Author: pdasnews

BenQ’s P50 PDA phone has begun shipping in Europe – almost two years after the company first showed the device to the public.The keyboard-equipped P50 made its debut in March 2004 at the CeBIT show. BenQ showed it again the following May at Taiwan’s Computex show, where we saw it for the first time. The company formally launched the handset in January 2005 and then did so again, in May 2005. Both times, it said the P50 would ship H1 2005.And now here, at long last, it is. It’s got a quad-band (850/900/1800/1900MHz) GSM/GPRS radio – there’s no EDGE support – and incorporates both Bluetooth and 802.11b Wi-Fi. There’s an SD IO slot for expansion, plus a 1.3-megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom for pictures and a 2.8in 240 x 320 display to show them on. It’s powered by a 416MHz Intel PXA272 processor but, to show its age, it’s running WiIndows Mobile 2003 Second Edition. There’s 64MB of RAM and 64MB of ROM on board.The handset’s 1230mAh battery provides sufficient charge for up to four hours’ call time and 120 hours on stand-by. The P50 measures 12.2 x 6 x 2cm and weighs 170g. Expect to pay around Euro535/ Pound 366.Since the P50’s launch, BenQ has acquired Siemens mobile phone operation, reforming the two units into BenQ-Siemens. Earlier this month it launched its first line-up of co-branded handsets. via reghardware.co.uk

HP UK has recently announced its navigation solution HP iPAQ rx1950 Navigator in the UK. It consists of a handheld rx1950, a CarCradle with built-in GPS module and navigation software by ViaMichelin. The rx1950 is powered by Windows Mobile 5.0 for Pocket PC and has a 3.5” touch screen, Samsung SC32442 processor, 32 MB RAM, 64 MB flash memory, a SDIO slot and Wi-Fi (802.11b) support.The cradle is equipped with a built-in SIRFstar III GPS-module, a speaker and a sucker mount for the wind-screen. The company marks that the speaker is very loud, so the rx190 Navigator is the loudest navigation device on the market. The total weight of the PDA and the cradle is 320 g. The set is offered for 299 pounds in the UK, i.e. about $530. The sales should start from late January on. via mobile-review.com

Bear Stearns analysts Andrew Neff, Bill Hand and Ted Chung sent a note to clients regarding Palm’s launch with Sprint of the much-anticipated Treo 700w. Key excerpt: Sprint to offer PALM Treo 700w ahead of schedule, as early as end of February. Based on our channel checks, it appears that Sprint is likely to offer the latest PALM Treo 700w (Windows version) as early as end of February, which would be ahead of schedule (following its launch with Verizon on 1/5) — Sprint version of Treo 700 was not expected until end of March at the earliest based on the historical length of the exclusivity agreements with carriers (i.e., 3-6 months). Sprint is likely to price Treo 700w at $449, at parity with Verizon and a $50 premium to Treo 650. Sprint will offer both models. Stock impact: positive for PALM.

All you homebrew artists now have another toy to play with. Nokia has released Python for the S60 Platform software package to the community at large, in line with its continued commitment to mobile open-source software application development. The S60-platform, based on the Symbian OS, is a popular one among users, and now developers can fiddle with Python scripts and applications, easily loading them onto any S60-based device.Hop onto SourceForge.net, the world’s largest Open Source software development web site, to grab the source code for Python for the S60 Platform. Nokia hopes that by releasing the code, application developers can create new and innovative programs for S60 handsets, allowing users to maximize the functionality from one of the world’s most popular smartphone platforms.The creator of the Python programming language, Guido van Rossum, is glad that Nokia is providing Python to the public: “I was excited last year when Nokia announced its port of Python to its advanced phones. I’m even more excited now that Nokia is open-sourcing the port.” So are we, Guido. via mobilemag.com

Spb Software House releases Spb AirIslands – a new Pocket PC game based on a unique concept. This game is a combination of a real-time strategy game where you have to build a colony on an isolated island, and a set of mini-games. The 3 included mini-games are used to earn resources you can use later to develop your island. This unique concept allows Spb AirIslands to combine all the benefits of a desktop strategy game with all necessary attributes of a funny Pocket PC game. It submerges you into a unique world of an isolated island with its own history, rules, success strategy and spectacular story line. And, at the same time, you can always play one of the three mini-games when you have 5-10 minutes of spare time (for example standing in a line), thus earning resources for the big game. Amazing qVGA and VGA graphics, fantastic sound, hundreds hours of gameplay, and a game community website make playing Spb AirIslands an experience you don’t want to miss. Check this great game here:

Samsung announced that they’re working on a Fuel Cell battery for PMP’s and PDA’s. Korea is the leading country when it comes to mobile devices, and especially since the launch of DMB, which is a huge success over there.It’s funny though to have an iRIVER PMP on the picture that is not sold anymore over there… via akihabaranews.com

Silicon Valley based Unicon Systems, Inc. is developing an interesting portable media player with Wi-Fi dubbed MBridge. The Wi-Fi (only 802.11b) enabled MBridge runs on Linux and features a 3.5 inch color screen. It has 2 USB ports, 1 high speed USB mini OTG, internal SD card slot and iR port. Unicon says the MBridge can access any music store to purchase and download music as well as working with online photo services. The MBridge runs software applications like MP3player, web browser and Instant messaging clients.The Unicon MBridge measures 3x5x0.75 inch. It weighs 6.5 ounes. Unicon Systems is taking pre-orders now. Everything USB reports that the MBridge will sell for $159.99 in October 2006. See also the MBridge product page. via i4u.com

“.The concept is simple, the graphics are crisp, and the developers even threw in a storyline to make it a bit more interesting. The objective is to fly up the vertically scrolling landscape, taking out other flying objects, obstacles, and land-based items which are encountered at very regular intervals. Points are awarded for destroying as many targets as possible and as the levels progress the landscape becomes increasingly congested with enemies so dodging or blasting is absolutely necessary. At the end of each level, in order to progress to the next mission, you must destroy a boss or as the developers put it an evil SOB. There are three types of attack methods in ClayGun: shooting, close-range melee attacks, and full-screen bomb-type attacks, and the power of each of the attack methods are character-specific. What’s more the enemy AI appears to be spot-on and challenging as the levels progress as well as with tougher difficulty levels. .” You can read the the entire review HERE! via pdarcade.com