Samsung Alias Dual-Hinge Flip Phone Reaching Verizon Wireless

Verizon Wireless and Samsung announced the Alias by Samsung will be available in mid-April.The successor to the Samsung SCH-u740, the Alias sports the familiar dual-hinge design but is packaged with an updated easy-to-read full-QWERTY keyboard. In addition to sending text messages, customers can use Wireless Sync, Verizon Wireless' proprietary personal information management solution, to

iPhone SDK Beta 2 - time to make things look good

The major addition that the second beta of the iPhone SDK brings is the Interface Builder. This nifty little tool will allow you to drag and drop in order to build the user interface for your application.Tools like that make it on par with languages such as Visual Basic which make building new apps fast, easy, and convenient. Granted, using the drag and drop method may not give you the appearance

Verizon Wireless Unveils XV6900 From HTC Touch

Verizon Wireless today announced the XV6900 will be available in April. Whether customers are accessing local weather reports, navigating to the Internet, flipping through photos, or one-touch dialing of loved ones, they can interact with a myriad of the XV6900’s features with just a flick of their fingers.The Verizon Wireless XV6900 leverages the broad functionality and communication

Verizon Wireless Introduces The BlackBerry Curve 8330

Verizon Wireless and Research In Motion (RIM) today announced the BlackBerry Curve 8330 smartphone will be available in May. Packaged in a liquid silver-colored finish with chrome highlights, smooth edges and soft curves, the BlackBerry Curve 8330 is backed by Verizon Wireless' high-speed Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO) network.The BlackBerry Curve 8330 offers the following capabilities and key

AT&T Mobile TV Coming in May

AT&T confirmed that the mobile TV service will launch in May 2008 on two new exclusive handsets, the LG Vu and the Samsung Access. AT&T Mobile TV will also feature two exclusive channels, which will be announced soon.AT&T Mobile TV will deliver full-length television content and sporting events from top networks, including programming from leading entertainment brands CBS Mobile, Comedy Central,

Apple has supposedly ordered another 10 million iPhones - I want mine delivered now

According to an analyst at Gartner, Apple has ordered a second batch of 10 million 3G iPhones to be delivered. That’s a total of 10 million regular iPhones and 10 million 3G iPhones that Apple is apparently hoping to sell by the end of this year.Speculation by the same analyst was that the new 3G iPhone would use an OLED display which would net it a thinner design and a longer battery life. The

Resco Backup for Pocket PC (v1.10)

Never lose your data againResco Backup creates reserve copies of your PDA on the storage card.This data (called backup set) can be used to restore your device in case of problems.Basic features:Backup to the storage cardFull and custom backupFull and custom restoreBackup compressionSafe encryption (uses industrial standard AES)Fast incremental backupBackup schedulingAdvanced features:Integrity

EZIO REX 990

EZIO REX 990 is a Korian latest phone. it' s great because of its display.it has 2.6" Jumbo Size LCD Touch Screen.its media player Supports MP4 Movie Player .mp4 / .3pg ,mpeg4 formats.it work as a portable media player.REX 990 also powered with 3.2 mp digital camera. you can record unlimited video.REX 990 is a pda devise. it has Calendar, Daily Task with scheduled alarm, NotePad To Do List, Alarms, Digital Voice Recorder and much more...

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Skyfire Beta: Initial Review

UPDATE: Skyfire Beta 0.6 Available Today (5/1/08)

{Robert Kim, a Microsoft employee and certifiable gadget freak, is a contributing editor of The Mobile Experience blog}

The Mobile Experience is pleased to bring you a first look at the promising Skyfire Mobile Browser Beta that was released a few days ago. Please find an exclusive video review of this browser in action. This beta was part of the "beta 1" group. If you signed up for Skyfire beta testing after March 1st, you'll likely end up being "beta 2" group which will begin testing in summer 08.

After Andy sent his beta 1 email for download/account setup instructions from Skyfire, I was able to complete the registration process fairly easily. I was prompted to get a beta account login ID and Password which is required for installation at a later point. I downloaded the .CAB file version for WM Pocket PC Edition; other versions (for WM Smartphone Edition is also available). After downloading and installing Skyfire on my HTC Tilt (Windows Mobile 6), I quickly tested the browser's performance and key abilities.

Pros
* Full screen browsing
* Easy to zoom-in
* Navigate easily around webpages
* Ability to view flash sites and handle JAVA applications (ie. Google Maps)
* Play videos directly on sites (ie. YouTube and DailyMotion)

Cons (Still in Beta)
* Start page is fairly empty
* Lack of Multi-Tab feature
* Zooming-out can use improvement
* Could use additiona levels of zoom

Check out my video testing a couple sites below:


Overall, I am extremely pleased with this browser for Windows Mobile phones. It allows me to have similar functionality as the acclaimed iPhone's browser. I am looking forward to the updates in the future and additional functionalities.

TeaShark JAVA browser with tabs, zoom & RSS

Tired of using your mobile phone’s default web browser or perhaps you do not like Opera Mini? Here’s a new mobile web browser which offers full web browsing right in your mobile phone’s small display screen – TeaShark.These mobile browser supports multiple tabs and history, has time-saving jump-to-link navigation and two-level zoom, and bookmarks with colour coding for easy organisation.To

Sling preps mobile player for UIQ phones, N95 8GB

Sling Media, makers of the video-shifting Slingbox, have announced a new SlingPlayer Mobile client for Symbian UIQ. The new version will allow some Sony-Ericsson and Motorola phones to stream and remotely control Slingbox devices at home whenever the device is connected to either a 3G or Wi-Fi network. The initial lineup will include the P1i and P990i smartphones, the M600i, as well as the

The mobile phone in the future

What phone will you be using in the far off age of 2010? Along with our flying cars and robot slaves, you could be sporting one of these concept phone designs born out of a partnership between phone company Pantech (Sky Premium) and Korean university students. Still, would you trade in your current cellphone for one of these “phones of the future? AFter you jump see the Full Size.

HTC Touch P3450

HTC Touch P3450 is a newest htc phone.it is small but great. HTC Touch P3450 is very attractive because of it has a touch screen.it s only 110g weight.CPU clock rate is 201mhz an 64 RAM included. HTC touch supports microSD, microSDHC, TransFlash, SDIO.its OS is Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 Professional (Crossbow) .HTC is also powered with VGA camera.watch this video


as a HTC company words their theme is smart mobility.if you want more informations visit www.htc.com.For more info please visit my useful links

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LG-SH240 Wants to Stay Closer to You

Do you remember that semi-formal roadmap we saw not too long ago that pretty much stated that Microsoft had seen the error of their mobile ways and with 6.1 they were going to fix a lot of things and make a move towards higher useability? Well I don’t know if that’s come true or not, but word is that we’ll find out on April 1st.Supposedly April 1st is the release date for the new version of

Nokia N800

Nokia N800 is a some kind of different phone because of it's appearance. it's a internet phone. its large High-resolution touch screen (800 x 480 pixels)will show you everything.it has DDR RAM 128MB and Flash 256MB, 128 MiniSD with extender included in sales package.also it has Two internal memory card slots, compatible with SD, MicroSD, MiniSD, MMC, and RS-MMC. Supports memory cards up to 8GB. SD cards over 2GB must be SDHC compatible.Nokia N800 's OS is internet Tablet OS 2007 edition.it's Web Browser completable with Adobe® Flash® 9 plug-in.Also you can get video calls with 3G.if you want more try links bellow.

