Phonesnews.com

“The Black Tie Edition Treo 650 we told you about last week, is now on sale at the Palm.com online store. It is being sold as an unlocked GSM model for $599, in honor of Palm’s 10th anniversary. The special bundle also includes a new Palm hardcase and multi-functional stylus. Palm’s product page is now online here. The Black Tie Treo 650 features a black and silver color, and updated branding which includes Palm’s new logo, instead of the older palmOne logo usually found on the 650. The body and casing have been given new treatments and accents. The description states: the polished chrome framework shines against an elegant black backdrop with a soft-touch finish that feels comfortable in your hand. |The package also includes Palm’s new black Treo hard case and a multi-functional stylus pen. It is sold at the same price as the regular unlocked GSM model. It can be ordered online from Palm.” via palminfocenter.com

“HTC was formed in 1997. It turned out that this company found common language with Microsoft, and acquired Hardware Platform Development Partner status based on Microsoft CE OS. Before communicators were introduced, company was working actively on developing Pocket PC segment, where it is still considered number one Pocket PC manufacturer in the world. Hewlett-Packard, Fujitsu Siemens and Dell are manufactured at HTC’s factories, but shrinking and slowly dying Pocket PC market is not so interesting for HTC anymore.” Read more about this interesting article at mobile-review.com

“French MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) and WiFi hotspot operator Neuf offers customers a dual-mode handset based on Linux 2.6.10 this month. Neuf’s “Twin” phone supports GSM and WiFi, and offers worldwide VoIP calling at standard mobile rates through Neuf hotspots and CPE (customer premises equipment). Neuf claims to have 32,000 WiFi hotspots around the world. It also offers home Internet access, and operates a virtual GSM network in France by leasing time on network infrastructure owned by other companies. Neuf’s “Twin” phone appears to be a rebranded version of Wistron NeWeb’s GW1, which was expected to enter production this quarter. Along with Linux, the GW1 is based on Qtopia 2.2, the first version of Trolltech’s graphical application stack for mobile phones to feature support for voice-over-WiFi. Additional details about the Neuf Twin:
Triband GSM phone
802.11b WiFi
4 hours in-use battery life
200 hours standby under GSM, 50 hours under WiFi
176 x 220 TFT display with 262K colors
Email client (POP3, IMAP4)
300 contacts
MP3 player
Hands-free operation
Opera 8 browser
Calulator, watch, calendar, voice recorder
4.2 x 1.8 x 0.75 inches (106 x 45 x 19mm)
3.6 ounces (95grams)
Neuf will offer two plan options for its Twin phone. The first, priced at 200 Euros and available in mid-June, will provide an unlocked version of the phone for use with other operator networks. The other, starting in mid-July, will provide the phone for 1 Euro, when purchased with a broadband contract with “Neuf Box” access equipment. This option features unified Internet/mobile phone billing.” via linuxdevices.com

“Asus launched three new handsets yesterday including the P525 Window Mobile 5 quad band PPC phone, the J208 ultra thin slider tri-band phone and the M310 handset with 2 MP CCD camera. The Asus representative also mentioned that Asus will introduce three more new handsets in Q3 this year including the V80, J210 and the 3G smartphone P305. More about the P525: The Asus P525 is a quad band GSM world phone that targets to business users. The P525 runs on an Intel Xscale processor at 416 MHz with Windows Mobile 5 OS. It supports Push email, comes with Office apps support. It has built in WiFi, GPRS and Bluetooth. It ships with Skype with Skype-in and Skype-out capability. The P525 has a built-in 2 megapixel camera with auto focus. For multimedia. the Asus supports MP3 and MPG4 and 3gp videos along with 3-D gaming. The Bluetooth for hands free options also supports A2DP to work with stereo accessories. The Chinese version of the P525 will have an English-Chinese/Chinese-English dictionary and IBM TTS pronunciation tools for business users.”Read the extended article at mobiletechreview.com

“We’re very surprised that T-Mobile decided to not include Bluetooth 2.0 or Wi-Fi with the Sidekick 3. The Sidekick 3 also features a trackball on the right-hand side of the device for more advanced browsing capabilities. A huge improvement over the Sidekick II’s track wheel. Keep an eye out on July 10th for the Sidekick 3 from T-Mobile. The price point still hasn’t been announced but expect to pay between $200 and $400 depending on your contract upgrade.” Read more at digitaltrends.com

