a stereo headset.

All give access to the Vodafone Live! portal, and have various music and games options.

UK pricing and availability to be confirmed

Vodafone

Macworld 2007 roundup: Back seat Macs; new markets; Apple's "killer app"

As Macworld closes for another year, here are my reflections on a show of surprises and omissions.

iPhone

The star of the show has to be the iPhone, yet it's the first Expo I can remember where a product has been announced before it's available. Not only is it frustrating for consumers but it also gives a long lead time for competitors to line up their iPhone alternatives - and you can bet that they're doing just that.

Some are calling the iPhone 'vapourware' because the product can't be bought. In fact, you'd be lucky to just touch one.

Apple TV

Apple TV had been announced last year, and whilst it got its share of limelight in Jobs' keynote, as soon as the iPhone was announced, it's fair to say that most people forgot about it.

That's not to say that it's an unimpressive piece of kit, though I have my doubts about how it will fare in a UK market.

Back seat Macs

Many true Mac fans (you know, the people who actually buy Apple's computers) may well have been disappointed that these two consumer-friendly items have completely overshadowed - in fact, eradicated - any Mac hardware announcements.

iPhone or no iPhone, we had expected some new Mac to arrive. Yes, this is primarily a consumer affair, so maybe a new Pro machine will be announced later in the year, but dreams of more powerful Macs weren't realised at the show.

Best Mac hardware from third party

In fact, the best Mac-based hardware of the show had to be Axiotron's ModBook, a 'tablet Mac' created from the Apple MacBook. A very slinky piece of kit, winning one of the "Best of Show" awards, it's something we wish Apple themselves had made. Maybe they will, one day.

Dropping the computer

After the iPhone excitement, Steve threw in the announcement that the company were changing their name from "Apple Computer Inc" to "Apple Inc", to reflect their increasing presence in the consumer electronics market.

Given that their biggest selling products to date are iPods, not desktop or laptop computers, and that Apple TV and the iPhone could prove a hit with consumers, this isn't too surprising, but is it a sign of something more?

Apart from the usual references to record numbers of non-Mac computer users switching to Macs, there was precious little mention of Apple's computers in the keynote. However, what there was mention of was OS X.

Apple's killer app - OS X

Apple has a killer application. It's not the iPod, the Apple TV, nor the iPhone.

It's OS X.

In a computer and consumer electronics industry where manufacturers are picking up on good product design, both visually and in usability, there's less of a distinction between Apple hardware and PC manufacturers hardware. Yes, Apple computers still represent great design, but a whole range of PCs, both desktop and notebook, are no longer simply beige lumps that are purely functional.

Apple's winning product, the one that will unite its current and future hardware devices, is OS X, a modern, robust, scalable operating system that sits just as happily and works just as well in an iPhone or in the Apple TV as it does in a Mac mini or a top-of-the-range Mac Pro.

Despite Jobs' current protestations, I wouldn't be at all surprised if, at some point in the near future, it's announced that OS X can be legitimately run on any Intel-based PC.

Sure, the iPhone is supposed to synchronise with PC users' Windows-based machines, but how much easier would it be for users to have versions of OS X spread across the whole range of hardware? Of course, interoperability still needs to be worked on, as not everyone is going to load OS X on their PC, but it feels like a distinct possibility.

Apple marches on

The pre-Expo message, the company name change, the ongoing move to mainstream consumer products, OS X in the iPhone... these signal a company that is keen to take on new markets, and to be recognised for much more than its computers.

Whether it has more successes like the iPod remains to be seen, but there's no doubt that Apple is changing.

Macworld 2007 coverage

First video of Apple's iPhone

Yes the iPhone does exist and it is not a collective hallucination of the people who attended MacWorld last week and the thousands who watched the launch on the web.

The proof is here courtesy of CBS News who secured a demo from Apple. First thoughts are it looks pretty impressive but I can’t remember the last time I used a phone two-handed. So can you operate it with one hand? Does it matter? Guess we’ll have to wait until we get our own to play with before that question can be answered.

It is amazing though that it seems to be the only legit vid of the iPhone on YouTube. Apple is certainly keeping the handset very close to its chest for the time being.

10 tricks to play on your iPhone
10 reasons to love/hate the iPhone
Nokia responds to the iPhone announcement

LG Shine handset - UK launch date confirmed and new pictures

You may have seen Susi getting excited over the LG Shine phone this week at the CES. Well, LG has been kind enough to send across some images of the handset and announced that February 7th is the date it is to debut on the UK (after Korea obviously) - with the rest of the world to follow (which might make up for the wait for the iPhone).

LG has already sold more than 180,000 Shine handsets in Korea since its launch in November, so there must be some hands-on appeal in the wide 2.2-inch 'magic mirror' screen and brushed full metal body. Full technical details for the UK version of Shine will be announced at the launch on February 7th. You'll read about them first here.

LG website

10 reasons to love the iPhone, 10 reasons to run

Now that the iPhone announcement has had a couple of days to sink it, here's my reflections on the best and worst of the iPhone.

FOR THE IPHONE

1. Looks (and feels) amazing

Whatever you think of the feature set, and the chances of your fat fingers destroying that shiny big screen, the iPhone looks amazing, and it probably feels amazing in the palm of your hand, too. It's sleek, curvy, shiny, and sexy, with on-screen icons and buttons that just ooze and drip class.

2. OS X

Most likely a scaled-down version of the fully fledged Mac OS X, but still a world-class operating system, and touted to run 'desktop-class applications'. Certainly great news for Apple Mac fans that have longed for a home-grown solution that lets them use the desktop apps they love on the move.

3. Google/Yahoo integration

Seeing Apple working closely with Google and Yahoo may not sit comfortably with everyone, but it does mean that the iPhone gets killer apps - like Google Maps - as well as more mail functionality - Yahoo mail push. A good alliance.

4. Gestures

Whilst no-one but Steve and a few top bods at Apple have got their hands on the iPhone yet, all the demonstrations so far point to a pretty slick 'gesturing' system for controlling the iPhone. Sweeping and pinching to scroll and zoom look particularly cool. Apple have certainly done a lot of research into this. Well-known for producing great user interfaces, expect something special from Apple on this one.

5. Cover art

Not everyone's cup of tea, but the function first introduced on the desktop version of iTunes makes it way onto the iPhone. Sure, it only looks good if iTunes can find art for most of your albums, but scrolling through your music visually with bold finger sweeps on that luscious widescreen is amazing.

6. Smart contacts and voicemail

After all, this is a phone: Finding and calling contacts, setting up conference calls, and visual voicemeail that allows you to see your messages rather than having to run through them sequentially, are all cool features that raise the bar on how you make, take, and organise calls.

7. Sensors

The iPhone's three built-in sensors: accelerometer, proximity, and ambient light, improve the user experience by doing smart things without the user intervening or even having to think about them - typically Apple.

8. Wi-fi

Of course wi-fi isn't everywhere, but it's increasingly easy to hook up to the Internet at home and work, as well as plenty of other places: cafés, libraries, and urban hotspots. iPhone certainly isn't the only handset to include it, but it's a great addition.

9. Large screen

Oh that gorgeous high-resolution widescreen. It invites you to touch it - which is just as well, given that's how you interact with the iPhone.

10. It's Apple

For some, this puts it in the 'against' list, but not for me. Apple make products that look, feel, and work... great. The iPhone is undeniably Apple.

AGAINST THE IPHONE

1. Lockdown

Despite running a version of OS X, Steve Jobs has told the press that the iPhone will be a closed platform. It was exciting when we thought we could put all our OS X software goodies on the device, but apparently that isn't going to happen. Oh, Apple will probably sell extra software, but there won't be a free-for-all.

I'm surprised, given the stability and reliability of OS X, that a workaround for this hasn't been found. Steve Jobs has implied that a rogue application could screw up the mobile network. "Cingular doesn't want to see their West Coast network go down because some application messed up," he told Newsweek.

2. Touchscreen

That touchscreen is a mixed blessing. Fingers are messy things (some people's more than others) and sweeping and tapping them all over a glossy screen is sure to take its toll eventually. Plus, fingers are much fatter than a stylus, so you can't help but obscure what you're interacting with. You'll also have to invest in your own screen protection, as first-generation iPhone doesn't have its own.

3. No 3G

This is a killer for many people, particularly outside the US. Whilst a second generation of iPhone could feature 3G, omitting it from the start may make it unattractive to anyone wanting high-speed Net access on the move. Wi-fi isn't everywhere and we're more accustomed to widespread 3G in the UK and Europe. Though Steve mentioned the elusive 3G in his keynote, it's not a feature yet, and with an apparent exclusive tie-in to Cingular (in the States) until at least 2009, things could move very slowly on this one. Let's hope European variants evolve more quickly.

4. Poor camera spec

A 2 megapixel camera, even on a mobile phone, is pretty paltry these days. It's an easy one to upgrade in future models, but it still seems a little stingy. It's a spec already whipped by cheaper phones from most other manufacturers. With the iPhone touted as an all-in-one device, the camera needs to improve.

5. US provider

The whole deal with users requiring a two-year contract with Cingular to use the iPhone is a bum deal for anyone on the larger US networks with existing contracts. Let's hope similar tie-ins 'features' like this don't make their way over to the UK.

6. No VoIP

Some were hoping for VoIP to be a part of the iPhone, but that doesn't appear to be the case. And the reason? Allegedly because of Cisco's pesky lawsuit against Apple's use of the iPhone name. Apple have said that their products are different because Cisco make VoIP devices, which the iPhone isn't. If this is the only reason, it's a pain. Worth a name change?

7. Release date

5+ months until the US gets hold of the iPhone, and almost a year until international rollout begins, will result in hype and unreasonably raised expectations. It could all backfire on Apple if demand can't be met, or if the first iPhone doesn't live up to the spin that will now circle the Internet until release date.

8. Battery life

The iPhone's battery life is something that has to improve if users are to enjoy all of its features on the move without being forced to recharge it 2 or 3 times a day. 5 hours talk/video time is pretty pathetic, added to the fact that these batteries look like they're 'locked in' (a la iPod) - so carrying round a spare and swapping it out isn't a possibility.

9. Price

Yes it's a premium Apple product, but the price is going to deter even some of the most ardent Apple fans. Unlocked versions, if they ever materialise, could cost even more. And what about the replacement cost? Presumably the iPhone, as it comes on contract, is already subsidised?

10. Not Symbian

Though OS X is great, and the scaled-down iPhone version could work wonderfully, many see Symbian OS as the leading OS for mobile devices. It's present on around 70% of mobile devices (as of 3Q last year) and is an evolved, honed system. OS X, on the other hand, is as yet unproven on such a mobile device. It also makes it harder for existing third-party applications to be ported to the iPhone.

Cisco to sue Apple over iPhone name

We hinted on launch date that Cisco might have something to say about Apple's use of the iPhone for its new handset - and it does. It's going to sue.

Cisco obtained the iPhone trademark in 2000 after acquiring Infogear, which previously owned the name. However, Apple doesn't seem overly concerned, dismissing Cisco's claims as "silly" and "tenuous at best".

According to Apple spokesman Alan Hely: "We think Cisco's trademark lawsuit is silly. There are already several companies using the name iPhone for Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) products. We are the first company to ever use the iPhone name for a cell phone, and if Cisco wants to challenge us on it we are very confident we will prevail."

In response, Mark Chandler, Cisco senior vice-president and general counsel, said: "Cisco entered into negotiations with Apple in good faith after Apple repeatedly asked permission to use Cisco's iPhone name." Cisco said it would seek to stop Apple from "infringing upon and deliberately copying and using" the trademark.

Apple website

Apple's iPhone and LG's KE850 - striking similarities?

No, your eyes do not lie - the pictures above are of two separate handsets that could well have been separated at birth.

Engadget noticed the similarity between the design of Apple's much-heralded iPhone and LG's KE850, currently recipient of the International Forum Design Product Design Award for 2007. Of course, it may be pure coincidence - but that's probably something for the respective legal teams to ascertain.

Apple website
LG website

Via Engadget

CES 2007: Nokia's Pekka Pohjakallio talks Nseries, Wi-Fi and multimedia trends

Nokia has maintained a high profile at CES, announcing three new phones and deals with the likes of Skype, Yahoo and Six Apart. I sat down for a chat with Pekka Pohjakallio, VP of Nseries computers in Nokia's multimedia division.

Besides giving Nokia's initial response to the Apple iPhone, he also talked about the new N93i, N76 and N800, promised that Wi-Fi and 3.5mm headphone jacks will be standard in ALL Nseries handsets from now on, and hinted at a potentially-ace collaboration with guitar-maker Gibson. Read on for the full details.

First off, we went through the three new Nseries handsets, starting with the N93i (pictured), which is the revamped version of the N93 camcorder handset.

"It's 6mm thinner and 3mm shorter, and we've used premium materials to make it more comfortable to use and carry," says Pohjakallio. "We've upgraded the screen to 16 million colours, and made the setup of Wi-Fi much easier than it used to be. It's now active/idle, so there is a sniffer checking around for Wi-Fi hotspots."

The basic form factor remains the same, with you twisting the screen in a camcorder stylee, and then folding it back on itself to watch clips. The Wi-Fi is important too, and it's clearly becoming an ever-more important feature for Nokia.

"From now on, all the Nseries will have Wi-Fi," says Pohjahkallio. "We believe more and more that when the internet is about participation, the creation tools we have on these devices fit into people's desire to participate in Web 2.0 applications, as well as get at their email and browsing wherever they are. And Wi-Fi seems to be cheaper in many places than normal data calls. And of course it is also a tool for home integration, as there are lots of devices that you can connect to Wi-Fi."

Then there's the N76 (pictured), which if I was a cynical man, I'd label Nokia's RAZR. It's a super-slim clamshell phone with metallic styling, and according to Pohjakallio, it's aimed at the demographic group Nokia refers to as 'technology stylists' (you may remember our post from the Nokia World conference explaining how Nokia segments mobile users)

"There's an emerging group of people who are excited about the new technology, and don't settle for low-quality, but it's also very very important for them that the style is right and the materials are good," he says. "So the N76 is metal, very robust and with a good premium feel to it, but still having all the Nseries use cases. There's a two-megapixel camera, the new internet browser, and a music player with which you can use a normal 3.5mm headphones jack."

Like Wi-Fi, 3.5mm jacks are going to be a standard feature in Nseries devices going forward, which is frankly about time for the mobile industry, given that so many music phones come with proprietary ports forcing you to use the bundled earphones rather than your own set. "We're not going to have any proprietary jacks any more," says Pohjakallio. I'll raise a toast to that.

Finally, there's the N800 Internet Tablet (pictured), which is the follow-up to the original 770 device, which Pohjakallio says was more of a device for "Linux enthusiasts who were hacking and making new code in the open-source environment". The N800 keeps the widescreen format and Wi-Fi connectivity, and is basically about browsing, instant messaging and thanks to a deal with Skype announced at CES, VoIP calls too.

Is it a new gadget for people, or is Nokia trying to replace another device? "I think this is a new one," says Pohjakallio. "It's for those who really want to get the internet in a comfortable manner wherever they are. You have PDAs, but their main use case is something else. This has been done thinking internet first, and then adding other features if need be."

Some of those other features are pretty neat, mind. Nokia has signed up Navicore to provide navigation software for the N800, and RealNetworks to get the latter's Rhapsody music subscription service running on the device. Pohjakallio says the latter could be the dark-horse feature, suggesting people may use the N800 as an internet radio in their kitchens, for example.

"Because it's open-source Linux, there's lots of application development happening for it," he says. "You will see a community building, developing applications we wouldn't have even thought about."

One thing I was keen to ask about was how Nokia is approaching the challenges of making smartphones that are supposed to do so many different things. Can one device really be as good at watching mobile TV, as it is at shooting video or taking photos, as it is at playing music or games, or surfing the internet? How do you prevent the jack-of-all-trades problem kicking in, where one or more of these areas suffer?

When it comes to devices like the N93, Pohjakallio says Nokia is taking the form-factor approach, of making sure that as soon as users pick it up, they know what its main use is (camcorder in this case), with the other features sitting behind. Which doesn't quite answer the question (can those other features be as good if the phone is focused more on video). But he does say there's an interesting challenge when it comes to more general handsets like the N76.

"You have to be really careful about what is important," he says. "Our main areas are photography, music, video, TV, games and internet connection. They all have to be in a good level in these products when it comes to usability and performance, and then you can highlight one or two per product. It is a challenge, but we believe that we are one of the companies who have been thinking about what makes a good multi-purpose device for a long time now, so we are further ahead than some other companies."

The last area I asked about was convergence with other devices. Particularly at this year's CES, lots of the major consumer electronics manufacturers are figuring out how to make their devices work with other devices. Think TVs designed to display your photos, or hi-fis that connect easily with iPods and so on. Is this a big deal for Nokia?

Pohjakallion says yes, and cites design decisions like the 3.5mm jack as proof. TV-Out is also becoming a more important feature for Nseries handsets, while he also thinks the Universal Plug'n'Play (UPnP) standard will become more of a factor as home electronics devices come out that support it. Oh, and Bluetooth when it comes to things like cars, which increasingly have Bluetooth fitted in the factory.

"The surrounding world is very important, and the reason we think we have a strong position is that this is a device that is very personal, and always with you," he says. "So it's natural that stuff accumulates on here, and then you share it with other devices. And of course the PC and Mac connectivity is of the utmost importance, for storage and so on, as well as music synchronising."

And it's not just your normal gadgets either. Here's a mini scoop for you: the morning of our talk, Pohjakallio rode to CES in a tour bus belonging to guitar firm Gibson, after a meeting with one of their bigwigs. Are we going to see a Nokia axe any time soon? Weeelll... who knows.

"They have the classical part, but lots of electronics are starting to be embedded," says Pohjakallio. "They have a digital guitar, so they connect to the same places we connect to. So... yeah..."

Tech Digest CES coverage

CES 2007: LG's new Shine phone

The LG Shine phone is currently only available in Asia, but it's been promised to the UK for a while now. However, the pictures seen so far don't do it justice, and I was surprised to find out how attractive it was once I got to the stand.
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CES 2007: Samsung 10 megapixel camera phone and MobileTV handset

Samsung had a couple of CDMA phones on display on their stand, and of course, no one's sure if they're going to ever make it to the UK. Still, they both look flash, although why you'd ever want 10 megapixels in a camera phone god only knows. Really in depth photos of your mates down the pub perhaps?

10 tricks to play on your new iPhone (when it arrives)

By the time you've waited for between 6 and 12 months for your new iPhone, you may have gone just a little crazy. Relieve your madness with these iPhone-busting ideas:

1. Spin the iPhone

"iPhone’s accelerometer detects when you rotate the device from portrait to landscape, then automatically changes the contents of the display, so you immediately see the entire width of a web page or a photo in its proper landscape aspect ratio."

See how fast you can rotate the iPhone before the operating system simply gives up trying to reorient what's on the screen.

2. Grease the iPhone

It's a touchscreen, man, but you just know that after your morning coffee and doughnut and several grovelling calls to the boss that you might have trouble getting your iPhone to understand your gestures. See how much gunk you can get on the screen before you (a) can't control the screen and (b) can't read it anyway.

3. "Venus fly trap effect" for your iPhone

"The proximity sensor detects when you lift iPhone to your ear and immediately turns off the display to save power and prevent inadvertent touches until iPhone is moved away."

Go on, wave it about near your ear and see how many times it tries to save power and 'prevent inadvertent touches' before it just gives up and goes to sleep (or cracks open on your skull)

4. Install Office 2008 on your iPhone

Yeah, baby, Universal Office 2008 is coming around the same time as the iPhone (Stateside anyway). And the iPhone runs OS X right? So put this tiny, happy little application on 'cause you know how much fun typing a Word document on the soft keyboard is going to be, don't you? And Microsoft and Mac get on so well...

5. Install Windows Vista on your iPhone

Next step up from #4. Hey, why not give it a go? Just because two-year-old PCs will struggle to get the best out of the Vista monster, doesn't mean your Intel iPhone can't have a go at running it. Wonder if Aero'll work?

6. Teach your iPhone new gestures

Some smart-arse developer is going to find out a way to abuse the gesturing-with-your-fingers system and come up with some new interesting ways of controlling the iPhone. Worked for getting the motion detectors on the PowerBooks to flip screens, anyway.

7. Photo feedback loop overload

Get your iPhone to take a photo every second, email it to your Yahoo IMAP account (via your free wi-fi connection of course), then have Yahoo push that email back to you. See how long before that exciting digital flickbook you've just created eats up the 4 or 8GB storage.

8. Send rude audio files to a Zune user

Tricky one. First, find a Zune user. Then send him a cleverly concocted iTunes insult (a fart or something'll do if you can't be more creative) over wi-fi. OK, so the incompatible DRM could send one or t'other of them into meltdown (my money's on Billy Zune) but it's worth a go.

9. Widget overdrive!

See how many pointless OS X widgets you can cram onto the device. You know the ones - weird animations, quotes of the day from people you've never heard of, Sudoku - that sort of thing. Then watch iPhone squirm trying to serve them up to you. 3.5 inches of screen isn't infinite...

10. Interrogate your iPhone

"An ambient light sensor automatically adjusts the display’s brightness to the appropriate level for the current ambient light, thereby enhancing the user experience and saving power at the same time."

Pretend your iPhone has done something very, very bad (called Bill Gates and asked for a laptop PC with Vista installed, for example). Shine a very bright light on it and watch it lose it's ambience.

Get serious iPhone specs and links here | Macworld 2007 coverage | CES 2007 coverage

Apple iPhone: The full specifications

So, after months (years) of speculation and rumour, Apple has finally announced the iPhone in all its glory.

Tech Digest has already covered the initial communications aspects, and what it might mean for UK consumers if and when it arrives in Britain, plus reactions from the likes of Orange and Nokia (scroll to end of this article for the links) so in this article I'll take a look at the key features of this 'revolutionary' new mobile phone.

First up is that gorgeous touch screen that fills almost the entire front panel. It's a 3.5 inch (diagonal) screen, boasting a resolution of 320 x 480 at 160 pixels per inch. That's more than enough for widescreen (16:9) viewing, though you'll probably get black bars at the top and bottom of the images.

It has just one physical button at the bottom of the display. Nearly everything else is done via the touchscreen, using intuitive finger motions such as tapping, sweeping and 'pinching'.

It features several sensors. One reorients what's displayed on screen when the phone is rotated between landscape and portrait orientation. It also has a proximity sensor that knows when you have the phone to your ear and adjusts the screen and touch pad accordingly.

The phone is quad-band, wi-fi enabled (Apple site specs say 802.11b and g though Steve was talking about n compatibility also), with Bluetooth 2.0 EDR, GSM, and EDGE.

It comes with a 2 megapixel camera.

It will run Apple's own Mac OS X system - no details on whether this will be a cut down version of Tiger, a cut down of Leopard (which could be released before the iPhone is), or a full version intelligently switching to make best use of the iPhone, isn't clear, but Jobs described and demonstrated the use of Mac OS X applications and widgets, including stock trackers, weather, iChat, iCal, iTunes, iMovies, and iPhoto. It will also utilise Core Graphics, and other features that will be familiar to anyone who uses the desktop version of OS X.

Containing an Intel processor (exact chipset not known), it will offer 5 hours battery life when talking, browsing the web, or watching video, and 16 hours of audio playback. No word on standby time.

Dimensions are 4.5 x 2.4 x 0.46 inches (115 x 61 x 11.6mm), with a weight of 135 grams.

There are plenty of calling features, tied into your contacts list and email, including setting up 3-way voice conferences, sending email whilst on a call, and easily adding and calling numbers from emails.

Software wise, it contains a version of Apple Mail, featuring rich HTML email, web browser Safari, with Google and Yahoo searches, Google Maps, and Widgets. Given that the phone OS is Mac OS X, it shouldn't be difficult to put a variety of other apps onto the system. Apple claim that apps run fast. They also say that PC users will be able to sync their contact data, so presumably as well as supporting the 'i' range of Mac apps, there'll be some syncing with Outlook etc. We'll wait to see how that bit works.

Apple announced that they'd teamed up and formed close alliances with both Google and Yahoo, which is also exciting.

It will be worth taking a look at the keynote speech (not available at time of writing), and the official iPhone web site to get an idea of the capabilities of the phone.

Suffice to say, it looks very good. It's been well over 2 years in the making, and it shows. It offers a dynamically new way for users to interact with their phone, using just their fingers. No more add-on or pull-out keyboards, fiddly styli, or other oddities. Of course, the proof will be in the using, and it may not suit everyone (like any interface) but it certainly looks good from a distance.

The groan factor is the wait. Even the US won't get it until June (Apple don't have full FCC approval yet, apparently, so things could change a little in specs etc.). Europe isn't due to get it until sometime in the last quarter of 2007. Great...

Hopefully by then, there'll either be a souped-up second generation iPhone ready, or a Euro-friendly one. Apple would do well not to ignore the UK which, though a crowded market, is also a very tech-savvy, and promiscuous with their handsets too.

Done right, the iPhone could be massive, though with limited initial stock and global reach, and an initial target of 1% of the mobile market share, it won't pose any immediate threat to the big guns.

The 4GB version will retail in the US for $499 and the 8GB will cost $599, coming in June, exclusively with Cingular Wireless. It's due in Europe in Q4 of 2007 - no more details than that, though.

Other iPhone stories:

Apple iPhone - the first proper pic
Which UK network will get Apple's iPhone first?
Apple's iPhone - the first images. Coming to the UK soon?
Nokia responds to Apple iPhone - 'it is a surprise that the iPhone is not 3G'
Apple iPhone - bad news for UK consumers, great news for eBay

Apple iPhone - bad news for UK consumers, great news for eBay

There's no denying that it looks amazing, is crammed with innovative features and has sent Apple's share price soaring. But I can't help but feel a little bit let down by Apple.

I know they obviously can't get the iPhone to market tomorrow, but making UK punters wait until Q4, which is consumer electronics speak for December, is going to cause both British punters and the UK phone industry a nightmare.

Here's why

1 If Apple's track record is anything to go by I'd take Q4 with a huge pinch of salt. The company have consistently missed product launches and I would bet a fair sum of money that we won't see the phone in the UK until 2008.

2 They are only making ten million iPhones. To put that in some kind of perspective Nokia sold 40 million high-end mobiles last year and claims it will do at least double that this year. There is going to be huge demand which Apple simply won't be able to meet.

3 Apple always plays at home. Apple has shown time and time again its local market (ie the US) is way more important to it than anywhere else in the world. If that first batch sells out in June (smart move btw as I reckon Cingular will be pre-registering buyers very soon - that gives them five months to pack them in) where do you think the next lot will be sold? Not in Europe. You only have to look at how Apple has sold its iPods to know that keeping UK punters hanging on is one its fortes - and in many ways creating hype shifts the products when they arrive too.

4 eBay is the real winner. Just imagine how much UK Apple obsessives are going to pay for a phone on eBay in June? Some will be getting US friends and relatives to get Cingular contracts and then having the iPhones shipped over. There will be a ton of iPhones on eBay, many won't be legit and almost all will be overpriced.

5 Will people still spend money on smartphones this year? The iPhone is such a great product that I can imagine that many Europeans won't upgrade their handsets in 2007 and will prefer to wait for its arrival in the UK.

The only sliver of comfort for Nokia, Sony Ericsson and others is that a year is a very long time in the mobile phone industry. Nokia's N95 will be launched in a March and it is in many ways a real rival to the iPhone. It has a similar set of features (minus iTunes and the large storage), a much better camera and is HSDPA rather than Edge (so it has the potential for downloads and web browsing at speeds of up to six times faster than the iPhone).

There is a chance that a phone that is not 3G and only has 2.0 mega pixel camera might look rather old hat by January 2008. I doubt it though. Good luck Sony Ericsson, Nokia and HTC - your high-end phones have some real competition.

Which UK network will get Apple's iPhone first?

OK, so we now know the iPhone exists. But when will UK punters be able to buy it. It ships in the US in June, but sadly we won't be able to buy it until Q4 in the UK.

That gives Apple a long time to work on a partner for the handset for Europe.

The big market this summer will be eBay - just imagine how many Europeans will want to import one from the US.

Then Apple may sell a Sim-free version on its UK website and through its retailers. But if it does partner with a UK network here's the runners and riders.

Vodafone - (Maybe) Although Voda has close links with Verizon, Cingular's big US rival network, it needs a big hit and there's no denying that the iPhone will be huge. However I think it will be put off by the fact that the phone is not 3G and not compatible with its music download offering.

Orange - (possible) Has Euro-wide distribution say can offer Jobs and co a lot of potential punters. But see statement below - doesn't sound good. Has also invested a lot in its music download service and might see the iPhone as muddying the waters.

T-Mobile (The best bet) Again a big Euro-wide network so lots of distribution. Likes to get in quick with high profile phones too. Less concerned about music downloads. So in our book the frontrunner.

O2 (unlikely) I can't see it, even though it is owned by monster Spanish network Telefonica it probably doesn't have the reach.

3 (mmm) Wouldn't have thought so. The iPhone isn't 3G for starters.

Orange has just issued this statement... Doesn't sound like it is going to be first in the queue for the phone does it?

"Today's launch of Apple’s iPhone is another example of how the world of entertainment technology is converging. It reinforces our belief here at Orange that we shall see many more similar moves in the future. We have already seen our own Music Player service grow rapidly in the last year to average 100,000 single downloads per month, with over 500,000 tracks to choose from currently. Apple's entry into the market will no doubt stimulate even further interest in mobile music services.

"Europe is undergoing a digital revolution and Orange , Apple and other key companies are at the forefront of that. As the technology and entertainment industries merge over the next few years, consumers will be able to do things they previously only ever dreamt of and will be able to access all the services they need from a single provider”

Apple's iPhone - the first images. Coming to the UK soon?

OK, so here it is, the gadget that has been something of a Holy Grail for geeks the world over for the last god knows how many years. Years of false leads, speculation, gossip and some truly awful photoshop mock ups are finally over. Was it all worth it? Well, it's a bit early for a final verdict, but the product shots haven't exactly sent a shiver down my spine. It's thin - very thin - at 11.6mm and it's got a 3.5-inch screen.

As for UK distribution - no news yet. There's nothing on Apple's UK website. The deal announced was with Cingular in the US. No mention yet of any UK networks. Might Apple choose to sell the phone only through its website and retaillers? It could potentially bypass the networks if it wanted to. I am sure there's be plenty of demand for a SIM free model if they can keep the price under £300.

So what do you reckon? First impressions? *Slightly* disappointed that they didn't come up with a more exciting name (everyone nicknamed it that, which makes it seem a bit old already) and it's not entirely clear what Cisco is going to say about the whole thing.

Further specs: touchscreen display, 2 megapixel camera, 8GB of storage, Bluetooth, WiFi and, most exciting of all, OS X. The touchscreen disables automatically when it comes close to your face, which is the kind of whizzy technology that always impresses me.

CES 2007: The Top 10 vids so far

We've been blogging and shooting videos for what feels like weeks, so we thought it time to give you a rundown of the Top 10 CES 2007 vids so far. Drumroll please... 1. Is it a robot? Is it a hamster? Is it both? Really, it's anything you want it to be. 2. More robots, this time Star Wars-themed. R2D2 will do anything media for you, but he really doesn't want to see that Paris Hilton video again. Please. 3. Susi suffers US gadget envy checking out the LGenV. We think she's kept the return portion of her ticket, but we can't be sure. 4. Elvis is The King for a reason, you know. And now he's back, at CES. I don't think this counts as a 'he's alive!' spot, though, so put that blog away. 5. You may think this looks dull, until you realise how much you need one. And then you will rue, oh yes. 6. We love our Shinies, really we do. Even when they're dressed up like Hunter S. Thompson, gonzoing their way around Shadowrun on Xbox Live. 7. You may be au fait with the Ambilight telly, but are you down with the system? Oh yes. This baby rumbles. 8. I hate the Blues Brothers. I used to like them, until an ex watched the movie 40 times in a single week. If you've not had them ruined for you, watch them pimp Blu(es)-Ray. 9. Kat's at it again, this time revealing her inner Nintendo fangirl as she coos over Wii travel bags and accessories in a very unique fashion. I don't think Hunter would approve... 10. My telly's bigger than yours. No, really. This 108" behemoth will surely trounce everyone's oversized telly claims for the whole five minutes it takes someone to invent the telly that can only be seen when on the moon, for it is that big. It's called Asia.

Macworld 2007: Apple and Cingular Wireless to team up for 'iPhone'

Unnamed sources cited by The Wall Street Journal are convinced that Apple will team up with the US wireless operator Cingular Wireless to provide the much rumoured 'iPhone'. They also think it likely that Apple will release an unlocked phone that can be used on any network.

Whilst this is US-centric news, and we know that North America nearly always gets hold of the latest technology first, an unlocked UK version could be good news, allowing users to choose their network provider by simply purchasing (or transferring) a SIM card.

We'll all find out if the phone is coming to Macworld or not in a little over 6 hours' time.

(Via Digit Mag)

CES 2007: Nokia N76 video preview

Here it is. Quite possibly the slimmest and smallest smartphone on sale. It is N76, Nokia's, ahem, RAZR-like N series model. So it not only looks the biz and has the usual collection of music players, cool camera and web browser. It also has one of those etched keypads. It goes on sale in a couple of months time. Check out the rest of our CES coverage.

CES 2007: Samsung and Google unite to provide mobile users with Google services

Samsung became the latest mobile phone operator to announce an alliance with Google to provide its mobile phone users access to Google's products and services.

Samsung mobile phones equipped with Google applications will enable consumers to search information, find locations, and manage their email on the move.

From early this year, selected Samsung mobiles will provide Google search, Google Maps, and Gmail for Mobile. The Ultra Edition 13.8 is its first device to offer these services.

Of course, it will still depend upon the network operators allowing its customers access to Google products. Last year Google slammed mobile operators for blocking its content.

Check out the rest of our CES coverage.

CES 2007: Jitterbug idiot-proof mobile phones

Not everyone wants an all-singing all-dancing multimedia computer. That's what Nokia calls its high-end mobile phones these days, by the way. But there's still plenty of people who just want a phone they can call people with. Think your parents, or grandparents even.

I hooked up with Jitterbug last night, who were showing off two handsets at the Digital Experience event. The Jitterbug OneTouch (pictured) doesn't even have a numeric keypad on it. The green button calls the Jitterbug operator, the yellow one calls a number of your choice (it's set up by Jitterbug when you order the phone), and the red button calls 911.

Meanwhile, to access other features like voicemail, you answer Yes/No questions using the buttons under the screen. It really is the most grandparent-friendly mobile I've seen, although if they're a bit more advanced, it can also hold a list of other contacts that can be scrolled through to call.

Meanwhile, the JitterBug Dial (right) does have a numeric keypad, but otherwise works in the same way with the Yes/No questions to access features. Meanwhile, the number buttons themselves are big and backlit.

Both phones are made by Samsung for Jitterbug, and are reassuringly solid-feeling clamshell phones. They have a cushioned ear-bit which is also compatible with hearing aids, apparently. They're $147 each, with call plans starting at $10 a month. It's only just gone on sale in the US, but the company told me there are "definite plans" to expand this in the future.

Over on Shiny Shiny they've got some video footage of the Jitterbug.

Jitterbug website

Check out the rest of our CES coverage.

Sony Ericsson releases teasing images of forthcoming W880i handset

I'll hold my hand up - I don't know anything about the new Walkman W880i handset, except for what can be gleaned from these two pictures from Sony Ericsson. From the evidence below, we can ascertain that:

1. It will be very thin.
2. It will have a large screen area (in relation to size of phone.

The offical word is that "the W880i Walkman phone will blend astonishing good looks and all of the music-centered features that fans have come to expect from the Walkman® phone family." Which isn't much, so enjoy these images (one here, one over the fold) and rest assured, we'll keep you posted.

Sony Ericsson website

CES 2007: Sony Ericsson launches W200 entry-level Walkman phone

Sony Ericsson's latest Walkman phone is the entry-level W200 - a candybar handset with a capacity that can be boosted to store around 2555 full-length tracks.

Available in black or white, Sony Ericsson is pitching it as a first step into "music on your mobile". It's actually a very small first step - the initial capacity allows for just 37 tracks, but this can be increased to 1GB via Memory Stick, which increases that to up to 255 tracks.

There's also an FM radio with 20 presets, alarm (via the built-in speakerphone) colour-matched headset, VGA phone, HTML browser and surprisingly, push email, along with all the usual phone basics.

Don't expect to see it in stores until at least April this year, when a price will be announced.

Sony Ericsson website

Check out the rest of our CES coverage.

CES 2007: Nokia adds to Nseries with the slimline N76 flip phone

Nokia has unveiled a new addition to its Nseries range of handsets - the N76 - which the company claims is the "perfect blend of style and substance" with its slimline shape and depth of multimedia features.

It's very much the music phone, with dedicated quick cover keys on the Nokia N76, to access the main features without having to flip open the phone. It holds up to 1500 tracks, works with industry standard 3.5 mm headphones and supports most formats, including Windows Media DRM if you like to buy your tunes online.

There's a 2.4" screen with up to 16 million color screen, which operates in landscape mode for web browsing via the Nokia web browser. There's also a 2MP camera with 20x digital zoom - and like the music player, you can use it without having to open the device. There's also ease of uploading to most online galleries too. There's also 2GB of expandable memory, video capture (15fps), FM radio, Bluetooth, voice recording and all the phone and messaging features you would expect.

Expect to see it in the first few months of 2007, priced around 390 Euros for a sim-free model, considerably less if you take out a contract.

More on the N76

Check out the rest of our CES coverage.

CES 2007: LG's US Chocolate and enV phones (we're a bit jealous)

Unsurprisingly, LG are saving their big news for tomorrow's press conference so there's not much to say about their new stuff, but today we were given a chance to see some of the exclusive products that haven't made it to our side of the Atlantic, and to be honest, we're a bit jealous. First was a chance to compare the US version of the chocolate phone (left) to the UK model (middle). Our Yank counterparts get a bigger touchpad and more colour variations, but it's much chunkier than our version and lacks the sleekness the phone is famous for. We also got our grubby mitts on the enV, LG's latest smartphone (right), and were very impressed with the way they integrated a full QWERTY keyboard, 2 megapixel camera, GPS, stereo sound (two speakers either side of the big colour screen) with the best bits of the chocolate - that trademark sleek, stylish design, and the illuminated touchpad. Much nicer than most of the brick-like QWERTY phones that are currently on offer over here, we're hoping it hits British shores soon.

Click here for Susi's video of the enV

Check out the rest of our CES coverage.

CES 2007: LG's enV smartphone

Yes, I know it's already available in the US. But we don't have it in the UK, so for that reason I think you should press the play button on the video. And if not for that, then perhaps for the increasingly rubbish jokes that I will inevitably throw in. Blame it on the jetlag. The phone itself is from LG, and is a relatively compact smartphone, with a full QWERTY keyboard, and integrated GPS.

Check out the rest of our CES coverage.

Vodafone offers Samsung's BlackBerry-like SGH-i320 in the UK

Back in July, we featured Samsung's SGH-i320 'BlackBerry beater' smartphone, which was scheduled to come to Europe at some future date. Well, that date approaches, with news that the smartphone is now available to order via Vodafone in the UK.

Weighing in at 95g and measuring 11.1 x 5.9 x 1.2cm, the tri-band phone with EDGE support features a 2.2-inch, 240 x 320, 65,536-colour display, a QWERTY keyboard, a 1.3mp camera and Bluetooth. It uses Windows Mobile 5, has 120MB of memory on board, along with a MicroSD slot for more.

Vodafone is offering the device to its business customers, with prices from nothing to £140, depending on your choice of airtime package.

Vodafone

Via The Register

Eco-friendly Mobile Phones

It's about blasted time that we're starting to see mobile phones that actually consider environmental viability.  Three concept mobiles from ModeLabs are designed around using the repetitive motion inherent in mobile usage to actually provide power for the thing. The U-Turn, for example, uses the opening-closing of the keyboard to inject some extra juice into the battery. Can't wait. [GT]

ModeLabs [via Ministry of Tech]

Vertu Signature Cobra and Python - jewel-encrusted mobiles for millionaires

Vertu is at it again, producing high-status handsets for people with more money than brain cells. We've covered the Vertu Signature Duo handset and the Vertu Racetrack Legends phones recently, but even they seem like a bargain compared to the Vertu Signature Cobra and Vertu Python.

The new handsets are a joint venture with jewellery designers Boucheron. The specifications are nothing to brag about, so we're left with the looks. For $310,000, you can pick up the Cobra, covered in one pear-cut diamond, one round one, two emeralds, and 439 rubies. Just eight have been made, so hurry!

A little much for you? Well, how about the Python, a comparative snip at $115,000. 26 of these on the market, but sadly, no rubies this time. If you're tempted by either, perhaps you need to think about a donation to charity.

Vertu website

Via CNN

T-Mobile extends Content Lock to BlackBerry users

T-Mobile is keeping the mobile web safe with its Content Lock feature, now extending the service to the BlackBerry - which means it now covers all of its web-friendly handsets.

Content Lock is an advanced filtering mechanism, intended to protect consumers, especially children, being exposed to adult and illegal internet content when accessed via the T-Mobile service. Content Lock specifically blocks access to online child abuse content as well as adult rated sites, gambling sites and unmoderated chatrooms. Customers trying to access a website or a service on the internet via their mobile phone which is rated as adult content will be informed the site they are accessing has been blocked.

"As the number of people using the internet and the diversity of content available continues to grow, it is important to implement the necessary precautions to protect customers against illegal content. Extending Content Lock to BlackBerry users demonstrates T-Mobile’s commitment to safeguarding its customers," commented Peter Robbins, QPM, Chief Executive, Internet Watch Foundation.

Content Lock is switched on by default for all T-Mobile’s existing and new pre-pay and contract customer accounts. However customers who can prove they are over 18 can ask for the adult Content Lock to be removed free of charge.

T-Mobile website

More BlackBerry:
Review: BlackBerry Pearl
T-Mobile launches BlackBerry 8700g

Ten Nokia 8800 Sirocco Brian Eno Signature Edition phones to be auctioned for charity

Nokia today announced that they have ten highly exclusive Nokia 8800's with Brian Eno's signature emblazoned upon them. The phones are being auctioned online to raise money for two charities chosen by Brian, the Keiskamma Aids Treatment program and The World Land Trust.

The auction starts on 8th January 2007 and goes on until 12th February 2007. Each phone will come with a certificate of authenticity.

The Keiskamma Aids Treatment program provides both HIV education and anti-retroviral drug therapy to the residents of the district at the mouth of the Keiskamma River in South Africa. The World Land Trust, a well-regarded UK-based conservation project, has helped buy and preserve more than 300,000 acres of ecologically-rich habitats from South America to the Philippines.

"I would like to thank the people who bid for these phones for helping towards solutions to two of the biggest problems facing the world: climate change and Aids," said Brian Eno. "The World Land Trust seeks to address long term environmental change by planting trees and caring for the land. The Keiskamma Trust is a great example of an intelligent local response to a global problem, helping people with AIDS to manage their condition and live useful and productive lives"

"We are truly delighted to work closely with Brian, who composed the soundtrack to the Nokia 8800 Sirocco Edition, to raise funds in support of his chosen charities," says Heikki Norta, Senior Vice President, Lifestyle Products, for Nokia. "In addition to supporting these two very worthwhile causes, each successful bidder will own an exceptionally unique mobile phone, each individually numbered and signed by the composer himself."

Bidding is easy: just visit nokiacharityauction.com to find out more.

Related stories: Share your travel knowledge online and help UNICEF | Tom Baker sings Kinks' classic, charity download-only track for Shelter | Cancer charity turns to text

Samsung SCH-V960 - the world's first 'optical joystick' mobile phone

All new phones need a unique selling point - and the Samsung SCH-V960 is no different, featuring an 'optical joystick', which it claims will revolutionise how we interact with our handsets.

Put another way, it means you should be able to navigate faster around the phone's functions. To use the optical joystick, you place your finger on the phone, then as you move it, the cursor, using optical sensors, scrolls around in similar fashion to a PC mouse. The big benefit here is 360-degree movement - not just the traditional four directions.

Other features include a 2 megapixel camera, music player, GPS function, Bluetooth, document viewer and microSD slot. The V960 will be launched in Korean at the end of December, no date for Europe as yet.

Samsung website

Via Phone Mag

More Samsung mobiles:
Review: Samsung X820
Review: Samsung D900 Ultra slim slider phone

Review: Samsung X820

The propaganda

Currently holding the title of skinniest-mobile-in-the-world, the Samsung X820 attempts to squeeze all the essential functions you’d expect from a mobile handset, and then some, into a chassis that is only 6.9mm thick. Features include a 176 x 220 pixel display, digital music player (MP3, AAC and WMA compatible), web browser, document/spreadsheet viewer and even a 2.0 megapixel camera (!).

The handset, although a touch taller and wider than some at 113 x 50mm, is still nothing short of minute. But there surely must have been some compromises made to squeeze it all in there – check the turn to find out what we think.

The good

Sorry to state the obvious, but freakin’ hell – it’s only 6.9mm thick! It’s hard to imagine without seeing in the flesh, but if you want to get a rough idea, it is almost the same thickness as six credit cards stacked together. And that is also just under half a centimetre thinner than Motorola’s skinniest offering, the L6. It is definitely a head turner and ideal of you’re either very fashion conscious or are wanting it to fit into a very tight pair of jeans (along with yourself of course).

A brief poll yielded mostly positive opinions about the general aesthetics, although one concern was that you could snap it by sitting on it. Actually, while this must be a risk factor, the handset does feel pretty strong and robust – it would probably take a fair bit of weight to really kill it.

The menu interface is incredibly easy to use and takes no time at all to learn your way around even if you have never picked up a Samsung mobile before. The screen is also really good and yields some really crisp, bright images. This is especially good when combined with the 2.0 megapixel camera, which does produce some really decent pics when used in well lit areas, although it lacks a flash. The fact that Samsung didn’t shirk off with a 1.3 megapixel camera is a really pleasing addition.

The bad

There are two areas in which the X820 loses out to its bulkier competitors: sound quality and battery life. Playing MP3 tracks offers pretty decent sound (but with only 80MB of storage and no card slot, you probably won’t bother with it much), yet call quality suffers a little. There tends to be some occasional popping going on and background noises from the other person’s end often pick a strange garbled effect. It wasn’t enough to detract heavily from the phone’s performance but these are issues that have been eliminated from other larger handsets.

Battery life is claimed at an underwhelming 2.5 hours talk-time. Unfortunately I didn’t get a charger with the review kit so I couldn’t run a full test, but along with the 210 hours of standby time, a single charge did allow me to use it comfortably for a couple of days before it started complaining. Nonetheless, such a short talk-time is far more like what you would expect from a 3G mobile – not from a GSM.

Geek Sheet

Dimensions: 113 x 50 x 6.9mm

Weight: 65g

Tri-band, GPRS, EDGE

Screen: 262,144 colours, 220 x 176 pixels

2.0 megapixel camera

Connectivity: Bluetooth, USB

Compatibility: MP3, AMR, ACC, ACC+, e-AAC+ and WMA audio, JPEG images, H.263, AMR, MPEG4 video, DOC, XLS, PPT, PDF and TXT files

Battery: up to 2.5 hours talk-time, 210 hours standby

Overview

The Samsung X820 is eye-catching and convenient if your pocket space is at a real premium. The very straightforward menu design is a big plus, yet even with the 2.0 megapixel camera, etc, the feature set might still prove too basic for some. The short battery life is by far the biggest weakness, however, and it threatens to eliminate a lot of the practicality of such a compact handset. Serious fashionistas probably won’t let hold them back though.

Related stories: Review: Samsung D900 Ultra slim slider phone | Samsung replaces P300 calculator phone with P310| One Minute Review: Samsung E870 | More Mobile Phones...

Related sites: Samsung

Gizmodo makes bold iPhone announcement

I told myself I wouldn't mention the Apple iPhone again (1, 2, 3) until we had something concrete to go on but first we had Diggnation, now we have Gizmodo. I can't keep quiet on this. The post in question over at Gizmodo reads:

Gizmodo Knows: iPhone Will Be Announced On Monday

I guarantee it. It isn't what I expected at all. And I've already said too much.

That's it. That's the whole post. On any other blog you'd be forgiven for scanning straight over it and onto the next but not here. There has to be something to this. I guess the only thing we can do here is stay tuned Monday... and if it turns out to be a hoax I promise not to mention it again.

Via Fark.

Review: Virgin Mobile Lobster 700TV

The propaganda

Through out this year, mobile TV has been heralded as the future by most major mobile network operators.But even the improved data speed of 3G still isn’t enough to make it into the killer app the networks want it to be. However, Virgin’s Lobster 700TV takes a different approach to the streaming problem; it uses an onboard DAB decoder using BT’s Movio to tune into five different TV channels (and it is possible the list will change over time) consisting of BBC1, ITV1, ITN News, E4 and Channel 4, who’s service has recently been updated.

The service is blissfully subscription free too (unless you’re on Pay As You Go) and because it’s DAB, you also get the opportunity to tune into 50 or so radio stations as well. The phone is a bit of a behemoth and aesthetically not to every one’s taste (or as the ladies of Shiny Shiny put it: “it looks like someone has knocked it on the side and a swelling has come up”. Mmm, nice).

It does have a selection of other features too though: a Windows Mobile OS, MicroSD memory card slot, media player, 1.3 megapixel camera and a decent battery life that should give a good couple of hours of viewing time.

The good

Wonderful though the idea of mobile TV might be, it ain’t much use when you’re walking places or are doing anything that requires you some attention from your eyes. For that reason, the integrated DAB receiver is an absolutely great feature, especially if you’re a 6Music addict like myself. Furthermore the sound quality is top notch and way better than anything you’ll get from some piddly FM receiver.

Coverage of digital services in the UK is now pretty good (about 85%) so most places should be able to get Virgin network reception and also TV/Radio reception. Using the radio, the signal only broke down occasionally when moving around inside buildings and never cut off entirely. TV was a different matter, but we’ll come to that shortly.

General operation of the handset was pretty good too; it suffered from the usual slow down you get with the Windows Mobile, but to its credit, it never once crashed. The buttons are quite large and easy to operate one handed, although their movement doesn’t feel as crisp as on many other phones.

The bad

The DAB aerial is integrated with the headphone cable. That’s not a huge surprise (where else are they going to put it?), but if you lose them or leave them at home you’re a bit stuck. And because there’s no 3.5mm socket to be found, you can’t use your own cans and that’s a bit of a shame.

The main issue is that TV reception can be patchy, especially while on the move. The problem is a bit sporadic, even in the city centre where coverage should be strong – sometimes it will work fine for ages, but at other times it will lose signal entirely forcing you to reload the channel and lose valuable moments of viewing time, and that can be a real pain. Another annoyance is that some programs on C4 and E4 have a licensing issue, so you’re just presented with an apology notice when you tune in, but I suppose Virgin can’t really take all the blame for that.

The frame rate for TV isn’t wonderful either so things can end up looking a bit jerky and lip syncing can quickly break down. It’s not unwatchable and when you have a consistent signal it rarely develops any annoying artefacts, which are the bane of the 3G alternatives.

It seems that mobile TV isn’t quite fine tuned enough yet to be relied on to stave off the boredom of your bus journey yet, but if you’re trying to catch a cheeky few minutes of telly while at your desk, you should be okay.

Geek Sheet

Dimensions: 111.2 x 52/58 (at bulge) x 23.8 mm

Weight: 140g

Screen: 240 x 320 pixels

DAB digital tuner

TV channels: BBC1 C4, E4, ITV1, ITN News

Bluetooth

Battery: 5 hours talk time, 140 hours standby

1.3 megapixel camera

MicroSD expandable memory

Overview

The sheer size of the phone is going to be the cause of most gripes, but I didn’t really mind it – sure it’s bigger than most ordinary handsets and probably about four times the size of one of Samsung’s Ultra models for example, but it’s not so big that you can’t fit in your hand or pocket or anything. I do know that some people prefer a little extra girth (ooer!) on their phone and so it shouldn’t be much of a problem unless you have dainty little hands.

If you’re sold on the DAB tuner, you’ll be hard pushed to find a standalone portable DAB that is much smaller and, because you can pick it up from free on contract, it’s a bit of a bargain too. If you’re going for a Pay As You Go contract though, the Lobster will set you back £199 and TV subscription costs £5 per month.

Related stories: Free beer and kebabs from Virgin Mobile | Channel 4 goes live exclusively on Virgin Mobile TV| Review Virgin Mobile Lobster 544 budget music phone | More Mobile Phones...

Related sites: Virgin

Samsung fusion chip to make phones five times faster

Looks like we'll all be looking to upgrade our handsets again next year, with Samsung announcing that it expects gadget makers to be using its new 'fusion' memory chip (also known as OneDRAM), into handsets, portable games consoles and media players by mid 2007. The benefit? It "sharply increases" data throughput speeds. Or in other words, everything becomes a whole lot faster.

The memory replaces the distinct banks of SRAM and DRAM found in most of today's mobile devices and allows media and communications processors to share the available memory, dynamically adjusted according to need. That should boost the handset's processing speed fivefold, claims Samsung.

Other benefits include low power consumption - the memory requires 30 per cent less power than separate DRAM and SRAM memory banks. And with handsets containing fewer chips, that should also mean smaller devices and lower production costs. More on this when the first device comes through.

Samsung website

Via The Register

More mobiles:
LG and Prada partner up for next year's fashion phone
There's gold in them there recycled mobiles (sorry)

iPhone domain registered... and up for sale

The Apple iPhone drama continues... A helpful reader of Tech Digest has pointed us in the direction of the-iPhone.com, a url that has been registered by a domain squatter and is up for sale at a whopping $750,000.00!

It seems like everyone is trying to cash in at poor little Apples expense but whether the asking price will be met by anyone remains to be seen. Personally I think whoever bought it will struggle to sell the address at that price. Now, if it were just iPhone.com... well that's a whole different story.

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.

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

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

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

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

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?

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: 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

Nokia World: Are you a life juggler or a technology stylist?

One of the interesting running themes of the Nokia World conference has been the way Nokia is splitting consumers (i.e. us lot) into 12 distinct segments, which are being used to help the firm design its new mobile phones.

The categories are based around what you do in your life and how you use mobile technology. This morning, the company's VP of sales and marketing in Europe, Phil Brown, showed a slide with all 12 listed (click to see larger). Which one are you?

- Pragmatic Leaders
- Life Jugglers
- Mature Acceptors
- Family Providers
- Simplicity Seekers
- Style Followers
- Image Seekers
- Life Builders
- Style Leaders
- Young Explorers
- Technology Stylist
- Technology Leader

Sadly there's no Crumpled Blogger category, so I think I fall between three or four of those. But that's okay: in his presentation, Phil said these categories are not hard and fast, citing his own wife, who "is a life juggler, but thinks she's a style leader. Obviously, I tell her she's a style leader..."

More importantly, he also said that these categories are to be found across the world in 'mature' mobile markets. In other words, it's not like everyone in Japan is a technology leader, compared to us style-focused Europeans. Although he did note some national differences with tongue firmly in his cheek.

"I'm not a racist, but... it's fair to say there may not be as many style leaders in Germany as perhaps there are in Italy. But they're still there in Germany, even if it's a smaller number. And in countries like Sweden, there are lots of people in the bottom left of our graph [Simplicity Seekers and Mature Acceptors] who see themselves as very rational and maybe not so involved in the mobile life."

Perhaps Nokia should rejig its categories along national stereotype lines after all. Us Brits could be Beery Hooligans, Emotional Repressors, or Men With Floppy Hair Who Say Gosh A Lot. If I see Phil later today, I'll suggest it.

Other stuff. Nokia is running polls for many of the keynote presentations, where you can vote by text during the talk, and then the results are shown at the end. For Phil's, the question was 'What will be the most popular form factor for consumers in 2010?', and the results were:

- Slide (42%
- Monoblock (31%)
- Fold (20%)
- Swivel (7%)

Oh, and lastly, I'm wondering if there's some kind of unwritten policy within Nokia to avoid referring to Apple by name. Whenever they veer onto the subject of iPods or iTunes, they always talk about "companies from the MP3 space", or "providers of entertainment on the internet" rather than just saying Apple.

Maybe I'm just reading too much into it, but it's not unknown for companies to refuse to even mention their key rivals in public speeches. Which could mean that Nokia now sees its prime competitor in the years ahead being Apple, rather than the other mobile phone manufacturers...

Just a thought.

PREVIOUS NOKIA WORLD COVERAGE
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: Fancy a 100GB mobile phone with a built-in projector?

What will mobile phones be like in 2010? Ask Tero Ojanperä, Nokia’s chief technology officer, who did the final keynote speech at the Nokia World conference today. And he's not short of ideas:

1. “A navigation device in 2010 will be similar to the N95, but it will deduce information from your calendar, then input the navigation and take you to the place you need to go.”

