Day: February 13, 2006

Nokia is making quite a splash in Barcelona already, unveiling all sorts of new devices at the 3GSM World Congress.Among the highlights so far are three new phones, one of which can work with the Finnish company’s first UMA network solution. That would be the 6136, which is manufactured specifically to be able to go from GSM to WLAN without hassles or loss in signal or functionality. The flipster is designed to take full advantage of the company’s first UMA network solution. The result is a start-to-finish UMA experience.”We strongly believe that the technological developments announced here today will provide the basis for a future of faster, easier and more cost-effective mobile telephony services,” said Nokia Chairman and CEO Jorma Ollila.The other two phones unveiled were the 6131, a GSM camera phones that folds up and offers a 1.3 megapixel camera, and the 6070 candy bar, another mid-range GSM phone that is a lower-range camera offering in a traditional form at a lower price.Ollila, speaking in his keynote address, also announced sales targets for 2006 (including a prediction of 40 million 3G/WCDMA devices and another of 150 million devices with an integrated FM radio), more details on a multivendor platform collaboration with Vodafone, and a partnership with Sony Ericsson to pursue compatibility with DVB-H devices.

Samsung is using 3GSM Congress in order to present as much models targeted for European market in the nearest 6 months as possible during one event. It’s not a secret to anyone that a lot of models that are announced sometimes do not reach the market; they get cancelled due to certain reasons. This year will not be an exception. Big variety of models will be compensated by the fact that part of them will never be released. But in order to bring in justice we’d like to point out that this year Samsung will try being maximally practical by demonstrating those models that will be released in the nearest future in the first place, these models will be interesting for the consumers.The company decided to concentrate on two directions: first is the so called “thin” line-up, with a lot of attention dedicated to 3G. Second focus is innovation, we will see products that support WiBro, T-DMB, HSDPA and other standards. Read more here:

Keeping healthy with a touch of the finger. That’s the mantra put forward by Panasonic with the introduction of a new wireless touch-screen device.The Toughbook Wireless Display has a 10.4″ LCD but boasts no local software, relying instead of wireless connections to clinical and management applications on a nearby LAN. It is designed to be portable and, essentially, be a rolling server, perfect for use in a hospital or other kind of health-care facility.The Toughbook, who comes with a highly advanced touch-screen functionality and a highly recommended fingerprint scanner option, has been designed to resist common hazards like dropping and is fully sealed to military specifications. It works with Windows Server, Citrix Metaframe, or other Web servers via an 802.11 LAN. It can be configured for multiple-user functionality as well as for peer-to-peer manipulation.”Panasonic is committed to working with our premier partners–and listening to our customers–to develop innovative and cost-effective mobile computing solutions that help drive improvements in both clinical care and the business performance of healthcare enterprises,” said Rance Poehler, president of Panasonic Computer Solutions Company.The device has a total weight of only 2.6 pounds and runs on a battery that can last up to 10 hours. Price tag is expected to be US$1,750. via mobilemag.com

HP has just unveiled its latest Pocket PC phone from the iPAQ series – the iPAQ hw6900 at the 2006 3GSM World Congress, which has already started in Barcelona, Spain. The hw6900 is the successor of the hw6500 series and features similar 240×240 pixels 65k color touch display and full QWERTY keyboard. The hw6940 runs the latest version 5.0 of Windows Mobile Operating System for Pocket PC Phones and improves CPU power to 416 MHz, through Intel PXA270 Processor. HP iPAQ hw6940 main specifications are: Quad-band GSM phone; GPRS/EDGE support Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 OS for Pocket PC Phones 3.0-inch 65k color touch display 1.3-megapixel camera with flash and mirror for self-portrait Full QWERTY keyboard Infrared, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi 802.11b support miniSD expandable memory HP iPAQ hw6900 Complete Specification list via phonearena.com

Nokia and Sony Ericsson partner to make their DVB-H digital mobile TV technology work together. The fronts between Korean favored DMB and DVB-H are forming further. Sony Ericsson and Nokia today at the 3GSM announced to co-operate to achieve interoperability in DVB-H enabled devices and secure multi-vendor mobile TV services and pilots from 2006 onwards. Sony Ericsson and Nokia favor DVB-H as the technology for terrestrial digital broadcast mobile TV. As basis the Open Air Interface implementation guidelines are used (details). More details in this press-release. via i4u.com

Fujitsu-Siemens officially unveiled the long-awaited Pocket LOOX T800 series today at the 3GSM World Congress. A set of product images can be found above and below, courtesy of Microsoft and Fujitsu-Siemens. Both the T810 and T830 have an Intel PXA270 416 MHz processor, 64MB RAM, 128MB ROM, GSM (900/1800/1900MHz) and UMTS (2100MHz) support, integrated GPS (SiRF GCS3F), 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0, a 2-megapixel auto-focus camera (T830 only; video telephony uses VGA – 640 x 480), a QWERTY keyboard (with a 5-way D-pad, 3-way jog dial, and 2 application buttons), a 2.4″ 240 x 240 65K-colour square-screen TFT-LCD, a 1500mAh Li-Ion battery, an SDIO/SD/MMC slot, USB 1.1 (host and slave), Windows Mobile 5.0, and the MSFP. The official T800 series web page can be found here. A brochure can be downloaded from here (PDF). via pocketpcthoughts.com