Mon, 30 Apr 2007 02:44:43 GMT
Nokia 5700: The Nokia 3250 and 5300's Child
It becomes obvious that smartphones and PDAs have been around a bit when we see new models bearing resemblance to their parents. In the case of the Nokia 5700 XpressMusic, it's obvious that with its twisting form factor and styling, we're looking at the chNokia 3250 and 5300.
This kid is musically oriented, similar to its parents. Like the 3250, the 5700 has a keypad that twists to reveal dedicated playback controls. And Nrecently announced smartphone inherits some design cues from the 5300, such as the colored bands on each side.
The Nokia 5700 XpressMusic is set for release during the 2nd quarter of this year. Herspecs to keep the drool flowing while we wait:
- UMTS and GSM (850/900/1800/1900 Mhz) compatible
- Runs on Symbian S60 3QVGA color display
- 35MB user memory, 192MB system memory
- MP3 and AAC playback capable, FM radio, dual stereo speakers
- 2 megapixel camera
- A2DP capable), Infrared, and USB connectivity
- Push-to-talk capable
Will the projected 350 Euro price-tag be worth it?
Posted by: Rico Mossesgeld Read more Source
Tue, 24 Apr 2007 06:36:08 GMT
Emporia delivers simple cellphones
One complaint that I hear from many of my friends is that cellphones are too complicated. Those users who don't need fancy animations and extra applications will be thrEmporia is rolling out a couple of handsets that strip out all of the unnecessary fluff from the modern cellphone. These simplified phones are marketed towards senior citizens, but they will appeal to anyone who just wants "a phone and nothing else."
The emporiaLife is a slider phone, but the phone can make and receive calls from the closed position. AcMobileBurn the traditional phone menu has been ultra simplified - The default screen is the list of saved contacts. The number pad is oversized, and the screen is backlit in orange for easy reading. Ringtones and alerts can be set to ultra loud for those who are hard of hearing, and the silent aextra strong vibration settings.
The most notable features is an extra heart shaped button on the back of the phone for summoning help in case of emergencies. The Life button can dial emergency numbers or be used to send pre-defined text messages. The promotional materials are all in German so don't quote me on this, but I believe that the emergency button is able to send emergency SMS messages to multiple numbers at once while making the appropriate phone calls. The emporiaLife phone can also use AA batteries as a power source in case the battery goes dead while traveling.
The second new handset from the company is the emporiaTime. Where the Life has a button for summoning help, the Time has an extra button that calls up alarm clock functions for reminders on appointments and medications. The Time is the sportier of the two models in an all aluminum flip phone case. The emporiaLife is meant for the 50+ retiree, but the emporiaTime was designed for the aging professional who still goes to work every day.
It's nice to see a company realizing that older people are a market with different needs, and acknowledging that our aging population is more active than any generation before them. There's no word on price or dealers yet, but Emporia phones should be available around the world within the next six months.
Check SlashPhongreat action shots of the emporiaLife phone showing the emergency button on the back, and the AA battery pack.
Posted by: johnny Read more Source
Tue, 24 Apr 2007 06:24:07 GMT
MediaReady Bling Player
There are some ways to pretend you are a rich person (don't know why would you want to do that) and one of them is wearing fake bling bling jewelry or devices, with this in mind MediaReady has presented its Bling Bling Player that features lots of shiny things + faux jewels and crystals.
I bet they are thinking something along the lines of - if you can't beat other devices of the same kind of the technical features, beat them on the design and style."
Here are the average specifications that are very similar to thTeclast C280:
- 1.8-inch TFT display
- 2GB Flash memory
- picture and video support
- 7 user chosen equalizers
- FM radio tuner
- USB 2.0
I can already imagine 50 cent wearing one of this Bling Players during a concert or videoclip, right?
Via
MobileMag
Posted by: tiago Read more Source
Tue, 24 Apr 2007 05:20:36 GMT
Wi-Fi, mobile phones and honey
Next week may be challenging for British GPs.
We are going to be asked if it is "safe" to have Wi-Fi installations in schools and at home. And, for good measure, there may be some questions about mobile phones and bees.
The silly season is not yet upon us but Sunday is a difficult day for newspaper scoops, and so there is always a slight air of "silliness". Headline stories are run for one day, but then disappear without trace.
Today, the Independent is running a "Wi-fi" warning. It tells us that:
- Several European provincial governments have already taken action to ban or limit Wi-fi in the classroom. (But no details are given of where this action has been taken.)
- Stowe School has "partially" removed Wi-fi because a teacher was ill. (How do you partially remove it?)
And then it goes on to tell us that: "virtually no studies have been carried out into Wi-fi's effects on pupils, but it gives off radiation similar to emissions from mobile phones and phone masts." A tendentious and provocative bit of juxtaposition if ever there were, from the school of gutter journalism that produces headlines like "No truth in the rumour that Princess Margaret had an affair with Mick Jagger."
This is a scare story, with no facts to back it up. Far more interesting are reports further on in the paper, quoting some journalists of real repute: the bloggers.
The excellent Grrrlscientist, who is a molecular evolutionary biologist, asks "Are cell phones killing bees?"
- I've heard a lot of strange hypotheses in my life, but this one is one of the strangest: mobile phones may be wiping out bees.
- A Swedish research team found that radiation from mobile phones kills brain cells, raising the possibility that teenagers could become senile in the prime of their lives.
- All in all, the potential health damage due to radiation from hi-tech gadgets combined with the loss of the world's bees is a very scary prospect.