2. “If you’re a journalist, you’ll be documenting an event like this with your 10-megapixel camera, and you will be taking videos with your HDTV-quality video camera that’s embedded in your mobile device.”

3. “Say you’re starving for your Latte. Your devices finds the various coffee machines for you, sends the parameters of your Latte over the Internet, so that when you walk to that machine, your Latte has been brewed.”

But the most interesting idea he floated during his speech was of phones with 100GB of internal memory, containing every single item of media you own - music, films, photos, documents and so on.

“Your whole media will be indexed and there for you to take with you,” said Ojanperä, before getting back on a futurology tip. “If you come to Amsterdam, you might film some tulip fields in HDTV video, and then later go to a friend’s house and show those videos projected onto the wall, using the projector that’s been integrated within your device. All of this will be possible within three years.”

However, he went on to talk about how fast mobile networks are going to get in the years ahead too, and this is where I wonder about those 100GB phones. After all, if you’ve got a super-fast mobile network, and you’re not paying any extra data charges for what you stream or download, do you need to keep your entire music or movie collection on your phone?

Couldn’t you just stream it from your home server, using something like Orb – which remember, is already being put onto mobile phones by UK mobile operator 3 with its X-Series? Anyway, that’s just me getting carried away with future-gazing. And there was no need, because Ojanperä was still going strong.

“Imagine you want to go to the Van Gogh museum, so you locate it using your device, and then browse through the internet the opening times, and some reviews that people have posted. Once you get there, next to the paintings you can touch tacks with your Near Field Communication-enabled phone to initiate a service that connects back to the internet, and fetches information about the painting, and perhaps reviews by other visitors.”

There was also something about sensors embedded in your shoes detecting that it’s raining, so sending a message to your phone to direct you to the nearest bus stop, but I think he was getting carried away by this point. I liked another idea though, which Nokia is apparently already doing, of porting internet servers into mobile phone, so your phone can itself act as a server.

“It enables the mobile device not only to access the Internet, but to be accessed,” said Ojanperä. “You could store all your documents and pictures that you would like to share in that tiny server, and somebody else can access them if you allow it. This will fundamentally change the information architecture of the internet. And this is happening today. We have put the server into open source, and it is starting to spread.”

I love all this stuff - if he’d mentioned robots, lasers and a 4D holographic version of Snake, I’d probably still be sitting at the back of the conference auditorium with a silly grin on my face, dreaming of The Future. As it is, we’ll just have to wait for 2010 to see if all or any of these ambitious ideas come off.

PREVIOUS NOKIA WORLD COVERAGE
Refresh Mobile talk about their award-winning Mobizines
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: Ruud Gullit on gadgets and marriage: "It's like warfare"

The vast majority of the Nokia World conference is tech-focused, as you'd expect. But I've just come out of a strange session hosted by Clive Anderson, which focused on how celebrities are using mobile technology. Actually, it was more like an episode of Grumpy Old Men/Women, given that they were moaning quite a lot.

Anyway, Ruud Gullit was here live, in the flesh, talking about how he uses technology, and in particular how he doesn't like to read manuals when he buys a new gadget. "I think of it as a puzzle," he said. "I open it, put it on and then try to find my way through. If there's really something I can't find how to do, then I look in the manual."

Right now, tens of thousands of Newcastle United fans are punching their keyboards in frustration and wishing he'd done that when he was in charge of their football club. But he also had other stuff to say about the role gadgets play in a happy household. Or otherwise.

After a video clip of Brooke Shields saying she has to get her husband to talk her through new gadgets before she can get the hang of them – and how she must be thanking her lucky stars she didn't marry Michael Jackson on that score – Ruud said the same thing happens round his gaff.

"Whenever I have something new like a video phone, I have to explain it, but she always says 'not now!'. So when I call her to try it out, she doesn't know what to do! And I say 'look, I just tried to do a video call with you'."

At this point, Clive Anderson pointed out that perhaps Mrs Gullit doesn't want to put the videophone on at that particular moment – "I don't want to cause trouble for you..." – which got a laugh from the crowd (and Ruud, thankfully). "It's like a battlefield," he continued. "The wife doesn't want to admit she can't do it, but in the end she'll say I was right. It's more like warfare..."

Also good was the appearance of Joanna Lumley via pre-recorded video, who started by rhapsodising about "a tiny seperate little palm-sized piece of Faberge equipment in my hand", before getting onto some serious grumping.

"What's frustrating is when it doesn't work," she said. "Of course, I get out the manuals, but I realise that the manuals almost expect me to understand the terminology. Words like option, select, quit or exit. Is quitting the same as exiting? If I quit, will the whole phone blow up?"

Very funny, although not quite as funny as the expressions on dozens of middle-aged technology journalists' faces as they listened to Joanna Lumley say the words 'option', 'select', 'quit' and 'exit'. They'll be telling their grandchildren about that for years.

Meanwhile, Clive Anderson revealed his initial misgivings about mobile phones ("I met this guy who had one, and all he could do was call his wife to see if the milk had been delivered, and call the guy who'd installed it in his car to say it was working okay. I thought 'this'll never catch on...), but the last word should go to that man Ruud Gullit, on the "magic" of mobile phones.

"It's like an old LP," he said. "You know that the needle is there, and you put the record on here, and then music comes out. But you don't know how it works..."

A bit like a well-drilled Premiership defence etc etc etc. Right, I'm off to see some technology. I don't want celebrities: I want Men In Shirtsleeves Explaining Synergistic Consumer Solutions. Really.

PREVIOUS NOKIA WORLD COVERAGE
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Tech Digest goes to Nokia World

Tech Digest goes to Nokia World

So, here I am in Amsterdam at Nokia World. Sadly, despite the name it's not a post-modern amusement park where all the rollercoasters are shaped like N70s, and kids queue up to throw N-Gages at coconuts to win a prize. Although it's a thought.

Instead, Nokia World is Nokia's two-day conference where it unveils new phones, talks about its strategy and big visions, and invites a bunch of its partners to show off the latest cool stuff they're doing on phones.

So, I'm sat here waiting for the keynote speeches to begin, having munched on a pastry and logged on first time to the free Wi-Fi. Which is nice. The lobby is bustling outside, lots of people here including journalists, Nokia people, and other mobile firms. I'll be posting news, interviews and other gubbins throughout the show, so keep checking back to see what's happening.

Nokia 2626 mobile phone for 'emerging markets'

From what I understand, the new Nokia 2626 announced today is aimed more at emerging markets, so I'm not sure if or when we'll see the phone in the UK.

It's a dualband EGSM phone based on the Series 40 user interface. It has a 128x128 pixel display able to show 65,000 colours, has a one-touch FM radio, Nokia Xpress Audio Messaging, Voice Recorder, MMS, IM, MP3 ringtones, an email client, JAVA, WAP browser, and built-in handsfree speaker.

It comes in a choice of five body colours: Fiery Red, Spatial Blue, Energetic Copper, Elegant White, and Navy Blue.

Dimensions are 104 mm x 43 mm x 18 mm (L x W x H) and it weighs 91g. It has a talk time of up to 3 hours and standby of up to 12 days.

Its suggested retail price is €75, available from early 2007.

Nokia

Nokia 6290 smartphone announced

Nokia's announcement of new mobile phones continues with the Nokia 6290 smartphone which they say is "advanced technology made brilliantly simple"

It seems to be aimed at the professional. Dimensions are 94 mm x50 mm x 20.8 mm (L x W x H), weighing 115g. This smartphone is based on the world’s leading smartphone software S60 on Symbian OS.

It features a digital camera with 4x digital zoom, integrated flash, and serial shooting of 15 shots, 2.2" QVGA 16.7m colour screen, rich email functionality including Office attachments, MP3 music player with stereo surround sound, and two way video calling.

It promises an ergonomic keypad, fast access keys and intuitive menu structure, plus a Setup Wizard to guide users through the process of establishing their specific email, MMS functions as well as operator-specific settings.

It comes with 50MB of memory and a microSD card slot for expansion. It's GPRS, EGPRS and WCDMA enabled, as well as Bluetooth.

The Nokia 6290 phone has a talk-time of up to 3.5 hours and a standby battery time of up to 10 days.

It should be available in the first quarter of 2007, exact pricing and availability to be confirmed, but RRP is around €325.

Nokia

Nokia 6086 GSM/UMA camera phone

Nokia's announcement today of four new mobile phones includes the Nokia 6086.

It's a UMA (Unlicensed Mobile Access) handset designed to allow its users to stay in touch whatever their environment. It's a quad-based GSM and UMA camera phone with a classic design, large keypad and intuitive user interface. Dimensions are 92 mm x 46 mm x 23 mm (L x W x T), and weighing 84 grams.

It features a camcorder and video player, Bluetooth synchronisation, VGA camera with 4x digital zoom, 6MB user memory expandable via microSD card, and up to 5 hours of talk time and 10 days of standby.

Nokia say that the UMA technology will benefit mobile operators, allowing them to deliver voice and data services to their subscriber base over WLAN, decreasing their costs related to network deployment and increasing mobile service availability.

Apparently Orange will be one of the first to offer the 6086 and added to their Unik offer launched back in September.

“Our Unik offer combines the best of fixed and mobile within a single handset, allowing customers to use one phone to meet all their needs - with one number, one address book, one voice mail and one bill,” says Yves Maitre, Vice President, Devices, Orange. “Already customers can choose from the largest range of UMA phones. The addition of the Nokia 6086 strengthens our Unik offer and builds on the strong tradition we have of working with Nokia to combine cutting edge technology with exceptional ease of use.”

Estimated price €200, and available from early 2007.

Nokia

Nokia 6300 thin and compact monoblock mobile

Amongst Nokia's new phones announced today is the stylish Nokia 6300, a thin and compact mobile phone with some decent specifications.

Size wise, it's just 13.1mm thick, 106.mm high and 43.6mm wide, with a stainless steel design, and weighs in at 91 grams.

It comes with a 2 megapixel digital camera with 8x digital zoom, able to take 1280x960 resolution still images and 176x144 videos.

It has a 2-inch QVGA screen able to display 16.7m colours at 320x240 resolution.

It synchronises with a PC via USB, has a standard memory of 135MB and able to be expanded to 2GB using microSD cards. It's an MP3 player and FM radio, has voice dialling, voice commands and voice recording, and an integrated hands-free speaker. Communications wise it has GPRS, EGPRS, and Bluetooth.

Talk time is up to 3.5 hours and standby of up to 14 days.

It should be available in the first quarter of 2007, exact pricing and availability to be confirmed, but RRP is around €250.

Nokia

Nokia announce four new mobile phones: 6300, 6290, 6086, 2626

Nokia today announced four new mobile phones which will be hitting world markets in the first quarter of 2007. Here's an overview of the four handsets, with links to more detailed descriptions and pictures for each phone:

Nokia 6300

The Nokia 6300 is a mid-range model, less than 13.1mm thick with a stainless steel frame that will add strength as well as design interest. It sounds as if it will be curvy, and have a decent range of features. Retail cost of the phone will be around €250 - of course deals and availability will vary.

Nokia 6290

The Nokia 6290 is a smartphone combining the power of the S60 3rd edition and 3G that promises to be easy to use and attractively designed. Features include multiple alarms, quick cover access keys, and an interactive world travel application. Estimated price €325.

Nokia 6086

The Nokia 6086 is a quad-band GSM and UMA-enabled camera phone in a classic design, large keypad and intuitive user menu. Estimated price €200.

Nokia 2626

The Nokia 2626 is being aimed at emerging world markets. It will come in a range of bold colours including Fiery Red and Spatial Blue, and include an FM radio. Estimated price €75.

More details to follow.

Sony Ericsson opens first retail store in London

Sony Ericsson has today officially opened its first retail store, which you'll find in Kensington High Street, London.

The store covers 3,500 square feet, with the focal point being a central bar that runs the length of the store, which allows potential purchasers to try out "live" handsets - so you can snap away with one of the Cybershot or listen to a few tunes on the Walkman handsets. Which might be a good way of keeping warm and busy when the cold weather kicks in.

There's also specially trained staff to talk you through the latest kit - and of course, you can buy it, along with accessories and cards for your handset, via a deal with Carphone Warehouse, which is running the store. Other stores in "key cities" are to follow.

Sony Ericsson website

October text stats show we're more in love with SMS

Despite all the latest gizmos and attachments for mobile phones, latest statistics show that we're still a nation of text addicts.

October set a new record, with 3.8 billion texts sent, with texts rising steadily month-on-month since May.

It's up 27% on October last year, and up 100 million from last month.

In August, the Mobile Data Association predicted that 40 billion texts would be sent this year, and these stats suggest that will be surpassed.

iPhone will sport mini OS X?

The latest rumours surrounding Apple's much anticipated 'iPhone' is that it will contain a stripped-down version of Apple's next OS X operating system - codenamed 'Leopard'.

Well, provided the other bits of the rumour stack up into a real product, that's not particularly surprising. After all, could you imagine Apple putting Windows XP, Palm OS or Symbian onto its own smartphone? I don't think so (mind you, how many people said Apple would never go to Intel...)

Now, that would be a tasty phone if you're already a fan of what OS X provides. Truly mobile communication with iChat, appointments on iCal, a full Mail app. Of course, it wouldn't get a full Leopard in there - the processing power and storage space wouldn't be big enough - but it's an appealing thought.

Vertu's millionaire-friendly Signature Duo handset

I tend to use the number of marks and scratches on my handset as an indicator of when I need to upgrade my phone. But there's no chance of doing that with the extremely flash Vertu Signature Duo, as it's got a scratch-proof screen.

You can find out all about the handset at Brandish, but before you nip down to the local phone shop, it's worth noting that the scratch-proof screen is down to it being made of sapphire, the body is made of stainless steel and titan and the phone comes equipped with a concierge service to sort out your every need at any hour.

Now, if you want to find out how much all this costs, head over to Brandish, where you'll also find many more great items worthy of your hard-earned cash.

T-Mobile offers first non-PDA mobile broadband handset - Samsung Z560

T-Mobile has launched the first non-PDA HSDPA (3G broadband) mobile phone in the UK - the Samsung Z560, offering connection speeds four times faster than traditional 3G. And even better - you can attach it to your PC and use it as a high-speed modem.
 
Using T-Mobile's Web 'n' Walk service, you get high-speed web access and email on the lightweight (98g) device, along with a 2 megapixel camera, MP3 player with 3D stereo sound, 30MB of internal memory, video streaming, video calling and up to one hour's video recording.

A basic Web 'n' Walk package for the handset is £7.50 per month. However, if you want to hook it up to your laptop, other plans give you that option. Opting for Web 'n' Walk Plus gives you the option of high-speed web browsing on your laptop, aling with instant messaging for £12.50 per month. Or if you want to make some free calls, the Web 'n' Walk Max package adds VoIP calling for a total of £22.50 per month.

The Samsung Z560 costs from free on a T-Mobile pay monthly price plan and is available now.

T-Mobile website

My Oxbow - surfer brand meets Sagem mobile phone

Sagem seems well up for the co-branded handset. Following on from its Roland-Garros tennis handset and its England World Cup phone, the company has launched My Oxbow - a collaboration with the surfing label, creating a handset in one of Oxbow's designs.

So, for a surfer-friendly phone, I'm guessing you'd expect a wacky (but watertight) handset? Guess again, this is just a standard Sagem my400v handset with VGA camera. However, it does offer extra surfer content as part of the Vodafone Live service, including weather for surfing, places to stay, information relating to Oxbow (including the latest gear and events) and dedicated downloads.

But before all you surfer dudes dash out for one, note this is only currently available in France. But if successful, something similar is likely to head over to the UK.

Sagem website

E-Ten Glofiish M700 pocket PC with sliding keyboard and Wi-Fi

E-Ten has announced the imminent arrival of the Glofiish M700 - a pocket PC/communicator with neat sliding QWERTY keyboard and Wi-Fi connectivity.

For some people, a full keyboard will probably be enough to make this worthy of a second look, esepcially if you like to send numerous sms and email messages or edit documents on the move. And with that keyboard sliding, it means less bulk in your bag. Software is Windows Mobile 5.0, so everything you'd expect there, including push email and use of a full Microsoft Office suite.

The M700 supports GSM, GPRS and EDGE, plus Wi-Fi connectivity if you're in range of a network. There's also GPS via an embedded SiRF Star III chipset and a range of E-Ten software, including several phone and messaging tools, camera and image editing software and an FM tuner.

The Glofiish M700 should be available by mid-December from Expansys, price to be confirmed.

Expansys website

TWIG Discovery gadget combines mobile phone with GPS sat-nav

The TWIG Discovery is an all-in-one mobile phone and handheld satellite navigation / GPS unit which means that if you want personal navigation features you need only carry around one gadget with you and still get much of your mobile's functionality.

Whilst you can get navigation software for mobiles and smartphones, Finnish manufacturer Benefon claim this as the first of its kind, combining GPS satnav with phone in a single handset.

Not only can it be used to find your way around the place, including places of interest, but it will also allow you to find your other TWIG-wielding friends, and plot a path to them.

There's an alert button which allows your GPS location and address to be sent by SMS or email to ten preset contacts, instantly letting them know where you are.

Though the hardware doesn't yet sport the niftier features of mobiles (camera, Java, etc.) its main purpose is in navigation and location of other people, and at this it sounds very capable.

The TWIG Discovery will retail for £330 and is available from their website.

TWIGWorld

T-Mobile launches Sidekick 3 in UK

T-Mobile has announced the arrival of a new Sidekick - Sidekick 3 - featuring instant messenger and email, a built-in camera, MP3 player and net access via its Web'n'Walk service.

It's probably best to label the Sidekick 3 as a communicator than a mobile phone. Yes, it's a phone, but its strengths probably lie in what else it can do. First, swivel open the screen and get full web access using T-Mobile's Web'n'Walk, along with a full keyboard to key in the addresses and a trackball to move around the page.

Add to that email, instant messenger, calendar/diary functions, 1.3 megapixel camera (with the option of storing images online) and for the first time, an MP3 player. Internal memory is just 64MB, but you can boost this via miniSD (a 64MB card is included).

It should be in stores in December, price not confirmed, but likely to depend on your contract.

T-Mobile website

HTC launches P4350 smartphone

HTC has launched its 7th smart device in the last 5 months, this time the P4350 smartphone, which is likely to reach Europe by the end of the year, courtesy of Vodafone.

The P4350 is just 17mm thick, weighs 168g and features a semi-automatic sliding full QWERTY keypad, a 2.8-inch colour display with touchscreen, 200MHz processor, 5-way navigation for easy operation, 128MB ROM and 64MB RAM and a microSD slot for file storage. The quad-band device supports GSM/GPRS and EDGE, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 2.0.

Software is Windows Mobile 5.0 - that means push email, net browsing and synchronisation with Microsoft Outlook Calendar, Contacts and Pocket MSN, plus the Microsoft Office suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and the ability to view PDF documents).

No specific word on a UK launch, but the P4350 will also be available under the Vodafone brand in Germany and the Netherlands from December 2006.

HTC website

Apple iPhone to sport 2 megapixel camera?

We love Apple rumours, and particularly Apple iPhone rumours. I think we're all expecting some kind of iPhone to be revealed early next year, but the latest buzz is that it will contain a 2.0 megapixel camera on board.

Certainly it's unusual to get a fashionable mobile phone these days without a built-in camera, but Digital Inspiration are asking whether a pretty low-res camera on the iPhone will really be that much of a sell, given that Nokia is already on 3.2 megapixels, and this could be doubled in mid-2007.

Maybe the pull is the hype, more than the exact specifications. After all, even Apple fanboys (yes that includes me) know that the iPod isn't the most feature-rich of all digital music players... but it is Apple.

I'll be a lot happier when we actually get some official word on this iPhone...

Welcome in 2007 at the intercontinental Nokia New Year's Eve party

Nokia are planning an extravagant send-off to 2006, and welcoming in of 2007, by co-ordinating a worldwide New Year's Eve party spanning five cities, connecting up millions of music lovers in the process.

Starting at Hong Kong's Ocean Terminal, then travelling west through Mumbai's Andheri Stadium, the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Ipanema Beach in Rio de Janeiro and finally New York, the party will be beamed via TV and the Internet for those not lucky enough to be there in person (oh yeah, and what happened to London?).

The party is being orchestrated by Harvey Goldsmith CBE, who produced both Live Aid and Live8.

"Living up to our promise of 'Connecting People', Nokia New Year's Eve aims to connect millions of people from around the world through music and mobility," says Jo Harlow, Senior Vice President of Marketing for Nokia (like how she got the slogan in there). "Nokia New Year's Eve leverages the power of television, the internet, live events and the world's most exciting music artists to get people talking, sharing and celebrating on one incredible night."

Yes, those music artists. Expected performers include The Black Eyed Peas and the Scissor Sisters. Jake Shears of the Scissor Sisters was mercifully less corporate: "We're damn thrilled to be playing Nokia's world wide music party. It should be a helluva good time."

Global attendance is expected to top 1.3 million, with a combined TV and Internet audience of 150 million. That's some party.

Apple Rumour? 12 million iPhones ordered

A Chinese newspaper is reporting that Apple has inked a 12 million unit contract with Foxconn to manufacture their iPhone.

As we've said before, the rumour is that Steve Jobs will announce the much awaited iPhone at the Macworld Expo in January next year.

Other rumours include a 15 inch MacBook which could also appear in January.

(Via Reg Hardware)

Alcatel's budget OT-E801 music phone

Alcatel has launched the OT-E801 music phone with SD card slot, available on pre-pay for under £40.

The dual-band phone is aimed at the "stylishly young". The rubberised handset is available in black and white and features dedicated music control keys and SD card slot. A Sandisk 128MB card is offered with the handset (around 50 music tracks), but you can boost storage to 2GB (nearer 800 tracks). Music transfer is drag 'n' drop via USB.

The handset offers around 9 hours talktime and 270 hours in standby. There's around 6 hours music time with one charge. No video or camera, but there are 2 games included.

The OT-E801 is available now on the high street, price starting at £39.99.

Alcatel website

T-Mobile launches MDA Compact III mobile with GPS

T-Mobile has announced the launch of its MDA Compact III mobile device with a built-in GPS satellite receiver, and they claim it makes dedicated sat-nav systems redundant.

It comes with CoPilot Live 6 satellite navigation software (as long as you sign up to particular Flext plans), and features turn-by-turn voice instructions, street mapping and powerful route calculation, for use both in-car and on foot.

Users with web'n'walk can get free real-time traffic alerts and avoidance, delivered directly to the CoPilot via the T-Mobile GPRS network.

All the other functions you'd expect from a modern mobile device are there too - tap the screen and you get access to making calls, Internet surfing, checking emails, downloading music and listening to radio. The web browser is based on Microsoft's Windows Mobile 5.0.

The MDA Compact III has a large touch screen, easily switchable from landscape to portrait mode. It also has an integrated 2 megapixel camera and Bluetooth.

It will be available from T-Mobile stores and online from this Thursday, 16th November and will cost £59.99 when purchased on the Flext 35 tariff plus web’n’walk (£42.50 per month).

T-Mobile

One Minute Review: Sony Ericsson W850i

Ashley takes a look at the new Walkman phone from Sony Ericsson, with a low level of excitment. We can only assume all the Blu-ray activity tired him out. It's available now from the usual suspects, with prices varying on contract. Check out the specs <a href="http://www.sonyericsson.com/spg.jsp?cc=global&lc=en&ver=4001&template=pp1_1_1&zone=pp&lm=pp1&pid=10447">here</a>.
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O2 gets exclusive on James Bond Casino Royale silver K800i Cyber-shot camera phone

Just in time for the movie release, O2 has announced it has an exclusive on the James Bond Casino Royale silver K800i Cyber-shot camera phone we featured some weeks back.

The silver K800i has the same specifications as the standard handset - 3.2 megapixel camera with dedicated shutter button, auto red eye reduction, PictBridge, video/image stabiliser function, BestPic and Picture Blogging. Plus a two-inch QVGA 262K TFT display, 64MB internal flash memory, Bluetooth, full HTML browsing, video recording and playback and music player.

As a bonus, O2 is offering a three DVD pack of GoldenEye, The Man With The Golden Gun, and Goldfinger, some Casino Royale playing cards and a chance to win a holiday. The handset also includes Bond wallpapers, music ringtones and the full video movie trailer.

The handset is available now, but will only be available until the end of January. Price dependent on contract.

O2 website

Tesco launches "first internet phone in your pocket" from Mobiboo

Tesco, the pioneering supermarket who are keen to get into a lot more technical things than food and clothing, will today begin stocking a new kind of mobile phone from Mobiboo Mobile.

If you can get your head around the name, then read on, because they say they're the UK's first WiFi mobile VoIP (Internet phone calls) operator, and that they'll save even average phone users hundreds of pounds per year.

Designed to take the place of both your mobile and your landline home phone, Mobiboo say that users can save 30% on their mobile charges and 50% on landline.

They're offering two tovo handsets - the t450g PocketFone and the t1000 HomeFone Plus.

It relies on you having WiFi at home, work or at a WiFi hot spot, and allows you to call any phone around the world at low rates. As is the norm for these kind of deals, they also offer free calls to other tovo/Mobiboo customers for free - so you just need to find them. If you don't have wi-fi access at any point, the handsets can function using your usual mobile network.

There are no roaming charges when abroad, and all incoming calls are free for the receiver.

“This is a major breakthrough for smart consumers who are tired of paying huge phone bills, and who want to find a cheaper and more flexible communications solution. And it’s the beginning of the end of outrageously high roaming charges” says Martin Heath, CEO of Mobiboo Mobile.

“Most people are familiar with the Internet phone,” adds Heath, “but they are cumbersome to use, need to have the PC turned on, and can only be used in one location. Mobiboo’s tovo service offers all the convenience and mobility of a mobile, but with the quality of a landline and the low price of VoIP. It’s literally like having your Internet phone in your pocket.”

There are a choice of pay-as-you-go and monthly packages which can be switched around at will using an online account. A basic PAYG UK package has no monthly charge, local calls are charged at 2p per minute, international tier 1 calls at 5p per minute.

tovo customers can also choose to have a geographic landline number as well as a mobile number connected to them. The handsets will receive calls to either number wherever you are, at home or abroad. When using tovo at home or in the office, you don’t need to turn on your laptop or PC as it will connect to your WiFi network.

It sounds well worth investigating, but with the big boys like Orange also muscling in to this space, it could become quite a confusing selection of tariffs.

The service and handsets debut in selected Tesco's stores.

Tovo

O2 introduces Cool Blue Ice phone

The O2-branded Ice phone wasn't greatly received when our review team got their hands on one a few weeks back. Will a change of colour to Cool Blue make it any more appealing?

Probably not, unless your looking for a blue phone to match up with something. Apart from the colour change, this is still the same handset. What you get is a 3G handset with MP3 player, 1.3 megapixel camera with zoom, Bluetooth, 32MB internal memory and a microSD card to boost your storage further.

This version of the O2 Ice costs from £79.99 on pre pay and is available exclusively from Woolworths. Check out our hands-on review here.

O2 website

LG launches Wine variation of Chocolate Phone

Bored fo your original Chocolate Phone? Not taken by the clamshell variation? Well, here's another extension of the concept - and in time for Christmas - the LG Chocolate Wine handset. According to LG, this is the Chocolate Phone with an "understated, sophisticated look", with the "Wine" bit relating to its burgundy colour. In terms of features, it's still pretty standard - MP3/WMA/AAC music player, 128MB of storage, 1.3 megapixel camera and video camera and the option to use it as a storage device via USB. The LG Chocolate Wine will be available free on contract from Phones 4U in a presentation box, with stereo headphones and USB lead. LG website

Survey provides insight into UK mobile users' feature wish list

SmartTrust recently did a survey of 411 UK mobile phone users to ask them a little about their attitudes to mobile devices and what they would want to see from future handsets. Though it's quite a small sample size it does reveal some interesting information. The top 3 most desired features of any mobile handset were design, camera, and battery life. Respondents were asked which manufacturer they would prefer for a future converged mobile device. Here, Sony came out joint top with Nokia, each with 18%, followed by Sony Ericsson, Microsoft, Apple, Samsung, Palm, and RIM. However, Nokia was the maker of choice for over 35s whilst 16-24s favoured Microsoft. Microsoft got 11% and Apple 6% of the overall vote. 34% said their choice was based on brand trust. Other reasons included reliability of products, leading-edge technology, established brand, and product ease of use. When they were asked to consider the company best able to provide a future converged device as part of a package also including software, applications, wireless connections and supporting customer services, the ordering changed a little, with Microsoft getting 20% of the vote, followed by Sony at 17% and Nokia at 13%. Sony Ericsson got 8%, Apple 7% and HP (not even present on the first list) 4%. Asked about the features they'd most like to see on a mobile device, improved battery life was mentioned by 3 out of every 4 questioned. Other desired features were improved battery life (61%), storage of over 20GB (55%), Full Microsoft Office functionality built-in (46%), the ability to make Internet phone calls (VoIP) (36%), the device having biometric security features (35%), satellite navigation (31%), and an expandable LCD screen (31%). When it comes to Net access, things currently look rather bleak. 54% said they thought the cost of Net access from their mobiles was too high. 22% said they had no idea how much Net access cost, but were still put off by a perception of high costs. Other factors for avoiding the Net on their mobile phones were that downloads were too slow (32%), whilst 37% said there was no point going online as their phone or screen was too small. Only 9% of people using the Net were charged a flat fee for unlimited access, and 47% said that they thought this was the best way to be billed. Of those accessing the Net, the most popular activities were downloading ringtones (44%), logos/wallpaper (39%), games (29%), news (21%) and web-based email (15%) When asked what they'd be interested in watching on streaming TV, there was a gender difference. Everyone said movies were the most important, but men then said news, sport, sitcoms, and music, whilst women said music, dramas, sitcom, and documentaries. So it seems that there is interest in future converged devices and what entertainment and content they can provide, but a perception of high costs and slow connection speeds will need to be overcome by manufacturers if UK consumers are to embrace next-generation handsets and services.

LG's Shine phone the KV4200

LG has taken the wraps off its next generation, ahem, girl phone. The wonderfully named Shine series has arrived with the first model sporting the moniker the KV4200.

Its big selling point is that it has a screen that morphs into a mirror. Anyhow sister blog Shiny Shiny has the full details here.

iPhone tantalisingly close as Apple register trademark. Dual model rumours start.

An Apple iPhone or two could be a step nearer as there are reports of Apple officially filing for the 'iPhone' trademark. An analyst from Prudential Equity also believes that his 'sources' and 'recent checks' suggest that Apple could release two models - one a smart phone and the other a slim music phone. At least one of them will have wi-fi connectivity, and a keyboard for messaging.

American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu has written "Our research indicates that an Apple-designed smart phone has moved from concept to prototype and recently has progressed to near completion as a production unit. We believe this smart phone has been in development for over 12 months and has overcome substantial challenges including design, interference, battery life and other technical glitches".

Apple have filed a number of patents recently, suggesting that something big is on the way.

Other rumours speculate that Apple will launch the iPhone in the US by partnering with the Cingular mobile operator.

Whether Apple will quickly try to enter the more crowded UK mobile phone market, which is more advanced than the US one, remains to be seen. Britain's consumer market could be harder to break into.

We'll probably hear about it from Steve at the San Francisco Expo next year.

Sony Ericsson announces K320i - the businessman's snapshot camera phone

Sony Ericsson today announced the arrival of the K320i, which it describes as a "snapshot camera phone", with enough business-friendly features to make it useful for the working week.

As a business tool, the K320i includes PC synchronisation straight out of the box, support for push email, a full (HTML) web browser and storage for up to 1,000 contacts. And if you've got some time off, the K320i also offers a camera with 4x digital zoom (amazingly, only VGA), along with a media player for music and video playback on the 1.8-inch UBC (Ultra Bright Colour) screen. However, internal storage is just 15MB, with mo mention of being able to expand this.

It's a Bluetooth handset and one of the first Sony Ericsson phones to feature Automatic Bluetooth pairing, which allows you to easily connect with a compatible Bluetooth accessory (like a headset) without the need to enter a pass code when first linking the two devices. 

The K320i is available in Misty Silver, Graphite Grey and Light Brown and will be available from October 2006. Pricing dependent on contract.

Sony Ericsson website

DIY your own very tiny mobile phone (even if you're ugly)

Heck with the Xun Chi 138, what we all want is a tiny tiny mobile that demonstrates that we're really, really, ridiculously good looking.    The DIY budget for Zoolander's mobile is only £15, which is quite a small price to pay for such proof of attractiveness.  (Though unlike in the movie, it has no dial tone.)  [GT]

Zoolander's Cellphone DIY

Related stories: Xun Chi 138 - the world's smallest mobile phone | The world's smallest smartphone? | Website of the Day: Daily DIY

Nokia announce updated N91 8Gb phone

Nokia is pushing its N91 forward as the music phone of choice, as it expands its hard drive to an 8Gb capacity, enough to store up to 6000 songs. It features dedicated music keys, a premium music-optimised headset with remote control, synchronisation with Windows Media Player, and Bluetooth.

Nokia say its the 'jukebox in your pocket' and will probably be hoping once you get your hands on one you'll sign up for their new music service.

More details to come as we get them.

Nokia

Nokia to launch Express Music phone range?

Spotted on the Russian retail site Dixis by The Register are two new music-based handsets from Nokia - the Nokia 5300 and 3250 Express Music phones.

According to the Russian site, the Nokia 5300 is a GSM/GPRS/EDGE device, featuring a 2-inch, 240 x 320, 262,144-colour display and 1.3 megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom. It takes Micro SD cards and has Bluetooth, along with dedicated music control keys. The Nokia 3250 Express Music sports dedicated music control keys, but is essentially the same as the old Nokia 3250, with the same twist-round keypad, two megapixel camera, 10MB of on-board memory and Micro SD card slot.

There's certainly more to come on these handsets, we'll let you know as soon as we hear.

Nokia website

Via The Register

Xun Chi 138 - the world's smallest mobile phone

  We've already covered the world's smallest smartphone, so how about the world's smallest mobile? That title undoubtedly goes to the newly-discovered Xun Chi 138 - which, as you can see, is about the size of an AA battery.

Whether you want a phone this small (and thus, so easy to lose) is open to question, but if you do fancy a handset you can slip into the coin pocket of your jeans, you'll be pleased to know that this model packs in most of the basics. There's an MP3 player, USB connectivity, 121MB of storage and a camera (probably VGA) on the GPRS handset. There's no keyboard, but that's replaced by a touch sensitive display with handwriting recognition.

The Xun Chi 138 is unlikely to make it to the UK, but it is a great example of miniaturisation today - if we really wanted phones this small.

Via Engadget

Orange launches the Unique phone - one handset for home an

Orange has today launched the Unique phone - the company’s first converged service, offering the benefits of fixed-line and mobile in one handset to customers in the UK, France, the Netherlands, Spain and Poland. The first handsets compatible with the service are the Motorola A910, Nokia 6136 and the Samsung P200.

The idea is simple - have a single phone for all your needs, with one number, one address book and one bill. At home, the handset connects by Wi-Fi mode to the Orange Livebox, with calls routed via the net. And outside the Wi-Fi network, it functions on a mobile network. You can move between the mobile and home networks without interrupting your conversation - a call made at home automatically switches over to the Orange mobile network when you leave the house, with a symbol on the phone's screen informing you of the network you're connected to.

Each home can have up to six Unique phones, with three people able to make calls or surf the net at the same time. Because it uses the Orange Livebox to route calls at home, Unique phone also offers enhanced coverage and faster access to Orange mobile data services including Orange World, picture and video messaging, mobile email and the mobile internet. And there's unlimited free calls at home to Orange mobiles and landlines.

UK customers can pre-register for the service now, with the first units available in November.

Find out more

Review: O2 Ice phone

The Propaganda

The Ice phone is the O2 branded phone, which comes with all their 3G bells and whistles. With it's smooth white casing, they're after the fashion buyers, who would otherwise be after a slim Motorola or chic LG Chocolate. 

It's available free on contract and on pay as you go, where it'll set you back £99.99.  It comes with a free bluetooth headset in both cases.

The Good

3G is often only added on to some serious handsets, which are noteable for their chunky design and complicated spec (although this is changing with the Samsung Ultra range). O2 are aiming theirs at an entirely different market, which is reflected in their partnerships with the likes of Ebay and Streetmap. It's not designed to be compatable with their WAP i-mode service, though.

The 3G capabilities are immediately evident on the design of the phone. There's a camera on the front and the back, the first for video calling and the second for taking photos. Whether said video calling will ever really be used, we've yet to find out, but it's there for those that want it.

It also features Bluetooth, as well as a MicroSD slot. This is essential to take advantage of the media player capabilities, which can play video and music.  It's not a key feature of the phone, as you need to enter the main menu in order to get into it, but again, it's there for those who want it. 

The simplicity of the design is echoed in the menu. There are only 9 options, with a simple grid icon display, although this can be changed. For those who want 3G without a million other option this will work well.

The Bad

The design is a key seller for this phone, but when you actually get it out of the box, it's a huge disappointment. The white plastic looks tacky, whilst the candybar styling makes it look like a remote control - a phone masquerading as a tacky remote is not going to be a massive seller. However, this is a complete Marmite phone - some people love it, whilst others hate it, so I'm willing to admit when I'm wrong should this go ahead and be the most popular phone ever sold.

O2 seem to have sacrificed a lot of other functions in the quest to make this a simple 3G phone. There's no shortcuts, except to the contact list, so you find yourself spending a lot of time going through the menu in order to get to what you want. The camera is also only 1.3 megapixels, and you experience a shutter lag of about 2 seconds, so be prepared for some blurry shots.

The other thing that ensured I'd never use this phone out of choice was the selection of ringtones. I was left mortified every time it rang, having decided that a circus tone was the least offensive of those offered.

The big services they're pushing with this phone is Ebay and Streetmap. I have to say that despite only having a small screen, the Streetmaps did appear easier to read than on many other devices, with the maps being adjusted so you could get a proper idea of where you were. However, for the amount of effort they've put into plugging the Ebay service I was expecting more. Yes, you can enter th 'My Ebay' section and check on your auctions, but that's as far as it goes. There's no way of bidding on anything, which makes it pretty useless in my eyes. I can't imagine much worse than being able to check to see you've been outbid and then being able to do absolutely sod all about it.

In our opinion

The combination of the design with the lack of features and the awful ringtones means this isn't a phone that I'll be pocketing any time soon. However, what I see as a lack of features others will see as a simple user interface, and the  design will appeal to others as being clean and curvy. However, even with these differences, O2's 3G service isn't enough of a draw for this to be chosen in that most competitive of markets, the mobile one.

One Minute Video Review: Motorola Razr Maxx

I took a look at the Motorola Razr maxx, together with a bit of help from Duran Duran. It's not in the shops yet, so we'll keep you updated on pricing.

The Week In Tech: 10 stories you might have missed

The first in a new weekly feature rounding up some of the more intriguing, informative or plain baffling tech stories knocking about the internetweb. Casting aside all those cast-iron predictions that Apple would launch the iPhone this week, first up is News Corporation finally starting to throw its weight around in the Web 2.0 world.

Chief operating officer Peter Chernin (left) told a conference that MySpace wants to crush YouTube and, well, basically any other big Web 2.0 service. "If you look at virtually any Web 2.0 application, whether its YouTube, whether it’s Flickr, whether it’s Photobucket…almost all of them are really driven off the back of MySpace, there’s no reason why we can’t build a parallel business."

One reason why that might not be the case? If you look at virtually any Web 2.0 application, it's easier to use than MySpace. And you don't have to worry about your content getting spewed out of other parts of the Murdoch empire. Mashable's verdict on MySpace's plans: "This is such a ridiculous strategy that it’s not even worth contemplating."

This week's bear/woods story comes courtesy of Microsoft Exchange hosting firm Intermedia.NET, which released some survey findings claiming that IT staff are twice as likely to wear a heavy metal t-shirt as their non-IT colleagues, are 32% less likely than business managers to wear clean clothes every day of the week, and twice as likely to carry a Maglite and a Leatherman.

"Our large Microsoft Gold Certified team of engineers was comforted that IT people are twice as likely to wear Megadeth and similar t-shirts, and that black jeans and ponytails are still hot items," said Intermedia.NET's boss marketeer Rurik Bradbury. "However, they were distraught to find that the cellphone belt clip has gone ‘mainstream’ and lost its identification with the IT subculture."

Talking of heavy metal t-shirts, self-styled "software-Jedi" Dana Hanna starts his 'An App a Day' campaign today. He's writing 30 software applications in 30 days, and then giving them away for free. "I write tons of prototypes at home, and never end up doing anything with them," he says. "So I might as well toss them out there for the good of the world."

First up is this nifty app that turns your mouse cursor into a magnifying glass, although Dana reckons the most entertaining suggestion he's had so far is "an app to count polarbears in Norway and geotag them in Google Earth." That would be cool.

Moving on to enormous telephoto lenses, Carl Zeiss unveiled a whopper this week. It's got a focal length of over 5.5 feet, with 21x magnification. Oh, and it weighs in at a healthy 256kg. So you won't find it in a Cyber-Shot anytime soon. It's being shown at this month's Photokina show in Cologne. I'd like to see Jamiroquai frontman Jay Kay try to pick a fight with a paparazzo holding this heavyweight jobby.

From the large to the small now. How about a projector the size of a sugar cube? Yes, it does mean a passing hungry horse could guzzle up your home entertainment system, but still, it's a feat of engineering. But hang on, read the story, and the ugly truth becomes apparent.

"Today’s technology allows RGB projectors with a side length of ten by seven by three centimeters to be produced. Although this is still distinctly larger than a sugar cube, it is only a quarter the size of a standard projector."

Fix! Apparently the key to getting sugarcube-sized projectors is shrinking green diode lasers. Fingers crossed. Meanwhile, boozers among you shouldn't consider paying a visit to South Dakota any time soon. The state attorney general's office is testing alcohol-monitoring bracelets on convicted drunk drivers.

The 'Scram' bracelets measure "vapours from the skin" (i.e. beer sweats) and send the results for analysis. If someone could invent one that would tell me the sixth pint of cider ISN'T a good idea on Friday nights, while flashing a photo of the local gutter in warning, that'd be grand, thanks.

Talking of items of personal clothing with unexpected digital-media features... How about the Egokast, a hefty belt-buckle that doubles up as a video player. You're not supposed to watch it, mind, it's for the people around you.

“This is the first media device that you don’t watch, but everybody else does,” says inventor Shaw Kaake, who I sincerely hope was named after the popular biscuit. “Instead of staring into your BlackBerry or your PSP, you’re looking at the reactions of people to the content.”

Surely this means entire train carriages of fellow passengers staring at your crotch. Where can I get one? Moving swiftly on, news of some Princeton computer scientists who've created prototype vote-stealing software that can be installed on public voting machines. Right now, someone's reading this in a secret White House laboratory and saying "Meh, we did that weeks ago. Now when's e-voting coming in..."

Paris Hilton, it's time to dump the BlackBerry. There's a new celebrity mobile on the block, codenamed 'Black Diamond' (right), which costs $300,000. Why? Well, it runs Windows Mobile 5.0, has Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, an SD memory slot and a touch-sensitive keypad. Oh, and only five units are ever being made. Far better value than a chihuahua.

And finally... We may be also-rans in Miss World, but us Brits can boast the most beautiful computer-generated woman on the planet. Doesn't that make you feel proud as punch? Her name's Prada Woman (left), and she was created by UK designer David Cathro using Photoshop, for a competition organised by 3D site 3DM3.

She's a cross between Jennifer Lopez and the sort of secretary who appears in films pretending to be plain, until she gets to take off her glasses, swish her hair back and PURR LIKE A PUMA! She beat off competition from Poland, France, South Korea and Poland again.

Sources: Mashable, Intermedia.NET, Dana Hanna, Engadget, Physorg.com, Madisonet.com, New York Times, TechEBlog, 3DM3.com

Apple iPhone rumours continue: ready by January 2007?

According to a source with close connections to Apple (aren't they always) an iPhone could be revealed at MacWorld in San Francisco in January 2007. Allegedly it'll be styled very much on the new iPod nano's, and be available in black, white or platinum. It'll have a 3 megapixel camera, 2.2 inch display, iTunes integration and an iPod-esque feature set. Storage is currently unknown.

What do you think? A nano-styled iPhone with iTunes functionality?

Orange launches Sony Ericsson K610i with added Sega classics

  Orange is pitching its Sony Ericsson K610i phone very much at gamers, with free Sega game demos pre-loaded onto the handset.

Exclusive to Orange, you'll be able to play some of Sega's finest moments on the move, including Sonic the Hedgehog and Chu Chu Rocket. In addition to the free Sega demos you’ll also be able to download Sega wallpaper and ringtones, along with a free Sega phone tag. And they'll even throw in a £10 money-off voucher for Sega games too. The phone itself features a 2 megapixel camera with 4 x digital zoom, MP3 player, Bluetooth and a talktime of around five hours.

If all that appeals, you can pick up the Sega-fied K610i for free on Orange contracts over £30 or for £159.99 on PAYG.

Orange website

The Met gets tough on mobile crime, tough on the causes of mobile crime

Especially when the cause is dozy students waving their expensive mobile phones and iPods around when robbers are watching... The Metropolitan Police is spending the next few weeks visiting London schools, colleges and universities to confiscate funny cigarettes advise students on how not to get their gadgets nicked. In 2005, the Met says that an average of 328 mobiles were stolen in London every day.

The Met's campaign will include attending university Fresher events and school assemblies, advising students to register their belongings – especially mobiles and bikes – on the Immobilise website, providing information to help prevent mobile phone crime, and discouraging students from buying mobile phones under suspicious circumstances. No, that doesn't include when you're in a mobile phone store, and suspect that the greasy-haired salesman patronising you is under 12 years old. Sadly.

“We hope that our activities will encourage students to be more vigilant and aware of their surroundings," says DCI Mick McNally of the National Mobile Phone Crime Unit. "This will make it harder for robbers to operate and with stolen phones fast becoming worthless we hope this will have a positive impact on street crime.” 

Review: Blackberry Pearl

The Propaganda

The Blackberry Pearl is RIM's attempt to "get Blackberry out of the boardroom". They've made themselves indispensable to Serious Business People around the world, but now they're after said Serious People's kids. Or at least their less responsible, black-sheep-in-the-family, we're-not-sure-he'll-ever-settle-down, younger brother.

They're also hoping that people will now truly ditch the mobile phone they've been carrying around in addition to their emailing device, as they think they've cracked the perfect combination of data and phone functionality. But then, doesn't everybody?

The Good

Out of the box, the Blackberry Pearl emerges all shiny and new. I have to admit, if I didn't know about the phones magical abilities, I would be tempted to buy it on looks alone. This is an impressive feat bearing in mind the quality of the competition out there. I'm getting bored of saying it, but it really does have a 'piano black' finish which stays that way, despite being chucked in my bag to wrestle against keys, sand and other miscellany. The black is set off with chrome on the sides, and surrounding the camera. It's pretty. The best bit about it is the ball or 'pearl' you use for scrolling, in the centre under the screen. It's a great way of scrolling through the extensive menu, since it works in the same way to the ball in a mouse, not constrained to moving just left to right and up and down. It also lights up with a kind of purplish glow when you start using it. 

The email system itself is really easy to set-up, and is designed with consumers in mind, rather than those who have an IT guy and an Exchange server. It's simply a case of getting on the Blackberry website from your PC entering your email address and password, and you're done. There's no entering of smtp addresses, finding well hid settings or anything that you could mess up.  The only sticking point is that if you want Hotmail to deliver, you need to pay MSN for 'premium access', but that's an MSN problem rather than RIM's.

The performance of the Pearl could be battery sapping. After all, it's got a great screen that adjusts it's brightness according to your surroundings, Push email, and more backlighting than you can shake a stick at. In fact, I got about 3 days fairly typical use from a single charge.

In an attempt to catch up with other phone manufacturers, RIM have added a media player for music, photos and videos. To support this, they've included a MicroSD slot, and bundle a card with it, although they're not clear on what size it will be at the moment. They've also included headphones for your media.

The Bad

Blackberry are really pushing the inclusion of a camera on this one, but at 1.3 megapixels it doesn't stand up against the competition. It's the size now seen on budget phones, and those where the camera isn't anything more than a quick addition when needs must. Given Blackberry's excitement about it being there, you'd have thought they'd have got a better one. They've also put the MicroSD card under the SIM, which is a personal hate. It makes it really tricky to get to, and risks damaging the SIM card.

There are also certain things seen on your average mobile which you'll miss. There's no way of instantly getting into a new SMS message, or your contacts - all of these are done through the main menu. And to put that in perspective, the main menu has 33 different icons to navigate through, although you can move the order they appear in. There are 5 icons on the home screen, but they seem bizarre choices, including Enterprise Activation and Yahoo Messenger. There are two buttons either side of the handset which you can personalise, but there doesn't seem to be a way of personalising the home screen. [Update: you can move the icons by rearranging the main menu, which in turn changes the home screen icon order].

The keypad itself is a full QWERTY keypad, but has two letters to each button. And unlike other models, it's not a case of hitting each side of the key to get the different letter. So, this gives you a combination of predictive text and normal typing, where you've got to keep an eye on what you're being predicted to avoid having to go back and do it all again. I found it really difficult to get used to, as the predictive element fooled my brain into thinking that the keypad would be set up like a normal phone. I would have found it quicker and easier if it had I think. 

Another bone of contention is the lack of scroll wheel, which many Blackberry addicts will no doubt lament. Whilst the Pearl is attractive, and good for skipping about the screen, it's just not as quick when you want to go through emails or scan to the bottom of a document. For some reason, the test model I had would plonk me in the middle of yesterday's messages when I entered the email inbox, which meant I had about 40 emails to get through before I could see my new ones. It only started doing this after a few days, so it might just be a bug in an early model. 

There is no 3G on this model, which Blackberry put down to an issue of space. This does mean that web pages are slow to download, and in addition, certain pages are completely useless to you. The squares of images that make up a streetmap are put one on top of each other, making it impossible to see where the connections are.

Geek Sheet

Dimensions: 4.2 x 1.97 x .57 inches

Weight: 3.1 oz

Screen: 65,000 colors, 240 x 260 pixel color display

Camera: 1.3MP camera with flash

Memory: 64 MB flash memory with Micro SD slot

Network: Quad-Band: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz GSM/GPRS and EDGE networks

In our opinion

Despite it's faults, the Blackberry Pearl is tempting. Whether it'll get those elusive consumers emailing on the move I suspect will depend largely on the packages carriers put together - there's still a fear held by many people that they will somehow end up with an enormous phone bill come the end of the month if they use data services.

LG launches the KG810 clamshell Chocolate phone

The Chocolate phone just got a bit more hip, with the introduction of the KG810 - LG's clamshell Chocolate phone.

Rather than the word "clamshell", LG seems to prefer "folder" for its new phone. And apart from that, it's almost got the same technical specifications as the original Chocolate handset - a fully featured MP3/AAC music player including A2DP Bluetooth for wireless music, 128 meg of on-board memory, a 1.3 megapixel camera and video camera - with the addition of an FM radio the only technical difference.

LG is being particularly bullish about its new handset. According to John Barton, Sales & Marketing Director, LG Mobile: "This is the best looking folding handset on the market. It’s thin enough to slip into a pair of jeans, yet feels solid and luxurious when in use. The unique touch sensitive keys on the top let you know that it’s a Chocolate phone and the new form factor adds even more individuality to an already iconic handset."

If all that sells the phone to you, you can pick it up exclusively from Phones4U sometime this month, with a presentation box, stereo headphones and USB lead as standard. Prices is from free on contract.

LG website

Palm (finally) launches the Treo 750v

Palm has today officially launched the long awaited Treo 750v, together with Vodafone and Microsoft. Available throughout Europe from the end of October, the 750v will be available exclusively from Vodafone for at least 3 months. It's the first Palm device to be designed with Europe in mind, hence the lopping off of the enormous aerial found on previous Treo devices. Whilst the previous Treo models were hugely popular in the US, the same pick-up has yet to be seen over here.

Using the latest Windows Mobile OS, the Treo 750v features a touch screen as well as a full QWERTY keyboard. The Vodafone connection takes advantage of their 3G network, formatting web pages to fit the 240x240 screen. Other features include a miniSD card slot, 1.3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth and the Windows Media Player.

Cost wise, Vodafone are offering it on certain tariffs for free, whilst others will have to pay £150. Email packages start at £10 a month, to prevent nasty surprises at the end of the month.  So far, there are no details about which carriers will be picking it up from January onwards.

Check out the video here.

One Minute Review: Palm Treo 750v

Palm launched their latest Treo 750v today, which is their first Windows based device available in Europe. It's also heavily Vodafone friendly as they've got exclusivity for at least 3 months. It'll be available from the end of October, although you can preorder now.

Sweet and Clean Way to Debadge Your Gizmos

According to the highly entertaining how-to-do-stuff blog Instructables the best way to debadge your gizmos, for that clean uncluttered look, is to scrub them off with a sugar cube... That’s right, all you have to do is mask off the holes and parts you don’t want sugar crystals getting into with sticky tape, then use a sugar cube (probably several) to scrub away the labels. Apparently sugar is just abrasive enough to remove logos and printing, but not hard enough to scratch plastic. Sounds a bit iffy to us but if you want to see how it’s done watch this video.

Nokia E62 (aka, neo-crackberry) formally launched

Leaked as far back as spring '06, according to the Globe & Mail today's the day the Nokia E62 formally comes onto the market.  With a form factor similar to the BlackBerry - as Nokia's Chapple said. "Hats off to RIM. We are happy to follow. Not all good ideas come from Finland" - allegedly also "Our business plan is not predicated on corporations ripping out their BlackBerrys. Lots of companies have not gone mobile yet. If we're not creating new business then we don't win."  CNet gave the E62 a 7.3 rating (with an average 8.4 rating by the users) and MSNBC called it "spectacular".  If it looks familiar, it's because you've already seen its sibling, the E61.  Both weigh 144g and are 117x70x14mm, but the E62 has 75 megs of ram versus the E61's 64, the E62 has a 1.3mp camera, and the standby time on the E62 is better (6.5 hours versus 5).  Price TBA any second now.  [GT]

Nokia E62 smartphone [via The Globe & Mail

Related stories: Nokia does a BlackBerry | 3 launches instant access email for mobiles

HTC unveils P3600, P3300 PDAs and S620, S310 smartphones

HTC has unveiled four new devices today - the S620 slim smartphone, the S310 candy bar-style smartphone, the P3300 navigation PDA and the P3600 HSDPA-ready PDA. All devices will be available under the HTC brand as well as in customised versions for operator partners - with the P3300 already snapped up by T-Mobile for launch as the MDA Compact III.

The HTC S620 (pictured) is a slimline smartphone at just 12.8mm thin and weighing 130g with battery. It's the first device to feature HTC’s JOGGR touch sensitive navigation bar, which offers quick access to applications including Outlook Mobile (with push email), Word Mobile, Excel Mobile, PowerPoint Mobile and a PDF viewer. The quand band phone also features a 2.4-inch, colour, landscape screen, a fully integrated QWERY keyboard, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. it should be in Europe from October.

The HTC S310 is a candy bar-style smartphone featuring Windows Mobile 5.0. More comsumer-friendly, this quad band device will be available in a range of colours later this month.

The P3300 (pictured) is HTC’s first dedicated navigation PDA with built-in GPS and features the latest TomTom software, Navigator 6. Both 2D and 3D maps are claimed to be easy to install and view using HTC’s RollRTM (Trackball and Track Wheel) and theoptimised 2.8-inch colour screen. Retailing from October 2006, it will be available with a 'taster pack' of regional maps or as a full version pre-loaded with a complete set of maps for Western Europe.

The P3600 is billed as HTC’s next generation PDA. Running with Windows Mobile 5.0, it also features 3G connectivity and is HSDPA-ready. There's also a music player and two megapixel camera. Available in a black or white glossy finish, the HTC P3600 will be available across Europe later this month.

HTC website www.htc.com

One Minute Video Review: The Blackberry Pearl

A first look at the new phone and email device announced by Blackberry today, the Blackberry Pearl. It's aimed at the part of the market they've yet to convince - consumers who value the style of their phone above all else.

Review: Samsung D900 Ultra slim slider phone

The Propaganda

Samsung's new Ultra range is designed to illustrate just how much technology they can fit into a slim phone design. So, whilst they've now got the skinniest candybar title, the slimmest HSDPA phone and a host of other accolades, they haven't skimped on the specs. The D900 was the first of these to be launched, featuring a sliding design and measuring just 12.9mm in width. And yes, it's the world's slimmest slider phone. Available free on contract, it's in the shops now.

The Good

It's seldom now that you can pick up a phone that does something that's truly new or unique to the brand. Cameras, MP3 players and office functionality are all present in the vast majority of phones on the market, to one degree or another. Any company that attempts to create something new risks straying over into the gimmicky territory occupied by novelty ringtones and crazy photo effects. So, with that in mind, I give you the Samsung theme screen. And I invite you to make up your own mind.

