Samsung i900 Omnia back in white, looks well different

Samsung officially confirmed today the new color version of their top-of-the-line PocketPC – the i900 Omnia. The iPhonesque rear must be just what some of the WinMo fans out there have been waiting for.

Luckily, to us at least, Omnia’s white backend gets rid of the wavy pattern that reminded us of N-series, that surfaced out a little while ago. It will feature the same brushed back as the black version, only this time in snow-white color.

Here is the first official photo of the Samsung i900 Omnia new outfit. Truth be told, it’s a breather from the classy-but-too-conservative black version.

Motorola introduces the lower end ZN200, W396 and W388

Motorola is throwing three new phones today in the low-to-mid-range skirmish. Coming in three different form factors, Motorola ZN200, W396 and W388 all have shortish spec sheets to most likely be matched by a modest price tag.

Motorola ZN200 comes with quad-band GSM support with GPRS and EDGE connectivity options. Stereo Bluetooth and USB are also on board. There is also a 2 megapixel fixed-focus camera and a 1.9" 262K-color display with a resolution of 176 x 220 pixels.


Morotola ZN200

The built-in memory of Motorola ZN200 is 30MB, topped with the microSD card slot, which supports cards with capacity of up to 2GB. Finally, the Motorola ZN200 comes complete with an FM radio and the CrystalTalk technology.

Motorola W396 is a clamshell and has two dual-band GSM versions. A 1.8" 65K-color TFT display with a resolution of 128 x 160 pixels is fitted on the device. USB, FM radio and Motorola's proprietary CrystalTalk technology are some of its other features. Data transfers are entrusted to GPRS only, as there is no support for EDGE. A microSD card slot allows expanding the internal memory by up to 2GB.


Motorola W396

The best parts about Motorola W396 are its compact dimensions of 95 x 45 x 17 mm and its weight of 88-94g. Yeah, you got that right - Motorola are still of two minds about weight.

Finally, the bar-shaped Motorola W388 has been around the web for quite a while, so its official announcement isn't much of a novelty. The most affordable of the lot comes with FM radio with RDS, USB port and a microSD card slot. Much like the W396, it will feature a 1.8" 128 x 160 pixel 65k-color display and will have two dual-band GSM versions with only GPRS support.


Motorola W388

The handsets will become available until the end of Q3 at an yet unknown price.

Windows Mobile-based Palm Treo Pro surfaces online, looks cool

As it seems Palm have a really nice looking Windows Mobile PocketPC in store for all GSM users.

The new Palm Treo Pro (previously rumored as Treo 850) appeared online in several screenshots grabbed from some sort of presentation slides.

Unfortunately, the slides don't reveal much about the technical specs of the Palm Treo Pro, however it's clear that the device will support GSM, there will be fast HSDPA data transfers and the whole thing is running on Windows Mobile Pro instead on Palm OS.

Wi-Fi is on board, as well as a microSD memory card slot. An infrared port is also present - a technology we thought to be long gone before Nokia released their latest Nokia E71 and Nokia E66. Next Bluetooth, 3.5mm standard audio jack and a microUSB port complete the tally. There's also a camera lens on the back - but we don't know any details.

One thing's for sure, the Palm Treo Pro seems like quite a looker (although not that slim) and we are already anxious to see it live (or at least shot live).


The Palm Treo Pro looks NOT sexy

Update: Live photos leaked later today and we were finally able to see the Palm Treo Pro live. The device doesn't look that good anymore so we guess we'll just have to take our words back.


The Palm Treo Pro

Additionally, some of the other specs of this thing surfaced along with the live photos, and here are the new details:
400Mhz CPU
256MB ROM, 128MB RAM!
320 x 320 pixel screen
Built-in GPS
Quad-band GSM, tri-band HSDPA
2 Megapixel camera
1500mAh battery

Nokia Supernova lineup includes 7610, 7510 and 7310

Nokia is obviously prepping a new lady-centric lineup called Supernova. The new collection will include Nokia 7610, Nokia 7510 and surprisingly Nokia 7310 which was initially rumored as 7310 classic. We remind you that as we already reported although the Nokia 7310 is still not officially announced, it's been spotted at several online shops available for immediate purchase.

The Polish Nokia website incidentally revealed the three new Supernova Nokia handsets which were later on removed. The great surprise was the mentioning of the Nokia 7310 Supernova, which was rumored (and even sold online) as Nokia 7310 classic.

The Nokia 7310 Supernova is based on the Nokia S40 user interface and sports a 2 megapixel camera, a 2.2-inch 16M color QVGA display, a built-in FM radio, stereo Bluetooth and a 3.5mm audio jack. The tri-band Nokia 7310 Supernova weighs only 83g and is currently on sale for around 145 euro (220 US dollars).


Nokia 7310 Supernova

The Nokia 7610 Supernova is obviously the flagship of the lineup. While it's still based on the S40 user interface, this slider packs quad-band GSM/EDGE support, 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera, a 16M color QVGA display, FM radio with RDS and a microSD memory card slot.


Nokia 7610 Supernova


The most interesting thing about the Nokia 7610 Supernova is the rumored capability of recording VGA resolution videos at the whopping 30fps - it's a rather unprecedented feature in S40 handsets as well as in most feature phones in general. The 7610 Supernova will also have a TV-out port to enjoy those presumably high-quality videos on your TV.

The Nokia 7510 Supernova is a clamshell boasting a primary 16M color QVGA display and a monochrome external display with a resolution of 128x160 pixels. Based on the S40 platform, it has a 2 megapixel camera (no auto focus), FM radio with RDS and a microSD card slot. The Nokia 7510 Supernova is again a quad-band device and the rumored specs further speak of Xpress-on covers support which is unusual for a clamshell. The blunt specs sheet is topped with a rather hefty weight of 124g.


Nokia 7510 Supernova

There's no word on expected pricing or availability since all the three handsets have not been officially announced by Nokia yet. We'll keep you posted on how it goes.

HTC Diamond, SE G700 and G900, Nokia N78 and 7310 - Market Update

Since there are several interesting phones coming out soon we decided to do a Market Update article just to let you know what to expect in the near future. There are some major releases that would turn many geeks wondering whether they should skip vacation this year and instead buy a new high-end phone.

HTC Touch Diamond
First off, battling for your hard-earned cash is the HTC Touch Diamond. Powered by Windows Mobile 6.1 Pro, the HTC Touch Diamond packs a 2.8-inch VGA display and is extremely thin at 11.5mm. It has a built-in accelerometer which allows screen auto rotation - another feature that should have been on-board a long time ago. A GPS receiver, Wi-Fi and a 3.2 megapixel auto focus camera add to the lengthy specs sheet.


HTC Touch Diamond in stores now

The HTC Touch Diamond runs on a Qualcomm MSM7201A 528 MHz processor and has 192MB DDR SDRAM. Additionally, it has the sweet 4GB of storage memory (no memory card slot though). FM radio with RDS and a proprietary HTC mini-USB port are also on board along with Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR.

The highlight of the new HTC Touch 3D user interface will be the web capabilities - smart desktop-like rendering and superb touch navigation through web pages and hyperlinks. Besides Wi-Fi the HTC Touch Diamond will also make use of dual-band UMTS support plus HSDPA 7.2 Mbps.

Currently, the HTC Touch Diamond can be found online for about 480 euro (740 US dollars) before taxes and subsides.

Sony Ericsson G700 and G900
Next in-line are two new Symbian UIQ smartphones of conservative looks - the Sony Ericsson G700 and Sony Ericsson G900. The two phones have identical dimensions and feature the same 2.4" 262K-color QVGA TFT touchscreen displays.


Sony Ericsson G700 in stores now

Sony Ericsson G700 and G900 will be tri-band handsets with 3G capabilities. They will also sport stereo Bluetooth and 160MB of internal memory. The memory is further expandable through the built-in Memory Stick Micro card slot.

