Phonesnews.com

“So what is a Micro PC? It’s Sony’s latest creative venture into super-small Windows computing. It honestly makes last year’s very interesting and also ground-breaking Sony Vaio U50 / U70 / U750 look pedestrian. It fits in the palms of your hands, runs Windows XP Professional (a sticker on the box says it’s Windows Vista-ready), measures just under 6 x 3.74 x 1.27 – 1.5 inches and weighs 1.2 pounds. In the fine Sony tradition, it has everything except the kitchen sink: WiFi 802.11a/b/g, Bluetooth, 10/100 Ethernet, a good selection of ports (some require the included docking station or dongle), a WSVGA touch screen XBRite display, the new Intel Core Solo processor running at 1.2GHz, 512 megs of DDR2 RAM, a fast 533MHz front side bus, an EDGE radio (built-in Sony Ericsson card) locked to Cingular (call Sony to get it unlocked if needed), a backlit thumb keyboard, biometric fingerprint scanner (a must on a device that’s small enough to easily lose but powerful enough to carry corporate data) and both front and rear facing cameras. Whew! No wonder this puppy isn’t cheap. And it has a touch screen that calibrates much more accurately than the OQO’s display (you can use your finger too). And it comes with MS Streets and Trips 2006; just add a Bluetooth GPS and go. This is the US version which started shipping at the beginning of July. It features a faster CPU than the Japanese UX50 import model and is $400 less than the similarly spec-d import UX90. An EDGE/GPRS radio replaces the UX50 and UX90’s CF slot on the UX180P, so you’ll need to use a USB card reader or (in Sony’s dreams) switch to Memory Stick Duo media. If you have a PSP, that slot is pretty handy though… or a Sony Ericsson camera phone. And it does come with Sony’s Image Converter 2.0 Plus should you wish to use the UX to convert videos for PSP playback. ” Read more here:

“SEOUL, Korea – July 14, 2006 :Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. today announced its financial results for the second quarter of 2006 (ended June 30, 2006). The company posted net income of 1.51 trillion won on revenue of 14.11 trillion won. Operating income for the second quarter was 1.42 trillion won. “During the second quarter, many companies in the same industry faced difficulties due to declining prices in mainstay products,” said Dr. Woosik Chu, senior vice president and head of Samsung Electronics’ investor-relations team. “However, it’s noteworthy that operating profit exceeded market expectations amid a challenging market environment in the previous quarter? a result of our competitiveness and focus on innovation. We expect the second quarter to mark the trough and anticipate improvements in the second half of this year. Already, we saw market conditions for NAND flash, LCDs, and handsets stabilizing in the second quarter.” Operating profit of the Semiconductor Business reached 980 billion won on revenue of 4.42 trillion won in the second quarter. Operating profit dropped 12% in the second quarter from the first quarter, mainly due to a drop in NAND flash chip prices. In the DRAM business, profit margins continued to improve in premium products, such as mobile and graphics, while prices for DDR1 and DDR2 were strong amidst difficulties by competitors to migrate to 90nm processing technology. Seasonality played a part in the price declines in the NAND flash memory market, however prices began to stabilize in the middle of May and conditions are expected to improve in the second half with rising demand.Introduction of new products that require larger memory such as MP3s, PMPs, and handsets is expected to boost demand. In addition, conditions will improve with the seasonal demand pick up in the third quarter and migration to the finer process technology, in particular 60nm technology, will reduce manufacturing costs, boosting profitability. The Telecommunication Network Business posted revenue of 4.28 trillion won, and operating income of 405 billion won. The pace of the demand increase is expected to accelerate in the third-quarter as the overall 3G market grows and demand for replacement rises. Should sales of Samsung Electronics’ “Ultra edition” handsets gain traction, the company expects both the volume of sales and ASP to see significant improvement. The LCD Business reported revenue and operating income of 2.85 trillion won and 75 billion won, respectively. Sales of 40-inch and larger panels jumped 87% quarter-on-quarter to 1.2 million panels due to strong demand for larger TVs. The profitability of the LCD Business in the previous quarter was a testament to Samsung Electronics’ competitiveness in the industry, as the climate for the LCD market was weak. In the third quarter, increased demand for LCD TV panels is expected to dominate the industry dynamics. This will square favorably with an expected rise in demand for IT-related products. Thus, LCD panel prices are expected to stabilize. Samsung Electronics plans to boost monthly capacity of its Line 7-1, the S-LCD joint venture, to an additional 15,000 units during the third quarter to accommodate the increasing demand for larger TVs and strengthen its market leadership in this segment. Cost leadership in TV panels, early adoption of the 7G line and economies of scale continue to be the strengths of Samsung Electronics. Digital Media Business posted an operating loss of 60 billion won on revenue of 1.66 trillion won. Sales remained at the same level despite seasonality with the favorable sales of its premium-level LCD and PDP TVs such as the “Bordeaux” LCD TV. The majority of the 230 billion won in equity gains was generated from sales of digital media products at the overseas subsidiaries, reflecting a stronger profit position. Sales of its Digital Appliance Business increased 13% quarter-on-quarter to 770 billion won with seasonal gains in air-conditioner sales. Operating loss was at 3 billion won.