Basically, it features a home screen based on your geographical location, within reason. If you're in England you get Big Ben. France? Champs d'Elysees. Holland? Hmm. You appear to have no iconic landmarks, so you're stuck with windmills, I'm afraid. When you change countries, the phone recognises it and will change screens, as well as the local time. It does check with you first, in case you're particularly attached to Big Ben. I'm not sure if the screen changes if you change countries but not time zones i.e. Dublin. Unfortunately, I can't check for the purposes of this review, as I couldn't clear a jolly to Dublin with the Powers That Be. C'est la vie. The screen also indicates the signal strength - lots of clouds, and you've got poor signal, clear sky, and you've got loads, as the shepards say.

The camera is also the best found on a slider phone at 3 megapixels, which takes stills and video footage. There is 60MB of internal memory to store your photos, as well as a MicroSD slot for expanding that.  The screen is 2.1" which is noticeably larger than previous Samsung screens such as the one found on the E900. It also supports 262,000 colours, so is bright enough to take advantage of all the fancy pants graphics it comes with.

The buttons on this model are soft keys, rather than laser-etched, touch sensitive, or some other kind of nice-in-theory-awful-in-practice design.  This makes them easy to use, although not as attractive. On another design note, the soft finish on the phone is a nice touch, and unlike many similar models, doesn't get greasy after a few days. The inclusion of Stereo Bluetooth, means that you can use the MP3 player to send music to your bluetooth headphones, ditching the wires.

The Bad

The camera is a key point on this phone - it's the best available on this design of phone. However, despite offering 3 megapixels, it loses against the competition as it still appears as a camera phone, rather than something that you'd consider dumping your camera for. The light is LED, so doesn't use a flash, making your subjects look odd in low light. Unlike many of it's contemporaries, there is a limited number of things you can do with the photos once you've taken it. Yes, you can MMS it, and you can send it via Bluetooth to a printer, but there's no extended applications, such as loading it onto a blogging site, which both Nokia and Sony Ericsson  have included.

There are design issues as well. The battery is a nightmare to get out, and considering it hides the SIM card slot, it's one of the first things you notice about the phone. The call answer/reject button are an old skool green and red, making the keypad look old fashioned, confirmed by the large buttons. The lip that 'catches' the slider at the bottom sits right against the *, 0 and # key, which is awkward when you're writing a text, as these are the space and word change buttons.

Geek sheet

Size: 50x104x13

Weight: 83g

Talk time: 390 mins

Standby time: 200 hours

Camera: 3 megapixels

Music support: MP3, AAC, ACC+, AAC+

In our opinion

On paper, the D900 looks great. But it's once you take it from the box that you lose the excitement. Whether it's the large screen which makes it look bigger than it is, or the green or red buttons that make it look old fashioned, designwise they seem to have let the fact that it's thin excuse any effort on the rest of it.

Samsung replaces P300 calculator phone with P310

Bad new for lovers of quirky phones designs - Samsung has ditched the calculator looks of its retro-styled P300 mobile in favour of something equally small, but far more dull - the Samsung P310.

The new phone looks more like the rest of Samsung's range, albeit much smaller - still the size of a credit card. However, on the plus side, it does have a better camera, now boosted to two megapixels. Much of the remaining spec is unchanged - a 220 x 176, 262,144-colour display, 80MB of memory and a Micro SD memory card slot. The P310 also features Bluetooth, but now with A2DP wireless stereo.

There's been no confirmation of availability or price as yet.

Samsung website

Via The Register

More mobiles:
IFA 2006: LG unveils super 3G U830 clamshell handset
Nokia launches the luxury 8800 Sirocco

One Minute Video Review: Samsung Ultra Range

A quick look at a few of the new phones in Samsung's line-up, including the world's slimmest phone, and the new clamshell HSDPA phone.

Nokia launches the luxury 8800 Sirocco

  Nokia is to release an enhanced version of its 8800 slider phone next month, keeping the looks, adding a much-needed higher-spec camera and changind the name to the 8800 Sirocco.

I thought the Sirocco was an old Volkswagen motor, but apparently its a strong wind. What that has to do with phones, I don't know - but I do know that this phone features a 208 x 208, 262,144-colour display, 64MB of storage, Bluetooth with wireless stereo audio, MP3 ringtones and a digital music player. Battery time is eight days in standby and up to three hours talk time. Much of that was present in the older version, the one big new feature is the camera, boosted from a VGA model to two megapixel model. There's also a redesigned keyboard and navigator control.

You can get your hnads on one in September, with no price as yet confirmed. But you're unlikely to geet much change from £500.

Nokia website

Via The Register

More mobiles:
One Minute Video Review: Nokia N73
Samsung's 8GB SCH-B570 golfing mobile phone

One Minute Video Review: Nokia N73

Susi looks at the Nokia N73, which features a 3.2 megapixel camera as well as all the applications you need to get the best of your photos. You can check out the full review here.

Review: Nokia N73 multimedia phone

The Propaganda

The N73 is billed by Nokia as the complete multimedia phone. It comes with a 3.2 megapixel camera, including a Carl Zeiss lens, an MP3 player and radio which play out of integrated stereo speakers with 3D sound. The big drawer for many people will be the integration with Flickr, making sharing your photos really easy.

It's a 3G phone and has a secondary camera mounted by the screen for video calls, as well as all the Symbian S60 functionality of mobile email, and applications such as Real Player.  It's available in three different colour combination - silver and plum, white and red or white and brown.

The Good

The first thing that you notice on picking up the N73 is the camera cover, which doesn't sit flush to the surface of the phone. However, whilst on first glance you might think it makes it look, well, odd, in fact it hides a key selling point of the handset - the camera. The camera itself is 3.2 megapixels, and launches as soon as you open the shutter - a revelation after being used to navigating various menus to get to a camera phone. You can adjust the resolution of the images, according to what you want to do with them, and how many pictures you want to be able to store on your phone. In a nice touch, they've added the size of print that each resolution will stretch too, which is exactly the kind of detail that your average user might not be sure of.

Taking a picture is also a piece of cake, thanks to the buttons on the side of the phone, which mean you can hold it exactly as if you're using a camera. All the settings are defaulted to auto, which means you don't need to worry about the flash (and it is a flash, rather than an LED light) or the focus, although you can switch to manual. In fact, there's at least 3 minutes of fun to be had revealing the lense and then watching the internal exposure mechanics adjust to the lighting - it's like shining a torch in someone's eyes and watching their pupils dilate. However, so far, so nothing new. But it's once you've taken a photo that the fun really starts.

The N73 comes set up ready for you to synch it with your Flickr account. It's just a case of entering your username and password, after which you're good to go. That means that when you take a photo, as well as the usual 'Send via text/bluetooth/IR' you have the option to upload on the Web. And once you've started, it's difficult to stop. I'm not sure when I'm going to need the pictures of my office that are now littering my Flickr account, but you never know.

It also comes with Nokia's Lifeblog, which is based on LiveJournal. It allows you to post items from your phone, including SMS, MMS and audio, onto your existing LiveJournal. If you don't already have an account, you can sign up from your phone and get started almost instantaneously. For avid mobloggers, there's an application which displays a timeline of all your activity from the day - the texts you received, the photos you took etc, which you can then go through and post to your blog.

Whilst its raison d'etre is the camera and all you can do with it, the N73 doesn't rest on its laurels when it comes to other features. There's a search application, accessible from the main menu, which connects you to both Yahoo and Yell.com, making finding business details, or just surfing the web a lot easier than navigating bookmarks. It's also got stereo speakers for the MP3 player, which play in 3D. There's another few minutes of fun to be had fiddling with the ringtones, hearing what they might sound like in a cave, a railway station or a duct. It's completely bizarre, but does illustrate the quality of the sound you can get out of them. 

The Bad

The camera is easy to use, and takes fantastic photographs, but it's not the reason to get rid of your digital camera all together. I found it slow to load - it took 4 seconds from when you opened the cover, which means if you're after that illusive spur of the moment shot, you'll probably have missed it. There's also the eternal problem with camera phones with the lag between when you've hit the button, to when the shot is actually captured. Again, you'll miss the spur of the moment pictures.

The Flickr application can also be a bit of a minefield. It asks you for your Flickr username and password - easy. Unless you signed up using your Yahoo ID. In this case, there's no explanation about what you should do from Nokia's side. If you root around on the Flickr website there is a page explaining that you need a whole new login for N73s, which is a completely random selection of numbers and letters.

The design of the phone is pretty nondescript. The lense cover doesn't sit flush against the back of the phone, which makes it look like the battery cover isn't pushed on properly. There's also a memory card slot for MiniSd cards, which you need the nails of an LA socialite to be able to get into.

Geek Sheet

Weight: 116 g

Height: 110 mm

Width: 49 mm

Thickness (max): 19 mm

Memory: 42MB internal memory, MiniSD slot

Camera: 3.2 megapixels, 20x digital zoom

Audio Support: AAC, MP3, WMA

Synchronization: MS Outlook, Lotus Notes 5.0, MS Outlook Express, Lotus Organiser 5.0, Lotus Organis er 6.0

In our opinion

It's rare that a product that promises to make it easier for us to share our life/photos/whatever actually does. However, I'm completely converted with the N73. The integration with Flickr and LiveJournal mean that it really does make it simple to add things to your online accounts. If you don't have a blog but intend to, this is the phone to get. And if you've got no interest in sharing your life with complete strangers? The camera alone might win you over.

Samsung's 8GB SCH-B570 golfing mobile phone

Don't you just love quirky mobile phones? And they don't come much more niche than the Samsung SCH-B570, a handset that doubles up as a golfing caddie.

The SCH-B570, launched yesterday in South Korea, features a hefty 8GB of storage for your music. But if playing a round is preferable to playing a tune, you'll be pleased to hear that this phone has the information needed to play South Korea's toughest golf courses, incorporating a GPS receiver which works out how far you are from the green, then suggesting an appropriate club. It also features DMB TV reception, motion-controlled games and, rather strangely, psychological tests.

Priced at the equivalent of between £443 and £499 (depending on contract), we hope to see it in the UK - but you get the feeling it's a forlorn hope.

Samsung website

Via The Register

More mobiles:
Sony Ericsson unleashes the Z610 3G clamshell mirrored handset
Sagem's my501C clamshell handset

89 metre throw clinches Mobile Phone Throwing World Championship

Many is the time I've wanted to chuck my phone as far as possible: sometimes because of it's 'features', and sometimes because the person on the other end of the phone is so darn annoying. If only I'd known about the annual Mobile Phone Throwing World Championship I could've put my frustrations to good effect.

I don't think I'd have managed 89 metres, though, which was the winning throw by Finland's Lassi Etelätalo in Savonlinna (Finland) last weekend. Eija Laakso took first place in the woman's category with a new world record throw of 50.83m.

It's been held since 2004 and features four categories: Juniors, Original and Team Original and Freestyle. The first three categories require an overarm throw, whilst points are awarded in the freestyle category for aesthetics.

Technique is just as important as distance, and apparently three things are needed to be a long distance phone lobber: power, technical skills and a sense of humour.

What would be your phone of choice to lob?

(Via Digital Lifestyles)

Sagem's my501C clamshell handset

Another new clamshell on the block, this time from Sagem, which has launched the my501C, a lightweight GPRS handset with music player.

Looks matter as much as functionality for many buyers - and in that, the my501c doesn't disappoint with a nice chrome finish. While the phone is snapped shut, an external OLED 256-color screen display your important info. Once opened, you can get the fuller picture with the 1.8-inch, 128x160 pixel display in 65,000 colors. The phone also has a solid, if not groundbreaking, set of features, including an MP3 player that can also play tracks in the Apple-friendly AAC format, along with dedicated music navigation keys. Storage is an initial 32MB, which can be boosted via micro SD cards. There's also a 1.3MP camera with 8x digital zoom amd video functionality and Bluetooth.

The Sagem my501C is scheduled for release in August 2006. No price or network details confirmed as yet.

Sagem website

More mobiles:
Samsung's swinging X830 music phone heads to Europe
LG launches L343i i-mode clamshell phone

One Minute Preview: Samsung X830 mobile

We wrote about the new Samsung X830 earlier today, and yesterday I got my hands on it for a brief look, in a very noisy hall.  Check out the video below.

Samsung's swinging X830 music phone heads to Europe

Slider phones are just so yesterday - if you want to be ahead of the crowd, you've got to swing - with a phone like Samsung's X830 music phone.

The swing aspect quickly transforms this miniature to gadget from pocket MP3 player to cool mobile phone. Not sure you'll look all that cool taking a call with it, but your Bond-style phone should impress the office. The phone has 1GB of storage, which you can boost by card. Formats supported are MP3, WMA and OGG and once you've loaded in your music, you can browse it easily by artist, title or album. The GSM phone also features a 1.3MP camera.

Already available in Korea, the X830 should be available in the UK around October. Prices and networks to be confirmed.

Samsung website

More mobiles:
LG launches L343i i-mode clamshell phone
Review: LG U400 music phone

LG launches L343i i-mode clamshell phone

  A new addition to O2's i-mode range is the L343i from LG - an entry-level clamshell phone.

If you want something small that gives you access to i-mode, then the L343i is probably worth a look. Just a touch of the button and you get access to the service, viewed on a 1.7-inch 262k colour TFT screen, so you can book a holiday, browse the houses for sale, access eBay or use the i-mail service to send message to phones or email accounts. Other than that, the specification for this tri-band phone isn't going to get your pulse racing. The camera is described as "in-built", which sould like VGA, but does have 4x zoom. It also features Bluetooth and has 40 polyphonic ringtones.

The LG L343i will be available exclusively on O2. Price and availability has yet to be confirmed.

LG website

More i-mode:
eBay joins O2's i-mode service
Sony Ericsson unveils K610im - the i-mode 3G phone

BenQ Siemens AL26 phone Hello Kitty phone

  Catching my eye (and how could it not in that colour) over at Shiny Shiny is BenQ Siemens' latest attempt to cash in on the Hello Kitty obsession - the BenQ Siemens AL26.

If you're looking for a cutting-edge mobile that'll look sharp in the boardroom - this isn't it. If you're an overgrown child with an obsession with this particular cute cat, read on. Because it's a slider phone with a metallic pink finish featuring images of Hello Kitty herself, not to mention wallpapers, games and ringtones based on the cartoon cat packed inside.

Want to know? Check out Shiny Shiny for more on this, plus loads more gadgets for girls.

One Minute Video Review: LG U400 music phone

Katie and I look at the new LG U400 phone, which is chock full of music-related features. For an in-depth review click here. The phone is available free on a 3 contract.

Apple Rumour of the Day: iPhone revisited

It's been a bit quiet on the rumour mill for a few days - after all, once Steve has made his announcements, that kinda seals it for the pre-speech rumours: most of them dead in the water.

But let's take a look at the iPhone talk. OK, so Steve didn't announce any such device, but that doesn't mean it's not coming - or even that he's not talking about it behind not quite closed doors.

AppleInsider says that the iPhone has grown past rumour into expectation, and also reports that Mr Jobs has been making uncharacteristic remarks in Apple's inner sanctum.

An informant (don't we love them - not that we know any...) has said that the device may well turn up earlier than expected, catching even some insiders off-guard. Boy, that would be fun.

So, an iPhone with iPod capabilities, to ensure that Apple don't get knocked off top spot by, say, Nokia - but will it come soon enough? Some analysts say if it comes it won't be until mid-2007, but then Apple have a habit of delivering early.

I'm upping the likelihood of a pre-2007 iPhone release to 80%. What do you reckon - is the iPhone on its way?

Review: LG U400 music phone

The Propaganda

This is the LG music phone - the U400. As with many LG phones, it's firmly ingratiated with 3, featuring the 3 Player (their MP3 player interface). LG see it as a contemporary for the Sony Ericsson Walkman range, and since they've brought out the W850i it can't differentiate itself based on its 3G capabilities.

It's a slider phone which features the MP3 player controls on the front of the handset, as well as call answer and reject buttons. The numbered keypad is revealed when you slide it open.

The Good

Because the MP3 controls are on the front of the handset, the U400 successfully stakes its claim as a true phone/MP3 hybrid. It's got an internal memory of 70MB, and a MiniSD slot which can expend it by a further 1GB. In total this will hold about 500 songs, which doesn't make it the biggest out there, but will be adequate for many people out there. It's bundled with a 512MB memory card  to get you started.

Because it's exclusive to 3, it's integrated with the 3 player - their MP3 interface. This allows you to view your library to include the songs you've uploaded onto your phone, as well as those you've bought and crucially, those that 3 have available for you to buy. This makes it really easy for you to spend your gas bill money on tracks at 99p a pop.

There are other things that make this a good music phone. Headphones are bundled with it, and appear as standard in-ear headphones, connected into an in-line remote via a 35 mm jack. This means you can quickly discard them and insert your noise cancelling/sporty/just plain comfier headphones.  It's also got stereo Bluetooth, so if you're a flash git, you can even stream music without the wires. But be warned, as I have previously mentioned, I have never been able to get my Plantronics headphones to connect to an LG phone.

Other positive aspects: the screen is bright and crisp, the camera isn't hidden under the slide like many of these types of phones (this means you can shoot with it as you would a normal camera), and the colours of the casing make it attractive, and MP3 player-like.

The Bad

Five minutes out of the box, and the U400 was covered in finger prints - it's got a nice finish but it's just not equipped for the real life situation for being touched by a human hand.  There's also a problem using the softkeys. They're situated on each side of the scrollwheel, which is itself to the left of the phone. Getting to them requires a bit of finger gymnastics and a lot of getting used to.

You can't transfer music with a simple drag and drop between drives with the U400. There's software to load and even when this is done, loading tunes is hit and miss.  Once you've loaded the songs, there is a horrible DJing function that means you can put a kind of 'wiki-wii-wik' scratching noise over the top. It's a horror to behold, although I recognise that if someone else wrote this review, that might well appear in 'The Good'.

The camera is also nothing of note. It's 2 megapixels but doesn't have any zoom or autofocus built in. You do get the feeling that LG concentrated so hard on the music part of the phone that everthing else kind of fell by the wayside. This is particularly obvious when you try to write messages, find contacts or any of that phone type stuff - there aren't the familiar soft keys that we've quickly become to depend on.

In our opinion

The LG U400 is a good MP3 player, with everything you'd want included in an MP3 player. However, without stereotyping too much, I tempted to conclude that the slightly bulky size, and the masculine black and blue casing means that I'm perhaps the wrong sex to fully appreciate it. And to be honest the wiki-wik noise means it will never be found in my bag.

Sony Ericsson K618 phone: entertainment and business combines

Sony Ericsson has announced its latest 3G mobile phone, the K618, touted as a phone that satisfies both business and pleasure at the same time. I thought you couldn't mix those two, but maybe this phone proves me wrong.

This 3G phone is as light and slim as a 2.5G phone (for those of you keeping up with the Gs). It has 'push email' (in other words, it comes to you without you having to download it) which should go down well with business users, or anyone who likes immediate spam. There's bluetooth, a 2 megapixel camera with 2.5x digital zoom, a Picture Blog application so you can post pix straight to your Blogger account, video calling, and a 256Mb memory card expandable to 1Gb.

Available in black or white, it's coming in September, price to be confirmed.

One Minute Video Review: Nokia N93

Just like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Arctic Monkeys discussions about Nokia's N Series phones invariably lead to fisticuffs in this parish. Here's Ashley swooning all over the camcorder-tastic N93, while Katie pulls disapproving faces.

Apple Rumour of the Day: The iPhone

Apple Rumour: The iPhone

I love Apple rumours, don't you? It's certainly one of the companies everyone loves to speculate about, even though we know that nothing's certain until Steve Jobs sings.

What's quite cool (for a while) is the amount of spoof product and ad shots that people seem to spend a lot of time concocting. Some of them are quite convincing, too. Here we go with the iPhone.

The Rumour Mill Says...

MobileMag are just one site that have published the spoof Apple iPhone ad. Yeah, someone's got the 'Apple font' and the white background and suddenly they're on the PR team. "Everything you expect from a Mac, from a phone" is the tag. "Say hello to everyone" another one beams.

Join the club, watch the "iPhone Ad" on YouTube.

See how many old adverts someone has clipped together or Photoshopped to create it. Convincing? Maybe not, but it seems to well up the hope that many Apple fans have for another way to bring Apple into their life.

It's easy to lose count of how many previous rumours have been off-the-wall and proved wrong when Steve actually starts talking.

Next time he'll talk is on Monday, August 7th at the World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC06). We'll see what happens (and of course we'll tell you about it).

Finally, you can play WWDC Bingo, courtesy of Ars Technica - can you get five rumours in a row?

Rumour Rating

Well, this one's been rumbling on and off for a while. Do Apple really want to get into mobile phones? How does it fit into their digital lifestyle strategy? Will the iPod generation and Mac addicts really want to commit another part of their lifestyle to Apple?

My feeling is it's fairly likely. Whether it gets announced on Monday is another matter, but so I have a bigger chance of looking stupid (hey, why not) I'll rate the likelihood of Mr Jobs unveiling an iPhone (or similar device with a different name) on Monday - 60%:

So what do you reckon? iPhone, anyone?

New Platinum and Gold LG Chocolate phone

LG gave further indications as to when we can expect the new coloured versions of the popular Chocolate phone, as well as previewing two new editions when I met them this week.

I saw the two new 'premium' versions - gold and platinum. These look the same as the classic version, but with a thin gold or silver strip running through the middle, with Gold/Platinum inscribed on it. Looks wise, they reminded me slightly of a packet of cigarettes, but the kind that might tempt a non-smoker to take it up. Besides this, the main enhancement is the inclusion of a 2 megapixel camera with light, where the previous model only had 1.3 megapixels. These are expected to arrive with us mid-November, making them prime Christmas list fodder. They'll come at a similar price to the classic version, which was free on many networks with a £35ish contract.

Further to that, I got a proper look at the pink and white versions, both coming soon. The white version is designed to feel like an iPod Nano, with the same sheen to the paint and silver edging. n fact, it's one of the more successful imitations, as the size and build quality of the phone lends itself well to it. Weirdly, when you first pick it up it feels thicker than the 'classic' Chocolate. This provokes several minutes of looking at the two side by side from every possible angle, only to discover that in fact, they're exactly the same size. It just goes to prove that black is most definitely slimming. This is going to be available in the next 10 days, and in all likelihood, by next Friday (11th). Carphone Warehouse have a two week exclusivity deal, after which it's expected to be everywhere.

The pink version is the hot pink we're all used to from the Motorola RAZR, with the same red glowing buttons we expect from the classic Chocolate. Despite pink and red clashing no doubt it'll be a huge seller. LG expect this to be THE pre-pay handset at Christmas time, when it's expected to retail at about £150. The official launch will be in October, available on both pre-pay and contract.

Nokia phones UK's most stolen mobile

Those uni boffins (from Loughborough) have been researching again, and have discovered that Nokia mobile phones have achieved number one spot in "Britain's Most Nicked Mobile".

I'm not sure if this is a huge revelation? After all, Nokia's are pretty much the most common phone around, which suggests they're popular, which suggests they're 'nickable' - dunnit?

But wait, we get the actual models: The Nokia 6230 was the most stolen phone, at a whopping 15.4% of all thefts. After that came the Samsung D500 (8.2%) and the Motorola Razr (5.4%).

Overall, over half of all thefts were of Nokia models, followed by Samsung (13.6%) and Sony Ericsson at 13.3%. Again, to me, that sounds like the general popularity of these manufacturers.

Just to mix things up a bit though, it turns out that thieves are seasonally-inclined, and pick different phones to nick around Christmastime.

One thing's almost certain - the old Nokia brick I still embarrassedly use isn't likely to be nicked by anyone. If only.

Review: Samsung E900 fashion phone

The Propaganda

The E900 is a fashion phone from Samsung. Think of phrases like "slip into your handbag on a night out" and "the fashionista's choice" and you're pretty much there. It's a slider phone with a touch keypad that lights up on contact. Sound familiar? Lets face it, this is incredibly similar to the LG Chocolate phone which arrived within the same month. So how does it compare?

The Good

The first thing that strikes you with the E900 is the great screen with a 2.05" 262K colour TFT display. Images appear sharp and bright, both because of the quality of the screen and the way it's set off against the glossy black casing surrounding it.  Samsung have also made the most of this by including lots of striking pictures as wallpaper choices.

Looks wise, I'd be really happy about it if I hadn't seen the Chocolate with my own two eyes. The sliding action is smooth, and the gloss makes it look expensive - especially when it isn't marred by any buttons. Unlike many other phones, the menu short cuts also make sense - you can get to contacts, a new SMS message, and connect a Bluetooth device all within one button.

The camera is 1.3 megapixels, and pictures are bright regardless of the lighting, even when you don't use the LED flash. The other key feature, the MP3 player, benefits from the addition of a MicroSD slot - the one area in which the E900 triumphs against the LG Chocolate. Separate touch buttons appear when the MP3 player is activated.

The Bad

The E900 suffers by comparison - for instance, whilst the design itself is fine, you can't help but think that actually, the buttons would look nicer if they were illuminated in red instead of white. And it would benefit from being a little thinner and a little wider instead.

The touch buttons themselves are a nightmare. If you're on a call and the phone is shut, it's tricky trying to end the call and bring up the buttons. In addition, because the phone itself is slightly smaller, there is a higher chance of accidentally hitting the wrong button - I found myself in the O2 browser several times.

The MP3 player is also only accessible through the main menu. Not a major gripe, but noticeable when so many other phones have a dedicated MP3 button. The menus also have a habit taking you back to your home screen if you choose an invalid option (i.e. checking the memory card when there isn't one installed). This just makes navigating that much more frustrating.

In our opinion

The Samsung E900 would have been a groundbreaking phone had it been released in February. Unfortunately, it's arrived up against the LG Chocolate, surely *the* phone of 2006, at a similar price. Neither are groundbreaking on specs, but that was never the intention of the manufacturers. Personally, I'd be more than happy to carry one around in my bag, but I would always have a nagging feeling that there was something a little better out there.

Part II: The future for the LG Black Label range

More from the Man at LG, who lets us in the future of the LG Black Label range (the one that brought us the Chocolate phone). Unfortunately, the Man in the Know bears a striking resemblance to the Man in Black here due to a badly placed window (or badly placed camera), but you get the idea.

LG Interview Part I: the new Chocolate phones

A quick look at the new LG Chocolate phones to be launched this year - the White Chocolate version  (launched in the next 10 days) and the Pink Chocolate (pre-Christmas), courtesy of the Man in the Know at LG.

Review: Sony Ericsson K510i

The Propaganda

Sony Ericsson released this phone a few months ago, billing it as the phone to take advantage of the 'capture and share' mentality we apparently now all have towards our photography. Happy Slappers everywhere must have pricked up their ears. Now, after a frantic couple of weeks of phone launches, does it stand a chance against the competition?

The Good

It's a lightweight phone weighing only 80 grammes, and although it's a candybar shape it has a slightly parallelogram knock to it, which makes it a little different. The back is a soft touch material (similar to the Motorola PEBL) and the whole thing is available either in black or purple.

Anyone who has had a Sony Ericsson before will be familiar with the interface, which is navigated by the mini joystick under the screen.

Connectivity options are good, with infrared, Bluetooth and a bundled USB cable for transferring files. It's also got Push email, although I'm not sure that the people that own this phone would necessarily need it.

The camera comes with a lot of gimmicky features, like the ability to add clip art and a frame to the pictures. There's also the choice of shoot modes. Panaromic takes three photos, providing you with a strip of the previous photo to the side so you can match up shot at each picture. There is also the 'burst' option, which takes a series of four photos in quick succession so you can pick the best.

The Bad

The camera is the key feature on this phone, but at 1.3 megapixels and 4 x digital zoom, it doesn't do anything to wow (especially in the week LG announce the first 5 megapixel camera phone). There's no flash included, not even an light, so this has to be purchased separately - I doubt they were flying off the shelves. Since a key feature of this phone is the ability to share your photos, the absence of some kind of blogging programme is noticeable. Unfortunately, exactly this was announced by Sony Ericsson and Google (owner of Blogger.com) just a few days after this phone was launched.

Transferring files is a pain - whilst you think you might be able to outwit the phone by simply dragging and dropping music files to the phone when it appears in Explorer, you can't. The files will be on there, but they won't play on the MP3 player. To get them to play, you need to download the Disc2Phone software (included) which transfers music from your computer to your phone.  Not unusual, but it's a hassle that we could all do without.

The phone has 28MB internal memory (with even less of it being usable) with no option to expand it, which means there is little space to keep the photos and the music Sony Ericsson so want you to enjoy. I managed only to squeeze 8 songs on, which isn't even enough for a full album.

In our opinion

The Sony Ericsson K510i is free on all contracts and from £90 on Pay as You Talk. As a contract phone, it's unlikely to be picked - if you want a phone that plays music, or takes decent pictures, or both, there are far better options out there (the Sony Ericsson W810i is a Walkman phone with a 2 megapixel camera, for a start). However, on Pay as You Talk, it might just stand a chance. It's the same price as the Motorola V3 RAZR and the Siemens E61, but if you're a fan of Sony Ericsson, it's still got enough going for it to be in with a chance.

Review: Lobster 544 budget music mobile

The Propaganda

Virgin Mobile have committed to expanding their own branded line of mobile phones in the second half of this year, under the name 'Lobster'. These are designed to appeal to youngsters who eat seafood, or are on a budget, or something. Anyway, the 544 is another one of those "for music lovers" phones that everyone is so keen on at the moment.

The Good

The design of the phone is great. It's got a fairly average rounded clamshell shape, but the finish, which is a kind of high shine dark silver colour, makes it look much more expensive than it is. It's also got an external screen under which is one MP3 control - play/pause.

The MP3 player has a dedicated button on the internal keypad, which takes you straight to your list of tracks. It will also play in the background whilst you're doing something else, which is essential if a phone is claimed to be for music lovers - music lovers write text messages too.

Crucially, this phone can be loaded with MP3s simply by dragging them and dropping them.  That means there's no need for additional software, or anything to frighten off first time MP3 owners. The phone appears as a separate drive, thanks to the USB cable, which even the least experienced computer owner must be ok with. There's also a 64MB MicroSD card included, which can obviously be increased as required.

It's got a 1.3 megapixels camera, which has a light. It's got a surprising number of settings, including 6 different white balance ranging from cloudy to incandescent (oo'er), as well as the ability to take three different shots in quick succession to make sure you get the best one. The pictures are also on the removable disk, meaning they stand a better chance of eventually getting off your phone.

The Bad

Although the drag and drop MP3 player is good, it still has the potential to confuse a first-timer. Two drives appear in your Explorer window, and the instructions don't tally with what you see on your screen, which spells the beginning of a tedious few trial and error minutes.  There's also absolutely no word on what file formats it accepts, but after more trial and error, I can tell you it's not WMA files, but is MP3 files.  So, essentially, the manual sucks.

Being a budget phone, the connectivity is limited. There's no Bluetooth, which means despite being a music-centric phone, you can't pair it with Bluetooth headphones. The menu screen is also ill designed, being grey apart from the highlighted icon you scroll through. Bearing in mind it's a bright 262k colour screen, it seems a waste.

In our opinion

The Lobster 544 costs £70 on Pay As You Talk, which sits below most other PAYT phones with these features.  The big draw is the MP3 player, with an interface that is about as simple as you can get (if you can navigate the minefield that is the instruction manual).  Overall, it's  good value for money and although is no great shakes spec wise, will suit the budget consumer.

LG claims UK's first phone with 5 megapixel camera

The KG920 stakes its claim as the UK's first mobile phone with a 5 megapixel camera. Yes, five. That's better than many dedicated compact digital cameras and is a big step forward in combining imaging with communication.

Its twist design allows the camera to rotate up to 180 degrees so you can preview self-portraits. It's got a 4x digital zoom, and though all digital zooms don't always give the best pictures, with 5 megapixels and auto-focus to play with, there's more chance of getting a decent, unpixelated shot. It also has a built-in Xenon/LED flash that will reach 1.5 metres.

There's also an MP3/AAC music player, and a 256Mb memory card is included for music and photo storage. It's Bluetooth enabled, and can sync to your PC.

Whilst it doesn't have all the features of higher-end dedicated compact camera, it's certainly going to narrow the gap between the kinds of images you can take on your mobile compared to a dedicated camera, and helps reduce gadget clutter for the casual photographer / party snapper. It weighs in at 130g, with dimensions 10.8cm x 5cm x 1.8cm.

Coming in August, price to be confirmed.

BenQ-Siemens E81: stylish compact business phone

Presumably the business angle to this phone, the BenQ-Siemens E81, is about its look and compactness, because it still boasts plenty of cool media features as per the other two new phones from BenQ-Siemens. Fun and business?

Videos can be played back on the 1.8 inch colour screen, these and music can be streamed from the Net. It has a 1.3 megapixel camera with built in LED flash, plus ability to shoot video and make video calls. No direct specs on the quality of this but I'd guess it's based on the E71s abilities.

It's been ergonomically designed with comfort and intuitive operation in mind.

It too can dock with the SyncStation DSC-100 - though it's implied that it doesn't come as standard with the E80. We'll see what's bundled when it's released in late 2006.

The main thing BenQ-Siemens is emphasising with this phone is its 3G connectivity, which it says is the first device in this 'mini format' to offer such extensive 3G functionality. Of course, that's reliant on the operator services to back it up.

Looks pretty smart to me.

More BenQ-Siemens: E71 SL91

BenQ-Siemens E71, curvy mobile inspired by water

From a jet black phone in its shell, to a phone inspired by water, the BenQ-Siemens E71 has curves designed to fit the hand, with a special coating that's supposed to minimise fingerprints and other grubbiness.

It has a 1.3 megapixel camera with 5x digital zoom - maybe a little meagre by today's mobile standards but not bad - which can also shoot 320x240 video in Mpeg4 format. There's an MP3 player, FM radio, and ability to take micro-SD cards. The battery gives 400 minutes of play time, though no word on how much talk time that gives you.

It comes with the SyncStation DSC-100 dock for charging and connecting to PC and stereo headset.

The keys are slightly raised above the handset body, and there's a 5-way navigation key.

Though it's not explicitly stated, I presume this is a Bluetooth-enabled phone as there are optional Bluetooth accessories for it.

It'll be available in two colour variations, 'Dark Silver' and 'Onyx Black', from late 2006, prices and networks to be confirmed.

More BenQ-Siemens: E81 SL91

BenQ-Siemens SL91, new slider phone

After we revealed Moto's slider yesterday, today it's BenQ-Siemens turn with their jet-black SL91.

SL for slider? SL for sleek?

Well, whichever, this phone 'looks and feels like smooth dark glass', and when it's touched it reveals their Force Sensitive Resistor (FSR) technology - in other words, the surface reacts to pressure and reveals navigation keys.

They seem keen to promote its aesthetics, encouraging you to show it off in its shell so that it becomes a 'design object' in your home or office, but let's leave that for a moment and look at the features.

OK, that shell is quite useful, functioning as a charger and a dock for synchronising with your PC. It illuminates if you receive a call whilst the phone's in it, or pulsates for a text message or missed call. Sweet. It's also a mobile hi-fi system (show off) and can be used for hands-free calls / conferencing.

The phone? Well, cameras, count 'em. There's a built-in 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus and night shot mode, plus a VGA quality camera on the front for conferencing.

Topped off with an MP3 player and FM radio, and able to take Micro-SD cards for storage, plus a stereo headset thrown in. Surely it's too good for the office?

Available in the UK from late 2006, prices and networks to be confirmed.

More BenQ-Siemens: E81 E71

Review: STRTrk/QTEK 8500 smartphone

The Propaganda

Having seen a whole slew of Windows Mobile based smartphones and Pocket PCs this week, we've got a further review of the HTC STRTrk (otherwise known as the QTEK 8500) having had a bit more of an in-depth look at it. Essentially, it's a smartphone which runs Windows Mobile 5.0, masquerading as a mass market mobile. Available in pink, silver or black, Microsoft are hoping this will be the smartphone that will appeal to a broader selection of people than the corporate workaholics.

The Good

The handset itself is attractive, making it a contender for the many mobile phone users who have no previous experience with smartphones. It's just 15mm thick, and has an external display, as well as external MP3 player controls. These controls also work as call reject and ring silencer buttons when you get an incoming call. The display itself is 2.2" square, which means it's big enough to display a photo of the contact, as well as the name. The cover also features two LED lights, which tell you the battery level, Bluetooth status and network coverage at a glance.

It's loaded with Windows Media Player, which makes it easy to synch music, video and even TV programmes if you're using Windows Media Centre.  It is also equipped with Stereo Bluetooth, which means you can listen to headphones without wires, and control the MP3 player from the controls on the headset. Alternatively, it comes with wired headphones.

Unsurprisingly, the STRTrk works primarily as a phone and then as a data device, so there's nothing to frighten off first time users on opening the phone. The typepad is similar to Motorola's laser-etched design, which some people love and others hate (I'm a hater, and obviously suffer from butcher's fingers).  There's two soft keys which initially link to a Windows Start button shortcut, and another for contacts.

ActiveSync is easy to set up, as are POP3 accounts. This is fairly essential when you bear in mind the market for this phone which is not confined to those using corporate servers.

The Bad

Although the Windows Media Player is easy, in it's current state it can't hold any more than three songs. You can expand the 64Mb of internal memory via a MiniSD card. Unfortunately, the slot for this is tucked under the battery, and under the SIM card, making it fiddly to install. It also means that you have to take out the SIM card every time you put in or change the card.

The phone also isn't as nippy as you might like. There were occasions during the test when messages took a while to appear, and it seemed that the MP3 player suffered if you were using something complicated like the camera. That's the camera that doesn't have a light, by the way.

The messaging is also a bit clumsy. Unlike many phones, there aren't any shortcuts. For instance, if you want to compose a new message, you've got to go to Start/Messages and then swop out of whatever view you were previously in (Email message from the boss for instance) and then trail back through your email inbox, then choose your text message inbox and finally you can choose 'new message'.  By which time, you wish you'd just called the person.

Connectivity wise, there's no Wifi or 3G support which many other Windows Mobile devices now include.

In our opinion

It seems that this phone doesn't really know what it is. It's not intuitive enough to rival a mass market handset like a Sony Ericsson W700i, despite having the credentials there in theory (different colours, MP3 player externally, 1.3 megapixel camera). On the other hand, the lack of QWERTY keyboard and awkward controls makes it hard to make the most of what Windows Mobile can offer.  It seems like it will appeal to those who occasionally want email and internet access, but won't be bothered with the lack of easy shortcuts you'd normally expect from a similar looking phone.  It's available for £305 SIM free, or free on certain O2 contracts.

Motorola launches the entry-level MOTOFONE

Not content with launching three handsets and two Bluetooth headsets yesterday, Motorola has released yet another phone - the entry-level MOTOFONE.

Talk of the look and feel of the handset is big, but specific detail on the technical side is very thin on the ground. Motorola is selling this phone as a stylish mass-market handset (that means low price), with easy functionality that should make sense to most people - including, it would seem, those who struggle to read. That means a redesigned user interface with voice prompts in local languages to guide you through the menu,  messaging, and other key functions. In addition, large graphical icons will highlight the menu features as well as your network status and battery strength. And if you're on a pay-as-you-go account, the phone automatically reports the status of your account after each call or message.

There's no doubting it looks good, it's as thin as the RAZR and features what Motorola describe as "a revolutionary ClearVision display that leverages Electrophoretic Display (EPD) technology to provide users with a large, high-contrast screen viewable even in bright sunlight". That;s a logn way of saying a sharp, clear screen. The MOTOFONE also features a flush-fitting keypad and a dust-resistant design. Apart from that, we know it features polyphonic ringtones and speakerphone - but not much else, which I suspect means it's not going to have the most advanced of specs.

But you'll be able to find out in the near future, as the phone is set to launch in the second half of this year. Price to be confirmed.

Motorola website

More Motorola:
Motorola's new slider - the MOTORIZR mobile phone
Motorola unveils MOTOKRZR mobile handset

Microsoft next generation smartphones previewed

I recently spent an afternoon being shown the latest and greatest smartphones and Pocket PC's, with a view to finding out what exactly it was that Microsoft were so damn excited about.

Essentially, we're now faced with more choices than ever before, as illustrated by the photo to the left. These are all the phones either currently in the UK, or expected to join us at some point this year.  All of them run of Windows Mobile 5.0, so have Push Email, and the ability to remotely wipe the device if it's lost.

From bottom left - right:

Treo 700w: A controversial one, this. Palm have dumped the Palm OS in favour of the Windows Mobile platform, in a move that has incensed many die-hard Treo fans. Pictured is the US Verizon version, but the result of the recently announced partnering for the next UK Treo between Vodafone and Palm is not expected to be vastly different. The main addition to the keypad is predictably the Windows Start Menu button. As far as a launch date is concerned 'coming soon' was all we got.

T Mobile MDA Vario: This has been available in the UK for a while now. It features a slide-out QWERTY keypad, WiFi, GPRS, EDGE, although no 3G. In fact. it's very similar to...

..The HTC Tytn: We reviewed this a few days ago. It's one of the first Pocket PC brought to us by HTC, who have traditionally manufactured handsets for people like Orange and O2 to stick their name on. It features WiFi, 3G and a slide out QWERTY keyboard. We found it for £50 on an O2 contract, or over £500 SIM free. Available in the UK now.

HTC STRTrk: Confusingly, this is known as StarTrek and as the QTEK 850.  It's a quadband EDGE phone, which features Bluetooth, an MP3 player, a 1.3 megapixel camera and a MicroSD card. This is a departure from the previous phones, since this is aimed squarely at the consumer market - no touchscreen or QWERTY keypad, but available in black, silver and pink. Despite this, it comes fully loaded with Windows Media 5.0 so you've still got all the Direct Push and Windows functionality.  Available in the UK now for £305 SIM free.

Top row left to right:

Samsung I320: This has recently launched in Italy and France, and we were told that a UK launch was planned. It's extremely thin when you put it next to something like a Treo, despite featuring a full QWERTY keypad. It's got 1.3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth and a MicroSD card, although no touchscreen.

HTC MTeoR: This is the more phone-centric offering from HTC. It's 3G, with a 1.3 megapixel camera on the front, and another by the screen for video calls. Again, no QWERTY keypad, or touch screen, but this one is in a candy bar style. This is going to be available in the next 10 days from O2, by the looks of Expansys.

iPAQ HP 6900: This isn't yet available in the UK, although it will be eventually (no definite dates yet, but we'll keep you posted). It's got both a QWERTY keypad and a touchscreen, WiFi, Bluetooth all built into a slim candybar handset. It's been billed as the Treo killer, because of its combination of keypad and touch screen.

So, we've got the handsets. And from the looks of it, we've got the apps. For instance, Slingbox have announced SlingPlayer Mobile, which is already available in the US.  It's exclusively for Windows Mobile based PDAs and smartphones, and allows you to watch your home TV wherever you are, via an internet connection (WiFi USB or Bluetooth). It's not here yet, but watch this space. 

The next launch for Microsoft is with Windows Live, which is currently in Beta testing. It plots your position on the globe, down to the nearest mm or something equally exact, and then gives you all the information you could possibly desire - nearest restaurant, reviews of nearest restaurant, map to the nearest restaurant, cash machine nearest to restaurant, great-aunt Gertrude's opinion of nearest restaurant, all seamlessly integrated with your phone functions. It's not dissimilar to something like Vodafone's Find and Seek service, but looks like it will be better integrated into the Windows Mobile 'experience'.

They're also keen to integrate Windows Media Centre into their devices. This to the right is the Toshiba Gigabeat S which features the Windows Media interface. It's so far only been released in the US, but with 30GB or 60GB of storage, a sharp colour screen and both coming in cheaper than the Apple alternative, it's a bit of a winner.  There aren't currently any plans to bring it to the UK, but with previous models available here, all is not lost.

Motorola's new slider - the MOTORIZR mobile phone

Along with the MOTOKRZR, Motorola has also joined virtually every phone manufacturer and unveiled its first slider phone - the Motorola MOTORIZR.

Yes, you have the option of sliding as well as flipping with Motorola. Again, with that glossy metallic finish you expect from modern-day Motorola, it also features a "chemically-etched spun metal" keypad and optional tattoo graphics (to match your own maybe?). The MOTORIZR has a 2 megapixel camera on-board, with the slider design improving on-the-go imaging by offering a landscape display. The camera is also programmed point-and-shoot keys. You also get a built-in music player, which supports a variety of formats and there's video shooting too, plus EDGE support and stereo Bluetooth.

Like the MOTOKRZR, a price is still to be confirmed, but you should be able to get your hands on the MOTORIZR in the latter part of this year.

Motorola website

More nobiles:
Motorola unveils MOTOKRZR mobile handset
Nokia's N93 camcorder phone now in UK stores

MOTORAZR maxx phone kick-starts Motorola's HSDPA charge

Besides announcing its sleek new MOTOKRZR mobile handset today, Motorola has also unveiled its first HSDPA-capable phones, to take advantage of the 3G broadband networks being rolled out by the operators.

Pick of the bunch is the MOTORAZR maxx, a tarted up version of the 3G RAZR that supports HSDPA and EDGE connectivity, but also boasts a 2.0 megapixel camera (plus another VGA one for video-calls), dedicated keys for its music player application, and a microSD memory card slot.

The handset is expected to be available in the run-up to Christmas this year, hopefully tying in with wider HSDPA launches by the mobile operators. In the UK, Vodafone already offers HSDPA - albeit for laptop users only at the moment - while T-Mobile has announced plans to launch in August. O2, Orange and T-Mobile won't be far behind.

Motorola website

Motorola unveils MOTOKRZR mobile handset

It's a busy day at Motorola, with a host of new products to the market - including this super-slim MOTOKRZR handset, which hacks more than a centimetre off the Motorola RAZR's width.

The MOTOKRZR is certainly a looker - with its metallic gloss finish, polished chrome and hardened glass. It's available for both GSM and CDMA networks, the GSM MOTOKRZR (which we'll see in the UK) featuring a high resolution 2 megapixel camera, stereo Bluetooth audio, an updated phone directory and new messaging applications, while both versions offer integrated music players and expandable memory up to 1GB. The CDMA MOTOKRZR also features touch-sensitive music controls, advanced EVDO data services and location-based services capabilities.

We can't give you a price for the MOTOKRZR as yet, but we can tell you it should be available from most networks in the second half of this year - which isn't long to wait.

Motorola website

More mobiles:
Nokia's N93 camcorder phone now in UK stores
Nokia's N73 3G handset hits the stores

Nokia's N93 camcorder phone now in UK stores

Along with the N73, Nokia launched the N93 camcorder phone back in April. And like the N73, the N93 has hit the stores this week.

The N93 certainly turned heads on its launch because of one feature - video recording. It features a 3.2 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and offers DVD-like video capture at 30 frames per second, plus 3x optical zoom with video stabilisation and a 2.4-inch QVGA display. And you can connect it directly to your TV for widescreen playback.

As a phone/communication device, it's Wi-Fi and 3G and EDGE compatable. Internal memory is 50MB but this can be expanded via miniSD to 2GB - which should offer around 90 minutes of video footage or 2,500 high-quality photos.

The Nokia N93 is based on S60 3rd Edition software on Symbian OS and is avaialble to buy now. Price, as ever, is dependent on contract.

Nokia website

More Nokia:
Nokia's N73 3G handset hits the stores
Nokia launches UK online shop

Mobile phones: we're dependent and it's changing our relationships

Observe any train carriage, bus, pavement, pub, burger bar, shop, someone will be texting or chatting or taking a photo.

Brits are obsessed with their phones, to the extent that 90% said they couldn't go a whole day without using their phone.

Hour, more like.

The mobile phone can also act as a deterrent: 54% of females under 25 said they had used one when out alone to put people off from approaching them.

1 in 10 people have had their handset stolen; at the same time, nearly half said they would use their mobile to record a crime in progress.

The Carphone Warehouse, who commissioned the survey, concluded that there are six 'tribes' of mobile users:

• Generation Mobile: 18-24s students/1st jobbers
• Phonatics: 18-34s - mobile very important
• Practical Parents: young price-conscious families
• Fingers and Thumbs: middle-aged - presumably not too tech-savvy
• Smart Connected: 25-44s use mobiles for work and social life
• Silver Cynics: approaching retirement

In related news, over half of mobile users aged 18-24 have used their phone to ask someone out (or be asked out) on a date, or exchanged sexually-explicit text messages.

Only half agreed that flirting via text message (with someone else, presumably) would be a form of cheating on their partner. "It acts as a kind of subliminal zone, an exclusive forum where the normal social rules are suspended," said Kate Fox, director of the Social Issues Research Centre.

Are you in the 90%? Could you go without your mobile for a day?

Samsung's two-way sliding SGH-B450 mobile phone

Forget one-way slider phones, it seems like the next 12 months is going to be all about two-way sliding. Following on from the LG-KH1000 comes the Samsung SGH-B450, described by the company as a "free folder" phone.

The SGH-B450 can open up vertically (clamshell-fashion) but also horizontally. Details on the specification are thin, but Samsung says it will incorporate a DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) satellite TV receiver, along with a set of 3D games. Hardly surprising, with gaming and TV viewing sure to benefit from the landscape screen. It will also feature VibeTonz - customised vibration that Samsung has used previously on the E770 in the UK.

More specific details will be available if this phone reaches the UK in some form. It's been launched with a price equivalent to £341.

Samsung website

Via The Register

More mobiles:
3 adds K610i and K800i Cyber-shot phones to its range
BenQ-Siemens' EF61 Mia Special Edition 'make-up phone'

BenQ-Siemens' EF61 Mia Special Edition 'make-up phone'

If you like the idea of a mobile phone with added style and maybe something to help you stay looking your best, you might want to head over to Shiny Shiny to check out the BenQ-Siemens' EF61 Mia Special Edition.

Described as 'the ultimate make-up phone', this clamshell handset adds some stylish design and other extras, including an integrated compact mirror to the more traditional additions, such as an MP3 player, 1.3 megapixel camera and SD card slot to store all your music tracks and photos.

If that sounds like your kind of phone, get the full rundown over at Shiny Shiny.

Review: LG U890 music phone

The Propaganda

The U890 is billed by LG as a music phone for the fashion lovers. Or a fashion phone for music lovers - it's difficult to decide. With 3G capabilities, it's an upgrade from their popular U880 model, although this time available in blue and pink.

The Good

The music  capabilities are well integrated into the phone. There are external controls, enabling you to turn it on, skip through tracks and adjust the volume without opening the phone. Alternatively you can use the 3 Player (when in 3G coverage), which is 3's music programme. This makes buying new tracks a piece of cake, making it tempting to part with significant  amounts of cash on a regular basis.  It's equipped with stereo Bluetooth, so you can listen through headphones without the wires. If you do want to use wired headphones, you have to use those supplied as it's not a normal headphone jack. Storage comes in the for of 71MB of internal memory, and a MiniSD slot for expanding this.

LG have also managed to squeeze on a surprising number of shortcut keys onto the keypad. There are buttons dedicated to Mobile TV, the 3 homepage, messages, recent calls, ringing profiles, phone list... the list goes on.   This doesn't make the phone chunky though - it's one of the slimmest 3G phones out there, at 1.8 cm thick.

The Bad

The keypad. Seriously. It's horrible. Vaguely nodding towards the RAZR laser-etched pad, it's difficult to hit the right button first time. Or at least the right button exclusively. This is especially true with the shortcut keys - because there are so many, it's tricky navigating.

You also can't listen to music in the background whilst using the phone to, say, send a text. When the music is playing all your shortcut keys suddenly turn into controls for the player, making it impossible to do anything else.

The Truth

Design-wise, it's personal preference. I'm of the opinion that it looks like a chunkier but smaller in length phone put through a mangle - whilst it's thin, it's not small in the other dimensions. However, I know several people that really like the design, so I'm willing to compromise on that.

When it comes to functions, it's generally a good phone. The music features are well integrated and there are sensible additions, like stereo Bluetooth, and a MiniSD memory card. However, it won't compare to many other music phones on the market, such as the SE W850i, because of factors like not being able to have music playing in the background whilst you do other things. 

Available free on contract with 3, it's a 3G phone with decent music credentials. However, with LG's launch last week of the U400, a seriously feature packed music phone, this model might find itself out of favour.

DoCoMo + Aquafairy Co. = "micro" fuel cells

The delightfully named Aquafairy is teamed with the peculiarly-hypnotically named DoCoMo to develop even tinier fuel cells to run the FOMA 3G handsets under even more demanding situations (mobiles with built-in cameras, mp3 players, GPS, and toasters).  The latest buzz is about a polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC) that'll be unveiled at the Wireless Japan 2006 in Tokyo.  It's another hydrogen cell, but twice as powerful as last year's methanol cell (shown here) and a quarter the size, since it uses Aquafairy thin film power unit technology (go go power unit!) and also their catalyst for turning water into hydrogen.  So it's better for the environment, too!  [GT]

PEFC story: Fuel cells aim to keep cellphones running all day

Related stories: H-racer - the hydrogen car is here! | Hot news from Japan: A palm-sized portable fuel cell | Toshiba promises 60 hours battery on MP3 players for 2007

$4.5bn wasted every year on "No Fault Found" mobile phone returns

A recent study suggests that nearly two-thirds of mobile phones returned to the manufacturer by consumers are in perfect working order.

Of these:

* 38% were from users who gave up after trying to use a specific application, and failing.
* 13% were from consumers who said they'd been mis-sold the device and it was unfit for purpose.
* 49% were from those who thought that a lack of pre-configuration was a fault.

Each returned phone costs the industry around £35, which adds up to £54m in costs to the UK mobile industry, and $4.5bn globally.

According to Doug Overton, Head of Communications for WDSGlobal, “The mobile phone has become the poor relation to its consumer electronics cousins; mp3 players, digital cameras and mobile gaming devices all generally provide a more fulfilling out of box experience to the consumer. The industry needs to look at the causes behind this trend and take positive action to improve the general out of box experience for the mobile subscriber; a simple analysis of support call trends and records provides all the necessary intelligence to work upon”.

Once again, the industry also blames poorly trained sales staff, with a mystery shopper survey revealing that "40% of assistants were not accurately positioning or selling products". Bet they know what the latest ringtones are though...

Then again, some of the responsibility has to fall on the consumer. The terms "research" and "RTFM" spring to mind.

One Minute Review: Samsung E870

Following the review of the Samsung E870 a few days ago, here is a One Minute Review, for those who would like to see it (almost) in the flesh.

O2 to boost i-mode range with LG and Samsung clamshell handsets

According to The Register, O2 is set to increase its limited range of i-mode phones with two new handsets later this month - the LG L343i and the Samsung SGH-S401i.

The LG L343i (pictured) is a clamshell handset with a 262,144-colour screen, Bluetooth, a 300,000 pixel camera, speakerphone and tri-band connectivity. The Samsung SGH-S401i (pictured after the turn) is also a clamshell handset, with a 65,536-colour screen, along with Bluetooth connectivity and a VGA camera.

The new phones will bring the number of i-mode handsets up to six, with this increasing to seven when O2 adds an i-mode version of the Motorola SLVR in the near future.

The L343i should sell for around £100, with the S401 available for around £110.

O2's i-mode website

Via The Register

More i-mode:

eBay joins O2's i-mode service
Sony Ericsson unveils K610im - the i-mode 3G phone

T-Mobile offers Push Email on MDA devices

  T-Mobile is offering a business-friendly Microsoft Push Email service on its range of MDA devices, including the MDA Pro, MDA Vario and MDA Compact II.

The Microsoft Push Email service from T-Mobile, which works over GPRS, 3G and Wi-Fi, will be available to customers using Microsoft Exchange 2003 Service Pack 2. Users will be automatically alerted for access to incoming email, which will be delivered directly from the customer’s Exchange Server as and when they arrive. Other security benefits of the new service include centrally controlled password protection - so that users have to unlock their device using a password, local data wipe - which enables you to decide how many incorrect logon attempts are permitted and remote wipe - which means that lost or stolen devices can be reset remotely over the web, removing company-sensitive data.

It's available to use via any of T-Mobile’s data tariffs. For full details of the service and pricing, visit the T-Mobile website.

T-Mobile

More T-Mobile:
T-Mobile does unlimited web access
3G broadband from T-Mobile in August

Review: Samsung E870

The Samsung E870 is big on looks. Which it needs to be, because it's fairly small on everything else. Strictly speaking, it probably falls into the catergory of 'lady phone', the type of which Samsung churn out at an alarming rate.

Looks-wise, it sports white paint on the inside, and a kind of brushed-silver on the outside. Whilst the silver looks classy, and stays scratch-free despite the paint job, the inner white is supremely plasticky and looking at it makes you think of white the way you would have done pre-iPod times.  Picking it up, you'll notice that it's pretty damn light - about 80 grams they reckon. It's been a big point of debate here, split into those that like the Japanese-esque disposability feel, and those that are afraid their Sasquach-sized hands might accidentally break it.