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Nokia and Siemens to Double EDGE Connection Speed

Brighthand reports that Nokia Siemens Networks is working on a software enhancement to boost EDGE data transfer rate by a fold. This new update, known as EGPRS2, will increase downlink speed up to 1.2Mbps and uplink to 473kbps. What a cool way to bring EDGE up to 3G like performance. With the US being such a big coverage area, this can give folks outside 3/3.5G territory a boost in much needed performance.

Engadget vs Gizmodo

Wired.com has an excellent coverage on the rivalry behind two of the most influential tech/gadget blogs of our times: Engadget and Gizmodo. This article covers the competitive nature in gadget blogging down to the "minute". An excellent article depicting the nature of blogging and evolution of it's business model (paying writers based on page views and comments). Very interesting for bloggers or people wanting to know more about the blogging business.

Nokia 5700

Diverse, daring, and confident- the Nokia 5700 ! With its fascinating interplay of leather-inspired materials, elegantly etched metal, and transparent surfaces, the Nokia 5700 phone is designed to be noticed. Naturally stylish, this tri-band phone has an integrated with 5 megapixel camera and video recorder to complement your sense of style with its beauty and poise.
The Nokia 5700 has an integrated FM radio which is simple to use with a few search options just like a normal radio
Just like a Walkie talkie, Nokia 5700 features Push-to-talk Over Cellular - a new technical introduction which will allow groups of mobile phone users to communicate with each other simply by pushing a button and speaking. It's ideal for groups of friends or certain business applications to communicate with more than one person simultaneously
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The spontaneous society

In school they teach you that one of the drivers of economic progress over the centuries has been society's increasingly accurate management of time. The seasons had to be tracked so that farming cultures would know when to plant. Once people started sailing across the oceans, they needed reasonably accurate chronometers to measure longitude. When railroads were built, the idea of uniform time zones became important so that the trains could keep predictable timetables. The term "railroad time" is still sometimes used to mean keeping an accurate schedule.

By the time I was growing up, it was universally accepted that rigorous scheduling was one of the hallmarks of an advanced economy. We scheduled everything well in advance -- classes in school, meetings at work, even social events like parties and dates. How many movies and television shows have you seen where a character says, "pick you up at eight"? And don't be late.

A lack of rigorous time discipline, we were told, was one of the factors holding back economic growth in the developing world. That belief was so well accepted in the US that I don't think anyone even debated it.

So it's very interesting to see what electronic communication -- on PCs, but especially on mobiles -- is doing to time management in the world's most advanced economies. Where my generation pre-arranged its social calendar, I watch my kids make it up on the fly. They'll decide on IM that they all want to get together in an hour, or they'll agree via SMS that they're all going to hang out downtown that evening, where they then call or text each other to link up on the fly.

I have seen this developing for years, but I didn't have a gut feel for its power until earlier this year, when I took my family to Disneyland. Touring the Magic Kingdom with two kids was once an exercise in controlled paranoia. The place is so complicated and crowded that you lived in constant fear of losing one or more members of the family. If you did, it might take hours, and a long trip to the lost child center, to find them again.

Anytime we separated -- mom going with one child to one ride, and dad with another child to a different one -- we had to carefully agree on when and where we would meet up. Inevitably someone would be 15 or 20 minutes late, and you'd spend the whole time worrying that the vacation might fall apart.

It wasn't the walking that wore you out at Disneyland, it was the fear.

But the last time we went was the first time when everyone in the family was old enough to have a mobile phone. Suddenly, as we walked through the park on one of the busiest days of the year, we realized that we didn't have to worry any more. If a child got lost, they could call us. If two people wanted to go off in a different direction, that was no problem at all; we could just use the phone to find each other later.

In other words, we could stay together without staying in sight of each other.

That may not sound like a big difference, but it completely transformed the Disneyland experience. The food was still overpriced, and the lines way too long, but the whole thing was much less stressful. It was almost, dare I say it, relaxing.

It made me realize that a similar transition is happening throughout our society. Ubiquitous personal communication makes it much less important to rigorously schedule many elements of your day; you can just make it up as you go along.

As smartphones arose, we thought they were going to absorb the calendaring function of the PDA. They have somewhat, but I think mobile phones are also making the personal calendar less important.

The first time I went with Palm to China, our employees in Beijing cautioned me that I shouldn't talk about the great calendaring built into Palm handhelds, because people in China just didn't care about it. They didn't schedule meetings, I was told. If they wanted to talk to you, they would just give you a call. At the time I assumed that was just a transitional thing, that over time as their economy grew they would learn to do more and more scheduling. But now I'm starting to think that maybe they were ahead of the rest of us all along.

Skyfire Beta Update: Beta Availability Timeframe

Since my last reporting, I have gotten a couple more of emails from the fine folks at Skyfire. First email was to tell me that the phone number I provided during Beta 1 signup did not work for them, hence an email instruction to signup. At this point, I regret to inform you that I do not have a WM5 or 6 phone so I will attempt to sign up anyways just to see what happens. However, I know this beta is purely for Windows Mobile Devices.

Carrying on with the second email (click picture to enlarge) I've received from them is a more thorough update addressing why they've been slow in reaching out to the people who's signed up to Beta 1. In short, there are two batch of people who signed up for beta testing. Anyone who signed up before March 1st is considered beta 1 and will likely to get notifications soon. After March 1st, is considered Beta 2. They estimate Summer 2008 as available time frame to allow Beta 2 people to test. Skyfire is trying to regulate beta users and feedback so they can manage the process. Thoughtful!

There is a Symbian update from the second email:
In addition to adding features and building a robust Windows Mobile Skyfire, we also have development underway for a Symbian version of Skyfire. Stay tuned as we extend our beta to the Nokia N-series and E-series phones in the U.S. this summer. Beta 1 and 2 users who have signed up indicating that they have Nokia phones do not need to do anything. We’ll contact you as soon as it’s ready.

Google Maps Open to User Edits

Google has opened up the ability for users to help define its popular map contents. Now you can add, edit or remove pin-drops on Google Maps. This is absolutely genius, to leverage the public to help re-shape the accuracy of an already powerful map solution.

But what does this mean for smartphone users? if its anything like the past, mobile users are still receiving the short-end of the stick. The typical desktop GMAP functions such as My Maps or Send to My Phone are never available to the smartphone GMAP apps. With this new functionality, I find it ever more important to have full ability on a handset as it would grant users the power to provide real-time mapping edits. Perhaps Android will grant us more abilities.

Nevertheless, Google bunch are brilliant at launching great products and having users help improve upon it. Very cool news indeed.

LG KF300: the Wine Phone goes global

LG in February announced LG KF300, a fashion handset. I really knew nothing much about, except for the model number.Well, since we already know that LG KF300 exists, more details about it were bound to leak sooner or later. And today mobile-review.com got the scoop, with all the press pics and specs for LG KF300 fashion phone:Full specs of LG KF300 include: * Tri-Band GSM/GPRS/ EDGE * Main

Nokia N95 In Three New Colors - White, Red And Blue

Nokia N95 is now available in 3 new colors, White, red and blue. Unfortunately the phones with the new colors will be exclusively sold by the Japanese provider “SoftBank”, that means that they have the “SoftBank”-Logo under the display and they have another, branded firmware than the free ones.In my opinion the white is ok , what you think? Which you prefer ? Red ? White Or Blue

Samsung Electronics Releases the AnyCall Haptic

Samsung Electronics has released a new touch screen phone, the AnyCall Haptic (Model: SCH-W420, SPH-W4200). The top premium model in the AnyCall Series.Among its new features, the latest UI is designed for users to enjoy visual, acoustic, and touch sensations. For example, an increase of volume triggers a cute sound and vibration similar to a real analog radio.Following the trend of my own mobile

Nokia intros VoIP-capable 6300i

Nokia has announced a new GSM phone, the Nokia 6300i, ability to make both cellular and VoIP calls. The latter are possible over Wi-Fi, an option which may save money when in range of an open hotspot. The phone is also able to browse the web and download applications over Wi-Fi, and can store as many as 2,000 numbers in memory.Nokia is otherwise reticent on sharing specifications; the regular

Blog Shout-out: iyon|design

Wanted to give a shout-out to my buddy Yasir and congratulate him on the launch of his blog (www.YasirHossain.com). Yasir is a talented graphics designer, gadget-freak and a personal friend. Please visit his site for design ideas and funny content.

TeaShark Mobile Browser Review

Engadget Mobile found a new mobile browser called TeaShark, which is available to phones capable of support JAVA MIDP 2.0. Evidently, its based on the same technology platform as the default Nokia browser with enhanced features. I downloaded a copy from their website and have found this browser to be quite good. Here are the pros and cons:

Pros:
* Clean Interface and startup page (Nokia Default Browser does not have a startup page, while Opera Mini's always felt a bit more cramped)
* Cool Multi-Tab feature. I managed to get up to 3 tabs opened at once.
* True, full screen browsing. Not top or bottom menu bars to limit your on screen display
* Full text select, like desktop browsers
* Find text function, like desktop browsers
* Smart URL suggestion functionality, this comes in very handy over a S60 handset
* Bookmark organization with color tags

Cons:
* The UI is not as intuitive. The on screen "#" shortcut menu makes it easier to use
* Menu and Functionality can sometimes be confusing (not sure exactly how to open a new tab or close old tab)
* When you press the "END" key, it shuts the application down (ie. other programs just takes you to home screen, kept app running in background)
* Like all other 3rd party software, the application must choose a network to sign on each time of use (no default access point setup)

Overall, I am pleased with another good mobile browser option that I can use. I feel like each new browser one ups the default Nokia Browser which is already very good. However, the level of improvement is so marginal that I am not sure if I would make the permanent switch; largely due to the fact that the default browser's inherent and seamless integration with the OS itself.

Related Entry: Nokia S60 Browser vs Opera Mini 4

Some real screen shots for your reference (click to enlarge)

iPhone Camera Telescope 6x Zoom

I found this product from BensBargains.net. The concept of this is just too funny. Basically, an external solution to add optical zoom (6x) to your iPhone. Its quite the mobile experience I am sure. One of the comments were appropriately made: "Don't know what's worse, that someone made such a product, or that someone found such a product useful."

This can be yours for $26 at handHelditems.com.

3G iPhone Coming Soon?

Gearlive.com says 10M 3G iPhones were ordered by Apple. My guess is June 2008 (1 year birthday of iPhone and SDK update).

Sharp’s Internet machine 922SH to be released in Japan via SoftBank

Sharp launches its 3G mobile phone ‘922SH’ in Japan market through SoftBank, which is expected to be available on 28th March. Measuring 56*116*17mm at 132g, it comes with four different colors including pearl white, metallic black, bronze gold and pearl pink.Supporting 1-Seg, international roaming service, HSDPA and Bluetooth connectivity, the 922HS is quipped with a full qwerty keyboard, a 3.5-

Samsung i458 cellphone DAP with B&O amp and scrollwheel speaker

Samsung trying to present a good alternative to existing music phones with Samsung i458.Running Symbian S60 v3.1 with a 2.4-inch display and HSDPA connectivity, with a Bang & Olufsen ICEpower amplifier, microSD slot supporting up to 4GB cards and built-in speaker,the i458 stands a good chance of being a decent phone, too. The dual-slide is similar to that on Nokia’s N95, although with a wheel

LG to launch silicon HSDPA phone of skin feeling

LG Electronics’ cellphone label CYON on Tuesday launched a new 3G-capable HSDPA phone for the Korean market. The SH240 has a silicon-covered front panel and buttons that give it a touchable, human skin-like feel, instead of the usual relatively hard rubber or plastic common to most handsets. Other unique features include SK Telecom’s Moneta Mobile Card wireless payment system, which allows users

Dual-SIM on the way from Samsung

When Samsung introduced dual SIM D880 DuoS phone, it had targeted Eastern Europe market first.You can Find these phone, but is too expensive 700$.Well, Samsung is apparently working on bringing a couple more reasonably priced DuoS handsets to market. Smape has it from Samsung’s Russian head, Yoonsoo Kim, that Samsung plans to bring the Samsung P240 DuoS handset to market later this year. The new

MWg reveals two more phones,the UBiQUiO 501 and UBiQUiO 503g

MWg, which was reborn from the ashes of O2 Asia’s handset biz, has added two more Windows Mobile phones to its portfolio. The UBiQUiO 501 and UBiQUiO 503g. Both the phones have a full QWERTY keypad with a touchscreen and run on Windows Mobile 6.0 Professional.Processor: TI OMAP 750 200 MHzOperating System: Windows Mobile 6 Professional (Upgraded from WM 5.0)Keyboard: QWERTYNetwork: GSM900 /

Wireless phone services

Cell phone industry changed a lot in these last years. Nowadays, even young children have cell phones and these wireless phones is something necessary and usual in daily life. Phones evolved from 2G to 3G and the mobile industry in changing each day. In the early 90s the 2nd generation of phones appeared and these phones could work on GSM, TDMA and CDMA. In time, mobile phones become smaller and

LG Shine might be better than an iPhone

Ladies this is the phone for you with a refelective screen so shinny you can even do your make up on it.The LG Shine has a 2 megapixel camera with flash, 1 gig embedded memory, an mp3 player and all the other usual cellphone contents. Of course, the best thing about the Shine is that it has a super shiny sliding cover that can double as a mirror.

250Mbps Super 3G Network in Japan

EngadgetMobile reported a story on the Japanese NTT DoCoMo telecom's recent test in successfully logging a peak download of 250Mbps over a test network known as Super 3G Network (aka 3.9G). Thats pretty amazing. Imagine if this technology rolled out today, on a 8GB iPhone or N95-4, it would take about 4 minutes before you fill up your storage at this rate. Wow!

My conversion:
8GB = 65536Mb (megabits)
65536MB/250Mb per second = 262 seconds
262 seconds = 4 min. 37 sec.

Back to reality, where my mobile web connection kept getting timed out...

AT&T in Best Position for Mobile Dominance?

I never would have imagined myself saying this, but by the way things look today, AT&T may be in the position for total US mobile market domination, if not already.

For a long time, American GSM carriers have had a tough battle against their CDMA counterparts (Verizon and Sprint). CDMA’s coverage and clarity have always proved to be more superior in the US. In addition, CDMA’s blazingly fast EV-DO rev.A 3G Data network have paved the way for most mobile fanatics; fans of GSM network had to suffer and settle with EDGE connection for quite some time. Finally, AT&T/Cingular made a great leap by launching UMTS/HSDPA for selected areas in late 2006. I would say that was the pivotal moment for securing their future dominance.

