Device Arena

Remember Asus P550 PDA phone, that appeared out of nowhere on FCC site? How come Asus did not make any announcement before and even since then?

Well, today we may have an answer. Soon Asus P550 will see the light of day, but with a different name - Vodafone v1520 PDA phone.

Teaser for Vodafone v1520, which looks exactly the same as GPS equipped Asus P550, is already on Vodafone site.

And, if history with Vodafone Samsung F700v is any guide, there may be some exclusivity involved here and it may take a while before Asus P550 is available on other carriers.

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We knew Samsung is getting into a cellphone fashion biz. What else was Samsung Armani P520 phone for?

But it looks like Samsung has decided to fashionize it’s low end handsets as well, by turning to Vittorio & Lucchino fashion house for help.

And they’ve made a real beauty out of cheap and plain Samsung Z240 handset:

Without significant price increase too. From Dec. 01 , 2007 you’ll be able to pick-up Samsung Z240 Vittorio & Lucchino handset just for 59 Euro.

With Orange Spain contract only, unfortunately.

Unwired View

The W960 Walkman® phone will start to ship from November 2007, Sony Ericsson announced today. The W960, a potent combination of slim UMTS and Wi-Fi™ enabled phone with high performance media player, will be available in selected markets across the globe in time for the Christmas season.

The W960 was unveiled in June 2007 and marks a next generation of Walkman® phones. With room for up to 8,000 songs* and finger-touch navigation around playlists on the large touch screen, the days of taking an MP3 player and a phone with you are definitely over. The 2.6” display also serves as an excellent viewfinder for a 3.2 megapixel camera and as a widescreen for watching video in TV quality.

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O2, a leading provider of mobile services to UK consumers and businesses, and Research In Motion (RIM), a global leader in wireless innovation, today introduced the new BlackBerry® Pearl™ 8120 smartphone in the UK. In its small, stylish and elegant design, the BlackBerry Pearl 8120 provides rich multimedia features together with all the popular functionality users have come to expect from the BlackBerry® wireless solution.

The BlackBerry Pearl 8120 comes complete with a 2 megapixel digital camera with a 5x zoom and video capture capability, an externally accessible microSD/SDHC slot and Wi-Fi® connectivity support. These new features, along with an enhanced visual interface, add to the renowned BlackBerry® smartphone experience for email, phone, messaging (SMS, IM, MMS), web browsing, multimedia, organiser and other mobile applications.

Sleek and Stylish With a New Blue Finish

Available in a sleek blue finish, the BlackBerry Pearl 8120 smartphone from O2 maintains its ultra-stylish design, measuring only 107mm x 55mm x 14mm and weighing approximately 91g.

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AT&T has announced that the Motorola MOTOPURE H12 Universal Bluetooth® headset is available in the U.S. through AT&T. Available at all AT&T stores today, the MOTOPURE H12 audio performance allows users to have clear phone conversations in dynamic noise environments.

The MOTOPURE H12 uses Motorola’s proprietary technology, CrystalTalk™ for headsets, to achieve its remarkable sound quality. Two microphones separate the user’s voice from background and wind noise to enhance his or her voice for a natural-sounding conversation.

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Samsung Electronics is launching its first touch-screen, full Internet-browsing mobile phone to occupy the domestic smartphone market before the arrival of Apple’s iPhone here.

The Korean electronics giant said Sunday that it will start selling the M4650 “Multi-touch Phone” via LG Telecom at around 500,000 won, excluding rebates from the mobile carrier. The handset has a 2.8-inch LCD screen which doubles as a keypad, which is smaller than iPhone’s 3.5-inch display and thus is used with a stylus pen.

“The smartphone market is getting bigger in other countries thanks to the development of the wireless Internet infrastructure,” Samsung company said in a release. “We hope that the Multi-Touch phone will stimulate the smartphone market in Korea as well.”

Phones with touch-sensitive screens are becoming ever more popular in the high-end market since the successful debut of the iPhone in the United States, where many people use it for listening to music, checking e-mails and for casual Web surfing.

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AT&T announced a new international plan that gives iPhone users 50 MB of data per month to browse the Web, check e-mail and access other information in more than 29 countries, including Canada, China, Mexico and in areas throughout Europe and Asia.

The new Data Global Plan is available to iPhone customers for $59.99 a month, which is in addition to the domestic voice and data iPhone plan they purchase during iPhone activation. The Data Global Plan enables international voice and data roaming, as well as international long distance dialing from the United States at standard rates.

The plan requires customers to first purchase a domestic voice and data plan for the iPhone and is not available as a stand-alone offer. Normal eligibility requirements for international plans apply. Should customers exceed the 50MB bucket in the 29 countries where the plan applies, they will pay $.005/KB. Outside those countries, consumers will simply pay for their data usage by the kilobyte, at rates starting as low as $.010/KB.

AT&T also offers a 20MB Data Global Plan for iPhone customers for $24.99 a month. The 20MB bucket applies to usage within the same 29 countries, with overage rated at $.005/KB. Outside the 29 designated countries, the data usage rate is $.0195/KB.

AT&T advises international travelers to remember to check their wireless options as a part of their pre-trip planning process.

Travelers can visit http://www.att.com/wirelessinternational to see whether service is available in the countries to which they are going. Travelers can go to http://www.att.com/travelguide to determine whether their wireless device has the frequency and wireless technology needed at their travel destination. Consumers can also visit http://www.att.com to learn more about AT&T international calling plans and services and purchase the revolutionary iPhone itself.

GSMArena to continue Market Update series that will inform you on the latest (and greatest) mobile phones that hit the stores on a weekly basis. From now on you can expect their market reports every week. As previously noted, unfortunately, we won’t be able to comment local availability in stores near you, as well as on carrier-subsidized prices.

