Thread: Mobile News

OKWAP A236: the first slider by Inventec Appliances

Yesterday in Taibei the Taiwanese company Inventec Appliances, popular with its OKWAP trademark, presented its first handset packed in a slider form – the OKWAP A236.


The A236 weighs a mere 80 g and supports voice and writing authentication. Slider-phones are still very popular in Taiwan, and local analysts forecast up to 20% of the local market share by the end of the year.

The specs of the OKWAP A236:
Network: GSM 900/1800/1900 MHz
GPRS Class 10
Dimensions: 41x81x25 mm
Weight: 80 g
Screen: CSTN 128x160, 65К colors, pen input
MMS
Battery: Li-Ion, 750 mAh
Time of active use: 120 - 210 minutes
Standby time: 70 - 130 hours

Siemens has announced the release of its new business handset Siemens SP65, which represents actually Siemens S65 with its opportunities, but without an integrated digital camera.


The specs Siemens SP65:
Band: GSM 900/1800/1900 MHz
GPRS Multislot Class 10
WAP
Java
Bluetooth
MMS
Slot for PS MMC cards
Screen: TFT 132х176, 65K colors
Polyphony vibration alert
Battery life in active use: up to 5 hours
Battery life standby: up to 250 hours
Opportunity to download games, applications, ring tones, screensavers, logos
32 MB of internal memory
Dimensions: 109х48х18 mm
Weight: 90 g
Battery: 750 mAh
Shell color: Steel Black
Start of sales of the SP65: April 2005

The Telekoms Korea site has provided early info and photos of Pantech & Curitel handset – PH-L4000V packed in an unusual form of “camcorder” with rotating camera block. Something of the kind is realized in Nikon Coolpix 4500 digital camera.


Such design makes the phone look less like a classical handset. In addition to unusual location of the camera block, I’d mark the location of buttons along the LCD-screen. The most unusual thing with the PH-L4000V is the special thread for the tripod, not every photo camera is equipped with it!

The PH-L4000V comes with a 2.14-megapixel camera with auto focus and 2x optical zoom, FM-tuner, MP3-player and TV-out. That’s a new model with the monitoring opportunity of the self-portrait mode.

The release of a most interesting and expected Pocket PC Phone – the MDA IV has been delayed till autumn 2005, according to the recent info. I’d remind you that the shipments of the MDA IV were scheduled for summer, however the provider T-Mobile Germany decided to shift the sales date to early autumn. The other potential providers – Vodafone and Orange do not expect that the device will appear under their trademarks before autumn.


The MDA IV based on HTC Universal platform is a UMTS/GSM/GPRS (900/1800/1900 MHz) handset with integrated Wi-Fi, 520 MHz Intel processor, 128 MB of RAM, QWERTY-keyboard, full value VGA (480x640) screen, two cameras (VGA and 1.3-Mpx), Bluetooth and so on. They mention that the MDA IV will be powered by not yet announced Windows Mobile 2005 with the code name Magneto, and support Push-Service and video telephony.

Hewlett-Packard and VisuAide have demonstrated a handheld computer Maestro based on HP iPAQ Pocket PC h4150 and designed for people with poor eyesight. Currently it is the cheapest portable computer, which doesn’t require vision.



In fact the Maestro is an ordinary iPAQ computer with a keyboard placed above the sensitive screen, the keyboard is easy by touch use. The closed keyboard screen is replaced by the support of text-to-speech technology. The opportunities of the new device include Bluetooth and plugging of an external keyboard: an ordinary one and the Brail keyboard.

The Maestro is expected to be available in September 2005.

We’ve got the info from anonymous sources by e-mail, however it can be considered reliable. HP is rumored to release soon an interesting device - HP iPaq Hx7360 Pocket PC Phone powered by Windows Mobile 2005.

Unfortunately, there are neither photos, nor official confirmation of this info, but we have some preliminary specs:
Processor: 624 MHz Intel Bulverde
Screen: 4” transflective TFT, 640x480!
Memory: 192 MB RAM, 128 MB ROM
Networks: GSM/GPRS/3G!
Wireless interface: IEEE802.11g
Expansion slot: CF Type I, II; SDIO
Integrated GPS-receiver
Battery: 2880 mAh
Integrated QWERTY-keyboard
OS: Microsoft Windows Mobile 2005
Dimensions: 142x72x13 mm
Weight: 156.7 g
Oriented price: €700

Unfortunately, there is no info on the release data of HP iPaq Hx7360. But soon we’ll publish the review of Microsoft Windows Mobile 2005.

Muro has announced the release of its tiny media player The Color, which differs from its predecessor MR-100 in FM-radio, the work with sound and MPEG4 playback. I wonder, the video function hasn’t affected the dimensions of the player – an OLED 65K screen rests in a 60x38x17 mm shell.


The Color supports USB 2.0, MP3, WMA and Ogg Vorbis, it can be used to record sound via audio-in, radio or mic. The built-in Li-Pol battery provides some 13 hours on a single charge.

The Korean company KTFT has announced the shipments start of KTF-X6500 phone with a sliding 1.3-megapixel camera. The phone is packed in a slider form, the camera is located top left and hidden inside the shell, by pressing the camera module it comes out. When the camera is out you can rotate it by 180°.



The specs of KTF-X6500:
mode - CDMA 2000 1x
dimensions - 99.8х49х25 mm
weight - 140 g
screen - 176х220 pixels, 262К colors
battery - Li-Ion 1000 mAh
time of active use - 210 minutes
standby time - 90-220 hours
Mini SD slot
camera - 1.3-megapixel, 2х optical zoom
MP3 player
Video recording
Connectivity - IrDA, Java, MMS, SMS, USB, WAP

Sharp has announced the development of a new 1/2.5” CCD matrix RJ23T3BA0ET with a 6 megapixel resolution. The company says, the matrix features the industry smallest pixel size – a mere 2.05 sq μmc. The new matrix will be applied in digital portable photo cameras.

The RJ23T3BA0ET contains a CCD matrix and an essential electronic tie. The company has already launched trial shipments of new matrixes, and the mass shipments are expected in June 2005. The wholesale price in the trial lot makes up some $46.5 per unit.

Symbian Limited has said it got the license to use Microsoft Exchange Server ActiveSync protocol in Symbian operating system.

Taking into account the license Symbian plans to make the plan of developing the plug-in, which realizes the support of the new protocol in Symbian OS. The plug-in in Symbian OS handsets will provide the opportunity to synchronize e-mail data, contacts, calendar and other data supporting Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 “in the air”.

The details on the license agreement between Symbian and Microsoft are not disclosed yet.