Device Arena

This will be the third 3G phone the 3G-less network provider has dropped recently. I guess this means they are really off their rocker, or really serious about finally opening up their 3G network.

Regardless, this thin slider phone is on its way to T-Mobile, maybe by the time it actually lands they’ll have their 3G network up and running. It has a 1.3MP cam and runs on dual-band GSM and supports T-Mobile’s planned 1700MHz WCDMA network.

So far I have yet to see a smartphone that will be running on their soon to be opened 3G network, but if I had to guess they probably have something earth-shattering and top secret up their sleeves that they are going to use to garner attention for their 3G network, meanwhile everyone else is already working on their 4G networks. But this is a pretty cool device in and of itself, and I am hoping that maybe this new network will net me some T-Mobile coverage, I doubt it though.

SLASH GEAR

On most mobile services, YouTube has been limited to a passive viewing experience without access to popular community and personalization features which have made YouTube such a huge success on the Web. Current YouTube offerings designed for mobile don’t let users “log in” and as a result, core YouTube features like rating and access to personal videos have only been available through the PC.

Those limitations are a thing of the past with the launch of Helio’s exclusive YouTube application. Available for Helio Ocean users at no additional charge and running over a nationwide high-speed 3G network, the custom application is complete with integrated video capture and upload for near real-time sharing of experiences, GPS tagging of videos, personalization and access to community features like rating and commenting on videos, all available for the first time in one place on mobile. Designed to work seamlessly with Helio Ocean, the YouTube application is another way Helio gives its members untethered access to their content and their friends.

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T-Mobile and Samsung announce the availability of the Samsung Katalyst, the newest phone to support T-Mobile HotSpot @Home. The Katalyst, a stylish slider phone, provides customers with great wireless coverage when placing calls over a home Wi-Fi network and at T-Mobile HotSpot locations nationwide. With the purchase of a HotSpot @Home add-on plan, customers can enjoy the freedom of unlimited, nationwide calling over Wi-Fi. The Samsung Katalyst will be available for $79.99 with a two-year service agreement.

Samsung Telecommunications America (Samsung) and T-Mobile USA, Inc. (T-Mobile), today announced the availability of the new Samsung Katalyst™*. The Katalyst adds a stylish, slider design to the growing line-up of phones that support T-Mobile HotSpot @HomeSM service.

With built-in support for T-Mobile HotSpot @Home, the Samsung Katalyst provides customers with great wireless coverage when placing calls over a home Wi-Fi network and at nearly 8,500 T-Mobile® HotSpot locations nationwide. When customers leave home or a T-Mobile HotSpot, their calls are passed onto T-Mobile’s wireless network, and the same is true for passing calls from T-Mobile’s network onto Wi-Fi networks. In addition, with the purchase of a HotSpot @Home add-on plan, customers can enjoy the freedom of unlimited, nationwide calling over Wi-Fi.**

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It’s time for our next Market Update edition. You can expect our market reports every Friday. Those will inform you on the latest (and greatest) mobile phones that hit the stores on a weekly basis. As previously noted, unfortunately, we won’t be able to comment local availability in stores near you, as well as on carrier-subsidized prices.

Nokia N82

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AT&T and Samsung Telecommunications America have announced the future availability of the SLM™ by Samsung, Samsung’s newest lightweight mobile phone with music and multimedia capabilities. The SLM by Samsung will be in stores beginning Nov. 23 and is the first of the company’s music phones to feature Napster Mobile™, a new service that enables AT&T’s wireless customers to easily search a music catalog of 5 million songs, preview samples of each song and purchase and download songs to their SLM in less than a minute.

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The quality of the cameras in mobile phones is improving very rapidly and approaching that of low to mid-end digital still camera’s. This trend was especially visible during during this year.

5 megapixel cameras are becoming mainstream in high end camera phones, we already have 3x optical zoom in Samsung G800, and next year we will see our first 8 megapixel cameraphones too.

Before today it was mainly my idle speculation, but now I can say that with certainty. Thanks to Samsung’s new 8 megapixel CMOS camera module that will find it’s way into a new cameraphones later next year.

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We’ve seen the Samsung SGH-i780 the first time back in September when Samsung previewed its latest Windows Mobile Pocket PC Phone Edition during the Gitex in Dubai. Today, I’ve received a test sample, thanks to Samsung and no, even if it looks like a BlackJack, it’s not a Windows Mobile Standard smartphone but features a touchscreen.
The Samsung SGH-i780, a QWERTY smartphone based on Windows Mobile 6 Professional, features a Marvell PXA310 CPU at 400 MHz and supports triband GSM at 900/1800/1900 MHz as well as singleband UMTS/HSDPA at 2100 MHz with 3.6 Mbps. Furthermore, the i780 features WiFi b/g, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR and an integrated A-GPS receiver.

Quite unique is the 2.6″ 65k color TFT touchscreen with a resolution of 320 x 320 pixel and the optical joystick which can be either used as a D-Pad replacement or together with a mouse pointer as a kind of touchpad. The 256 MB ROM and 128 MB RAM can be expended with microSD cards.
The main camera supports photos up to 2 megapixel and QVGA videos, the front facing camera supports VGA photos and QVGA videos. At a size of 116 x 61 x 12.9 mm, the SGH-i780 weights 120 g.

I will be able to use the test sample for the next couple of days and before I publish a preview, please find bellow a couple of photos:

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Samsung unveiled four latest Mobile WiMAX devices to the Korean market. One PDA type(SPH-M8200), one mobile convergence device(SPH-P9200), and two USB modem type(SPH-H1300, SWT-200K) devices have been launched. All four Mobile WiMAX devices are currently available through Korea Telecom(KT)’s Mobile WiMAX network.

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Sure it’s refurbed (r0cks0rz), but its also less than half the price of a new one. So, if you have been looking at picking up a Helio, specifically an Ocean, you can get a used one from Helio for $99 flat. Then you can get unlimited everything service wise for $99 bucks a month.

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The Samsung i400 is a slider that perfectly fits the winter months. Designed in a chique silver with black variant or a sweet red christmas ball colour, the Samsung i400 is ready for its launch in the shops. However, the Samsung i400 is not purely made out of design perspective, the device is namely quite big on the area of functions.

First of all, the Samsung i400 operates on the Symbian system, which not only makes sure that the device is very stable but als offers many functions. The Symbian system makes it possible to receive and view Microsoft Office files and besides this, the dynamic system is expandable with your own favourite programs. This extensive picture is put in a compact and stylish form that everyone can show off with.

The front of the Samsung i400 offers several quick keys. One of these quick keys offer direct admittance to the menu and the musicplayer. Furthermore, a regular and userfriendly five-way navigation key is present.

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