Despite the Symbian UIQ, the user interface is very simplified, taking after the standart non-smartphone Sony Ericsson user interface. Sony Ericsson G700 has a very convenient one-touch full organiser function accessible from the home screen, as well as a touch-controlled Notes application, while the G900 home screen is equiped with one-touch media functions. You can find our review of the Sony Ericsson G700 here.


Sony Ericsson G900 in stores now

The Sony Ericsson G900 sports a 5 megapixel autofocus camera with image and video stabilizer, while the G700 has a 3.2 megapixel camera with no autofocus, yet the image and video stabilizer are on-board. An intriguing feature of G900 is the ability to manually select the focus point when you shoot just by tapping on the display. Another feature Sony Ericsson G900 has over the G700 is the Wi-Fi connectivity. You can find our Sony Ericsson G900 review over here.

Sony Ericsson G900 costs about 340 euro (530 dollars) in the online shops, while the Sony Ericsson G700 is worth as little as 265 euro (410 US dollars). Those are both slightly more than the initial estimates.

Nokia 7310 classic
Nokia 7310 classic is a fresh addition to Nokia portfolio. It's so fresh that even Nokia haven't announced it yet. Still, the Nokia 7310 classic turned up in several online stores this week.


Nokia 7310 classic in stores now

Nokia 7310 classic is a S40 powered phone and features a 2.2-inch 16M color QVGA display, a built-in FM radio and music player, stereo Bluetooth A2DP, microSd memory card slot, USB connectivity, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

The tri-band Nokia 7310 classic also sports a 2 megapixel camera and weighs only 83g. It can currently be found online for about 145 euro (220 US dollars).

Nokia N78
Nokia N78 is a quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE Symbian smartphone with dual-band HSDPA support. The novelties are geotagging and the integrated FM transmitter, allowing music to be played on any FM radio (just like the Sony Ericsson W980 we reviewed recently). It also has a multimedia menu with the same Navi wheel known form Nokia N81. Nokia N78 uses S60 3rd edition, FP2 and has a 2.4" QVGA (240 x 320 pixels) TFT display with 16M colors. It offers A-GPS support, Wi-Fi, 70MB on-board memory, expandable via microSD slot.


Nokia N78 in stores now

Nokia N78 has a 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera with Carl Zeiss optics. It also records video in VGA resolution at 15fps but is still capable of playing VGA video clips at 30 fps. The connectivity set includes the mentioned Wi-Fi b/g with UPnP, microUSB v2.0, 3.5mm stereo headphone plug and Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP stereo audio.

Nokia N78 retails for about 350 euro (540 US dollars) before taxes and subsides. This is just as much as the previously announced estimated price.

Nokia N96
And the final Nokia story for today is the pre-order appearance of the Nokia N96. Expected as the next Nokia uber-phone, the Nokia N96 is eagerly waited by many fans.

Nokia N96 is a quad-band handset with dual-band HSDPA support for worldwide coverage. It runs on S60 3rd edition, FP2 and has a 2.8" QVGA (240 x 320 pixels) TFT display with 16M colors. Other features of this true powerhouse include GPS with A-GPS support and geo-tagging for photos, Wi-Fi, the stunning 16GB of onboard memory, plus a microSD slot. If that feature pack doesn't grab your attention, hardly anything will.


Nokia N96 available for pre-order

Nokia N96 has a 5 megapixel autofocus camera with Carl Zeiss optics and powerful dual LED flash. It also records video in VGA resolution at 30 fps.The connectivity set sports Wi-Fi b/g with UPnP support, microUSB v2.0, DVB-H class C, a 3.5mm stereo headphone plug and Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP stereo audio.

The Nokia N96 was expected in August but is now available as a pre-order item online for a price tag of 760 euro (1180 US dollars). According to the online retailer it will be available as early as July 31st.

Evolution of the Cell Phone

The Evolution of the Cell Phone - For more amazing video clips, click here

iPhone in over 10 countries

Orange today announced that "later this year" they will make the Apple iPhone available in more than ten countries including Austria, Belgium, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Jordan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Switzerland and Orange's African markets.

Orange seem to save their words even better than Vodafone. Recently Vodafone announced the future iPhone availability in ten countries in only two sentences.

