Google’s $199 phone to compete with the iPhone

By Yi-Wyn Yen and Michal Lev-Ram

The Google-powered cell phone is coming soon, and it will retail for $199, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The price of the new Google smart phone would put the device head-to-head with Apple’s $199 iPhone . The Google phone, which features a touchscreen and is made by Taiwanese manufacturer HTC, faces some stiff competition. The iPhone 3G has generated significant interest among consumers for redefining touch-screen technology, popularizing mobile applications and significantly improving Web navigation on cell phones.

T-Mobile, the first carrier that will run Google’s Android mobile software, will show off the new phone to analysts and reporters on Tuesday in Manhattan. It is expected to hit stores later this fall.

Representatives from Google, HTC and T-Mobile would not comment on the Journal’s report.

Google unveiled features of the Android operating system on an unidentified black HTC handset at a developers conference in London on Wednesday.

The HTC phone is just the first of many Google-powered phones, according to the search giant. For Google to reach its ultimate goal - driving mobile Internet use and, in turn, ads - it will need to get multiple devices in the hands of mainstream consumers. The price will also need to be right, given that companies like Palm and Samsung already offer entry-level smartphones for $100.

[via cnn.com]

Spy photos of new Sony Ericsson Walkman-phone

After information leak about new Sony Ericsson phone in Cybershot series, kind insiders give us some new photos of another model of the same manufacturer. Now we have opportunity to see new clamshell phone which will be part of Sony Ericsson's successful Walkman series. There's nothing special in this model. It's almost the same W890i with insignificant changes.

Main aim of that model is to establish emotional link with user. Developers cram with colorful menues, beautiful animations etc. For example, without reference to your location you can see animation on the screen showing weater in the region. Specifications are unknown yet.

Apple forgot to place Greenland on iPhone 3G sales map

Today Apple's WWDC'08 was held. New 3G iPhone was introduced at last. But there's some strange thing, that you can see on the iPhone-2 map: Apple decided to remove Greenland from there. What is it? Mistake or maybe Apple's gods know something about global warming etc? :)

Light sensor smartphone Samsung i780

Samsung Electronics has begun production of light smartphone i780. This particular device has optical joystick, 2,55 '' sensor screen (320x320 pixels), built-in GPS unit. It's width less then 13 mm.

Most interesting element of this phone is optical joystick. You can easily gain access to any function or menu. Standard QWERTY-keyboard is also an excellent addition to i780. This device is very convenient to use because of sensor screen able to identify touch of finger or stylus.

Supports HSDPA, Wi-Fi, USB 2.0, Bluetooth v2.0. Operating system of this novelty is Windows Mobile 6.0. You also gain a Office Mobile package: Excel, PowerPoint, Word and Outlook.

Media: 2 Mpixel camera (2x digital zoom), VGA camera for video-conferences, player (AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, OGG, AMR, MPEG 4, H.263 and H.265).

Data storage: 150 Mb + microSD.

[via 3dnews.ru]

Technorati Tags: Camera phone,GPS,Korea,Samsung,Smartphone,Touch Screen,Windows Mobile

Spice's "Popular phone": $20 today, $10 tomorrow

India already manifested itself as manufacturer of cheap car Tata Nano ($2500). Indian holding company Spice released "popular phone" priced about $20. This phone does not have any display. "This is just a phone" - so says director of Spice.

There were few unsuccessful attempts of producing displayless phones in 90's. Those phones where unpopular. Specialists think that main advantage of this new model is its price.

Spice plans to sell billion of phones to people of developing countries in Southern America, Africa and Asia in next 3 years.

They also assure that in next year price will reduce below $10.

Nokia has also begun development and manufacturing of cheap phones, but their price is $34-$50.

Spice is cheapest phone at current moment and in closest perspective, says head of Spice, Mr. Mody.

[via thg.ru]

Technorati Tags: Spice,mobile phones,cheap

10 Best Selling Cell Phones of February 2008

Sweden company Krusell, one of the biggest manufacturer of cell phone covers, released list of best selling cell phones of February. Because of Krusell business this list is based on cell phone covers sells.

In February the leader was Nokia 6300 again. This cell phone hold top position for several months in a row. Nokia 3109/3110 climbed to postition 2 and dropped Sony Ericsson k810i to third place. Apple iPhone left the list in February.

Here is the list(last month position in brackets):

1. (1) Nokia 6300
2. (3) Nokia 3109/3110
3. (2) Sony Ericsson K810i
4. (7) Nokia E51
5. (5) Sony Ericsson K850i
6. (4) Nokia N95 8GB
7. (6) Nokia 6500
8. (10) Sony Ericsson K530i
9. (9) Nokia N95
10. (-) Nokia N73

Technorati Tags: Nokia,Chart,Sony Ericsson,Krusell,February,iPhone

Sony Ericsson will change naming policy

Marketers of of cell phones manufacturer decided to improve naming rules. Some latest devices of Sony Ericsson has rather funny names for consumers' taste. New scheme removes "i" letter from the end of devices' names. First cell phones which will have names according new scheme are R300 and R306. But actually this naming model isn't something absolutely new.  Similar schemes are used by Japan producers.

Already existed series will have subcategories. G-Series(Generation Web, smartphones) for XPERIA, S-Series(Snapshot, less expensive Cyber-shot models) for Cyber-Shot and R-Series(Radio, lower-end Walkman models)

Technorati Tags: Sony Ericsson,Names,S-Series,G-Series,R-Series

Nokia to show future mobile green technologies

New materials with nanotechnology will bring mobile devices on new level. That is what Nokia want to show with its concepts of gadgets. These gadgets can be used as cell phone, keyboard, TV etc.

Nokia and University of Cambridge researchers have developed an animated video describing how future mobile devices might be stretchable and flexible, allowing users to transform their device into radically different shapes.

Technorati Tags: Nokia,Morphing,Green,Nanotechnology

Texas Instruments demonstrate Google Phone(GPhone) Prototype

On the World Mobile Congress 2008 Texas Instruments revealed its prototype of mythic Google Phone also known as GPhone or G-Phone. As TI declares, Google Phone will allow user to get access to Internet, Email, SMS and video with only one click.

Current prototype is a real working device but very likely it will be changed a lot before releasing on the market.

Google Phone works with Texas Instruments' OMAP 850 processor (200 MHz, GSM, GPRS, EDGE support), can be used in WiFi net and communicate with other devices with Bluetooth. Despite of relatively weak hardware Google Phone shows very proper performance working on the Google Operating System(Android platform).

But actually, this demonstration doesn't mean Texas Instruments will become Google Phone manufacturer. End user devices will be produced by HTC, LG, Motorola, Samsung etc. TI will be just a supplier of hardware components.

 

Technorati Tags: Google,Google Phone,GPhone,G-Phone,Android,Google OS,Texas Instruments

Sony Ericsson C702/C902: Cyber-shot Evolution

New cell phones C702 and C902 came to popular Sony Ericsson's Cyber-shot family. Sony Ericsson claims both models have the best in its class cameras.

Rumors about C702 were already roaming in the Internet but with name K820. Some sources thought C702 would be waterproof camera phone. But it's only splash and dust-resistant, so it's not recommended to drop it into water.

Higher-end model C902 have better 5 megapixel camera, which can make shots in poor lighting condition with help of new Photo Flash feature. But C702 also has its bonuses - it has A-GPS controller and slightly bigger display. C902 slimmer than C702 on 5 mm.

Technorati Tags: Sony Ericsson,C702,C902,camera phone,waterproof,dust-proof,splash-proof,A-GPS,5 megapixel

HTC manufactures Sony Ericsson's XPERIA X1 smartphone

As Chinese newspaper Economic Daily News (EDN) reports, High Tech Computer(HTC) perform production of ODM orders on smartphone Xperia X1 for Sony Ericsson (SE). It's not a surprise as Xperia X1 uses Windows Mobile Operating System. Xperia X1 was announced on Mobile World Congress 2008 which had place in Barcelona 11-14 February. Release of that Sony Ericsson's smartphone scheduled on second half of 2008.

As you can see it's very nice looking device, we hope it can grow to a very popular Sony Ericsson's product. Here you can find video short presentation of Xperia X1 and its unusual interface. Weight of that model is only 145 grams. The future cost isn't defined yet.

Technorati Tags: Xperia X1,Smartphone,Sony Ericsson,Mobile World Congress 2008,Xperia,Windows Mobile,HTC,High Tech Computer

MOTO Z6w Slider: Z6 and WiFi Included

Despite recent rumors about Motorola's exit from cell phone market, American company announced several new  models at the Mobile World Congress 2008. One of that models is MOTO Z6w

Novelty's characteristics are very similar to it's sibling Z6. Main feature of MOTO Z6w is WiFi controller and it reflected on the name of cell phone. Letter "w" in Z6w means WiFi. This is light improvement, but it can seriously raise attention of consumers to that model though. Because it can be really helpful in cities with high density of WiFi networks or if you have home WiFi network. But we hopes this new feature won't raise the cost of cell phone as the possible attraction.

Unfortunately, Motorola didn't exposed much technical characteristics in the given press release. We can only know that MOTO Z6w would have 2 megapixel camera with video capabilities, USB2.0 port, microSD slot for memory flash cards with up to 4GB capacity and Windows Media Player 11 capability is declared.  From independent source leaked out that new slider works with GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, EDGE, GPRS networks. Also that sources says about QVGA display, Java and Bluetooth support. Dimensions are 104x45x16 mm and weight is 105 grams. Stand-by time up to 380 hours and talk time up to 7 hours.

We can expect MOTO Z6w release in Q2 2008.

Technorati Tags: Motorola,MOTO Z6w,MOTO Z6,Slider,WiFi