I am banking on AT&T to take total dominance because of their following strategies:

1). First GSM network to invest in 3G/3.5G infrastructure, beating out the other GSM provider, T-Mobile, to the race. This move has set AT&T up as a serious business solutions provider, offering respectable data speed over laptop cards or handsets. While entering this market a little later than Verizon and Sprint, they get a break on being a GSM network provider to offer flexibility to both domestic and foreign business men. Afterall, GSM is the network for Asia and Europe.

2). Brodening smartphone selections: AT&T worked with Samsung, Nokia and HTC to bring quite a few, very competent, smartphones to the market and kept up that supply. They kept most of the phones’ functionalities intacted (ie. WiFi, Bluetooth, etc.). They’ve also given subsidies which brings the cost of a lot of their phones to FREE after rebate (see smartphone bargain section on the right). This was always an advantage GSM carriers have to draw customers over Verizon and Sprint; if you have to start a contracted service, would you like to pay $50 or $200 for your smartphone?. Finally, the biggest boost in notoriety and success is the iPhone deal they’ve struck with Apple. This move single handily garanteed an insane amount of traffic, popularity, new customer acquistion and more… The move is simply brilliant, and I can only imagine Verizon’s upper management regretting as days goes on.

3). GSM Network. Due to this network's international coverage, by default, there is going to be more phones available to AT&T beyond the selections made available in their locked-in subsidized program. There is just going to be more unlocked, gray market support from both Europe and, especially, Asia. Additionally, AT&T is attracting Nokia to bring their flagship products to the mix. There are rumors indicating Nokia to bring their flagship NSeries smartphone (N95) to AT&T's already robust staple; in addition to the N78. Because GSM network offers more handsets that are quad-band supported (850/900/1800/1900MHz) , they give travelers (both to and from USA) a greater flexibility when visiting foreign territory. Albeit, Sprint is trying to launch more “world” phones in their selection, you just can’t beat the convenience of being a true GSM carrier.

Because of AT&T’s first-mover advantage in the US GSM data, wide array of smartphones and network that is more international, I believe AT&T is in a very good position to dominate the mobile market. There may be one threat in their way; that is T-Mobile. T-Mobile is known for their competitive pricing and services as well as providing a nice array of smartphones (ie. Dash, Sidekick, BlackBerry, Shadow, Sage, Wing, etc.). If AT&T wants to lock in more customers, I would suggest lowering the prices to their plans and services to achieve economies of scale (ie. $10-15 unlimited data plans and $5 unlimited SMS or MMS, etc.).

As is, my money is on AT&T.

T-Mobile BlackBerry 8820 Available with GPS & HotSpot Support

T-Mobile and Research In Motion announced the national availability of the BlackBerry 8820 smartphone, featuring built-in GPS and support for T-Mobile’s HotSpoHome( service for Wi-F calling. hone.The BlackBerry 8820 helps people stay connected to business associates, colleagues, family and friends by offering Wi-Fi connectivity for voice and data, access to location-based applications and

MIU HDPC - tries for James Bond, hits somewhere around The Tick

Hardware wise this thing is amazing featuring a VIA C7M ULV CPU running at 1GHz, 4GB of RAM, WiFi, Bluetooth, and your choice of a 60GB HDD or a 4GB SSD. Where it starts to fail is in respect to design, I guess what I'm trying to say here is that it's ugly.It even has a cool feature where it can dual boot WinXP and your choice of WinCE 5.0 or Linux Qplus. There are two screens; the larger of the

MMC island opens to the public

With great joy and pride I can finally announce the public opening of my company's first major Second Life project: the MMC island. MMC island is an extension of Multimedia center, the new media department of Slovenian public broadcaster (RTV Slovenija). The main purpose of the island is to provide users with the ability to organize their own events on group owned and managed land. You can read more about the project in our press release.

You can already visit the island right now, and on Saturday, March 29th from 10 AM to 4 PM SLT we'll be having the official opening party with 6 hours of live music and other activities (including a presentation of the project in English at 1 PM SLT). Here is the promo video we made at the rehearsal party (the real one will be even better! ;) ):

So, I hope you can all come to visit our new sim, and admire the amazing builds made by Beta Technologies. We are realy looking forward to shape the image and purpose of the island with you, all Second Life users, so if you've got a suggestion of how to make the place even better, please let us know! :)

I'll try to blog more info about the island in the coming weeks (after I get some sleep :) ), so stay tuned!

Samsung SPH-P9000 Deluxe

Now Samsung just upped the ante with this -- the SPH-P9000 Deluxe MITs -- at the Mobile WiMax Summit 2006 in South Korea. Measuring in at chubby 143 × 94.3 × 29.75-mm / 580-g (5.6 × 3.7 × 1.17-inches / 1.28-pounds) when folded, this Windows XP device unfolds (dare we say) origami-like to reveal a 1GHz Transmeta CPU and both Mobile WiMAX (AKA, WiBro which is already launched in Korea) and EV-DO for data connectivity. No WiFi apparently, this all about Mobile WiMAX kids, with Internet speeds of 2-3 Mbps even when travelling up 120-KPH (75-MPH). The SPH-P9000 packs a 5-inch 854x480 (WVGA) LCD, 30GB disk, 1.3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, and apparently ships with both an internal 2980mAh and 7200mAh external extended-battery. People who have played with a prototype on display at the show complained about the screen being too small (in DMB-cellphone crazed Korea!?) and of excessive heating. Well, they can at least work on the latter before the scheduled Korean launch in the first half of 2007. No pricing yet but we've got plenty more pics after the break.

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Nokia N76

is a another great flap mobile phone.it has two displays. it supports to GSM and CDMA both. this phone has very attractive design. it is suitable for music lovers.it can Store up to thousands of songs with expandable memory up to 2 GB.And N76 is a 3G phone,you can get vedio calls.it has 2megapixel camera which have 20x degital zoom.its Quick cover keys allow you to play music and snap pictures without opening your phone and can Video capture in QVGA resolution with the CIF+ (common intermediate format) camera and playback up to 15 fps with up to 4x digital zoom
Watch this vedio


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Thumbplay to Distribute Radio Content for Clear Channel

I took some relatives to JFK last night, on my way driving home alone, I tuned into Z100 NY station for some music. I usually take these rare moments of driving alone in my car to get ideas for my playlist addition on my iPod. Anyways, the station was playing some good songs back to back. So many of them to the point where I am having a hardtime keeping up with memorizing the songs and artists. At that point, I was wondering wouldn't it be nice to be able to log in to a station's website and not only seeing the playlist but also download the songs as well?

Well, as destiny would have it, I find a nice press release in my inbox first thing this morning. Clear Channel communications will leverage Thumbplay to distribute content over 650 of its local radio stations. Pretty cool indeed.

Thumbplay’s content is contextually featured in areas including the ‘Just Played’ box and ‘Top 20 On Demand’ lists on all participating local radio stations’ home pages. In addition, links to the mobile content store are found in the ‘Last 10 Played’ playlist on each site. This enables listeners who like songs heard on these stations to purchase them as ringtones for more than 2,000 supported handsets across all major U.S. wireless carriers.

