Mobiles

O2 today exclusively unveils the Xda Zest, to be on sale this month for Pay&Go as well as on Pay Monthly subscribers in UK. The new Xda Zest has been designed with a sleek finger-friendly touch interface and a 2.8″ TFT screen making it extremely easy to navigate. It also comes with a free 2 week CoPilot Sat Nav trial with full UK and Ireland GPS mapping. Running on the Windows Mobile 6.1 operating system, users have access to their email using Mobile Outlook, as well having the capability to easily view and edit Microsoft Office documents in Word, Excel and even PowerPoint.

The Xda Zest boasts built-in Wi-Fi and HSDPA for fast connection to the web on the move. The latest O2 own-branded handset also has a 3 mega pixel camera combined with an mp3 player.

O2 Xda Zest will be on sale in O2 stores and online at www.o2.co.uk from 17th November 2008. It is available on O2 Pay&Go priced at £249.99 and from free on certain O2 Pay Monthly contracts.

According to The NPD Group, Apple’s iPhone 3G surpassed the Motorola RAZR as the leading handset purchased by adult consumers in the U.S. in the third quarter (Q3) of 2008. RAZR had been ranked by NPD as the top-selling consumer handset for the past 12 quarters.

Even with stronger consumer sales of iPhone, and the mobile phone market’s normal seasonal uplift after Q2, domestic handset purchases by adult consumers declined 15 percent year over year in Q3 to 32 million units. Consumer handset sales revenue fell 10 percent to $2.9 billion, even as the average selling price (ASP) rose 6 percent to $88.

“The displacement of the RAZR by the iPhone 3G represents a watershed shift in handset design from fashion to fashionable functionality,” said Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis for NPD. “Four of the five best-selling handsets in the third quarter were optimized for messaging and other advanced Internet features.”

The top handset models in rank order, based on unit sales in Q3, were as follows:

• Apple iPhone 3G
• Motorola RAZR V3 (all models)
• RIM Blackberry Curve (all models)
• LG Rumor
• LG enV2

When it comes to the specific features that motivated U.S. consumers to purchase their handsets, 43 percent of handset buyers cited the need for a camera and 36 percent noted the ability to send and receive text messages. Mobile phones with a QWERTY keyboard experienced the greatest year-over-year rise in sales; 30 percent of handsets were sold with this feature in Q3 2008, versus just 11 percent the year prior.

“A growing data divide continues in cellular handsets,” Rubin said. “Those who see the value in wireless Internet access are justifying the investment, whereas voice-centric users have little incentive to upgrade, which is obviously detrimental to operators who seek to sell data plans and media-access services to their subscribers.”

Nokia today launched Mobile Millennium, a public pilot that will collect and study traffic data received from GPS-enabled mobile devices, such as the Nokia N96, Nokia N95 and Nokia E71. As part of its open innovation model, Nokia Research Center is collaborating with UC Berkeley’s California Center for Innovative Transportation (CCIT), the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and NAVTEQ to design, execute and analyze the traffic system.

Based in part on the results of an earlier experiment, Nokia believes that a community of users with GPS-equipped mobile devices can help reduce traffic and the amount of time spent on the road. Providing real-time information about traffic congestion helps drivers make more informed decisions - such as whether to take alternative routes, public transport or reschedule their journey.

Participation in Mobile Millennium is open to anyone with a GPS-enabled mobile phone from a range of manufacturers, an unlimited data plan and the ability to install and run Java applications. The pilot will operate over four to six months and up to 10 000 members of the public community can participate. During the experiment, special software on the mobile devices periodically sent anonymous speed and location readings from the integrated GPS to servers. The feeds were then combined to create a real-time picture of traffic speeds and projected travel times. 

Mobile Millennium is being funded in part by a grant award from the US Department of Transportation under the SafeTrip-21 initiative. Locally, Caltrans, who is also assisting in the logistics of trial and enabling comparison with the data collected by the existing sensor networks, aims to find a lower-cost and more reliable solution than that which is available today. “Real-time traffic information collected through this community-based technology is of great interest to transportation agencies,” noted Randell Iwasaki, Chief Deputy Director of Caltrans. “Our goal is to increase information flow to and from travelers in a cost-efficient, effective manner. We are excited about the potential benefits of a system such as Mobile Millennium,” Iwasaki added.

VMware today announced its plans to bring virtualization to mobile phones through the new VMware Mobile Virtualization Platform (MVP). Built on Trango Virtual Processors, mobile phone users will benefit by being able to run multiple profiles - for example, one for personal use and one for work use - on the same phone. VMware MVP is a thin layer of software that will be embedded on a mobile phone that decouples the applications and data from the underlying hardware. It will be optimized to run efficiently on low-power-consuming and memory-constrained mobile phones.

“VMware is excited to extend the benefits of virtualization, which we pioneered for x86 hardware, to the mobile phone market,” said Paul Maritz, president and chief executive officer of VMware. “By abstracting the applications and data from the hardware itself, we expect that virtualization will not only enable handset vendors to accelerate time to market but can also pave the way for innovative applications and services for phone users. We look forward to working closely with our partners to bring new mobile solutions to market faster.”

VMware MVP will virtualize the hardware, enabling handset vendors to develop a software stack with an operating system and a set of applications that is not tied to the underlying hardware. This will enable the vendors to deploy the same software stack on a wide variety of phones without worrying about the underlying hardware differences.