As far as the functions available to you are concerned, it's fairly minimal.  In fact, the main menu has only 9 options in it, and one of those is the calendar.

It does come equipped with an MP3 player, accessible from a shortcut key from the main screen. The internal memory can be increased via a micro-SD slot, the cards for which currently go up to 1GB.

The camera is 1.3 megapixels for still pictures and MP4 clips, and the pictures show up well on the bright and decent-sized screen on the phone. There's also an LCD flash you can use (I'm seeing dots in front of my eyes as we speak).

In a nod towards the more businesslike consumers, it is equipped to deliver and receive email, and also includes a document viewer. This is slightly bizarre, bearing in mind how low spec it is in other areas - will anyone actually use this?

Apart from this, there really isn't a lot more you could say about the phone. It's definitely a case of style over substance, but what it does do, is done simply and without a fuss.

It's available free on contract with O2 now.

Review: Sagem my700x

Sagem mobile phone handsets don’t tend to be found alongside the likes of the Motorola Razr, the LG Chocolate or the Sony Ericsson W800i, but Sagem’s latest release, the my700x, is making a good start towards changing all that. The guys over GadgetCentre have been trying out this latest flagship model and found that beneath the distinctive exterior, which comes in different styles for men and women, there’s a solid feature set including an MP3 player making use of a removable MiniSD card slot. Menu navigation, call quality and overall design come out pretty favourably too. Tennis fans should also keep an eye out for the limited edition Roland Garros version as well. Read the full review here.

LG adds coloured versions to its Chocolate Phone range

I'm guessing you've heard more than enough about LG's stylish Chocolate Phone (also known as the KG 800) - but if you're still in the dark about the fashionista's favourite, check out our review.  But before you rush down to the shops to buy one, you may like to know that LG is introducing 'premium' Chocolate Phones before the end of the year - in white and pink.

We have managed to get hold of pictures of the new phone (see the pink one also after the turn), but the exact specifications of the new phones still aren't clear. The company does, however, mention "unique design variations" and "enhanced technical specifications". They also say the new models will get a UK launch across Q3 and Q4 of 2006 - which could mean anytime from August, with the idea of making a number of Christmas lists.

There's no doubting the success of the initial black model - with more than one million units globally in just eight weeks since early May, so it's odds-on that brightly coloured models will fly off the shelves to those who want to stay one step ahead of the crowd.

As soon as we get the new spec and full release details, we'll let you know.

LG website www.lge.com

Samsung's SGH-i320 "BlackBerry-beater" heads to Europe

Samsung has announced it is to bring the BlackBerry-like SGH-i320 Windows Mobile 5.0-based phone to Europe later this month.

Weighing in at 95g and measuring 11.1 x 5.9 x 1.2cm, the tri-band phone with EDGE support features a 2.2-inch, 240 x 320, 65,536-colour display, a QWERTY keyboard, a 1.3mp camera and Bluetooth. It supports Windows Mobile 5.0's push email, along with all the expected phone, media playback and recording facilities, along with a speakerphone. There's 120MB of memory on board, with a MicroSD slot for more.

As yet, prices and networks haven't been announced.

Samsung website

Via The Register

More smartphones:
O2 brings BlackBerry 7130 to the UK
First Windows 3G phones launched by HTC

Review: Vodafone/Sony Ericsson V630i

There’s a lot going on with the V630i. The new multimedia phone from Sony Ericsson packs so much in, you’re bound to be shocked when you hear it ring, reminding you of the reason phones were invented.

It's a feature-packed 3G phone, available exclusively through Vodafone. And this is no random partnership – the V630i has been kitted out with a menu that makes the most of what Vodafone Live! (its 3G service) has to offer. For instance, Mobile TV, launched last year, is now available through the main Entertainment menu on the phone, rather than through the browser.

Radio DJ is also available through the main menu. Announced in January this year, this is a Pandora-esque music service intelligent enough to learn your music tastes as you rate the tracks it selects for you.  There are also additional services available, such as pre-defined compilations (Johnny Cash, Where’s Summer?), and a ‘Wishlist’ of tracks you intend to buy, very much like a shopping cart. In practice, the phone I tested got a bit bogged down loading 'My Channels' (Indie/Rock/Powerful/All decades, since you ask) so whether it can truly distinguish between The Pussycat Dolls and Cat Stevens remains to be seen.

The speaker on the phone is adequate, if you want to annoy those around you, but the phone is bundled with headphones, indicating that Sony Ericsson expect this phone to be used as a personal MP3 player.

So, to the blogging. When you take a photo (with the 2.0 megapixel camera) it gives you the option of blogging it on Blogger.com. It takes about 5 minutes to initially set up the account (or link it to one you already have with Blogger) after which you’re free to document a blow-by-blow account of your life. Fantastically easy, but sporadic in practice. I managed to submit one post (here), before it decided I was too boring to bother with. However, I am sadly in a 3G black hole, so I’m going to assume that it works perfectly for those with adequate coverage.

Other functions indicate that this is a phone for those who travel, particularly those who travel light. On switching it on, you’re immediately given the option of ‘Normal’ mode or ‘In-flight’ mode, enabling you to write emails, but without actually being able to make or receive calls. Think of all the plane crashes that will now be prevented. Or perhaps just the disapproving flight attendants who will no longer be disapproving.

So yes, it’s got Push email. And another for the travelers is the ability to use it as a storage device – connecting it via USB to your PC you’ll see it register as a drive, so you can simply drag and drop files. It’s also got the ability to deliver RSS feeds direct to your phone. There is basically no escape from the world. Ever.

Which is kind of the problem – it does so much stuff, it’s almost overwhelming. It’s got all the business tools, as well as all the entertainment tools. And then it’s got all the phone tools. And by the time you get to the end of it… well, you kind of crave the days when a phone made calls. However, in bitesize chunks, it’s a wonder of modern technology.

The phone is available this month (July, duh) on Vodafone. Pricing will depend on your call plan, but expect to pay - it's a high-end phone. [Susi]

BenQ-Siemens EL71 ultra-slim slider phone

Another day, another slider phone. But as they're the fashionista's phone of choice right now, that's no bad thing. The latest candidate for your cash is the BenQ-Siemens EL71, a very slim phone with a decent specification behind the looks.

BenQ-Siemens describe it as "the cutting edge of design" with its compact shape, brushed aluminium finish and stainless steel keypad. It's certainly an attractive handset, but it's also got some nice features. There's a 2-inch QVGA display (262,144 colours). a decent integrated 1.3mp digital camera with LED flash and a video function for shooting and replaying short movie sequences. There's also a music player on board, which plays MP3 and AAC+ music files and by using the Music Cable IHM-100 (available sepearately), the EL71 can be connected to any hi-fi system. Memory is a less-than-great 16MB internal memory, but this can be increased up to 1GB by microSD cards.

The BenQ-Siemens EL71 will be available in July in the UK in "Quartz Anthracite" and "Opal Black" from free on contract and from £250 sim-free.

BenQ-Siemens website

More mobiles:
Samsung unveils black E900 slider phone with 2mp camera
LG U300 3G handset exclusively available on 3

Samsung unveils black E900 slider phone with 2mp camera

Yet another slider phone to feast your eyes on - this time from Samsung, which has launched the E900, a hip looking mobile with a decent specification to match.

It's a slider phone with a black gloss finish and touch-sensitive keypad, so already the company is ticking the boxes for the fashion phone market. But it's more than a pretty face. There's a 2.05-inch 262K colour TFT display and 2mp camera with flash and video recording functionality on board - ideal for your night out clubbing. The E900's music player can playback MP3, AAC, ACC+, AAC+(e) and WMA files and features background play and track pausing as soon as you take a call. There's 80MB of storage on board, but this can be boosted via Micro SD card. There's also Bluetooth and USB connectivity, 

The Samsung E900 should be available at The Carphone Warehouse, The Link, Phones 4U, O2, Orange, Virgin and Vodafone stores. Price dependent on contract.

Samsung website

More mobiles:
LG U300 3G handset exclusively available on 3
Samsung's Ultra Edition - the world's slimmest mobile phones

LG U300 3G handset exclusively available on 3

3 has announced the UK launch of the LG U300 clamshell handset, available in black, orange and "chameleon" (which I don't expect will change colour according to your surroundings).

It's a fairly attractive handset, with a reasonable specification. It features a 2-inch LCD screen, a rotating 1.3MP camera and a music player for AAC, AAC+, ADPCM, AMR and WMA formats, with music likely to be stored in Micro SD card (128MB card comes with the phone) with only 10MB of internal space. A plus for music fans is Bluetooth A2DP - so you can easily stream your tracks to wireless headphones. You can also download tracks directly to your phone from 3's music store.

In addition, there's video calling, email, SMS and video MMS, with talk time around 135 minutes and a standby time of 220 hours. The LG U300 is available now, price dependent on contract.

Find out more

More LG:
Hands on with LG's DVB-H TV phone
LG Chocolate Phone review

3 launches instant access email for mobiles

3 is launching mobile email services for both business and consumer users who want instant access to email.

3 Mobile Mail is effectively "push" email, allowing you to pick up and send emails on your handset exactly as you would on your PC without having to actively download it. If you sign up, you can  send and receive emails from your existing accounts with the likes of Yahoo, AOL, MSN or indeed any POP3 service. Once the email account has been registered, emails are automatically delivered to the handset, accompanied by an on-screen alert, at the same time as being
delivered to the PC. It costs £2.50 per month and has a usage allowance of 10MB.

Mobile Office Mail caters for business users who want instant access to emails from their own mail exchange server, such as Lotus and Exchange. It costs £5 per month with a 15MB usage allowance so that attachments can be downloaded. There are no set-up costs as no system integration work is required.  The service will also synchronise contacts and calendar between PC and phone.

Both services will be available on the new Nokia E61 smart phone, launching this week, as well as the Nokia N80, Motorola A1000 and QTEC 9000 before rolling out across all of 3's handsets.

3 website

More from 3:
MSN Messenger on your 3 mobile
3 pays punters to receive voice calls and text messages

Samsung's Ultra Edition - the world's slimmest mobile phones

Samsung are keeping ahead of the crowd when it comes to slim mobile phones with the launch of the Ultra Edition series over at CommunicAsia 2006, including one handset it claims is the thinnest phone ever made.

The Ultra Edition 6.9 (AKA X820) is 6.9mm thin and is claimed to be the world's slimmest phone. But that's not all -  the Ultra Edition 12.9 (D900) is touted as the world’s slimmest slider phone, with a depth of just 12.9mm. while the Ultra Edition 9.9 (D830), at 9.9mm, is the world's thinnest clamshell. All three are tri-band models with EDGE compatibility, with between 60-80MB of flash memory onboard and with the exception the X820, can have storage boosted further via microSD cards. All are also Bluetooth-enabled and play MP3, AAC, AAC+, AAC +(e) and WMA music formats.

The X820 has a 2MP camera and 1.9-inch screen, the D830 has a 2MP camera and 2.3-inch screen and the D900 has a 3.13MP camera along with a 2.1-inch screen. All the phones come with viewers for Office documents, JPGs and PDFs, while the hardware has been designed using Samsung's Smart Surface Mounting Technology (SSMT), which cuts down on the number of components inside.

No news on a UK launch, but expect plenty of excitement when they do.

Samsung website

Via Digital World Tokyo

More mobiles:
Sony Ericsson unveils K610im - the i-mode 3G phone
Nokia 6151 - the budget 3G mobile phone

BenQ-Siemens M81 - the mobile phone for the great outdoors

Nokia recently released the 5500 Sport - a mobile for those who enjoy thier outdoor pursuits. Now BenQ-Siemens has followed suit with a similar device - the M81.

The M81 features a blue and white water-resistant rubber and plastic casing, along with a scratch-resistant screen to protect the 132 x 176, 262,144-colour display. There's also a 1.3MP phone with an LED flash that doubles up as a torch, plus the usual music, video and gaming applications, along with EDGE support.

More unusually, the M81 ships with navigation software - Jentro's Activepilot - and a dedicated weather outlook application. A GPS receiver is extra, as is access to updated meteorological forecasts.

The M81 will be available in August, in blue and white or black and white. Price to be confirmed.

BenQ-Siemens website

Via The Register

More mobiles:
Sagem’s My700x gets a colourful UK release
T-Mobile offers World Cup Nokia N70 with CoPilot Live

Sagem’s My700x gets a colourful UK release

After the recent launch of Sagem's special edition My700x Roland-Garros handset, we did wonder if they'd bring out a Wimbledon version for the UK market. Well, guess what? They haven't - but Sagem have brought out two new versions of the My700x for the UK.

The ultra-slim My700x will be available here in a choice of pink and white or brown and blue. The specification seems to be the same as the previous French version. It's a quad band handset with EDGE technology, a 1.3MP camera and what Sagem describe as "iPodesque" music facilities with MP3 and AAC playback, an FM radio and 3D sound. There's also a video player on board, along with a selection of games.

It's got USB  and Bluetooth connectivity, plus a Mini SD slot for storage. If you fancy picking one up, you'll have to wait a little longer as there's no confirmation of networks or price as yet, but that should be announced in the next few weeks.

Sagem website

More mobiles:
T-Mobile offers World Cup Nokia N70 with CoPilot Live
Motorola's Dolce & Gabbana-styled RAZR V3i now on sale

T-Mobile offers World Cup Nokia N70 with CoPilot Live

We told you a couple of months back that CoPilot Live would be available for Symbian Series 60 phones, with the first model to benefit being the Nokia N70. Well, from today you can pick up this combined phone and sat device from your local T-Mobile dealer.

This special World Cup edition Nokia N70 World Cup is the latest phone to be added to T-Mobile’s web'n'walk portfolio and includes the official FIFA 2006 World Cup football game from EA Sports, football themed icons, ringtones, wallpaper, access to World Cup highlights and of course, CoPilot Live.

CoPilot Live offers all the satellite navigation functionality you'd expect from a dedicated device, but with a few added extras, including real-time location tracking via the internet and live traffic information, delivered to the phone via web'n'walk. In addition, an Instant Detour button allows you to find a way around the side streets if they hit an unexpected hold-up. For more on CoPilot's functions click here.

Pricing for the N70 with CoPilot varies from free to around £300, dependent on your package. The N70 as a standalone is available from free to around £150.

More from the T-Mobile website

More mobiles:
T-Mobile streams Robbie Williams gigs to 3G phones
Motorola's Dolce & Gabbana-styled RAZR V3i now on sale

Nokia and Central Saint Martins design mobile phone of the future

What do you get if you cross a mobile phone giant with a London school of art and design? The Nokia 111 - a fictitious phone that's now on display at the Future of Mobile Design exhibition.

For six months, 25 Industrial Design students from London’s CSM College of Art and Design have been working to a brief from Nokia to create a mass market handset for 4 or 5G services up to the year 2015 - the winning design was made into a dummy handset by Nokia for the exhibition. The design finally chosen by Nokia was this one by Daniel Meyer - apparently inspired both by video calling and the traditional practice of carrying pictures of friends or family members with you (in other words, it sits on your desk).

In view of how mobile phones have changed in the last 10 years, I'd have expected something a little more radical for the coming decade. But if you want to take a closer look at this particular vision of the future, you can see it at the Future of Mobile Design exhibition, which runs from 13th - 16th June 2006 at the Air Gallery, Dover Street, London W1S. Entry is free.

Nokia website

More mobiles:
Mobile ticketing could beat the touts, says Nokia
The Mobile Phone Of The Future is Here!

Motorola's Dolce & Gabbana-styled RAZR V3i now on sale

Previously featured on Tech Digest, this gold-coloured version of Motorola's RAZR V3i clamshell handset, co-branded by Italian fashion house Dolce & Gabbana, is surely the must-have for the chav (or chavette) in your life. And now they can have one, as it's available from today.

Apart from the D&G logo and the gold colour scheme, the phone's just your standard V3i (not even the slightly upgraded iTunes-friendly V3im), which means a quad-band phone with video-capture capable 1.23-megapixel camera and Bluetooth.

But prospective purchasers aren't going to be buying for the technology, it's all about the look. And to go with it, you can pick up some D&G-themed and gold-colouredstereo headphones and an "eel skin" carrying case. Nice. These are available to purchase separately - the only extras you get with the phone are a D&G logo pendant, pre-loaded MP3 ringtones and matching screen themes.

Available from today at selected Dolce & Gabbana stores and all major Motorola stockists - but with no price confirmed as yet, enter at your peril.

Motorola website

Via The Register

More fashion phones:
LG's chocolate phone
Super hip Cavalli-styled LG U880

The Mobile Phone Of The Future is Here!

Design firm Alloy used today’s MEX conference - it stands for Mobile User Experience - to unveil its latest concept phone, the Polygon. It’s their attempt to design a handset that’s actually half-decent for accessing multimedia content - whether it’s TV, music, taking photos or surfing the Web.

And it looks.... like a normal phone, actually. It’s a clamshell phone which replaces the buttons on the bottom half with a rugged touchscreen, which changes according to what you’re using it for.

So when you’re playing music, the touchscreen looks like an iPod. When you’re watching TV, you turn the phone sideways and the touchscreen morphs into channel-switching controls. When you surf the Web, it becomes a QWERTY keyboard. It’s a neat idea - and in every case leaves the top screen completely free for whatever content you’re viewing / accessing.

“People want a hi-res screen to watch TV on, but they also want a tougher low-res touchscreen to control it with,” said Gus Desbarats, chairman of Alloy. “They don’t like mixing the two - getting your grubby finger marks over the screen you’re watching your TV programme on.”

The phone has been designed with the aim of being feasible within 2-3 years, so don’t expect to see this sort of thing on the shelves at Carphone Warehouse tomorrow. But it’s an intruiging look at how handsets may develop in the future. Who knows, it may even persuade people that mobile TV is a good idea.

One flaw picked out by the audience was that this morphable touchscreen wouldn’t be very good for playing mobile games on - something Desbarats accepted as a fair point.

“Yes is the short answer,” he said. “We had to take a view on whether we felt that this would be a hot gaming machine, or if games would be another incidental application. Looking back on it, it’s probably an omission. What it came down to was we were very concerned about keeping this as a very practical achievable handset.”

Well, at least you could probably play Tetris on it... We'll have more posts from MEX over the next couple of days, as a room-full of usability experts chew over what's wrong with mobile technology.

Make money from your old mobile phone

It's always the same - as soon as you buy a new mobile, it's superceded by another model. So if you want to keep up, you could end up with a drawer full of old mobiles that are unlikely to see the light of day ever again. So how about trading them in for some cash, in-store credit or a contribution to charity?

One firm, Envirofone.com, has so far paid out more than £250,000 this year alone to people recycling their old mobiles since the beginning of the year. They pay cash, credit that can be used at Argos or you can nominate a charity to benefit. The firm then reconditions the handsets for use overseas, where the cost of new phones is too high for the average person.

It's estimated that around 15 million phones are upgraded each year in the UK, but fewer than three million are recycled or re-used - something envirofone want to change.

According to their chief executive Pete Petrondas: "Unlike traditional schemes, we recognised that we needed to encourage the general public to recycle so we decided to offer them either cash or credit from Argos."

Check out the envirofone website

Via The Register

More eco-friendly ideas:
Eco-friendly iPod case
Personal solar albums

Sony Ericsson W810i, K510i and Z530i phones hit the stores

For anyone shopping around for a new handset in the coming weeks, three Sony Ericsson handsets should now be available with your operator of choice - the W810i, K510i and Z530i phones.

The W810i is a Walkman phone, featuring a digital music player, FM radio, music management software plus 20MB of memory for storage, which you can expand with a Memory Stick. In addition, this quad band EDGE phone with 262.144 color TFT screen features a 2MP camera, full internet browsing and Bluetooth. Talk time is up to 8 hours, with standby of up to 350 hours.

The tri-band K510i with 256k color TFT screen features a 1.3MP camera with digital zoom, video capture and player, 28MB of internal memory, MP3 ringtones, a ringtone composer and Bluetooth. It also supports push email - emails are pushed directly to your mobile without you having to request them.

The Z530i (pictured) is a more affordable tri-band clamshell, with 28MB of on board memory, Memory Stick  expansion, 65k color internal display, VGA camera, Bluetooth and a full HTML browser.

Prices vary for all three, dependent on network and contract.

Sony Ericsson website

More Sony mobiles:
Sony Ericsson’s sporty W710i
Sony Ericsson unveils Z710i and Z550i

BT Glide - the UK's first Bluetooth home phone

BT has unveiled the BT Glide - the UK’s first Bluetooth home phone, allowing you access to all your latest contacts on your phone as you enter your home.

Using Bluetooth technology, the Glide allows your landline handset to communicate with your mobile phone, headset, PDA, laptop or camera, so you can roam around your house and garden without having to carry additional handsets. You can also transfer contact details and updates quickly, so as soon as you enter your house, data from your mobile is synched onto the BT Glide - you might never lose a number again!

In addition, the BT Glide allows you to send and receive text messages using T9 predictive text It also features full graphics colour display, illuminated display, 200 name & number directory (3 entries per name), including mobile SIM copy to directory, caller ID, 300 metre outdoor range and an answering machine. In addition, there's 5 games, 8 polyphonic ringtones, 15 handset ringer melodies, 5 wallpapers and rather strangely, "mood lighting", which can apparently adapt to any setting.

The BT Glide is available for £199.99

Find out more

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BenQ Siemens EF71 - clamshell music phone

Just as the BenQ Siemens E61 comes to the UK, the company announce a new music phone - the BenQ Siemens EF71, equipped with the company's 'Q-Fi' music system - a ten-band equaliser hooked up to a pair of built-in 3D surround-sound speakers.

The EF71 is certainly an attrative phone, housed in a brushed aluminium clamshell casing. It features a 2.2-inch, 176 x 220, 262,144-colour main display and a white, 128 x 64 OLED screen used when the phone is closed. There's also a 2MP camera with 9x digital zoom which can also be used as a webcam when the phone's hooked up to a PC's USB port.

The tri-band GSM/GPRS phone can play music in MP3, AAC or WMA format, but has a measly 24MB of memory on board. However, you can boost this via MicroSD card - BenQ said it will bundle a 256MB card with the handset. Bluetooth is also featured.

The BenQ Siemens EF71 will arrive in Europe in September, prices confirmed nearer to launch date.

BenQ Siemens website

Via The Register

More BenQ Siemens mobiles:
EF51 music phone
E61 music phone

Virgin Mobile bring the BenQ Siemens E61 to the UK market

We covered the slightly quirky BenQ Siemens E61 mobile phone a couple of months ago, noting its similarity to an electric razor, but otherwise finding it quite an interesting music mobile. You'll be able to make your own mind up at the end of the month, as Virgin Mobile is bringing it to the UK market at a price just short of £100 as a pay as you go, or free if you pay monthly.

The phone itself can store up to 500 tracks, controlled by has its own music control panel with five dedicated music keys located on the top of the phone. There's also a 6 band graphic equaliser with 3D surround sound and on-screen lyric display for compatible tracks.

There's also a 65K colour screen, VGA camera, stereo headset and games featured. It's exclusive to Virgin Mobile from the end of May for 6 weeks, with the added bonus of a draw for five customers to win a year’s worth of gig tickets with the purchase of the phone.

Find out more at the Virgin Mobile website

More BenQ Siemens phones:
EF-51 music phone
BenQ-Siemens announces first HSDPA mobile to market

Sony Ericsson’s sporty W710i

Another handset was revealed yesterday in Sony Ericsson’s new mobile line up. This is the W710i – a sporty clamshell also boasting WALKMAN’s good name. This unit also supports the new Memory Stick Micro (M2) format and comes with a 512MB card.

Sony Ericsson has put quite a lot of thought into making this handset perfect for sporty types – it even comes packaged with own armband so you can have easy access to the controls when you’re out running. These controls, incidentally, will cover all the important things like FM and MP3 playback meaning you don’t need to open it up and get at the main menu.

There is a new jogging application can be used to measure speed and distance covered while you’re running. There is also a daily step counter that will display your progress as the day goes on.

The W710i also has an interesting “motion sensor” feature which I’m guessing is related to those jogging applications but it hasn’t been made entirely clear in the press release. On top of all that you have a 2 megapixel, FM radio and EDGE support.

Find out more

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Sony Ericsson unveils Z710i and Z550i

Alongside the W850i, which I’ll happily admit that I’m biased towards simply because it has a built in MP3 player and snazzy new sliding action, Sony Ericcson also wheeled out the Z710i and Z550i – two new clamshells aimed at business users. Each comes with a camera (2.0 and 1.3 megapixel respectively) and some manner of media playback thanks to an integrated FM radio and because each uses the new Memory Stick Micro (M2) storage format.

The Z710i (pictured right) offers a range of PC connectivity options to keep your phone organiser up to speed with your Outlook one and even supports push email if it is supported by E-maile service provider. Using EDGE connectivity you can use the handset to browse the web too. The Z550i (pictured left) is basically more of the same but with slightly more limited specs – there’s no EDGE and the outer screen is quite a bit smaller.

Find out more

More Sony Ericsson:
Hands on with the Sony Ericsson M600
3GSM 2006: hands on with the Sony Ericsson W950

Sagem’s special edition My700x Roland-Garros handset

While many companies have quickly aligned themselves with the World Cup for sports related promotional activities this year, those of us not quite so enthralled by football might be pleased to learn that Sagem is using tennis to promote its latest handset. Named after the famous French Open, the My700x Roland-Garros handset has a very sharp design and boasts the more unique RG logo of the event.

The quad band handset has dimensions of 106 x 46 x 15mm, a 1.3 megapixel camera and boasts an FM radio, MP3 playback and EDGE technology for downloading more tunes. With it you get a tennis games (of course) and a sample of the of the Roland-Garros clay court - ideal for recreating the tournament in minature perhaps.

Needless to say, it’s going to have a bit of a niche market here in the UK and so is going to be sold mainly in La Griffe Roland-Garros in France but it certainly is one smart handset – lets hope for a Wimbledon version later in the summer.

More handsets:
Motorola launches RAZR V3im iTunes phone in the UK
T-Mobile' Samsung E370 - the official England mobile phone with added Peter Crouch

Motorola's Red SLVR Phone for Aids

Motorola has launched a special edition red version of the super skinny SLVR handset as part of a campaign to help fight AIDs, tuberculosis and malaria. The campaign, launched in association with Saint Bono's humanitarian venture, Product Red, will see a portion of profits from the sale of the handset, plus a portion of the call charges go to The Global Fund to eliminate AIDs in Africa. Gap, Converse, Armani and American Express are all in on the act as well, creating special red editions of their products to raise money for the fund.

It's available right now in the UK, and you can join the waiting list if you're not in the UK but still want to purchase the phone.

Moto SLVR in Red (Project Red page) Purchase info (Motorola Website)

Motorola launches RAZR V3im iTunes phone in the UK

Motorola has unveiled an updated version of its V3i mobile - the RAZR V3im, this time featuring the missing ingredient from models previously available in the US - Apple's iTunes music software.

The deep red phone features 128MB of memory, which can be boosted to 512MB using TransFlash/Micro SD memory cards. However, no matter how many tracks you squeeze in, iTunes (for reasons known only to Apple and Motorola) will only list and play 100.

The V3im is a quad-band GSM/GPRS phone featuring Bluetooth, a 1.23MP camera with 8x zoom and a 176 x 220, 262,144-colour main display. A singhle charge offers 200-300 minutes' talk time and up to 310 hours on stand-by. Prices range from free to £265, dependent on your contract.

Find out more from the Apple website

Compare prices for Motorola V3i mobiles here

Via The Register

More mobiles:
Nokia 5500 Sport - the jogger friendly mobile phone
HTC STRTrk smartphone with Windows Mobile 5.0 launches in the UK

Nokia 5500 Sport - the jogger friendly mobile phone

Is it too much to ask people to leave their mobiles at home now and again - perhaps when they're out for a jog? Apparently so - and Nokia has nipped in to launch a mobile that with "athletic lifestyle appeal" in the shape of the Nokia 5500 Sport. And just so the athletes feel at home, it's been made out of trainers - or at least "with materials used in the latest high performance running shoes".

The phone is a tri-band GSM/GPRS device, packed into a liquid and dirt-resistant case with rubber grips. It features a work-out mode that will time your runs and plan your exercise schedule and also contains a pedometer if you're taking it a bit easier. And if you want a bit of music to keep you company, a push of a button flips the handset into music mode. Press again to go back to phone mode. Music (and general) storage is via MicroSD cards.

And don't worry about checking your text messages, the phone can read them out. It can also read out pedometer and work-out information too.

Available from the third quarter in Europe in a "sport" or "business" colour scheme, it should cost around £205.

Nokia website

Via The Register

More mobiles:
Pantech shows off PC-2800 mobile phone with finger writing texting
HTC STRTrk smartphone with Windows Mobile 5.0 launches in the UK

Pantech shows off PC-2800 mobile phone with finger writing texting

South Korean mobile phone maker Pantech has shown off a handset featuring "finger writing recognition", which the company claims is "unique" and something that could change the way we text on our mobiles.

You can still text via keys with the PC-2800, but the clamshell's touch-sensitive keypad also lets you draw out characters with your fingers, with software translating your strokes into numbers and letters.

The phone itself is a fairly standard tri-band GSM phone with a 2-inch, 262,144-colour main display and a 1.2-inch, 65,536 secondary panel. There's also a 1.3MP camera.

As yet, there's no details on price or if this phone will make it to the UK.

Pantech website

Via The Register

More mobiles:
HTC STRTrk smartphone with Windows Mobile 5.0 launches in the UK
LG Chocolate Phone review

HTC STRTrk smartphone with Windows Mobile 5.0 launches in the UK

Good news for all your Trekkies - the suitably named and much anticipated HTC STRTrk (which is also known as the Qtek 8500) has launched in the UK, offering smartphone capabilities and a decent music player in a very slim 16mm casing.

The main body of the STRTrk handset is matte black whilst the coloured metal outer shell has dedicated play, fast forward and rewind buttons for your tunes, plus a backlit 1.2-inch TFT LCD for viewing and controlling music playlists. A MicroSD memory slot boosts the 64MB storage, with tracks playing back in either ACC, WAV, WMA or MP3 formats.

When opened, the quadband STRTrk, which also offers support for EDGE connectivity, features a larger backlit 2.2-inch QVGA screen and uses Windows Mobile 5.0 for getting down to business. There's also a 1.3MP camera and bluetooth connectivity.

The HTC STRTrk is available from June, 2006, with a sim-free price of around £345.

Find out more

More mobiles:
LG Chocolate Phone review
Samsung's CGH-E900 slider phone heads to Europe

Review: Samsung SGH-P300

With its sleek metal fascia and integrated leather case, the new Samsung card phone seems unequivocally to be aimed at men. Not single men though, it takes small and determined fingers to remove the clever case/ extra battery and insert a SIM. The small and determined fingers of a motivated woman. A ‘phone that’s a modest 88mm x 54mm x 9mm certainly requires a certain daintiness of touch.

With its sleek metal fascia and integrated leather case, the new Samsung card phone seems unequivocally to be aimed at men. Not single men though, it takes small and determined fingers to remove the clever case/ extra battery and insert a SIM. The small and determined fingers of a motivated woman. A ‘phone that’s a modest 88mm x 54mm x 9mm certainly requires a certain daintiness of touch. It’s not all about nights in with the little woman however - The solid construction will bear the indignities of several stag nights, and the slightly odd keypad layout, with the zero off on the right hand side, will give valuable pause for thought to many a drunk dialler. Another boon to the tipsy user is the display, which is outstandingly bright and definite. So far, it’s looking like the ideal mobile for a married man who still likes the odd night out, but there’s more: The 1.3 megapixel camera, which shoots through a clever little hole in the incorporated case, yields bearable results for stills, and the usual happy slapper standard blocky video. Its flash though doubles as an emergency torch for late night lost cufflink crises. A nice touch. The menu layout is a trifle baffling for a long-time Nokia user, but nothing you couldn’t get used to in time I suspect. You’d have more trouble getting used to constantly repeating what you say, as the tiny microphone seems to crackle a little in use. Not often, but somehow always at the crucial moment. Email, Messaging and Bluetooth function pretty much as one might expect, and the bundled apps include a better-than-average calendar, which will wake the SGH from standby in order to remind you of an appointment. As long as you garden your voice memos regularly the 90mb of onboard memory seems adequate, but there’s no provision for a memory card so there’s little scope for storing much music for the MP3/AAC playback.

In conclusion, there’s a certain amount of style over content, but when the style is this seductive it’s hard to make a rational decision. If you want a mobile that won’t ruin the outline of your suit and you’re willing to say the occasional sentence twice, look no further for your next ‘phone.

LG Chocolate Phone Review

LG’s much talked about Chocolate phone made its UK debut on Wednesday to the popping of champagne corks and a flurry of excited LG execs. Tech Digest was invited along to the launch and what do you know? - we only managed to squirrel away our own handset to play with!

If you haven’t heard the hype already, the Chocolate is being sold as the next fashion sensation in the mobile phone world. LG has every right be optimistic having already sold 300,000 Chocolate handsets in Korea, receiving general all-round approval for its slim, black, sliding design complemented by extremely slick, glowing red buttons.

Read the rest of the review on the turn.

It boasts a generally pretty standard set of features:  a 2”, 256k colour display, 1.3 megapixel camera and 128MB memory. The pleasant surprises come in the form of its smaller than expected dimensions (9.5 x 4.8 x 1.5cm) and particularly light weight (approximately 85g). You may also have read about the “hidden LCD” screen which had us confused for a while. It turns out that the red buttons on the front aren’t buttons at all but in fact a touch-keypad section which lights up when you slide it open. The looks you can pretty much judge yourselves from the pictures, but it is most distinctive for the very subtle and minimalist style – interesting touches like the universal power/USB/headphone socket shows off the effort made to give it that cool, elegant design. As an LG spokesman observed, it is unusual in that it appeals to both men and women alike, however all the rest of the packaging suggests an expensive bottle of perfume or similar – a perfect present for the ladies.

But no phone is perfect and so we must get on to the handset’s admittedly few failings. One annoyance is that you end up getting greasy paw prints all over the front screen; this polished surface also looks like it has the potential to scratch easily, although we haven’t managed to do so yet.

The internal memory seems a little bit limited at 128MB; normally manufacturers tend to stick MP3 support on as an afterthought but the Chocolate is actually better than most. The sound quality is pretty impressive but what really appeals the most to us is the 3.5mm headphone socket attached to smart, matching remote. Digital audio support (MP3, WMA, AAC) and playback quality is surprisingly good  but we can’t help but wish for a little more capacity, maybe even a card slot.

The phone’s interface retains a hint of LG’s tendency to overcomplicate things slightly, but it is more simple to use than previous handsets like the U880. As you’re still getting used to using it you may find that you’ll bring the handset up to your ear too quickly and thus set off all manner of weird functions as your face presses all of the touch-keypad at once. Once you’ve got to grips with it things do get a lot easier though.

The verdict: We like this phone a lot and LG has good reason to expect the Chocolate to fly off the shelves. While it might not appeal to those who want their handsets to come brimming with technical goodies, there is no arguing that it looks fantastic and is sure to succeed on that factor alone.

Sagem's limited edition myC2-3 England World Cup mobile

In case you've been living in isolation for the last 6 months, it's the World Cup soon and manufacturers are busy branding anything that moves with a St George's flag in the hope of adding a few sales over the coming weeks. One such item is this Sagem myC2-3 mobile, available for a limited time in the England colours.

As a phone, it's not all that - a colour screen, WAP, polyphonic ringtones and a couple of games is about all you get on this dual-band model. But think about it as a novelty phone for down the pub during the World Cup. And if it gets damaged during the crush at the bar or celebrations after England's opening goal against Paraguay, it isn't your expensive, fully-featured phone you have to replace.

The  myC2-3 with a St Georges Cross facia is available now with a T-Mobile PAYG tariff at Woolworths for £59.99, but is only available until June.

Sagem website

More World Cup technology:
FIFA World Cup 2006 for your PDA
World Cup final ball goes hi-tech

Samsung's CGH-E900 slider phone heads to Europe

Another stylish phone heading to Europe is Samsung's CGH-E900, a slim, slider phone in two-tone black and slate and featuring a touch-sensitive control pad.

As well as being a looker, Samsung's slimline CGH-E900 (just 16.5mm thick and weighing only 93g) has a decent spec too. This tri-band handset with EDGE technology features a 2MP camera with flash and video recording feature. There's also a 2.05-inch 262K color TFT display. There's 80MB of internal memory, whch can be boosted via SD card.

It's probably going to sell more on looks though, plus some clever functionality. As well as being a slider, the CGH-E900 features a touch key for quick and easy control, automatically distinguishing music mode from talking mode -  illuminating only the necessary buttons and limiting accidental button touching. It also gives the phone a more minimlist look.

No news on pricing as yet, but Samsung says it'll be hitting Europe later this month.

Samsung website

More mobiles:
LG's U900 3G DVB-H handset - digital TV on the move
LG's KG800 "chocolate" phone goes on sale

LG's U900 3G DVB-H handset - digital TV on the move

We previewed LG's DVB-H mobile at the recent 3GSM show, speculating if it would actully appear in the UK. Well, LG has announced the launch of the world’s first commercially available UMTS (WCDMA) DVB-H phone in the shape of the LG-U900. The bad news? It's for Italy, with no plans to bring it to the UK.

The launch of the handset coincides with Hutchison Italy offering exclusive DVB-H broadcasting rights for the 2006 World Cup, with the company offering video footage of all World Cup matches from June 6th onwards.

The phone itself features a 2.2-inch ‘wide-swing’ screen for mobile TV viewing, along with premium digital broadcasting functions include ESG (Electronics Service Guide) and CAS (Conditional Access System). You can watch TV for up to three hours with an extended battery life. There's also a 1.3MP digital camera and an internal memory capacity of 58MB.

LG website

More mobiles:
LG's KG800 "chocolate" phone goes on sale
Nokia's N73 multimedia handset

LG's KG800 "chocolate" phone goes on sale

We previewed the much-hyped LG KG800 "chocolate" phone a few weeks back. Does it live up to the pre-publicity? You'll be able to find out yourself with the phone now available to order in the UK.

The LG KG800 has become the fashion phone of choice in its home territory of South Korea - and LG will be hoping some of that hype translates into British sales. As a phone, it's a slimline 9.5 x 4.8 x 1.5cm slider phone with a 2-inch, 176 x 220, 256,000-colour display. It's a tri-band GSM/GPRS device sporting a 1.3MP camera with 4x digital zoom and nine-shot continuous shooting feature. There's 128MB of built-in memory plus Bluetooth and USB connectivity.

LG says the KG800 is available from all major phone retailers, but hasn't given a specific price point. So it's probably best to shop around and see what deals are out there.

LG website

Via The Register

More mobiles:
Nokia launches N93 camcorder phone
Sony Ericsson W300i - Robbie Williams edition

Nokia launches N93 camcorder phone

Nokia has been busy this morning at the Open Studio event in Berlin, adding three new handsets to its N-Series range - the most eye-catching of which is this N93 camcorder phone.

As our title suggests, the big selling point of the Nokia N93 is video recording. It features a 3.2 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and offers DVD-like video capture at 30 frames per second, plus 3x optical zoom with video stabilisation and high definition display. You can even connect it directly to your TV for widescreen playback.

And if you fancy a game, the N-Gage game  System Rush: Evolution comes bundled. As a phone/communicator, it's WiFi and 3G and EDGE compatable. Internal memory is 50MB but this can be expanded via miniSD.

The Nokia N93 is based on S60 3rd Edition software on Symbian OS and should be in the shops in July 2006. We'll pass on details of any operators offering them as soon as we have them.

Find out more at the Nokia website

More Nokia:
Nokia launches UK online shop
Nokia AD-42W Wireless Audio Gateway

LG U880 review

We recently got our paws on LG's ultra-slim 3G handset, the U880, and immediately proceeded to pester our friends by videocalling them with our ugly mugs. The handset sports the latest MP3, AAC and even MPEG4 playing abilities and proves a very sleek gadget to play with, though only for the 3 network's loyal customers. Its real forte lies in the web browsing and videocalling however and it is available in a wide range of colours to suit your tastes.

Check out the full length review here at our reviewsy, featuresy website GadgetCentre. Pics of the aforementioned mugs not included.

Rabbit Point offers free international mobile calls

It is what us mobile obsessed types dream of – a phone that allows you to make and receive international calls but doesn’t come with the after shock of those horrendous network call charges. Which is why we have been keeping close tabs on the UK firm Rabbit Point. It has developed a mobile phone and supporting technology that works via the web - yes it is a variant on VoIP – which offers free international calls to its subscribers.

Basically to make those cheap calls you need a wireless connection. You can use the phone from your own network, or take advantage of a free hot spot, or even a hot zone like those in Brighton or  London’s Canary Wharf  . You can’t use it in say a T-Mobile Starbucks hot spot as there is no way of logging in.

The company claims that it is compatible with 3000 sites across the UK and 700 across Europe. Rabbit Point is apparently rolling out its own hot sports which it calls Cell points. Once you have made a connection free calls to other Rabbit Point users are free and 1.5p per minute to landlines.

In case you were wondering it is different from the UMA technology pioneered by Nokia and others as those harness existing mobile phone networks to make calls.

The inevitable catch though is you need a Rabbit Point phone. It looks ok and is manufactured by UTStarcom, but it is no match for more fashionable/gadget-filled stuff from Nokia etc. Apparently a 3G/Wi-fi combi phone that works with the system is on the horizon too. You also pay £9.99 per month line rental.

It all sounds very interesting, but is the quality any good, and what battery life doe the phone have? Yep the jury is out until I have played with the phones.

Sony Ericsson W300i - Robbie Williams edition

We were suitably impressed with Sony Ericsson's rather tasty W300i Walkman phone on its launch in February. T-Mobile has confirmed it's now coming to the UK  - and if you're a Robbie Williams fan, this limited edition Robbie-fied version will certainly entertain you.

T-Mobile claims this special edition W300i has been "creatively influenced by Robbie Williams himself" - the first time a global artist has been directly involved in the design of a phone. It's also the first pre-pay Walkman handset to be launched in the UK. It comes pre-loaded with exclusive content, including a 'live' video clip, wallpapers, a ringtone, animations and the opening song from his world tour. It also features a Robbie Williams logo embossed on the back cover, plus two additional Robbie skins to personalise your mobile.

The W300i plays both MP3 and AAC music files, with up to 30 hours of listening on a single charge. As a music player, it has direct music keys, shuffle function, as well as an in-built FM radio with RDS. It's shipped with a removable 256MB Memory Stick Micro (M2) expandable to 1GB, as well as a stereo headset, USB cable and music management software.

In addition to the music side, the phone features EDGE technology, has a 128 x 160 262K color TFT main display with a second 1-inch 101 x 80 display for track info and caller display, a VGA camera with 4x digital zoom, 3D gaming and Bluetooth. Expect it in the stores in June. No price as yet.

Sony Ericsson website

More Sony Ericsson:
Hands on with the Sony Ericsson W950
Hands on with the Sony Ericsson M600

LG's KG225 and KG220 clamshells

LG has announced the impending release of a couple of rather attractive clamshells for the UK market - the KG225 and the KG220.

In fact, you do get the feeling that looks are the big, if not the only selling point for these budget phones, as the spec for both is pretty basic. The tri-band phones have a 65k colour display and feature a camera - but only VGA. Apart from a voice recorder, there doesn't seem to be a great deal else worth mentioning.

But hey, they look good - and that means a lot to most people. The LG KG225 will be available on Orange in black and the LG KG220 on T-Mobile in black with silver trim from April 10th. No prices confirmed as yet.

Find out more

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Motorola's V3i RAZR in 3 new colours
Sony Ericsson's W700i Walkman phone

Sony Ericsson's W700i Walkman phone

My one slight criticism of the Walkman phones so far is that they have been a little on the dowdy side. Sony Ericsson is however trying to put that right with the debut of the latest addition to the music mobile range the W700i. It sports a fairly understated design and comes in not unattractive shade of titanium. I suspect SE might be targeting the ladies with this one.

Other than its design it is business as usual with 256MB storage on board which can be supplemented by the addition of a Memory Stick Duo cards – which these days go up to two Gigabytes. There’s also a two mega pixel camera, FM radio, email and Bluetooth and a good deal more. It’ll launch in Q2 and is apparently available in white in some countries. Personally though I can’t wait for this one.

Burials and cremations with your mobile

More people than ever are apparently asking to be buried with their mobile. The trend, which started in South Africa through fear of being buried whilst under a spell, has now moved onto Ireland, Australia, Ghana and the USA.

According to Martin Raymond, from trend-spotting think-tank, The Future Laboratory, the trend has moved from fear to a show of affluence, with people following the example of the ancient Egyptians, wanting to be buried with items that represent their lifestyle. They term these burials as "limelight funerals", with diamonds, jewellery, expensive suits, and gold watches also ending up in the hole.

In some cases, people are even taking their mobiles into cremation. According to Mr Raymond, this leads to explosions during the cremation process when the mobile battery heats up - which is how the trend was first noticed.

To get round this, some funeral parlours will now arrange for the phone put into the box with the ashes following the cremation. And one service in South Africa will put a number of batteries in the coffin just in case the dead person wakes up much later and finds their own battery has run out.

Via The BBC

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EU to crack down on roaming costs
Mobile downloads without the data charges

Nokia saddles up for N-Gage 2?

According to industry title In Stock, Nokia has announced it is preparing a range of new gaming handsets for release in early 2007. Nokia announced the range alongside a new toolset for developers to create mobile games at GDC, currently taking place in San Jose.

Take a peak at sister site Games Digest for even more gaming news.

LG's sought-after Chocolate Phone heads to Europe

Mobiles are as much a fashion accessory as a functional item. In the Far East, the phone to be seen with is the LG Chocolate phone (LG-KG80). The good news for the fashion-conscious in Europe is that it's coming over here from May 3rd, 2006.

With a look and feel totally dissimilar to any previous handset, the LG Chocolate phone is the first product from LG’s premium series of mobile phones that combine fantastic styling with cutting-edge technology. Featuring a 'hidden' LCD screen and touch-keypad controls that glow red when in use, the slim Chocolate phone is designed for those who like a cool, minimalist look.

The phone has shifted over 300,000 units in Korea since its launch last November and now occupies 7% of the market share there. Its loooks have won it two European design awards - iF Design Award and Red dot Design Award for its unique styling and user interface.

The European versions of the LG Chocolate phone will be tailored to suit the European market and therefore differ slightly from the one launched in Korea. When the full specification is available, we'll make sure you know first.

LG website

More LG:
LG's DVB-H TV phone
Super hip Cavalli-styled LG U880

Motorola unveils coloured PEBLs

Motorola has finally announced details and availability of its much-anticipated coloured PEBL range. The U6 PEBLs are available  orange, pink, blue and green and should be in the shops by July according to the company.

For all you fashion victims out there, the full spec of the phone and a nice big colour picture of all four of the new models can be found over at Shiny Shiny right now.

Cebit 2006: Mio A701 smartphone

Mio used Cebit to show off some new sat nav products, the highlight of which was the Mio A701, which combines phone, office and satelite navigation into one very smart-looking device.

The A701 is a smartphone with a 2.7-inch TFT touchscreen, running on Windows Mobile 5.0 and utilising a 520MHz Intel processor. It also features Bluetooth 1.2, a 1.3MP camera and a navigation system with SiRFstar III GPS receiver. There's 192MB of internal memory, but an SD/MMC memory card slot can boost that to 2GB.

The tri-band GSM/GPRS phone offers up to 4 hours talktime and up to 200 hours standby, along with simultaneous calling and navigation when using MioMap v2, a pedestrian mode to help you explore cities without losing track, one touch calling of points of interest (restaurants, cinemas etc) and in case you do get lost, the ability to text your GPS co-ordinates.

The Mio A701 should retail for around £450 with the sat-nav software installed and around £380 without.

More sat-nav:
CoPilot brings sat nav to Symbian mobiles
Navman sat nav below £200

CeBIT 2006: Samsung's higlights including ten mega pixel camera phone

Here’s the quick heads up from Samsung as to what it intends to unveil today at Cebit. Obviously we’ll give you more details on the products as we get them.

The SCH-B600 the world’s first 10 megapixel camera phone – obviously only for Korea at the moment and aimed at professionals rather than happy snappers.

The SGH-i310 8GB HDD embedded music smartphone – as we predicted this last week. Let’s hope they have solved the battery life issue which prevented the otherwise excellent hard disk endowed i300 from being a must buy.

The world’s first large capacity flash-based jukebox player – the YP-Z5 which is an ultra-slim, lightweight flash-memory player and puts DNSe 3D sound (whatever that is) in the palm of consumers’ hands. Samsung hasn't said yet what its capacity is.

Flip over for a list of Samsung highlights culled from the release.

- Elegantly designed range of LCD TVs deliver 12.8 billion colours with a stunning clarity that other LCD TVs cannot match. Offered in 26", 32" and 40" sizes, new range of LCD TVs perfectly suits consumers who value both form and function.

- 82” LCD TV with LED backlight offers dramatically improved performance and viewing angle while decreasing thickness and power usage.

- Ultra Mobile PC, the Q1 with 7inch LCD including diverse functions like MP3, PMP, PDA, PSP, DMB and Windows XP tablet OS provides entertainment in every place with the highest technology.

- Dual core notebook range, the X60 and R65 features Intel’s recently launched 2006 Napa Platform with Intel® Centrino® Duo mobile technology.

- Samsung leads the personalisation of laser printers with the world’s smallest CLP-300 colour laser printer and the world’s smallest laser-based multi function printer(MFP), the SCX-4200.  At the same time, a new line-up for the office user is also unveiled including the compact & versatile colour laser MFP, CLX-3160N and ML-4551ND which offer fast speed at 43 pages per minute  with proven reliability.

- The first large capacity flash-based music subscription-enabled jukebox player, the YP-Z5, is an ultra-slim, lightweight flash-memory player and puts DNSe 3D sound in the palm of consumers’ hands.

- SyncMaster 971P premium LCD monitor’s asymmetrical stand allows for 180o rotation and 65o back and front tilting features to ease tiredness and make a workstation as comfortable as possible. 

- LCD monitor and network display solution, the SM400PXn 40” LCD monitor combined with its MagicNet XPe embedded network display solution.

- Samsung’s first pocket sized, lightweight projector, the SP-P300M is one of the smallest and brightest DLP ™ LED mobile projectors on the market.

- Digital photo frame, the SPL-07 displays pictures taken with phones or digital cameras on its built-in LCD screen, and removes the need for printing or storing of hard copy photos in bulky photo albums.

- The world’s first mass-market Blu-ray disc player, the BD-P1000 let consumers take full advantage of High-Definition displays, playing content at native 720p or 1080i video resolutions.

- The business card-sized 6-in-1 multifunction digital camera, the SC/VP-MS1x provides users with portability and huge storage capacity.

- Two next generation camcorders, the VP-X210WL and the CES Innovations Award- winning VP-X210L feature Samsung’s signature hands-free lens that allows on-the-go consumers a quality picture and the flexibility that fits their active lifestyle.

- The HT-XQ100 home entertainment system provides a matching impressive performance with gorgeous aesthetics and a variety of features such as a high-power subwoofer, multimedia playback and USB Plug & Play support.

- Samsung’s revolutionary HD A/V network solution connects HDTV and A/V and allows HD contents to be shared among information devices at home.

- Samsung will demonstrate a range of innovative wireless industry firsts, from WiBro (Wireless Broadband technology fully compliant with Mobile WiMAX) and High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) at speeds up to 3.6 Mbps to Samsung’s Mobile TV.

- Samsung unveils two new World’s First products: the SCH-B600 is the world’s first 10 megapixel camera phone while the SGH-i310 breaks mobile storage limit with an immense 8GB HDD.

- Samsung’s flagship handset for this year - the slimmest slide-up SGH-D870 for premium business professionals, the fashionably designed SGH-E900 for trendy seekers, the slim slide-up 3G SGH-Z350 for 3G users seeking the compact and elegant 3G handsets. Samsung’s new flagship models not only look attractive but include all of the latest multimedia and business must-have functionality with elegant design.

At Germany’s International Design Forum International Forum Design, Samsung Electronics was once again recognised for its innovative design and received 25 iF Design Awards in 2006 for products that were praised for their portability, intuition and minimalist design. Samsung Electronics has achieved an unprecedented 65 iF awards since 2001 more than any other company.

BenQ-Siemens EL71 slider phone

Looking not unlike Nokia's 6270 and 6280, BenQ-Siemens has launched the slim EL71 slider phone with brushed metal finish.

BenQ-Siemens cites a survey claiming one in eight people choose a phone purely through design. If that's you, you might be interested in the ergonomic design of the EL71 and the "ProSLIDE" slider mechanism, which opens up the full keypad at a light touch.

The phone also features a 2-inch QVGA display (262,144 colours), an integrated 1.3MP camera with LED flash and video function, along with a music player that can be directly connected to a hi-fi with a Music Cable IHM-100 accessory. The measly 16MB internal memory can be extended to 1GB via microSD cards. The phone will also have its own range of accessories, including a bluetooth headset and a bluetooth car kit.

You'll be able to pick up the EL71 in the second quarter of 2006 in either "Quartz Anthracite" or "Opal Black". Prices and networks to be confirmed.

More mobiles:
BenQ-Siemens E61 music phone
BenQ-Siemens EF51 music phone

BenQ-Siemens E61 music phone

We've previously covered BenQ-Siemens' first serious move into the music phone market with the EF51. Now here's another - the slighty quirky BenQ-Siemens E61.

The one thing that really jumps out at you is the music control panel - five buttons on the very top of the mobile phone, which give it a wedge shape, not unlike a dictaphone or possibly even an electric shaver. The E61 also features a 1.8 inch TFT screen which will (apparently) display the lyrics of your favourite song, 6-band graphic equaliser and a memory that can be extended to 1GB via SD cards. Not too great when you consider Samsung is unveiling a phone with 8GB of built-in storage, but on a par with Sony's entry-level W300i music phone. The music player can handle multi music formats, with file transfer via USB cable and BenQ QSyncer software.

The E61 will be available in bright orange and black or cool silver and white and should be in stores in the second quarter of 2006. No details as yet about price and stockists.

More mobiles:
Sony Ericsson W300i Walkman phone
Sony Ericsson 4GB W950i Walkman phone

Samsung to unveil 8GB SGH-i310 phone

Samsung is to unveil a Windows Mobile 5.0-based smartphone this week, that also feature an 8GB hard disk, stereo speakers, digital amplifier and the ability to support Bluetooth-connected wireless stereo headphones.

The SGH-i310, which follows on from the 3GB i300, will be launched at the CeBIT show in Hannover, Germany, this week. According to the leaked specification, the SGH-i310 will feature a 2MP camera and a 2 inch, 240 x 320, 65,536-colour display. The handset will also feature a MicroSD slot to boost its 8GB storage capacity further. Music formats supported include MP3, AAC, Ogg and WMA.

No word on pricing, but the company intend to ship the phone in the second half of this year.

Via The Register

More mobile phones:
The world's smallest smartphone?
Sony Ericsson W300i Walkman phone

The world's smallest smartphone?

Malaysian phone manufacturer Fifth Media has unveiled what it claims to be the world's smallest Windows Mobile 5 smartphone. Measuring 11.3 x 4.9cm and just 2.1cm thick, it manages to pack in quad-band GSM, GPRS and EDGE connectivity, along with Bluetooth 1.2 and 802.11b Wi-Fi.

The Axia 308 will feature a 416MHz Intel PXA272 processor, 128MB of Flash ROM and 64MB of RAM, with a MiniSD slot to boost storage. It's got a 2.2in, 240 x 320, 262,144-colour display and a fixed-focus 1.3 megapixel camera. It also contains a 1500mAh battery, providing up to four hours' talk time and 120 hours in stand-by.

The aim is to sell the phone outside Malaysia, so expect to see it at the CeBIT show in Hanover next month, when hopefully we'll get more concrete details about the possibility of the phone reaching the UK and a price for it.

Via The Register

More smart phones:
Sony Ericsson M600
BlackBerry 8700g

Sony Ericsson W300i Walkman phone

Lots of new product activity from Sony Ericsson at the moment. After the excitement of the new Cyber-shot phones, the quad band W300i clamshell Walkman phone seems to have lost a bit of thunder - which is a shame, because it's quite a looker.

The W300i plays both MP3 and AAC music files, with up to 30 hours of listening on a single charge. As a music player, it has direct music keys, shuffle function, as well as an in-built FM radio with RDS. It's also shipped with a removable 256MB Memory Stick Micro (M2) expandable to 1GB, as well as a stereo headset, USB cable and music management software.

In addition to the music features, the W300 has a 128 x 160 262K color TFT main display with a second 1-inch 101 x 80 display for track info and caller display, a VGA camera with 4x digital zoom, 3D gaming and Bluetooth.

