Thread: Mobile News

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Britain's first mobile TV network launches this year - will you be tuning in?...

Brits have lagged behind the likes of Korea, and even Germany, in the mobile TV stakes for a while, but no longer! Working with BT, the BBC and ITV, mobile giants Samsung and LG will bring pictures to your pocket very, very soon, although they’ll probably be too late for the World Cup.


Boffins at all five firms want to measure the public’s appetite for TV on mobiles, and will run a six month trial before a proper launch, but we’re already salivating at the thought of Big Brother on the bus or a nice bit of Corrie while we wait for it!


Using DAB radio to piggy back the TV signals to your handset means they’ll be crisp and clean – not like 3G streaming, which is frequently juddery and pretty poor in comparison.


Channel choice should be pretty good too, with Eurosport and Cartoon Network joining BBC News 24 and at least one of ITV's digital channels.
BT reckons the service will cost around £10 on top of a mobile phone contract when it launches in full later in the year.

Sony Ericsson has announced a quad-band card GC86 EDGE PC Card, a successor of GC85 PC Card. The GC86 has an external antenna and offers a good combination of productivity, design and the price for the users of non-expensive notebooks. The card will be available in 3Q 2006.

The short specs:

• Windows 2000, XP (Pro, Home, Tablet) and Mac OS X
• Built-in antenna with the connector for an external antenna (MMCX)
• Global coverage zone
• Extra external antenna for low signal zones
• Elegant and compact design
• Intuitive user’s inteface
• Maximum EDGE/GPRS speed: up to 247 kbps (receive), 123 kbps (send)
• Easy installation and usage
• Durability and safety – convenient solution to stay connected
• Compatibility with all popular VPN standards
• Phone book, SMS, Internet services, applications and settings for IT-managers
• Form: PC Card, 32-bit Cardbus, Type II Class 10
• Quad-band GSM EDGE/GPRS (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)

The technical specs:

• Dimensions: 85.6 x 54 x 5 mm
• Networks: EDGE/GSM 850/GSM 900/GSM 1800/GSM 1900

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Sagem's my700x, showing off its musical leanings...


Sagem calls the my700x’s features “iPodesque,” and while there’s no scroll wheel, the handset is neat in its design, and plays files encoded in iTunes!


The phone’s support for AAC files means all those tunes you’ve loaded into Apple’s music manager will work perfectly, as long as they’ve come from CDs and not the iTunes Music Store.
Available in pink and white, as well as more macho brown and blue, the my700x also packs an FM radio, and reckons it can play 3D sound too!


Best of all, it’s only one millimetre thicker than a regular 60-gig ipod, playing music from a Mini SD card and squeezing in a 1.3 megapixel camera to boot!

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T-Mobile's trusty Sidekick - back with more features and a dinky trackball too!

An overhauled Sidekick leaps in to T-Mobile’s American line-up today – it’s feature packed and we’re itching for it to arrive here!

America gets its first look at the brand new Sidekick 3 today, as T-Mobile starts taking pre-orders for the multi-talented mobile across the pond.

Packing in a trackball, and addressing all the niggles we had with the last sidekick, the new handset looks like a worthwhile upgrade, though there’s no word on when it’ll make its way to UK stores.

The updated Sidekick deals with our disappointment over a lack of Bluetooth and wired synchronisation to your PC. It also boasts more memory for photos, and a music player.

We liked the last Sidekick’s swivelly screen and qwerty keyboard, but overall it felt a little unfinished.

The new model looks like it’s fixed all that, so stay tuned for a full review and news on when we’ll get our eager little hands on it!

ThanksT3

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Flip the Polygon sideways and it'll double as a super-sharp TV, or so Alloy imagine!

Having watched mobile users go about their business with painstaking detail, Alloy thinks it’s solved the usability puzzle, with a hi-res display for photos and TV, and a second touch screen for the ultimate interface.

The result is a clamshell which changes its buttons for different tasks, and while it’s still only a concept, Alloy says the Polygon handset is based on technology just a couple of years away.

The design clearly pinches a few ideas from the Nintendo DS – using the bottom screen to prompt an action, while the top screen handles the business end of displaying detail.

Pair this neat idea with Nokia's Fantastic future phones, and we’ve got itchy fingers just thinking about brand new next-gen blowers!