The Orange PR team obviously outdoes them since today they managed to stuff more than ten countries on their future availability list in only ONE sentence. Well, that's an achievement that should be worth the four years spent at the PR school.



Summing it up, it seems the highly rumored 3G iPhone will have almost entire world covered. But did you notice that Spain is still not on the list. We bet O2 is going to snatch that deal along with several other countries.

Confirmed expected iPhone coverage (besides USA and Canada):
Europe:

Austria - Orange, T-Mobile
Belgium - Orange
Czech Republic - Vodafone
France - Orange (already available)
Germany - T-Mobile (already available)
Greece - Vodafone
Ireland - O2 (already available)
Italy - Vodafone, Telecom Italia
Poland - Orange
Portugal - Orange, Vodafone
Romania - Orange
Slovakia - Orange
Switzerland - Orange, Swisscom
Turkey - Vodafone
UK - O2 (already available)
Other countries and regions:

Africa - Orange, Vodafone
Australia - Vodafone, SingTel (Optus)
Dominican Republic - Orange
India - Vodafone
Jordan - Orange
Latin America - America Movil (Claro)
New Zealand - Vodafone
Some carriers obviously overlap, so this year might just bring the end of the exclusivity battle for the iPhone and carriers will share the iPhone market. And usually good competiton means better price tags.

Samsung F480

Today Samsung officially announced their newest touchscreen phone - the Samsung F480 or otherwise known as Samsung TouchWiz. Yeah, we know that it was announced in Barcelona back in February but there is some news in this second announcement too.

For a start the Samsung F480 will be sold under different names in different regions. For example in the UK the F480 is going to be sold as Samsung Tocco.


Samsung F480

Samsung also revealed the details about the battery of the handset - 1000 mAh of capacity, 3 hours of talk time and 300 hours of stand-by time. The dimensions have also been slightly updated to 98.4 x 55 x 11.6 mm and the weight has been fixed at 100.6 grams.

Also this second announcement hints of the fact that Samsung F480 is about to hit the shelves in the nearest future. In fact some online retailers are already accepting pre-orders. The rates are however rather high, starting at about 600-700 US dollars.


Samsung F480 lifestyle photos

In case you need a quick memory refresh here are the most important features of Samsung F480. It is tri-band phone with HSDPA 7.2Mbps support, and an ample 2.8" touchscreen QVGA display. The camera counts the impressive 5 megapixels and comes with autofocus, power LED flash, image and video stabilization.

Of course, there is audio and video player with multiple file format support, as well as FM Radio with RDS. The impressive TouchWiz user interface and navigation are the final ingredients for making the classy performer.

Opera Mobile 9.5 to compete with iPhone's Safari browser?

We've spotted a live video preview of the latest Opera Mobile 9.5 - a fast and feature-rich web browser for mobile devices that strives to snatch the iPhone's Safari browser title for best mobile browsing experience (for the record, we've just made up this title, ok?).



You can watch the live preview by Matthew Miller from ZDNet and judge for yourselves but it's worth pointing some of the highlights.

Opera seem to have done some great work on their Presto rendering engine - the web browser is fast and it offers pretty much the same fluid-like panning and scrolling as Apple iPhone. But you've got to remember that this demo is running on the HTC Advantage which not only packs a VGA resolution display but also has a fast 624MHz CPU and a dedicated ATi graphics chip.



Now as far as navigation is concerned you will notice the "double-tap-to-zoom-in-a-paragraph" trick that is also used by the iPhone's Safari web browser. But you might also notice that the use of the Opera Mobile 9.5 relies heavily on the use of a stylus, a tool that the GSMarena team is not really fond of.

Yet the Opera Mobile 9.5 offers so much more than the iPhone Safari - automatic fullscreen mode, copy and paste, sending hyperlinks to other people, saving images and downloading files. It can even store pages for offline viewing.



Overall the new Opera Mobile 9.5 sounds like a killer deal for Windows Mobile users who have been plagued by the inadequate Explorer Mobile browser way too long. We are so looking forward to getting our hands on that browser and testing it for ourselves.