It's not the most feature-packed phone you'll ever see, but as a small and stylish music phone at the lower end of the price spectrum, it will definitely have mass market appeal

Expect to see it in the stores in the second quarter of this year, at a price of less than £200.

More Sony Ericsson:
Hands on with the Sony Ericsson W950
Hands on with the Sony Ericsson M600

Sony's Cyber-shot K800 and K790 camera phones

If you like to snap away with your mobile, you'll want a closer look at Sony Ericsson's new Cyber-shot range of mobile phones, which pack a 3.2MP camera and allsorts of extras previously only found in a dedicated digital camera.

Both of the models unveiled today - K800 and K790 come in a "sleek black velvet" casing and feature a tasty 3.2 megapixel camera with flash and lens cover, dedicated shutter button, auto red eye reduction, printing without a PC with PictBridge, video and image stabiliser function and something rather impressive known as BestPic - press the shutter once and get 9 images, which are then available for you to browse and to select the best one(s). The phones are among the first to feature fully integrated Picture Blogging, which means you can create and update personal blogs directly from the phone in just a few clicks.

Oh yes, they're phones too. The K800 is dual-mode UMTS/GPRS while the K790 is tri-band EDGE. Both models have a two inch QVGA 262K TFT display, 64MB internal flash memory with Memory Stick Micro M2 expansion, Bluetooth, full HTML browsing with RSS feeds, support for standard push email, video recording and playback, a music Player supporting MP3/AAC plus FM radio and 3D gaming.

As yet, we have no exact release dates for either the K800 and K790, but we believe the phones will retail for around £300. We'll keep you posted on both.

More Sony:
Hands on with the Sony Ericsson W950
Hands on with the Sony Ericsson K610

Burnside Desktop Mobile Phone

There's a generally held opinion that a fixed BT line is cheaper for calls, but if you are a heavy user and choose the right package, you might be able to make a saving using one of the mobile operators for the bulk of your calls. It's a limited market I'd say - but it's the one that Burnside are chasing with their Desktop Mobile Phone.

The phone could also be a good solution if you need to set up a temporary line or you can't fit a BT line, offering a fixed location to make and receive calls, so homes or offices can list its number and callers don’t have to guess who is at the location before making a call.

The Desktop Mobile Phone works on all four mobile UK networks and uses a standard SIM card slot. On top of calls, you can compose SMS messages with it and view incoming through the large display. It also features speed dialling, a 100-entry phone book, call register and a rechargeable Lithium Ion battery.

You can pick one up for around £149 excluding delivery and VAT.

Find out more

More phones:
Barabu's free mobile to mobile calls
Virgin bring live TV to the mobile

3GSM 2006: The Mickey Mouse mobile

I'm not sure if I like the idea of grown men and women with Mickey Mouse mobiles - it might get a giggle on first glance, but it can only diminish your standing in polite company over time. But if you've got a Disney obsession or you want a kiddie phone for your child (yeah, right), well now you've got the chance with the limited addition Dmobo M900.

I can't say I'm too familiar with Dmobo, but the phone spec is reasonable without being much more - it's a tri-band GSM phone with 1.3MP camera and 260k colour screen. But you'll not be buying for that, you'll want the Mickey head buttons on the front, the metallic Mickey cut outs and the "luxurious and soft feeling of Mickey Magic Leather". How can you resist?

The phone is currently widely available in Asia. No details of price or release date for the UK as yet.

More quirky mobiles:
Samsung P300 'calculator phone' arrives in UK in March
3GSM 2006: BenQ-Siemens EF51 music phone

Samsung P300 'calculator phone' arrives in UK in March

Sure to be a hit with retro-obsessed techies and also schoolies looking to smuggle mobiles into classrooms is the P300 calculator doppelganger from Samsung. At 3GSM, the horse’s mouth, also known as Yang-Hee Han – Senior Vice President, Sales & Marketing – confirmed that the P300 would be arriving in the UK in March. Scarily skinny at just 8.9mm the handset comes with its own wallet type case which further enhances its calculator impersonation.

The other really cool bit about the case is that it can double as a phone charger and can power the P300 for up to two days. In spite of slim frame the phone also has a 1.3 mega pixel camera with flash, music player and video recording capabilities.

3GSM 2006: hands on with the Sony Ericsson W950

Hang on a minute haven’t we seen this phone before? Yep the latest Walkman handset from Sony Ericsson, the W950, is in fact a re-dress of the M600 smartphone SE unveiled last week. There are few differences between the two, which we’ll get to in a minute but the chasis is pretty much identical.

The big story here is that the phone has four Gigabytes of flash memory storage built in. This means that user can stock up the handset with MP3, AAC and the phone friendly AAC+ format. SE also claims that it is the first handset that will display cover art. Apparently if Gracenote grabs the artwork it pops up on the handset's lovely screen. The phone sounds excellent too, far superior to the first generation of Walkman phones which were a little disappointing. SE is to ship the phone with standard earphones but users can buy an A2DP Bluetooth system for wireless streaming.

Also on board are a shed load of smartphone facilities and our favourite new feature for 2006 an RSS reader. Just like the M600 the phone is also very light and thin and is operated using either a menu interface controlled by a jog wheel or via touch.

The bad part is that the 950 is missing a few facilities. Firstly there's no storage card slot – so 4 Gigs is your lot. Bizarrely for a funky consumer phone the model doesn’t include a camera. SE has also ditched the QWERTY keyboard of the M600 and offered standard slightly iffy keys. SE is also sticking with its existing and not especially intuitive software, though the connection between the phone and PC is now USB 2.0 which makes loading it up with tracks much faster.

Overall this is a classy looking phone and it is sure to tempt music lovers, however it doesn’t launch until Q3, so even though that 4 Gig storage looks pretty good now, by then phones with 10 Gigs, Samsung has one on the cards apparently, could be available. It certainly isn't an iPod killer, but at the moment it is far and away the most desirable music phone we have seen so far.

3GSM 2006: Samsung SGH-Z710 with 3.2MP camera

Most phones on the market right now take photos around the 2MP mark, so it's good to see the Samsung launching the SGH-Z710 3G phone with a 3.2MP camera for those of us who like to capture the moment out and about.

In addition, the black Samsung SGH-Z710 with swivel screen features a 2.15" 262k color TFT LCD, QVGA screen plus an external screen, 128MB of in-built memory that can be boosted via micro SD expansion, support for MP3/AAC/AAC+/e-AAC+ music playback, dual speakers, TV output and document viewing software.

The Samsung SGH-Z710 should be available in Europe during the second quarter of 2006.

Via Mobile Burn

More new mobiles:
3GSM 2006: hands on with the Sony Ericsson W950
3GSM 2006: hands on with the Nokia 6136

3GSM 2006: HTC and Orange launch the SPV M600

HTC has announced its latest compact PDA at the 3GSM -  the SPV M600.

The M600 runs with Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 platform, so offers push email along with all the other Microsoft programs and functionality you would expect on your PDA. Initially available from Orange in the UK, the sleek looking quandband device supports EDGE, GPRS, GSM and features Bluetooth 2.0 and built-in Wi-Fi capabilities, with dual support of 802.11b and 802.11g. The device is also equipped with a powerful 2MP camera, music player and carries 128MB of flash ROM.

No UK release date or price available as yet. We'll keep you posted.

More PDAs:
3GSM 2006: Fujitsu Siemens launches Pocket LOOX T series
T-Mobile launches BlackBerry 8700g

3GSM 2006: Virgin to launch live TV on your mobile

BT has announced that Virgin Mobile is the first mobile operator to sign up for its Movio digital TV and radio service for mobiles. The announcement coincided with the 3GSM unveiling of The Trilogy (pictured) – the first DAB-IP enabled Smartphone, which will host the service.

Unlike TV mobile services from Vodafone and Orange, which use 3G, the Movio service uses a special DAB radio and the existing DAB network, which is capable of transmitting high-quality TV images and DAB radio coverage. The handset itself has been developed jointly by BT, TTP, and HTC. It has a 2.2 inch screen, a 1.3MP camera and a micro SD slot for extra storage. It also features Windows Mobile, 5.0 - so expect push email, along with all the usual Microsoft functionality.

No start date has been announced and channel details are not yet available, but expect the service on a limited exclusive basis on the Virgin network around late summer.

More mobile TV:
3GSM 2006: hands on with LG's DVB-H TV phone
ROK brings TV to Sony phones

3GSM 2006: Motorola launches budget W220

Certainly not as feature rich as many of the handsets launched at the 3GSM, the Motorola W220 is a compact clamshell phone pitched squarely at the budget market.

The W220 still manages to fit in a built-in stereo FM radio. browser, picture messaging and downloadable media capabilities, lantern technology, large font capability, and an alarm clock. It also features an external display with colour icons for instant updates on your message, battery and call status. An expanded battery life allows up to 497 minutes of talk time and 293 hours stand-by.

Expect to see the W220 in stores during the third quarter of 2006.

More mobiles:
Motorola adds Windows Media
3GSM 2006: hands on with LG's DVB-H TV phone

3GSM 2006: Sony Ericsson 4GB W950i Walkman phone

If you thought the BenQ-Siemens EF51 was the phone for music lovers, think again - the Sony Ericsson W950i Walkman phone, with an impressive 4GB of storage, looks to be a far better bet when it comes to the phone/music player hybrid.

The W950i has a QVGA TFT 2.6 inch display with touchscreen navigation. Its 4GB drive can store up to 4,000 songs and supports MP3, AAC, AAC+, E-AAC+, WAV and m4a formats, which are transferred from your PC via Sony's Disc2Phone software. It also features an FM radio with RDS, graphic equaliser and Mega Bass. Music playback is around 8 hours from a full charge.

The UMTS-enabled phone is also packed with mobile multimedia applications, including web browsing with the Opera 8, push email, video playback and 3D gaming.

The stylish W950i is finished in "Mystic Purple" and should be available in Europe in the third quarter of 2006.

More mobiles:
BenQ-Siemens EF51 music phone
Hands on with the Sony Ericsson K610

3GSM 2006: BenQ-Siemens EF51 music phone

The first batch of jointly-branded BenQ-Siemens mobiles showed real promise, the new EF51 music phone shows that they're not afraid to produce something slightly off-the-wall either.

Rather than a phone with music capability, it's described as "a music device with an integrated mobile phone". From the outside, it does look like portable musuic player, with large keys for music functionality located below the 1.6-inch TFT color display. The EF51 features an FM radio and media player for MP3, WMA, AAC and AAC+ formats, plus you can record from radio to MP3. Best of all, it's got a voice-activated search function for your favourite tracks! Once downside is that storage seems to rely on SD cards, so don't expect a huge capacity.

Oh yes - and it's a fully featured phone with 1.3MP camera with all the keys hidden under the exterior flap. The EF51 will be available in both black and white in the second quarter of 2006, no price has yet been confirmed.

More mobiles:
BenQ-Siemens announces first HSDPA mobile to market
BenQ-Siemens unveils new range of mobiles

3GSM 2006: hands on with LG's DVB-H TV phone

The big story at 3GSM is TV on mobiles, with everyone from manufacturers through to networks hoping to convince punters that going square eyed watching Corrie on the bus is a good thing. However handsets that are specifically designed for mobile TV are still pretty thin on the ground.

I popped over to the LG stand and had a look at its take on the TV phone – the  V9000. LG is keeping its options open as the phone is available in a trio of different versions; as the V9000 with a T-DMB digital TV tuner built in for Germany and some other European countries, as the Media Flo mobile TV for the US and as the DVB-H (the format most fancied by Nokia) which surprisingly enough has a DVB-H decoder built in.

At the moment no one really knows which standard will win in which particular territories. You’d have thought that DVB-H was the best bet for the UK, but there are some sceptics who think we won’t see it until the great analogue TV shut off scheduled for 2012.

Nevertheless no matter which TV format it uses the LG whatever is a pretty nifty phone. It has superb quality 262K screen which cleverly flips into a T delivering a widescreen view. The quality of the images, which incidentally were taken from a video card and not live, were however very impressive. Personally I prefer the laptop style TV form format of the Nokia N92, but the T route is it a very clever way of keeping the size of the handset down.

Even so the handset is a chunky, especially when compared with all the slim mobiles at the show, and this ultimately might limit its appeal. A version of the phone, quite possibly without a TV tuner, will go on sale in Europe in June. If any of the TV formats launches anywhere in Europe this year LG says it will be ready and waiting.

Came straight to this page? Visit www.TechDigest.tv for all the latest news.

3GSM 2006: Nokia to introduce 6136 through Orange

A busy day at the 3GSM for Nokia. With the launch of the Nokia 6070 and Nokia 6131 already under their belts, they have now unveiled the Nokia 6136 handset.

The quadband 6136 with a clamshell design supports UMA (Unlicensed Mobile Access) technology that allows for a seamless handover of voice and data connections between GSM and WLAN networks. The phone also features a 1.3MP camera with 8x digital zoom, MP3 player, an SD card slot (to store your MP3 favourites), radio tuner, MMS, email, push to talk and Nokia Xpress audio messaging.

Nokia has announced that Orange will be the first service provider to take delivery of the phone, which should be in the second quarter of 2006. No price details are available as yet.

More Nokia:
Nokia launches 6070 and 6131 handsets
Bluetooth headsets from Nokia

3GSM 2006: Nokia launches 6131 and 6070 handsets

Nokia has introduced two new mid-range camera phones at the 3GSM in Barcelona in the form of the Nokia 6131 and Nokia 6070.

The stylish quadband Nokia 6131 (pictured) has a slim folding design and features high-resolution true color QVGA display that supports 16 million colors and an outer screen with 262k colors. As well as all the features you'd expect from Nokia, the Nokia 6131 also packs in a digital music player and FM stereo radio supporting Visual Radio, plus an 1.3MP camera with 8x digital zoom.

The triband Nokia 6070 is more basic and traditional in design, but still has a good range of functions, including SMS, MMS, Nokia Xpress audio messaging, email and instant messaging. Voice features include push to talk, a voice recorder and an integrated handsfree speaker. It's compatible with EDGE data communication and also features a stereo FM radio.

Both phones are expected to be available from the second quarter of 2004. The 6131 will retail for around 275 EUR (£188), with the 6070 selling for around 135 EUR (£92).

More Nokia:
6270 arrives in the UK
Nokia's business-style 3G phone

3GSM 2006: Sony Ericsson's K610 and J100 phones

Two new phones fresh out from the Sony Ericsson camp today: the K610 and the J100. First up, the K610 (pictured) is a very small 3G handset that's closer in size to a non-3G handset than most 3G phones out there. It's got a 2-megapixel camera as well as a standard VGA one on the front for making video calls. It's also got an HTML browser with RSS feeds included, while the Memory Stick Micro card slot allows you to bump up the storage space when you're using the media player.

The altogether less exciting J100 is a basic budget phone by the sounds of things. Not much to talk about by way of features, this one's stictly for budget watchers and people who don't want any fancy extras.

K610 press info
J100 press info
Sony Ericsson 3GSM flash site

3GSM 2006: Fujitsu Siemens launches Pocket LOOX T series

It's a hard life for a businessman on the move, having to drag around all the technology for work and play, which is probably why integrated solutions are growing ever more popular. Another challenger to the Blackberry's dominance of the market has been launched at the 3GSM in the form of the Fujitsu Siemens Pocket LOOX T Series.

The T series models, which feature a QWERTY keyboard and a clear TFT display, operate as fully-featured mobile phones. But in addition, with Microsoft Windows Mobile™ 5.0 software and UMTS functionality, you can access 'Push' email plus your appointment calendar and other familiar Microsoft Office applications on the go. And if you have some leisure time, there's an SD I/O / MMC slot to store your favourite MP3s and a 2MP auto-focus camera on the T830 model (pictured) to snap passing traffic.

The T series handhelds have integrated 802.11b/g wireless LAN with VoIP capability and like the N series, all models feature an integrated GPS receiver so you don't get lost.

Available from July, the T series should retail for around €700 (around £480).

More handhelds:
BlackBerry 8700g
Fujitsu-Siemens Pocket LOOX N series

NEC's HSDPA mobile

So it isn’t just Samsung who is taking HSDPA, the next generation mobile phone format seriously. NEC wants a slice of the action too. The Japanese company announced today that it has been working on a prototype of a HSDPA mobile with Japanese network NTT DoCoMo. The network is set to debut its HSDPA network in the 2nd quarter of 2006 and it appears that the NEC model will be its key handset.

In case you missed the hype HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Data Packet Access) is the exciting new technology which will enable mobile phone networks to r amp up data speeds to levels well beyond what we currently have with 3G. The new prototype downloads data at an astonishing 3.6Mbps – that’s almost ten times faster than existing 3G phones. I say it’s astonishing, but HSDPA’s maximum speed is 14Mbps – that’s so fast you could even screen high definition TV on a handset. Visitors to the 3GSM exhibition in Barcelona next week (and yep we’ll be there) will get a chance to see the phone in action.

Hands on with the Sony Ericsson M600

Just back from Sony Ericsson's HQ in Hammersmith where I got to play with the company's latest take on the smartphone market the M600. In many ways the handset shouldn’t concern consumers too much, this is aimed squarely at the corporate market – it hasn’t even got a camera.

Basically Sony Ericsson is debuting what is in many ways a BlackBerry 7100 killer. It has two key things in common with that particular model. Firstly it has BlackBerry email. Or rather it can, the push email system is down to the network. T-Mobile will probably offer the phone with Blackberry, while Vodafone will offer Visto etc. The other key thing they share is the rather odd QWERTY - with two letters per key - keyboard. I found this a nightmare, but I do know some people who love it.

After those two similarities the differences between the two are fairly huge. While the Blackberry 7100 is large and bulky the Sony Ericsson is slinky and shiny. It comes in black and white too. It runs Symbian's 9.1 operating system and can be customised to include all manner of features. Also unlike the BlackBerrys it comes with removable, and crucially upgradeable storage, via Sony's just launched, and every tiny M2 card.

The phone is also a dream to use. The interface is obvious and not to cluttered and just like its sibling the Sony Ericsson P990 it can be used either via a scroll wheel or a small stylus.

The other key facility we like is an RSS reader. These are going to be big news on mobiles this year, though I must admit I didn't see it working. The phone also has the excellent Opera web browser, a media player (MP3, AAC, and ACC+, E-AAC + m4a)and of course essentials like Bluetooth. Overall this is a quality handset from Sony Ericsson. The QVGA 2.6-inch 262k color touch screen display is pretty impressive too. I am still not convinced by the keyboard but for corporates looking for a light smartphone that’s stylish has a decent screen and yet includes push email the M600 is a very good bet.

Samsung Unveils SGH-P900 TV phone

With the World Cup tantalisingly close, the corporate giants are battling for a large part of the spin-off market. Samsung, for example, has launched the SGH-P900 mobile TV phone in Europe in time for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. However, they don't mention if anyone is actually broadcasting the action for the phone!

The SGH-P900 is Europe’s first T-DMB (Terrestrial Digital Media Broadcasting) phone and along with the TV & radio capabilities, it packs a 2 megapixel camera, MP3 player and a 2.2" TFT LCD screen that opens up to a horizontal position when the phone is flipped open. You can also record TV on it too, though I'd imagine you'll have to expand the standard 128MB user memory.

All sounds too good to be true for the average footie fan - and maybe it is. There's no word about anyone transmitting the World Cup in the T-DMB format, and certainly no mention of it being available in the UK. And before you invest, it might be worth considering that a rival format for watching live broadcasts, DVB-H, is currently being trialled in the UK and may be a better option in the long run.

No word on prices or networks for the SGH-P900 as yet for the UK.

More Samsung mobile:
Samsung goes for VibeTonz
Samsung's i300

Nokia 6270 arrives in the UK

Nokia's 6270 mobile went down pretty well when it was shown to the Tech Digest team, alongside the 6280,  some months back. So we're happy to report that it's now finally arrived in the UK.

If you can't remember Nokia's 6270 slider phone, it's a GPRS handset with 320 x 240 pixel screen, two mega pixel camera with 5x zoom, MP3 playback, stereo speakers with 3D effect and built-in FM radio. It also looks rather nice too with the brushed aluminium surface.

If you want to be one of the first with the 6270, you need to visit your local Vodafone dealer.

More from Nokia:
Nokia 6280 preview
Nokia Bluetooth headsets

Orange launch the Snow-Mobile

In anticipation of the Orange sponsored British Ski and Snowboard Championships, held, strangely, in Switzerland, the mobile giant has launched an exclusive mobile package developed specifically for anyone on the piste.

Orange has teamed up with Samsung to create the Snow-Mobile. You get a Samsung X660 handset, a fairly basic but light tri-band phone with 4x zoom camera, a copy of the exclusive “Slide” magazine, plus access to the Snowsports section on Orange World. This includes live resort webcam views , guides to the best bars, detailed snow and slope information along with all the latest news. You can also download a snowboarding masterclass and play Snowjam 3D on your phone.

You can pick up the package for £89 on PAYG.

Find out more

More mobiles:
Is VibeTonz the next big thing?
Benq-Siemens unveils new range

BenQ-Siemens unveils new phones

The first fruits of BenQ's takeover of Siemens have been unveiled with the launch of three dual-branded BenQ-Siemens handsets in Berlin today. 

The slim EF81 with brushed metal finish and stainless steel keypad is a high-end handset with 2.2 inch QVGA display, 2 megapixel camera with 5x digital zoom plus MP3 and video player. The 64MB internal memory can be extended to as much as 1GB of storage capacity using Micro SD Cards. The EF81 also features business applications including Microsoft Bluetooth® Remote Control and the usual selection of games.

The S88 in titanium silver also features a 2 megapixel camera, but with 16x digital zoom and built in photo editing software, along with a high performance video camera that shoots in MPEG4 format - you'll probably have to extend that 16MB internal memory for that and the MP3 player, which comes with surround sound.

The slimline S68 in brushed aluminium is a bit more basic - no camera or video here. What it does have is a large, 'transflexive' display, which allows the screen to be viewed easily in bright sunlight. It also features a voice recording feature, so you can dictate and send a short voice message via MMS, plus dual speaker system and 64-tone ringtones.

You can expect to see the phones on the high street sometime in the first quarter of 2006. For more information on these models visit Shiny Shiny.

Moto RAZR in blue on sale

Pink RAZRs - well they are soooo 2005. Nope if you want the latest version of the slimmest phone in town you have to go blue. But then again...

Even its cool colour can't disguise the fact that in terms of features the blue RAZR is pretty old hat. The camera is just VGA standard, the handset is GPRS and not 3G and if you want smartphone style facilites you'll have to look elsehwere. Anyhow it is on sale now. You'd probably be better off with this though.

More RAZRs
RAZR review
The D&G RAZR

Sanyo's child-friendly mobile

We told you previously about the mobile phone that can track your child. Now Sanyo has introduced the toy-like A5520SA in Japan, which features a loud buzzer to call for help along with GPS tracking.

The buzzer is activated by a long press of a button. And by all accounts it is loud - very loud! . This will also trigger an alert to a nominated phone. This person  can then locate the distressed child through the subscription GPS service.

These phones are sure to catch on, but as yet, there's no word of Sanyo releasing it in the UK.

Via Slashphone

More mobiles:
Netgear's Skype phone
Nokia's latest Bluetooth headsets

CES 2006: Samsung i830

In answer to Palm’s Treo 700w, this is Samsung’s take on the smartphone. It is also powered by Windows Mobile and incorporates EVDO technology. The screen is slightly less impressive than Palm’s device, offering a 2.8” 65k colour touch-screen with a resolution of 240 x 320. It does have a pretty nifty sliding keyboard action which is always nice but has a notable lack of camera. Still, that can only be good for those who work for one of the increasing number of companies that are discouraging phone cameras and should make it easier to blag one off your boss. The i830 will be launched stateside on January 12th but there’s no pricing or UK launch details yet.

via Gizmodo

More smartphone news
Palm announces Windows based Treo
Speaker dock for smartphones

CES 2006: Hands on with Samsung's HSDPA mobile

Potentially the most interesting exhibit in the whole of CES, from a UK perspective at least, is the HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Data Packet Access) mobile phone from Samsung. The SGH-ZX20 is a clamshell mobile that will be able to take advantage of the much faster data speeds (up to 3.6Mbps compared to 384kbps of 3G) of the new format. If you want to discover who will be first with the format in the UK check here.

As for the phone the interesting part is that Samsung told us today that the phone is not for the US market, it is being lined up for Europe. Also that its first customer might not be Vodafone as has previously been reported, but that Orange could launch the phone first. Whether Orange has a more developed HSDPA network than Vodafone in the UK is a moot point, but it has certainly made more noise about the new format than its rival.

CES also marked the first time anyone had demonstrated a HSDPA phone running at speeds of 3.6Mbps. As for what consumers do with all that extra speed, well the phone can obviously link up with a laptop to act as a very, very fast modem. It will also enable really good quality video streaming – the clips we saw looked amazing, very steady and devoid of all the usual nasties like blurring that dog 3G video.

Apart from the HSDPA feature though the phone is a little disappointing. Sure it looks great – a very tidy clamshell, and yes it is very thin, but its line up of features is a little bit 2005. On the plus side it has great quality screen and very large buttons. However it runs using a propeitary operating system and has limited smartphone style applications. Worst of all it has a 1.3 mega pixel snapper, which seems poor show from the company that has a seven mega pixel camera phone on its books. Lastly it only has 256MB of internal storage, and again this from a company that has a phone with a three Gigabyte hard disk.

The Samsung rep also told us that the phone could come in several different guises, and there may even be different model numbers. This is because the chips sets required to reach the various HSDPA speeds (the first batch will be 1.8Mbps with later models reaching 3.6Mbps) are different. Samsung does have a habit of parading products at exhibitions only for them to be quietly forgotten about as the year progresses. Nevertheless if it sticks to its promise of launching this handset in Europe this year – network willing of course – it will have achieved a real European first. That is of course HTC doesn’t get there first.

CES 2006: Palm announces Windows-based Treo

Another nail in the coffin for the Palm operating system? Palm has unveiled its first smartphone with Windows Mobile at the CES Show in Las Vegas. The Treo 700W runs mobile versions of standard Microsoft applications - including Office and Outlook - natively rather than through third-party applications. Expected to retail for $399 in the US (without contract), the 700W also supports Microsoft Exchange e-mail servers straight out of the box. According to a Palm spokesperson, the company is diversifying into Windows solutions for mobiles because many companies have decided to user Windows only solutions for their portable devices. For more info go to Treonauts blog.

CES 2006: 802.11g Wi-Fi phone

Wi-fi is a pretty standard features on smartphones these days, but the HyFi-110G from WNC has a couple of key advantages over its rivals. Firstly the clamshell design handset is pretty small for a Wi-Fi endowed phone – think Sharp/Toshiba style mobiles. Secondly it is the first mobile we are aware of to feature the faster version of Wi-Fi 802.11g. This makes it particularly nifty for video streaming or transferring files over a home network. It could also find a niche in streaming IPTV (TV via the web). The phone, which is due in the first half of 2006, also features email, voice recording and a USB charger. Talk time is three hours while the battery lasts 70 hours on standby.

CES 2006: Sony Ericsson's new Walkman phone

Engadget is reporting that the Sony Ercisson mystery Walkman phone is none other than the W810i which has been all over the web for a while. It is a slightly souped up version of the W800 with quad band support and a dedicated music button.

Also on board is a 512MB Memory Stick storage card, a two mega pixel snapper and 1.9-inch 176 x 220 pixel screen. It is due in March. It looks like a decent enough phone, but here’s hoping we get something more exciting later today.

Update** Doh. The W810i is the only Sony Ericsson story in town. Maybe they'll have something really exciting for 3GSM in February.

CES 2006: Samsung's HSDPA phone

No sooner had we finished writing the previous Samsung post when up pops the first pic and the details of Korean company's HSDPA handset. It is called the zx20, will be available in the second half of the year and has loads of features including Bluetooth 2.0, a 1.3 megapixel camera, a MicroSD slot, and a 262k colour display. Must admit I thought that the first HSDPA would be a top-end smartphone with big screens - maybe they'll follow later. Pic from Engadget

CES 2006: Samsung's HSDPA mobile

At last year's CES by far the most impressive stand belonged to Samsung who delivered a huge array of innovative and exciting gadgets. It looks like it’ll be the same again this year and one of the devices we are most looking forward to seeing is the first ever phone with on board HSDPA.

If you are up to speed with your telecoms acronyms you’ll know that HSDPA or (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) is a variant of 3G which offers data download speeds way beyond the 384Kbps we have in the UK at the moment. Several companies are trialling HSDPA, but they have been using HSDPA cards for laptops. At CES Samsung will deliver the first HSDPA phone which it is apparently earmarked for Vodafone. It’ll offer download speeds of 1.6Mbps which should be more than enough for instant music downloading and quality video streaming. Ironically given that the US is normally pretty slow at new telecoms innovations, the first HSDPA system in the world was launched by Cingular last month. Americans can surf the web at speeds of up to 700Kbps via a HSDPA laptop card. More here.

CES 2006: Motorola ROKR phone take two

So Motorola is back with another new ROKR music phone - the ROKR E2 and the big story is not the features it has but what it is missing. For unlike the ROKR E1 there's no on iTunes compatibility. Instead the phone has its own music playing software.

So is it an improvement on the E1? Well it won't win any style awards and its storage is limited to smart cards - SD in this instance. It does however sport a 3.5mm earphone jack (the E1 came with an adapter) so you can pair it up with any set of phones you want. It also boasts A2DP Bluetooth compatibility so it can be used with wireless earphones like these. Moto has also added some new music control buttons, improved the camera - it takes 1.3 mega pixel images now rather than the VGA ones the E1 took - and has an excellent two inch, 320 x 240 pixel LCD display. It is expected to land in the UK in the early summer.

CES 2006: New Sony Ericsson Walkman phone tomorrow

Big day for Sony tomorrow with a huge press conference scheduled for late afternoon ie when most sane Brits will be in bed. Anyhow we have had a tip off that there will be some new Sony Ericsson mobiles including a new Walkman phone. Our source claims it is the most exciting Walkman handset so far. Does that mean an integrated hard disk? iTunes compatibilty? Unlikely. Wireless stereo headphones is our best guess. We'll find out soon enough.

Best of 2005: Samsung SGH-i300

The first hard disk phone to hit Europe is a goodie. The Samsung SGH-i300 is not too big, performs the basics well, features a 1.3 mega pixel camera and has tons of room (well three Gigabytes to be precise) for your music. Shame Samsung didn’t add a standard USB connector though or bundle it with some decent earphones.

Best of 2005: Sharp Vodafone 903

In our books the Sharp/Voda 903 is phone of the year mainly for its superb three mega pixel camera which takes images that really are something special. It could do with a decent web browser though. It'll be interesting to see if we get a version with a five mega pixel snapper this year.

More Hello Kitty kit

Over at our sister site, Shiny Shiny, yet more Hello Kitty technology has been unearthed - this time, the slider Hello Kitty phone.

The OKWAP A236 mobile isn't actually being launched in the US or UK, but that's not stopped some shrewd entrepreneurs from picking a few up to sell on outside Japan. The handset not only comes with a rather tasty HK carry case, but has handwriting recognition and a stylus pen.

Excited? you can get the full story over at Shiny Shiny.

The waterproof mobile

I'm no Man From Atlantis, so being waterproof isn't high on my list of requirements when upgrading my mobile. Still, many people do work and spend time by our rivers and sea - and if that's you, it might be worth checking out the LG canU 502S mobile phone.

The shell has rubber-sealed seams and all jacks can also be sealed. The phone also features a 1.3 megapixel camera and a 2.2 inch LCD screen.

Just one problem - how do you actually hear a call underwater?

Via Engadget

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Samsung i300 hits the shops
Self-destructing SMS

The Samsung i300 hits the shops

We told you the first mobile with hard drive was imminent and now it's here - the Samsung i300 wth 3GB hard drive is available on the O2 network, combining a phone, digital camera, music player and mobile communication in one rather neat little package.

Music software of choice is Microsoft Windows Media Player 10, which should be familiar to most. Mobile communication is handled by Windows Mobile, allowing easy communication via MSN Messenger, SMS and MMS or through email via Outlook.  The i300 is also "plug and play" - so sharing information between phone and computer is a doddle. You can even use the i300's hard drive to back up critical data on your PC.

Add to that a 1.3 mega pixel camera with both still and video recording capabilities and high-quality dual stereo speakers with Bluetooth capability and you have the most integrated mobile device yet to hit the market. The Samsung i300 is available at O2 now. We're just hoping it's taken up by the other networks very soon.

More mobiles
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Track your kids by mobile

Track your kids by mobile phone

Back in the day, most kids played out on the street. But if recent research is to be believed, nearly a third of children now miss out on playing outside because of parental fears for safety. If you worry everytime your child leaves the house, mTrack has launched the i-Kids phone, which can pinpoint a child's location to within 20 metres via phone or net.

The phone, which is endorsed by children's charity Kidscape, has limited call capabilities and just four numbered buttons - three can be allocated to the phone by the parent together with a additional button that the child can use to get help at any time from all the stored numbers. Once subscribed to the service, parents can track their child in three ways - free through a map online or on a mobile which tracks the child every 10 minutes, instant tracking via a 'ping' (costing 50p per 'ping') or through a safety zone alert, which notifies parents via sms if their child has strayed from their specified area (50p per text).

To get the service you first need to sign up to i-Kids. The price is £49.95 for the handset (which comes in a range of colours), plus a monthly cost of £11 for a 1 year contract (or £5.23 for 2 years). You get 10 free location requests to start you off, after which they'll revert to 50p each. Find out more at www.i-kids.net/uk.

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Tracking with KidsOk
Anti-bullying mobile

Fancy a three grand mobile phone?

Fancy going one better than your mates? You'll go around 100 better if you pick up this new limited edition D&G Moto RAZR V3i mobile phone.

Bayraider has spotted this beauty on eBay - and what's better - you don't even need to bid. Just stump up the "Buy it now" price of $2999.99 and it's yours.

If you can't contain yourself with excitement or that early Christmas bonus is burning a hole in your pocket, you can find out more about the phone and the auction at Bayraider.tv.

Motorola and D&G's RAZR

So is the Motorola RAZR the ‘Chav mobile du jour’ or the coolest phone around? Well the jury is still out round here, but even those who are itching for the Burberry RAZR (for comedy reasons rather than aesthetic ones) quite like the look of the new model Motorola has cooked up with Dolce & Gabbana.

Limited to just 1000 models it's a version of the RAZR V3i (the one with the decent spec 1.23 mega pixel camera etc) that has a distinctive liquid gold finish which makes it look just about the right side of bling to us. Less memorably it also boasts a personalised background with screensaver, a tailored sound for power up and down, an exclusive polyphonic ring tone and, for those idle moments when you are waiting for your chauffeur to show, you can view a video clip illustrating 20 years of Dolce & Gabbana brand history. No news on pricing yet (you pre-order it via D&G stores), but we have already pawned a few family members to secure the deposit.

More RAZR-ing

RAZR review
iTunes RAZR phone
RAZR V3i details

Orange’s latest SPV arrives

The SPVs have always been popular around the Tech Digest office as they are among the most compact smartphones to use Windows Mobile and actually make for surprisingly manageable web browsing. The latest, the SPV C600, is a very similar candy-bar style to its predecessors now with a 320 x 240 colour screen, as well as a 1.3 megapixel camera and 64mb internal memory. Not following the C550, it has opted away form music playback button and returns to a style more similar to the C500 but this time imbued with the latest Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system. This means that applications load up a lot quicker and has a generally more handset friendly interface. Also improved over the C500 is the new joystick control system that has proved itself to be a much needed addition.

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MS Peabody smartphone

The Orange SPV C600 has pretty much ticked all the boxes; but there’s no escaping the fact that it’s hard to make such a small unit very easily useable with internet browsing, emailing and so on. Plus the connectivity options seem a little limited and more worryingly there is no mention of removable storage; but it still remains one of the most compact smartphones out there. The SPV C600 has landed in the UK now and is available from free on phone contracts.

N-Gage slips away

Nokia has announced that it is planning to withdraw from the mobile gaming scene for a couple of years and that the N-Gage itself will be receiving no new incarnations. I’m left with mixed feelings about this development; though nothing brought more joy to my day than being able to fire a few vengeful insults at the hybrid device, its passing leaves me with little to vent my spleen on. It was high time that Nokia gave up on the mobile gaming charade as sales of the N-Gage and its successor, the N-Gage QD, only reached a third of the sales forecasts which must have been quite a shock to Nokia after it managed an admirable feat of marketing and hype building prior to the phone’s 2003 launch. This failure was largely due to phone’s laughable design flaws and though they were mostly corrected in the QD version, by then it was too little too late. If you still have an unnatural desire to own one Nokia is still planning to keep on producing the N-Gage in limited numbers for foreign markets.

via Gizmodo

Samsung launches gaming phone

I’m sure this was supposed to be called the GPANG way back when we first caught wind of it. Anyway, given the success of the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP, mobile phone companies are beginning to realise that portable gaming ought to be on a bit more of their turf. That said, Nokia already tried the idea once with the N-Gage and that proved exactly what handheld gaming was not about. Mercifully Samsung has thought up its own take on a mobile/console and come up with the SPH-G1000, which really isn't as cool as 'GPANG' sounded. It has sensibly tackled the problem of being a phone first and worked on the console aspect second. The quality of games remains to be seen, but it is noted that Samsung’s offering isn’t trying to step on the big boys toes. At the moment its main competitor is the LG SV360 (pic on the turn), which seems to have to taken the N-Gage path. Oops. The Samsung SPH-G1000 is only available in Korea at the moment but if we root for it enough, it may eventually make it to these shores. I think they can keep the LG though.

via MobileMag

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Nokia's N-Gage price cuts

Vodafone V1240 - its mystery phone

Among the long list of phones that are or will be compatible with Vodafone’s push email service is one handset that’s a complete mystery to us and our friends at Google search. Apparently coming soon is the Vodafone V1240. We know it runs Windows Mobile 5.0 and is almost certainly manufactured by HTC in Taiwan, but beyond that we know nowt. Perhaps it means that after taking all HTC’s PDA style devices it is now taking a Windows based smartphone. Maybe it is the Voda equivalent of the Orange SPV 600. We’ll find out more lately today.

O2 X2i

More nice and simple phones from 02. This time it’s a new addition to the exclusive O2 X-range and sports a clamshell design. There’s nothing groundbreaking here: Bluetooth, 65k colour screen, polyphonic ringtones, VGA phone camera, etc. Thankfully this economy on gadgets is reflected in the price; £80 on pre-pay or free on a contract which isn’t bad. The other benefit to opting for a feature thin mobile is the boost in battery power. The X2i should yield enough charge for a decent 237 hours standby time which is well over a week, or 5 hours talk time. And if you’re getting one for your kid then the new T9 dictionary will predict all the latest in text slang, including “l8r”, to help impair their literacy. More O2
O2's X4 3G phone
O2 launches Xda sp

T-Mobile MDA Vario and O2 xda Mini S go on sale

If you like the look of one of those HTC Universal (like the T-Mobile MDA Pro and Orange SPV M5000) devices with their sizable keyboard and great connectivity options, but are put off by their pocket-bulging size then O2 and T-Mobile might have something for you. This week both have launched the latest in the seemingly never-ending series of Windows Mobile devices from Taiwanese manufacturer HTC which they are billing as the MDA Vario (T-Mobile) and Xda Mini S (O2).

Both phones, which are virtually identical, sport a much smaller form factor than the Universal, yet they do boast a full QWERTY keyboard which is accessed via the user sliding the bottom half of the unit. Unlike the Universal there’s no 3G connection, but the phone features Wi-Fi as well as GPRS and comes with the full suite of MS applications that are served up by the Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system. Other niceties include Bluetooth, a 1.3 mega pixel camera, a 2.8inch 64K-colour TFT-LCD touch screen and an external Mini SD card slot. The O2 Xda Mini S is available from £260 for pay monthly contract customers, while the MDA Vario sells for from free to £149.99.

More Windows Mobile

Orange's music phone MDA Pro review

T-Mobile Sidekick II finally goes on sale in UK

T-Mobile finally confirmed today that the Sidekick II, also known as the Hiptop II, will go on sale wearing the network’s colours in the UK this week. We have written about the device many, many times before, but we are fans of its superb keyboard and excellent messaging facilities. We just wish it had a music player and better camera.

Anyhow maybe our dream will come true soon. Anyhow if you fancy it the Sidekick II is available from T-Mobile from between free and £49 depending on your tariff. It also works with T-Mobile's recently launched Web n’Walk service.

More Sidekicking
Sidekick II review
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Nokia N92 review

The folks over at sister site Gadget Centre recently got chance to have a hands on with the Nokia N92 – the first mobile phone to feature an integrated DVB-H receiver that delivers digital TV on the go. Read how it could change the shape of mobile phones.

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Is this the Sidekick III?

Well the Sidekick II hasn’t even gone on sale in the UK yet, but  those Yanks are already speculating about what the Sidekick III is going to be like. There are numerous posts all over the web, but most seem to agree that the new model will be out in the US before Christmas and include a music player, better storage and Bluetooth.

The slightly more bonkers rumours include that it will run on the Windows Mobile operating system – which is odd as the Sidekick’s current OS seems perfectly respectable to us – that it will include a three mega pixel camera and feature on board Wi-Fi. Well if it ticks all those boxes, let's just say that T-Mobile better get one over here double quick as we WANT ONE. Pic courtesy of Engadget.

Sidekick-ing
Sidekick II coming to UK
Sidekick II review

Sagem my300x series mobiles

Another day, another ulra slim mobile handset; it’s Sagem’s turn to show off its take on the idea with the my300x, my301x and my302x phones. They have a very practical 350 hours standby time, 4 hours talk time and dimensions of 105 x 46 x 14 mm. Apart from that, they come with the usual set of features including GPRS, WAP 2.0, Java, MMS and so on, but what makes these models stand out from the crowd is what is not integrated. Unlike nearly every other mobile phone on the market, none of these handsets comes with a phone camera. There has been quite a few cases of companies wanting to exclude phone cameras from the workplace so these may catch on well as smart, practical work phones. Time to start pestering the boss I think.

Read

More Sagem
My-S7
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Sony Ericsson's noddy phones

Well there may have been plenty of rumours about a cut down version of the P990 smartphone, but instead Sony Ericsson has this morning chosen to launch a trio of new phones aimed at basic consumers. The new handsets are the company's answer to the Vodafone Simply phone which the network launched in collaboration with Sagem earlier in the year. Largely bereft of features – there’s no camera, MP3 player or email – they are designed so that even the most tech-unsavvy users can find their way around them. Sony  Ericsson's big idea, for the two of the phones the J220 and J230, is to include an option that allows the user to customise the interface to make it even simpler to use. They can either opt for the traditional multi icon interface or go for a single icon menu. This enables them to access their core features - and on these phones there aren't a great deal to chose from anyhow – with one click. The chocolate bar style handsets also include a 128x128 pixel, 65k colour display, embedded games and a calendar and the J230 has an FM radio, but that’s all. The pair have a battery standby life of 280 hours.

More noddy phones
Vodafone's Simply
LG's even more simple

Even more basic is the Z300 is a small clamshell with fewer features than its siblings. It doesn’t even sport the speaker phone that’s found on the other two new phones and there’s no single icon user interface option. It does however feature a 128x128 pixel, 65k colour display, embedded games and a calendar. The Z300 will be on sale later this year with the J220 and 230 slated for early 2006.

Samsung's credit card thin SGH-P300 lands in UK

Yesterday it was Motorola, today it is Samsung’s turn to grab the mobile spotlight. It has launched no fewer than five mobiles for the European market two of which are 3G models. The one likely to get all the attention is the SGH-P300, which is basically Samsung's attempt to out skinny the Moto RAZR. It is 8.9mm thick, or is that thin? Yet Samsung has managed to pack a 1.3 mega pixel camera with flash, music player and video recording capabilities. Looks a bit like a calculator though...

The 3G-ers, the SGH-Z510 and SGH-Z540 look pretty decent too mixing small (for 3G handsets) frames with the usual full whack of features. Both tout a 1.3 mega pixel camera and 4x digital zoom, video telephony, real-time video streaming and video messaging.

The SGH-Z510 has a very cool looking 2.2-inch QVGA screen display and includes MP3 playback, while the SGH-Z540 is aimed at the fashion conscious buyer (aren’t we all?) and sports a similar set of features as well as Bluetooth and storage of a pretty impressive  150MB.

Samsung also debuted the SGH-D800, a 14.9mm slim slide-up phone with a 1.3 mega pixel camera, document viewer, Bluetooth, PictBridge, and TV-out, and the slightly chubbier SGH-D820, another slide-up phone. It features a wide (2.12-inch) and high resolution (QVGA) LCD screen and 1.3 mega pixel camera. All will be available in European stores before the end of the year.

More Skinny phones
Moto's new RAZR
NEC's ultra thin mobile

Motorola's iTunes RAZR phone

We have just had it confirmed by Motorola in the UK that the latest version of the RAZR phone, the V3i, is in fact iTunes compatible. Apparently it won't work in all Moto's markets, but hazarding a guess here, we reckon that the UK and the US are pretty safe bets. As we mentioned earlier the phone uses Transflash storage cards which go up to 512MB, so you'll be able to get your 100 tunes on there.

So why Moto didn't launch this as the iTunes phone in the first place? It would have saved the company, and Apple, a lot of grief.

**Update**

Here's the official word from Motorola in the UK. 'iTunes will be available on the V3i in certain markets. For those markets a press announcement will be made shortly.'

**More**

Ok, here's another clarification. The initial V3is won't be iTunes compatible. However there will be iTunes versions of the V3i which will be on sale in some countries in the new year and these will be announced seperately. Got that!Phew!

Motorola's new RAZR - the V3i

Motorola has been at it again updating its ultra skinny and ultra chavvy covetable RAZR handsets. The big news is a brand new RAZR in the guise of the V3i. This keeps the RAZR's anorexic form but has a better selection of features than its predecessor. So you get a decent-ish 1.23 mega pixel camera, expandable memory (Transflash cards) and bonus audio facilities though apparently no iTunes as was widely rumoured.

Moto is also offering a pair of coloured versions of its original RAZR – one in pink and one in ice blue. These have been all over the web for a few weeks – but if you want to gawp at one check 3i  They both have the rather iffy selection of features including the rather poor quality VGA camera. All three phones will be in the stores by the end of the year.

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RAZR review

T-Mobile to bring Sidekick II to UK (at last)

We hear through the old mobile phone grapevine that T-Mobile is going to bring the Sidekick II, aka the Hiptop version two, to the UK. Now we have had a run in with the Sidekick before and kind of liked its kooky design, A1 messaging facilities and not at all bad web browser.

But it was a nightmare using it as a phone and is there any point in bringing out a youth-ish mobile these days which doesn’t have an MP3 player? And as for its VGA camera that's sooo 2004.

Anyhow we’ll be intrigued to see what, if any, tweaking T-Mobile has done to the device to get it ready for the UK. We suspect it may be taking version two to prepare the ground for version three, rumours of which you can read about it here.

More Sidekicking
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BlackBerry is cool: official

So what’s cool with British young people at the moment? Beat heavy urban jungle grooves? Ironic retro rock stylings. Nope it is in fact pug ugly emailing devices. Yep our old fave the BlackBerry actually scooped third spot in a survey to name the coolest technology brands conducted by market research company YouGov, on behalf of Superbrands.

Only the PlayStation and Sony Ericsson beat the BlackBerry in the poll which was voted for by 1,100 18 - 35 years olds. You can read about the rest of the poll here.

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Palm to launch mid-range Treo smartphones?

Analysts from Caris & Co. have released a statement indicating that there is good reason to believe Palm will be unveiling a smaller, more affordable Treo smartphones in the second half of 2006. Many PDA smartphones, although looking pretty neat, remain unattainable due to their premium prices, however these forecasted models are expected to have a much more reasonable retail price somewhere around $200 (about £115). There is no further information on these new Treos, nor is there much detail of how these analysts come up with their predictions; I just hope that it involves more bone casting and tea leaves than poring over spreadsheets and technical readouts. A long awaited higher end Treo is also due out in the second half of 2006 and features the Windows Mobile operating system.

via The Register

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Nokia launches N92 TV to go mobile

In Barcelona today at its annual Mobility Conference Nokia took the wraps off its first phone with an integrated digital TV decoder. Set to launch in Q2 2006, the N92, which runs using Nokia's Series 60 interface, features a DVB-H TV tuner that in the future will be able to receive as many as fifty TV channels. DVB-H is a variant of the digital TV standard as used in the UK by Freeview, which has been optimised for mobile devices. It is set to launch in Italy in time for the 2006 World Cup with other European countries following later in the year. There's no official UK launch for the service, but it could theoretically arrive as early as 2007. Nokia, along with O2 and NTL, recently conducted a DVB-H trial in the Oxford area. Similar to other N Series phones, the N92 runs using Nokia's Series 60 interface and features a suite of high-end facilities. The clamshell-style device includes integrated Wi-Fi, web browsing and music playback.

Its super-bright 2.8-inch16 million-colour screen is probably the best we've ever seen on a phone. The neat little design means it can be flipped round so that it looks like a tiny DVD player making it ideal for TV viewing on the go. The handset can also record TV programmes on to an SD card and deliver an on-screen electronic programme guide. Some innovative interactive facilities are also in the pipelines, allowing you to cast votes on live TV shows, for example.

Vodafone tries out phone vending machine

Manchester's Vodafone stores are currently trialling the new QuickPhone kiosks in an experiment which could eventually see similar machines become commonplace in public places throughout the UK. The QuickPhone has a pretty simple concept: it can sell you anything from cheap pay-as-you-go mobiles to sim card packs costing between £5 and £30. The machine also showboats some of Vodafone’s other telecommunications technology; 3G technology is used to monitor stock levels and arrange refills. Plus, if you’re worried about having to pump £30 in small change into a machine, they even come imbued with a ‘chip and pin’ system. I'm not particularly sure that there is quite enough demand for instant access to cheap mobiles to support a nationwide network of these vendors, especially with all those pesky phone boxes about, but we'll wait and see.

via The Scotsman

Nokia's new fashion collection

Nokia's calling its latest batch of fashion handsets the "L'Amour Collection", though why exactly is not entirely clear. First up is the 7380 which has a keyless dial similar to its Art Deco predecessor, the 7280. It's got some decent features including a 2-megapixel camera and MP3 player. Next comes the 7370 with a swivel design a 1.3-megapixel camera and a choice of two colours - coffee brown and warm amber. Finally, the 7360 comes with a standard VGA camera and an FM radio - as well as those two colour choices.

Read

Qtek 910 hits UK

HTC’s long -promised Wizard should now have arrived in the in the guise of the T Mobile MDA Pro, Orange M5000 etc. Should you want to buy one without committing to a network, then there’s the option of the Qtek 910. Available  now from Smart Devices and Expansys, the 910 is almost identical to the Wizard in that it features Wi-Fi, a very usable keyboard, a 1.3 mega pixel camera and runs using Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system,. The key difference is that the Qtek is GPRS only and doesn’t have the Wizard’s 3G capabilities. Anyhow if that’s no mater then Smart Devices has it here for a pretty competitive £345 plus VAT.

Is a four Gig Sony Ericsson Walkman phone imminent?

It’s a bit of Sony Ericsson frenzy today as we have got word that the company is going to take the wraps off its latest Walkman phone on Monday 17th. The first phone, the W800i, was a good all rounder that was slightly compromised by a poor quality speaker and limited (512MB) storage. The obvious upgrade would be to offer the phone with a much greater level of storage – the Memory Stick Duo cards it contains now goes up to four Gigabytes. This would certainly trump Samsung and Nokia both of whom are readying mobile phones with hard disks of three and four Gigabytes respectively, for launch in Europe in the next three months.

Maybe the phone will also be compatible with Sony’s Connect music download service – though how the UK networks would feel about this remains to be seen. They did swallow their pride and take on the ROKR iTunes phone though.

O2 launches Xda sp

O2'a latest Xda smartphone has arrived in the form of the Xda sp. Sporting a look that's pretty different from the usual Xda PDAs (ie, it's got a number pad), the sp is still aimed at professional types - just ones with smaller pockets. Powered by Microsoft's Windows Mobile 2003, it's got all the usual Personal Information Management (PIM) features you'd expect, and there's 64MB of ROM and 32MB of SDRAM to tide you over on memory. If you need more, you can always bump it up via the miniSD slot, saving images and MP3s to your heart's content. The 2.2-inch screen is just the usual 65K colour TFT and the camera is the standard VGA as well, making this a pretty average phone, with above average software on board. The O2 Xda sp costs from free on business tariffs and is available now in O2 stores or online.

World's skinniest phone reaches UK

Remember that ultra skinny NEC camera phone we tipped you off about last week? Well apparently the L1 is on its way to the UK. Luxury retailer Bamford and Sons has apparently scooped a load of the handsets, which is super model skinny compared with its now comparitively bloated Motorola RAZR rivals, and is selling them at a rather pricey £5.95 a pop.

With the RAZR series being touted by every Tom Dick and Chav now it might be money worth spending. Read

Samsung's hand warming mobile

Samsung was also parading a few protos yesterday including this little gem which it is billing as ‘literally the hottest phone on the market.’ Developed in Russia, in the Ural State Academy to be precise, the handset features a built-in hand warmer to ensure that even though the Siberian wind might be blowing your hands are still nice and toasty and ready to text. Anyhow I am sure my long deceased grandmother would approve. In her day it was standard practice stave off the cold by carrying round hot potatoes in pockets. Apologies for rubbish pic, but that glass casing was nailed down.

Samsung's hard disk phone to debut in UK very soon

It looked like it would be a close race to launch the first mobile phone with hard disk in the UK, but it appears now that the contest is over. Samsung has confirmed that its three Gigabyte Windows based SGH-i300 will be in the stores before Christmas - early November appears to be the likely time - well before Nokia's four Gig N91. I had a few minutes hands-on with the phone yesterday and have to say it is one impressive handset. Sure it is large and its chocolate bar design isn’t exactly cutting edge, but it feels smaller and more comfortable to use than Nokia's hard disk phone the N91.

Accessing music via the fiddly Windows interface is a pain, but Samsung has incorporated a neat scroll wheel which significantly sped up finding and choosing the various tracks. The phone features the Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system, a 1.3 mega pixel camera, Bluetooth and of course Outlook and Pocket Explorer. It sounds really good too, up there with the Sharp 903 and Motorola ROKR, which to these ears have the best MP3 playback.

Given the amount of storage the phone has and all its features I can't imagine why any gadget lover would want another handset this Christmas, except maybe the Sharp 903 or the Nokia N91 for their superb cameras.

Nokia's ace new music phone

We were going to do a long post about Nokia’s new music phone the 3250, but ShinyShiny got there first. Suffice to say that it looks great, sports a really cool twisty design that makes it easy to use both the music player and the camera, features a cool two mega pixel camera and has one Gigabyte of memory – which mobile spotters will tell you is twice as much as the Motorola/Apple ROKR and the Sony Ericsson W800i Walkman phone. It also has a neat 262k colour screen, Bluetooth and an FM radio. Music playback is ten hours per charge and users drag and drop tracks on to the device (hurrah).

Doh! That’s almost a long post. Over to your Sony Ericsson and Motorola/ Apple…

Nokia postpones N91 until after Christmas - gets WMA support too

Big news from Nokia in that it has decided to delay its N91 hard disk based music phone until the start of next year. It was expected that the handset would be in the stores just before Christmas.

Interestingly Nokia puts the delay down to its plans for ensuring that the N91 ‘will work on the widest range of music platforms and be a true "jukebox" mobile phone.’ "What we basically decided is that we will postpone it a few weeks, push it out to Q1 and do this Microsoft DRM implementation solidly," Jonas Geust, vice president of music in Nokia's Multimedia division, said in an interview with Reuters. This means that that the N91 will almost certainly be compatible with DRM protected WMA files such as those offered by Napster and Virgin Digital.

It will also be customizable so that different networks such as Vodafone and O2 can offer their own music download services on the phone. Nokia said it wanted consumers to be free to choose how to get their music - from CDs copied to a PC, directly from Internet stores, or from their mobile network operator - and be able to harmonise their collections at the click of a button. In case you missed our earlier story the N91 has a four -gigabyte hard drive capable of storing up to  3,000 songs.

NEC delivers world's skinniest camera phone

Mmm. It appears that it isn’t going to be Motorola’s iTunes ROKR phone that‘s going to set the template for 2006 mobiles, rather it is the US firm’s RAZR phone. Not only does Moto have a new range of ultra thin handsets available, it has also spawned a RAZR lookey-likey in the e949 from NEC. Alas only available at the moment in Hong Kong, though a European launch is planned, the e949 is billed by NEC as the world's thinnest fold type camera equipped mobile. By our reckoning then its dimensions of 11.9mm when folded makes it even skinnier than the RAZR.

