Convenience in a Phone

A phone that you can use that gets reception at almost any place you go is a satellite phone. These phones don't use a cell tower in order to get service. The plans are often less expensive because the coverage is usually better than typical cell phones. Companies like http://www.satphonecity.com sell satellite phones and he accessories that you may need to go with them. 

These phones are convenient for anyone to have since you can use them anywhere. Teenagers can use them to call home if they are going to be out later than normal. Elderly individuals can use the phones to call for help in an emergency. You don't have to worry about losing reception when you're talking to someone important as you would with a phone that uses the signal from a tower. Another convenience with these phones is that you can use them in just about any home. When you are in a mobile home, you might notice that a cell phone loses signal or there's no signal at all. A satellite phone doesn't usually lose signal while you are inside the home whether it's a brick house or a trailer. They are ideal for taking on camping trips or if you're going to be outside for long periods of time so that you can call to let others know where you are.

Apple iPhone 5 Review

This October, Apple unveiled the smartphone we all had been waiting for – The iPhone 5. With a larger screen and a modified design, the iPhone 5 is Apple’s answer to Google’s ever growing Android army. I couldn’t resist the new Apple device and got myself a shiny new 32GB white iPhone 5. It’s been over a month using the latest iPhone and I feel it’s time for a review.

Design:

The first thing you notice when you hold the device is that how lightweight it is. Weighing at 112 grams, the iPhone 5 is 28 grams lighter than its predecessor, the iPhone 4S (140 grams). Kudos to Apple for such a substantial reduction in the weight. Apart from being lighter, the phone looks classy and feels solid in the hand, thanks to its aluminium build.  It looks sleeker and thinner as well. The front side of the device looks more or less the same, it’s the backside that has been modified ....

Read more: Apple iPhone 5 review

Sony Ericsson Xperia Play

The much-awaited, much-baited, PlayStation Phone aka Xperia Play was finally revealed in all its hardware keypad glory, bringing gaming to the entire Android platform with a whole PlayStation Suite ecosystem in tow, with third-party games and other manufactuer's devices requiring just a 'PlayStation Certified' accreditation.

This, together with the Next Generation Portable (NGP) or PSP2, ensures that Sony has held its mobile gaming future firmly by the reins.

The joint venture between the two giants also revealed two other devices, the Neo and Pro, further expanding the new-age Xperia line with the latest operating system, Android Gingerbread, onboard.

Video: First Windows Phone 7 Series Partner Device Unveiled

Microsoft recently unveiled LG's Windows Phone 7 Series pre-production prototype. The QWERTY slider is the first branded Windows Phone 7 Series device the world's ever seen. While there is not much information on the device, there are a few things that are know. It's just a hair thicker than an iPhone or Nexus One, there are dedicated hardware power, camera, and volume buttons in addition to the home, search, and back buttons dictated by Windows Phone 7 Series. A five megapixel camera with a flash is also noticeable on the back, along with a headphone jack.

Bluetooth 4.0 to have low energy requirements

Bluetooth 4.0 takes things down a notch by certifying single-mode low energy devices in addition to dual-mode devices that incorporate both the low energy side of the spec plus either 2.1+EDR or 3.0. In a nutshell, the technology should bring a number of new categories and form factors of wireless devices into the fold since 1Mbps Bluetooth low energy can operate on coin cells -- the kinds you find in wristwatches, calculators, and remote controls -- and the SIG's pulling no punches by saying that "with today's announcement the race is on for product designers to be the first to market."

Samsung unveils it's Android based Galaxy Spica i5700

The long-rumored little brother to the Galaxy, the i5700, has finally been made official by Samsung. Samsung's latest Android-powered set clocks in at 13.2mm thick and comes equipped with a 3.5mm jack, an 800MHz core, and an Android first: built-in DivX support.

Samsung's says it's already out in Europe and the CIS and will be coming to the Middle East and Asia shortly.

Spotify launches on Android Market and iTunes App Store

Apple has blessed Spotify's streaming subscription music application with a home in its iTunes App Store. Additionally, the app is also making a first, less ballyhooed appearance on the Android Market. The free app allows you to to stream any of its nearly 4 million tracks over WiFi or 3G and syncs playlists for playback while disconnected. It's available exclusively to Spotify Premium members in the UK, Sweden, Spain, France and Norway -- only the iPhone app is available in Finland.

Nokia 5230 Preview

The new Nokia 5230 candybar brings a 3.2-inch touchscreen riding HSDPA data, A-GPS, 2 megapixel camera, microSD expansion, and Bluetooth 2.0 with the promise of 33 hours of music pumped over its 3.5-mm audio jack.

It will launch in two flavors in Q4: a €149 model and €259 Comes with Music version.

Nokia's E52 brings 8 hours of talktime

Nokia just gave details about another E-series device. The E52 comes with great battery specs: 8 hours of talk or 23 days of standby. Otherwise it's an A-GPS, HSUPA data, and 3.2 megapixel candybar with generous support for your IT environments via built-in mobile VPN, Call Connect, and choice of corporate email options including Nokia Messaging, Exchange, and yes, Lotus Notes too for all you accountants. It will ship in the second half of the year for €245, pre-subsidy and pre-tax.

Nokia 5630 XpressMusic

The Nokia 5630 is an N-Gage ready, 12-mm slimster with a 4GB microSD card dropped in the box along side a standard 3.5-mm headphone jack to rock whatever buds, plugs, or cans you have an itch for. It's also packing a 3.2 megapixel, "4x zoom" camera with dual-LED flash and HSDPA/HSUPA data to move your pics and videos up to your favorite photo sharing site on a rocket. Dedicated audio keys and Nokia's "say and play" feature makes the 5630 a media all-rounder. Expected in Q2 for around €200 pre-tax, pre-subsidy.

Meizu's M8 iPhone Clone Hitting US Stores by Christmas Eve

It was earlier announced that Meizu's M8 iPhone clonephone was really coming to the shops in China at the end of the year, but according to the head of the company, things'll be happening a bit sooner than that.

J.Wong himself has suggested that it'll be on sale in China no later than the 30th of this month, with Wi-Fi disabled as per China's legal requirements. A fully-enabled Indian version will follow... and then Europe, Hong Kong and the US should be happening by December 24th. The price has been fleshed out a little as well: the 8GB one should go for about $350, and the 16GB for $420. So it's not long until Apple's lawyers can get their mitts on one, and see how much cloning has gone on. [Via Gizmodo]

Wrap-Around Screen Phone Concept

This concept from Mac Funamizu is designed to show how truly badass a phone with an OLED-wrap display could look. The most important advance? No more bezels or borders of any kind. A concept like this makes even the iPhone look cluttered, with that primitive silver border. It's a great little design, inspired by the Nokia Aeon concept, and we'd love to see the wrap-around screen idea on a real phone someday. [Via Gizmodo]

FCC clears Sony Ericsson Xperia X1

Sony Ericsson's highly-anticipated Xperia X1 smartphone has been approved by the FCC. The specific model vetted by the fatcats in Washington probably isn't the one we'll be seeing in North America: it's referred to as the X1i, which in Sony terms means Europe, and it's not yet equipped with 3G. Still, this is a good indication that American's will be getting the X1 before 2009, though it'll still be after those shifty Europeans

Compose Text Messages with your Voice

Some people hate text messaging simply because of the hassle to compose a message using the cell-phone keypad. You could always upgrade to a keyboard-equipped phone like the LG Voyager, AT&T Tilt, or RIM BlackBerry Curve, but even those models require you to use your thumbs when it comes to text input. Plus, it probably seems excessive to spend hundreds of dollars on a new phone just for the sake of easier text messaging.

How about your voice doing the fingerwork for you? A free service called Jott will transcribe your spoken message into text and deliver it via SMS to anyone in your contact list (which you have to set up in advance on the Jott site). Just speed-dial Jott from your cell phone, say the name of the person you want to contact, and then start talking.

Samsung BlackJack II

Why spoil a good thing? Samsung kept this idea in mind when designing the BlackJack II, an evolutionary update to the original and well-received BlackJack smartphone. The new version adds a number of useful enhancements: the built-in camera now has 2-megapixel resolution; there's a built-in GPS radio with optional TeleNav GPS Navigator; and it's compatible with AT&T's (expensive) Video Share service. My review unit was made of glossy black plastic instead of a rubberized casing like the original; there's also a burgundy version available. Thankfully, Samsung has replaced the odd split-numeric keys with a tighter, more conventional arrangement. You also get a slightly increased processor speed and double the RAM—always a good thing with a Windows Mobile handset. There's also a higher-capacity battery. At just $149, the BlackJack II isn't perfect, but it's a worthy upgrade and a compelling high-speed alternative to the RIM BlackBerry Curve 8310.

The BlackJack II is a bit larger than the original, weighing 4.1 ounces—about half an ounce more—and measuring 4.4 by 2.3 by 0.5 inches (HWD), which is a little thicker as well. Screen size is up to 2.4 inches, though it retains the same 320-by-240-pixel resolution, brightness, and 65K color support. The BlackJack II features a jog/shuttle wheel that also acts as a control pad. The wheel scrolled a bit slowly, but it's a nice enhancement and makes quick work of thumbing through menus, Web pages, and option lists.

The BlackJack II's keyboard is a little cramped and clicky, but it's fairly comfortable to type on, though not as comfy as the keyboard on the Motorola Q9h, which costs $50 more. The BlackJack II's keys are oval as before, but wider than on the original model and closer to being square. The device's proprietary connectors aren't all that practical. The box includes a charger and a USB cable, but you're on your own for wired earbuds, and finding emergency replacements will be difficult, since the device doesn't have a standard headphone jack.

Voice quality was bright and crisp over 3G and somewhat less so over GSM, but still not bad. Despite its proximity to Manhattan, my Queens neighborhood has spotty 3G coverage, so I experienced the problematic high-speed hand-off fairly often—as did my callers, who pointed out static and a volume drop whenever it occurred. The BlackJack II exhibited good reception otherwise. Calls made outdoors on the street were intelligible except when an overhead train rolled by. The handset sounded fine when paired with a Plantronics Voyager 510 Bluetooth headset, and the speakerphone was loud enough to use outdoors in a pinch.

The BlackJack II features 256MB of ROM and 128MB of RAM, with 87MB of free memory and 131MB of free storage available, both of which are welcome improvements over the original. The new 260-MHz CPU and extra RAM definitely help when running multiple programs at once: "Out of Memory" error messages are rarely seen. However, the handset still felt a little sticky in operation. Screen redraws were occasionally sluggish, and some key presses took a beat or two before registering, but that's endemic to most Windows Mobile 6 handsets.

Since the BlackJack II runs Windows Mobile 6.0 Standard, you can edit but not create Microsoft Office documents. AT&T also bundles an RSS reader and an IM client that supports AIM, MSN, and Yahoo! Messenger. (The Q9h goes the BlackJack II one better, though, with its built-in DataViz Documents To Go office suite and excellent Opera Mobile browser.) Using the BlackJack II's built-in HSDPA 3.6 radio, consistent data speeds in the 1,000-Kbps range are seen —an impressive showing. AT&T packs in its clumsy XpressMail client, but you also get Outlook Mobile, which supports POP/IMAP, Yahoo! Mail, and Windows Live support, along with Microsoft Direct Push E-Mail. There are also icons for AT&T Video Share, which lets you stream live video to other callers; TeleNav GPS; and MobiTV; all of which cost extra to activate. Video Share, in particular, is too expensive at 35 cents per minute. AT&T offers a few Video Share–related plans to offset the cost, but none are unlimited, and none reduce the additional cost below 25 cents per minute.

With MobiTV, you get dozens of streaming television channels. Live MSNBC and CNBC look okay, but transmission sometimes stutters and takes a while to begin streaming. MP3 and WMA music files sounded clear over a set of Bluetooth Etymotic Ety8. Inconveniently, the music stopped every time the BlackJack II's volume was adjusted. To resume playback, the Done soft key in Windows Mobile had to be pressed and then press Play again, which was pretty lame. Standalone video files played smoothly, even in full screen mode, though there was no way to skip forward or backward while watching files.

The 2-megapixel camera took disappointingly soft and blurry photos. The BlackJack II lacks auto-focus and an LED flash. You are able to record smooth 320-by-240-pixel videos—a usable size—but some of my test files were plagued by intermittent stutters. The phone's microSD slot supports up to 4GB microSD cards, but not higher-capacity microSDHC media.

HSDPA data radios are notoriously hard on cell-phone batteries. Fortunately, the BlackJack II was a welcome exception, lasting 6 hours 14 minutes on a talk-time rundown test. That's more than 2 hours longer than the original BlackJack's score of 3:51. This alone might be enough to sway BlackJack owners to upgrade.

Anyone tethered to Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Outlook can make a solid bet on the BlackJack II on AT&T, especially if they can't afford the HTC Tilt or aren't a fan of its larger size. The Motorola Q9h's comfortable keyboard and Documents To Go suite makes it a better choice for Microsoft Office mavens on the go, but that device doesn't match the BlackJack II's sheer broadband speed. The BlackBerry Curve wins out on e-mail handling and overall OS responsiveness, although its pokey EDGE radio pales in comparison to the BlackJack II's HSDPA chipset. Overall, the BlackJack II plays a strong, winning hand, just like the original BlackJack did back in 2006.

Sprint Motorola Q9c

All the carriers (well, except for T-Mobile) are going for their second helping of the Motorola Q. AT&T has its Motorola Q9h; Verizon Wireless has the Motorola Q9m; and now Sprint has its Motorola Q9c. Overall, the smartphone brings some great additions, including Windows Mobile 6 and built-in GPS. It also continues to be a strong messaging device and offers mobile professionals the tools to get work done on the road. It's not perfect, of course, and there are things that bother us. We think the pros outweigh the cons, and the Motorola Q9c is a worthy upgrade to the Q, especially at its affordable price of $149.99 (with a two-year contract and after discounts).

DESIGN
From the front, the Motorola Q9c doesn't look much different from other Q models and more closely resembles the Moto Q9m for Verizon Wireless rather than the latest Motorola Q9h for AT&T. The mobile sports a classic black casing with a nice chrome accent along the outer edges to give it a swanky look, though we wish we could say the same about the smartphone's profile. Sprint ships the Q9c with an extended battery, which we love and appreciate--don't get us wrong--but it adds an awkward and bulky bump to the backside of the device. It's not going to easily slip into a pants pocket at 4.6 inches high by 2.6 inches wide by 0.7 inch deep and 5.2 ounces, and the wider body and extended battery make the Q9c a bit cumbersome to use as a phone. That said, the soft-touch finish on the back helps when gripping and holding the device, and it's comfortable to use as a messaging machine.

The Q9c has a 2.4-inch diagonal TFT non-touch screen that shows off 65,000 colors at a 320x240 pixel resolution. Images and text looked vibrant and sharp, and the display features adaptive technology that automatically adjusts the backlighting depending on your environment. As with other Windows Mobile devices, you can customize the Home screen with different background images, themes, and layouts.

The Q9c's keyboard features large buttons, but they're a bit stiff to press. The Motorola Q9c's keyboard features large buttons that are spacious enough for even larger thumbs. They have a nice texture to them to prevent any slippage, but that said, the keys are stiff and again, there isn't enough tactile feedback, which doesn't make for the best typing experience. The bottom row does include quick-launch buttons to the camera, speakerphone, and in-box.

On the left spine, there's a miniSD expansion slot and a mini USB port, while there's a scroll wheel and customizable launch key on the right side. The jog dial can be used to navigate through the various menu items; to select an app or option, just depress the wheel. You can also use it to adjust the volume but only when you're on a phone call. We should note that the rolling mechanism is a bit stiff, so you have to be forceful when using this control. The top of the unit holds a 2.5mm headset jack and finally, the camera lens and speaker are located on the back.

Sprint packages the Motorola Q9c with an AC adapter, a USB cable, an extended battery, a desktop software CD, and reference material. For more add-ons, please check out cell phone accessories, ringtones, and help page.

FEATURES
Though messaging (whether it be e-mail, text, or instant messages) is increasingly becoming the preferred method of communication, you can't underestimate the value of actually talking to a person and the Motorola Q9c is still first and foremost a phone. Voice features include a duplex speakerphone, voice dialing and commands, smart dialing, three-way calling, and text and multimedia messaging. The Q9c's phone book is limited only by the available memory, and each entry can hold as many as 12 phone numbers, three e-mail addresses, addresses for home and work, a job title, and more. For caller-ID purposes, you can assign a contact to a category or pair it with any of 19 polyphonic ringtones or a photo.

All that said, we certainly don't mean to downplay the Q9c's messaging capabilities, as its one of the main draws of the device. As with all the latest Windows Mobile 6 smartphones, it ships with Microsoft's Direct Push technology, so you get real-time e-mail delivery and automatic synchronization with your Outlook calendar, tasks, and contacts via Exchange Server. There's support for other e-mail solutions, as well, including Good Mobile Messaging. There is, of course, continued support for POP3 and IMAP accounts, but now you can also view e-mails in their original HTML format, regardless of account type. Sprint also includes its instant messaging package of AIM, Yahoo, and Windows Live Messenger clients.

As for productivity apps, the Q9c goes the way of the Motorola Q9h and opts to go with Dataviz's Documents to Go instead the Microsoft Office Mobile Suite for viewing and editing Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents.

The Moto Q9c is also an EV-DO handset, which means you can enjoy data speeds as fast as 2.4Mbps, though you'll average closer to 300Kbps to 600Kbps. To make the most of the 3G speeds, you can enjoy Sprint TV on your device, which gives you access to programming from a variety of channels, including CNN, Comedy Central, E!, the NFL Network, and Sprint Exclusive Entertainment. In addition, you can listen to live streaming music and talk radio from Sirius, VH1 Mobile, and MTV Mobile.

Other wireless options on the Q9c include Bluetooth 2.0 and GPS. The Bluetooth can be used with mono and stereo Bluetooth headsets, hands-free kits, object exchange, file sharing, and dial-up networking. Unfortunately, there is no integrated Wi-Fi, but you can add this capability with a miniSD Wi-Fi card.

The built-in GPS radio lets you turn the smartphone into a handheld navigator, which can be particularly helpful to road warriors who are constantly going on business trips or shuttling to various meetings. With the help of a location-based service, such as Sprint Navigation, you'll be able to get color maps, driving directions, business search, and even traffic data.

For multimedia, the Q9c is equipped with a 1.3-megapixel camera with 6X zoom, flash, and video-recording capabilities. There are five resolution options (ranging from 1,280x1,024 to 160x120), three shooting modes, and brightness and white-balance settings. In video mode, there are only three quality settings, but you can adjust the brightness and white balance, as well. Picture quality wasn't bad. Objects had good definition, though we wish colors were a bit more vibrant. Video quality was also decent.

Picture quality was decent, but we want a bit more richness in color.

In addition to the aforementioned Sprint TV, you can watch other video as well as listen to music with the standard Windows Media Player 10 Mobile. There's support for a number of popular audio and video formats, including AAC, MP3, WAV, WMA, MPEG-4, and WMV. If you have TV shows recorded on your Windows Media Center PC, you can transfer them to your device for on-the-go viewing. Finally, there is an Audio Enhancement utility where you can tweak the sound settings for the phone speaker as well as for your headset.

PERFORMANCE
The dual-band (CDMA 850/1900; EV-DO) Motorola Q9c was tested in San Francisco using Sprint service, and call quality was decent. In general, we enjoyed clear sound with good volume and had no problem interacting with our bank's voice automated system. Our friends didn't have any major complaints, but they could tell we were using a cell phone and said our voice sounded a bit digitized. Activating the speakerphone produced some bad feedback on our side of the conversation; it was more annoying than crippling, and we do wish there was a bit more volume. We were able to successfully pair the Q9c with the Logitech Mobile Traveller Bluetooth headset and the Motorola S9 Bluetooth Active Headphones.

With about 24MB of available memory and 36MB of available storage, general performance on the Motorola Q9c was OK though not stellar. There were brief delays when launching various programs, which became increasingly longer the more applications we had open. We've found this to be typical of Windows Mobile devices, and the Q9c isn't any better or worse than other smartphones. We didn't suffer any system crashes during our review period. Music playback is smooth with plenty of volume, but songs sounded hollow and lacked bass. However, video performance was a bit mixed.

The Q9c's extended battery has a rated talk time of 7.2 hours. According to FCC radiation tests, the Q9c has a digital SAR rating of 1.3 watts per kilogram.

Review By CNET

Nokia N77 - Mobile TV is here

I just got my hands on the Nokia N77. The N77 is just another addition to the Nokia Nseries. It has a wide 2.4" flat screen supporting up to 16 million colors. The device comes bundled with a data cable and a set of earplugs. The phone is light-weight and exhibits some new & interesting features.

MOBILE TV
The newest feature in this Nseries phone is the Mobile TV. The N77 has an integrated Digital Video Broadcast - Handheld (DVB-H) receiver that enables it to receive live digital TV broadcasts. Through the Mobile TV application, one can watch and listen to digital TV programs. You get the option to subscribe to channels or programs of your choice.
Though the Mobile TV is something new in the N77, there are signal problems which restrict you from sitting inside any corner of your house and watching your favorite program or channel. Hope Nokia takes care of that in the upcoming phones supporting Mobile TV.

CAMERA
The device has two cameras, a high resolution one on the back of the phone and a low resolution one on the front. The main camera is a 2 megapixel one and supports an image capture resolution of 1600*1200 pixels. The image quality is good. The device also has an in-built flash which is available only in the main camera. You can also use the self timer which is available to both the cameras.

SOUND
The phone offers excellent sound quality. It has two speakers, one at the top and other at the bottom giving you a sort of surround sound. The Music player included in the phone is good and gives various like the equalizer, shuffle play and more. The Music player supports file formats such as AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, MP3, WMA, WAV, 3GP, 3GPP, MPEG, MP4, M4A, DCF and M3U.
The phone also has the Visual Radio service which can be used as a traditional FM radio with automatic tuning, or with parallel visual information related to the radio program on the display, if you tune to stations that offer Visual Radio Service.

APPLICATIONS
The N77 has Flash Player with which you can view, play and interact with compatible flash files made for mobile devices. There is a 3-D tones application also. With this you can enable three-dimensional sound effects for ringing tones. Real Player is also included among the applications and supports files with extensions .mp4 or .rm. Other apps include Adobe Reader and Office Products.

INTERNET
As usual, a browser is present in the phone but now you can subscribe to your favorite Web Feeds using your phone and download the latest content on it. So, you can subscribe to Tech Check directly on the N77.
Download! (Network service) is also included. It is a mobile content shop available on your device, You can browse, download and install items such as applications and media file to your device from the internet.

MOBILE SEARCH
Mobile Search lets you access search engines and find and connect to local services, websites, images, and mobile content. Yahoo! Search and Windows Live search are among the search engines provided by the phone.

MEMORY
The N77 has 36mb phone memory but you always have the option of adding a microSD card and increasing available memory for data, music and software applications. The phone does not come with a memory card. Nokia should have included one.

The phone initial cost was around £500. It has become cheaper now.
Overall, the N77 has something new like the Mobile TV but there are limitations to it also.
A high resolution camera like the N95's 5MP camera could have been added. Moreover, some may feel about the price factor also.
Otherwise, the phone is good and is not at all bulky. You get a lot of features in a compact phone.

The AT&T Tilt Smart Phone

Slider phones have become increasingly popular; but until now, they've been limited to handheld devices that are best used in two hands. That changes with AT&T's newest Windows Mobile device, which you can either hold in your hands or rest comfortably on a surface.

