"The Dare isn’t necessarily an upgrade to the Voyager, as both are targeted to different consumers. Unlike the Voyager, which has a large clamshell design with dual displays, mechanical QWERTY keyboard, 2MP Camera, and Mobile TV service, the Dare is much sleeker and sexier, with only one display, more robust user interface, multitasking, and 3.2MP Camera. It also comes on the heals of the release of the Samsung Glyde, which didn’t do so well under our testing last month. Not only is the Dare competing against those devices, but also with the Samsung Instinct for Sprint and Apple’s upcoming iPhone 3G for AT&T. The true winner here is the consumer, as they now have several options to choose from, with each new device trying to out-do the other." Read more here:
"Out of the 18 electronics companies evaluated in the 8th edition of Greenpeace’s Guide to Greener Electronics, only two companies - Sony Ericsson and Sony - score above 5/10. The guide is now being released every 3 months, you can find the history records since 2006 here “Electronics giants pay attention to environmental performance on certain issues, while ignoring others that are just as important. Philips, for example, scores well on chemicals and energy criteria, but scores a zero on e-waste since it has no global take-back polices,” said Iza Kruszewska, Greenpeace International Toxics Campaigner. “Philips would score higher if it took responsibility for its own branded e-waste and established equitable global take-back schemes.”Many companies score well on energy efficiency as their products comply and exceed Energy Star standards. The best performers on energy efficiency are Sony Ericsson and Apple, with all of their models meeting, and many exceeding, Energy Star requirements. Sony Ericsson stands out as the first company to score almost top marks on all of the chemicals criteria. With all new Sony Ericsson models being PVC-free, the company has also met the new chemicals criterion in the ranking, having already banned antimony, beryllium and phthalates from models launched since January 2008.“Greenpeace aims to show which companies are serious about becoming environmental leaders. We want them to race towards meeting the new criteria: phasing out other toxic chemicals, increasing the recycling rate of e-waste, using recycled materials in new products and reducing their impact on climate change,” concluded Iza Kruszewska." via slashphone.com
"The LG Dare is finally here folks. Just go to your Verizon Wireless store and get it right now. Or maybe wait a couple of days for a similar phone that’s about to come out, you know try it out and then decide if the Dare is really what you need?This LG comes to $199 for a two year contract. Sounds similar to an AT&T deal across the street? I’m not saying the Dare is a bad phone. Not at all. It’s a great smartphone but it certainly isn’t better than the Samsung Instinct, which supposedly sold almost out just in a few days. And for a way cheaper price. Maybe Verizon missed all that action.Getting back to the LG Dare, I’ll remind you quickly some of the specs which might convince you to buy it:
a proximity sensor,
accelerometer
Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP,
3.2 megapixel camera,
EV-DO Rev A.
I might have believed the Dare was more promising once, but I might have just been a little angry over some missing copy paste action." via mobilewhack.com
"fring today released the fringAPI, which enables third-party web-developers using XML and JavaScript to bring the fring community new mobile applications and mobile versions of web-based applications, providing access to fring client GUI with web browser extensions and basic phone functions.“We built the fring community by harnessing and bringing our users the benefits of internet communication & experience, within the challenging mobile environment. By opening the fringAPI, we are now sharing our “mobile-internet key” to let talented developers worldwide add-on any flavor of mobile internet fun and functionality for our users to enjoy.” Explained Alex Nerst, Co-Founder and CTO of fring. “We’re looking forward to the ride, welcoming the worldwide pool of talented developers to join us in creating the best and broadest selection of mobile internet applications via fring.”Any fringAdd-on application is automatically integrated into the fring interface free of charge with strict privacy control, and becomes widely accessible to fringsters on hundreds of devices across platforms, service providers and communities. The fringAPI is currently available for fring clients for Nokia S60 v9.2 and additional devices and platforms will be added in the coming weeks." via slashphone.com
"Sprint today announced pricing for Samsung Instinct. When the device launches on June 20, it will cost just $129.99 with a two-year contract after a $100 mail-in rebate. Though, Instinct must be activated on a pricing plan offering unlimited data. Customers can choose from Everything plans for individuals starting at $69.99 per month for 450 voice minutes or Talk/Message/Data Share plans for families starting at $129.99 per month for 1500 voice minutes to share between two lines.Instinct has a high-tech look with large, vibrant touch-screen featuring localized tactile feedback, called haptics, which transform the virtual QWERTY keypad and other screen interactions into a sensory experience. The device also offers a Speech to Action button providing many functions using speech activation for calling, texting, picture messaging, traffic, movie, sports, news, weather and search.As Sprint’s first EV-DO Rev A consumer-centric device, Instinct provides the ability to quickly browse the Web, access business or personal e-mail, share pictures, listen to commercial-free radio and more at broadband speeds. Instinct also provides smooth access to GPS applications including Sprint Navigation, with GPS-enabled audio and visual turn-by-turn driving directions and one-click traffic rerouting as well as Live Search for Sprint, powered by Microsoft, providing easy access to directory information on-the-go, interactive maps and one-touch click to call access.Instinct boasts many advanced features including Visual Voicemail, allowing users to listen to messages in their order of preference and manage them with a simple tap of the screen. This device also provides support for corporate and consumer (POP3 and IMAP) email, multitasking capabilities that allow the user to play music in background mode while surfing the Internet, texting or playing games, a 2.0 megapixel camera with camcorder and expandable microSD memory of up to 8GB. Additional features include advanced stereo Bluetooth 2.0, SMS voice and text messaging with threaded text, picture caller ID and Sprint Mobile Sync.Instinct comes with everything the user needs to enjoy the device’s full capabilities right out of the box. Contents include a 2GB microSD card that can hold approximately 2,000 songs from Sprint Music Store, two standard 1,000 mAh batteries offering up to 5.75 hours of continuous talk time each, battery-charging sleeve, travel charger, USB cable, 3.5mm headphones with built-in microphone, and carry case with stylus." via slashphone.com
"Gartner have released figures for worldwide smartphone sales in the first quarter of 2008 - about as up to date as you and I get to see. There are no real surprises - Nokia top the table with 25% year-on-year growth of its S60 smartphones, with Q1 market share of 45%, healthy by any standards, but the biggest surprise is RIM's Blackberry range posting 107% growth, up to 13.4%. Apple's iPhone is already up to 5.3% of the smartphone market, somewhat ominously given their next-gen launch tomorrow (Monday) evening, UK time. The full stats/table is shown below the break." via allaboutsymbian.com
"Thin phones, tall phones, there's something for everyone in this day and age. There are small phones, and then there are small phones. Like the Neon 7, for instance. probably the smallest touchscreen phone around. You'd expect a phone this small to heavily skimp on features, but, for a device of its size, the Neon 7 is fairly competent, feature-wise. The screen is of quite a good size, given how small the handset is. It is out now, priced at an acceptable $199 USD Now, a run-down of the specs:
Connectivity: GSM 850/1800/1900MHz
Screen: 1.9” touchscreen
Camera: 1.3 megapixels
Memory: Trans Flash/MicroSD card slot
Extras: Bluetooth, with A2DP support, handwriting recognition, and speech Synthesis – to read out menus, and incoming call numbers" via mobile-review.com
"Sony Ericsson have slipped to fifth place in the handset sales market (reports SMSTextNews) with LG replacing them. The report, from Gartner, puts LG on around 8% of the market for sales during Q1 of 2008. Nokia are still number one, with 115.2 million phone sales, and there's also a global increase on all handset sales from Q1 2007 of 13.6%.Samsung continue a strong number two position, up from last years Q1 32 million unit sales to 42 million, while Motorola, not surprisingly, dropped from 47 million to 29 million units."While sales in emerging markets continued to be driven by strong net new subscribers’ growth, mature markets felt the pressure of an uncertain economic environment," said Carolina Milanesi, research director for mobile devices at Gartner, pointing towards a market with much less churn than has been seen previously.More at Gartner Research." via allaboutsymbian.com
"The success of smartphones among U.S. shoppers has served to boost the average purchase price for cellphones, according to new research from J.D. Power and Associates. According to the firm’s survey of almost 20,000 cellphone owners, the average price paid for a phone has increased by $9 over the past six months, to a record high of $101. J.D. Power said that figure was the highest average purchase price for a cellphone in the United States since the firm began tracking the number in 2003.“As more customers start to upgrade to mobile phones that offer real-time connectivity and access to Internet content — particularly those offered by smartphone devices — we should continue to see the wireless handset price point rise,” said Kirk Parsons, senior director of wireless services at J.D. Power. “Sales of smartphone devices have increased considerably over the past year to 6.3% from 1.7% in overall market share at the beginning of 2007.” Among other findings in the report: --Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications ranked highest in overall wireless customer satisfaction for a second consecutive time. LG Electronics Co. Ltd. also ranked above the industry average, while Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. came in just below the industry average. Samsung was followed by Motorola Inc., Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd., Kyocera Wireless Corp. and, finally, Nokia Corp. --Seventy-four percent of all cellphones have a clamshell design — an increase of 24% from 2006. Meanwhile, 21% have a candybar style and 5% have a “slide-cover” design. --The average reported length of cellphone ownership is 17.7 months—an increase from 16.6 months in 2006. --The most frequently reported reasons customers select their current cellphone include: pleasing design style (41%); received for free (25%); easy to use (23%); discounted/reduced price (21%); digital camera features (18%); variety of features offered and small size (17%). " via rcrnews.com