The GSM/GPRS mobile also has a 1.9 inch (176×220 dot) 65,000 colour display, a 1.3 mega pixel camera, an OLED sub-screen, PictBridge, MP3, Java and Bluetooth. No definite UK launch yet but fingers crossed. Could do wonders for NEC’s image in the UK.

Nokia 6630 Music Edition

Crikey, it appears everyone want to launch a music phone today. For after Tosh's new 803 for Vodafone we now have Nokia which has unveiled a new music-friendly version of its 3G phone the 6630. Nokia says its 6630 Music Edition has been ‘designed with enhanced music functionality to make it convenient for you to take your music collection with you while on the move.’ Essentially this means it now comes with a 256MB RS MMC card, a USB MMC/SD reader and the Nokia Audio Adapter and its 3.5 mm stereo jack. It is also available in a few different colours including Rustic Red or Aluminum Grey. The rest of the phone, with its 1.3 megapixel camera, mobile broadband access via 3G, mobile email and streaming video is the same.

To further confuse matters Nokia is also foreign the Nokia Music Pack, which has the Nokia Audio Adapter, the Nokia 256 MB MMC Card, the Nokia USB MMC/SD reader and Nokia Stereo Audio Cable as a kit.

Of course the real Nokia music phone is this one.

Is over the air downloads to iTunes phones the real reason for the ROKR?:

Is the real story about the ROKR phone that it is a precursor to Apple offering over the air music downloads via iTunes? Well maybe, and the interesting news is that the UK networks don't seem as down on having iTunes as a rival to their music services as you might have thought.

It was always assumed by UK mobile phone analysts that had Apple and Motorola offered a direct over the air music downloads via iTunes to its newly launched ROKR music phone, that the UK networks wouldn’t have touched the phone. For after all this would make iTunes a direct competitor to the network’s own music download options. Vodafone, which isn't offering the phone probably sees it this way but not other networks.

Speaking for O2, which has an exclusive on the phone for a couple of weeks, Head of Music Graeme Riddell told Tech Digest that this was never an issue. 'We took the phone because it fits in with our core plan and that it is to get people using their mobile to listen to music. We acknowledge that it is a competitive market place out there and we have a strong offering and we would be able to offer services that iTunes couldn’t such as video downloads, ringtones, ticketing and community features.’ Nevertheless were Apple to offer a mobile-friendly version of its iTunes music store, which surely has to be high on the company’s agenda, the UK networks own services would find it hard to compete with a system that has already taken such a huge leap in PC-based music downloads. Tellingly Riddell admitted that the networks would still benefit massively from the service ‘as consumers would be using our phone network to download the tracks.’

Riddell also argued that it didn’t take long to decide to take the phone as it is ‘obviously a high profile phone and O2 wants to maintain its position as offering the widest and best range of handsets on the High Street.’ Asked what he thought about the backlash against the phone – reviews haven’t been too kind so far - Riddell said that ‘consumer electronics is a very fast moving market’ and he expected Motorola and Apple would offer better specified versions of the phone in the near future.’ ‘Although Apple has done extremely well with its iPod,’ concluded Riddell. ‘There are still many more phones out there that can play MP3 than Apple music players.’

Sharp 903 review: this month's coolest phone

So what’s this month’s hottest new phone? The Nokia N90 camera phone? Mmmm. The Apple Motorola ROKR? Don’t make me laff! Nope by some clear distance the gadget phone for September has to be the Sharp 903 available via Vodafone.

I managed to get my hands on one the other day and have to say that if the 903 is anything to go by the days of the budget digital camera are numbered. It is fairly similar to the equally groundbreaking 902 but with some neat additions.

Sharp has tweaked the style a bit so now it comes in black (haven't seen the red in the UK yet) and has slightly bevelled edges. It doesn't sound like much of a makeover but it is one that’s actually pretty impressive. The SD card slot is gone replaced by one of those annoying mini SD ones. Though at least the phone does come with an SD card adaptor.

The big change however is that Sharp has upgraded the camera from 2.0 mega pixels to 3.2 mega pixels and judging by the images the handset takes that is one huge leap. Colour is enhanced, contrast level are significantly better but obviously the big difference is that you see levels of detail that on the 902 and all other camera phones would have just been something of a blur. Sharp has also worked hard on the camera's facilities which now include a very effective auto focus, a highly useful 2x optical zoom and a variable exposure option.

The rest of the phone is every bit as good as the 902. In particular I like the MP3/AAC player which is not only one of the best I have heard so far on a phone, but also sounds great through the 903’s integrated speakers. The phone’s two and half inch 262k colour screen is also a wonder – still the benchmark which rival phone makers have to aspire to. There's also person to person video calling, video capture and access to Vodafone’s Live! 3G services. The downsides, well the interface is fine but nowhere near as elegant as say a Nokia Series 60 handset. Also while Sharp has included POP3 email, it is a bit tricky to set up and use. There’s also a web browser on board, which, to say the least is fairly basic. Finally the phone is, just like the 902, a bit of monster. If you want something small and slinky to pull from your pocket buy a Moto RAZR or a Nokia 8800. Finally Voda hasn’t been at all generous with the storage, the phone is bundled with a 64MB card which, given the size of 3.2 mega pixel images, should fill up in moments.

Overall though this is a cracking phone. Forget your iTunes and Walkman handsets, they are just trying to sucker you in via their branding, this is the real deal. If you want a better camera, better screen, tons more features and a pretty good music player to boot the 903 is for you.

iTunes phone: the basics

Many of the UK's tech press are holed dup in some arty fartsy building just off the north circ, but not me, so like the rest of you I am tuning into Engadget’s fantastic on the spot coverage. And here comes first few details. We’ll give you the UK angle as soon as we get it, but we do know the following. It is the Motorola/Apple ROKR phone. It has a (pathetic) 100-song storage capacity and users load the phone in the same random way they do the iPod shuffle or do it the boring manual way. So no over the air downloads then – what a surprise! It works with both Macs and PCs. It costs $249 from the Apple Store (US) and is available in North America via Cingular.

You’ll forgive me if I am not dancing in the aisles with excitement at this point. More in a mo.

iTunes phone is imminent

Unless you are stuck somewhere under a log you are probably well aware that later today(7th September, 2005), at 6pm UK time in fact, Apple is set to take the wraps off the iTunes phone it has developed with Motorola. I remain very positive about the future of music phones, but not really convinced about the iTunes phone. Especially if, as predicted, its battery life and storage capacity is significantly less than rivals like the Sony Ericsson W800i, or even handsets like the awesome Sharp 903.

The big question that we’ll find the answer to soon enough is whether the phone will download tracks over the air, or whether it will just enable users to sideload AAC tracks from their PC. I expect it to be the latter as most UK networks have their own music download services up and running. As for which UK network will take the handset, well the big money is on O2 with Virgin Mobile a possibility. Of course the wonderful thing about all this is that I could be made to look rather stupid in less than a couple of hours time. One last thing. Don't except Apple to have all its own way tomorrow. There’s a rumour buzzing round the UK of an imminent worldwide launch by one of Apple’s rivals. We’ll be bringing you the details on that one as soon as we have them.

Check out Engadget's last minute rumours here

Mio unveils GPS smartphone

GPS. It's cool, useful and as close as you're ever likely to get to having a FPS style objective compass in real life. GPS is great, so it's understandable that Orange wants to get into the market (as reported below). Those who want an alternative should check out Mio's new toys: new versions of the dedicated GPS handset 268 and 269 series, a new PDA with GPS functionality dubbed the A201 and a new smartphone with integrated GPS, the A701.

The A701 looks to be a combination of PDA, smartphone and GPS navigator, with a windows smartphone as its starting point. It runs using the Magneto (snigger, insert X-men reference) operating system from Microsoft, has a 2.7 inch TFT touchscreen, as well as a 520 MHz processor and 192MB of internal memory, in addition to bluetooth and a 1.3 MP camera.

The new versions of the 268 and 269 (dubbed the 'plus' series) will come with faster processors, better GPS linkp, door-to-door directions as well as compatiblity with the Traffic Message Channel service. The 269 plus comes with maps for 27 European countries pre-installed, and both the 268 and 269 come with inbuilt MP3 players. The 269 will also come with a photo viewer.

The A201 PDA version comes with a rotating antenna, letting you use the device in both landscape and portrait mode. The A201 comes with all the standard current generation PDA features, as well as bluetooth, and also runs with the Magneto operating system from Microsoft.

Phew. The 268, 269 and A201 will be available in from September in Europe. The A701 is expected to arrive towards the end of the year.

Motorola's GPS A780 phone

Seems like we are on for a bit of rush on mobiles with built in GPS satellite navigation systems. There's a new model from Mio on the cards, but until then Motorola is claiming it got there first with its clamshell style A780. Moto has sensibly incorporated a large colour touch screen to display the maps which cover the UK and Ireland. If you want to add other European countries you have to invest in another TransFlash memory card.

The phone uses CoPilot Live software to guide users round the country features a 1.3 mega pixel camera with an 8x digital zoom, Bluetooth and quad band reception. Motorola has also announced the V360, a budget clamshell handset with a VGA camera, Bluetooth and push to talk facilities. Both models will be on sale within the month.

LG's compact Bluetooth phone

Looks like you people who crave the small in your tech life will have something new to get excited about, with the announcement by LG Electronics of the latest clamshell handset, the F2400. The phone is available with Orange in a silver and grey exterior, and boasts a modest 65k colour TFT screen, as well as an outer colour screen and comes with bluetooth, the smallest phone yet to do so. The phone also comes with WAP connectivity (although only the most twisted gadget nut would enjoy it on a phone this small). The phone also comes with a VGA camera, and 4MB of user memory (really not much). The phone operates in dual band GPRS.

OK, it’s a little lacking in features. But it is fairly compact as bluetooth phones go. The phone will be available from July for £119.99 on pre-pay or free on a contract.

Sendo x2 review

The Guardian has got its mitts on the second smartphone from Brit maker Sendo. Only rather than delivering a bog-standard smartphone, the X2 has all the usual top-end mobile staples like email and the top Opera web browser, but also has a shed load of music playing facilities.

It comes out pretty well with the paper praising its compact size and music playing performance. However it has some distance to go to catch up with rivals from Sony Ericsson and Nokia in terms of music playing battery life or storage for tracks.

Sony Ericsson's quartet

Sony Ericsson has delivered a quartet of new mobiles aimed at very different market segments. With under 25s in mind the company has unveiled the S600, a kind of distant cousin of the S700, which majors on multimedia features. It has a superb screen, which can go widescreen for image viewing and more importantly gaming. It also features a 1.3 mega pixel camera and an MP3 player.

Also unveiled this week was Sony Ericsson's latest 3G handset. The K608 sports an upright design that the company claims is roughly the same size and weight as GPRS phones. It has a 1.3 mega pixel camera, a large 1.8inch 262k colour screen and push email facilities.

Sony Ericsson also debuted the Z520, a compact clamshell aimed at young women (you can read more about this on Shiny) and the entry-level J210.

BT Fusion unveiled

Today’s big news is that BT Fusion, the much talked about service that enables users to toggle between their mobile phones and their landlines is go. It trial is set to start soon and the service will rollout properly in September. Basically the service uses customized mobile phones which can switch between mobile and land lines accessing the latter via Bluetooth.

So, for example if a person makes a call on their mobile while on the move, they can switch to their landline when they get home without dropping the call. The system works using access point installed in the home, called a BT Hub, will switch the mobile phone to a broadband line using Bluetooth.

So far only Motorola has committed to delivering a phone for the service in the guise of the Motorola V560, but other makers are expected to offer handsets soon. BT Fusion would be offered in two price plans of £9.99 and £14.99 a month. 

Though confusingly the company added that BT Fusion would enable customers to make calls to UK landlines at its off-peak landline rate of 5.5 pence for up to an hour, and 3p a minute at peak hours. The BT hub also works as a wireless router, providing users access to PCs, laptops and games consoles wirelessly around the home.

Sony Ericsson's 3G phone

Sony Ericsson's latest 3G handset is set to launch in early Q5 Q3 (oops!)and is coming out exclusively with Vodafone. Unlike the company's flagship 3G models, the V800 and Z800i, the V600i is a candybar model with a 1.8-inch 262K colour screen for streaming video and making video calls. There's a 1.3-megapixel camera with LED flash, Bluetooth, an FM radio and an MP3 player. You'll also be able to use a push email service similar to BlackBerry and there's 32MB of built in user memory. No word on pricing yet, but here's hoping it won't be as much as the V800 was at launch.

Read [via Mobilemag]

LG is simple too

We had an inkling this might happen. Following on from Vodafone’s unveiling of its Sagem-made Simply fuss-free mobile last week it appears that almost every handset maker/network is going to hop on the easy phone bandwagon and try to pass off basic handsets as Simply phone rivals. LG has a slightly better claim than most with its B2050 which goes on sale shortly via T-Mobile.

Billed as a text and talk phone only the chocolate bar style B2050 does however feature Wap facilities, games and an alarm. But there’s no camera, Bluetooth or music player. Everything is controlled by a four way rocker switch and large-ish buttons. Perhaps the coolest thing about the £39.99 handset is just how small and light it is – you almost don’t notice it in your pocket.

Virgin Mobile announces Lobster range

Back in the old days - err last year – manufacturers made mobile phones they hoped would appeal to a large cross section of buyers. That's history now and if you want more proof that segmentation is now the name of the game here comes Virgin Mobile with a brand new youth-oriented (well 16-30) brand called Lobster. In a typically bald way the company says that ‘all Lobster phones will offer desirable new products and technology at breakthrough prices.’ We take that to mean fairly decent though not exactly cutting-edge products at not high-end prices.

Virgin Mobile is kicking off the series with the Lobster 485 which it is billing as one of the smallest flip handsets available in Europe. The phone, which has been made exclusively for Virgin by Bellware, features a 262k colour screen and an integrated VGA camera. It will retail for £89.99 and be available across the UK from early June. The company adds that a number of further Lobster-branded phones will be launched throughout 2005 and beyond, and they will all feature a Virgin-branded red shortcut key, giving fast access to Virgin Mobile's entertainment content service, BITES.

You can check out the spec after the turn

Lobster 485 Specification: The Lobster 485 comes with £5 airtime, battery and charger * Built-in VGA camera * Internal screen - 262k colours; 128x160 pixels * External screen - 65k colours * Dimensions: 75 x 38 x 21.5mm * Weight: 68g * Handsfree headset included * Photo phone book * Downloadable games * Picture messaging (MMS) * Enhanced WAP (GPRS) * Polyphonic ringtones * Calendar, calculator & clock alarm

Hulger's P*Phone

Remember Pokia, that team of retro-obsessed neo-fogies who took a conventional home phone complete with curly wurly lead and resurrected it as an attachment for mobile phones? Well the team are back and they have ditched the Pokia name, have re-christened themselves Hulger and are offering their Hulger P*PHONE through their own website.

Although it keeps the style of the Pokia, the team has updated the handset improving the answer / call button. The team reckons that after people have got over the shock of the phone actually working they borrow the P*PHONE to phone their mums. The phones are available in a variety of colours for £40.

You can also bid on an exclusive designer P*PHONE here

New SPV due in July

There’s no official word yet from Orange, but it seems that the whole online gadget community, or CoolSmartphone at least, is convinced that the next version of the SPV, the Orange SPV C550, will be delivered to stores on July 11th. Don’t expect to see a major revamp of the rather excellent Windows powered smartphone. Instead manufacturer HTC has tweaked the specification to include a 1.3 mega pixel camera and a dedicated media player button on the phone’s fascia.

Vodafone Simply phones

It might seem odd in an age of 3G handsets offering video calling, music playback and even TV, but Vodafone is getting back to basics. Announced on Friday were the first pair of mobiles in its range of handsets titled Vodafone Simply. Made in France by Sagem, the new phones (the VS1, a silver, stylish handset, and the Sagem VS2; a simple black candy bar design) are noddy devices, all big screens and large buttons that are aimed at those groups (we wouldn’t dare to suggest an age, sex or demographic here) who might find other mobis difficult to use. Voda's big idea is that the phone doesn’t need fewer buttons, rather it needs more of them so the Simply has switches for everything from contacts to a ringer setting. They are all large, neatly labelled and generally pretty simple to use. The integrated voice mail service works in a similar way to a home answering machine; the message button will light up when a new message is received. To listen to messages the customer just needs to press the messages button Voda has also kept the features- list to a minimum, so there are no fancy ringtones, no cameras and not even a MP3 player. The models are set to go on sale this week and will cost £80 on pre-pay or free if you have a voda contract. Incidentally Nokia is also rumoured to be working on a noddy phone.

Nokia's N-Gage ported on to smartphones

Nokia has announced a scant few details about its future plans for N-Gage at its E3 press conference says the team at our sister blog Games Digest. N-Gage gaming will be extended to Nokia's raft of "mobile smartphones" in mid-2006.

Whether this means most of Nokia's high-end phones will now come with an N-Gage card slot, or whether it simply means they'll be able to play games as good as an N-Gage (ie take the 3D graphics processing and networking capabilities, but not actually emulate an N-Gage) remains to be seen. As does what this means for handset design - will all smartphones be laid out for gaming, or just some? What it doesn't appear to mean is a folding of N-Gage into smartphones.

New Windows Mobile 5.0 phones

There are no big surprises as to what are going to be the first two mobile phones to feature the just unveiled Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system. Both have already been announced and both are exciting high spec models with unique features. Likely to land first is the HTC Universal – better known to you and I as the T-Mobile MDA IV.

It is a PDA style handset with a horizontal clamshell design, really cool screen and apparently very usable keyboard. It also boasts 3G compatibility and includes Wi-Fi. I should imagine that all the UK networks will have it in one form or another and that it is likely to be a huge hit with the corporate market.

Aimed slightly more at consumers is the upright design Samsung SGH-i300 which was announced a couple of months ago at CeBIT. As you remember it includes all the traditional Microsoft bells and whistles plus a three gigabyte hard disk. You can read more about Windows Mobile 5.0 and its whizzy range of features here.

European Treos on the way

Shedloads of interesting stuff from palmOne this week. The big news is that the company has increased the number of staff in the UK with a view to ramping up its European operations. According to Marketing Manager for Northern Europe, Colin Holloway, this will mean dedicated Treos for the European market, and possibly even phones without smartphone features or keypads.

palmOne has also rather reluctantly given out a little bit more info on its Mobile Manager PDA series - see here for more. Last week Amazon inadvertently listed the first model in the series, the Life Drive, and the company says it will give full details of the device next week.

Apparently it not pitching the device as a media player, though obviously it can play back audio and video files, rather the Life Drive is a top-end PDA aimed at business users who want to cart round with them large file with them. palmOne insists that the units are not really laptop replacements, rather laptop accompaniments. There’s more on palmOne's plans in this feature from The Guardian. 

Orange SPV C550

Engadget has totally unconfirmed reports of a successor to Tech Digest's most indispensable phone of the year, the Orange SPV C500. The new SPV C550 has a 1.3 megapixel digital camera, 240 x 320 QVGA resolution screen, a mini SD memory card slot and Bluetooth. Extremely similar to T-Mobile's SDA Music Smartphone, it's built by HTC in Taiwan. More details as and when the rumours are confirmed.

[Via Smartphone Thoughts]

Newgen phone running next gen Windows Mobile

There's still some slight doubts as to its authenticity, but if this GSM Newgen D2000W is real, we want one. Running Windows Mobile 2005 - currently codenamed Magneto - the slider handset boasts a QVGA screen, MP3 and MPEG4 playback and an FM radio. Readers will also be thrilled to learn that it supposedly also suppports 802.11b WiFi and a 1.3-megapixel camera. We're not quite up to  translating the Czech site, but we can see the words Bluetooth, MiniSD and WAP 2.0 as well. Very nice looking phone indeed. And if those specs are correct, it's going to be a peach.

Read [via Engadget]

Motorola's iTunes phone to be unveiled in March?

We were ticked off today by Motorola for perpetuating the urban myth that the E1060 (pictured here), which was unveiled at 3GSM earlier this week is the iTunes phone. Apparently no matter what Reuters say it will not play back your AAC tunes.

Instead the real iTunes phone will definitely be unveiled by Motorola in late March at a big bash in Miami.

Samsung's swivel screen mobile

Sounds like Samsung is having a gay old time at 3GSM, announcing all sorts of super high tech phones. Unfortunately, there don't seem to be that many pictures doing the rounds, but we're told there are 3 new 3G handsets - the SGH-Z130, the SGH-Z300 and the SGH-Z500 - and a Symbian smartphone, the SGH-D720, which features both MP4 and MP3 playback. Engadget managed to get hold of a picture of the unusual 3G handset, the SGH-Z130. This features a rotating screen as well as Bluetooth and a megapixel camera. Engadget's guess that the screen rotates for movie playback seems like a pretty sensible one to us.

Read

Philips 5 phone line up

Philips has struggled to find a handset that grips the nation with, but the company keeps ploughing on anyway, coming up with some innovative ideas and designs. We're not convinced any of the 5 new handsets out are going to take the world by storm, but they look decent enough and will no doubt appeal to pay as you go customers looking for a cheap but stylish handset. First up, the Philips 162 is a candybar handset that's certainly aimed at entry level users. There's no exciting features to speak of, but it does come in four different colours. The 568 is "a potent combination of phone, (video) camera, entertainment console and personal organiser".

The Philips 760 is a clamshell number that offers the most powerful specs of the group, including a 1.3-megapixel camera. The Philips 655 clamshell's main selling point was the built in mirror for self-portraits. Although this is hardly a novel feature, nobody can deny that the 655 does have a far larger mirror than most. The Philips Xenium 9@98 is another basic candybar similar to the other Xenium phones. It's major selling point is the extra-long battery life - 7 hours' talk time and 4 weeks on standby apparently.

Read [via Gizmodo]

Sony Ericsson announces two new handsets

As if getting everyone all fired up with promises of a Walkman range of phones wasn't enough, Sony Ericsson also announced two new 3G handsets: the K600i and the Z800i. The Z800i will look familiar to those who know the V800. The phone itself remains pretty much unchanged, except for a rather nice respray. As before, the handset comes with a rotating 1.3-megapixel camera, large screen and Memory Stick slot. The K600i, meanwhile, is a candybar handset, sporting a similar design to Sony Ericsson's other popular candybars. There's a 1.3-megapixel camera on board and a music player. As ever, it's been designed to look like a camera from the back - so you use it horizontally when taking snaps - and a normal phone from the front.

Sony Ericsson press page

Nokia's 3 new handsets

Nokia has announced three new handsets. The 6680 is the a 3G smartphone; the 6681 an EDGE 2G version for ; while the 6101 is to be the company's latest budget offering. The 6680 comes with two integrated cameras, one of which is 1.3-megapixels, a flash light and a 262k colour high resolution screen. The 6681 doesn't have the front camera, but retains the high res camera on the back. The Series 60 6680 will be available next month. The budget clamshell 6101 is a compact handset with built in VGA camera. Its will be out later this year.

Nokia

Sony Ericsson announces Walkman phones

It seems bleeding obvious to us but now Sony Ericsson is actually doing it: producing Walkman, or should that be Walkmen, phones. According to Engadget, the new range of Walkman/men mobiles, announced at the 3GSM conference in Cannes, will be launched in March.

There aren't too many details at this stage, suffice to say that they will work with Sony's Connect online music store (obviously), will come with decent quality headphones and will have large amounts of memory. Could this be the hit that Sony desperately needs - or will the company's weird predilection for favouring proprietary standards like ATRAC3 doom it to failure?

LG's Gaming handset

LG has announced a number of new phones at 3GSM, the most exciting of which is the SV360. This is a gaming handset that features the world's fastest graphics accelerator chip. The 3-D game phone has a 1 million polygon per second chip that can process data five times faster than current chips. Users will be able to play far more demanding games on the SV360 handset. Plus, the phone includes motion sensors (similar to the ones on-board the Samsung SCH-S310) that lets you wave it about to control games. The handset also comes equipped with a 2.2-inch LCD and a landscape design for better game-playing.

LG Release

Panasonic launches 9 new phones

Panasonic is certainly keeping busy, with nine new phones announced at 3GSM in Cannes. As you'd expect, there's a wide selection of phones on offer, including the company's first 2-megapixel camera handset and an upgrade for the X700 smartphone in the form of the X800. So we're expecting Panasonic to be getting a bit more active in the mobile market this year.

First up, the VS7 2-megapixel phone (top left), is joined by the VS3 (second left), a 1.3-megapixel cameraphone. Both VS Series clamshells have high resolution screens that support 16 million colours. The VS3 is evidentally aimed at the youth market, since the phone can read emoticons in text messages and flash different coloured lights depending on the mood of the message. A feature that leaves us almost entirely crippled by a  wave of bitter tutting and eye-rolling.

The MX Series, the MX7 and MX6, are "maximum endurance" phones - or at least their batteries are, providing almost double the battery life of the VS handsets. The MX7 is also a 2-megapixel handset, with a 2.5-inch, 16 million-colour screen, while the MX6 is, same as the VS3, a 1.3-megapixel cameraphone with a 2.2-inch LCD. In fact, if they sound similar to the VS series it's because they are, arriving in the same chassis the first two use. It seems just the battery and some of the extra features are different.

The SA Series handsets are pretty familiar looking as well (pictured above), sporting a different paint job in an otherwise identical casing. The SA handsets are being aimed at outdoorsy types, hence the more outrageous colour. SA7 is as above: 2-megapixel camera, 2.5-inch display and a longer battery life. The SA6 is identical to the MX6, but a different colour (it's like they're purposely trying to complicate matters).

On to the SC Series, which is the 'stylish camera or colour' range (shorthand for minimalist black or white phones). Finally we get to see a different chassis. These handsets are candybar in black or white. The SC3 is a basic fashion phone, with 65k colour LCD, VGA camera and an emoticon feature that lets you put proper smiley faces into your poorly expressed texts. The A210 is also part of the SC series, despite not having the right name, and it's pretty much identical to the SC3 apart from the white colour and a more rounded design.

The end is nearly in sight. Just need to mention Panasonic's X800 - the updated smartphone, running on Symbian's Series 60 OS and featuring all the usual PIM stuff.

So, there may not be *quite* as many phones on offer as it initially sounds, but this is a strong new line up, with a couple of nice cases and some appealing features. But wouldn't it have been easier just to have called all those clamshells the same thing with "sport" and "endurance" versions instead of all these different series numbers. You just think about that, Panasonic. I need a lie down after all that.

T-Mobile extends business range

T-Mobile continues to gun for the business market with two new products, the MDA IV and the Blackberry 7100t.

Undoubtedly the most interesting of the two is the new MDA. Announced by Microsoft earlier in the month, it aims to provide the complete Internet/e-mail package with 2.5 and 3G coverage plus wi-fi compatibility (T-Mobile provides wi-fi access via Starbucks cafes).

More like a mini laptop than a mobile, it comes with an Intel 520MHz processor and Microsoft Windows Mobile Operating System. Software installed on the MDA IV includes Internet Explorer, Pocket Outlook (for synching mail, contacts and schedules from a PC running Microsoft Outlook) and Pocket PC versions of Word, Excel and Powerpoint.

Other useful business features include tri-band coverage, large rotating  640 x 480 pixel screen (reminiscent of the Sony CLIES) plus a large QWERTY keyboard. The only possible fly in the ointment is T-Mobile's 3G coverage which is slower and less extensive than that of its rivals.

Meanwhile T-Mobile confirmed it is launching the BlackBerry 7100t which looks a little nicer than the brick-like 7100v supplied by Vodafone but has the same incredibly difficult to use interface. 

T-Mobile

Motorola debuts i-mode

i-mode is massive in Japan and other tech-savvy areas (46 million subscribers in 22 countries) but the mobile internet service which offers customised games, online shopping, messaging services etc. hasn't made much of an impact in Europe yet. However, that could be about to change, especially with 02 set to launch an i-mode service in the UK and Germany this summer.

Not content with announcing a 3 Megapixel camera phone and a 3G model at 3GSM in Cannes, Motorola has also found time to knock up its first phone with a dedicated i-mode key. Dubbed the E378i, this less than inspiring looking phone can download games from the i-mode portal and comes with a built in MP3 player too. 

Other features include:
* Triband global roaming
* Integrated VGA camera (640 x 480)
* 5Mb of memory
* Digital zoom (up to 4x)
* Built-in hands free speaker

Palm tarts up Treo

I wanted to love the Treo 600, I really did. It had a pretty good QWERTY keyboard for a smart phone and looked like a model that said 'take me seriously, I mean business' - a sort of quiet man or woman's Blackberry.

The problem was though that the screen and camera were both pants and it was quite fiddly to use. Now palmOne has come along with a new replacement model, the Treo 650. Set to launch summer 2005 in the UK (exclusively to Orange), France and Switzerland it promises a raft of new and improved features.

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These include:
* 320 x 320 pixel display
* Integrated Bluetooth
* Improved camera for better low light shots
* Improved QWERTY keyboard
* Suppport for direct corporate email access to Microsoft Exchange
* Instant voice communication with Orange's Talk Now push to talk service

For more info see Treo 650

Chris Price

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MS Peabody smartphone

Microsoft is set to work with Flextronics Corp, one of the largest mobile phone manufacturers, to create a cheap mobile that will carry Microsoft's Windows Mobile Smartphone platform. The mass market device is currently being called the Peabody, which it must be said  isn't quite in Motorola's "Royal Blade" class when it comes to code-naming a product. Microsoft is evidentally hoping that a handset suitable for mass roll-out will help it to conquer the smartphone OS market currently dominated by Symbian-based handsets from the likes of Sony Ericsson and Nokia. 

Nokia's 9300 goes on sale

Nokia's latest Communicator has just gone on sale in the UK. The 9300 (they seem to have done away with the old Communicator moniker) is the company's business smartphone based, as always, around a Symbian operating system (Nokia owns the majority share in the platform). Previous communicator devices have been renowned for their brick-like qualities, but while the 9300 uses the same design, this one is a lot less brickish in its dimensions and weight. For those that still hanker after the Psions of yester-year, this is pretty much the only solution you've got, with a fold-out design that reveals a mini qwerty keypad and screen. As well as the usual PIM functionality, there's Bluetooth, 80 MB of memory and an MMC slot. Email solutions supported include: BlackBerry Connect, Visto, Smartner, Good Technologies, IBM Websphere and Oracle Collaboration Suite.

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Sharp 902 two mega pixel camera phone first review

The Guardian has what might well be an exclusive review of the first two mega pixel camera phone to arrive in the UK – the Sharp Vodafone 902. We’ll have our own review later this week, but for now, let’s just say that as a camera phone it takes images that are significantly better than any of its one mega pixel rivals. It works well, has an abundance of features, including video calling and video downloads via the Voda 3G Live! service and even sports a basic HTML web browser. It is however fairly bulky and that iPod style white finish looks dated now.

Campbell's Blackberry cock-up

Good story in last night's London Evening Standard (if it's true). The Labour party may be running the country for the forseeable future, but when it comes to technology they are about as switched on as Blackpool Illuminations - during a power cut.

First Tony Blair shows his total lack of mobile phone know-how at a Downing Street 'Texting Tony' publicity stunt designed to show he's down with the kids. Now his election strategy supremo Alastair Cambell has shown he's completely inept when it comes to using a Blackberry.

An e-mail supposedly meant for the ad agency TBWA was mistakenly sent to the BBC with the sign-off 'Now f*** off and cover something important you tw***."

Realising his mistake he then sent out another e-mail to the BBC, saying: "Not very good at this email Blackberry malarkey. Just looked at log of sent messages, have realised email meant for colleagues at TBWA has gone to you." Uh-Oh.

No doubt he'll be made technology minister in the next government then. Or maybe given a job as PR for Blackberry.

15 New handsets from Siemens

During the SK65 launch yesterday, the guys at Siemens spent a good deal of time insisting that the company is not about to get sold off or shut down. They did admit that things hadn't gone too well for them in the past year, though - what with software issues, handsets that were late to market, and (we're guessing) the disappointing standard of some of the phones, especially the SL55's chunkier SL65 upgrade. To reassure us of Siemens Mobile's rude health (number 2 in Europe, number 5 in the world), they announced that 15 new handsets would be heading our way between now and Christmas. So what can we expect? They weren't giving much away, but we know that there will be more slider phones (hopefully to rectify the SL65 chunkiness), a clamshell and at least two 3G handsets. Siemens wouldn't be drawn on whether a Wi-Fi handset is on the card, saying only that more announcements would be made at Cebit (so that's a yes then). A 3G handset will be on sale in time for the Christmas market.

They admitted that they'd been a bit slow on the 3G side, but had always planned for a 2005 launch. While Italy and GB have apparently been fast on the 3G uptake, other countries are still catching up, and Siemens is aiming at the whole European market. They've apparently taken into account previous criticisms that they have been too lower tier in their handset output and are planning on broadening the spectrum of handsets on offer - with more business-focused handsets on the way as per the SK65. It doesn't sound like there's any more X2Type handsets on the way just yet though.

Siemens Sk65 arrives in the UK

Siemens got us up bright and early for a breakfast launch of their latest handset today (and also to assure us that the company is still fighting fit). The SK65 was previewed a while ago, but the handset was officially launched today, allowing us to get our hands on one. The phone is being launched with all 4 major phone networks with the main focus being on business users. Aside from the phone's obvious main feature - the cross to type swivelling QWERTY keypad - the SK65's major attraction is set to be the full BlackBerry support it offers. As well as the prosumer version, which doesn't rely on a corporate server to work with, Siemens is also offering the normal version using the company's very own BlackBerry Enterprise server. This is the first time a handset's had full BlackBerry capabilities in the UK (aside from the actual RIM handsets, of course) and Siemens is expecting this to be the big selling point for corporate users. There's no camera (again, this is something corporate types have apparently requested) but there's Bluetooth and a 65K colour screen with room for 11 lines of text. Initial impressions of the handset are pretty good, with a reasonably slimline chassis (though it's long!) and an innovative keyboard that looks like it might actually work.

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Two-megapixel mobile on sale today

It's hard to believe, but Sharp's two-megapixel cameraphone has gone on sale in the UK today. The Sharp 902 was announced in the initial lineup for Vodafone's 3G service and we thought it was too good to be true at the time. But sure enough, here it is. It'll cost you a bit - retailing at from £119.99 - but some might see it as a small price to pay for the feature set you get in return. As well as the 2-megapixel camera, there's a 2x optical zoom lens, autofocus and swivel mount screen that lets you turn the screen round for easier snapping. And of course, the phone also handles Vodafone's 3G service: video calls, music downloads and live TV highlight clips. Initial impressions are that the camera is very good indeed. The Guardian's got an exclusive review coming up on Thursday.

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O2 delivers Windows PDA/smartphone

They really must be busy over at the Taiwanese HQ of phone manufacturer HTC. For in addition to T-Mobile confirming today it is going to ship HTC’s MDA IV 3G Windows powered mobile, another network has announced that it is bringing that model’s predecessor to the UK.

Already on sale in a number of guises including the MDA III (T-Mobile), the device will now be available to O2 subscribers as the XDA IIi.

The feature count stays the same though. So the XDA IIi boasts both GPRS and Wi-Fi, an Intel PXA272 processor that runs up to 520MHz, a 1.3 mega pixel camera, Bluetooth and much else.

The device runs on the Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition for Pocket PC, phone edition platform and offers all the Windows staples such Outlook, Pocket Explorer, Windows Media for audio and video and Messenger. The XDA IIi is on same now from around £179 with a contract, which is significantly less than the amount you would have originally paid for its predecessors.

Now Siemens has a digital TV phone

If you thought digital TV on your mobile was just a little wheeze cooked up by Nokia and O2 to flog Nokia's odd shaped widescreen 7700/7710 phones think again, for Siemens has unveiled its version of a digital TV phone.

Set to debut at CeBit the its phone includes DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcast for Handheld Devices) compatibility, which in theory should mean that in a year or so's time (in the UK at least) it will pick up around half a dozen digital TV and about 30 digital radio channels.

Already huge in Japan and Korea, TV on a mobile phone is likely to be enormous in Europe, and we are utterly convinced that it is the killer application your mobile phone has been waiting for. Factor a hard disk into the phone for recording programmes (and also storing your fave video clips you may have transferred from a PC) and you really do have personal TV to go. The only other facts we know about the phone are that it has a VGA screen and stereo sound.

Almost as intriguing is a phone from Siemens home fixed line handset division - the Gigaset S35 WLAN. As its name suggests the phone can latch on to a wireless network, both at home and at a wi-fi hot spot, to make and receive VoIP telephone calls. It’ll also pull in your email and allow you to indulge in IM conversations.

Seems as if Siemens’ impending demise in the mobile market has been somewhat exaggerated.

Motorola MPx220 on sale

We've been going on about the imminent arrival of the Motorola MPx220 since December 2003 - but only because Motorola's been talking about it since then as well. Maybe the company's been having that difficult second album problem, because the MPx220 has only just gone on sale. The handset is the update of the popular MPx200 Microsoft-based Smartphone, the second handset in the UK to take on the MS platform (after Orange's SPV range). The clamshell design of the original has been carried into the MPx220, which is being sold through O2. (The company has the exclusive on it for the next few months or so.) The good news is that the handset now comes with a camera - 1.2 megapixels no less - and Bluetooth connectivity (which was the downfall of the MPx200). The bad news? It's bigger and less appealing than the its predecessor.

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Moto's Black Razr

Mindful that many celebrities are living on the bread line, Motorola is doing its bit by handing out free special edition V3 Razr handsets at this year's Oscars. A special black version of the super-skinny model will be gifted to all the super skinny models - winners and presenters - in attendance at the Academy Awards ceremony on 27th February. It's not clear whether the phone will also be offered for sale to the general public. More news as and when, etc.

More here and here.

Panasonic's Smartphone

Panasonic has just launched its first smartphone onto the UK market. The X700 handset is based on Symbian's Series 60 platform and comes with all the usual PIM features associated with that OS. It's also a camera phone, with video capability, as VGA camera and a flash light for nightime shooting. Support for Mini SD memory cards will come in handy for storing music, images and video files, but there's no mention of the phone's built-in memory capacity. There's a 65K colour main display and a colour outer display on the clamshell chassis. Other features include Bluetooth, voice recognition and tri-band frequency range.

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Panny goes slidey

Siemens may not be having too good a time in the mobile phone handset market, but the slidey design it patented on the much loved SL55, goes from strength to strength. The latest company to offer a SL55 tribute/rip-off (delete as you see fit) is Panasonic with its just launched X500.

It might attract a few SL55 fans on account of its cute design and pocketable size (it weighs only 96g and measures 85x47x22.5mm). Also like the SL55 it is pretty low-end in terms of its features with just a VGA camera, video capture, Java and not a great deal else. No idea yet who is going to take it in the UK but Virgin Mobile is sure to be a contender.

Alcatel back in UK phone market

Alcatel, which has a bit of an okey cokey attitude to the UK mobile phone market, seems definitely to be back ‘in’ after announcing a deal with leading Chinese phone manufacturer TCL, and the imminent arrival of the One Touch 655.

On sale now via its website and you’ll be able to pick it up through Virgin and The Carphone Warehouse later in the month, the OneTouch 756 is a chocolate bar style camera phone with a 262k colour screen. Other features include a VGA camera with an 8x zoom, video capture of up to 30 seconds and JPEG and GIF image format support. There are also MP3 ringtones, Java for downloading games and WAP and email compatibility. The triband handset has a talk time of nine hours and standby of 250 hours. Expect to pay in the region of £120 on a pay as you go contract for one.

SK65 nearly here

The SK65 will be hitting the shops in the next couple of weeks. Despite countless rumours, Siemens still seems to be committed to the phone market for the time being at least, and the SK65 offers enough innovation to be a big hit. The fold out full size cross-to-type keyboard is the first of its kind, while BlackBerry push email is likely to make it very appealing to business types. Those not bothered about BlackBerry will be able to buy the basic handset which requires the usual logon and download to pick up mail. There will also be the more consumer-friendly BlackBerry service which we're assuming is the same as the one seen on the 7100 handsets. This doesn't require a business server to hook up with but, if the 7100 range is anything to go by, it also means you don't always get immediate push on emails. Worse case scenario, it can be anything to 3 right up to 15 minutes. (Having said that, we've always found the 7100s have always been instantaneous).

Motorola pushes Push to Talk (again)

Motorola is once again hoping to interest British mobile phone networks in Push to Talk (the system that enables mobiles to work like walkie talkies) by offering a pair of new POC (Push to Talk over cellular) endowed handsets. Ready for shipping now the duo includes the C698p, a chocolate bar style phone with a 65k colour screen and a VGA camera and the C381p, a low-end mobile that’s primed to take POC to the mass market.

Although Motorola insists that it is talking to UK networks about Push to Talk (and it has been for over a year now) it faces an uphill struggle to get UK networks to sign up. The system, which enables mobile phone to work like walkie talkies with users able to talk simultaneously to several people at the same time, has not really had much impact in the UK with only Orange offering a Talk Now service aimed at small business.

Push to Talk is however big news in the US where networks like Nextel and Sprint have successful services targeting both small business and consumers. Many phone analysts argue that in Europe text messaging operates in the same space which Push to Talk has filled in the US.

Motorola is however at the forefront of the push to talk market with 23 network operator contracts covering 27 countries around the world. The company hopes the two phones will attract even more subscribers — from mass market to high-end — and help pave the way for future “Push-to” services like video and data. Neither phone will apparently be launched in the UK unless a Push to Talk service is up and running.

Movement recognition handset from Samsung

After months spent getting excited every time someone releases a phone with specs slightly higher than the one before ("it's got a 1-megapixel camera on it!"; "it's got a high res screen") it feels like Samsung's marketing team have just started making stuff up, leaving us feeling dizzy and disorientated. First a phone that converts voice to text, then a 5-megapixel handset that actually looks like it might be coming to the West and now the SCH-S310, a handset that includes "3D movement recognition". What next? A handset with built in binoculers that automatically takes photos of everything you put down and shouts out in warning if you try to leave the house without it? After this, nothing would surprise us.

The SCH-S310 responds to the movements your hand makes, allowing it to respond to commands. This means you can dial numbers and write text messages by spelling the letters and numbers out in the air. You can also do things like shake the phone twice to end a call and move it to the right to scroll through the menu list. The phone is set to hit the Asian market in March.

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BlackBerry 7100X released

Obviously BlackBerry decided to ignore those negative reviews of its redesigned QWERTY keypad (the TD team was split, with some of us hating it and some of us rather liking it) and plough on with another handset sporting the same doubled up key design. This time the company's 7100x will be released in partnership with O2, the company that usually specialises in the more businessy side of smartphone/emailer devices (like the Xdas and the chunkier BlackBerry handsets). This time, however, O2's in pursuit of a more consumery market (presumably in response to Orange's SPV c500 and Vodafone's 7100v BlackBerry). The 7100x looks similar to the 7100v, but comes in a 'piano black' chassis, with a slightly different styling to Vodafone's grey handset. It's got 32MB flash memory and 4MB SRAM. Like the Voda unit, the phone can be used without RIM's dedicated BlackBerry email server so it can be used straight out of the box, but business users can also get it set up with the BlackBerry Enterprise Server if they want immediate push email and all the other benefits that come with it. Out this month.

LG's new messaging phone

No news on whether it will be on sale in the UK but the just unveiled LG F9100 phone is likely to be a huge hit Stateside. It is basically a chunky candy bar style handset that sports a pull open full QWERTY keyboard.

LG is obviously aiming the phone at personal rather than corporate users as the handset features IM, Java and basic personal organiser features rather than the usual smartphone staples.

Nokia 6820 gets an upgrade

Nokia’s 6822 has just been announced. The company’s latest messaging phone comes with that full fold out keyboard the 6820 introduced that lets you type away in full QWERTY layout. The model also comes with a VGA camera and a 65K colour display (is it wrong of us to always expect a megapixel camera on new phones?). Designed as a kind of smartphone-lite, the 6822 lets you synch your PIM data with your PC. It’s only got 3.5MB of memory, so you won’t want to be ditching your PDA just yet. Bluetooth is present and correct, and there’s also support for BlackBerry push-email service. The handset should be out any day now all over EMEA and the Americas.

Motorola's V635 clamshell

Just like almost every Motorola phone, the V635 was all over the web a few weeks before its official announcement. Anyway at CES the company took the wraps off the handset which is likely to debut in the UK in the spring. Like all Moto’s 600 series mobis, the V635 is a clamshell model with a large-ish outer screen. Headline features include a 1.23 mega pixel camera with an 8x zoom and video capture, Bluetooth, MP3 playback, information manager facilities and Java.

More on Samsung's new phones

Here’s a little more information about Samsung's revolutionary phone which converts speech into text enabling users to dictate text messages emails etc. It is called the P207 and is scheduled for a spring launch in the US. As it is also GPRS, in theory it should be available in the UK at around the same time. It is clamshell model finished in black with a 262k colour inner screen and 65k colour outer one.

Other features include voice recognition for number and name dialling, email and Instant messaging support. Also due in spring is the a795, a clamshell business style phone that, almost uniquely is compatible with both GSM networks (Europe and part of the US) and CDMA ones (the US and the Far East). It too has a 262k colour screen and voice recognition facilities. There's a detailed description of the phone and plenty of pictures on Engadget.

Emergency pendant phone

Hopefully it’ll be a few years before we think about investing in one, but US pensioners will soon be able to make instant 911 emergency phone calls using a wearable mini phone. Designed to be worn as a pendant the 911 Guardian Phone has a range of around 400 feet, a battery life of a year on standby and is water resistant so it can be worn in the shower or the bath. Users simply press one button to connect to the emergency operator. It is coming to the US in May 2005, and we’ll bet a European launch isn't too far behind. More info here

Two mega pixel camera phone imminent

Well you haven’t got long to wait. The phone that is currently top of our shopping list – the Sharp V902sh two mega pixel 3G camera phone - has been launched in a few territories and should be winging its way to the UK next week. As well as being the highest resolution camera phone (though not for long if Samsung gets its way and hits us with a five mega phone snapper) the Vodafone exclusive is also among the first camera phones to sport an optical zoom and include an auto focus system. Other features include a rotating 262k colour screen, Java, MP3 playback via both earphones and an integrated stereo speaker, an AV out connector for displaying images on a TV and 24Mb of internal memory. Naturally the phone is also compatible with Vodafone’s Live! 3G applications.

Samsung’s 5-megapixel handset

Samsung’s American arm will be unveiling 25 to 30 phones to be launched on the US market in 2005, including a 5-megapixel handset with a 3X optical zoom. It’s unclear if the phones are going to have European equivalents as there’s no actual spec list at present. We’re hoping they will be heading our way, however, since there’s some exciting new features on offer, including the world’s first speech-to-text dictation phone. This allows you to speak your messages to your handset, which converts them into text for your automatically. Handy if you’re in the car – although it would be better if your phone then read your received texts out to you as well.

Motorola's iPod phone coming along nicely

Latest reports on The Register suggest that a Motorola-built iPod phone is well on its way. Apple is apparently "very happy" with Moto's decision to build an iPod-style mobile that will be able to play music downloaded from iTunes. Apple is developing a version of the iTunes jukebox for Motorola phones and the rumour mill has been working over time on when a handset will actually appear. Some time during the first half of 2005 seems to be the official line, but hints that the phone might be flashed about a bit sooner than that is causing speculation that Steve Jobs might produce one from his pocket at the Macworld Expo in January. The Register has also pointed out that Motorola is set to make some sort of announcement on 6th January at CES in Las Vegas so there's a chance the phone might get a mention then as well.

The likelihood of rival Napster producing a service for Windows Smartphone devices (such as the Orange SPV C500) means that Apple will need to get cracking if it wants to beat the company to market. Meanwhile, The Register is speculating that the rumoured Flash iPod and the Moto phone could actually be one and the same - especially since the companies seem to be viewing this as an actual music player and not a GPRS music download service.

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Panasonic X500 Fashion phone

Just got time to tell you about Panasonic's latest handset. The X500 uses that tried and tested sliding design favoured by all fashion handset manufacturers (it's the sincerest form of flattery, Siemens, honest). Panasonic does a good line in tiny handsets, and the X500 is no different, with credit card-like dimensions. Its major selling point seems to be the VGA camera and flash light for night time shooting. The handset's been designed to be turned sideways and held like a camera when taking pics (imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Sony Ericsson, honest).

65,536 colour TFT display
Built-in VGA digital camera with photo light
Multimedia messaging
Java MIDP 2.0
10sec motion jpeg
40-Polyphonic ring tones
Sliding Design
WAP 2.0 browser
Dual-band

Product specifications:
System - GSM/GPRS Class8
Frequency Range - 900/1800
Dimensions (hxwxd) - 85x47x22.5mm
Volume - 79cc
Weight - 96g
Talk Time* - Up to 7 hours
Standby time - Up to 200 hours
Battery time - 730mAh Li-ion

Features: 65,536-colour TFT LCD screen, VGA camera with photo light, video capability (up to 10 seconds), 2 types of menu screen - scroll launcher or 9 launcher, MMS, SMS, Short video clips, Java MIDP2.0, Infrared, phonebook - 300 +SIM, Downloadable content, Quiet mode, WAP 2.0, calculator and currency converter, clock, alarm, vibration alert, scheduler + to do list, 10 pre-installed polyphonic ring tones, 2 pre-installed games

Sagem My X-8

The My X-8 from Sagem certainly has a look that's all it's own with that big screen and those skinny little buttons. It's slightly on the large side, but that's to be expected from a handset that's got a 1.3-megapixel camera and a 262k colour screen. An 8X digital zoom on the camera plus a flash makes this a rather nifty handset for snap happy types and the white finish keeps that torch burning for iPod's minimalist design. A music player, Wap browser, Bluetooth and SD card slot finish off the specs list nicely.

No pricing as yet, but the phone will be out in the new year from Sagem's site.

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Pen-sized mobile phone

This is what we like to see on a Friday: a bit of wacky design innovation. Haier has come up with the P7 mobile phone - a handset that's pen-like in its proportions. The GSM/GPRS phone also includes a VGA camera. According to I4U, the Chinese company has already had the P5 and P6 Pen Phones in the past and the P7 is ready for sale in Europe. There's no details of who's going to carry the handset as yet, but we're hoping it makes it over to the UK soon so we can have a play with one. It looks a bit too much like a remote control for a sound system for us to actually covet one, but we'd love to see how well those keys work and if the screen is actually usable at all.

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O2 is turning Japanese

In a move that has surprised many in the mobile phone industry O2, which is active in the UK Germany and Ireland, has announced its intention to launch a service next year that use Japanese i-mode technology.

The reason behind the move is that i-mode  customers have a good track record of spending more on services like downloads, shopping, video clips, ticketing services. NEC, Panasonic and Samsung are being lined up to provide the handsets.

As ever The Register has some top quality coverage here.

HP iPAQ h6340 on T-Mobile

You can now get HP's hunky chunky super-connected PDA on T-Mobile with a special little connection pack full of goodies. The iPAQ h6340 leaves you spoilt for choice on the connectivity front, including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPRS, GSM and infrared. The T-Mobile deal means you start using all the connectivity options straight out of the box. The £9.99 package includes 2 hours of Wi-Fi access (ie. 2 T-Mobile vouchers for T-Mobile hotspots), 30 days unlimited GPRS and £5 of voice and text messaging included with the SIM card. After that you'll have to go back to top up cards or a monthly tariff, but it's a good way of getting the customers on board.

The only slight downside is that the h6340 is a big ugly brick of a thing. Still, if you can live with that (and can afford the £479-odd you'll have to pay for it) it does offer an alternative to the Nokia Communicator.

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LG and Samsung in mega pixel phone scrap

Samsung and LG. Both seem to be taking the words of Annie Get Your Gun’s ‘Anything I can do you can do a better a little’ a bit too literally, for after scrapping for the world’s biggest plasma screens the pair are now getting all fitey about who can add  the most mega pixels to a mobile phone camera.

Samsung took the lead with its five mega pixel SCH-S250. Now however LG has fought back telling Korean journalists that a six, or maybe even a seven mega pixel camera phone is on the cards. The module for the camera will be supplied by Canon.

three mega pixels is surely going to be enough for most phone users. Besides snappers will need huge hard disks on their phone to store all those enormous images. Surely the Korean ought to be getting their R and D teams to work on improving image processors, lens, flashes etc.

Still can’t beat a good scrap though.

Nokia Communicator on Sale

Nokia's 9500 Communicator, the phone maker's first handset with built in Wi-Fi, has gone on sale in the UK. The handset is far less brick-like than the original Communicator handsets, and now comes with a built in VGA camera and a 16-bit colour display. The Symbian 7 platform is present and correct, while there's 80GB of memory for your application-adding pleasure (along with a MultiMediaCard slot for adding more, transferring pics etc). There's Bluetooth and Nokia's Pop Port USB connection for connecting to a PC. You can get it SIM-Free for £529.95 or on contract for around £294.95.

[Edit: We forgot to mention its killer feature! How careless of us. It's also got Wi-Fi connection,l making it a highly attractive prospect indeed.]

Ancient Relic from Mobile history

Here's a little blast from the past. This is the Motorola 8200 that launched ten years ago to the day (actually, we don't know about that "to the day" bit, but it sounds more impressive if we say that). It had the undoubted distinction of being the first GSM mobile handset ever to feature vibrating ring tones (insert your own fruity comment here). Give it 20 years and people will start showing up on Antiques Roadshow with 8200s in their original box. If you want a phone that has no support for WAP or JAVA, no polyphonic ringtones, no colour screen, no camera, no infrared or Bluetooth, and a talk time of just 60 minutes, this is the handset for you. Apparently, they come up every now and then on eBay.

Nokia to launch hard disk mobile

Just in case you needed any more evidence that your phone is going to morph into a serious music and video playing entertainment device Nokia yesterday confirmed that it will launch a ‘media type’ phone with a hard disk sometime during 2005.

Exec VP and General Manager Multimedia, Anssi Vanjoki wasn’t prepared to offer any more details- but hazarding a guess, we reckon that it will debut on the next model on from the 7710, which Nokia unveiled in Monaco yesterday.

So far the only phone with a hard disk on board is the Samsung SPH-V5400 which launched in Korea a couple of months ago.

A load more Nokia innovations tomorrow.

Three More from Nokia

Nokia used the swanky backdrop of Monaco to launch three new phones and confirm that it is to produce a handset with a hard drive in 2005.

Most interesting of the new line up is the 7710 - a product that has been rumoured for some time (pictures have been widely circulated around the web). A semi-oval 'media device' designed for TV and video applications, it offers support for push email based on Smartner solution, 90 MB integrated memory plus 128 MB on the MultiMediaCard (MMC) that's provided. Other handy features include onscreen keyboard, handwriting recognition, Bluetooth and megapixel camera.

Perhaps most interesting is that it comes with a built in 'moblog' client which means that bloggers like us can upload images and text to their blog without having to have a computer perched on their lap. It's even possible to edit images on screen.

The widescreen display provides 640x320 pixel resolution but it is quite a hefty device tipping the scales at 189 grammes (that's heavier than the Sony Ericsson P910).

Also announced in Monaco were the 3230 smart phone with megapixel camera and the 6020 camera phone. The new line-up brings the total number of handsets unveiled by the Finnish company this year to 27.

More information to follow.

NEC TV Phone

NEC has some pretty neat phones out in Japan but they've yet to make their way over here (natch). In the meantime, the company just keeps on bringing out more and more to make us feel ignored and unloved. The latest two handsets out are more powerful than most of the PCs we've got in the UK. OK, that's not strictly true, but the phones certainly aren't doing much for our self-esteem. The first, the N940 has a TV tuner built in, while the N840 has Bluetooth, a 2-megapixel camera, Mini SD Card slot and MP3 support.

[Via Soroban Geeks]

BenQ P30 smartphone

We somehow managed to miss this one off last week. BenQ's continuing its spate of innovative gadget releases with the launch of the P30, the company's first Symbian-based smartphone. The handset, just 17mm thick, comes with a 262K-colour TFT touchscreen, built-in VGA digital camera with 3X digital zoom, an application bundle that includes Picsel Viewer for MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Adobe PDFs, and PhotoBase photo editing software. The excellent Opera Browser comes already installed, and users can synch via USB, Bluetooth or infrared. There's also a music player supporting MP3, AU, AMR, WAV and MIDI file formats.

Release

Treo 650 not heading our way soon

The Treo 650 is launching in the US today, but there's no news of when it's likely to reach these shores just yet. No carriers have been announced in the UK so we'll have to wait our turn to see the new handset. According to reports, the 650 will be similar to its predecessor, the 600, but will have rounder edges and a flatter keyboard. A high resolution (320 x 320 pixels) will accompany the VGA digtial camera (not 1.3 megapixels as rumoured). There will also be a faster processor on board and Bluetooth capabilities.

Read

Mobile phones powered by jet engines

It sounds like crazy talk to us, but according the the New Scientist, engineers are well on their way to batch producing miniturised jet engine-based generators. These "microengines", it's suggested, could be used to power mobile devices such as phones and PDAs. To quote the NS "by spinning a tiny magnet above a mesh of interleaved coils etched into a wafer, David Arnold and Mark Allen of the Georgia Institute of Technology, US, have built the first silicon-compatible device capable of converting mechanical energy - produced by a rotating microturbine - into usable amounts of electrical energy."

