Month: August 2006

“It seems every day that about 10 or 20 new DAPs (digital audio players) appear on the market, but try as they might, the iPod reigns supreme. The behemoth known as Microsoft has been trying to get into the market for a while now, with various portable media centers made by Creative and others, but besides a few media junkies getting into the fray, they haven’t seen wide success. Even big Dell just recently folded their brand of DAP devices.Enter CES 2006 – during his keynote speech, Bill Gates announced Microsoft’s first real serious challenger to the iPod, their new Portable Media Center software, and the first device to use it, the Toshiba Gigabeat S (MES30VW). It’s a 30GB, or 60 GB player, the size and shape of an iPod, which also plays videos, and does it well. After the conference, Toshiba stated that they’d break it out on the public in March. Well, that came and went, and here we are in the summer just finally getting the chance to enjoy this little player. Was it worth the wait? For the most part, I’d say so.The Gigabeat S comes in at $369.00 (CAD) for the 30 GB model (in white), and $469.00 for the 60 GB (in black), which places it pretty well against its poddy competition. When you open up the box you get several different cables that’ll allow you to connect to your computer, or your home theatre (or audio system) without much trouble at all. As well as an AC adapter and headphones of course.” Read more here:

“At the i-mate site appeared official pages devoted to i-mate SPJAS smartphone and i-mate JASJAM communicator, i.e. the models will be announced in the nearest future.I’d remind you these devices are implementation of HTC Breeze and HTC Hermes platforms, which are already introduced under other names, including HTC, HTC MTeoR and HTC TyTN.The JASJAM doesn’t differ much from other versions of HTC Hermes. You can tell it from others by the inscription on the shell. I’d remind you the main specs: GSM/GPRS/EDGE and WCDMA/HSDPA, sliding QWERTY-keyboard, 2.8” QVGA (240×320 pixels) LCD, 2-megapixel camera plus frontal CIF-camera for video telephony, Samsung 400 MHz CPU, 64 MB RAM and 128 MB flash memory, Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g) and Bluetooth, microSD slot, Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC Phone operating system.The SP JAS smartphone is a version of HTC Breeze with the frontal camera for video telephony. This is its advantage against HTC MTeoR,. It is positioned as the first 3G Windows mobile smartphone by i-mate. The main specs of the SP JAS are as follows: GSM/GPRS/EDGE and WCDMA, digital keyboard, 2.2” QVGA (240×320 pixels) LCD, 1.3-megapixel camera and frontal CIF-camera for video telephony. Samsung 300 MHz CPU, 64 MB RAM and 128 MB flash ROM, Bluetooth, microSD slot, Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone.”

“Japan’s largest mobile operator will power-up a 3.5G network next week, and launch a Linux-based phone capable of using it. The N902iX phone, supplied by NEC, offers features most U.S. and European users can only dream of — such as 3.6Mbit/s peak download speeds. HSDPA (high-speed downlink packet access) is based on the same WCDMA technology used in DoCoMo’s currently available 3G network, FOMA (“Freedom of Mobile Access”). However, HSDPA offers peak download speeds approximately 10 times greater than the 384Kbit/s rates offered by FOMA. DoCoMo’s HSDPA service will launch on August 31, with initial coverage limited to Tokyo. Other major Japanese cities will be brought online by October, and 90 percent of DoCoMo subscribers will have access to the service before 2008, according to a Telecompaper report.In the meanwhile, where HSDPA service is not yet available, the N902iX mobile phone can fall back to FOMA, DoCoMo says. The phone operates on licensed 2GHz and 800MHz frequency bands. It additionally supports 1.7GHz, and can use DoCoMo’s “WORLD WING” W-CDMA international roaming service, said to be available in 33 countries/regions.” Find out more at linuxdevices.com

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“Verizon Wireless first began offering the Treo 700w in January of this year, and for a long time was the only source for this Pocket PC phone. If rumors are correct, this will change next week, when Sprint begin offering an updated version of this device.There have been reports that many Sprint retail stores already have the Treo 700wx in stock, and pictures of this model’s packaging have appeared on the Web. Someone has taken this a step further, though, and put together a side-by-side comparison of the Treo 700wx and its predecessor, the 700w.This confirms substantially all the earlier rumors, including the fact that this upcoming smartphone will have about twice as much RAM as the original Windows Mobile Treo.” Check out this nice video comparison at brighthand.com

“[AVING-INDIA] After the successful launch of the Hello Kitty Phone BenQ has come out with the AL 26 Butterfly Phone. Delicate purple butterfly motifs adorn the shimmering white casing of this compact slider phone, making the mobile into a top-fashion eye-catcher.Milking the belief that the butterfly stands as the symbol of femininity in both the Eastern as well as Western cultures , the phone is also following the current fashion catwalk trends. Featuring user-friendly configuration and intuitive operation, as soon as the phone is turned on, polychromatic butterflies appear on the large color TFT display (130 x 130 pixels) and glimmer in 65,536 brilliant colors, a choice of wallpapers in beautiful butterfly design complete the theme. The phone will debut in mid-September 2006 in Europe and Latin America and the prices will be determined locally. Will I buy one?! Like I said Kitty or Butterfly is REALLY a tough Choice to make! ” via aving.net

The device supports quad-band GSM, GPRS, EDGE, Bluetooth and the following services: Good, MS Direct Push, BlackBerry Connect, XpressMail. It is powered by Symbian 9.1 OS running on a 235 MHz processor, 32 MB RAM, a slot for miniSD cards, a QVGA LCD and a QWERTY-keyboard.