Global Mobile Telephone Forensics and Evidence

Global Mobile Telephone Forensics and EvidenceIt is interesting to note, and a subject matter I have been keenly watching since this webblog started, the importance of mobile telephone forensics and evidence is receiving around the globe. It is very easy to get submersed into one's own country's (UK) activities in this area and forget how other countries have significantly increased their

Nokia E90 Communicator

This is a Great business phone. it has two displays and it is a laptop mpbole phone.it can Browse the Internet and transfer media-rich files via HSDPA (up to 3.6 Mbit/s enabled) and Increase mobile productivity with applications for browsing and editing documents.also nokia E90 can Access voice and data functions quickly and easily with convenient shortcut keys .it works with S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 1 and Java™ MIDP 2.0 .nokia e90 has office tools like word and Exel. another function is GPS.you can find the position by using satellite.it's great web brouser suppport java and flash vedios.you can watch even youtube.

Watch this vedio


Some useful links for you

HTC Dream Android Phone

The HTC Dream Android phone rumors have surfaced again. The HTC Dream is supposed to be the first Android running handset released to the public. A person close to the situation recently told InfoWorld that this handset is indeed scheduled to be the first Android phone to debut, acknowledging rumors of the new cell phone.“The HTC Dream Android phone is said to measure 3-inches wide by 5-inches

Samsung SGH-G600 Belle comes in burgundy

Samsung has now partnered with nails inc. to launch the G600 Belle, a device available exclusively at Phones 4u in the UK. This new version of the G600 is cloaked in a sleek burgundy colour and the manufacturer is now throwing in 3 bottles of nail polish in the box, including one that matches the G600 Belle’s color.The stylish G600 Belle is equipped with a 5 megapixel camera with camcorder

Toshiba’s ultra-exclusive invitation-only Cosmic Shiner revealed

Adding another gem of a handset to the glamorous line up of luxury phones, Toshiba have finally introduced the Cosmic Shiner, a FanFun 815T model studded with diamonds.This limited edition model, with only 1,000 available, is to be offered for $4,000 via an interesting invitation only scheme. In addition to the custom design features by Kansai Yamamoto discriminating buyers will also be entitled

Google Search plugin for Windows Mobile

After the success of the Google Search homescreen plugin for S60 handsets - which Vincent described as making “a big difference” to handset usability - the search company has announced a similar app for Windows Mobile handsets.Google has now brought its home screen search application to the WinMo platform, noting on its blog that it has discovered that S60 and BlackBerry users with the app

Mobile Calls on Aeroplanes

Mobile Calls on Aeroplanes .Back in November 2006 I wrote here at trewmte.blogspot a brief piece regarding "Switch On, Update, Lose Evidence":.http://trewmte.blogspot.com/2006/11/switch-on-update-lose-evidence.html.The discussion thread related to the same but more indepth discussion in "Switch On, Update, Lose Evidence" that could be found in MTE (Mobile Telephone Evidence) Newsletter - copy of

PS3 Update: BD-Live

Sony is expected to release a update for the PS3 later this month. It is said to add Blu-ray Disc Profile 2.0 (BD-Live capability), copy photos and music playlists onto their PSP, and even use it as a remote control for playing music and stream video files. Another special feature is "resume play", which will allow the user to begin playing at the last point of stoppage for Blu-ray discs and DVDs even when the disc is taken out of the drive. Additional Blu-ray players are slated for release with a ethernet port but not BD-Live, which may come in later software update.

LG LH2300 with Wide VGA Screen

Offering a full internet browsing experience, LG has start selling the LG LH2300 in Korea with a Wide VGA LCD display screen.With a high resolution Wide VGA LCD (WVGA) display screen, the LG LH2300 is offering a 800 x 480 pixels and internet browsing in landscape mode. The screen is also a full touch screen, you can scroll around the web pages with your finger easily. Other features include a new

Samsung Glyde U940 for Verizon Wireless Gets More Photos Leaked

First leaked in end 2007, it looks like Samsung Glyde U940 is finally reaching the Verizon Wireless. It is said that the model will be available in April and feature an auto focus 3 mega-pixel camera and high speed wireless connection capabilities. With a full QWERTY key pad that slides underneath the display, it will give users enhanced access to mobile e-mail and text messaging services. See

Myspace Mobile Now Accessible To Sprint Customers On All Web-Enabled Sprint Phones

MySpace and Sprint today announced the launch of MySpace Mobile on all Web-enabled Sprint phones. The free direct access to the new MySpace Mobile website on a U.S. wireless carrier allows Sprint data subscribers a fast track to their MySpace profiles on their phones.MySpace provides Sprint users direct access to MySpace Mobile's tool set, including the ability to edit MySpace profiles, view and

Hands On with iPhone 2.0 - new changes abound like Spring cleaning

Engadget has gotten their hands on iPhone firmware version 2.0. Some of the new features include a scientific calculator when you turn your iPhone sideways with the calculator open and the previously announced Exchange support is as smooth as it should be.There isn’t a contacts search function, although they proposed that it might be because they don’t have too terribly many contacts, so it might

Garmin Nuvi 200 for $149

My father and mother in-laws live throughout Southeast Asia. Their main residence is in the capital of Malaysia, KL. On the weekends, they love taking their beloved Mini Cooper S on road trips to Singapore or up to Peneng. As the mobile go-to guy in the family, they've come to me for their GPS solution. You see, companies like Tom Tom and Garmin are not investing money to develope maps and POIs in smaller markets. So even if a car in Malaysia is equipped with GPS Navigation, there would be no DVD maps to run it with.

Thanks to the fine folks at Malsingmaps.com and their contributing members for coming up with their own customized Garmin maps w/ POIs for most of the GPS devices on the market today, I was able to setup a Garmin C320 for my in-laws to enjoy. They've since really enjoyed having a full working GPS to use throughout that region and be the envy of their friends. Lately, they've been complaining about not being able to get a fix on the GPS location so I am now checking out what is available economically from Garmin for purchase as a replacement.

I came across the Garmin Nuvi 200 from Amazon.com. I remembered this being in the $350 range when it first came out on the market about 1 year ago. But the price I found today is $150 shipped (no tax for me, NY resident). This is a great price for a nice little 3.5" Garmin GPS about the size of a deck of cards. Once I know the C320 is broken for sure, I will pickup this device for them as replacement.

Professional Photo Printing Solution: myPhotopipe

I finished up a 4-day session SES NY 2008 this afternoon with the topic on Image Search. The Google folks shared some interesting statistics regarding to the explosion of digital imagery. It is said that last year, 750 million camera phones and 100 million digital cameras were sold. Pictures are being taken at the rate of 25 to 50 million per day.

While social and viral photography albums such as Flickr and PicasaWeb is great for sharing your treasured shots online, what about the work you would like to print out and hang up. While Snapfish, Kodakgallery or even your local Costco and Target may do the trick on those 4"x6"s, I have yet to find a professional solution for higher quality and larger print outs (on canvas, mounting, and gallery quality).

That is until today, I was told about a website called myPhotopipe.com. They seem to have a wide range of professional photo printing services. The company is making itself a pro-grade lab for all digital photographers. This is what the myPhotopipe.com's website says:

Pearl. Matte. Glossy. Bordered. Borderless. Black & White. Color corrected or not. That’s the Photopipe difference. We’re a pro lab serving you nationwide and we know that you know what you want.

Being a newbie to DSLR, I would occasionally take a good enough of a shot for me to want to print it out as art, I am going to checkout these guys for some prints in the upcoming future and report back.

