Day: May 15, 2006

“It’s not easy to find a smartphone with integrated GPS. There’s the hw6515 and E-TEN G500 (only available online through importers) among the few. While the hw6515’s GPS was off to a rocky start, the hw6915 is much improved with impressive GPS sensitivity and start times. The device uses assisted GPS which means that it collects updated reference data over GPRS periodically to speed up its lock acquisition time (it will remind you to update your data over GPRS every two days or so). But we tested the GPS without using the assisted feature and found it fast to fix and update. Indoors, 10 feet from an exterior wall, the iPAQ managed to get a fix on two satellites. Next to a sliding glass door it got three and it typically found 7 to 9 satellites outdoors in good weather. HP doesn’t tell us much about the GPS hardware, nor did they for the hw6515. It’s made by Global Locate but HP doesn’t state what chipset is used, whether it has SiRF and etcetera.” Read this great review at mobiletechreview.com

“We just announced that SkypeOut is now free within the US and Canada to all landlines and mobiles, until at least the end of 2006How does this work?If you’re in the US or Canada, you can use SkypeOut to call any landline or mobile number in both the USA and Canada for free.If you’re in the US or Canada and calling any other country, OR if you’re in any other country and calling landline or mobile numbers in the US or Canada, the standard SkypeOut rates apply.Of course, Skype-to-Skype calls continue to be globally free, so no changes there.See also the campaign FAQ.” More at skype.com

“The phone’s connectivity options includes GPRS/EDGE, Bluetooth (2.0 with support for enhanced data rate – EDR), IrDA and USB via a Pop-Port connector (with support for USB Mass Storage profile). There is a generous 64MB of internal memory and more can be added via the MicroSD slot, which supports sizes up to 1GB.On the rear, the phone sports a 2 Megapixels camera which should produce reasonable results at 1600×1200. The camera software includes a 4x digital zoom, self timer, three advanced modes (still, burst and video), night mode and brightness functionality, but is not as sophisticated as that found in the Nseries. Video recording and playback at QCIF (176×144) is supported and Real player allows full screen video playback in a variety of formats including H.264 and MPEG-4.” Read this preview here:

“At first glance, the Treo 700p is almost identical to its Windows Mobile counterpart, the Treo 700w. The main difference is a higher density 320 x 320 pixel display and a few distinctive buttons. The 700p hardware features softer, more curved corners, squarer keys arranged in a smile pattern and improved keyboard and button backlighting. The Treo now has true dedicated send and end call buttons. The top rectangular green and red keys are now primarily used for initiating and ending phone calls. The red end key also turns the screen off and locks the device. The home key is now located in the row of application on the far right. The menu key had been moved to the bottom right of the keyboard. The center 5-way navigator is also a bit larger and is a bit easier to thumb around with. The other application buttons are user changeable and by default take you to the Phone app, calendar and email. Size wise, the Treo 700p has dimensions of 5.08″ x 2.28″ x 0.89″ inches (129 x 58 x 22.5 mm) and weighs in at 6.4 ounces (180 g). It pretty much shares the same dimensions and weight as the Treo 650 and 700w. Inside, the Treo 700p is powered by a 312 MHz Intel XScale processor. The device has been given a boost in the memory department. It includes a 128 MB non-volitile (NVFS) chip for program memory of which 60 MB is user-available for program storage. Both the dbcache and dbheap (internal application memory space) have been increased. The dbheap is now up to 10 MB and the dbcache has a 18 MB capacity. ” Read this nice preview here: Also check this video introduction by Palm’s Executive here:

“An anonymous source sent us some interesting pics of the Sony UX ultraportable which will not sport ANY Tablet OS! From our anonymous source they also state this unit is geared towards the multimedia enthusiast which sports an HDMI port! Also according to our sources May 16, 2006 is the date. The specs we received are below 7″ touch screen, Slide-out QWERTY keyboard, Core Solo, WAN, Biometric sensor, Dual cameras, “UMPC” with Windows XP Pro (not Tablet Edition) 3G Enabled Bluetooth/Wifi ” More photoes at mobilitytoday.com