” Cake Press is a new multiplayer tetris-style arcade game for mobile devices. The point of the game is to place three or more blocks of the same or suitable type in some kind of continuous figure. But it’s not so easy! Lot’s of enemies are ready to squash you with the gigantic press. So don’t waste your time on long hesitations! Fortunately you can get some bonuses like bombs, armor or even berserk bonus! Cake Press brings the cherished memories of playing Tetris on Commodore 64 or Atari to modern mobile devices, with enhanced graphics, wacky storyline and viral multiplayer capability that is sure to infect PDA and smartphone owners. Cake Press features:8 characters to choose from.8 enemy units.3 different gaming sets.12 exciting levels.Multiplayer mode up to 4 human players can play through Bluetooth (different smartphone and PDA models supported).2 single game modes (Campaign and Freeplay).” Check it here:

“[AVING-KOREA] Daewoo Lucoms unveiled its new 7-inch wide screen UMPC ‘Solo M1’. The Solo M1 has a variety of features for multimedia content including PMP, DMB, MP3P, web cam, and Bluetooth at 800g weight. It features Intel low power consumption 900MHz CPU and runs on Windows XP tablet edition. You can do hand-writing on the screen with a pen just like you do on a regular note. Suggesting price is 998,000(KRW).Sleek leather case and mini keyboard can be provided as an option as well as about 10 more features including external ODD, DMB receiver, and internal navigation.” More photos here:

“SEOUL, KOREA, July 18th, 2006 -Samsung launched Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) phone (model: SGH-P200) in Italian market. It is the world’s first commercial mobile phone to which UMA technology is applied.UMA is a next-generation fixed-mobile convergence technology standard which allows for seamless handover between cellular networks and fixed IP networks (hot spots). Handsets with UMA technology allow free voice and data communication both in mobile and fixed modes.Samsung’s UMA Phone (P200) allow free switching between cellular networks such as GSM, GPRS, EDGE and wireless LAN networks (WiFi), offering seamless connectivity.The UMA phone thus has far greater mobility, compared to existing WiFi phones that can be used in a limited manner, only in hot spot areas.For instance, with the UMA phone, high-speed large-capacity data communication or VoIP is possible though WiFi in places installed with hot spots such as at home and schools and in places without WiFi, the cellular network is used instead.The P200 also comes in a sophisticated slide-up design as well as cutting-edge features including 1.3 mega pixel camera, a camcorder, multimedia messaging system (MMS), MP3 and file viewer functions.”Samsung is proud to introduce the first Unlicensed Mobile Access phone into the market. We will continue to introduce innovative products and lead the next generation fixed-mobile convergence technology.” said Kitae Lee, president of Samsung’s Telecommunication Network Business.The launch of Samsung’s UMA phone will follow in other European countries soon.Samsung’s UMA Phone (SGH-P200) Specification Standard GSM / GRPS/EDGEUMA, WiFi (802.11 b/g) Camera 1.3 Megapixel Camera with flash Display 1.9″ 176×220 262K Color TFT Features Video Playing (MPEG4 / H.263)Music Player (MP3 / AAC / ACC+) Pictbridge, USB Document Viewer Memory 80MB embedded Size 95 x 44 x 22.5 mm Weight 95g* Specifications are subject to change without notice.. “

