Concept phone: Freedom 2010



Wow, I like it when cutting-edge designs for devices appear - some make it to market, and some don’t - let’s hope this one gets a look in….

The Freedom 2010 Handset is designed by Vadim Kibardin (check out his site here), and is a small prepay phone that comes with 60, 100, or 200 minutes of credit. Apparently you don’t have to worry about roaming, and it charges in 10 minutes. Given it’s so small, clearly the carriage is no issue either. As you might have spotted, no screen, therefore it just makes and receives calls. However, basic functionality, for a time when you might just need it, isn’t to be sniffed at. Back-up phones are never a bad idea!

izvor

Concept phone #2: The iTT


The iTT concept phone by Sergio Gedanke

Now I happen to love the Audi range of cars, so as I soon as I saw this concept device, I was smitten. Apparently it’s based on the TT and A8, and is called the iTT. It’s the work of a designer called Sergio Gedanke (check out his site here).

If you are wondering what’s what on the device, then at one end is a configurable touch area comprising the configurable keyboard. At the other end is the pop-up raised screen, useful for reading when, dare I say it, driving? [Note: just to be clear, I'd never suggest looking at your Mobile whilst driving, or even taking your eyes off the road for that matter]

In the middle is the trackball style HID (human interface device), which accents the design aesthetic overall. Neat I reckon.

izvor

Samsung's Ego S9402 launching for way too much in Russia



Man, it's crazy to see what flies as a "luxury phone" these days. The altogether vanilla looking Ego S9402 fittingly feels pretty darn good about itself, and while twin SIM card slots, a Bang & Olufsen sound processor and a 2-inch QVGA AMOLED display are nice inclusions, we're still wondering what we've missed that would justify the 48,990 rubles ($1,543) price tag. Who knows, maybe it's the 5 megapixel camera, metallic casing or the Russian exclusivity. Yeah, definitely the latter.

izvor

Neowin - Windows Mobile 6.5, Skyline, Skybox and Skymarket coming at MWC



Neowin, quoting unnamed sources close to Microsoft, is claiming Mobile World Congress (February 16-19th), will not only be bringing Windows Mobile 6.5, but also a slew of Microsoft services rumoured previously to the Windows Mobile platform.

“SkyBox” is a service for users to sync a phones information with the web. Microsoft will be offering automatic backup and restore services, access and management of phone data and provide easy communication and sharing with others. The service will also allow syncing of contacts, email/SMS, calendar items and pictures into the cloud. Neowin adds a new detail, not rumoured previously, that this service will be available not only on Windows Mobile, but also for other phone OS’s.

“SkyLine” will be aimed at small businesses. Offering similar functionality to SkyBox, businesses will be able to setup their phones with Microsoft’s Exchange hosting with their own domain names.

“SkyMarket” is Microsoft’s mobile marketplace, a competitor to Apple’s AppStore and RIM’s Blackberry application center.

Neowin also claims that their sources confirm the leaked screenshots from earlier this year are in fact real, despite being panned for having icons stolen from the Apple OSX desktop, and that they represent design concepts.

Looks like we do have quite a bit to look forward to in a months time after all.

Read more at Neowin.com.

Izvor

First Windows Mobile 6.5 devices coming in third quarter 2009



With the official announcement of the new Windows Mobile system coming in a few weeks time, Digitimes reports that the first Windows Mobile 6.5 devices are coming during the third quarter of 2009.

    Although a number of Windows Mobile 6.5-based mobile devices are expected to hit the market in the third quarter of 2009, most makers are likely to launch their Windows Mobile 6.5 handsets in the fourth quarter for the year-end shopping season, the sources projected.

Sources also claim that Microsoft will not focus its efforts on specific handsets, but instead will continue its current business model and cooperate with multiple device makers for better diversification.

Izvor

Nokia posts financial losses across the board in 2008



The 2008 fiscal year proved to be a rocky one for the mobile industry. While some handset makers actually managed to grow their business, most took hits to sales revenues and market share. Even the world’s largest mobile phone maker, Nokia (NYSE: NOK), saw their 2008 finances adversely affected by a deteriorating global economy. The bean-counters in Espoo have released their latest financial data for the 2008 fiscal year, and things have definitely looked better for Nokia.

Nokia’s Q4 2008 bottom line fell 19.7% short of the previous year’s Q4 sales revenues, declining to €12.7 billion. Decreased year-on-year revenue was linked to dwindling handset sales. Nokia posted overall device and services revenue of €8.1 billion, making for a 27% decline compared to the same period last year.