Flash Coming to iPhone one way or another

Well, they may not have quite said it like that, but, they did say that they've taken a look at the iPhone SDK and they believe that they can use just the SDK to get Flash on the iPhone. Sure they'd much rather work directly with Apple on this matter and make sure Flash gets fully integrated, but they've more or less said that one way or the other, Flash will be built for the iPhone.Now, since

Skyfire Browser Beta Available Today

Skyfire, a very promising mobile browser fully supporting Flash and other multimedia in a full HTML experience is available for beta download today. I received an email alert from them 2 minutes ago. Please find the email communication below. I am going to test this baby out as soon as possible and report back.

Skyfire: Beta Download now available! Thanks for signing up for the Skyfire private beta. Today, you will receive an SMS message on the mobile phone number you gave us during the beta sign up. There will be a link in the SMS message to click. That verifies your registration and a follow up SMS provides the download to Skyfire. The download and installation is just a couple of clicks and a few minutes. During the installation, you’ll create a Skyfire account. Please use this account to access all of the support and help available on our website. If you don’t receive our SMS – don’t worry, you probably didn't enter a US mobile phone number during sign-up. We’ll be notified that you didn’t receive our SMS and we will follow up with you via email. In the email, we will ask you to update your mobile phone number so we can resend you the SMS. As a reminder, currently our private beta is running on Windows Mobile phones in the US. If you use a different phone, or live outside the U.S., we’ll keep you posted on our progress and let you know as soon as your phone is supported. We are very excited to give you this 0.5 beta release of Skyfire. We’re anxious to get your insights, so please give us lots of feedback. With your help, we’ll march to a stellar 1.0 product. Please don’t forget to tell your friends about Skyfire. To stay up to date about what’s happening here, you can read our blog. Thanks, The Skyfire Team www.skyfire.com

Update: This is for Windows Mobile 5 and 6 Only. Its by invitation in batches so if you missed the registration from a while ago, you can sign up today for the next wave of beta test. In the mean time, I need to find me a Windows Mobile phone.

Puretracks DRM-Free Mobile Music Store for BlackBerry

Puretracks DRM-Free Mobile Music Store for BlackBerry. Puretracks, Toronto-based digital music provider along with handset development partner Magnet Mobile Media have developed a new DRM-free mobile music store and service for select RIM’s devices, including the popular Curve, Pearl and 8800 series smartphones. A sneak peek of the Puretracks Mobile Edition music service for BlackBerry was

The Mobile Experience Nostalgia: Nokia 8890

One of the best-looking, sleek-design premium phone in my opinion was the Nokia 8890. In 1999, this phone was the king of all phones. I specifically remembered its striking design featuring a minimalist outer-shell that is finished with a polished steel casing. The backlight for the LCD and keyboard had an xenon-like intensity which illuminates far stronger than any other Nokia handset on the market back then. The phone itself was pretty simple, it had all the functionality as all other Nokia GSM handsets. Perhaps a tad more memory for phonebook and ringtones; but the design alone was just so perfect as an eye candy. The phone retailed for $400; and as a college student, I could only wish there were some type of subsidized program through SBC/Pacbell so I could get my hands on this phone.

WikiNotes for Android: Routing Intents

In the last article, we talked about using Linkify to turn wiki words (those that match a regular expression we defined) into a content: URI and defining a path to data that matched a note belonging to that wiki word. As an example, a matching word like ToDoList would be turned into a content: URI like content://com.google.android.wikinotes.db.wikinotes/wikinotes/ToDoList and then acted upon using the VIEW action from the Linkify class.

This article will examine how the Android operating system takes this combination of VIEW action and content: URI and finds the correct activity to fire in order to do something with the data. It will also explain how the other default links created by Linkify, like web URLs and telephone numbers, also result in the correct activity to handle that data type being fired. Finally, this article will start to examine the custom ContentProvider that has been created to handle WikiNotes data. The full description of the ContentProvider and what it does will span a couple more articles as well, because there is a lot to cover.

The Linkify-calls-intent Workflow

At a high level, the steps for Linkify to invoke an intent and for the resulting activity (if any) to handle it looks like this:

1. Linkify is invoked on a TextView to turn matching text patterns into Intent links.


2. Linkify takes over monitoring for those Intent links being selected by the user.


3. When the user selects a link, Linkify calls the VIEW action using the content: URI associated with the link.


4. Android takes the content: URI that represents the data, and looks for a ContentProvider registered in the system that matches the URI.


5. If a match is found, Android queries the ContentProvider using the URI, and asks what MIME type the data that will be returned from the URI is.


6. Android then looks for an activity registered in the system with an intent-filter that matches both the VIEW action, and the MIME type for the data represented by the content: URI.


7. Assuming a match is found, Linkify then invokes the intent for the URI, at which point the activity takes over, and is handed the content: URI.


8. The activity can then use the URI to retrieve the data and act on it.

If this sounds complicated, it really is a simpler process than it sounds, and it is quite lightweight as well. Perhaps a more understandable statement about how it works might be:

Linkify is used to turn matching text into hot-links. When the user selects a hot-link, Android takes the data locator represented by the hot-link and looks for a data handler for that data locator. If it finds one, it asks for what type of data is returned for that locator. It then looks for something registered with the system that handles that type of data for the VIEW action, and starts it, including the data locator in the request.

The real key here is the MIME type. MIME stands for Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions - a standard for sending attachments over email. The MIME type (which is the part Android uses) is a way of describing certain kinds of data. That type is then used to look for an Activity that can do something with that data type. In this way, ContentProviders and Activities (or other IntentReceivers) are decoupled, meaning that a given Content URI might have a different ContentProvider to handle it, but could still use the same MIME type meaning that the same activity could be called upon to handle the resulting data.

Linkify on a Wiki Word

Using the above workflow, let's take a look at exactly how the process works in WikiNotes for Android:

First, Linkify is used to turn text matching the wiki word regular expression into a link that provides a Content URI for that wiki word, for example content://com.google.android.wikinotes.db.wikinotes/wikinotes/ToDoList.

When the user clicks on the wiki word link, Linkify invokes the VIEW action on the Content URI. At this point, the Android system takes over getting the Intent request to the correct activity.

Next, Android looks for a ContentProvider that has been registered with the system to handle URIs matching our Content URI format.

In our case, we have a definition inside our application in the AndroidManifest.xml file that reads:

<provider name="com.google.android.wikinotes.db.WikiNotesProvider" 
    android:authorities="com.google.android.wikinotes.db.wikinotes" />

This establishes that we have a ContentProvider defined in our application that provides the "root authority": com.google.android.wikinotes.db.wikinotes. This is the first part of the Content URI that we create for a wiki word link. Root Authority is just another way of thinking about a descriptor that is registered with Android to allow requests for certain URLs to be routed to the correct class.

So, the whole definition is that a class called com.google.android.wikinotes.db.WikiNotesProvider is registered with the system as able to handle the com.google.android.wikinotes.db.wikinotes root authority (i.e. URIs starting with that identifier).

From here, Android takes the rest of the URI and present it to that ContentProvider. If you look at the WikiNotesProvider class and scroll to the very bottom - the static block there, you can see the pattern definitions to match the rest of the URL.

In particular, take a look at the two lines:

URI_MATCHER.addURI(WikiNote.WIKINOTES_AUTHORITY, "wikinotes", NOTES);
URI_MATCHER.addURI(WikiNote.WIKINOTES_AUTHORITY, "wikinotes/*", NOTE_NAME);

These are the definitions of URIs that our ContentProvider recognizes and can handle. The first recognizes a full URI of content://com.google.android.wikinotes.db.wikinotes/wikinotes and associates that with a constant called NOTES. This is used elsewhere in the ContentProvider to provide a list of all of the wiki notes in the database when the URI is requested.