“First, the game supports both the Landscape and the Portrait screen orientations. You can’t switch between them in the game itself; the game uses the (system-level) screen orientation it was originally started in. This, unfortunately, also means WM2003 users will need to use third-party tools like Nyditot to switch to landscape mode before playing. Users of WM2003SE or WM5, on the other hand, won’t have similar problems.The game must be controlled by the D-pad (there’re no ways to redefine the D-pad left/right keys or use on-screen buttons/control areas, unfortunately – this is bad news for users with lower-quality D-Pads) and with either on-screen buttons (which are, fortunately, pretty big) or (for jumping) the Action button (the latter can’t be reassigned either).” Read this nice review here:

“At the FCC site you can read about a new 3G-phone SGH-Z630 made by the South Korean company Samsung Electronics.The phone is packed in a slider form, equipped with a 2-megapixel camera and supports Bluetooth wireless networks.The main specs:
Support of 3G networks and video telephony
GSM (900/1800/1900 MHz) networks and GPRS technology
2-megapixel camera with video capture opportunity
Bluetooth (print to Bluetooth printers)
Storage cards: microSD
MP3-player
Messages: SMS, MMS, E-Mail
Viewing of HTML, DOC, XLS, PPT, PDF and TXT files
JAVA games and applications
WAP browser
Voice functions: speaker phone, voice recorder, support of MP3, AAC, WMA, M4A, MP4, 3GP, MMF
Other functions: calendar, alarm clock, notes, tasks, world time, currency and measures converter, calculator” via mobile-review.com

“Symbol Technologies Korea is presenting its new mobile computer for corporate-use ‘MC50’, which allows people to have the information of enterprise data base or application to help to make decisions at the spot. You can also talk with colleagues using VoIP PTT, data communication with wireless connectivity.Features:240 x 320 pixel TFT LCD touchscreen802.11b WiFi. Intel XScale 520 MHz1.1 megapixel camera 64MB of RAM / 64MB of ROMWinMobile 2003 SE” More photos at aving.net

“NTT DoCoMo, Inc. and Aquafairy Co. announced today that they agreed to jointly develop a micro fuel cell for 3G FOMA™ handsets. This agreement follows their successful development of a polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC) that has proven effective in a prototype recharger.The fuel cell is the smallest in the world with power output of 2 watts as of July 14. The recharger combines DoCoMo’s recharger technology with Aquafairy’s thin film power unit technology and catalyst for producing hydrogen from water. The simple hydrogen-producing mechanism and power units make the recharger less than one-fourth the size and more than twice as powerful as the methanol fuel cell prototype that DoCoMo unveiled on July 6, 2005. The easily portable recharger can charge a handset several times, and the recharging time is approximately the same as an AC adapter.Demands for power consumption have risen with new FOMA services and features. To meet these demands, DoCoMo has worked on increasing the capacity of lithium-ion batteries, the most common battery in handsets today, and developed a direct methanol fuel cell recharger. Now, the company is also exploring the possibilities of PEFCs, which have higher power density than methanol cells and less environmental impact since they convert water into hydrogen.DoCoMo will exhibit the recharger at its booth at Wireless Japan 2006 from July 19 to 21.” via nttdocomo.com

“SanDisk Corporation today introduced a 4-gigabyte (GB)SD High Capacity (SDHC) card. The new cards, which support capacities of 4GB and higher, are rated Class 2 for speed and performance and can store more than 2,000 high-resolution pictures, more than 1,000 digital songs or up to 8 hours of MPEG 4 video. The 4GB SDHC card will be bundled with the MicroMate USB 2.0 reader at no extra charge. These new readers work with both SDHC and SD cards. SDHC cards require an SDHC-compatible reader.SDHC is the new designation for SD cards larger than 2GB that adhere to the SD 2.00 specification, a completely new design that is required for cards and hosts to support 4GB to 32GB capacities. The specification was developed by the SD Association, an industry standards board, which also defined three speed classes for speed and performance capabilities. These cards adhere to the SD Speed Class Rating specification which defines a minimum sustained transfer speed for SDHC cards” Find out more at photosnews.com