Phonesnews.com

“Early in June BenQ Mobile has been rumored to prepare new models, now we have the first official announcement of BenQ-Siemens M81. This model is protected from outside stresses and design for active users with sport lifestyle.The phone has rubber elements, which protect from moist, dust and shock, and do not let the phone slip in hands. The lens of the built-in camera is also protected from splashes and dust. Its TFT LCD has an anti-scratches coat, besides the info can be read under direct sunlight.

The phone supports EDGE data transfer standard. Its 1.3-megapixel camera (with flash) can shoot video clips. There is an MP3-player, you can listen to the music using a stereo Bluetooth-headset. There is a preinstalled navigation application “activepilot” by Jentro, but the phone doesn’t have a GPS-module, so you have to buy a GPS-receiver to enjoy the application. You can store the data also on microSD cards. BenQ-Siemens M81 will be commercially available in August 2006.
The specs of BenQ-Siemens M81:
GSM (900/1800/1900 MHz), EDGE and GPRS class 10
1.8” TFT LCD, 132×176 pixels, 262K colors
1.3-megapixel camera with 5x digital zoom
MP3-player supporting MP3, AAC and eAAC+
Up to 27 MB of memory available to the user
Slot for microSD cards
USB 2.0 and Bluetooth interfaces
WAP 2.0 and Java MIDP 2.0
E-mail, SMS and MMS
Li-Ion 820 mAh battery
Talk time – up to 300 minutes
Standby time – up to 300 hours
Dimensions – 105.3×47.4×18.4 mm
Weight – 96 g ”

“The best PocketPC shooter is back again with more levels, more graphics, more music, more ACTION! Description : The best PocketPC shooter is back again with more levels, more graphics, more music, more ACTION! Have you played original SKY FORCE ? Loved it? This one will bring even more enjoyment! Incredible graphics, sound quality and pure fun! – 8 totally new levels with new graphics,- new enemies,- additional weapon,- new music and sound effects. Compatibility: Pocket PC Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC QVGA resolution (320×240)” Check it here:

“Thanks to the following vendors for providing software for review.iGo (Beta) from PDAmillMapopolisTomTom NavigatorEquipment used for test: iPAQ 4350 with 1 GB SD card, Emtac Bluetooth GPS module, 96 Saturn SL (I need a new car).Many features were similar on all three applications, including route options of shortest time or distance, voice prompts, POI display on/off, night mode, screen backlight always on, and auto zoom and rotate. Since the differences are what people will be concerned with, I will concentrate on them.The biggest differences were the extra features and the user interface. iGo and Mapopolis have a launch screen with large easy to read buttons.”Read more about this interesting review at brighthand.com

“Snake Deluxe just released for Pocket PCs WM2003 & 2005.Based on the classic Snake game that we all know this is a graphical masterpiece in both QVGA, Square QVGA and VGA, square VGA! Snake moves in pixel by pixel extra smooth moment, nice sound, 4 different worlds, map navigation, 4 bosses to eliminate and many more hidden fun. more information>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!* 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 controlAlso the game is under a 4$ discount for 4 days for both Pocket Pcs and Palm OS. Was 16.95$. NOW ONLY 12.95$ more information>Watch: Video Review (High quality)

“At first glance, the Treo 700p is almost identical to its Windows Mobile counterpart, the Treo 700w. The main differences between the two units include the operating system (obviously), a higher density 320 x 320 pixel display and a few distinctive icons on the buttons. On the back of the device is a possible sign of things to come. The usual Palm powered circular logo, has been replaced with a new ACCESS Powered stamp, reflecting the new owners of PalmSource. The keyboard now has a more square thumb keyboard arrangement instead of the rounded oval keys on past treos. They keys are now angled towards the sides of the device in the usual smile pattern. After using it for a few weeks I can’t say I either dislike or prefer the new keys. My personal thumb typing speed and accuracy feels about the same with both styles. The backlighting on the keyboard and buttons has been improved with blue outlines on the app keys and a brighter, more consistent white illumination on the qwerty keypad. The 700p has two new dedicated send and end call buttons just below the display. The rectangular green and red buttons are devoted to initiating and ending phone calls. The red end key also turns the screen off and activates the keyguard. Activating and using the keyguard is nicely implemented and is pretty mostly a transparent process. You simply tap the red button to turn off and it locks the keys. The on-screen keyguard display now has a larger notification bar that now shows the current time and date whenever you activate the device.” Read more here:

