Day: February 10, 2006

Following the tradition the Swedish carrying case maker Krusell has published its monthly ratings of cell phones, smartphones and PDA. It is based on the volumes of sold carrying cases for the models. It reflects real demand for mobile devices in more than 50 countries. Top 10 PDA and smartphones in January 2006: 1. PalmOne Treo 600/650 2. (3) Qtek 9100/ I-mate K-Jam 3. (-) HP hx2100/24×0/27×0 4. (2) Qtek 9000/SPV M5000/MDA PRO 5. (4) HP iPAQ HW 65xx/6700 6. (10) Blackberry RIM 62X0/72X0 7. (5) HP iPAQ hx4700/4705 8. (6) Qtek S100/I-mate JAM 9. (7) Qtek 9090/IMate PDA 2k 10. (8) Blackberry 7100iIn brackets you see the previous rank. PalmOne Treo 600/650 communicators keep their first place, new Palm Treo 700 joined them this month. They share the position, as they have similar cases. According to Krusell these communicators enjoy the success due to a 1-megapixel camera, the support of fast data transfer standard and Bluetooth interface. Top 10 cell phones in January 1. Sony Ericsson K750i/D750i/W800i 2. (3) Motorola RaZr V3/ V3i /V3c 3. (2) Nokia 6230/6230i 4. (-) Nokia N70 5. (5) PalmOne Treo 600/650/700 6. (-) Qtek 9100/ I-mate K-Jam 7. (7) Nokia 6680/6681/6682 8. (8) Nokia 5140/5140i 9. (-) Sony Ericsson K700i/K700c 10. (-) Sony Ericsson W900i/c/W850Sony Ericsson K750i/D750i/W800i are still the leaders. They are followed by slim clamshells Motorola RAZR V3/V3i/V3c, the third position is occupied by Nokia 6230/6230i. The top of the rating hasn’t been changed much, as there hadn’t been released many new models over recent months. However the situation might change with the release of Sony Ericsson W810 and Nokia E60.

Makayama Software has launched Palm Media Studio 1.0 today. The new software converts DVD movies, downloaded TV shows and other video clips to a mobile format for your handheld or smartphone. The software installs an encoding package on a Windows XP computer, users pick any video file from their harddrive, CD or DVD and with only two clicks, the Palm Media Studio turns it into a compressed movie file, which will play on the bundled mpeg4-mediaplayer on the Palm (or you can use TCPMP). The headset or the built-in speaker can be used to listen to sound. Subtitled and foreign language DVDs are also supported. According to the company a full movie can be transferred to the Palm in less than 45 minutes on an average PC. A memorycard as low as 128 mb is enough to fit a feature film with the software compression. The software captures content in numerous formats (AVI, MPEG1, DivX, XVID, VOB, ASF) and encodes it to the Palm. Palm Media Studio 1.0 is a Windows application that supports XP/2000/NT. The software costs USD $32.95 (EUR 29.95) to register. A free demo version is available that will convert 3 minutes of content. via palminfocenter.com

More Nokia goodness. The Nokia 3250 music phone has been approved by the FCC, paving its entry into the US. The affordable version of the Nokia N91, you can stuff as much as 1GB of music on a Trans Flash microSD memory card . It allows playback of MP3 and eAAC+ files. We previously covered the phone.Bluetooth capability allows you to swap even playlists with other users. Thanks to the standard stereo headphone jack, you don’t have to rely on Nokia’s wimpy earphones anymore; get yourself the latest Bluetooth headset and you’re good to go.Based on the S60 platform, you have access to a wide range of software and some great games. The 2-megapixel cam is another nice bundle that Nokia included in the Nokia 3250.Check out more features in the extended entry. For further details, access Nokia’s website via mobilewhack.com

“The shell is made of monotone dark grey plastic (a touch reveals that it is an average quality plastic). A silver buttons line stands out in the middle of the front panel. The overall assembly quality is high, only the battery compartment gives slight creaks, when you squeeze the device in hand pressing it. Design is implementing the idea of Palm Treo – a candy bar shell, a finger QWERTY-keyboard under the screen. We can compare the design with that of Palm Treo 650 and HP iPaq hw6515, however the P50 is taller because of its rectangular screen (not a square one). Have a look at the comparison photos with HTC Magician, almost the same dimensions, only the height is taller because of the QWERTY-keyboard. I had unusual sensation during talks, it felt like I was using a good quality handset, not the communicator. Good proportions play the main role here, they are close to that of ordinary phones (the model is taller against other communicators, 125x60x20 mm).” Read this review here:

Following the success of the hugely popular Cingular 2125, the mobile service provider is rolling out a couple more re-badged HTC smartphones to its lineup. Based on the HTC Wizard, the Cingular 8125 and 8100 do the quad-band worldphone dance, while at the same time shooting data your way via Wi-Fi (802.11b), Bluetooth, and EDGE. Emailing, word processing, and text messaging couldn’t be easier with the slide-out QWERTY keyboard. As expected, these latest PDA phones run on Windows Mobile 5.0, so you’ll have access to a full suite of Microsoft productivity tools, including Word, PowerPoint, Outlook and Excel, as well as Windows Media Player 10. If the 64MB SDRAM and 128MB of flash ROM isn’t enough to handle all your AAC, WMA, MP3, AMR, WAV and MPEG4 media, rest assured that there is a mini-SD expansion slot there for you.The only difference between the 8125 and 8100 is that the former sports a 1.3 megapixel camera, whereas the latter is camera-less. Look for prices to start at around $300 range.Learn more here: via mobilemag.com

I may be repeating myself but the display is just wonderful. If you manage to detach your eyes from it, you will discover a few more elements on the front panel, including two status indicators above the display (the left-hand one shines blue and indicates wireless activity, the other shines green to notify of system events), and four user-definable buttons and a miniature joystick below the display. The buttons can be assigned one action each. A mini-joystick and four buttons – what a gamer can wish for! Unfortunately, the solution is not ideal, on the contrary. Besides the fact that the joystick is not very sensitive, it does not support diagonal directions that are required in many games. You do not need to regret that considered the not very impressive graphics performance of the device but more on that later. The buttons are OK, though.” Read this review here: