Here, in all its madcap glory, is the GPhone: Android running on test hardware that looks compelling but not quite ready for prime time. The interface was quite snappy — it was almost exactly as swift as the emulated software on any PC — and it looks good and tight with lots of nice transitions et al. Let’s say this is the emulator made flesh and leave it at that — the jury is still out.
Amazing bit of news here, but LG used this year’s MWC to debut some cellphones. Three cellphones, to be exact. From the low-end to the high-end (or nearest I can tell) there’s the KF510, the KF600 and KF700. The KF510 doesn’t real “do” anything and is more along the lines of a phone that carriers will give away—lots of silly adjectives like “stylish” and “fashionable” are used to describe it. It’s got a 3.0-megapixel camera, if that type of thing interests you.
Android-based cellphones are somewhere on the Mobile World Conference show floor in Barcelona. There were rumors last week of an ARM-branded Android phone being at the show, and today AFP says we can expect to see models from Marvell, Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, NEC and ST Microelectronics. While the first Android cellphones aren’t scheduled to come out until later this year, MWC, if you couldn’t already tell, is where all the cellphone players show off their goods for the coming year. (Unless you’re Apple and can debut a phone at your own conference.)
So maybe Mr. Biggs can swing by those companies’ booths to see what’s up. Personally, I want Android to succeed because I’m do for a new cellphone soon—I still use the original LG Chocolate, which is dying a slow death—and wouldn’t mind having the open sourceness of Android to fall back on. Life beyond the iPhone, then.
Google’s Android software debuts in Barcelona [AFP/Breitbart via Drudge Report]
An actual company in Barceona
SkyNet was brought online on August 4, 1997 and immediately crashed. Disheartened, it settled in the outskirts of Barcelona, met a nice girl with a tongue stud, and now works as a web designer and makes and sells its own candles online. It still has a grudge against Sarah Connor, but it’s in therapy and actually talking to its Mom again. It’s in a good place right now.
I was pretty down on Modu, which is essentially a module-based GSM system that consists of a tiny handset — no bigger than a business card and about a quarter-inch thick — and a bunch of “mates” or “jackets” that wrap around the phone to do different things. Now that I’ve seen it up close and talked to the founder, I’m a bit more interested yet still reluctant to state that this will be an absolute success.
The idea is this: Modu makes the modules and sells an SDK to manufacturers like Bosch and Magellan, two actual partners. The partners write a few GSM hooks into their firmware and to make calls, pick up SMSes, and get data. You buy a module and two jackets for about 200 euro in shops and then buy additional jackets — media players, GPS devices, vibrators, etc. — as needed.
The HTC Advantage, enhanced for your pleasure
Not much new out of HTC this show. They updated the Shift to run Vista with the Origami Experience 2.0 (I saw these guys live at Red Rocks back in 1983 – great show) and an updated Advantage. They also launched the P3470 with TomTom Navigator in Europe. Nothing too earth-shattering but God do they do nice hardware.
Motorola just launched three phones, the W181, the W161, and the Z6w (the press page is missing so I added a placeholder). Do they excite you? Do you like them?
With the introduction of the Wi-Fi enabled MOTO Z6w, Motorola is making it simple for consumers to enjoy seamless services on a single device. The GSM and Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN)-compatible handset extends the consumer’s wireless world for taking calls, fast Web browsing¹ and multimedia enjoyment by extending across multiple service areas, automatically switching between local networks to deliver high-speed wireless services. The sleek, rich-looking slider device offers an entertaining mobile experience with media-friendly features, including compatibility with Windows™ Media Player™ 11 on the PC, high-speed USB 2.0 for fast downloads, a 2.0 megapixel camera and video capture, and up to 4GB of optional removable memory.
Huh… the 6210 has an accelerometer and a built-in compass along with GPS. Now that’s something interesting. Perhaps this could be their next work-out phone?
The 6210 supports Maps 2.0 and has local maps pre-loaded on the 1GB memory card. It also has A-GPS. You can download free maps at maps.nokia.com. It has a 3.2-megapixel camera and MP3 player and will cost about 300 euro ($325).
The 6220 has a 5-megapixel camera with flash and geotagging. It will cost about 325 euros ($375) and supports HSDPA along with Nokia’s new Maps 2.0 application. It has a music player, FM radio, and supports microSD. Interestingly, it supports something called “widgets” which looks like an “always-on-top” system for weather, stocks, and all the other little info junk that we love to read.