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The size of a credit card, and impressively slim, NEC's latest phone is a cut above...

Full of Far Eastern promise and achingly attractive, NEC’s latest handset might never make it over here, but the N908 is the stuff of dreams for gadget fans.

It’s a super slim mobile that uses a touch screen instead of a keypad. The result is a stylish phone that’s as smart as it is sexy – packing in a music and video player as well as a 1.3 megapixel snapper!

There’re even stereo speakers and Bluetooth squeezed into that silver shell, all of which measures up at the same size as a credit card, and just 12.8mm thick.

Of course, it’s no match for Samsung’s latest slim phones, or Motorola’s highly secretive SCPL, but we’d still kill to get our hands on that touch screen!

THERE'S a few things in this world worth wishing for - and this has been on my prayer list for ages.


SKY has finally gone and launched its SKY+ REMOTE RECORD SERVICE which means you can control your digibox direct from your mobile phone.
What does that mean?


Well, for a start you'll never miss an episode of EastEnders again cos you're stuck at the office.


Just download the Sky By Mobile application to your handset and it comes complete with all the software you need to put that TV listings EPG at your fingertips, wherever you are!


As you can see from the picture above, the guide looks very similar to the one on your telly and you can browse through what's on if you just fancy taping something at random.


And even if your handset isn't compatible with the Sky By Mobile service, you can still text your digibox with a short message direct to a dedicated number.


It's even coming to Sky's website very soon too - so there'll be no excuse for not catching that must-see movie or failing to tune into the big Premiership football match.


Talk about the perfect addition to your Sky HD box.

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We've seen iPhone mock-ups like this before, but the latest plans are straight from Apple...


The plans, patented by Apple in January, show a range of ‘Pods sporting different controls to its usual scroll wheel.


Some designs show the player with no control buttons at all, hinting further that Apple has a touch screen or voice controlled player in the works.


Then there’s the elusive iphone – Apple’s long-rumoured challenge to the mobile phone, which according to the latest plans will look like a nano with number buttons.


The new designs look ropey at best, and none of the interfaces are a patch on the click wheel design.


Elsewhere, Reuters reports that Microsoft has its own music player in the pipeline, and will launch a music store to back the iPod-rival in time for Christmas.
We’re well overdue for an iPod update.


The last new model launched eight months ago, so we’re expecting something new from Apple any day now. Lets hope the threat of a Microsoft challenge can chivvy the ‘Podfathers at Apple along!

It’s only available in the US at the moment, but the A990 comes packed with multimedia goodies too, from a music player to video recorder, and full mobile web browsing.


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Samsung's superphone's also a camera, MP3 player and camcorder. It'll even scan in business cards...


The star of the show has to be its camera though, equipped with autofocus so all its shots are pin sharp. The super-smart blower can even turn photos of business cards into an entry in its address book!


The phone’s camcorder skills are also frighteningly impressive, with a video recording time of up to an hour!


There’s the obligatory Bluetooth and voice recorder too, as well as TV-out and direct wireless printing for all your favourite snaps.


No news on when we’ll get our mitts on the natty flip phone, but we’re already clearing space in our jacket pockets – this blower could single headedly replace our gadget arsenal, and we’re all the happier for it!

Samsung Electronics has recently released the Ultra Edition series consisting of 3 ultra slim models – a candy bar, a slider and a clamshell. Now we have the info that the company is preparing the release of 3 new models of the series. They are expected to appear in December 2006.
Besides we have slides of two upcoming phones – the slim clamshell Z620 or Ultra Edition 11.8 and the slider Ultra Edition 13.5.

As you can guess the Z620 is 11.8 mm thick. It is designed for 3G networks. The clamshell is packed in magnesium body. The device is equipped with a 2-megapixel camera, a 2.3” QVGA (240x320 pixel) LCD, 138 MB of internal memory and an expansion slot for microSD cards.In addition it supports video telephony.

The Ultra Edition 13.5 slider goes under the slogan “Joy, Top of the class”. It is also designed for 3G networks and supports video telephony. It features a 3-megapixel camera with video capture opportunity, 150 MB of internal memory and an expansion slot for microSD cards. It is 13.5 mm thick.