By the way, in case you are interested, you can also check out the official Opera Mobile 9.5 walkthrough created by the Opera team themselves. It's funny how their presentation setup and even studio lighting resembles the Apple iPhone demos. Enjoy!

Latest news extracts about GPS and wireless technologies

Why GPS and GSM news brought together?

What do they have in common? The only common factor is that both use HF radio signals for their operation. But there is more. Already today GPS is getting incorporated in GSMs(Europe), cell phones(USA) and mobile phones(UK) and this development is accelerating in a great pace. In only a couple of years (almost) all GSMs will have a GPS receiver incorporated. And not the poor performing GPS receivers as we know them now from our handheld devices. No, the GSM/GPS combinations must be able to locate themselves under the most difficult circumstances i.e. indoors, in parking garages, in urban canyons, in large buildings etc.

The market for these GPS receivers is so huge, compared to the market for handheld GPS receivers (a factor 200 or so), that every manufacturer will put all on all to make this a success.

We already knew the Global Locate A-GPS chip-set with over 20,000 hardware correlators integrated. This means that the hardware does a lot of the computational work. Acquires satellites with signals below -158dBm at a 100 times lower power consumption. Time-to-first-fix as low as 250 msec.

And SiRF sells its third generation SiRFStarIII chipset with the equivalent of more than 200,000 correlators. Weak GPS signals (up to -159dBm) can be processed and with that indoor GPS exists already. The SiRFSoft GPS architecture is portable to the market leading platforms such as Intel XScale and OMAPI. This means that the system can be incorporated in GSMs, cell phones, Smartphones, PDAs and other wireless handheld devices.


End September 2006 u-blox AG announced the u-blox 5 family of GPS and Galileo-ready single chips and chipsets featuring an acquisition performance of under 1 second. The new chips also feature SuperSense -160 dBm acquisition and tracking sensitivity, power needs of less than 50 mW and a footprint smaller than 100 mm2, making u-blox 5 receivers ideal for PDAs, personal navigation devices, cameras, cell phones, media players and other battery-operated portable devices. u-blox 5's ultra-fast acquisition time is due to its 50-channel architecture with over 1 million correlators and separate acquisition and tracking engines, capable of massively parallel searches.


Hundreds of millions of people will permanently carry a high performance GPS receiver with them, wherever they go. GPS and GSM go together.

3 Billion GSM Connections On The Mobile Planet – Reports The GSMA

16th April 2008, London, UK: The GSMA, the global trade group for the mobile industry, today announced that total connections to GSM mobile communications networks have now passed the 3 Billion mark globally. The third billion landmark has been reached just four years after the GSM industry surpassed its first billion, and just two years from the second billionth connection.

The 3 Billion landmark has been surpassed just 17 years after the first GSM network launch in 1991. Today more than 700 mobile operators across 218 countries and territories of the world are adding new connections at the rate of 15 per second, or 1.3 million per day.

The world’s biggest GSM markets today are China (509 million), which is growing at a rate of more than 7 million new connections a month and accounts for 14% of the third billion growth; India (193 million), growing at 6 million per month accounts for 12% of the third billion growth, Russia (178 million) and Brazil (93 million) which both contributed 4% of the third billion growth.

“The growth of mobile communications continues to soar, not least in emerging markets, which are responsible for 85 percent of new connections today,” said Rob Conway, CEO and Board Member of the GSMA. “One cannot underestimate the importance of mobile as a vital communications tool, connecting so many people, often for the first time in their lives.

“Against that backdrop, the roll-out of Mobile Broadband services, offering high speed internet and rich media access is well underway and available in more than 73 countries today,” added Conway. “Mobile Broadband hails the next era for our vast eco-system, one that is delivering remarkable social and economic benefits to people, businesses and economies throughout the world.”

The news comes as the GSMA today premiers a special documentary film Mobile Planet, exploring the social and economic value of mobile communications across 20 countries of the world. Produced in partnership with TelecomTV, the film features a host of locations from Japan to Rwanda, South Africa to Chile, where mobile is enhancing lives and changing the face of societies. The film will be shown for the first time in full at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts in London tonight.


