This may have been obvious from the amount of location-aware apps that have been gushing out of Nokia Beta Labs lately, but Nokia have decided that GPS is where it’s at (and they have the coordinates to prove it). Accordingly, by 2012 over 50% of its handsets will have GPS receivers built in.
Michael Halbherr, Nokia’s head of location-based activities, said in an interview with Reuters that “We are planning to ship 35 million GPS units this year and many more location-enabled phones that use cell-towers to orient themselves on the map. You will see few ‘E’ or ‘N’ Series phones without GPS.”
So, does this mean that in the next couple of years Nokia expects GPS to be cheap enough to stuff into lower-end handsets, or are they just being optimistic about their smartphones taking off in the mass market? Given that they are also putting a lot of development time and money into low-end ‘third world’ phones, it would seem to be the latter. Great news, unless they expect us all to pay smartphone prices.
Fancy a new Samsung double slider with some ultra hi-tech Bang & Olufsen audio muscle? Course you do, so it’s a good thing that the Korean manufacturer is obliging with the F400, a handset that does both of the above.
The music focussed device is packing ICEpower technology by Bang & Olufsen with Smart Bass and Smart Limiter to ensure no audio signal exceeds the amplitude of the threshold. The music controls are confined to a rather spiffy looking clicker wheel on the front while sliding the handset up will reveal a stylish brushed metal keypad and down, a pair of duel stereo speakers for annoying fellow commuters with when you are on the bus.
The F400 also has Shazam, a clever little software trick that can find out the name and artist of an unknown tune when you point your phone at the source of the music. There’s a 3-megapixel camera, AF/FM Radio and Bluetooth v 2.0 chucked in too as well as a 1GB SD memory card in the box and a microSD slot that supports up to 8GB.
Launching in France in May, the F400 is set to land elsewhere in Europe (hopefully the UK) shortly after.
Several fashion brands have got into the mobile space in recent years, including Prada and Armani (albeit with partner manufacturers LG and Samsung). Now it seems Christian Dior could be jumping on the fashion phone bandwagon too. At least, that’s what Engadget Mobile says, based on a leaked spyshot.It appears to show a clamshell handset festooned with Swarovski crystals, with its own remote control. That’s right, a remote control for a mobile phone. Heaven knows what it’d be used for. Unless it’s actually some kind of detachable MP3 player? The mind boggles.Anyway, the blog suggests an announcement could be imminent this Friday, before the phone goes on sale by the end of the month. Presumably a handset manufacturer is involved. Watch this space…
If you are a T-Mobile customer just itching to consign your current handset to the sock drawer in favour of something a little more new and shiny, then be prepared for a letdown.
According to Unwired View, an insider has confirmed (not our idea of confirmation but hey it’s late in the day so let’s roll with it) that the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic, the Nokia 5610 XpressMusic and the underwhelming Motorola Z6w are all going to be late. The Nokia handsets have been given new release dates a couple of weeks later than expected whereas the Motorola Z6w is going to be really late, as in it’s never going to launch with T-Mobile.
Apparently the device has been canceled outright due to ‘early testing issues’ which sounds a little heavy handed to us and could just be a nice way of saying the phone was rubbish and not likely to sell well. While Nokia’s bosses are probably still sleeping soundly at night, this is the last thing that the faltering Motorola needs just now. Still, it’s probably best to think of this as a rumour until T-Mobile comes clean with the details.
Nokia design contractor Provoke Design has unveiled a few new concept designs it has put together for the ‘HARDCORE New Finnish Design‘ exhibition in New York later this month.
The Express will allow the user to ‘enhance his/her mindset instantly’ (it says here) by changing the colour of the handset electronically.
The Share “enables communication and sharing of information through personalized codes formed in subgroups of likeminded individuals” which is as perfect a rendering of purest marketing drivel as I have yet encountered. It just needs the word ‘paradigm’ as a sort of metaphorical cherry on the top of the nonsense cake. It’s something to do with skateboarding and geotagging, according to the press release.
The Feel is intended for use by couples - a bit like a phone version of one of those heart-shaped pendants in two halves. It features a tactile, haptic feedback system that lets two people communicate through simulated touch and achieve ‘deep communication’. Oo-er.
via Engadget.
It seems that RIM really has something of a macho complex just now. Just yesterday we heard about the Blackberry Bold and today news of the touchscreen only Blackberry Thunder has surfaced. Expect to hear about the Blackberry Brave and the Blackberry Red Red Meat in due course.
In any case, The Boy Genious Report is claiming the scoop on the device with a bunch of details and is reporting that it will be a full touchscreen effort launching in late summer this year. Interestingly, the Thunder will launch as a worldwide lifetime exclusive on Verizon and Vodafone as opposed to being shipped out to any carrier who wants it.
As for the form factor, besides the touchscreen the Thunder is said to have only 4 physical keys; the send / end phone keys, the BlackBerry menu key, and the back key. The Thunder is also mooted to include GSM HSPA for traveling internationally as well as potentially some 4G guts (probably LTE), though whether the network support for that will be ready in time for its release is another matter.
And that’s about it for now, obviously this is all subject to change until we get our hands on a press release but for any crackberry addicts who have been feeling jealous of the iPhone’s elegant interface, this could be the handset highlight of the year. More on this as soon as we have it.
Hurrah for phones named after washing powder brands. It’s surely only a matter of time before we see the Samsung Daz Ultra and LG Ariel, but until then we’ll have to make do with the BlackBerry Bold. It’s a new business-focused BlackBerry aimed at ‘power users’ (i.e. the sort of people who’d be unhappy if they weren’t answering emails from their boss at 3am). So, you get HSDPA for fast data speeds, GPS with built-in geotagging for photos, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and an impressive 480×320-pixel display. The Bold is expected to go on sale this Summer, although maker Research In Motion hasn’t given any details of pricing yet. Rest assured, with a fat business tariff, it should be fairly affordable.
Ok, we will admit that we have been trying to avoid reporting on this story as it seems to be lacking in real weight, but it’s about the 3G iPhone and we are helpless to resist so bear with us, we promise to be brief.
AppleInsider has been reporting about a web page leak on AT&T’s website concerning a mysterious option for an ‘iPhone Black’ in the drop down menu for ‘Model’. Given all the recent tongue wagging about the 3G iPhone having a glossy, potentially black finish, the appearance of this option on AT&T’s site has inflamed an already very excitable crowd of rumour traffickers.
Since the whole thing has blown up on the interwebs, an AT&T spokesperson got in touch with Gizmodo, who also picked up the story, commenting that the ‘iPhone Black’ dropdown reference on the AT&T Wireless website is just a temporary placeholder in leu of a “scheduled catalog update,” to distinguish existing iPhone models.
Though the mysterious ‘iPhone Black’ product description may not contain any robust clue about the physical characteristics of the new device, it is conceivable that this catalogue update could include the 3G iPhone (at least that’s what we are hoping). Not long now people…
Keeping your mobile phone in your pocket is SO 2007, Grandad. The hot new thing is strapping it to the back of your hand, so it’s instantly available 24-7. Er, possibly. At least, that’s the idea behind the concept Handphone, which has seemingly been knocked up in Photoshop for a laugh. The microphone and speaker are strapped to your little finger and thumb respectively, with you sticking the latter in your ear to hear what the person on the other end of the line is saying. Will the idea catch on? Don’t hold your breath… (via Gizmo Watch)
And no, that doesn’t mean your phone will join in with verbal abuse when you stick two fingers up at people. Although it’s certainly a thought, if anyone from Nokia’s R&D team is reading… No, HandTalk is far more serious than that. It’s a technology developed at Carnegie Mellon University, which was demonstrated in public for the first time this week. It’s aimed at helping deaf people to communicate with anyone who doesn’t know American Sign Language. The idea: someone wears the glove, and then makes hand gestures, which are converted into speech via their mobile phone, which then ’speaks’ them. So, clenching your fist makes the phone say “Good morning”, while extending your index finger, second finger and thumb makes it say “I’m having a good time”. Cool, and useful to boot. (via Textually)
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