The second line uses a wildcard - '*' - to match a request of the form that Linkify will create, e.g. content://com.google.android.wikinotes.db.wikinotes/wikinotes/ToDoList. In this example, the * matches the ToDoList part of the URI and is available to the handler of the request, so that it can fish out the matching note for ToDoList and return it as the data. This also associates that match with a constant called NOTE_NAME, which again is used as an identifier elsewhere in the ContentProvider.

The other matches in this static block are related to forms of searching that have been implemented in the WikiNotes for Android application, and will be covered in later articles. Likewise, how the data is obtained from this matching pattern will be the subject of the next article.

For right now we are concerned with the MIME type for the URI. This is defined in the getType() method also in the WikiNotesProvider class (about half way through the file). Take a quick look at this. The key parts for now are:

case NOTES:
    return "vnd.android.cursor.dir/vnd.google.wikinote";

and

case NOTE_NAME:
    return "vnd.android.cursor.item/vnd.google.wikinote";

These are the same constant names we defined in our pattern matchers. In the first case, that of the all notes URI, the MIME type returned is vnd.android.cursor.dir/vnd.google.wikinote which is like saying an Android list (dir) of Google wiki notes (the vnd bit is MIME speak for "vendor specific definition"). Likewise, in the case of a NOTE_NAME match, the MIME type returned is vnd.android.cursor.item/vnd.google.wikinote which is like saying an Android item of Google wiki notes.

Note that if you define your own MIME data types like this, the vnd.android.cursor.dir and vnd.android.cursor.item categories should be retained, since they have meaning to the Android system, but the actual item types should be changed to reflect your particular data type.

So far Android has been able to find a ContentProvider that handles the Content URI supplied by the Linkify Intent call, and has queried the ContentProvider to find out the MIME types for that URI. The final step is to find an activity that can handle the VIEW action for that MIME type. Take a look in the the AndroidManifest.xml file again. Inside the WikiNotes activity definition, you will see:

<intent-filter>
    <action name="android.intent.action.VIEW"/>
    <category name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT"/>
    <category name="android.intent.category.BROWSABLE"/>
    <data mimetype="vnd.android.cursor.item/vnd.google.wikinote"/>
</intent-filter>

This is the correct combination of matches for the VIEW action on a WikiNote type that is requested from the LINKIFY class. The DEFAULT category indicates that the WikiNotes activity should be treated as a default handler (a primary choice) for this kind of data, and the BROWSABLE category means it can be invoked from a "browser", in this case the marked-up Linkified text.

Using this information, Android can match up the VIEW action request for the WikiNotes data type with the WikiNotes activity, and can then use the WikiNotes activity to handle the request.

Why do it like this?

It's quite a trip through the system, and there is a lot to absorb here, but this is one of the main reasons I wanted to write WikiNotes in the first place. If you follow and understand the steps here, you'll have a good grasp of the whole Intents mechanism in Android, and how it helps loosely coupled activities cooperate to get things done.

In this case, we could have found another way to detect wiki words based on a regular expression, and maybe written our own handler to intercept clicks within the TextView and dig out the right data and display it. This would seem to accomplish the same functionality just as easily as using intents, so what is the advantage to using the full Intents mechanism?

In fact there are several advantages:

The most obvious is that because we are using the standard Intent based approach, we are not limited to just linking and navigating to other wiki notes. We get similar behavior to a number of other data types as well. For example, a telephone number or web URL in a wiki note will be marked up by Linkify, and using this same mechanism (VIEW action on the linked data type) the browser or dialer activities will be automatically fired.

It also means that each operation on a wiki note can be treated as a separate life cycle by our activity. We are not dealing with swapping data in and out of an existing activity - each activity works on a particular wiki note and that's all you have to worry about.

Another advantage is that we now have a public activity to handle VIEW actions in WikiNotes no matter where the request comes from. Another application could request to view a wiki note (perhaps without even knowing what kind of data it is) and our activity could start up and handle it.

The backstack is automatically maintained for you too. As you forward navigate through WikiNotes, Android maintains the history of notes visited, and so when you hit the back button you go back to the last note you were on. All this is free because we rely on the Android intents mechanism.

Finally, if you run WikiNotes for Android and then start DDMS to take a look at the Activity threads in the WikiNotes application while it is running, you can see that despite what you might think, letting Android manage the navigation is very efficient. Create a few linked notes, as many links deep as you like, and then follow them. If you follow links hundreds of notes deep, you will still only see a handful of WikiNotes activities. Android is managing the activities, closing the older ones as necessary and using the life cycle to swap data in and out.

Next Time

This was a long article, but necessarily so. It demonstrates the importance of the Intents mechanism and to reinforce the notion that it should be used whenever possible for forward navigation, even within a single application. Illustrating this is one of the primary reasons I wrote WikiNotes for Android in the first place.

In the next article we will look deeper into the ContentProvider and examine how it turns a Content URI into a row (or several rows) of data that can be used by an activity.

Japanese People and Their Mobile

41.2% of Japanese recognized that they have used their mobile device at least one time while they were taking their bath! This came out of a survey conducted by video game company, Sega on 16,250 Japanese. Obviously, they wanted to know what they where doing with their mobile device in the bathroom, here is what they found:

* 29% used it to change their email address (not sure about what that means)
* 28% used it to listen to music
* 12% used it to play mobile games
* 9% used it to place phone calls

It's a clear sign people are using their cell phones everywhere... really everywhere. We might see more and more crazy accessories for the mobile market similar to the mobile video hat.

The most important aspect of this study is the fact that every demographic (age, sex, household income) is using their mobile devices in their bath! It could explain why more Asian manufacturers are launching waterproof mobile devices.

Unlimited iTunes with a purchase of...

Apple is in talks with various music companies regarding potential changes on how it sells music via iTunes. There are several rumors to this new policy. One is unlimited and free song downloads in exchange to paying a extra fee when purchasing a Apple device. Another includes a subscription model where customers would pay a monthly fee for song downloads. A analyst states, "There will always be multiple models for music, and to be honest for there's been no reason for Apple to change."

Nokia N95-4 8GB 3G US NAM $511Shipped?

I can't verify if this is a legitimate US Version (UMTS 850/1900?) of the Black Nokia N95 8GB, but Dell's website says it is. According to TechBargains.com, the price of this phone dropped by $140, plus you can cash in a coupon for $128 off. This is a pretty insane deal for a brand new released 8GB N95-4.

Important Update: I just verified that THIS IS NOT US 3G supported, unlike what Dell claims to be. According to Dell, the manufacturer number is 002D2Q8, and according to Buy.com, its WCDMA 2100. This is European and Asian 3G spec (aka. N95-2)

Important Update 2: According to the folks at Howard Forum, some have called Dell and confirmed this is indeed a US 3.5G N95-4 8GB NAM... somehow they didn't update the Part ID number. I am confused and a little tempted...

Update: While this $511 is no longer available, Amazon.com is now carrying this phone US-version for $579 shipped. See my update here.