“At the site of Philips you can come across the details of a new mobile phone with long battery life and with Motorola RAZR styled keyboard – Philips Xenium 9@9This is a candy bar shaped mobile phone with a touchscreen LCD, a 1.3-megapixel camera, an MP3-player and an expansion slot for miniSD cards. The phone features very long battery life, up to a month in the standby mode and up to 8.5 hours in the talk mode. The technical specs:
Dimensions: 108×46.5×17 mm
Weight: 85 g
Battery: Li-Ion, 1100 mAh
Camera: 1.3-megapixel, CMOS
LCD: touchscreen, CSTN, 65536 colors, 128×160 pixels;
Sound: 40-tones polyphony, MP3-ring tones, AMR, Midi, SP-Midi, MP3 files; sound recording – up to 30 minuts
Memory: 20 MB, mini SD slot
Messages: SMS, EMS, MMS, e-mail
Networks: GSM 900, 1800, 1900 MHz / GPRS Class 10
Voice functions: voice recording, voice commands and voice dialing, voice notes
Other functions: Java MIDP 2.0, calculator, currency converter, organizer, world time, voice recorder, sleep mode, black list for SMS calls, picture viewing on a TV screen.
Connectivity: USB, IrDA port” via mobile-review.com

“Curiously, unlike almost all other devices on the market, the iQue 3000 doesn’t have a proper 5-way directional pad. Instead, it has a simple up/down rocker button, akin to the buttons on the old style Sony devices, or Palm models before they adopted one-handed navigation. Instead of having a latch that releases the GPS antenna, as on previous units from this company, the 3000 simply has a recess where you can stick your finger in any pry up the antenna. Deploying the antenna still automatically launches the GPS software. As you’d expect for a device designed for automotive navigation, the iQue 3000 comes with a suction-cup windshield mount for holding the device while you drive. Nothing too fancy, not even a full cradle to set the device into, just a basic clip-on design with a short flexible mount. There’s also an adhesive panel in the box if you want to mount it on a dashboard or the like.”Find out more here:

“A mere two years ago, who would have thought that Microsoft’s Windows Mobile device platform would climb to a position where it would be compared with what the best of what the planet’s most prolific handset maker – Nokia – has to offer from its Symbian OS based portfolio? With no further ado; the moment has arrived for us to pit the pinnacles of either platform against one another – and you might be surprised by the winner. ” Read more at infosyncworld.com

“HTC StarTrek available for middle east.With its super slim clamshell exterior, full colour dual screens, etched metallic look flat keypad and luminescent backlight for easy navigation, the i-mate Smartflip is a chic and elegant smartphone. However, packed into its feather-light 99g packaging is a multitude of functionalities that mark it as a highly functional device worthy of the imate brand.The EDGE-enabled i-mate Smartflip runs on Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 with all the familiar applications similar to those on your desktop. This includes Microsoft Direct Push technology which provides up to the minute access to your Outlook email, calendar, contacts, and tasks. The addition of a range of ClearVue document viewers including Word, Excel, PDF & Powerpoint makes this stylish device a complete package for those doing business on the run. Bluetooth compatible, the i-mate Smartflip also features Hotmail, MSN Messenger, Internet Explorer Mobile and Windows Media Player Mobile, while an in-built 1.3 Megapixel camera, camcorder, MP3 player and interactive gaming add to its attractions as a mobile source of entertainment. The new i-mate Smartflip is available now across the Middle East at a recommended retail price of AED 1899. The technology at a glance:
Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 including Microsoft Direct Push email
GPRS/EDGE
Quad-band 850/900/1800/1900
Memory 64MB ROM/ 64MB RAM
Bluetooth Compatible
microSD Memory Expansion
64k Colour Transflective LCD
1.3 Megapixel Built in Camera” via slashphone.com

“The appearance of the phone isn’t something very original, as it features candy-bar curves and edges, with the keypad occupying nearly a half of the front panel. The buttons themselves are flat and bulky in size, so that you won’t experience difficulties with speedy typing of SMS or dialing a number. On top of that all keys are separated out with 0.5 mm wide slits and stick out from the casing by 0.5 mm, thus you can work with them blindfolded, basing on your tactile feelings only.Despite this model adopting the same thin keypad pate as LG P7200, click reaction speed here is much better. The navigation pad is a rectangle-shaped button with concentric circles, retaining Accept button which doubles as dedicated main menu button. The pad itself feels nicely, although the OK key is far away from being convenient to use – sometimes I was forced to press it with my fingernail. All keys are lit in white; the backlighting level provides required level for working in a dark room and, what is more, matches the black trim of the casing.” Find out more at mobile-review.com