The benefit of a tiny generator like this is that it can produce 10 times more energy than normal batteries on the same amount of fuel. Wonder if the jet engines will also get the miniature equivalent of bird-strike? Gnat-strike maybe.

Read

T-Mobile's latest smartphone

We haven't had a new Pocket PC-based smartphone out for a while, so it's nice to have a bit of a break from all those Symbians and Smartphones for T-Mobile's latest addition to its smartphone handsets. The i-mate Jam (to be called the MDA Compact under T-Mobile's branding) is reminiscent of the Eten P300 in that it's a smaller-than-usual Windows Mobile device. In fact, it's even smaller than the P300, measuring 108 x 58 x 18mm. It's got a 1.3-megpixel camera 64MB of ROM and 64MB of SDRAM. There's also Bluetooth (though it sounds like this could be an optional addition for carriers) and SD(IO)/MMC expansion. All that's missing is wireless and you'd have a perfect little smartphone. Pricing from T-Mobile is still to be confirmed, but you can buy it unlocked and SIM-Free from Expansys for £399.95 right now.

i-mate

Five-megapixel phone

There's us getting all excited about the possibility that we might one day get our hands on a cameraphone with two whole megapixels, and the Koreans are getting ready for their first 5-megapixel handset. Samsung Electronics has apparently announced plans to launch a phone that will be able to compete with powerful consumer digital cameras. According to the report, the company is aiming to release the first handset by the end of this year - although there's a chance that someone else might beat them to it.

Read

Sanyo TV phone

One of the more exciting things we saw at CEATEC was Sanyo's prototype mobile phone that includes a TV tuner for viewing digital TV. Although we were pretty sceptical about why anyone would want something like this, having seen it in action, we've become complete converts. The EX-DO handset enables viewers to watch up to two hours of programmes and there's also an MPEG4 video decoder. The handset, which has not been given an official launch date in Japan yet, also comes with a 260K screen and a 2-megapixel camera.

Sanyo

Sanyo's Wi-Fi 3G mobile

At Ceatec Sanyo has been titillating Japanese phone-aholics with a prototype of a forthcoming 3G phone.

The as yet un-monikered device is unique in that it sports a double rotating hinge with two flip open sections which can be customized to suit the user’s requirements. So in theory one could be a QWERTY keyboard while the other offer access to a set of short cuts.

The phone’s other most notable feature is that it apparently includes integrated wi-fi.

Sanyo wouldn't say if the phone will become a real world product but we suspect it has plans for something along the lines of the model for late in 2005.

Sharp's budget clamshell

If the Sharp team at Ceatec is to be believed apparently heading for the UK at the end of the year sporting Vodafone colours will be the Sharp GX25.

Basically a riposte to all Sharp's critics who argue that it camera phones are too bulky the GX25 is a light and slim clamshell that feels not too unlike some recent Samsung mobiles.

It is not the most highly specified phone either with a VGA rather than a mega pixel camera. It does however boast a rather neat 262k colour screen and has Bluetooth for connecting headsets but alas not for sending images to PCs. More details soon.

Nokia cleans up at the Mobile Choice Awards

We're feeling a little tender this morning after last night's Mobile Choice Awards. The sound system was booming, the champagne was flowing, and the phone companies were all vying to offer the best after party area, making it a fun evening all round for us freeloading journalists.

And there were some surprises on the night as well. After a pretty lean period for the once-great Nokia, the company seemed to be back on form, winning Best Camera Phone and Phone of the Year for the fantastic 7610. Nokia also won Best Mobile Gaming Device with the Nokia N-Gage QD as well as the most coveted award of all: Manufacturer of the Year. But probably the biggest surprise of the evening was the winner of the Best Smartphone category. While everyone assumed it would be the SPV C500, Mobile Choice readers voted the Sendo X their favourite handset. It seems Sendo has taken on the bigger boys and won.

Read on fo a full list of the winners.

(Judges' Award) Phone of the Year: Nokia 7610 (apparently both the LG U8110 and the Motorola V3 weren't far behind)
Best Network: Orange
Best Customer Service: Virgin Mobile
Best PDA: Dell Axim X30
Best Fashion Phone: Motorola V3
Best Smartphone: Sendo X
Best Prepay Package: 3
Best Mobile Gaming Device: Nokia N-Gage QD
Best Network Portal: O2 Active
Readers' Dream Phone: Sharp GX30
Best Camera Phone: Nokia 7610
Best High St Retailer: Carphone Warehouse
Best Mobile Service: Any Question Answered
Best Mobile Game: Fatal Force
Best Accessory: Motorola Bluetooth Speakerphone
Best Ad Campaign: Virgin Mobile - Idle Thumbs
Manufacturer of the Year: Nokia

02 launches Bluetooth Blackberry

O2 customers in the UK, Germany and Ireland can now hook up the Blackberry to Bluetooth headsets and car kits for the first time.

As well as integrated Bluetooth for wireless connectivity, the new Blackberry 7290 features a quad-band phone (GSM/GPRS 850/900/1800/1900 MHz) for US and European roaming, brighter colour display and enhanced memory (32Mb flash memory and 4Mb SD RAM).

Other features include high resolution (65,000 colour) screen, QWERTY keyboard, SMS, organiser, Internet/Intranet capabilities and support for corporate and personal e-mail.

For more information click here

Ogo Messaging device

The Ogo messaging device is a strange little machine that uses mobile phone technology without actually being a mobile phone. Instead, it's designed to work as a text only device that lets you send Instant Messages, emails and text messages without including any voice capabilities. The intended market is the youth market, since they're the ones sending all the IMs and texts. The qwerty keyboard means you'll be able to knock out an awful lot of text at a reasonable rate, which should keep the service providers happy. There's no definite news on which companies will be carrying the handset, but it definitely looks set to appear on the UK market fairly soon. Pricing in America is currently $99 for the handset and $17.99 a month for the messaging plan.

Review: BlackBerry 7100v

£from free

The lowdown
The original BlackBerry had a pager-style design befitting its role as a corporate email tool. With an eye on consumers, Vodafone is offering the BlackBerry 7100v, which keeps the push email system but looks and feels like rival smartphones such as the Orange SPV E200.

The Qwerty keyboard has been jettisoned in favour of keys in which one button houses two letters. Users press the button and, in theory, the SureType predictive text system works out the words. However, the keyboard is slower than the original.

What’s good?
The 7100v, which costs from nothing to £82.50 plus monthly fee, boasts more storage (32MB), an effective web browser and is relatively easy to set up. It is a superb email device - especially for corporate customers who get messages forwarded the moment they hit the company server.

What’s bad?
However, it is hard to recommend to consumers, since messages are only forwarded every 15 minutes and there's no way of instantly accessing messages by pressing a receive button. The keyboard is also big drawback. The other Blackberry devices may not be the most attractive handsets around, but a major selling point was the ease with which you could compose emails on the qwerty keypads. The decision to double up the letters on each number keys makes typing far more confusing, and it is likely to reduce the 7100v’s popularity in the long run.

Do you need it?
You’re a lot less likely to reply to every email that gets sent your way on this model, which isn’t going to make Vodafone too happy. If you just want to check your emails on the road, it’s ideal, but those hoping to compose long messages on a regular basis will be disappointed.
6/10

www.vodafone.co.uk

Nokia unveils 6600 replacement

In spite of its pug ugly design and dull grey finish Nokia’s 6600 has gone on to become one of the most successful smartphones so far.

Well the good news is that its replacement – the 6670 – has all its functionality of the 6600, plus a few extra features yet is wrapped in a casing that’s a slightly smaller and thicker version of the gorgeous 7610.

Like the 6600 the 6670
is aimed ostensibly at the corporate market – but just like its predecessor there ought to be plenty of consumers takers too.

The 6670 runs the Symbian operating system with the Series 60 interface. It has a comprehensive selection of e-mail facilities including the ability to read most attachments. It also offers personal information management apps and its web browser is compatible with PDF files. Annoyingly, unlike the 7610, the wonderful Opera web browser isn’t fitted as standard.

Other features include the same one mega pixel camera as the 7610 (arguably the best on a phone at the moment), new editing facilities for the shots users take, music and video courtesy of a Real player, a 65k colour screen and Bluetooth.

Nokia recently claimed that the 7610 was the best selling one mega camera smartphone – which we found a tad amusing as in our books it is the only one mega pixel equipped smartphone on sale in the UK. Nevertheless, judging by the amount of 7610s we see being used it certainly seems to have chimed with consumers. Can’t see any reason why the 6670 isn’t also a big hit, though, like the 6600 chances are that many of its buyers will only use a small proportion of its features.

It goes on sale in Europe in October.

New Palm-based Smartphone surfaces

Group Sense has never launched a PDA over here, but a couple have turned up via import in recent months (on Expansys, for example). We’re hoping that the company’s latest will show up on these shores at some stage so we can play with one. Pictures of the device have just appeared on the company website. The Xplore M28 is a Palm-based smartphone running Palm OS 5.4, which many are assuming is PalmSource’s ‘Garnet’ platform for smartphones.

Other specs for the device include a Texas Instruments’ OMAP processor with 32MB of SDRAM and 32MB of Flash ROM. The 2.2-inch LCD is a touchscreen panel, and the front panel slides up to reveal a keypad, as with previous models. A VGA digital camera and MP3 player are also included, along with an SD/MMC slot for adding a bit more memory.

Read [Via The Register]

LG/Orange 3G phone unveiled

We might be easily confused, but nevertheless we do wish that LG would stop releasing 3G mobile phones that have virtually identical model numbers. After the arrival of the groundbreaking 8110 on Three – the first half decent 3G mobile – LG then unveiled the 8120 – the same phone with a little more storage.

Now the company has taken the wraps off the 8150. As far as we can tell the phone is the same as the 8120 with two crucial differences.

Firstly LG has upgraded the screen from 65k colours to 262k. Perhaps more importantly the handset won’t be available via UK network 3, instead it is likely to be sold over Europe as the hero handset of Orange’s 3G offering. Needless to say Orange hasn't confirmed a date for the launch of their handsets, or the consumer part of the 3G network for that matter, but the company did say that it would have some big news about 3G in September.

The well specified handset features video calling and playback, a VGA camera, MP3, POP3 e-mail and personal organiser facilities.

Philips re-invents the camera phone

Philips has confirmed that its innovative
camera phone will debut in the UK in January 2005 retailing for around £100.

The small candy bar shaped handset is the first to feature the Snap, Tag and Send system that gives users the option of adding handwritten notes or drawings to multimedia messages.

It also boasts a TV out mode that enables users to view images stored on the phone on a TV screen - an appliaction that is likely to widely copied.

Other facilities include a VGA camera, 7MB memory, a 65k colour screen, e-mail and voice command/dial. Battery life is rated at 250 hours standby and up to five hours talk time.

Vodafone first with new BlackBerry

Vodafone is to become the first UK network to offer one of the new breed of BlackBerry devices.

Due for launch in early October the Vodafone BlackBerry 7100v jettisons the pager style of existing devices for a more phone like form factor. The phone is also styled differently to the BlackBerry 7100t which T-Mobile unveiled in the USA last week.

It keeps that handset’s controversial keyboard, which features two letters per key and works in conjunction with a predictive text type system called SureType, but sports a more compact more stylish design.

In addition to the now infamous Blackberry push e-mail system, which sends a message straight to the device as soon as it hits an ISP’s server, the 7100V also boasts a calendar and contact storage.
Blackberry/Vodafone has also improved the storage capacity of the device which now boasts 32MB of memory.

Other facilities include compatibility with variety of formats including Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Adobe Acrobat, Bluetooth, Quad band and an integrated speaker phone.

It also sports a Vodafone developed interface and is available in both consumer and business versions. There is however no integrated camera and very few entertainment applications.

The device price will range from free of charge to customers on Anytime 400 or
1000 to £82.50 for Anytime 100 customers.

Vodafone, which has also recently added the Nokia 7610 and VPA III to its smartphone portfolio stresses that it wants to offer its customers a range of choices in the high-end business phone area.

Siemens iPod style phone

The all pervading design influence of the Apple iPod seems finally to have reached mobile phones.

With its white finish and rectangular shape Siemens new clamshell, the SF65, certainly bears a passing resemblance to Apple’s ubiquitous music player.

The phone breaks new ground for Siemens in that it features a swivel action screen that according to the maker enables it to function like a proper digital camera.

The phone matches its billing too in that it sports a 1.3 mega pixel snapper with an integrated flash and a 4x digital zoom.

Also on board is a 65k colour screen, a pretty generous 18MB of memory, gaming options and polyphonic ringtones.

Those who might mistake for an iPod will be disappointed to discover that it doesn’t actually play MP3s. There’s also no POP3 e-mail compatibility or Bluetooth.

It is set to launch in the UK in January 2005.

Now it is file swapping via mobile phones

Nokia has announced its has developed a peer to peer system for phones that enable users swap image, video and even music files with other people’s mobiles.

Apparently Nokia’s research centre in Budapest has developed a system that works on the company’s 6600 handsets. At present it only works with image and text files, but the company is optimistic that soon large files such as MP3 music and video could be added.

I might be missing something here, but personally I can’t see networks welcoming this move. They already have a system for swapping image files between phones called Multimedia messaging. Can’t see the networks also ceding the potentially lucrative music download market to peer to peer technology at this stage without a huge fight either.

The key for consumers anyway is not about swapping images between handsets but getting those pictures off the phone and on to a PC or printing them out. Hopefully in this sphere we’ll see more solutions like the one offered by Cognima/Bonusprint

The company has also confirmed that it will finally start to offer the Secure Digital (SD) card, or more likely the mini version of the card, on its mobiles.

Most mobile manufacturers, with the obvious exception of Sony Ericsson handsets which sports Memory Stick slots, use SD and with Nokia's backing the card looks set to become an industry standard for handsets.

Nokia’s new fashion phones

Nokia’s latest phone range, launched at the Totally Fashion event in Shanghai, is a strange-looking fashion range. The Nokia 7280, 7270, 7260 phones apparently “blend old world art deco styling with an edgy, modern day twist”.

Nokia has evidently decided to ignore the fact that Siemens’ fashion range, Xelibri, just recently died a death, with sales of the strangely-styled handsets at disappointing levels. But most of the big phone companies have a couple of handsets that can be said to worship style over content in the hopes of making some big branding statement. However, we’re not convinced with Nokia’s attempts. Maybe they look better in the flesh.

The press release really has to be seen to be believed, which is why we’ve pasted parts of it in below (hey, it’s Friday, ok). Click on the link to read on.

Nokia 7280: Lean, Sublime Lines
The sleek and sexy Nokia 7280 offers a completely new mobile phone design, foregoing the traditional keypad for a discreet keyless dial. A fine lacquer-inspired high-gloss finish, complemented by leather and mirror accents, add sophistication and style making this device as much a work of art as an advanced piece of technology.

Perfect to whip out at cocktails, the Nokia 7280 is geared to attract attention and become the talking point at any high glamour soiree. Its VGA camera can snap the latest and greatest while the active slide means calls can be answered or ended with a flick of a wrist.

The handset's chic strap and carrying pouch keep this hot accessory close at all times. Using the Nokia Collector, you can transfer your favourite photos, ringtones, wallpapers, music and videos from the Nokia 7280 to and from your Mac. For a fashionable handsfree experience, style mavens can plug in the Nokia Wireless Image Headset, also introduced today. Truly, the Nokia 7280 is the fantasy phone for the fashion-conscious.

Nokia 7270: Detailed Deco
The boldly stylish Nokia 7270 draws its design inspiration from the Garbo-esque glamour of the 1920s. Encased in an etched stainless steel housing, this fold design accents your wardrobe with a matching textile wrap, carrying strap and pouch to reflect your personal style and mood.

Whether shopping in New York, Paris or Shanghai, a second opinion is merely clicks away thanks to the Nokia 7270's VGA camera. Converting clothes or shoe sizes is a snap with the clever Converter application. Tune out in style with the FM radio and fashion headset or tap away on games like Chic Pinball.

Nokia 7260: Flamboyant Fashion
Materials, graphics and colour palette set the Nokia 7260 apart. Featuring chrome and steel accents, this Art-Deco-meets-Industrial-Design concept is certain to be a favourite of fashion-minded crowd. To stand out in a crowd, consumers can enhance the style of their Nokia 7260 with daring accessories, like stylish straps and carrying pouches.

Jetsetters can easily call home with the Nokia 7260's tri-band capabilities, or send celebrity sightings using the VGA camera. The Nokia 7260 allows users to step out in style every day.

New Xdas announced from O2

O2 has announced that it will be releasing an updated version of its Xda II later this year – the Xda IIs. The smartphone is to include a slide out QWERTY keyboard as well as the long-awaited 802.11b wireless connectivity.

Although it won’t be available immediately, O2 has revealed that the handset will also feature BlackBerry push email service. O2 is suggesting that RIM’s Connect software should be added to handsets at the start of next year (and presumably you’ll be able to download the software for free if you’ve already forked out for the new handset).

Expect to see the updated phone over here in November for around £449. A further model, the Xda IIi, will follow the upgraded model. This will include a faster 520MHz Intel PXA270 processor and a 1.3-megapixel camera. Pricing for the Xda IIi is still to be set.

Xda IIs specs:

• Windows Mobile 2003 2nd Edition Software for Pocket PCs
• 3.5” Transflective TFT-LCD 240 x 320 pixels, 65K Colour,
• Size: 125(L) x 72(W) x 19(T) mm
• Processor - Intel PXA263 400 MHz, memory - 96MB ROM, 128MB SDRAM
• GSM/GPRS
• Internal antenna, Quad band, 850/900/1800/1900
• GPRS class 10
• Infrared, USB, Bluetooth and Wireless LAN (802.11b)
• Colour CMOS 0.3Megapixel camera, with mirror
• 205 grams with battery, expansion: MMC/SDIO
• 12 buttons, 5-way rocker, slide-out 39-key QWERTY keyboard
• 1490mAH LP battery
• Standby/PDA/Recover/Talk: 168/17/72/4

Mobile phone to kill iPod? Samsung debuts hard disk handset

Just the other week we predicted that phone manufacturers would soon be giving up on stupidly expensive flash memory cards and kitting out their handsets with hard disks. These are of course significantly cheaper and, most importantly for the consumer, offer a great deal more storage.

They could in theory also render hard disk music devices like the iPod redundant as users can store their tunes on the handset’s hard disk and have no need for a secobnd device. Motorola’s recent deal with Apple to offer iTunes on its mobiles shows that the iPod’s manufacturer is also sensing that this could be the way in which the market, at least in Europe and the far east, is likely to develop.

Anyhow it seems we were right for Samsung has just announced the world's first ever mobile with an integrated hard disk.

Unveiled yesterday at a Japanese telecoms show the SPH-V5400 is a clamshell type phone with a 1.5GB hard disk.

It comes with an integrated mega pixel camera, MP3 player and a TV out connection.

Another first is that the SPH-V5400 also features an FM transmitter to enable users to stream music from the phone to nearby FM radios. Sadly at the moment this type of feature is illegal to use in the UK thanks to the 1949 Wireless telegraphy act.

The main screen is a TFT screen - 240 pixel by 320 pixel - and the sub screen is an OLED - 128 pixel by 128 pixel.

We expect the first mobiles with hard disks to reach the UK by the middle of next year with Motorola along with the Japanese/Korean makers leading the way.

MPx220 to include Blackberry service

It has come to our attention that Motorola’s new smartphone, the MPx220 due out later this year, is going to come with Blackberry push emails. The quad band MS Smartphone-based handset is due out later this year. It’s already a pretty appealing phone, including features such as a 1.2-megapixel camera with flash and a mini-SD card, but the Blackberry functionality will add that little bit extra.

Since the lovely MPx handset appears to have been delayed indefinitely for the time being, we’ll have to content ourselves with getting excited about the 220 – no great difficulty. We’re easily excitable.

Moto

Smallest smartphone on sale now

The lovely Orange SPV C500 goes on sale this week. It will be available for free on some contracts up to around £80. Weighing just 100g and measuring 108 x 46 x 18mm, it both the smallest smartphone and the smallest MS Smartphone-based handset currently available.

Read

My M8 Fncies U

It seems if you’re a teenager in the multimedia world you need to get yourself kitted out with a mobile phone if you want to get lucky while hanging around outside Blockbuster video.

According to a study conducted by the University of Oslo, teenagers who use mobile phones are more likely to have sex than their phone-free counterparts. Researchers questioned more than 10,000 teens, between the ages of 13 and 18. They discovered that 60 percent of those who use mobiles had a lot of sex, while among those who seldom or never use mobiles, only 9 percent had done the dirty deed.

Apparently, those who own mobiles also start earlier, with many of them starting at the tender age of 13. This is all due, according to researchers, to the ease with which youths can flirt and make contact with fellow teens via text message.

The report in the The Mirror asserts that the researchers, who questioned more than 10,000 youngsters between the age-group of 13-18, found that 60 per cent of teenagers who use mobiles a lot had sex, whereas, only nine per cent of the children who seldom or never used mobile phones had had sex.

Researchers also found that children with mobile phones often started having sex at the young age of 13. They are attributing this disturbing behaviour to the fact that children often flirt on SMS and can also make "speedy contact" with their phones.

The report in the Mirror isn’t that forthcoming with the specifics, such as the actual number of those with phones having sex at 13, so we’ll take this one with a pinch of salt. But if we were teenagers, we’d be off to Argos for a pay as you go at the earliest possible opportunity.

Read

Motorola E398 on sale now

Motorola’s E398 music phone is available now for £199.99 on T-Mobile pay as you go. The mobile’s major selling point is its built-in MP3 and MPEG4 player and the stereo speakers that’s supposed to endow the handset with superior music playback.

The E398 has become one of the key handsets in T-Mobile’s music download service (more about that here) which allows users to download a few tracks to their mobile handset. The E398 also includes a stereo headset so you don’t have to advertise your Britney obsession to the world.

The E398 has 5MB of internal memory and uses the new smaller-than-SD TransFlash removable storage card, available in up 128MB capacity. This will store around 34 MP3 tracks. It’s also got Bluetooth and a camera with flash.

More here

Danger's Hiptop2 destined for UK?

Danger was always threatening to launch its Hiptop smartphone communicator over here in the UK. However, its remained out of reach over the Atlantic for so long that it’s now been superseded by a smaller, lighter model. Perhaps the Hiptop2 will be the one to make it over, and then we can see for ourselves what all the fuss is about.

Over in the US, the Hiptop2 has just been announced for an Autumn launch by T-Mobile (renamed the Sidekick 2 for the purpose). 25 percent smaller than the first Hiptop, it measures 130 x 66 x 22mm and weighs 184g. Sliding up the front screen reveals a QWERTY keyboard, while a new external directional pad means you can now navigate the handset with the screen down.

The built in camera has been improved and now offers VGA (640 x 480 pixels) images as well as an LED flash for close range illumination. There’s 32MB of RAM and 16MB of Flash memory – although we couldn’t find any mention of an expansion slot. There’s also improved support for synchronisation with Outlook and Exchange.

Danger

Siemens Blackberry-equipped smartphone

Here's yet another smartphone with a built in keyboard. Siemens has unveiled the SK65 with a keypad housed in the base of the phone and is rotated into position when required. Due to launch in October, the SK65, is also the first to integrate BlackBerry's push email technology, which sends messages to the phone the moment they are received on a server.

Other features include Bluetooth, Java games and video playback. The phone, which weighs 144g, is a tri-band model with 250 hours' stand by and 300 minutes' talk time.

Sharp GX40 on its way?

We're not usually ones to give into idle gossip here at Tech-Digest, but murmurings on the Internet of a possibly imminent replacement for the Sharp GX30 have got us all excited. The GX30 is a great phone - the first megapixel camera phone on the market, SD card slot, MP3 player and a whole lot more.

So what will Sharp do with its successor (presumably called the GX40)? We’re expecting big things, not least a 2-megapixel camera. Being able to take proper digital images on your camera may get you banned from every concert venue in town, but you might actually come away with some decent shots before being manually ejected from the premises.

New 3 phone from NEC

The NEC e228 has just been announced for the 3G network operators, 3. Although the UK wing of the company hasn't confirmed a definite launch date. Fittingly, 3 different colours are available for the video mobile phone – silver, white and blue. The e228 is the upgrade for the 313 and is smaller and lighter than its predecessor, weighing 125g.

The 313 might not have set many gadget lovers hearts racing, but it has been a huge seller in the UK on account of the fact that it is one of the cheapest pay as you go handsets.

The phone boasts two cameras – one on the front and one on the back, allowing you to make video calls and snap pictures. A Sony Memory Stick Duo slot is enabled for up to 128MB if the 19MB of internal memory doesn’t suffice.

All NEC’s 3 phones are constantly connected to the Internet and you can synchronise it with your computer to get your Outlook Calendar and other PC apps.
More specs:

40 tones polyphonic ring signals
Downloading capacity of 384 kbps
Video calls, MMS
Java games
Support for video streaming
Media player (video and sound)
Speaker phone
Battery time: 132 h Standby, 136 min voice, 106 min video
Weight: 125 g
Size: 129×53×21,5 mm
Volume: 120 cc
Colours: Silver, white, and blue

HP goes launch crazy

HP has announced four new iPAQ models, the most interesting of which is the company’s h6340 smartphone. The Pocket PC-based smartphone is obviously designed to be a direct competitor for O2’s xda II, and comes with quad-band GSM/GPRS, WLAN and Bluetooth.

Judging by the pics, we’re not convinced that the h6340 is going to be good enough to loosen the xda II’s grasp on the smartphone market – especially not if the rumours about the xda III are to believed.

The design is pretty boxy - and that protruding aerial leaves a lot to be desired. It uses a 200 MHz Texas Instruments OMAP 1510 processor, compared to the 400MHz Intel PXA263 processor on the xda. The 64MB of memory can't compete with the xda II's 128MB, but the VGA camera and 16-bit TFT display match the xda II's.

The other PDAs announced are the high-end iPAQ hx4700, the consumer-friendly iPAQ rx3000 series, and the entry-level rz1710. Expect to see them in the UK in September. The h6340 should cost around £470 SIM-Free.

Motorola MPx220 finally confirmed

Along with the launch of the V3 RAZR, Motorola also finally confirmed the release of the MPx220, the company’s upgraded smartphone.

The MPx220 looks likely to be an improvement on the MPx200, the company’s previous Windows Mobile clamshell. The MPx220 has added the features lacking in its predecessor, namely: a 1.23 megapixel camera and Bluetooth capabilities. There’s also a miniSD card slot and 10MB of available memory. It will be available at the end of Q3 which in our book means October.

Judging by this news release, it also sounds like the MPx220 is going to have RIM’s Blackberry capabilities as well. Having push emails is likely to make it a far more tempting prospect. Having said that, most of the handset manufacturers seem to be jumping on the Blackberry bandwagon at the moment (the latest rumblings are coming from the Siemens corner), so it might not be such a unique selling point after all.

Motorola

Motorola super slim RAZR phone

In terms of iconic phone designs, Motorola certainly leads the way and it looks like the company has just done it again with the release of the V3 RAZR.

The clamshell phone is incredibly slim – just 14mm – which is about a third of the depth of rival phones like the Sharp GX30 and Motorola V600. It is also very slight weighing in at a very pocket-friendly 95g.

Motorola has also pulled off some pretty neat tricks with the keypad which features illuminated keys sitting flush on the casing. Amazingly, the keys are incredibly easy to use

The internal 2.2-inch TFT screen has support for 260k colours, and the external display is also in colour.

Motorola has managed to squeeze in a VGA camera as well as Class 1 Bluetooth technology. MPEG4 Video playback, along with a 3D graphics engine, means it’s not too shabby on specs – although obviously the slim design means it’s not the most fully featured phone on the market.

No pricing info as yet, but expect it to be at the top end of the market when it launches in October.

More on the Motorola website.

Siemens gets on its bike

Funny, as the UK government has outlawed talking on a mobile phone while driving a car, we’d kind of thought the same rules would apply to other modes of road transport.

Apparently not. In fact Siemens is positively encouraging cyclists to make and receive calls while on their bikes by offering a super-tough mobile handset the M65, which comes with an optional Bike-O-Meter.

The phone itself is finished in metal and rubber and is designed to withstand a knock or two as well as coping with splashes of water and puffs of dust. It also sports a toughened, hard to scratch screen.

Features include a VGA camera with a 5x zoom and an attachable flash, triple band facilities, a 65k colour screen and a range of pre-installed games.

The bit cyclists will be most interested in is that it can be bought with a £39.99 Bike-O-Meter that includes a mobile holder that functions as cyclometer displaying information such as distance travelled and speed. All this info can apparently be downloaded to a PC.

Sadly the phone doesn’t include a speaker or come with a hands-free kit, so let’s hope that, just like the rest of us, cyclists pull over when their ringtone goes.

The phone and Bike-O-Meter are on sale now via O2.

XDA III, or is that XDA IV?

When push comes to shove our favourite connected PDA of recent times is the O2 XDA II. We like its size, ease of use, upgradeability and big screen for web surfing. An Opera web browser (which is so much better than Internet surfing than Pocket Explorer) and a push e-mail for the XDA II would make us very happy, though we are told these aren’t far way.

It isn’t just us in the XDA II fan club though. According to O2, which incidentally unveiled some pretty impressive figures today (click here for more) the XDA 2 accounts for more than third of the UK wireless handheld market.

Not entirely sure what O2 means by that. In its release it says ‘Handheld device is defined as a pocket-sized device aimed primarily for data and integrated wireless communications.’ So does this include the Sony Ericsson P900, Orange Treo, Nokia smartphones? Only O2 knows.

As the device is selling so well O2 now has something of a problem. That’s because HTC, the Taiwanese company that makes the devices, has already lined up what should in theory become the XDA III.

The new model is similar to the XDA II, yet includes integrated Wi-Fi, twice the amount of storage and a pull down QWERTY keyboard.

Overall it sounds like a pretty impressive upgrade. However, the first XDA IIIs which are wearing T-Mobile’s colours are about to go on sale in Germany as the MDA III, have received pretty indifferent reviews. Apparently the keyboard is rubbish, the battery life is severely tonked by the Wi-Fi and reviewers are a little miffed that HTC hasn’t upgraded the screen.

So O2 may choose not to slay its golden goose and miss out on the XDA III all together.

Instead O2 might plump for the next generation XDA which was unveiled recently by HTC. The XDA IV, which O2 may confusingly call the XDA III, also features Wi-Fi, the keyboard and more storage, only this time it will have a better screen, faster processor, and crucially be compatible with 3G networks. It ought to have a mega pixel camera too.

Sadly it won't be available anywhere until at least early 2005.

One month standby phone from Philips

Philips has taken an Okey-cokey attitude to the mobile phone market, in that it has been in, out and shaken it all about more times than anyone could care to remember.

There are signs that it is taking it seriously though with its latest release the 650. The small business-like clamshell boasts battery life of an astonishing one month – way more than most of its rivals. Talk time at 8.5 hours is pretty good too.

Another neat feature is a TV link accessory which enables viewer to see images stored on the phone on their TV set. This would be much more useful though if the phone had an integrated snapper – instead there’s a camera accessory that can be attached to it.

We also like the phone’s OLED front display and its perky, but relatively sensible styling.

It is available across Europe, though knowing Philips not necessarily the UK, in September.

O2 re-invents the X1

After all the controversy surrounding the X1 handset (we've received hundreds of complaints here at TD Towers) you might have thought that UK network O2 would have been happy to put that particular phone behind it.

It seems not for the company is lining up a new version of the X1, called the X1i, for launch in September.

To be fair the phones have little in common other than the fact they both sport cameras and are very competitively priced.

They even have a different shape as the X1i is also a chocolate bar style phone – a little bit like the Sony Ericsson T610 – whereas the X1 was a clamshell.

Other features include a 65k colour screen, tri-bad facilities (so it works in the US), and simple access to O2’s Wap portal O2 Active.

The X1i costs £69.99 for Pay & Go customers or free for Pay monthly contract customers and is in UK O2 stores and from O2 Online.

Sony Ericsson's youth phone

Sony Ericsson’s final phone of the day is a mini candy bar style handset aimed at the youth market.

Chocka with multimedia type facilities the K500 has been designed so that when its owners take images using its VGA camera they can hold the phone horizontally as they would a traditional camera. The camera also features an integrated 4x digital zoom and Sony Ericsson's QuickShare facility which apparently speeds taking and sending images.

The small-ish phone features a 1.9inch TFT 65k colour screen. Underneath this is an array of small buttons and a multi-way joystick designed to enhance the phone‘s gaming facilities.

Other features include 12MB of memory and Sony Ericsson's new PlayNow service that is designed to speed up the downloading of ringtones.

The K500 goes on sale in the UK, and across the world, in the autumn.

Mini Windows clamshell comes to UK

Mitac is to bring its Mio 8390 smartphone to the UK.

A clamshell phone not dissimilar in size to the Motorola Mpx200 the Mio 8390 runs Microsoft Smartphone 2003 operating system to deliver applications such as Outlook, Pocket Explorer and Windows Media player.
The phone, which is fairly light at 125g, sports a 256k colour main screen with a second LCD display on its fascia.

Other key facilities include 16 MB SDRAM, 32 MB ROM an MMC/SD card slot, Java, voice dialing and a Intel PXA262 200MHz CPU.

Similar to the Motorola MPx200 it doesn’t feature Bluetooth; however unlike that handset it does at least boast a VGA camera. Motorola’s next Windows Mobile handset, the MPx220 which will debut in the autumn features both Bluetooth and a 1.3 mega pixel camera.

There's no details yet on the Mio's price or which network is taking it.

Sony Ericsson's EDGE phone

Sony Ericsson’s launch today wasn’t solely about smartphones. The company also unveiled the S710a and the Z500 – versions of existing camera phones that have the added bonus of EDGE technology.

EDGE is a variant of 3G that enables users to download data at speeds of to 240 kbps (3G in the UK is 384kbps) and uploads speeds of 120kbps.

The S710a is aimed at the American market while the Z500 is slated for Europe and Asia.
So far none of the networks have expressed a great deal of interest in launching EDGE in the UK.

Sony Ericsson also paraded a pair of Bluetooth headsets, the HBH-660 and HBH-300. Both are due to go on sale in September.

Sony Ericsson smartphone now with keyboard

Sony Ericsson today unveiled the P910, the latest in its series of top-end Symbian smartphones.

Due in September the P910 is very similar in terms of features and form factor to its predecessor the P900 except for a pair of key new upgrades.

The most important is that It now boasts a full QWERTY keyboard on the reverse of its flip-open number pad.

This makes the P910 the most complete handset for data entry with users able to type using the keyboard, enter data via its handwriting recognition application or use the phone’s T9 system.

The new handset is also compatible with a wide range of push e-mail systems (these automatically send an e-mail to a phone the moment it arrives on an ISP’s server) including market leaders BlackBerry and Smartner.

For what it’s worth we found the keys too small to type accurately and quickly. However one of the female members of the TD team, with more slender thumbs, rattled through several lines of text very quickly.
Overall though the keypad clearly isn't a patch on that offered by the Treo 600 or even the Blackberry.
The other key upgrade is that whereas the P900 sports a 65k colour screen, the P910 now has a much more impressive 262K screen.

Sony Ericsson has also expanded the internal memory of the phone from 32Mb to 64MB and bundled the device with a 32MB Memory Stick Duo storage card.

As the handset runs using Symbian V7.0 operating system it is compatible with a wide range of phone applications. The company has included a host of these on the phone including the acclaimed Opera Mobile HTML web page browser, Avantgo for offline browsing and Wayfinder, which, when connected to a Bluetooth GPS receiver turns the phone into a satellite navigation system.

Moto's second Windows smartphone

Motorola's second Windows Mobile-based clamshell phone will be launched in the UK in the autumn. The MPx220 features a 1.3 megapixel camera with a 3x zoom and flash, Bluetooth and 64MB Flash Rom, as well as Microsoft applications such as Outlook, Windows Media and Pocket Explorer.

Moto's previous Windows Moble clamshell, the MPx200, was a very impressive handset that was slightly compromised by its lack of a camera and Bluetooth.

Orange SPVs reviewed

The Guardian takes a sneak peek at the two SPV smartphones from Orange, the tiny SPV C500 and the XDA 2 clone the SPV M1000.

Read the reviews here

Another LG handset for Three?

It has been rumoured for some time now that Three is about to deliver yet another new LG handset. Buoyed by the success of the U8100, which for a while was the UK's best selling mobile phone, even out selling that other consumer electronics colossus the iPod, Three is apparently set to deliver the LG U8120.

Already on sale to Three’s subscribers in Hong Kong the U8120 keeps its predecessor tiny (for a 3G phones clamshell styling, and mirrors almost all its features (POP3 e-mail, 65k colour screen, VGA camera etc). The key difference is that the upgraded model has much more storage, thereby addressing the weak point of the U8110.

Looks like another winner to us.

Sharp camera phone first with optical zoom

It is always worth keeping tabs on what Vodafone is up to in Japan, largely because what it launches there tends to find its way over to Europe a year later.

So we note with interest that Sharp has unveiled a new camera phone that’s the first in the world with an optical zoom.

As any photographer will tell you digital zooms are largely a waste of time. Optical zooms however do let users get closer to subjects without sacrificing too much image quality.

The phone, the V602SH, is surprise, surprise, a clamshell models that features a two mega pixel camera. Another neat feature is the ‘Swivel Style’ design that allows the LCD screen to be reversed 180 degrees.

A rather more frightening facility is that the V602SH boasts a karaoke mode that enables its owner to hook the phone up to a TV for sing-along sessions. Also on boards is a music player and Bowlingual's wonderful dog bark translator.

We reckon that Vodafone will have one more major Sharp GPRS camera phone launch before it really starts to shove subscribers in the direction of 3G. So, maybe the Sharp GX40, due for arrival in, let’s hazard a guess, Spring 2005, will feature a two mega pixel snapper and an optical zoom.

Japanese reinvent payphone

The Guardian reports that the Japanese have re-invented the concept of the pay phone.

NTT DoCoMo has unveiled four new handsets that will allow users to pay for lunch, go to the theatre, book a flight or even open their front doors using their mobile phones. The handsets have an integrated FeliCa smart card from Sony. Customers can pay for things wirelessly by holding their mobiles next to compatible cash registers and vending machines. The payment is then taken directly from the user's bank account or charged to a credit card.

So far, about 40 suppliers are supporting the system, including All Nippon Airways, am/pm convenience stores, and McDonald's. DoCoMo is planning to license the technology to other mobile phone operators. Sony's FeliCa is already used in transport applications around the world, including the Hong Kong underground.

Siemens' new slider

As reported a few weeks back Siemens has unveiled the successor to its popular SL55 phone. Due in August, the SL65 keeps its predecessor's design, including its slide-down flap, which features the phone's keypad, but adds more features. These include a VGA camera with a 5x digital zoom, attachable flash, video capture, Java for downloads and a 64K colour screen.

The SL65 is apparently a touch bigger than the SL55, and according to our spies at the glitzy launch in Barcelona last week, not quite as sexy as its predecessor either. Siemens has also had its thunder stolen a bit by the Samsung’s SGH-E800 which is a similar phone in a similar form factor.
We quite like the concept of the attachable flash though.

O2 X2 on sale

O2's second budget clamshell mobi, the X2, hits the stores today available via O2 retail stores as a pay monthly handset for free.

The X2 boasts a better screen and camera than its predecessor the X1, is triple band so it can be used in the US and comes with Java for downloading games and ringtones. It also sports a really cool OLED display on the front screen and is generally a much sexier handset.

It will be available as a "Pay & Go" handset as of June 4 2004, at a cost of £149.99.

Samsung SGH-E800 review

The Siemens SL55 was one of the most imaginative and stylish mobile phones of 2003, so the German manufacturer must be none too happy about the launch of the Samsung SGH-E800.

Not only has Samsung blatantly ripped off its sliding mechanism, but it kicks its butt while doing so. Admittedly the SL55 remains a design classic, but on functionality and usability the new kid on the block has got all the right stuff.

It is slightly bigger and heavier than the SL55, but at 87X 43X 23.5 mm it is still a very compact and ligtweight handset. The extra weight also gives it a more robust feel, and the E800 feels like it could withstand enevitable knocks and drops (or is that just me?).

It also fits perfectly in the hand, and its curved, smooth back gives it a very tactile finish. But the best thing about this phone is its spring-loaded cover whiche slides open with such ease and so smoothly it emits an involuntary 'oohh' from anyone who tries it out (and, believe me, everyone will want to try it out).

Be warned this perfect piece of engineering is almost as addictive as popping the small pockets of air in bubble wrap.

If you can stop playing the with phone for a moment and leave it open you'll discover a well-spaced out key with decent sized keys that are subtley back-lit. An extra, bonus is its VGA digital camera, hidden in the back of the cover, complete with a (very) small mirror so you can (just about) see youself as you snap.

Aside from camera all the usual functions are present and correct, including a whopping 1000 entry address book. It isn’t quite as easy to use as the Siemens’ operating system, but other than that there is very little to fault. The E800 is great looking, well made phone, which has that ‘ooh’ factor that every mobile manufacturer is after.

Charlotte Ricca-Smith

Siemens SL55 successor unveiled soon

One of our favourite phones of recent years has been the original slider- the dinky Siemens SL55. Ok so it might have been short of a few features, but it looked great and has become a firm favourite with discerning mobile buyers, especially women.

So we are very excited about the news that Siemens is to unveil a successor to the SL55 in Berlin in June.

There’s no details on the phone yet, but we’ll be amazed if it doesn’t have a camera (with video too), come in a variety of colours and feature a decent screen.

Expect hardcore SL55 fan David Beckham (who really ought to know better given the amount of dosh he gets from Sharp/Vodafone), to have one glued to his ear soon.

Sagem smartphone

Ok Orange network users, fancy a new smartphone?

French company Sagem is the latest company to offer a mobile that uses Microsoft’s Windows Mobile for smartphones software.

Due in the UK in the summer on an as yet unspecified network (it is available via Orange in parts of Europe so it doesn’t take a huge leap to work out who is stocking it in the UK) the Sagem MY-S7’s big USP is that it is slightly smaller and more pocketable than Orange’s existing smartphone the SPV. Weirdly enough both are made by Taiwanese company Mitac.

Features-wise the two are pretty much the same with the Sagem boasting a very similar 65k colour display, a VGA still camera with a digital zoom, MPEG 4 video capture and playback and Java. Of course there’s the usual Microsoft applications such as Outlook, Pocket Explorer and Windows Media.

The phone also has 32Mb storage built-in which can be expanded via its SD/MMC card slot.

More here

Three mega pixel camera phone

Here in the UK we are still agog at the one mega pixel images taken by camera phones like the Sharp GX30 and the Samsung D710.

It is a different story over in Japan where phones with cameras capable of taking significantly higher resolution two mega pixel images have been available for almost a year.

Now Casio has upped the ante yet again buy delivering the first mobi capable of snapping three mega pixel images. To put that in some kind of perspective, there mega pixel digital cameras where considered state of the art as recently as 2001.

As well as taking 3.2 Mega Pixel resolution (2048×1536) images the Casio A5406CA also boasts an auto-focus and has nine settings for taking photos including night scenery, twilight, food and person.

It has a 2.3inch screen, stereo sound and weighs 125g with battery.

Sharp TM100 review

Over at The Guardian there’s the first review of the T-Mobile’s Sharp TM-100 slider camera phone.

While the handset shares its 240x320 pixels and 256K colours screen with the wonderful Sharp GX30 available from Vodafone it lacks that model's Bluetooth, mega pixel camera and MP3 player.

Nice to note that POP-3 mail is at last sneaking on to Sharp’s phones too.

Overall it is a thumbs up, though not worth changing networks to buy one.

Samsung's smartphone hat-trick

For a few months now we have been wondering why Samsung has a range of impressive GSM smartphones on sale in the US, but not in the UK. Well we need wonder no more as it appears that the two models, the i500 and i700, will reach the UK in the next few months.

The intriguing thing is that they will be launched at roughly the same time as another new Samsung handset, the D710. This puts Samsung in the unique position of offering a trio of smartphones that all use different operating systems, namely MS Windows Mobile, Palm and Symbian.

Our fave is likely to be the i700, which is an upright phone (it is like a smaller version of the O2 XDA 2), which uses Microsoft's Pocket PC phone edition software to deliver applications like Outlook and Internet Explorer. Samsung is also claiming the phone can access the Internet via wireless (802.11b) networks if an SD/IO card is added.

We have written about the D710, which uses the Symbian operating system with Nokia’s Series 60 interface, before. It is like a larger version of the Siemens SL55 in that the bottom half of the phone slides down to reveal its keypad (see also the Sharp TM100).

Its key feature though is a 1.0 mega pixel camera (a first for Samsung). Other features include capture and playback and MP3. Annoyingly the phone only has a 65k colour screen, which put it behind the rush of new phones with superior 262k colour screens.

Finally Samsung is pandering to Palm fans with the i500. It is a small-ish clamshell phone with a swivelling screen that runs Palm’s 5.2 operating system. It features a 65k colour screen, VGA camera and is compatible with the Graffiti handwriting recognition system.
Samsung announced several more phones this week and we’ll fill in the gaps in a couple of days time.

New MS smartphone

Here’s yet another Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 smartphone we haven’t seen before, yet curiously this one sports a rather familiar design.

Retailing for £500 without a contract the AnexTEK SP230 features a flip up/down keypad, which we reckon could well have been inspired by the Sony Ericsson P800/900.

According to the UK distributor Sword Services, the handset which boasts a 320x240 pixel screen with 65K colours, a 400Mhz Intel PXA22 processor and 64MB ROM and 64MB RAM is pitched up against current champ MS phone O2’s XDA 2.

While the phone boasts the usual Microsoft applications like Outlook, Internet Explorer and Word, Sword has added a USP. It claims that the SP230 can be configured to receive live video transmissions from a security camera using its proprietary software.

Hope to have a review of this mobile very shortly.

New Moto smartphone

We know that Motorola has another new phone in the offing as there’s a press conference already in our diary for late May. Yet there are no clues yet as to what it might be and the company is adamant that so far the new handset hasn't yet appeared on the web.

We are pretty confident though that one phone Moto will officially unveil very shortly is the much-rumoured MPx220 .

US website Gizmodo has already reported that images of the phone have appeared, and then promptly disappeared from some of the company's websites.

Hazarding a very educated guess here, the MPx220 is likely to be an update of Moto’s rather cool Windows-based clamshell smartphone the MPx200.

It’ll keep its predecessors versions of Outlook and Internet Explorer, but will also add the two key elements missing from the original phone a camera (one mega pixel we hope) and also Bluetooth. It also has better battery life too.

We are big fans of the MPx200 here at TD, but we don’t half miss that camera when we take it out and about at the weekend.

Nokia improves N-Gage

In a bid to address many of the design problems that have severely limited sales, Nokia has launched a new - and much improved - version of its N-Gage game player.

The new model, dubbed the N-Gage QD, is about 20 per cent smaller than the mark one model and, unlike the old unit, has the speaker and microphone mounted on the front so you don't have to hold it sideways to make a call.

Whereas with the previous version you had to remove a back panel and pull out a battery to insert a new game card, the new model has an easy to reach multmedia card slot for game cartridges.

Another criticism of the original N-Gage was that few games exploited the device's connectivity options for multiplayer gaming. Nokia therefore intends to launch 50 new N-Gage titles on the market by the end of this year, three quarters of which will offer multiplayer gaming.

Due to be officially unveiled at the E3 show in Los Angeles, the N-Gage QD is expected to be priced between E99 (contract) and E199 (SIM Free) when it is launched across Europe in May.

http://www.n-gage.com

Viv's Moto phone

She might not like Tony Blair a lot, but it seems that the Grand Dame of the UK fashion scene Vivienne Westwood, loves Motorola.

For the designer has today unveiled a version of Moto’s V600 clamshell camera phone with a fashionable cover that is apparently more catwalk than handbag.

If you do however getting your hands on one of the handsets with its so called 'couture cover’ you’ll have to move quickly. There are apparently only 99 handsets which are exclusively available via Vivienne Westwood’s stores in the UK and Italy.

They are actually not a bad investment as they retail for £300 not a great deal more than the vanilla version of the V600.

More from here

Now O2 has the X2

It was one of the most controversial phones of last year. The X1, available exclusively through O2, was a budget clamshell with an integrated camera available free to the network’s pay as you go subscribers.

While it sold by the shedload TD readers noted some problems especially with its texting facilities.

Anyhow the X1 wil be replaced in May by a new clamshell handset the X2.

It boasts a better screen and camera than its predecessor, is triple band so it can be used in the US and comes with Java for downloading games and ringtones. It also sports a really cool OLED display on the front screen and is generally a much sexier handset. It will retail for £149.99 on pay as you go tariffs and will be free for subscribers who pay monthly.

Panny's pop-up camera phone

Clever stuff from Panasonic. It claims to have re-invented the form factor of the camera phone by offering a model sporting a pop up LCD screen just like they have on camcorders.

According to the company the screen makes the X300 much simpler to use than rival handsets. Due in the autumn the phone features a 65k colour screen, video play and record functions and a Wap 2.0 browser.

The only downside is that the resolution of the images it takes is VGA standard, only around half the quality of recently announced mega pixel phones from Sharp and Nokia.

At CeBIT Panasonic also unveiled a trio of ultra thin handsets, the A100, A101 and A102, which are due for a later summer launch. Also new is the first Secure Digital (SD) card with a storage capacity of one Gigabyte.

Samsung's mega pixel spinning phone

A big new phone for Samsung debuted at CeBIT. Due in late summer the SGH-P730 is a clamshell phone featuring a twist and flip rotating screen similar to the LG 7100. Its key feature though is that it takes one-mega pixel still images. It can also capture video and play back MP3 music. Images are either stored on its 64MB internal memory or on an MMC card.

Other features include a 262k colour screen, digital zoom for the camera and polyphonic ringtones.

Expect it in the UK in late summer.

Loads of images of the phone are here

Siemens also goes mega pixel

Not surprisingly given it was on its home turf, Siemens, used CeBIT to parade a trio of new mobile phones.

The big story is that it will deliver its first mega pixel camera phones, the S65, in September/October. Its is a smart looking candy bar style phone that is targeted at the business market.

Unlike the Sharp GX30 and Nokia 7160, the S65 features a 1.3 mega pixel camera. Its rivals have 1.0 snapper. How much .3 of a mega pixel makes to picture quality is an interesting question. Motorola’s MPx100 also has a 1.3 mp snapper.

Other features include

Video camera
4x digital zoom
65k colour display
MMC card slot – with a 32MB card bundled with the phone
Compatibility with Outlook and Lotus Notes
Calendar
Bluetooth

Also new are the C65 and M65. Both will launch in autumn. The C65 is a fairly basic, but nice-looking camera phones, while the M65 targets users with an ahem, active lifestyle. It is encased in rubber and metal to make it shock, dust and water-resistant.

Nokia's 7610 - a real beauty

Could this be 2004’s hottest phone? After letting its rivals poach the limelight Nokia has hit back in style this week with the unveiling of the 7610 smartphone.

Due in early summer the 7610 has a number of Nokia’s firsts:

· It is the first Nokia handset to feature a mega pixel camera (like the Sharp GX30)
· It is the first Nokia handset to include an integrated HTML web browser. In this case the superb Opera browser which debuted on the Sony Ericsson P900.
· It is the first Nokia phone to capture a decent amount of video. It can shoot up to 10 minutes at a time. It also features some rather basic in-phone video editing software.
· The phone is the first to come with Nokia’s innovative Lifeblog software. When the phone is synced with a PC this automatically ports all recent images and text messages to software on the computer and organises them chronologically enabling users to create a personal diary.

Also on board MP3 and video playback, Bluetooth and POP3 email. The phone runs on the Series 60 Symbian based platform.

Reasons to love the 7160

We think the 7610 is Nokia’s first smartphone bulls eye

It looks great – it is much more compact than the rather cumbersome Nokia 6600. The only other phone to cram so many cool features into such a compact handset is the Motorola MPx100 and that is still much larger than the 7610.

Adding the Opera web browser is a genius move. It is this the web browser for nay kind of mobile phones

The feature line up is spot-on. Loads of video, MP3 playback, and some fun software too. The mega pixel camera is also state of the art for the time being.

The Lifeblog software sounds intriguing. Imagine if you could tweak the software so that each time you sent a message or took a shot it automatically sent it to your weblog. That would be cool.

So a definite thumbs up for the 7610. A Nokia smartphone you’d consider buying - now that’s a first!

Two mega pixel camera phone

Sharp, Sony Ericsson, Nokia and Motorola may all be lining up mega pixel camera phones. But Austrian maker Tel-Me, which has had a limited presence in the UK, has gone one better.

According to Gizmodo it is lining up the first GSM phone for the European market with a two-mega pixel camera.

Coming later this year the T939 runs using the Windows CE operating system (not the Windows Mobile OS as found on the Motorola MPx200 and Orange SPV) and features Microsoft Office applications, Instant Messaging and a web browser. It also boasts a 256k-colour touch screen.

Tel-Me has been a little generous with its launch predictions before, so we reckon that this phone is more likely to debut in early 2005.

It shouldn’t come as surprise that a two-mega pixel camera is featured in a PDA style device though. Several handheld PCs in Sony’s Clie range now boast two mega pixel snappers.

Two mega pixels in a clamshell phone - now that would be something.

Moto's MTV mobis

Motorola is teaming up with MTV to produce a series of phones featuring dedicated software from the music channel, targeted at the youth market.

The trio of models, (E398, E680 and C650) all feature music-based sounds and actions across all functions - gaming, MP3 and ringtones.

All three will launch in the UK in the early summer.

We'll venture an opinion or two about them next week, but for now the C650 (on the right of the pic) looks like a pretty cool handset.

Read on for the details

C650

Ultra small phone
MP3 ringtones
Integrated VGA 4X zoom camera
65K colour display
MPEG4 video playback
Downloadable Java games
Multimedia messaging

E680

Dual 3D stereo surround sound speakers
RealPlayer software
USB data transfer Bluetooth for wireless transfer of files.
Gaming with 3D graphics
Portable and downloadable J2ME games and 8-way navi and gaming keys.
MP3 sound effects

E398

Candy-bar style phone
Camera
Integrated MP3 player
SanDisk T-Flash removable memory
3D stereo surround speakers
Java

Sony Ericsson's mega pixel phone snapper

Well you didn't think that the Sharp GX30, which is released in about three weeks, would be the only mega pixel camera for long now did you?

Sony Ericsson confirmed rumours that it had a 1.3 mega pixel phone snapper in the pipeline yesterday with the unveiling of the S700.

It looks like a winner too in that it is a small candy bar style handset with a large 262k screen (the current industry standard is 56k). There are plenty of features including Bluetooth, an MP3 player (tunes are stored on a Memory Stick Duo Card) and both streaming and capture of video clips. It can also access Wap and websites.

The clever bit is that the screen spins round – a bit like the Motorola V80 – to reveal the number keypads.

The really bad news is that it won’t available until Q4 this year, by which time Sharp will have sold a shed load of GX30s and other manufacturers, namely LG and Motorola, will have delivered mega pixel cameras.

Sony Ericsson also took the wraps off some other handsets yesterday too. Groomed as the successor to the best-selling T610 (though ironically no where near as cute), the K700 has a VGA camera with flash, FM tuner, Bluetooth and video capture and playback. It is due in early summer.

Sony Ercisson also unveiled a host of phones for the US market – which incidentally are no way near as cool as the ones bound for Europe – and some accessories. Read about them here.

Voq phone review

For those who feel that life is too short to text, Sierra Wireless is now selling the Voq Professional phone complete with QWERTY keyboard. A Microsoft Windows moby, it features Pocket Outlook Explorer, Outlook and Windows Media Player.

For the full review of the Voq Professional see The Guardian .

Sendo's snapper

3GSM was a busy one for British mobile phone company Sendo. It not only extended its portfolio of handsets by introducing a new mid-range camera phone, but also spent the show touting around its Symbian based smartphone the X

The camera phone looks a goodie and should appeal to the mid to bottom end of the market. Christened the S600 the small candy bar style handset is set to debut in European market later in the spring.

Unlike many rival devices it boasts a VGA quality camera with a 5x digital zoom and creative and editing facilities. Images can be viewed on a 65k colour display. Other features include the most recent form of Java (MIDP 2.0) to enable games and applications to be downloaded and polyphonic ringtones. Talk time is between two and seven hours with standby rated at 200-450 hours.

While it is undoubtedly a decent-looking feature rich phone, it appears that the Sendo X hasn’t got quite the pull the company had hoped it would have. So far Sendo only has one operator lined up to sell the X and that's Telecom Italia. None of the big Europe-wide networks like Orange, Vodafone and T-Mobile have signed on the dotted line.