“Portable audio has quickly become one of the most innovative segments in today’s electronics industry. The rapid growth of digital music and the tremendous potential of satellite radio has made this segment particularly interesting and the advances have been rapid.Samsung, who has had some troubles portable music players off the ground, recently released three new XM satellite radio players that have MP3 capabilities. The flagship model is the Helix XM2go YX-M1Z. ” Read this nice review here:

“Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, announced it is expanding its line of CompactFlash Elite Pro cards with the addition of a new 8-GB card. The card is an ideal storage choice for studio, catalog and portrait photographers who need to produce large files for catalog reproduction and other commercial purposes. The addition of the 8-GB CompactFlash Elite Pro card completes one of the most comprehensive lines of Flash memory card solutions in the industry — including 512 MB, 1-GB, 2-GB and 4-GB CompactFlash cards. Kingston’s Elite Pro line meets the increased demands of today’s professional photographers by delivering reliability and dependability and providing a memory solution to suit their specific capacity needs.” Read more at photosnews.com

“It’s not just weapons, medicine and classroom pointers that utilize lasers anymore. Now, they are being used to make a kind of paper.Epson has unveiled a technology to create electronic paper using lasers. The requisite acronym is SUFTLA, which stands for surface-free technology by laser annealing. The process employed a super-thin film transistor LCD manufactured at a very low temperature to transfer data from its source to plastic film. The result is something that looks just like a piece of paper superimposed on an LCD. The resultion is 428×238.It is the latest development in a years-long effort by Epson to develop what it calls “e-paper,” which can be rolled up and folded. Efforts in this regard began back in 2004, and the company hopes to have a full version of the e-paper ready for common consumption a few years from now.” via mobilemag.com

“Nokia’s open source Maemo project has released a beta version of its next-generation SDK (software developer kit). The Mistral SDK beta aims to help developers port applications to Maemo 2.0 prior to the debut of Tablet OS 2006 for the Nokia 770 later this quarter.Today’s beta tools release also offers industrious developers, testers, and users an early glimpse of Tablet OS 2006. When installed on an x86 development system with a working scratchbox installation, the rootstrap included in this release can be used to cross-compile a beta version of Tablet OS 2006, albeit one lacking the VoIP capabilities most users are likely to care about the most. Specifically, today’s release does not include telepathy and farsight, the open source real-time communications applications that form the basis of Tablet OS 2006’s VoIP capabilities. For developers, the biggest changes in Tablet OS 2006 are a new EABI (embedded application binary interface) toolchain and several API changes that will require all Maemo 1.1 applications to be ported to Maemo 2.0. Today’s release aims to provide the necessary tools, documentation, binary rootstraps, and porting instructions to help developers port their applications.Nokia announced its Tablet OS 2006 release in mid-May. In addition to VoIP capabilities — the top feature request from early users, Nokia said — Tablet OS 2006 promises better memory performance and a “refreshed look,” along with a Google Talk client, and a full-screen “finger” keyboard.” Thanks to linuxdevices.com for this one.

“Getting to grips with GPS navigation is an exquisitely simple affair; press a button, and up pops VDO Dayton Mobile. The 2.2-inch, high-resolution QVGA display is highly legible and more than sufficiently bright, but expectedly has problems displaying more than basic information due to its small size. The numerical keypad – although decent in its own right – is hardly ideal for inputting addresses, however, rendering the ability to store favourites even more handy than usual. Meanwhile, the points of interest (POI) database seems to be reasonably up-to-date, automatic recalculation is supported and users can tweak calculation by parameters such as shortest/fastest, allow/avoid toll roads and more.” Read more here: