Mobility Watch

For people who are on the lookout for a really thin mobile phone, then I’m telling you that you may want to check out this new one from Bell Canada. The company is going to let takers avail of their services as well as service this new Samsung SPH-m610 mobile phone which can be used for multimedia purposes. Yes, it is a Samsung phone and Bell has got the exclusive privilege of letting the industry own one only through them.

This new thin mobile phone has got a camera that can take pictures with its 2 megapixel specification. This camera also has got a zoom lens so as to allow users to have clearer photos. The mobile phone can also be used as an MP3 player. You can also shoot videos with this one and you can connect with your other friends via Bluetooth technology.

For a thin mobile phone, this sure has got tons of really interesting features.

[Via IT Business.ca]

[Image from Camera Phones Plaza]

There are already plenty of mobile TV phones available all around the globe. And in the Japanese market, it looks like consumer electronics giant Samsung Electronics is joining in the bandwagon.

To do that, the company just sent out new products - mobile TV phones. And these units are known to be able to support terrestrial DMB, DVB-H, MediaFLO, and satellite DMB. There is also the rumor that Samsung is going to introduce a new one so that it suits the ISDB-T standard for the Japan market.

The rumor, though, seems to have been confirmed already. In fact, an official of the company already sent out word that sometime during this first half of 2007, such a product would be already out in the market.

When this one really becomes reality, Samsung would then be known as that mobile phone creator which already has a series of mobile TV phones that have been created so as to support the various standards for mobile TV all around the globe.

[Via Telecoms Korea]

[Image from Eurescom]

You may be not so happy with the Microsoft operating system and you prefer to use open source and Linux. And if that would be the very case, then you surely would be very happy to know that there is a mobile phone in the market right now that uses such systems.

Grundig created the U900 mobile phone and this is the famous Linux-based unit. Although it may be quite a big thing for those who love the OS, ordinary mobile phone users may not be taken by the style and the design that the unit has. But of course, style is not everything.

The Grundig U900 mobile phone also does offer its user UMTS support. It also gives those camera addicts the pleasure of having two cameras built-in in just one mobile phone. For still shots, you can use the one with two megapixels while for video clips, you can use the VGA camera.

[Via Gizmodo]

[Image from 3D News]

Together, mobile phone giant Samsung and World Wide Web empire Google completed a joint venture that would give mobile phone users a new kind of experience. You see, the companies have announced that with the mobile phones that Samsung is going to create, users can easily use Google’s products and services.

The whole experience starts early this year and one clue is the launching of the Samsung Ultra Edition 13.8. This mobile phone is the very first in Samsung’s range to come with isntalled Google mobile search and services for Gmail.

Some of the Google services and products that Samsung users can access would include:

[Via Phonemag]

[Image from ZDnet Korea]

As more and more new mobile phone models are sent in the market, one cannot help but notice that being internet ready is one of the features that is becoming more common. Experts in the field believe that this is such because of the fact that mobile phone manufacturers have come up with ways so as to develop and create handsets that can be used with faster and easier Internet connections.

One of the giants to dive deep into the Internet department is Samsung Electronics. In fact, just last week, the company has claimed that it would soon be sending out two new ones – the Google Phone and the Yahoo! Phone. what makes these phones unique is the fact that they allow its users to quickly access those two popular sites.

Lee Ki-tae is the president of Samsung’s mobile phone team and he relates, “Samsung recognizes consumers’ need for Internet access through their mobiles anytime, anywhere. Through the relationship the companies will also help drive consumer adoption of mobile Internet services by making it easy for consumers to get more done while on the go.�

[Via The Korea Times]

[Image from Fotosearch]

It’s incredible.  All Steve Jobs has to do is get up on stage, dangle a phone in his hand with Apple’s name on it, and by the end of the day stock in the parent company of BlackBerry drops almost 8 percent.

The iPhone may be one very cool product, but it can’t and certainly won’t replace BlackBerry.  Analysts like Michael Gartenberg at Jupiter Research are grousing about iPhone’s shortcomings, which include no 3G (third generation high speed data) capability, no third-party software capability (no Slingplayer!), and no support for Microsoft Office attachments.  And why didn’t Apple include wireless download capability from iTunes?

Then there’s Larry Dignan of ZDNet, who says his own Motorola Q handset feels like an Edsel next to iPhone.  Dignan predicts doom not only for Motorola, but for LG and Samsung to boot.  And as for Sprint, Dignan says Cingular’s marriage to Apple is the next to last nail in Sprint’s coffin.  (Yes, I’ve read the reports about Sprint’s layoffs and gloomy outlook for 2007.  iPhone is not Sprint’s biggest problem.  Not even close.)

Jeez, remember how expensive the iPhone is, and all the things it doesn’t do.  Dignan seems to think phones like BlackBerry’s Pearl will be relegated to the trash heap by Apple’s iPhone.  I think the opposite:  People who wander into a Cingular store to see the iPhone might just fall in love with the Pearl and everything it can do.  Especially when they realize they can buy three Pearls for the price of one iPhone.

Don’t get me wrong.  iPhone is a game-changing product for wireless manufacturers and service providers.  It’s liable to be the new phone of choice for the likes of Paris Hilton.  But it offers no serious advantages for business people, who will remain attached to their BlackBerrys or Palm Treos.  And for non-business users, any phone over $200 is a tough sell.  Never mind $500 or $600.

Eventually I believe Apple will extend its product line (just as it extended its line of iPods) to include lower-cost handsets, that appeal to “the rest of us”.  But by then, the other manufacturers will have developed handsets to compete with the iPhone’s heightened coolness factor.  The game may be changed by Apple’s iPhone, but the game is by no means over.

Apple, iPhone, Cingular Wireless, AT&T, Sprint, Palm Treo, Motorola Q, LG, Samsung, BlackBerry Pearl

In Korea, authorities were able to bust into an illegal operation. The company doing illegal deeds is M Networks and it has been found out that they have been creating quite a huge number of fake Samsung Anycall mobile phone series units as well as other mobile phone models.

Statistics from the authorities have it that M Networks has been creating and selling around 20,000 counterfeit mobile phone units. The company just needed to assemble new plastic bodies and some used mobile phone parts and they were all set on selling “new� units.

Those who have been able to have a hand at the fake mobile phones have been able to say that at first glance, the counterfeit phones really looked like the real models. Unless you were able to use the phone and inspect it thoroughly, you would then be able to see that the fake units were less shinier. The slider was also a little harder if you were going to open it.

[Via chosun.com]

[Image from Siam Phone]

Yahoo’s been searching (Ha!  Searching!  Get it?) for ways to regain lost ground in its battle with Google.

Here’s one of Yahoo’s strategies, announced today at the Consumer Electronics Show:  A new downloadable app for wireless handsets, Yahoo! Go for Mobile 2.0.  At the same time, Yahoo is giving mobile users a new “experience” it calls oneSearch.

The idea behind oneSearch is to anticipate what a searcher is looking for, and provide the most likely results immediately.  For instance:  a Yahoo mobile searcher enters the name of his favorite sports team.  Yahoo’s oneSearch will respond by giving the final score of the team’s most recent contest, and the schedule for its next matchup.  Type in a movie name, and immediately get reviews and a list of local theaters where it’s playing.  Not a bad idea, since mobile searchers often don’t have QWERTY keyboards to help refine their searches.

Yahoo is making its new software available right away for a handful of Motorola, BlackBerry, Samsung and other manufacturers’ devices.  Go here to find out if yours is included.  Yahoo will also become the default search engine for Opera’s mobile browsers.

Interestingly, Google issued a release today announcing a deal with Samsung promising easier access to Google’s maps, mail and search apps for its handset users.  So using your Samsung handset you’ll easily be able to Google Yahoo.  Or Yahoo Google.

Yahoo, oneSearch, Go For Mobile 2.0, Samsung, Motorola, BlackBerry, Google, Opera, Consumer Electronics Show

[via Wireless Week]

 

 

As the Consumer Electronics Show gets rolling in Vegas, this year’s big news on the wireless side appears to be the marriage of TV with cell phones.

We’ve already tipped you off to Samsung’s technology that would allow TV broadcasters to reach specially-equipped wireless phones with their existing digital broadcasts.  Now we’re hearing all about Verizon Wireless’ V CAST TV network.  And Samsung is playing a role in Verizon’s announcement as well, just keep reading.

Verizon’s offering will use MediaFLO wireless video technology to provide the “best of TV”.  But not just clips this time.  We’re talking entire episodes of programs from MTV, Nickelodeon, NBC, CBS and Fox.  ESPN and other network providers will likely join in by the time this service actually launches, sometime before the end of March.

Prime time shows will actually run in prime time, at the same time they’re available to home viewers.  Some of those shows will then be rerun several times, into the next day.  There will be commercials - sometimes the same commercials that home viewers see, sometimes not.  The capability to time-shift programs with your phone will not be available, at least not at the launch.

Two different handsets - the LG VX9400 (pictured) and the Samsung u620 - will be the first offerings capable of receiving V CAST TV network shows.  They’ll both have screens that let you watch in widescreen (landscape) format.

Pricing is not being announced, although Verizon makes clear that access to the V CAST TV Network will cost extra, on top of VZW’s current V CAST plans.

Verizon Wireless, V CAST TV Network, LG, Samsung, NBC, ESPN, Fox, MTV, Nickelodeon, CBS

[via Verizon Wireless, Phone News]

 

Who needs all the edited, censored, repackaged, digested video clips that cellular providers offer us?  Why can’t I just tune in CSI or Letterman or 24 and watch it “off the air” on my phone?

Samsung says I can, and it promises to demonstrate the capability at the Consumer Electronics Show next week.  Samsung’s designing a special chipset that will allow handsets to tune in digital TV broadcasts - basically getting you the same reception you get with an antenna on your digital TV at home.  Absolutely free.

And get this - the technology is so sophisticated, you’ll be able to watch digital TV programs in moving cars or trains.  Channel switching will be instantaneous, we’re told.

This could turn out to be bad news for wireless carriers, who have been counting on generating many gazillions of dollars marketing add-on video services to subscribers.  Those services haven’t been hugely successful.  But Samsung’s new system, known as Advanced Vestigial Sideband, would be great for broadcasters looking to build their shrinking audiences.

More important - it’ll be great for subscribers, who would rather not pay for TV programs on the go, that are available free at home. 

Here’s a sticking point:  Wireless carriers could veto this capability on phones that they market.  Buying unbranded, unlocked handsets might be the only way to get phones with this capability.  Samsung can, and probably will, put this digital TV capability on laptops, in-car TV sets and personal video players to get around this problem.  (It promises to be somewhat more sophisticated than the digital TV receiver add-ons for laptops that are already out there.)

Consumer Electronic Show,  Digital TV, Wireless Handsets, Samsung

[via Wall Street Journal]

When we last spoke about Sprint’s impending Motorola Q handset rollout, we said it might happen in December, or it might happen in January.

Update:  Forget about December.  Think January.  Sprint now says its Motorola Q will be available online and through its business channels later this month.  If you want to see it in a Sprint retail store, think February.

Sprint’s version offers NFL Mobile capability, the Sprint Powerdeck and its On Demand web content services.  It’ll also have the same Microsoft push email, Windows Mobile features and EV-DO third-generation broadband capabilities as the Verizon Wireless Q has.

LAPTOP Magazine got a review version of the Sprint Moto Q and gripes that it runs a tad slower than Verizon’s, and that it’s not quite as snazzy as Cingular Wireless’ Samsung Blackjack.  But - and this is a big but - Sprint’s unlimited monthly data package at $15 is way cheaper than Cingular’s $39 or Verizon’s $40.  For Sprint customers looking for a smartphone, Laptop says it’s the ”best option for the money”. 

According to Laptop Sprint will sell the Q for about $200 with incentives and 2-year commitment, which is $50 more than Verizon wants for a similar Black Motorola Q, and $100 more than Verizon’s original silver Motorola Q. 

But with much-cheaper unlimited data prices, you’ll save big bucks in the long run with Sprint’s version.

Motorola Q, Sprint, Verizon Wireless

[via Sprint, Brighthand, Laptop]

Friendly advice:  Don’t go Googling the words “Bluetooth lawsuit” unless you’re prepared to sort through a zillion entries.

This is not the suit by Verizon Wireless customers complaining about their Bluetooth functionality being crippled.  Or the suit claiming that Bluetooth headsets are dangerously loud.  It is also not an identity theft suit filed by the Viking warrior Harald Bluetooth, for whom the technology was named.

In this case, a foundation set up to defend patents on work done by universities is suing Nokia, Samsung and Matsushita (Panasonic) for infringing patents related to Bluetooth technology developed by the University of Washington.  The foundation has apparently been negotiating with these firms for years to reach a settlement, without success.

Bluetooth was first developed by scientists at Ericsson in Sweden in 1994.  But it seems an undergrad named Edwin Suominen refined Bluetooth technology while studying at the university, and the control of the patents related to his work reverted to this foundation. 

(I’d like to say that I was doing something important when I was an undergrad, such as refining Bluetooth technology.  I’d like to, but I can’t.)

No comment yet from the companies named in the suit.  CSR, the manufacturer which makes chips which are involved in the suit, isn’t named as a defendant - but says that the suit is “without merit”. 

At this point I wouldn’t worry about your Bluetooth capabilities being turned off suddenly.  But users of BlackBerrys are still recovering from the stress caused by the recent threat of a service cutoff, related to a patent infringement lawsuit against the parent company RIM. 

These legal things can get awfully messy.

Bluetooth, Nokia, Matsushita, Panasonic, Samsung, Ericsson, BlackBerry, RIM, University of Washington,   Edwin Suominen

[via Newsday]

 

Who would ever have thought that despite being giants in the mobile phone industry, companies like Samsung could still suffer from lower profit and sales?

Well, indeed it is true. Samsung Electronics Co. has suffer from a much lower amount of sales and profits for the previous year. However, Samsung would not be going solo with this kind of experience. You see, Motorola Inc. has also quite missed the bulleye of sales. LG Electronics Inc. also seems not be doing so well.

An analyst working with Sanford C Bernstein & Co., Paul Sagawa, did take a look at the situation. And upon going through the statistics and data, he did say, “Motorola and Nokia are leaving handset maker at the low end in the dust at the expense of a price war.”

The “downfall” of these Asian mobile phone makers may quite make these giants stagger however with the kind of products and services that they are able to offer the market, the future may not be as bleak as these companies’ current profit and sales state.

[Via Bloomberg.com]

[Image from cit-com]

Consumer electronics giant Samsung Electronics would not want to be stopped in sending out the newest and most high technology products in the market. And this time around, it would be offering consumers this mobile phone which it calls the Samsung Ultra Edition 13.8 SGH-Z720.

What is this new mobile phone going to offer?

Well, Samsung does say that this is going to be the thinnest HSDPA slide-up mobile phone in the market. Plus, it comes with an even slimmer 13.8 mm profile. It can be used for multimedia types of files and programs and only weighs some 80 grams.

Moreover, Samsung also does claim that this phone can be used with a microSD external memory. Just in case the mobile phone’s memory runs out, you can use an external memory to do the trick.

If you are for the light and slim ones, then you most certainly are going to go for this new Samsung mobile phone.

[Via Geekzone]

It looks like two of the world’s greatest consumer electronics giants are teaming up to bring together an astounding product. That is, if this is your kind of product.

Well, what happened is that there was a press conference set up by Samsung. And during that mentioned event, the spokesperson for the company was informing the public about a new mobile phone that they would be creating for another giant, Verizon.

Samsung says their new phone is known as the Samsung SCH-U740 and it does look like a dual-flip kind of phone. I believe it can be used not only for calls and for receiving text messages but you can also use it for instant messaging as well.

Samsung also did relate that their new mobile phone for Verizon has got its keypad and number buttons shifting from number mode to alphabet mode, depending on the kind of program or application that the user is using.

[Via GearLog]