My gut reaction is that this is nonesense; pseudo-scientific quackery. I have never believed that proximity to radio waves and electricity pylons has any affect on health. I doubt that Wi-fi and mobiles are a threat either.
And yet, and yet....life is full of uncertainties. I am not aware of any definitive research that demolishes theses theories and, anyway, it is impossible to prove a negative. It is this impossibility that becomes the Quack's charter.
I have three problems:
Our house is full of teenagers, computers, Wi-fi and mobile phones.
Over many years of exposure to radium, Marie Curie suffered radiation burns and finally died of leukaemia.
I love honey.++++++++++
It gets worse. It is not just the Independent.
Tim Worstall points out to me that the Sunday Times is at it as well. See Tim on "Cancer Clusters and Mobile phone masts"Labels: honey, mobile phones, wi-fi
Posted by: Dr John Crippen Read more Source
Wed, 11 Apr 2007 21:28:43 GMT
Introducing the Helio Ocean: Dual Sliding Action!
Here's a novel concept, courtesy once again of the 2007 CTIA Wireless Expo: slide the Helio Ocean vertically and a numeric keypad pops out; horizontally to reveal a QWERTY keyboard. A great way to make full use of space, which helps this PDA phone pack in a lot of features into its 4.33" x 2.20" x 0.86" frame (length x width x thickness). Features such as:
- 3G (EV-DO) capability
- 2.4&qQVGA display
- 2.0 megapixel camera with digital zoom and flash, with MPEG4 video recording
- 200MB internal memory, expandable via microSD
- BlueA2DP capability
- Media player that supports MP3, AAC, WMA, MPEG-4, H.264, VOD, MOD
- Integrated GPS receiver
The Helio Ocean takes advantage of its roomy internal memory by letting users turn it into a portable disk drive when plugged into a computer through USB. And all this runs on a proprietary OS. Helio says the Oceavailable in Spring 2007 (on or before June 2007)Signup for updates about this gadget and you get a chance to win a brand new Ocean plus 1 year of service.
Posted by: Rico Mossesgeld Read more Source
Wed, 11 Apr 2007 11:05:15 GMT
Butterfly Cell Phone
Never underestimate what a 15-year-old can do. After all, a fifteen-year-old wrote the hit fantasy novel Eragon (and had nothing to do with the movie). Andrew Kim is that awkward where he comes up design concepts that are sheer genius.
The Butterfly Cell Phone has a weather indicator and Wi-Fi. Kim has done his homework and put in a AMOLED touchscreen that puts the iPhone to shame.
Someone better hurry up and hire this guy before the big electronics corporation kidnap him and force him to spew out ideas for consumers.
Via
SCI FI Tech
Posted by: Mark Rollins Read more Source
Fri, 06 Apr 2007 11:43:44 GMT
Make Your Smartphone Look Like Windows Vista
Still waiting for a Windows Mobile 6 update for your smartphone or PDA? Whether or not it comes, you can always go superficial by making your gadget look like it runs on Windows Mobile 6.
Mobile Top Soft has helpfully posted a five-step plan to make this happen. It involves some downloads, installing, and even registry edits. So before anything else, back up all your data. It also helps to know what you're doing.
Bonus: The directions also show you how to install Vista-inspired theme.
Posted by: Rico Mossesgeld Read more Source
Fri, 06 Apr 2007 11:34:01 GMT
How Many Cell Phones Have You Lost?
Madame X at My Open Wallet mentrecent post the theft of her $450 cell phone that she loved:
I did have moments of groaning over how crazy it was to spend that much on a phone, but it was a great phone. I used it for about 2 years and would still be using it now, probably, if it hadn't been stolen.
After this experience, she wasn't willing to pay $450 for a phone again.
I don't blame her. For me, cell phones are now right up there with sunglasses as my most loseable possession. I would never pay anything remotely expensive for a phone because I know I would lose it or it would get stolen. No Apple iPhone for me.
I've lost three phones. The first two I lost in mundane ways---left one behind at a restaurant, the other at a clothing store where I'd been trying things on and somehow my phone got lost in the shuffle. The last one I lost in a little more interesting way. It fell off of me while I was on a roller coaster & I didn't realize it was gone until a little later. Do you think it was there when I went back to look? You're right, it was never heard from again, literally.
I hear more and more about what cell phones can do and how much more they'll be able to do in the future, when they'll just read your mind and call whoever you want without you pressing a button. But I think I'll always be on the low end of the cell phone range, unable to take photos with my camera, left out of the text messaging crowd, sullen in the corner while others are living it up, all due to my inability to keep my hands on any object not physically connected to my being.
How many phones have you lost? What's your most loseable item?
Posted by: Justin McHenry Read more Source
Fri, 06 Apr 2007 10:29:31 GMT
Blackberry 8830 World Edition Comming Soon
High Resolution pictures of Blackberry 8830 is leaked online, the upcoming blackberry device support both CDMA and GSM network, letting you roam in most of the aea in the world. The phone will comes in QVGA screen, microSD card slot and exclude the camera module.
Posted by: Roman Read more Source
Fri, 06 Apr 2007 05:32:14 GMT
E-TEN Glofiish X800
The X800 is an attractive looking device that sports a very easy to read VGA resolution touch screen, which would surely be the highlight of the device if not for its tri-band UMTS/HSDPA, quad-band GSM/EDGE support. In fact, the Glofiish X800 has a very solid spec sheet that includes a 2 megapixel main camera and a built-in GPS receiver.
Posted by: Roman Read more Source