The aptly named AT&T Tilt (also known as the HTC 8925) has a hinged display designed to accommodate various viewing scenarios. When open, the roomy adjustable screen gives the phone the look of a a tiny laptop, complementing the phone's use for computing or entertainment. (The phone costs $400 when purchased along with a two-year contract from AT&T; unlimited data plans are priced at $45 a month.)

Good design isn't the only thing the Tilt has going for it. It's also AT&T's first Windows Mobile 6 device. And it's a quad-band GSM world phone compatible with EDGE/GPRS and with high-speed 3G UMTS and HSDPA broadband networks. This makes it a great phone for travelers, especially if they can take advantage of high-speed networks.

Specs

The device has slimmed down ever so slightly from its predecessor, the Cingular 8525: It still measures 4.4 inches long by 2.3 inches wide, but the product's maker, HTC, scaled down its depth by nearly 0.2 inch and its weight by 0.2 ounce (to exactly 6 ounces). It also has double the ROM (256MB) and double the memory (128MB). The display remains the same--a generous 2.8 inches, with 320 by 240 resolution and 64,000 colors. The processor is still 400 MHz, too, but now the unit uses a Qualcomm MSM7200 instead of a Samsung CPU.

The new phone is rated by AT&T to support up to 4 hours of talk time and up to 8 days of standby time. Our battery tests are pending, and we'll update this review with a full rating once those tests are completed.

Let's Tilt

Though HTC is a popular manufacturer of other Windows Mobile devices, the Tilt's subtle and not-so-subtle design improvements--including the tilting screen--help distinguish it from the rest of the pack. The AT&T Tilt's spring-loaded screen feels slightly sturdier than the screen on the T-Mobile Wing, another HTC slider phone of similar size. The tilting hinge appears to be relatively strong

Nokia N95 with 8GB storage starts shipping

Nokia has announced that the global shipments of the Nokia N95 with the storage capacity of 8GB has been started. Nokia is claiming it to be the memory-packed big brother of the Nokia N95 multimedia computer.

The 8GB memory provides up to 20 hours of video or up to 6000 songs. It also offers Nokia Music that allows user to access million of music tracks and N-Gage Games including FIFA 2007 and Asphalt 3: Street Rules.

The features of the Nokia N95 8GB include 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, 2.8″ (240 x 320) QVGA display, built-in A-GPS, WLAN, HSDPA and an innovative 2-way slide.

“Our Nokia Nseries family has expanded with added pizzazz and performance with the Nokia N95 8GB, a device as personal as it is powerful. We’ve reached a pinnacle with the Nokia N95 and now with the addition of one of the largest ever displays, built-in Assisted-GPS and improved battery power, the Nokia N95 8GB takes entertainment enjoyment to another level,” said Jonas Geust, vice president, Multimedia, at Nokia.

The A-GPS feature enables the phone to support locations on Nokia Maps and give access to more than 150 countries. It allows users to explore the specific routes or locate services that include restaurants and hotels, covering more than 15 million points of interest. In addition, an optional city guides and voice guided navigation are also available, but the owner needs to spend some more bucks.

The estimated price of the Nokia N95 8GB is EUR 560 without taxes or subsidies. The mobile phone will be soon available worldwide.

Mozilla to bring out Firefox for Mobile devices

There isn't a perfect mobile browser and there is plenty of room for competition in the space, which is why Mozilla is stepping up its efforts to improve the browsing experience on mobile phones, the company said this week.

"People ask us all the time about what Mozilla's going to do about the mobile Web, and I'm very excited to announce that we plan to rock it. We are serious about bringing the Firefox experience and technology to mobile devices," wrote Mike Schroepfer, Mozilla's VP of engineering, in his blog on Tuesday.

Mozilla's plans include adding mobile devices to the first class/tier-1 platform set for Mozilla 2, the company's all-in-one open source Internet application suite that comes with a Web browser, e-mail, and newsgroup client. The move will make mobile devices part of Mozilla's core platform, Schroepfer said.

Mozilla also will roll out a version of Mobile Firefox, which can run Firefox extensions on mobile devices. Developers will be able to build rich applications for Mobile Firefox using extensible user-interface language (XUL), a markup language based on XML.