Here comes Nokia out of the gate with a set of two N-Series devices, the N96 and the N78. Both of these should be available in the U.S., so that’s the first plus, and they’re priced at a premium, so that’s the first minus.
The N78 (350 euros or about $400) has a 3.2-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and support for microSD. It has A-GPS for geotagging and supports Nokia’s Share on Ovi media sharing system.
I’ve liked UIQ for years and, as we all know, I’m not a WinMo man. Therefore, I was most interested in the new G-series “soccer mom” phones, the G700 and G900. Sadly, as we noticed, these phones will come out in the next few months and not, unlike the X1, in “six months.” This means that the G-series probably won’t hit our shores while S-E is prepping the X1 for FCC testing for release in the U.S.
The G-series phones have nice cameras, a unique, usable interface, and touch and stylus support. They’re mostly handwriting based so you can go without a keyboard and the little “jot a note” idea is pretty cool, unlike the “9 windows into your phone’s soul, but when you click on them WinMo pops up like a boil” that they’re trying to sell as a feature on the X1.
It’s a little dark but you generally see how these little “workspaces” work. You click one and it pops up. Clearly the X1s they were showing last night were almost unusable — they were very slow and basically mock-ups to show off some of the features. Every time the guy pressed a window it would go to the same screen.
Incidentally, this isn’t a task switcher. It’s basically a way to switch wallpapers i.e. set up a screen for mail, one for media, one for porn, etc.
Launched at MWC is the Xperia line and with it comes the X1. A Windows Mobile device that isn’t fully WinMo with a 3-inch display, QWERTY keyboard, 3.2-megapixel camera with AF, optical joystick navigation, aGPS, Wi-Fi and Xperia panels. From what I can glean from the press release, it appears that the Xperia panels are much like Expose on a Mac or Flip3D on Vista. Biggs will have more details later on.
The X1 will be available in select markets in the latter half of the year.
The Z770 clamshell features a 2-megapixel camera with 2.5x digital zoom, video viewing, stereo Bluetooth, UMTS/HSDPA/GSM/GPRS connectivity, FM radio and the ability to tether to your laptop. It boasts 8.5 hours of talktime and works with Exchange ActiveSync for push e-mail from work. Seems like a standard clamshell with a 2.2-inch screen and Google Maps for Mobile built-in.
No word on when it will be available. The link for photos on SE’s Web site seems to be dead, but you can view a tiny picture of it there. We’ll update as soon as we can.
Today at MWC Sony Ericsson officially announced the Alona, which will be sold under the W980 moniker. The latest Walkman phone brings 8GB of internal storage, superior sound quality, which is supposed to be true to the original recording. Also built-in is an FM transmitter that allows you to send whatever you’re listening to to any other device that has an FM receiver. That’s a pretty nifty feature. SE Walkman phones are generally good and this looks to be a great addition that has a 3.2-megapixel camera with 3.2x digital zoom, TrackID, Shake control, stereo Bluetooth, video streaming, video calling and it appears that you can tether it as well.
The UMTS/HSDPA/GSM/GPRS Walkman phone will be available Q3.
Going to try to Cover the Sony Ericsson press conference Live today for all you Sunday morning S-E lovers. Stay tuned.
CoverItLive died. Click the jump for text liveblogging.
Just a quick note to mention that MAXRoam.com is a really great service. Essentially it’s a reduced rate pre-paid SIM card that lets you add multiple numbers to the same SIM. For example, I now have a SIM card with four international numbers in Spain, Poland, Germany, and the US and they all work seamlessly in almost any phone. It basically lets locals call you at local rates and you call at almost local rates when in country.
Got a moment to play with the Samsung Soul and I’m really please with the initial screens — everything works very well through the haptic directional pad and the screen is very crisp and bright. It has a 5-megapixel camera and will be coming out on Vodafone in Europe, no word yet about a US launch.
Obviously this is “just another slider” but they’re doing quite a few interesting things with the Interface which warrants a second look. The haptics work very well and the top screen is easy to navigate and use. Once you start digging down you find most of the standard Samsung mobile menus, but for basic functions, including Google Search, Music player, and the File Manager, things work quite smoothly.
I’m all for a little snark in advertising. Heck, if it weren’t for snark I’d be out of a job. But I saw this on a sign here at MWC last night and I kind of think it’s really mean.
It says:
I know it’s last minute, but my other friends have blown me out and I’m so desperate that, as a last resort, I thought I’d see what you losers ;) were up to
Who is this from/to? A Heather to a Heather?
