Device Arena

What do you do when your are way behind your rivals in current mobile phone offerings, constantly loosing your market share, bleeding money and are late with the production of your next flagship (which still is a generation worse in some features then offerings by others) for more then 2 months?

I’m talking about Motorola and it’s MOTO Z10 smartphone that was supposed to go on sale last October.

Well, you start leaking the details to the press through your branch managers, about what an awesome line-up of phones you have planned for the next year. And then start copying meaningless design/co-branding additions, your rivals did months ago, and add bundles to a year old flagship you have now.

Enter Motorola Z8 Ferrari Limited Edition:

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Are you one of the many Verizon customers who ran out to grab a new Voyager on launch day, only to discover that the handset had more glitches and issues than you could deal with? Relief may be in sight. Verizon and LG have just came out with a massive firmware update that appears to address a number of significant issues. Among the most significant fixes include an updated and improved battery life, better Bluetooth support, mobile web and HTML browser enhancements, and more. The update is available immediately, but you’ll have to head down to your local Verizon store to get the goods. Check out the full rundown below.

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The information about upcoming high megapixel Motorola camera phones keeps leaking piece by peace. We first heard about 5 megapixel Motorola/ Kodak cameraphone back in October. Then, few weeks ago, the existence of 5 mpx Motorola handset was confirmed by Motorola Spain.

Today, if the image on Chinese tech site IT168.com is for real, we may have first visual confirmation of this phone:

The phone should be announced in Q1 2008 and is supposed to be a successor of Moto Z10 3.2 megapixel cameraphone, so would probably be numbered as Motorola Z12, under the ZiNE brand.

According to the earlier reports, Moto ZiNe Z12 should also come equipped equipped with GPS navigation chip and Wi-Fi connectivity.

However, there are a couple of problems with the todays news.

Earlier reports told us that Motorola ZiNe Z12 should have a slim “candybar” form factor, but the current picture fragment indicates a slider shape.

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Verizon Wireless, owner of the nation’s most reliable wireless voice and data network, and Palm, announced the immediate availability of the Palm® Treo™ 755p smartphone in exclusive deep blue-green. Beginning today, customers may purchase the Treo 755p online at www.verizonwireless.com, by calling 1-800-2 JOIN IN or by contacting their Verizon Wireless Business Sales Representative. The device will be in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores on Jan. 7.

Compared to its Treo 700p predecessor, the Treo 755p has a sleeker design with an internal antenna and a soft-touch feel. Featuring a large, high-resolution, color touch-screen for quick stylus access to applications, the Treo 755p offers a full QWERTY keyboard for easy e-mail creation, Web browsing and text messaging. It also includes features such as a 1.3 megapixel camera and built-in support for Microsoft® Word®, Excel®, and PowerPoint® documents and PDF documents. Customers can view and edit Microsoft Word and Excel files, and view PowerPoint and Adobe PDF files. Running the Palm OS®, the new Palm Treo 755p from Verizon Wireless gives mobile professionals the tools they need to help maximize productivity.

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After a long time of rumours about a GOogle Phone it was finally the time: Google evaporated the fog and launched her own operating system. So, not a real Google Phone, at least not for now. Today, the first prototype device with Android system was spotted on the internet at the Gizmodo website and the rumours that HTC is to be the producer of the device seem to be true. Since the start of the Google Phone rumours, the link with HTC as producer of the device was clear. Now the first photos of the prototype with Android system have shown up, the rumours that HTC is the producer of the Google Phone are getting even stronger.

The photo that reached the internet today looks a lot like an earlier photo on which only the display of the device could be seen. Earlier, a press photo of the device that we showed you today leaked out and a lot of HTC characteristics are found in the candybar. For example, the keys of the Android Phone are very characteristic, as are the quick keys that are placed in the middle of the device. A real confirmation that this device is an HTC phone is something we have not received yet, but because the rumours are getting stronger we expect the device to be launched at the Mobile World Congress in February 2008.

The person that has placed the photo of the Android device at the Gizmodo website tells that the operating system is extremely fast, many times faster than the standard Windows Mobile system. If the device is really as fast as told and if HTC really is the manufacturer to sell the phone is something we will have to wait for a little longer.

Mobile Phone Helpdesk

Two way slider, allowing to have both, numeric keypad and QWERTY keyboard in a mobile phone is nothing new these days.

Sony Ericsson and Nokia tried to patent their take on it recently. Some rumors say that Sony Ericsson P5i may actually feature one, and Samsung already has a two way slider in an officially announced, if not yet shipping, Samsung F520.

Still, the idea looks great on paper, and everyone is trying to come up with a way for this set-up to work as great in a real life too. Here’s another take on imagining a perfect dual slider by Nokia:

In a patent application called “A layered mobile device”, Nokia is actually thinking about a triple slider, with the display and keyboard/keypad “sandwiched” on one another.

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LG’s KS20 Windows Mobile 6 Professional smartphone (see our previous review here) caught some attraction since it is a stylish Prada phone look-alike Windows Mobile Pocket PC phone, featuring GSM/HSDPA, Bluetooth and Wifi. And wow, as the FCC recently unveiled, it looks like LG is cooking a U.S. version with adopted support for North American frequencies as well. According to the FCC, GSM/EDGE at 850/1900 MHz is confirmed as well as Bluetooth and the user manual also mentions WiFi. However, neither tested/certified nor confirmed is UMTS or HSDPA, even if this is one of the highlights of the European version.

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There’s a rumor floating around the net about a new Sony Ericsson Z660i metallic clamshell.

First a drawing of SE Z660i appeared on Esato boards and then, what looks like an official press picture for the same handset turned up on a Thai (I think) site SE-Society.

Well, now that we have two independent sources showing pretty much the same handset, I guess Sony Ericsson Z660i clamshell must be real enough.

The reported SE Z660i specs include:

3G connectivity

2 megapixel camera

14 mm thick

Looks like the phone is more or less finished and ready for launch. We will probably hear about it early next year.

Unwired View

Toshiba is not that a big player in the cellphone/smartphone business. Still their G900 & G500 Windows mobile handsets are good smartphone sliders with lots of interesting features. And soon they will have one more cool handset to offer.

It’s Toshiba Portege G910 & Portege G920 flip smartphones, that turned up on FCC site late Friday.

There’s pretty limited information available about Toshiba G910 & G920 models for now. And from what can be seen, it looks like both of them are the same handset with the same specs.

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The Swedish “Dagens Nyheter” wants to offer her readers the possibility to view the latest headlines everywhere and at any tine, also when there is no newspaper or PC with internet around. That is why the newspaper comes with an adapted version of the Nokia 6120 on which a “DN” (Dagens Nyheter) key is placed with which the user has direct access to the mobile website of the newspaper.

Website Dagens Nyheter at a Nokia 6120

The Swedish can become owner of the special “Dagens Nyheter Nokia” by visiting the website of the newspaper. For a subscription amount of 21 euro per month, the user can make calls and surf the internet without a limit. Despite the fact that the Nokia with the special “DN” key is not that special, the action of the newspaper seems to be a success. Direcly after the publication of the offer, the callcenter of the newspaper was unreachable.

Thorbjoern Larsson, chief editor of the Dagens Nyheter, thinks that the success of the offer lies within the fact that the Swedish consumers think that mobile internet is difficult and expensive. According to Larsson, their offer takes away these thoughts immediately.

Other European newspapers have not shown interest in the Swedish concept so far.

Mobile Phone Helpdesk