Today there emerged more detailed specs and photos of this smartphone. Nokia E62 is equipped with a touchscreen 2.8” QVGA LCD, 90 MB of internal memory and built on S60 3rd edition.

“Do you want to save money on you cell phone bill? – Articulation may be for you. If you are near a WiFi hostspot you can use your PDA to make telephone calls at a fraction of the price of a cell phone call.Articulation is an easy to use application that turns your Palm PDA into a VoIP Phone, enabling you to make and receive telephone calls using the internet. Articulation is the first service independent VoIP phone for PalmOS.In order to use articulation you need a Palm PDA that has the following: * PalmOS 5.x and above.* Palm based PDA with speaker and microphone (T|X & T5 need external mic)* Wireless internet connection (Wifi/Bluetooth/GPRS/EDGE/EVDO)* VoIP Service Provider connection. Articulation can be used with most providers.Features* SIP VoIP protocol* Silence supression and GSM codec for low bandwidth links* Echo cancellation for hands free operation* Turns your PDA into a WiFi Phone (or Bluetooth/EV-DO/GPRS Phone)* Lookup and dial from you contact list” Check it here:

” Snake Deluxe is based on the ‘Classic Snake game’ that we all know. The game objective is almost the same. You try to eat fruits by controlling the snake’s route. Below the game’s screen you will see all the meters. (Score, Time etc.) There you will see how many fruits are left for eating. Also keep an eye on the time that remains until you eat the next fruit. FEATURES:* 24 Different levels.* 4 Different worlds.* 4 Different Bosses.* Unique map.* Frame by frame smooth animation* Perfect graphics.* Full screen graphics!* VGA, 480×640 support!* Horizontal resolutions supported (320×240 & 640×480)* Support for 240×240 and 480×480. (Treo 700w)* Speed control* Adventure mode for unlocking the map!* Open Gameplay. You choose where to play.* PDA Joystick fully supported* Export Hi-Scores to internet* Speed control—23/Aug/2006 UPDATE (1.1) —* 320×240 Horizontal resolution now supported.* 640×480 Horizontal resolution now supported.* Bugs fixed” Check it here:

“The front of the phone is dominated by the keyboard and the large QVGA, 262,000 colours TFT touchscreen. The keyboard is a cross between a traditional number keypad and a full QWERTY keyboard. Instead of the usual single letter per key, the M600 has keys with split personalities. Each key is concave (each edge is raised up slightly) and each edge (left and right) can be clicked individually. Consequentially each key has two letters on it (A and S, E and R, T and Y and so on). As a result, fewer keys are needed to cover the alphabet and each key can be bigger. In effect two smaller keys have be merged together to make one larger key with the resulting key being able to be pressed down in two separate ways either side of a pivot. The central 9 keys operate as a normal number keypad in certain situations. In these cases the keys can be pressed down on one edge or in the centre of the key to get the appropriate number. In full QWERTY mode the numbers can be accessed via the ALT key which also gives access to the secondary elements such as punctuation. The shift key operates similarly to give capital letters.The bottom row of the keyboard has five keys, including the ALT and SHIFT keys on each end, one key in from these are the left and right arrow keys (also doubling as the star and hash keys on the number keypad). These are used to give left and right control at various points in the UI, such as navigating between tabs or moving through the list of potential predicted words when entering text. The arrow keys, together with the scroll wheel, back button and the finger-operated on-screen softkeys are all that is needed to navigate around the phone’s functions. This one handed usage works well, although it is hampered by the need to switch the thumb between the various buttons which are (physically) some distance apart.” Read this great review here:

Although there isn’t any announcement from TechFaith Wireless on their QWERTY smartphone yet, Expansys online store listed it as UBiQUiO 501.An ultra slim Pocket PC phone with QWERTY keyboard, the UBiQUiO 501 is the ideal device to keep you in touch with the office. Composing e-mails, texting, writing notes and documents, or performing spreadsheet calculations is quicker and easier thanks to the responsive keyboard. But that’s not all – if you are more comfortable with traditional Pocket PC input, the 2.5″ QVGA screen is also touch sensitive, allowing stylus control of menus and programs. The UBiQUiO 501 has a host of connectivity options to choose from. Bluetooth 1.2 with A2DP provides personal connectivity to headsets, car kits, and audio gateways. Connect to the internet using WiFi 802.11b or 802.11g and use applications such as Skype™ for free VoIP calling, or connect to your cellular network for standard voice calls or data transfer over GPRS.Specifications: OS: Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC Edition Size: 122 (L) x 65 (W) x 13.5 (D) mm Weight: 135g GSM 900/DCS 1800/PCS 1900 GPRS/EDGE Bluetooth 1.2 wth A2DP Wi-Fi 802.11b/g Processor TI OMAP 750 200 MHz Display: 2.5″ QVGA Colour TFT Internal Memory: 64MB Camera: 2 Mega-Pixel Memory Card Mini SD Connector mini USB ” via slashphone.com