AT&T today announced the availability of the AT&T Quickfire, developed for AT&T by Personal Communications Devices LLC (PCD). The AT&T Quickfire, which comes in orange, lime and silver, is available through AT&T retail locations for $99.99 after a two-year agreement and mail-in rebate.

A slider boasting an interactive touch screen, 1.3 megapixel camera and full QWERTY keypad, the AT&T Quickfire is a 3G world phone that can read messages in portrait or landscape mode. Quickfire also features AT&T Navigator, which provides turn-by-turn directions and is available with a 30-day free trial.

“The AT&T Quickfire is perfect for texting fans who let their thumbs do the talking and want the benefit of a full keypad but don’t need corporate e-mail access or other business features,” said Mark Collins, vice president of Voice and Data Services for AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets.

mophie today announces that its iPhone 3G battery extender is now available. The redesigned case houses a rechargeable lithium polymer battery within an comfort-grip case with a soft-touch, non-slip finish. The added “juice” gives consumers up to an additional 350 hours of standby time, 6 hours of talk time on 3G, 12 hours of talk time on 2G, 6 hours of Internet use on 3G, 8 hours of video playback, or 28 hours of audio playback.

While slot in your iPhone 3G to the Battery Extender, you can plug in the USB cable directly so that you can simultaneously charge and sync your iPhone to iTunes without having to remove it from the juice pack 3G. There are also 4 Light LED Battery Status Indicator, telling you exactly how much juice is left and also displays how much time remains during the charging process

The mophie juice pack 3G is available now online and in stores at an MSRP of $99.95. For more information on the mophie juice pack 3G, please visit http://www.mophie.com/products/juice-pack-iphone-3g

Clarity today released the ClarityLife C900, an easy-to-use amplified mobile phone that doubles as an emergency response device. The cell phone, now available for $269.95 online at www.clarityproducts.com, is designed specifically for seniors. The ClarityLife C900 is unlocked and can be used on any GSM network, such as T-Mobile and AT&T.

One of the most talked about features of the ClarityLife C900 is the amplification. The phone can amplify incoming sound up to 20 dB and is one of the first cell phones designed for the millions of seniors with hearing loss. It is hearing aid compatible, features a strong vibrating ringer, a flashing orange LED to signal incoming calls and a helpful flashlight. 

Additionally, the ClarityLife C900 features an Emergency Help Button. Located on the back of the phone, the one-touch, heart-shaped button calls and sends text messages to five pre-programmed numbers, such as those of family, friends, neighbors or emergency personnel. It cycles through the five contacts until someone is reached. 

Seniors can simply place or receive calls with the ClarityLifeC900 by using four oversized buttons on the front of the phone which allow them to easily navigate their top contacts. They also can use a full slide-out keypad with large numbers. Furthermore, the C900’s screen is twice the size of a normal phone with magnified text and bright back-lighting.

Apple may not have been the first manufacturer to integrate touch-screen technology to their handsets, but thanks in no small part to the success of the iPhone a whole wave of touch-screen models has since been unleashed.

Enter the Behold, Samsung's latest effort, (for T-Mobile) a slim touch screen design with multimedia features and full web browsing capabilities. The Behold will offer up a large 3.0-inch LCD color touch screen to display crisp, clear images and responsive contact-feedback technology called Haptics. A built-in accelerometer automatically switches the screen between portrait and landscape modes depending on how you hold the phone.

In addition to a virtual QWERTY touchpad, multiple messaging capabilities including text, multimedia messaging, instant messaging, email and Audio Postcards are supported.

A built-in 5.0-megapixel camera and camcorder (and flash) with auto-focus allows for high-resolution photos and videos. Internal GPS receiver uses TeleNav GPS Navigator for turn-by-turn driving directions with maps. Last but certainly not least, the Behold offers high-speed connectivity and a full HTML web browser for faster access to the Internet.

A microSD memory card slot stores of videos, images or music up to 16GB. The Behold for T-Mobile is available nation-wide today. See full article.

Related Entries:

LG Targets Photographers with their Latest Phone - 13 October 2008

Wal-Mart Bests T-Mobile on Google Phone By $30 - 29 October 2008

Microsoft Partners Up With LG - 03 November 2008

New Sony Phone Has Music on the Brain - 07 November 2008

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The Samsung SCH-u650 Sway is a low cost 2 megapixel cameraphone that comes in a good looking slider form factor. Ricky takes it out for a spin to see how it performs in this review.
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Tickets.com announces the launch of ProVenueMobile, a mobile version of their consumer-facing website. The site will offer customers the ability to complete a ticket transaction from a mobile phone directly. The mobile web platform, http://mobile.tickets.com, supports all browsers and carriers according to the company.

The technology delivers barcoded tickets directly to customers’ mobile phones immediately following purchases. The day of the event, the customers simply present their mobile phones for quick and efficient scanned entry into the venue, making the entire ticket transaction experience as simple and convenient as possible.

“The mobile web is a market that is experiencing rapid growth and adoption among consumers. We are partnering with companies like Tickets.com that understand the value of the mobile channel to interact with their customers,” said Nick Taylor, President, Usablenet. “Our goal is to enable customers to successfully and seamlessly access the Website, including all functionality, through an interface customized for their specific mobile device. It’s all about expanding choices and maximizing innovation - when we’re able to partner with a company that’s as dedicated to that as we are, it’s truly rewarding.”