Author: pdasnews

“It’s typical for Nokia to wait for other companies’ all-new devices success and then release its own solutions, judging the outcome of these undertakings. This approach is justified, taking into account that Nokia is the leading company on the market and loyalty of consumers to its products is very high. This destiny followed clamshells – remember Nokia 7200 at least, which was frankly a weak product, but had fairly good sales and as a consequence wide dynamics of price shift. The following clamshells became more popular and their numbers have considerably risen since then. Almost the same thing is happening to sliders .” Read this nice review here:

FCC has just approved Samsung i750 pocket pc phone. Samsung SGH-i750 is a sibling of SGH-i730. Instead of having a QWERTY keyboard like i730, SGH-i750 has only a numeric keypad.Specifications: Windows Mobile 2003 SE Network: GSM TriBand 900/1800/1900 MHz EDGE Display: 65k colors (240 x 320) 2.0 Megapixel Camera w/ flash Wi-Fi 802.11b, Bluetooth, IrDA 192MB RAM / 64MB ROM Dual speaker with SRS WOW TV Output Presentation Landscape Switch-View, Voice Recognition, T9 Predictive Text Input Transflash memory card slotThe phone was reported in last year communicAsia trade show. Check FCC at FCC via slashphone.com

French site, Mobinaute, has details on two new Mio GPS Pocket PCs, deemed to be successors to the A201. The P550 will feature a 400MHz processor, integrated GPS (SiRFstar III), Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, an SDIO/SD/MMC slot, and Windows Mobile 5.0. The P350 is the baby-brother version, lacking both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. No word yet on an official release date or price, but more will be revealed at CeBIT next month. Check the translated site here: via pocketpcthoughts.com

A new 3G Blackberry mobile email device designed to compete with feature-rich smartphones could be on the way soon from Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM – message board; Toronto: RIM).The vendor gave favored delegates a sneak preview of the new Blackberry at the 3GSM mobile show in Barcelona this week.The device is yet to be officially unveiled and wasn’t showcased at the Blackberry stand in the exhibition halls.Jack Gold, analyst at J.Gold Associates, while stressing that he hasn’t seen the final versions of these products yet, expects that the devices will be part of a new breed of smartphone-like devices designed for work and play.”It’s like a pseudo-Treo,” says Gold, saying that RIM has been looking at adding features like a music player as well as updating the business applications on the device.”They have to do this to stay competitive,” opines Gold, adding that users want the fun features, while RIM-affiliated carriers want to be able to flog user ringtones and other multimedia content over their networks.RIM itself hasn’t so far made any official statements about a new device. “Please keep in mind that RIM does not usually provide information on products that have not been announced yet,” a spokeswoman for the company told Unstrung.For business use, the biggest benefit will probably be the ability to download large Powerpoint attachments in addition to regular emails. The device is said to have Powerpoint editing software, which will allow users to download a presentation, make changes, then forward it, all without a PC. That way, users could take short business trips without having to pack a laptop.The UMTS version of the popular email handheld could appear in Europe in the second quarter. RIM already has a 3G CDMA device for the North American market. Any pricing discussion is speculative, but Gold estimates that the units would retail for $400. “That’s about where Treo is, which I would guess would be their primary competition until the new Microsoft-powered devices launch later this spring/summer,” Gold adds. via unstrung.com

Who needs a Game Boy when the vNes emulator by Vampent lets you run classic NES roms right from your mobile phone? From the official site: “vNes is a NES emulator for mobiles. It lets you play Nintendo 8-bits games on your mobile. You can put games from thousands of roms in your pocket, play them anytime and anywhere, with the memories and joys of old time.”The emulator is available on both the J2ME and Symbian mobile platforms for approximately $10. Your phone will need 246k RAM with a zippy CPU to run the roms. Nice! via joystiq.com Check it here:

PDAExpertos caught a glimpse of a preview version of the ACCESS Linux Platform at 3GSM. They have published an article on ALP and got a picture of the ALP Palm OS emulator running on a smartphone. The phone is a Haier N60 phone that is sold in China and normally uses a version of Linux. What is not shown in the photos is the new MAX user interface, which is the main UI and features a new look and features. via palminfocenter.com

There is yet another new and exciting development in the world of consumer VoIP, but for once it isn’t Skype that has taken the lead. Like Skype, Barablu lets users make PC-to-PC calls, but they take it a step further by also offering mobile to mobile calls. Using a compatible GSM phone with Wi-Fi enabled, people can access the VoIP service over a wireless LAN. Calls to other wireless users are then free, but only if they are also Barablu members. Currently, both the Nokia 9500 and i-mate SP5 and SP5m phones are compatible. You just need to download a dialer to your mobile and get registered. You can also make free calls to PCs or anything else you could do with a regular account from your mobile. You can make calls to non-Barablu users as well using the Barablue world account or receive calls from non-users, though there is obviously a fee for both services. via mobilemag.com

On Tuesday Skype announced a partnership with Hutchinson to put Skype on phones on the 3 networks around the world. However, Skype were not willing to answer questions on specific handsets saying only that they were actively working on development for the Symbian platform. However at the ‘Do New’ booth on the Nokia stand there was a demo of Skype running on two 6680s over a 3G network. Read on for details…The S60 Skype application was a complete implementation supporting Skype text chat, Skype voice calls (both to PCs and to other S60 handsets), and Skype Out dialing. Running the application over 3G results in latency of up to about a second. It is the equivalent to calling your granny on their other side of the world via a satellite phone. It does work, but it is annoying and I can not see most people being willing to put up with it. It was indicated that better performance would be achieved over a WiFi connectivity link. The call quality was similar to that achieved in a normal call. The application has been developed for S60 2nd Edition (S60 2.6 to be precise), but Skype are working on a 3rd Edition product which would make sense given the WiFi available in the N80, and Eseries handsets. via allaboutsymbian.com

The web source Pocket PC Italia has published live photos and specs of the upcoming communicator HTC Hermes. We’ve mentioned it time and again. It’s a development of HTC Wizard platform. They are alike in functionality and design. HTC Hermes is a UMTS-version of its predecessor, but it’s slightly massive. According to Pocket PC Italia, HTC Hermes has the following specs: Operating system Windows Mobile 5.0 GSM/GPRS and UMTS/HSDPA networks Processor Samsung S3C2442 300 MHz 64 MB RAM and 128 MB flash-memory 2.8” TFT LCD, QVGA (240×320 pixels), 65K colors Sliding QWERTY-keyboard 2.1-megapixel camera and CIF-camera Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) and Bluetooth 2.0 Slot for microSD (TransFlash) cards Battery capacious of 1350 mAh

We’ve been hearing for ages that Palm and PalmSource have been working with RIM on bringing BlackBerry Connect software to the Palm OS. Yet after years of press releases from both companies, we have never actually seen an actual working version. Adrew from Treonauts just caught a glimpse of BlackBerry Connect running on a Treo 650 at 3GSM. Apparently, it works as a plug-in to Palm’s VersaMail application, and messages are pushed to the device in the usual BlackBerry style. Palm has previously stated they would be offering the service in early 2006. Through RIM’s BlackBerry Connect licensing program, Palm will enable its Treo 650 and future Palm OS based Treo smartphones with secure, push-based wireless email via BlackBerry Enterprise Server. The solution will enable the following: push-based email using BlackBerry Connect with Palm’s VersaMail email client; support for Microsoft Exchange and IBM Lotus Domino; wireless calendar synchronization; remote address lookup of corporate email directory; convenient email-attachment viewing; Triple DES encryption; and IT policy enforcement and commands (such as remotely disabling or wiping email and PIM data from a device in the event it is lost or stolen). BlackBerry Connect for Palm OS will be available for new and existing Treo 650 users through select carriers. Pricing and distribution details will be provided at a later date. via palminfocenter.com