It is not that there is anything wrong with phone. It could well be that there is a glut of smartphones available and quite possibly not as many punters as the networks had hoped buying them.

Moto gets smart again

Motorola launched two new handsets in its MPx series of Microsoft Windows Mobile powered smartphones at 3GSM in Cannes, but they weren't the phones many industry observers had expected.

Until a few weeks ago the clever money had been on an upgraded version of the MPx200 clamshell based smartphone, with Motorola adding an integrated camera and Bluetooth to the phone's line up of facilities.

Instead the company surprised observers by introducing the MPx - its high-end smartphone for the business market for 2004.

The handset boasts two key features. Firstly it is the first Motorola model to offer web browsing via Wi-Fi as well as GPRS - Nokia's Wi-Fi equipped handset, the Communicator 9500, was unveiled earlier in the week.

Secondly the phone’s form factor is completely unlike almost any other mobile - and more akin to the company’s paging devices of half a decade ago.

The MPx features a laptop-style clamshell design with a screen that can be used in either landscape or portrait mode. Essentially when the user is making phone calls it operates as portrait style clamshell model. When accessing data applications, such as e-mail or web browsing, the user flips the phone open in a vertical way.

Writing e-mail is via a full QWERTY keyboard, which we found a little tricky to use as the keys were too small.

In addition to Bluetooth and an MP3 player and all the traditional Windows based applications like Pocket Internet Explorer and Outlook, the handset also boasts a 1.2 mega pixel camera. This should make Motorola the second company to offer a snapper of this high quality standard to the UK market. Accompanying the camera is an integrated flash.

Due in the UK around the same time is a second slightly lower specified Windows powered handset - the MPx100. The phone boasts a traditional candy bar style form factor, features a 1.2 mega pixel camera, Bluetooth, MP3 player and the usual Microsoft applications.

Although the features list whetted our appetite - especially the Wi-Fi - we were unconvinced by the form factor (the phone is too tall for a standard clamshell) and the keyboard on the MPx. The MPx100 does however look like a strong contender and should certainly tempt the kind of phone buyer who is considering Orange's SPV.

Overall, we would have liked to have seen the revamped MPX200. Its clamshell form factor is superbly executed and the Microsoft applications work well. The addition of the camera and Bluetooth would make it a compelling proposition.

New Palm phone

Palm Source, the new name for the section of Palm that develops the PDA's operating system (OS), continued its attempts at 3GSM to push Palm as an OS for mobile phones. It had some success to for a second mobile phone that runs using Palm (the first, the Handspring Treo 600 launched in December) is heading for Europe and the UK in late spring.

Manufactured by Group Sense, which has a huge presence in the Asian mobile market, the G88 combines Palm personal organiser style facilities with a mobile phone in a candy bar style handset with a sliding keypad not dissimilar to the Samsung SGH-D410.

The phone, which runs via Palm Source’s 4.1.2 operating system, features an integrated digital camera, 2.2inch 65k colour screen, e-mail and Java. It boasts 16MB RAM, 16MB ROM and a 2MB internal flash memory card.

We really liked the Palm OS on the Treo, but are not yet convinced as to whether it will function on the G88's smaller screen. More from here

Panny's baby smartphone

We’ve seen a few compact smartphones recently that use the Symbian operating system. Nokia's 6600, Sendo’s X and Siemens SX1 leap to mind. Panasonic is set to shrink the Symbian smartphone even smaller with its X700 clamshell phone that it announced at 3GSM in Cannes this week.

The key to the model (which uses the Series 60 interface along with the Symbian OS) size is that it uses a mini Secure Digital (SD) card, rather than the standard SD one used by its rivals. This enables Panasonic to shave a few extra millimetres from the size of the handset.

In terms of its specifications though the X700 is arguably more 2003 than 2004. It has a 65k colour screen and VGA camera rather than the 260k colour screen and mega pixel snappers offered by Panasonic’s rivals Sharp, Motorola and LG.

It is compatible with the usual range of Microsoft applications from PowerPoint to Word, has an integrated POP3 email client, Java and Bluetooth. There’s no mention of an integrated Web browser (it has WAP) but users who want to view websites will probably download the excellent Opera web browser for Symbian handsets.

The bad news though is that the model is not expected to debut until the end of 2004, buy which time a whole raft of new exciting and better-specified handsets will have been launched.

Nokia's Wi-Fi Communicator 9500

Nokia made the first big announcement of this year's 3GSM exhibition in Cannes, France when it unveiled a new version of its Communicator handset. The 9500, the first fruits of its collaboration with IBM, is smaller and lighter than its predecessors (which were nicknamed the brick), yet boasts integrated Wi-Fi. This could be a first for a mobile phone, unless Motorola which is also working on a Wi-Fi mobile debuts its handsets before the 9500 launches in the Autumn.

Aimed at corporates the 9500 features integrated IBM software, including its Notes e-mail package, uses the Symbian operating system and features the Nokia Series 80 software platform. In spite of the IBM deal it is however also compatible with Microsoft applications likeOutlook.

Sharp/Vodafone announces GX30

Well it is here at last. Vodafone has announced the March launch of the Sharp GX30, the fourth in its series of acclaimed clamshell camera phones.

The big news is that it is the first camera phone in Europe to take images of a mega pixel. Up until now the standard has been VGA, which is about half the resolution.

In theory one mega pixel cameras should take reasonably good images – perhaps good enough to actually print out. Of course you won't be able to send them as the files are too large. Instead the images will be stored on a Secure Digital card.

It has also improved the screen and battery life and built in an MP3 player and Bluetooth.

it will sell for between £100-200

Anyway here’s Vodafone’s take on the GX30’s key features

1 mega-pixel camera

It is the first GSM-enabled camera-phone that can take pictures of a
resolution of 1 million pixels, which is three times the resolution that is
normally available in camera-phones in the European market today. It can
take stills in five different sizes - from 858 x 1144 pixels down to 120 x
160 pixels - and there's a 7x digital zoom for the smallest picture size.
Like its predecessor, it has a macro setting for taking close-ups and a
torch is fitted alongside the lens to light up objects when taking photos in
poor light. And with the GX30's photo editing program, you can put the
finishing touches to the pictures you have taken. Pictures taken at the
larger sizes are simple to transfer to a computer by inserting the mobile
phone's memory card (SD card) into the computer's SD card reader or via a
USB cable.

240 x 320 colour screen boasts 260,000 colours

The Sharp GX30 has two colour screens: the main screen (LCD) has a 240 x
320-dot resolution that boasts 260,000 colours for pictures even sharper and
richer in contrast than its predecessor. The outer display is larger than
the Sharp GX20's and it has a 64 x 96-dot resolution and 65,000 colours.
With both screens, users can add their own wallpaper. Both screens also
display caller ID information, as well as the time and date of each call.
The outer screen can also be used as a viewfinder when users want to take
their own pictures.

Mobile entertainment

The Sharp GX30 is the perfect partner for accessing the award-winning
Vodafone live! services. With its high-resolution crystal clear colour
screen the there is a richer mobile game playing experience. What's more,
with its 40 track polyphonic ringtones abilities, the GX30 is optimised to
accommodate Vodafone live!'s extensive range of downloadable ringtones
(numbering some 2,500). It is also equipped with an audio player that
supports the MP3 format and a video function to record video clips of around
10-20 seconds.

New Moto offers Push to Talk

After Nokia's announcement of its 7140 Push to talk phone the other week Motorola has become the second manufacturer to announce a PTT mobile for the UK market. The V400p features a PTT button that enables the handset to communicate like a walkie-talkie with other similarly specified handsets (click here for more).

At present only Orange has confirmed the launch of a PTT service in Europe although other networks are expected to announce similar programmes soon. The phone itself is a clamshell model, not unlike Motorola’s recently launched V500 model, featuring a 65k colour screen, VGA camera, Java , POP3 e-mail compatibility and MP3 polyphonic ringtones. Both the V400p and the 5140 go on sale in the UK in April/May.

Xelibri fashion phones review

Our guest reviewer Charlotte Ricca-Smith has been busily pulling part the four fashion phones launched recently by Siemens under its Xelebri banner - here's her verdict.

Xelibri8

The 8 is undoubtedly Xelebri’s greatest examples of form over function. It looks very cool, attracts just the right kind of attention and feels fantastic to hold, thanks to its curves and smooth edges. It even comes with a necklace.

It gets tricky when you try making calls though. There is no keyboard, so you have to scroll through each number via its navikey, pressing the centre button when you get to the right one, before moving onto the next. It is actually quicker that it sounds, but a phaff none-the-less.

What you are supposed to do is use its voice-dialing facility, which enables you to speak the number to the phone.

There is no similar solution when texting, which is a seriously frustrating experience. Once again, each letter has to be found by scrolling through the alphabet.

What is cool is its FM radio, MMS messaging, voice memo and the polyphonic ring tones.

The 8 is strictly for those believe everything in their life should make some kind of style statement. And I while I love its innovative user interface and sleek design, after a couple of days I was gagging to get back to the familiarity of the keyboard.

Xelibri6

The Xelibri 6 not only looks like a powder compact. Open it up and there are two mirrors (one with magnification) so you can slap on some lippy while catching up with friends. It even has a pink cleaning cloth. And to allow space for the smaller mirror the buttons are positioned vertically around the outside of the handset. This of course is a nightmare especially when sending texts.

Other than this, thanks to Siemens’ familiar technology, the 6 is very easy to use. It doesn’t however have the same build quality, and is made of a lightweight plastic, which feels like it could be easily broken. It is also quite uncomfortable to hold to the ear, and unless you hold the phone in exactly the right place you won't hear your caller.

Battery life, however, is impressive and the 6 has the usual polyphonic ring tones (twenty-three if you’re counting), which I discovered make great, gentle alarm calls, as well as a 4,000 colour screen - well, its pink and it displays a cocktail glass when not in use. What more could a girl want from a phone?

Xelibri7

As Xelibriphones go, the 7 appears run-of-the-mill, until you turn it sideways. Seemingly inspired by David Beckham's habit of clipping his clamshell phone over the top of his pocket, the 7 doesn’t just have a clip, it IS a clip. So you can wear your phone with pride, without having to worry about it dropping down the toilet.

It’s familiar fascia is a relief after the gimmicks and trickery of the other phones in the range, and again Siemens operating system makes the 7 very easy to navigate. However, on a downside the buttons have a slightly shiny, slippery feel, which is another less welcome feature found on many Siemens phone. You also have to prise open a small, hinged flap to connect the charger, and on the test model this had already come loose. Indeed the general build quality is less than average, and the phones feels somewhat plasticky, but this could be necessary due to the integral flexibility needed for the clip design to work.

Battery life was impressive however, and as with other models you get voice dialing, polyphonic ring tones and a 4,000-colour display, which can handle basic picture messaging. My personal favourite is the ‘wow’ face, which sums up the general reaction to the whole Xelibrirange.

The 7 is essentially a great, basic phone, but one that you can wear as part of your outfit, without the risk of it flying off when your busting moves on the dancefloor. So if you like your technology with a twist, it is definitely worth checking out.

Xelibri5

The 5 is another in the range that can be worn on clothing or attached to a bag via its ‘Click-On adapter’. And while this style statement won’t be popular with everyone it is a great way of making sure you’re phone is on you at all times. Slide it off and you’ll find a somewhat unconventional keypad, which has three rows with four keys. This doesn’t take much getting used to, although the zero seems to be in the wrong place – but then this is what I have come to expect from the brand that likes to push all the boundaries, even if it means we end up pushing the wrong buttons.

Other than this one design quirk the phone is really nice to use – the buttons are responsive and large enough for the male market to enjoy and backlit in electric blue. The handset is also very slim line and despite its square edges, comfy to use and very pocket friendly (although, of course I didn’t put it in my pocket, I clipped it on to my Evisu jeans.

Once again battery life is faultless – and the 5 has the longest talk time in the group with 340 minutes. It also feels fairly robust and doesn’t seem to have sacrificed function for form. You get all the usual basic features such as polyphonic ring tones, alarm clock, MMS texting and voice dialling – all of which are easily navigated via the familiar navikey.

The 5 is a great phone that combines good looks, with usability and practicality. And while its retro style won’t be to everyone’s liking this is one of the best Xelibri handsets to date.

Siemens flashy phone

Siemens has unveiled a pair of new mobiles – one that it is billing as the next generation of multimedia handsets, the other its first clamshell model.

The top-end model is the CX-65. It features the usual selection of features found on luxury phones including Java, a VGA camera, video camera and POP3 e-mail.

It does however have several key features the most important of which is an attachable flash for shooting images indoors.

The screen should also win Siemens a few plaudits. It might be just 65k colours (upcoming phones this year will offer more) but it is larger than most rival handsets.

Siemens also scores points for a useful 11MB of memory and an impressive talk time of five hours and 250 hours standby.

The phone itself is chocolate bar style and in some way looks like a smaller version of Motorola’s A-835 3G handset or even Nokia's 6600.

Siemens has also unveiled its first ever clamshell phone – the CF-62. There’s no integrated camera, though an add-on module with a flash is available, but it does boast a 65K colour screen, Java, WAP and caller display on the outer screen.

Both phones launch in April.

Sharp GX30 - coming very soon

Well you won't have to wait much longer. The word is that the first GSM phone with a one mega pixel camera capable of taking half-decent images, will be in the stores within a month.

The Sharp GX30, the fourth in the company's series of clamshell camera phones, is expected to be announced 3GSM in Cannes on Feb 21 with a Europe-wide launch following in March (probably the 12th).

We have no definite details on the phone. However our insiders have confirmed the following

One mega pixel integrated digital camera

2.4 inch screen with QVGA (240 x 320) resolution (this is the same as the GX20). However the screen has 260,000 colours screen – much more than the 65k offered by the GX20. Also the second front screen has been upgraded too in that it now boasts 65,536 colours and is 1.2-inches in size.

MPEG4 video capture with up to ten seconds of sound

Secure Digital (SD) card slot – for saving images and storing music

MP3 player/voice recorder - an obvious addtion once the SD card slot is in place

256KB Java application storage capacity – a real boon for gamers

Bluetooth

Dimensions 50 x 98 x 24mm

Weight Approx. 115g

The one mega pixel camera will take images that are significantly better than those taken by phones with VGA cameras. It is unlikely, however, that users will be able to send images over Vodafone's GPRS network, as they will simply be too large.

Motorola takes phone for a spin

Remember the Motorola V70 – the cute little phone with the flip round rotating cover? Well in what looks like an inspired move Motorola has revived the spinning case concept in a top-end camera phone the V80.

It features an oval-shaped design is finished in black and sports a large-ish 220x176 TFT LCD screen with 65k colours on its front.

Spin open the front to 270 degrees and its VGA camera automatically fires up enabling for the first time, users to take images in landscape as well as portrait mode. With the screen spun round fully the screen reverts to its standard interfaces.

Unlike the V70, which was shorn of all but the most basic facilities, Motorola has stacked the V80 with a large selection of features.

These include

Java
Polyphonic ringtones
Wap browser
Pop3 e-mail
Pic colour ID
Video playback
MotoMixer –ringtone creator

At first glance the handset’s combination of innovative styling and features looks like a real winner – maybe even this year’s equivalent of the Sony Ericsson T610. It will certainly appeal to female phone buyers. Its only real drawback is that its four menu buttons are a tad fiddly.

It goes on sale in March retailing for around £150 with a contract.

Motorola also debuted the V220, which is essentially a cut-down version of its V600/V525 clamshell camera phones and a model without a camera, the V180.

Both are designed for the budget-end of the handset market.

Samsung slider

Samsung has taken a leaf from Siemens book in introducing a top-end camera phone with a slide down bottom half – just like its German rivals SL55.

Due to arrive in the UK in the summer the ultra compact Samsung SGH-D410 takes VGA pictures, features a front-mounted 260,000 colour, two inch display, has a POP3/IMAP4 compatible e-mail client and includes Java for downloadable games and content.

It also boasts 10MB of storage – a great deal more than many rival camera phones – and 30 seconds of MPEG video capture.

Nokia sports phone

For those rugged outdoor types who like to hang off mountains and that sort of thing, Nokia introduces a bump and splash resistant mobile phone with integrated compass, flashlight, fitness monitor and optional GPS covers - so you know exactly where you are lost!

Launched at the ISPO Winter ISPO in Munich, the triband 5140 is also Nokia's first push-to-talk phone so you can instantly communicate with a group of people - just like using a walkie-talkie. It will be available in the second quarter of 2004.

Full features list:
* Integrated digital compass
* Flashlight to guide the way
* GPS covers (with downloadable maps)
* Push to talk option (similar to walkie-talkie)
* VGA camera
* Fitness monitor (tracks activity level and calorie consumption)
*Interval timer and stopwatch

Phones of the year 2004

The Guardian has listed what are likely to the biggest new phones for 2004.

Among its contenders are the Nokia 7200, Sharp GX30, Siemens SX1, HP iPaq h6300 and 3G phones from Sony Ericsson and LG.

Read it at www.guardian.co.uk/online

Voq phone to arrive in UK soon

Sierra Wireless has confirmed that its innovative Voq Professional smartphone, which we have featured before, will debut in the UK later in the spring. The device, which runs Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating system, has a USP in that it boasts a full QWERTY keyboard that users access by pulling open the flap on the front of the phone that also houses its numeric keypads. The handset features a 200MHz processor, 32MB of RAM, a 200x176 pixel colour screen, and an SD expansion card slot. While cut-down versions of Microsoft applications like Internet Explorer and Outlook are included there is however no integrated digital camera or Bluetooth.

More from here.

BSquare arrives in UK

Vodafone is set to bring one of the US hottest smartphones to the UK. The BSquare Power Handheld pairs a Microsoft Windows CE.Net operating system with a large (4inch) LCD screen, which the company claims is ideal for web surfing and reading e-mail.

The device also features an integrated full QWERTY keyboard that is cleverly housed within the screen and then pulled down when the user needs it.

According to BSquare the device's USP is that its screen is large enough to display many websites in full and has no need to reformat them as other devices with smaller screens do.

Nokia 7200, 6230 and 6810 review

Nokia’s range of mobile phones for 2004 didn’t exactly blow us away. So it is good to report that its handsets for 2004 show that the company is back on track delivering superbly designed, easy to use mobile phones. Three models in particular (the 7200, 6230 and 6810) are likely to be enormous. The Guardian got a chance to play with early samples of these phones and you can read its verdict here.

New Motorola smartphone

There may be a good reason why Orange is offloading the Motorola MPx200 clamshell Windows powered smartphone for nothing. And that’s because its successor, the MPx220, is being groomed for a Spring launch.

Apparently the new handset keeps the form factor of the original but adds four key features. Firstly it offers the latest 2003 version of Microsoft's Smartphone operating system, which is a tad faster and more efficient than the current one. The phone will also feature an integrated VGA camera and come with Bluetooth for connecting it to a headset or a laptop PC. Also the phone has 10MB of internal storage - very generous for a mobile.

We are big fans of the MPx200, but think that its lack of camera/Bluetooth has worked against as it is up against so many excellent phones that already boast those features. Needless to say we'll be first in the queue for the new model.

LG's 2004 line up

LG is hoping to repeat fellow Koreans Samsung’s success in the UK mobile phone market by launching a huge range of new handsets next year. It will include a 3G handset the U8100 (click here for more) a version of the Windows smartphone (pictured above) that instead will use the Symbian operating system (the same as the Sony Ericsson P900 and Nokia 6600) and a rash of GPRS models.

Due first in February is a revamp of its G7100 camera phone, the G7200. It keeps its predecessors' clamshell design and rotating display, but features a 262K colour screen (the first of its kind in the UK as the current standard is 65K) and video capture, download and playback.

It will be followed in spring by the company’s GT phone – its first handset to feature a camera capable of taking mega pixels images. The phone is a clamshell design with an integrated aerial. Its mains screen has 176x220 pixels resolution and 256K colours. Other features include moving image capture, instant messaging and pair of stereo speakers to make the most of its range of 40 polyphonic ringtones.

Scheduled to launch around the same time are the GS2 (a clamshell budget camera phone) and the GS3 (a candy bar style camera phone).

At the end of the year the company will debut the GF, which has a flip up design reminiscent of Siemen's popular SL55. The handset will also feature MPEG4 video and AAC audio playback, moving image capture and a VGA camera phone.

LG is also set to launch a Symbian based version of the SC8000, its Windows based smartphone that is currently available in Korea.

The new text messaging

The Guardian is wondering what is likely to be the biggest thing in mobile phones next year? 3G? Camera phones?

It concludes it could well be a technology imported from the US called Push To Talk (PTT) which enables your mobile phone to moonlight as a walkie-talkie. Except that, unlike traditional walkie-talkies, which have a range of a few hundred feet, PTT-equipped phones can buzz in theory buzz anyone anywhere in the world.

Click here for the full story

Year's best mobiles

Now it is December expect the newspapers to be swamped with best of the year retrospective features detailing everything from 2003’s best movie to its top new garden centre. The Guardian has got in there early this week by naming the year’s five best mobile phones.

They are

Best PDA style phone – Sony Ericsson P900
Best smartphone – Orange SPV E-200
Best camaerphone – Sharp GX20
Best pay as you go phone - Panasonic G50
Best overall budget phone – Siemens SL55

You can read how they came to choose these handsets and which phones were runners up here.

Motorola V525 review

Motorola’s big launch for this week is the V525 a new camera phone available exclusively via Vodafone Live! The handset is almost identical to the forthcoming V500, the key difference being a Vodafone Live! button to take users directly through to the network’s Wap/download sites.

There’s no fulll HTML web access, but the handset does feature a VGA standard camera with plenty of image tweaking options, a 65K colour 176x220 pixel display, 5Mb of storage – much more than many of its camera phone rivals, and the option of using an MP3 tune (basically any music you want) as a ringtone.

It also features Bluetooth for connecting to a wireless headset or acting as a soft modem in conjunction with a laptop PC. Unlike many of its rivals it can also access POP3 e-mail accounts.

The phone is also one of the first quad band phones on the market which extends the number of countries in the world it can function in to include parts of central and South America.

The launch of the V525 is interesting as it offers further evidence that Motorola is willing to make deals with networks to customise phones to suit their requirements.

South Korea 1-0 England

The Guardian has the lowdown on a Tech Digest staffer's recent trip to South Korea, where, in between helpings of spicy pickled cabbage, he wept with envy while viewing the fantastic selection of gadgets LG makes for its local market.

The feature also has details of some of the new products LG is lining up for the UK next year.

Orange SPV-E200 review

The third incarnation of Orange's SPV Windows-powered smartphone, the E-200, has just landed on the test bench at The Guardian. Apparently the inclusion of Bluetooth and an intergrated camera along with more memory has significantly improved both its performance and usability. Read the review here.

Blackberry goes tri-band

Research in Motion (RIM) has added a new Blackberry to its line-up. Aimed at corporate customers, the 7730 triple-band 'smart phone' incorporates a large colour screen and a whole host of business-oriented features.

As well as being a phone, it delivers e-mail, SMS, web browser and organiser applications. Like other 'smart phones' from Blackberry it also boasts a push-based wireless architecture so e-mails instantly appear on the screen rather than you having to dial into the network.

The price of the 7730 has yet to be announced but the phone will be distributed in the UK by O2. Like its little brother, the 7230, the 7730 contains 2MB of SRAM and 16MB of Flash. The new model's battery offers five hours of talk time and nine days standby time.

• Colour screen that supports over 65,000 colours
• Cradle-free wireless email synchronization.
• Integrated email attachment viewing that enables users to read important email attachments from their BlackBerry handheld (including: Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, WordPerfect, ASCII).
• Support for international roaming (on 900/1800/1900 MHz GSM/GPRS networks)
• A push-based wireless architecture that delivers messages automatically.
• A wireless extension to existing email accounts including Microsoft® Exchange or IBM Lotus® Domino™ email accounts.
• A 'thumb-typing' keyboard and navigation trackwheel for sending and receiving email and SMS messages on the go.
• Backlit screen and keyboard for easy reading and typing during day or night.
• 16 MB flash memory plus 2 MB SRAM, rechargeable/removable lithium battery and Universal Serial Bus (USB) connectivity for quick battery charging.

O2's digital music player review

Yet more information on the 02 Digital Music Player, or DMP, can be found The Guardian's website.

But if you can't be bothered to read it there, here's a quick summary, Tech Digest style. O2 has seen all of money that is being made from ringtones and has decided it wants a piece of the action. Only rather than soil its corporate hands with low-fi ringtones, it's managed to get agreements with several big record companies to distribute 'singles' (remember them?) via your GPRS mobile phone.

The price is £1.50 for current chart hits and around £1 for older stuff. But the catch is that you will need to spend £100 on a separate device (the O2 DMP) - though expect prices to fall if the music delivery system takes off. Other niggles are that device's memory is pretty limited (just 64Mb) and that you will need line-of-sight between your phone and the DMP for it to work (unfortunately it uses Infra Red rather than Bluetooth).

Still, it's a brave move from O2 and there's plenty to recommend the digital music player. Particularly impressive is the CODEC system that has shrunk average music file size from 3Mb to between 600Kb and 1Mb without noticeably affecting sound quality (enabling a single download in around 3 minutes). Also noteworthy is the fact that several major record labels are behind the initiative - something that doesn't happen very often.

Smartphones on test

The Guardian has a round-up of the latest smartphones to reach the UK/Europe.

The handsets tested include;

Motorola MPx200
Handspring Treo 600
O2 XDA II
Nokia 6600
Sony Ericsson P900
Orange SPV E200

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Simply e-mail your answer to the following question here

1 What country is LG based in?

Then include your name, address, and job details.

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Entries must be in by January 10th. The winner will be notified the week after.

Nokia 3200 on test

Nokia has come up with some, how shall we put this, interesting handsets this year. Some have been complete bulls eyes – like the 7250i, others have stiffed like the 3650 and there’s a few, like the 6600 smartphone, for whom the jury is still out.

After putting the boot into the company’s handsets more than once this year it something of a relief to find a Nokia phone that is an absolute winner. Meet the girl phone par excellence the Nokia 3200.

If this isn’t the handset of choice in the budget camera phone market this Christmas I’ll be staggered. Vodafone has clearly chosen well with this one.

Essentially it's a budget rehash of the 7250i, arguably Nokia’s best handset this year. Here’s what you get for very little cash.

Design

No new territory here for the 3200 sports the standard old school Nokia candy bar design. Nokia is however taking customising phone covers to the max with this handset. You can pretty much put anything you fancy behind its plastic fluorescent casing. How cool the phone looks is down to you.

Usability

Well it wouldn't be Nokia phone if there wasn’t some quirky feature. In this instance is the keypad. Instead of each number having its own button, two numbers share the same switch. And yes it is as chaotic as it sounds as is sure to slow down serious texters. You kind of get used to it though.

The interface is classic Nokia territory. You toggle between the various menu options by pressing a four-way rocket switch, with side switches taking you deeper into the applications.

Screen

Compared to its rivals the screen is a little second rate. It has a 4k colour display with 128x128 resolution. Still the small size of the screen means it isn’t too much of a handicap. Just don’t go comparing it with the screen of the Sharp GX30.

Features

The headline feature is the handset’s integrated camera, which takes low res 352x288 images. Still at least you know that each image you take you can send straight away without having to edit it. There’s also a self-timer, though using one on a mobile phone seems a near impossibility. The pictures look fine on the screen too. Other facilities include an FM radio, XHTML web browser, 16 polyphonic ringtones and infrared connection.

The phone is also triple band too.

On the debit side it only has 1Mb storage – but as the photos are so low res this isn’t going to matter too much.

Edge technology

The handset is also one of Nokia’s first to be compatible with Edge technology. It is basically a 3G hybrid that triples the speed of data rates of GPRS connections. Edge is likely to reach at least certain parts of Europe next year. Incidentally it seems all of Nokia's handsets from now on will be Edge compatible.

Overall

So it is a budget handset with quirky keys a low-res camera and limited storage. Why is it a winner? It just looks and feels like one. It is a logical step on from the candy bar handsets that Nokia has been selling mainly to women and kids very successfully for the past three or four years. The fact it is likely to be very cheap certainly helps too.

If you want a very cheap camera phone it is either this or the 02 X1 in our book.

Panasonic autofocus camera phone

Is Panasonic set to become the major new force in mobile phones in the UK? Well it could be if it can bring models like the P505iS to these shores. Just launched in Japan it is the first camera phone to feature an auto focus. As anyone who has tried to take pictures with a camera phone can tell you this will prove invaluable. Expect other manufacturers to follow Panasonic’s lead very shortly.

The P505iS can also take pictures of 1.27 mega pixels –twice as detailed as European camera phones, features a Mini SD card for storage and can play back TV programmes stored on the SD card. It can also twist round so the main screen becomes the front of the phone like LG’s 7100. The only weakness in our book is a colour screen of just 65k colours, which is the same as European phones like the Sharp GX20.

O2 X1 on test

O2's excellent revamp of the XDA might be its high profile launch for this month, but it has another phone that has just gone on sale.

The big story with the X1 camera phone is that it is free, which in our book makes it great value.

Firstly it is pretty small for a camera phone coming in at around the same size as phones like the LG 7100. The effect is slightly spoilt by the protruding aerial, although, possibly because of this voice quality is spot on.

Screen quality with 65k colours is reasoanble and the images it takes via a camera with a rotating screen are pretty good quality. Other features include Calendar and Organiser (it can synchronise with Microsoft Outlook), Java, T9 predictive text, Call vibrate, Clock and Alarm and changeable Wallpapers.

Its big weakness though is that it is a pain to use. The menu is tricky to negotiate and on our sample the buttons were sticky and unresponsive.

Still, as it costs nothing there's hardly room to complain.

Nokia 6600 on test

Next week’s sees Nokia’s smartphone aimed at the corporate market, the 6600 finally arrive in the stores.

Officially, review samples don’t go out until next week, but The Guardian got to play with a pre-production sample and was pretty impressed by it. It apparently feels like the 3650 (the company's rather large handset with its unusual keypad) shoehorned into a wide, though not very deep casing.

Features include a 65K colour screen, 640x480 still camera and a video camera both of which feature a 2x digital zoom. Also on board are Java, a RealOne player audio/video player, an XHTML web browser and POP3 e-mail support.

Nokia 7200 review

Nokia has launched three new handsets. All are due in early 2004.

Nokia 7200

Firstly the Vuitton style phone the Nokia 7200. It features an integrated camera, colour screen, presence-enhanced Chat function, MMS functionality and an FM radio. It also has a 65K colour display, video camera and xHTML browser. Shipments in Europe begin during the first half of 2004. Looks like a bit of a girl phone to us, but it is certainly the best-looking handset Nokia has produced in ages. Comes with a matching pouch and suits you sir!

Nokia 7700

It appears that one of the handsets, the 7700, will include a TV tuner of sorts. It will also support the Nokia Streamer SU-6 accessory, the first mobile IP Datacast receiver designed to demonstrate the mobile phone television experience using the DVB-H network. The Nokia Streamer can be attached to the Nokia 7700 like a battery pack, and will be used in pilot projects to showcase the future of digital broadcasting on mobile devices. So no EastEnders just yet. It'll be interesting to see if TV companies are interestd in experiemting with it. It would certainly be good for major sporting events like the Euro 2004. Wonder how long the batery lasts though when streaming TV? That model also has video and camera options, full HTML Internet access, a wide touch screen and a built-in FM radio. It goes on sale in Europe in Q2 2004.

Nokia 6230

Kind of overshadowed by the other two this is a triple band camera phone with Bluetooth and a 65K colour screen. There's a video camera on board, an XHTML browser and an MP3/AAC music player. It is first to the stores arriving in February 2004.

More details from here

Motorola A835 and Sony Ericsson P900 review

Over at The Guardian there's a double hit on two of the most-talked about phones of recent weeks. First the Motorola A835, Three's big 3G hope for the Christmas period, gets the thumbs up (with the usual reservations about Three's lack of e-mail and HTML Internet services), while Sony Ericsson's P900 smartphone is given a cautious welcome.

Sendo smartphone launches in November

The phone with the longest development period in history appears finally to be heading for the stores. Sendo has announced that its smartphone, the Sendo X, will be available in the UK by the end of 2003.

The product was first sighted way back in 2001 when the company was grooming the handset as the first to use Microsoft’s smartphone operating system (as found now on the Orange SPV). Things didn't go the way the two parties had planned and days in court are looming.

Sendo may have had the last laugh though as the X now features the rival Symbian operating system. Its big trump card is that it packs a lot of features into a small and light (120 grams) device.

Overall the spec looks pretty good. We reckon it will be up against the Siemens SX1, Nokia 6600 and our favourite the Motorola MPx200.

Other key features

Sendo Now! Screen – which can be customised to give users instant access to favourite web pages, applications etc. It is a TFT screen with a resolution of 176x220 and up to 65,536 colours.

Video – Includes RealOne player. Users can either view downloaded clips or take their own using an integrated camcorder

Camera – VGA standard. The real news is that it features an integrated flash (only LG’s 7100 handset has this feature so far) and a 4x digital zoom.

Audio – RealOne player for spinning MP3s. Apparently includes a quality speaker too.

Internet – Compatibility with HTML 4.2, Frames, WAP 2.0, XHTML MP and Security (SSL and WTLS) formats. Also up to six POP3 e-mail accounts.

Other stuff – Infrared, Bluetooth and USB connectivity, Java, triple band, 64MB of flash, memory (32MB free for users), voice control, Word, Excel etc compatibility.

more from here

At last - Nokia's clamshell phone

It is a big week for Nokia with a huge bash in Nice, France to parade new handsets, and apparently a new operating system. Reuters managed to get the info on the handsets first, while you can read more about the operating system on The Register.

The phone that catches our eye though is Nokia’s first clamshell for the European market – the 7200. It is an amazing-looking handset finished in a kind of weird beige textile. Even though it hasn’t yet been formally announced it has already been given the moniker the Louis Vuitton of phones. Looks like a real winner though it doesn’t appear to have a an integrated camera. The picture was featured on a Swiss website.

Of the other phones, the 6230 is a camera phone, while the 6820 features a keyboard and is rumoured to be the successor to Nokia's Communicator range of handsets.

All three won’t go on sale until early next year.

We’ll have full details of the handsets after they are formally announced on Tuesday morning.

Then again maybe this is the Sharp GX30

Sharp has now announced the GX30 click here or here for more details

So the hunt for the Sharp GX30, the fourth in Sharp/Vodafone’s hugely successful series of clamshell camera phones, continues.

It seems our report from IFA (click here) has sparked something of a debate over at Mobile Review and Howard Forums.

Among the theories being expounded there is that GX30 will be Voda’s first 3G phone – which seems rather unlikely to us.

More plausible is that it could well be the V401SH Japanese camera phone pictured above and that it will launch in Europe in February.

It has all the key spec we’d expect from the GX30 (mega pixel camera, 320x240 pixel display, powerful zoom, SD memory card for storing images etc) in a form factor that is smaller and lighter than the GX20.

We certainly wouldn't rule it out. Anoraks read on to get the full spec.

V401SH Specs

Size (Width x Height x Thickness) Approx. 48 x 95 x 23mm (when folded)
Weight Approx. 102g
Continuous talk time/standby time Approx. 150 min./approx. 450 hours (when folded)
Main 2.2-inch (320 x 240 pixels) System LCD (maximum 260,000
colours) Display
Sub 1.1-inch (96 x 64 pixels) GF colour LCD (65,536 colours)
Pixels/type 1 million effective pixels/CCD
Zoom 7x (20 steps) Mobile camera
Max. photo size 858 x 1144 pixels
Maximum no. of displayable characters
(full size)
50 characters (10 characters by 5 lines)
100 characters (10 characters by 10 lines)
400 characters (20 characters by 20 lines)
Maximum mail capacity (received/sent) 1,500/480 mails
Maximum still photo capacity (no. of
photos) 8MB, shared (maximum 1600 photos)
Ring tone voices 40 (6KB)
Java™ support Available (50KB applications)
Bilingual interface Available
Handset colours Rose Red, Milky White, Lemon Yellow, Lilac Blue
Retail Price (standard set): open price
The standard set consists of the mobile handset, a battery pack, rapid charger and desktop cradle.

Orange SPV takes three

We've mentioned it a couple of times before, but thought you might want to see a decent picture of it. We are referring to the third version of Orange's SPV smartphone the SPV E-200.

In terms of styling and functionality it is pretty similiar to the last version of the handset. There are however two enormous differences which in our book propels it into the smartphone Premiership.

They are:

Integrated camera - No more messing around with snap on snappers. We don't know if Orange has also simplified the way in which the phone sends photo messages. We certainly hope so as on previous SPVs it took about a dozen clicks. The camera is a VGA model - the same as most of its rivals.

Bluetooth - Essential for us road warriors who like the option of doanloading e-mail to our laptop.

Other features include:

POP3 e-mail via a version of Outlook
Web access through Internet Explorer
Windows Media player - plays MP3s as well as WMAs and can access Orange's fledgling video service
Outlook - Syncs with your PC for contacts/appointments
Orange Back up for storing all your details on the network

No news on price yet. The phone is on sale in November. Click here for Orange's website

Phones that come in pink

Ok, so it might be a deadringer for a ladies compact, or nose powderer as we call them round here, but it is in fact one of four new fashion phones unveiled by Siemens.

The quartet, numbers five to eight, are all part of the company’s hard to pronounce Xelibri designer range. They’ll be on sale in suitably swanky outlets, like House of Fraser and Selfridges, next month.

Siemens has also ramped up the specifications too, so as well those designs to die for they all now sport colour screens. Number eight, our 2nd favourite after number six featured here, is voice controlled and also features an FM radio.

If past form is anything to go by expect to pay betwen £150-250 for each model.

For a look at the other models read on or check out Siemens' Xelibri website

Arsenal mobile - works in Europe too

David Beckham isn’t the only world-class footballer pushing a mobile phone. Samsung and O2 have gone one better and nabbed arguably the best central midfielder in the world. Yes, Arsenal's Patrick Vieira has laid his cards on the table and admitted he’s a Samsung V200 user with an O2 contract.

Of course this might have something to do with the fact that O2 sponsor the Gunners and that Samsung is the club’s chosen telecoms partner. The fact that the pair have just launched a special edition version of the V200 for Arsenal fans might also help explain some of his enthusiasm for the mobi.

Still, the Arsenal phone, which goes on sale only via a pay-as-you-go tariff for £300, includes some Gunners wallpaper, an animated Arsenal welcome and a collection of ringtones loved by the Highbury Library faithful including Volare, Patrick Vieira's very own tune. Here’s hoping the phone travels better in Europe than the team.

Siemens adds 3G

Siemens has become the latest manufacturer to promise a 3G handset for the UK. Its new phone, the U15, will launch in the UK in November via the Three network in November.

Strangely the model is not quite as new as it might seem. It is in fact a version of the Motorola A835 that is due to launch imminently via the Three network. There are a few differences. The Siemens livery is all silver, where as the Motorola’s is black and silver. The interfaces look slightly different and the line up of buttons on the phone isn’t identical.

Overall the U15/A835 looks like a promising handset. It has many of the features of Three’s flagship phone the Motorola A920, but is notably smaller. Alongside Three’s highlight feature video calling the handsets boasts MP3 and video playback, GPS, Internet and e-mail facilities and Java.

The phone runs on a Motorola operating system unlike the A920 which uses the established Symbian system. It comes with a 64MB Secure Digital card for storage of music, images and video. However this card is integrated into the handset and cannot be replaced by a high capacity card.

Annoyingly in the UK the handset will only access a walled garden of a few nternet sites. It also handles e-mail, but this is only available through the web browser and not via the phone’s interface.

Look for a review of the U15/A835 very shortly.

Microsoft handsets times three

A few months ago we were ready to write off Microsoft’s chances in the smartphone market. Now it appears to be mounting a real challenge to the Symbian operating system (as used by Nokia, Siemens and Sony Ericsson) with three new handsets due in the store in the coming months.

Two (Motorola’s MPx200 and Orange’s SPV) we’ve already covered (cycle through our phones pages to find them) The third sounds like a really intriguing handset. Its the Voq Professional phone from Sierra Wireless. It looks similar to the original SPV and its line up of features is not too different from that handset – so no Bluetooth or integrated camera. Its key USP is that its numerical keypad flips open to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard. It also uses the latest version of Microsoft’s operating system for handsets – Windows Mobile 2003.

Neil McIntosh at the Guardian has had a play with is and his version is below

First impressions: it's a nice smartphone, light years ahead of the Orange SPV I've moaned about recently. For a start it uses a 200MHz Intel PXA262 processor with stacked flash memory which means that - combined with a much-improved and adapted version of Microsoft's Smartphone software - the experience is much more snappy. There are some nice features Sierra Wireless has added on top of the OS, too, including a very fast and easy way to file and retrieve information locally, and from the web/network.

The most obvious hardware feature is its fold-out keyboard: a QWERTY effort divided by a big, solid hinge. It's reasonably fast to peck out a message - certainly, much better than an alphanumeric keypad or even the SPV's fabric keyboard - although don't expect to be touch-typing. But the device is also light - lighter than the SPV? - if slightly taller, and around the same thickness.

The phone will be aimed squarely at business users; although it will play games and do fancy/irritating ringtones, the most important features will be pretty pragmatic; support for standard BigFirm email systems including Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes, for one.

Price info: top end of the SmartPhone scale, less than a PDA, which places it in the £200 - £300 bracket by my guessing.

more from here

Nokia 3650 becomes 3660

As we predicted Nokia is giving its odd-shaped 3650 smartphone a second chance to impress the punters. Except it has rechristened it the 3660, ditched that awful circular keyboard and improved the screen quality.

Other features include an integrated VGA camera, Pop3 e-mail, Bluetooth, web access and video capture. It runs using the Symbian 7 OS. It is out in November.

more from Nokia's website

Sanyo announces TV mobile

Just as we’re getting used to camera phones, Sanyo has gone one step further and introduced a moby with built-in digital TV.

Demonstrated at the CEATEC show in Japan, the TV phone features a 2.2in TFT high resolution display and can even record and playback TV images, thanks to a built-in flash memory. The ‘palmtop TV’ screen can also be flipped over from vertical to horizontal.

Nokia's N-gage -now on sale

We couldn't let the day pass without a quick mention of the Nokia N-gage which arrives in the stores today. One of the most hyped phones of recent years the N-gage packs an MP3 player, FM radio, gaming device, and of course a phone into one pretty compact and funky-looking package.

However, like many in the mobile and gaming industry, we think the N-Gage is on a hiding to nothing at the hands of Nintendo GameBoy Advance (to say nothing of Sony's upcoming PSP) and may prove a very costly mistake for the world's leading phone manufacturer.

It is not because it is too expensive - O2 already has it for £100. It is just that it will never match the GameBoy Advance in terms of games, battery life will be a real issue and the very annoying way a person has to take out the battery to change games is a real flaw.

Still for other people's take try the BBC for the background, CNN for a scathing review and Wireless Gamer for the verdict from the streets.

The best camera phone ever?

Bad news for budget digital camera makers. Casio has become the first manufacturer to unveil a mobile phone that can take pictures of two mega pixels. This is the equivalent of a good quality low-end digital snapper.

Debuting at the CEATEC exhibition in Tokyo, the A5403CA clamshell phone can produce images of up to 1,600 pixels by 1,200 pixels resolution (UXGA). Other camera-like functions include auto focus, a digital 10X zoom, digital movie function and a number of picture taking modes, such as "close-up," "evening" or "portrait."

Images can be stored in the telephone or on a Secure Digital (SD) memory card. The built-in storage is enough space for 32 images taken at the highest resolution.

It goes on sale in Japan in December.

Several makers unveiled one mega pixel camera phones for the Japanese market earlier in the year. Sony Ericsson is tipped to be the first manufacturer to offer Europeans a one mega pixel mobile, although the Sharp GX-30, rumoured to be arriving in the UK in the spring, is also likely to be equipped with a one mega pixel camera.

Sony Ericsson P900 confirmed

Still no news from Sony Ericsson, but nice of 02 yesterday to confirm in its video press release the existence of a model called the Sony Ericsson P900. This is destined to be the successor to the popular P800 and if rumours are correct will arrive before then end of the year.

Read on for more details

The Sony Ericsson P900 features the following revisions to the original

* Much better screen - 65k colours to put it in line with handsets like the Sharp GX20
* Smaller, thinner and generally much cooler casing
* Proper metallic stylus (not the rubbish plastic one on the P800)
* Real removable keypad
* Symbian OS 7

The phone certainly needs a revamp as it will face stiff opposition this autumn from the Orange SPV2, Treo 600 and Nokia 6600.

more from

www.clubsonyericsson.com/en/products_p810.htm

Now Posh loves Siemens

More bad news for Vodafone. It appears that it isn't just David Beckham who has been using a Siemens SL55 rather than the Sharp GX20 that he advertises - his missus has been spotted with one too. Eagle-eyed gadget correspondents at The Sun noticed Posh carrying the SL55, recently voted fashion phone of the year by Mobile Choice magazine, in Madrid last week. Click here for the photographic evidence.

Earlier in the week the Currant Bun also broke the news that Posh and Becks both carry Blackberrys with them. Apparently the couple use the e-mail device, sold in the UK via T-Mobile and O2, to keep in touch with their agent.

Death of the PDA?

In a week that has seen the launch of two new Palms (Tungsten T3 and Tungsten E) and a pair of Sony Clies, The Guardian wonders if the PDA's days are numbered as consumers gravitate towards smartphones like the Orange SPV E-100, Handspring Treo 600 and Motorola MPx200.

At present the PDA’s trump card is the size of its screen, which makes for a more rewarding experience while web surfing, gaming and working on Word and Excel files. The arrival of fold up LCD screens though (see here) could change all that.

The year's best mobile?

Picking the best phone of 2003 is a tough call. So fair play to the judges from Mobile Choice magazine who stuck their collective necks out and named the best handsets and networks at a glitzy awards ceremony at London’s Olympia on Thursday night.

They plumped for Sony Ericsson's T610 as phone of the year, giving its big rival Sharp’s GX20 the consolation prize of camera phone of the year. It was a good night for other manufacturers begining with S too as Siemens scooped best fashion phone for the SL55 while Samsung took overall handset manufacturer of the year.

Just like the previous Mobile Choice awards the evening was a cracker with magazine editor Huw Morgan kicking off the proceedings in style and then passing the baton to compere Jack Dee who managed to offend just about everyone in the phone industry.

After naming the winners several networks and manufacturers unveiled sideshows.
Siemens, sponsors of Real Madrid paraded the club’s top recent signing accompanied by his wife - or at least pretty convincing Posh and Becks look-alikes, while Samsung enabled the losers to take their frustrations out on their rivals in a boxing ring. Oh, and Virgin Mobile apparently had pole dancing, but owing to the huge crowds surrounding it we couldn’t get near enough to its stand to verify this

Here’s a list of the winners of the main awards

Best phone – Sony Ericsson T610
Best camera phone – Sharp GX20
Best fashion phone – Siemens SL55
Readers dream phone – Nokia 7250i
Best PDA – Dell Axim X5
Best gaming phone – Sharp GXD10i
Best manufacturer – Samsung
Best network – Orange
Best network service – Vodafone Live!
Best pre-pay package – Virgin Mobile

LG phone review

Over at The Guardian there's a review of the 7100 - the very first phone for the UK market from Korean company LG. While the model is crammed with facilities (including for the first time on a camera phone an integrated flash and an organic LED screen) it's not that easy to use it to take images and its screen can't match rivals like the Sharp GX20. Still for Orange customers with a taste for the off the wall it is well worth considering.

Siemens budget phones

The team at Siemens Mobiles certainly keep themselves busy. The company has unveiled two new handsets this week and has big 3G announcements due early next month.

The two new handsets are both mid-range models aimed at youngsters. They both look pretty cool, though neither features an integrated camera. They’ll be on sale in the UK in October.

Read on for specifications and images

C62

Colour screen
GPRS
MMS
Compatible with Siemens Quick Pic camera
Polyphonic ringtones
Games
Weighs 85g
Available in three colours

A60

Colour screen
Triple band
Polyphonic ringtones
Games
WAP browser
Weighs 85g

Is this the GX30?

Regular TF readers will know that we are huge fans of the Sharp GX20 camera phone. This, the latest incarnation of the Becks phones, boasts a superb colour screen that’s streets ahead of its rivals in terms of colour rendition and clarity. We also love the way it is so simple to use and takes great images.

We have however found a camera phone that might even supersede the GX20 in our affections. So cue fanfare for the Sharp GX30!?

Ok, so the model number says J-SH53 and yes it is a Japanese phone that has been on sale for several months. We are however convinced it provides the template for the next generation of European GSM Sharp camera phones for a number of reasons.

1 We know that Sharp has a phone called the GX30 that is set to debut early next year
2 This phone is available via J-Phone (the Vodafone-owned Japanese network)
3 All the enhancements are of the type we'd expect to find on an upgrade of the GX20
4 Someone fairly high up in Sharp Germany confirmed that a version of this phone, with a few minor alterations, would be on sale in 2004.

Anyhow, enough of the gossip on to the phone. Its main features are;

One mega pixel integrated digital camera – which will almost certainly make it the first phone capable of taking this level of images to go on sale in Europe

2.4 inch screen with QVGA (240 x 320) resolution (this is the same as the GX20). However the screen has 260,000 colours screen – much more than the 65k offered by the GX20. Also the second front screen has been upgraded too in that it now boasts 65,536 colours and is 1.2-inches in size.

MPEG4 video capture with up to ten seconds of sound

Secure Digital (SD) card slot – for saving images and storing music

MP3 player/voice recorder - an obvious addtion once the SD card slot is in place

256KB Java application storage capacity – a real boon for gamers

Dimensions 50 x 98 x 24mm

Weight Approx. 115g

We spent twenty minutes playing with the handset recently and were knocked out by its performance and level of features. The GX20 delivered a breakthrough in that it was the 1st camera phone with a screen capable of doing justice to the images it took. With one mega pixel images and SD card storage you really can think about leaving your camera at home.

Nokia's 3650 - slight return

Quite possibly our least favourite smartphone of last year is apparently getting a facelift. According to website Mobile Burn, the Nokia 3650 is to rise phoenix-like from the ashes and return in the guise of the 3660. While the new model still keeps that rather nasty curvy design Nokia has at least done the decent thing and got shot of the 3650’s ridiculous circular number pad. Nokia is also likely to update the screen to 65K colours and maybe tweak some of the handset’s camera facilities.

No news on a launch, or even if this is a genuine product, but the company has a press conference lined up next week, so maybe that’s when we’ll hear for definite.

Three's flagship handset

Over at The Guardian Three's top-end handset, the Motorola A920, gets a thorough going over. There's also a few words about Motorola's other new phone, the Windows Mobile powered MPx200.

To read the review click here

Handspring debuts killer smartphone

It has been a busy few days for Orange. Earlier in the week the network unveiled the Motorola/Microsoft smart phone – the MPx200. Now it has announced a second smartphone this time using the Palm operating system in the Handspring Treo 600.

Already highly regarded in the US we think this phone is likely to become a huge seller here.

Its key is its size. Sure it looks and feels like a PDA, and has all those handy Palm applications (it runs Palm OS 5.2.1) plus compatibility with a huge number of downloads for the OS. Yet Handspring/Orange has shrunk the phone so it is small enough to be pocketable. It comes in at 11.2 x 6 x 2.2cm and weighs around 170g.

Another bonus is the keypad, which is on the whole very easy to use and the rocker-style navigation switch. The only thing we didn’t like about the design was the large protruding aerial at the top.

Handspring/Orange has also kept the feature-count high.

* POP3 e-mail with multiple accounts
* Push e-mail, so messages are sent straight to the device when they arrive on the server
* Internet access via its Blazer browser
* 160x160 colour display
* VGA camera
* Polyphonic ringtones
* SDIO slot (so users can add Bluetooth/Wi-fi cards)
* Pocket Tunes MP3 player

Perhaps the only thing users might feel short-changed about is a not especially fast processor (144MHz Texas Instruments ARM OMAP), just 32MB of memory - way behind recent Palm PDAs.

Best of all is its very competitive price of around £300.

It goes on sale in October.

Sony Ericsson 3G phone on its way?

It has been rumoured for a while, but now it seems a cert, UK 3G phone network Three is set to add Sony Ericsson's Z1010 phone to its range, probably in January.

Premiered at the GSM Expo in Cannes in February, the Z1010 is a clamshell phone that is significantly smaller than the other 3G handsets avaialble via Three.

It boasts Three's key Video Calling facility courtesy of a pair of integrated cameras. Other features include MPEG4 (video) and MP3 (audio) playback, a front display, 65K colour main display, MMS and Bluetooth.

Read more from 3G.co.uk

Sony Ericsson's new phones

Sony Ericsson has today taken the wraps off its line up of Christmas phones, but in spite of rumours to the contrary there’s no announcement of a replacement for its P800 high-end smart phone.

Instead there’s a camera phone with gaming facilities and two low-end handsets aimed at the budget market. All three models will go on sale in the UK in Q4.

Here are the three models

Z600
Clamshell design with a built in camera – designed to take on Sharp’s GX20, Motorola’s V600 and Samsung’s E700. Features include

MMS
65k colour screen
Bluetooth
Triple band
Polyphonic sound/Music DJ editor
Front screen
Java
200 hours standby, six hours talktime

Z200
Got a sneak preview of this recently courtesy of one of the networks. It has a really weird design - kind of chunky and curved. There’s also a strap at the top so fashion conscious Scandinavian types can hang their phone round their neck. You don’t get an integrated camera (although it is compatible with click-on snappers), but you do get

4K colour screen
MMS
Changeable covers
4.5 hours talk time, 200 hours standby

T230 Budget model. No clamshell just a traditional SE candy bar design. It does have

MMS
Embedded and downloadable games
32 Polyphonic sounds
13 hours talktime, 300 hours standby

The real Becks phone

Unlike us here at Tech Digest, it appears David Beckham hasn't yet taken delivery of his new Sharp GX20 camera phone. Surely some mistake as in this image from Yahoo's sports website he is using a Siemens SL55. The rather tasty sliding mini handset is probably a freebie as Beck's new club, Real Madrid is sponsored by Siemens. Still, someone from Vodafone/Sharp better get on the case pronto.

The Becks phone killers

We might have given it a rave review last week, but we’ll admit that the Sharp GX20, you know the latest version of the Vodafone Becks camera phone, could face some stiff opposition. Sure none of the line up of camera phones we’ve seen in the last few weeks can match its superb screen, but there are handsets coming soon that could may have the edge on other areas. Here’s a few to keep your eyes out for including new models from Nokia, Motorola, Samsung and others

Motorola V600 – Motorola’s best handset for well over the year, the V600 revives the clamshell form factor of the classic V60 yet adds an integrated camera, Bluetooth, video and Java. It is very compact for a camera handset and its black and silver facia with the company’s Batman style logo looks amazing too.

Samsung E700 – A stunning camera phone that certainly has the edge over the GX20 in terms of its design. We especially like its really cool front facia/screen and the way its antenna is incorporated into the handset. The lens is in an unusual place too on the top of the flip up part of the front. It is quite possibly the smallest camera phone on sale too. We reckon it will fly out of the stores.

Panasonic X70 – The successor to the popular GD87, the X70’s trump card is its photo light which improves images taken in poor lighting conditions - although, it obviously doesn't work as well as a flash. It’s a little on the large side when compared with the Samsung and the Motorola, and we would like to have seen a few new features too.

LG 7100 – One of the most unusual handsets we’ve seen in a while, LG’s debut UK phone sports a screen that swivels round – you can even have the main display at the front of the handset. Bizarrely the camera lens is at the side of the phone too. Yet its major boast is that it is the first handset to feature an integrated flash. A bit off the wall for our tastes but it has the makings of a cult phone.

Orange SPV2 – The third version of the SPV is identical to its predecessor (the E-100) with the exception that the SPV 2 features an integrated camera and has Bluetooth facilities. Definitely a handset on our shopping list.

Nokia 6600 – Top-end smartphone with an unusual design. It is wide to accommodate its large-ish screen, yet extremely thin. Packed with features it includes an integrated camera, video, Bluetooth, full web browsing and a 65K colour screen. It will go head to head both the SPV 2 and Siemens, similarly sized smartphone the SX1. It’ll be interesting to see how it fares.

The new Sony Ericsson P800?

A Spanish website is claiming to have images and details of a revamped version of Sony Ericsson's popular P800 smartphone. It will apparently be called either the P810 or P900 and launch in Europe before Christmas (Vodafone seems the most likely network). It features the following revisions to the original

* Much better screen - 65k colours to put it in line with handsets like the Sharp GX20
* Smaller, thinner and generally much cooler casing
* Proper metallic stylus (not the rubbish plastic one on the P800)
* Real removable keypad
* Symbian OS 7

The phone certainly needs a revamp as it will face stiff opposition this autumn from the Orange SPV2, Treo 600 and Nokia 6600.

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