About the GSMA:

The GSM Association (GSMA) is the global trade association representing more than 700 GSM mobile phone operators across 218 countries and territories of the world. In addition, more than 200 manufacturers and suppliers support the Association's initiatives as key partners.

The primary goals of the GSMA are to ensure mobile phones and wireless services work globally and are easily accessible, enhancing their value to individual customers and national economies, while creating new business opportunities for operators and their suppliers. The Association's members represent more than 3 billion GSM and 3GSM connections - over 86% of the world's mobile phone connections.

Seventy Million More Africans Now Connected To GSM Networks

GSM coverage extended by an area the size of France in just 12 months

13th May 2008, Cairo, Egypt: -- The GSMA, the global trade body for the mobile industry, announced today that the number of mobile connections in Africa has risen 70 million in the past 12 months to 282 million. Mobile operators have ramped up investment in the region extending GSM coverage to reach an additional 550,000 square kilometres occupied by 46 million people. The broadening coverage and the falling cost of mobile communications is enabling tens of millions of Africans to become connected for the first time in their lives. Africa has only 35 million fixed-lines.

"Africa's mobile industry is delivering on its promise to blanket the continent's inhabitants with coverage giving tens of thousands of rural communities their first opportunity to realise the substantial social and economic benefits of mobile communications," said Tom Phillips, Chief Government & Regulatory Affairs Officer of the GSMA, speaking at the ITU Telecom Africa event in Cairo. "However, over 300 million rural Africans do not yet have mobile coverage. They live in an area the size of China, India and the USA combined. Developing sustainable business models to serve these communities is a great challenge, which requires the mobile industry and African governments to work together."

At the ITU’s Connect Africa summit in Kigali in October, the GSMA announced that mobile operators plan to invest more than $50 billion in sub-Saharan Africa over the next five years to provide more than 90% of the population with mobile coverage. To realise the full social and economic benefits of this investment, African governments need to ensure that sufficient spectrum is available, particularly for mobile broadband services. Governments also need to tackle mobile-specific taxes, high license fees, international gateway monopolies and other regulatory bottlenecks that constrain the competitiveness of African business.

Supporting quotes:

"With capital expenditure investment levels reaching over US $2 billion in 2007, MTN is one of the most significant investors in many markets in which it operates. Approved capital expenditure investment for 2008 is almost twice that amount," said Phuthuma Nhleko, MTN Group President and CEO.

"We have created a new subsidiary "Telecel Globe" which will reinvest in Africa's smaller countries. Telecel Globe will be fully staffed on its own. Orascom Telecom will only support its procurement power and commercial know how. We call on African governments to reduce the taxation and regulatory burden on mobile users so we can maximise the positive impact of this investment," said Naguib Sawiris, Chairman and CEO, Orascom Telecom.

"Around 75% of the population is covered in most African countries where Orange operates and we intend to reach 90% coverage with the same level of quality by 2010 to serve untapped areas," said Marc Rennard, Executive Vice President, Orange - France Telecom Group.

"In 2007 alone, our capital expenditure additions in our Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique and Lesotho operations totalled R1.6 billion. This investment includes building high-speed data networks in most of these countries," said Alan Knott-Craig, CEO of Vodacom Group.

"Zain will build its own fibre capacity backbones, where necessary, to speed up delivery and increase affordability of telecom services. Zain believes that such investments across sub-Saharan Africa will also have a positive economic and social impact," said Dr. Saad Al Barrak, CEO of Zain Group.

About the GSMA:

The GSM Association (GSMA) is the global trade association representing more than 750 GSM mobile phone operators across 218 countries and territories of the world. The Association's members represent more than 3 billion GSM and 3GSM connections - over 86% of the world's mobile phone connections. In addition, more than 200 manufacturers and suppliers support the Association's initiatives as key partners.

The primary goals of the GSMA are to ensure mobile phones and wireless services work globally and are easily accessible, enhancing their value to individual customers and national economies, while creating new business opportunities for operators and their suppliers.