Samsung F210

The Samsung F210 is the first to go public this week. It builds on the already announced at CeBIT 2007 Samsung F200 by adding a 2 megapixel camera, a smoother design and 1GB of integrated memory. The memory is expandable through the microSD memory card slot (unlike Samsung X830) and is more than enough to get you started (unlike Samsung F200 with its meager 5 (read five) MB). The display of this baby is 1.46″ 262K color TFT one with a resolution of 128 x 220 pixels. Currently, it can be found online for around EUR 280 (USD 400).

Eten glofiish X800

The Eten glofiish X800 is a Windows Mobile 6.0 Pro based PocketPC which impresses with 2.8″ VGA display, integrated GPS receiver and Wi-Fi support. It also has quad-band GSM networks support and HSDPA for fast data transfers. The FM radio and the 2 megapixel camera are the other highlights of the device. The device is somewhat compact in size and weight and runs on a powerful 500 MHz Samsung processor, but the camera has no auto focus capability, there is no USB host feature and hardware QWERTY keyboard. Currently, it can be found online for around EUR 450 (USD 660).

Samsung M610

The Samsung M610 is another product of the South Korean company. It’s a budget-oriented GSM handset but as usual for Samsung it comes with stereo Bluetooth support and a microSD memory card slot. It also has a 65K color CSTN display with a resolution of 128 x 160 pixels. It’s equipped with a VGA camera and FM radio. It has tri-band GSM support, but GSM 900 is not among them. Currently, it can be found online for around EUR 140 (USD 200).

Sony Ericsson Z320

The Sony Ericsson Z320 is a stylish clamshell with tri-band GSM/GPRS network support. It comes with a 1.3 megapixel camera, 12 MB internal memory, but unfortunately there’s no memory card slot. Other than that, it has a 1.8 inch main 65K color TFT display with 128 x 160 pixels resolution. The external display is capable of displaying only system icons. Currently, it can be found online for around EUR 100 (USD 150).

GSMArena

E-TEN Information Systems is proud to announce that the award-winning Glofiish X800 Pocket PC Phone has begun shipping worldwide. Highlights of the X800 include 3.5G high-speed connectivity, a pixel-sharp high-resolution VGA display and a new powerful mobile shell that make this the most advanced Glofiish device to date.

E-TEN’s next-generation Glofiish X800 Pocket PC Phone has begun shipping to channel partners around the globe. The X800 is E-TEN’s first handset to support 3.5G HSDPA connectivity for high-speed downloads delivering new and improved online services including faster more enjoyable surfing and email, streaming audio and video downloads, VoIP and instant messaging, and video calling.

The X800 was first previewed earlier in the year at CeBIT where it drew considerable interest from show-goers and the media. The handset was next seen at Computex where it was again warmly received and earned a Best of Computex Award. Since that time E-TEN has continued to refine the X800 package and the device now includes E-TEN’s new mobile shell, an easy-to-customize interface that lets users display all of their most important information on a single screen.

The new mobile shell enables features including, photo speed dial, application launcher, and weather forecasts and world time to be displayed and accessed from the Windows MobileR Today Screen offering powerful new opportunities for users to streamline their mobile experience.

Measuring just 113.5 x 60 x 15.8mm the Glofiish X800 includes a high-resolution 2.8-inch VGA (640×480) display and GPS connectivity.

The Glofiish X800 is based on the Window MobileR 6 platform and is available in several languages. Pricing and availability is subject to regional variation but the X800 can be expected to available in key markets within a few weeks.

Telstra today introduced six mobile phones that will grow the Next G™ handset range by around 33 per cent, including two handsets that offer the world’s fastest 3GSM data download speeds.

The Samsung A811 and the Samsung A821 mobile handsets have a downlink speed rating of 7.2Mbps, matching Telstra’s recently launched super-fast Next G™ wireless broadband cards.*

Telstra Product Management Group Managing Director, Ms Holly Kramer, said the new data speeds on Telstra’s national Next G™ network were revolutionising the way customers use their mobile phones.

Mobile phones have entered a new phase of development and evolved into multi-functional media devices. With the higher download data speeds on Telstra’s Next G™ network, customers can take full advantage of richer mobile content and more advanced applications.

“Downloading large files, receiving emails with attachments, or watching live streaming video can now be done as effortlessly on your 7.2 Mbps enabled Next G™ mobile handset as on your wireless laptop,” Ms Kramer said.

The Samsung A821 also features a dual hinge widescreen, enabling users to watch video in either portrait or landscape modes - ideal for viewing the 33 channels on Mobile FOXTEL. Alternatively, the Samsung A811 delivers the same high speed performance in a stylish, ultra slim slider handset.

Ms Kramer said that Telstra was continuing to grow the range of Next G™ handsets to meet the individual needs and requirements of different market segments.

“While the rapidly evolving mobile technology is exciting, we are taking great care to keep the customer at the forefront of our thinking, matching our wireless products, content and applications to the varied needs of our customers. Customers will now be able to choose from 23 Next G” handsets and the range will continue to grow in line with the increasing number of Australians using the Next G” network,” Ms Kramer said.

Included in the six new Next G™ handsets are the Telstra 165 Country Phone and Nokia N95, which have both received the Telstra Blue Tick for handheld use in rural areas. Telstra has also launched the Nokia E51 and the Samsung A551. Both Nokia handsets will be available in store in mid-November.

‘* Downlink speed rating of 7.2Mbps. Typical customer download speed 550kbps - 3Mbps bursting up to 6Mbps in CBD, metropolitan and selected regional and other locations.