Sync desktop browser bookmarks with mobile

Suppose you are traveling or at your friends house and you are in need of accessing or showing some of your favorite websites you bookmarked in your desktop web browser. You may have a mobile or laptop with internet connection with you, but the bookmarks are in your home/office desktop, you will not be able to access those bookmarks.There are couple of suggestions that would help you sync your

Flash Coming to an iPhone Near You

This week must be Flash-mania, shortly after the announcement to support Windows Mobile and Flash Lite. Adobe CEO just announced they are developing Flash for iPhone after evaluated iPhone SDK. I guess Adobe's early investment in Flash is finally paying off. They must have held off to this date before supporting mobile-flash for some big payoff. My pals Greg and Robert can now cross-off one more item from their short list which kept them away from an iPhone.

The world’s most expensive iPhone

Austrian luxury designer and jeweler Peter Aloisson has something more to add to his kitty – ladies and gentlemen, presenting to you the Aloisson designed iPhone – the world’s most expensive iPhone. The phone derives its name from the Princess cut used on 138 of the 318 diamonds on its surface. The rest of the 180 diamonds on the phone are brilliant cut and it has 17.75 carats of diamonds set in

Nokia N82 in black Now

Nokia today unveiled the Nokia N82 in stylish black, bringing a blend of state-of-the-art imaging, integrated navigation and high-speed Internet connectivity to the Nseries range of converged devices.The Nokia N82 in black is expected to start shipping within weeks, with an estimated retail price of approximately 400 euros, before taxes and subsidies."The Nokia N82 is made for storytelling," says

Sprint Builds On Leading Open Application Approach with Faster, More User-Friendly Open Internet Access

As the first U.S. carrier to launch the OpenWeb solution from Openwave Systems Inc., Sprint customers will be able to get faster, more user-friendly renderings of Internet sites, even those not optimized for the mobile device.With Openwave OpenWeb, webpages will automatically appear on data-enabled Sprint phones in an easy-to-read format, regardless of the memory or processing power of the device

Nokia launches 2008 Nokia Mobile Filmmaking Awards to support Pangea Day

In a world where people are often divided by borders, differences and conflicts, it's easy to lose sight of what we have in common. Pangea Day is an event that seeks to overcome these barriers by helping people see themselves in others through the power of film. Nokia is inviting everyone to enter the 2008 Nokia Mobile Filmmaking Awards by creating and submitting their short videos to www.ovi.com

Verizon

The Juke is a swivel-design mobile phone that you have to flick open 180 degrees to reveal the keypad. Available in s teeny-tiny form factor, the phone features 2GB of internal storage (fancy term for saying there is no support for additional storage). Verizon calls it a fashion-forward fancy phone , and the Juke, true to its name, handles MP3, WMA and unprotected AAC files.
Available in black and pink, the Venus features dual front screens, with the lower portion offering touch input with vibration feedback, designed for quick access to the phone's features. The Venus is also music-centric and comes in a slider design. With support for microSD memory cards up to 8GB, this is a decent phone compatible with Verizon's Get It Now downloadable applications and V Cast Video and Music.

Venus can handle MP3/WMA/AAC files and comes with a 2 megapixel camera; it can record video as well.

Nokia N82 Now in Jet Black Finish

Nokia announced today that its candy bar smartphone N82 is now officially being sold with a Jet-Black high gloss finish. This phone is practically the same as a N95 with GPS, 5MP Carl Zeiss lens camera, WiFi and more. It also has a Xenon powered flash which is not available on the N95. I don't believe this is the US-3G edition.

Yahoo Mobile Working on Voice Search App?

A while ago, I mentioned that I was invited to participate in Yahoo's Mobile Search Panel. Well, tonight, I was asked by Yahoo Mobile team to participate in a survey with questions suggesting they may be working on a voice-based search application. Questions included if I'd be interested in downloading such mobile app.? or if I'd be concerned of privacy due to the fact that I have to speak out my search queries.

On a side note, did you realize that 411 is the oldest, search (and Mobile/Voice search) that is still lucrative and highly profitable to this date. Largely because majority (80%+) of the population do not know how much it actually cost per call.

Slifter - Mobile Comparison Shop at Local Stores

At the SES NY show today, I ran across a vendor called Slifter.com. They hooked up a N95 via Video Output to a 32" LCD to demonstrate their service. Basically, you can use your smartphone to search for an item at a brick & mortar store nearby (sorted by best price).

There are two ways of using this service. First, point your mobile device to Slifter.com. For some phones, you will be prompted to download an app. or you can access their service via mobile browser for the same thing. Once you have inputed an item and the zip code, a results list is shown of the item by feature (or color) and then sorted by price. Once you select the item, the next page will show you the store by distance. In some scenarios, they will prompt that the vendor has the item online-only. For the most part, the list is composed of local stores and their inventory. The actual product page gives you additional information for directions, map, store phone and ability to text your friends about this product. I find that most of the large brick & mortar retail stores have their inventory available on Slifter (ie. Target, Apple, Best Buy, Circuit City, etc.)

Personally, I find this mobile service refreshingly simple to use. They have even got a Slifter SMS service for non-web capable phones. As their website have stated, "95% OF RETAIL SALES OCCUR IN LOCAL STORES" and Slifter is like that missing puzzle connecting a consumer's phone to local store's pricing/inventory. I am filing this one under a good "Mobile Experience"!

Nokia S60 Browser vs. Opera Mini 4

Ever since I got my Nokia N95-3, I have been relying pretty heavily on the default Nokia browser for most of my internet usage. Largely because for mobile applications, I tend to rely on default applications thinking its probably better in the sense that it being more reliable, and “the way” manufacturer intended. In addition, I also knew that Nokia’s broswer was based on the popular Opera Mini technology, therefore, I didn’t think it was necessary for me to make any switch.

A while ago, I blogged about OperaMini 4 being available and I installed it back then. I haven’t actually played with it in full extent until recently. I was fine with what the Nokia Browser can do (although I admit the shortcuts on keypad is still abit confusing and hard to remember), what drove me to OperaMini was the inability of displaying higher-resolution graphics within the default Nokia Browser. (See 1st sample below)

The more I tried to use web services like the PicasaWeb or just browsing blogs like Engadget on my handset, the more I noticed Nokia Brwoser’s inability to render the images. So I decided to test out Opera Mini in full which had no problem what-so-ever. I also found the following advantages over default Nokia Browser:

• Opera Mini makes Zoom in and out easier by using the right button beneath the LCD (whereas in Nokia Browser, you have to press keypad 8, should you remember)
• Opera Mini’s transition to go “BACK” is much faster. It just goes back to the last page without having to reload. (whereas in Nokia Browser, while it gives you a preview window for the previous screens, it takes more time to reload them)
• Opera Mini’s basic layout and usage for the numeric keypad makes more sense: 2 is up, 8 is down, 4 is left, 6 is right.
• Opera Mini gives you the short-key command on the bottom of the screen when you go through the default menu.
• Opera Mini has a smoother, web2.0 like transition going forward or backwards in between screens

Overall, I like Opera Mini compared to the Nokia Browser. Chances are, I will still rely on the Nokia Browser most of the times just because it’s the default program and will launch more frequently by default (from email or SMS links). However, to truly enjoy my mobile internet experience, I will choose Opera Mini any day.

PS – I do have one little problem with Opera Mini. For whatever reason, when I try to go to Google.com, it defaults to Google Norway (Google.no). I can’t figure out how to change the default back to the US. So it kind of renders a big portion of my user experience useless…

Recently Reviewed: TeaShark Mobile Browser on Nokia N95-3