Worst of all, Nokia saw its industry-leading 40% global market share eroded to just 37%, riding on the back of a 61% loss in operating profit that had Nokia netting just €983 in 2008 (compared to €2.5 billion in 2007).

Says Nokia CEO Kallasvuo, “In recent weeks, the macroeconomic environment has deteriorated rapidly, with even weaker consumer confidence, unprecedented currency volatility and credit tightness continuing to impact the mobile communications industry. We are taking action to reduce overall costs and to preserve our strong capital structure. This is clearly our top priority in the current economic environment. However, it is important for Nokia to continue investing at the proper pace in future growth.”

Nokia is expecting even worse for the coming months of 2009, but is apparently looking to weather the storm and get back to market domination shortly thereafter.

Nokia financials pdf link.

izvor

 Presidential Smartphone Looks Awful



We've mentioned in the past that the Sectera Edge can be used to transmit the country's most secret information, but we didn't realize that the President was using one too, although it makes sense. Sure it is integrated into the overall communications systems used by (spy) agencies and the military, but wow, it looks old and outdated (apparently the White House is quite low-tech too). Given its thickness (2.5x iPhone?), we hope that it is bulletproof as well. [Sectera Edge Smartphone]

izvor

Verizon’s LG VX9600 Versa shows its weird face

Verizon Wireless customers, get ready to welcome one of the weirdest handsets you’ve ever seen: LG VX9600 Versa.

The device has just appeared in a couple of shots, over at Howard Forums. And, well, it looks more than interesting.

At first sight, you could mistake the VX9600 Versa for a normal touchscreen handset (like, say, an LG Dare – which is available from Verizon since last year).

But this new LG comes with stuff like a detachable QWERTY keyboard, a detachable gamepad, a Wi-Fi module and external speakers.

Here’s what the phone looks like:






As for the features of LG VX9600 Versa, the known ones include a 240 x 480 pixels display, Bluetooth and extendable memory (up to 8GB).

There’s nothing official about the handset yet, but Verizon could get official with it pretty soon.

izvor

 Windows Mobile 6.5 Alpha

To demonstrate just how friendly to developers exeda is, CompuLab software team brought-up Windows Mobile 6.5 Alpha on exeda the same day it was released.

izvor

Microsoft promises super-powerful processors, better browser than Safari in future



In an interview with CNET , Microsoft’s Andy Lees, head of Windows Mobile, confessed to designing Windows Mobile for 200 Mhz processors and QVGA screens.

“We aimed to go for a lower common denominator,” Lees said.

He promised this was set to change however. In a comment that could only be hinting at support for new processors like Nvidia’s Tegra, he said “The power of the kinds of phones that come out next year will be incredible, well beyond even today’s devices. Phones next year will have dual-core processors, super-fast data connections, and graphics power rivaling that of the original Xbox.

“That’s a phenomenal thing on a phone. The phones of the future will also have location information beyond just GPS sensors. It will know where it is pointing, it will know which angle it is being held at.”

Lees promised that Microsoft would start working more closely with hardware makers. He pointed to deals late last year with LG and Samsung.

“You are going to see a bunch of announcements at Mobile World Congress but also it is going to be the beginning of a 12-, 18-month period where you are going to see a whole bunch of different stuff,” Lees said.

But Lees said that Microsoft embarked on a new strategy some time ago that will come to fruition over the next 18 months. The first steps in that strategy, he said, will be announced at the Mobile World Congress conference that takes place in Barcelona in the middle of next month.

Web browsing has also been a traditional weak spot, but Lees also promised their new offering would surpass those interfaces of other leading browsers like Safari by the end of the year.

Part of Microsoft’s new strategy, Lees said, is not relying on operating system upgrades to improve its products. The new approach, while still making money by selling a mobile operating system, places considerable focus on services that help connect the phone to the PC and Web as well as devices such as the Xbox.

Lees would not confirm details of a rumored rival to Apple’s App Store, reportedly known as SkyMarket.

“There is some question whether we can more directly connect the developer and the end user,” he said. “We’re looking at that.”

While the wait for these supposed revolutionary updates is still likely to be long, we should start seeing the seeds of these in less than 3 weeks at Mobile World Congress. Whether these stop gap measures will be enough to maintain Windows Mobile market share in the interim remains to be seen, but the recent Q4 success should point towards the game being far from over.

Read the full interview at CNET here.

Izvor