"Worldwide sales of mobile phones reached 294.3 million units in the first quarter of 2008, a 13.6 per cent increase over the first quarter of 2007, according to Gartner. Sales of mobile phones in Western Europe decreased 16.4 per cent from the first quarter of 2007, the first decline in this region since Gartner began tracking the mobile devices market in 2001.Nokia sold 115.2 million mobile phones in the first quarter of 2008, as its market share slipped slightly to 39.1 per cent (see Table 1). Nokia was able to maintain market leadership thanks to the richness of its portfolio, which appeals to users in both emerging and mature markets. Sales in the ultra-low-cost segment remained strong due to Nokia’s distribution strategy, economies of scale and brand power. However, competition in this segment and at the high end is increasing. To stay ahead, Nokia will have to continue to integrate new technologies in its handsets and improve usability and design.Samsung maintained its momentum in the first quarter of 2008 with sales reaching 42.4 million units. The South Korean vendor not only held on to its No. 2 position worldwide, but it also widened the gap from third-placed Motorola as its market share grew to 14.4 per cent. Samsung is reacting quickly to the focus on touch-screen devices. “Samsung’s choice to be a quick follower has paid off so far, but it needs to focus on diversifying its designs and strengthening its lower-end portfolio to increase sales in emerging markets,” said Ms Milanesi." Read more here:
"NTT DOCOMO, INC. and its eight regional subsidiaries announced today the new 906i and 706i series comprising 19 handsets and 64 body colors, which will be launched on or after June 1 (see charts below).The 906i series' eight handsets are equipped for all-round functions, including 3G/GSM international roaming, upgraded GPS location information, HSDPA, "One-Segment" mobile TV, 2 in 1 (combines capabilities of two phones in one), DCMX mobile credit card and iD mobile credit payments, VGA LCD screen and voice-to-text translation for Chinese, English and Japanese.The 906i series enables full-spec enjoyment of diverse video content and services, including DOCOMO's Music & Video Channel, which provides more than 100 channels of downloadable broadcasts spanning 14 genres, and the new video portal on the i-mode top screen, which offers a wide array of free, searchable videos and clips. The handsets come with upgraded full browsers to play Windows Media Video (all models except F906i) and Flash 8 (all models except P906i) content commonly available on PC websites, and can upload movies and images of up to 2MB." Read more inside..
"Announced last week in China, the new K-Touch C800 and C280 are powered by a 8 megapixel CCD camera module, the K-Touch C700 is using a 7 megapixel CCD camera module instead. While there is no reviews available to confirm the photo quality yet, the camera phones is just like your digital camera with 3x optical zoom, Xenon flash, image stabilizer, face recognition and support up to 1600 ISO sensitivity.It looks like the phones are using a seperate processor or software to handle the photo taking. The K-Touch C800 and C280 have 2 microSD card slot, both your camera photos and phones data are stored in seperate memory card. When you want to add your photos to your mms or email, there is no way for you to access the camera memory card. Basically to do that you will have to swap the memory card into the phone memory card slot, pretty troublesome design I would say." More here:
"Nokia has leaked a number of new handset designs, and a new User Interface. The first handset has a swivelling form-factor, ala the 7370...or that's what you get when you open it with your left hand.However, open it with your right hand, and the phone reveals a touchscreen, in place of the phone's keypad, thanks to a hinge, which, when the phone is open, reveals a normal keypad, or a touchscreen, depending on what way the phone is opened." Read more inside..
"To encourage greater adoption of broadcast mobileTV services and accelerate service deployment, Samsung and Nokiatoday announced they will work to achieve interoperability among theirDVB-H (Digital Video Broadcast - Handheld) enabled mobile devices and theopen standards based Nokia network services system.The handsetmanufacturers will work together to support solutions based on the open OMABCAST standard available for operator partners interested in deployingmulti-vendor mobile TV services and trials in 2007 and onward. "Within DVB-H technology, Samsung has already commercialized handsetsbased on the CBMS OSF standard, and will develop the OMA BCAST standardbased mobile TV handset. Its inclusion in our product portfolios willenhance our customers' flexibility in choosing suitable standards based ontheir business models," says Kwang Suk Hyun, Senior Vice President ofAlliance Team of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd."Nokia warmly welcomes the collaboration in accelerating the adoptionof DVB-H based mobile TV services to the market. We see that the OMA BCASTstandard is essential in launching mobile TV services on a global scale,"says Harri Mannisto, Director, Multimedia, Nokia. "Further, thewell-defined service and content protection profiles within the OMA BCASTstandard such as the already now available OMA DRM, provides the ideal pathtowards standardized solutions enabling a coherent and open market forsuccessful worldwide mobile TV deployments." The deployment of mobile TV services will offer new businessopportunities for companies across the value chain, including content andbroadcast companies, mobile service providers, infrastructure and handsetmanufacturers, and technology providers. The availability of interoperableDVB-H enabled devices and services is a key factor in further opening upthe market. DVB-H is an effective technology for deploying broadcast mobile TVamong the many digital technologies available to deliver mobile TVservices. DVB-H technology offers high service level quality, low batteryconsumption and offers the end-user the ability to simultaneously receivebroadcasts while using other mobile services such as telephony and internetaccess on their device. In parallel to supporting mobile operators launching mobile TV servicesbased on existing technologies in their networks, Samsung and Nokia areboth active in ongoing standardization and technology development tooptimize the broadcast mobile TV experience. The companies will work oninteroperability efforts using the open OMA standard while continuing toparticipate in industry-wide interoperability efforts within the relatedstandardization bodies." via dvb-handheld.blogspot.com
"We first laid our eyes on the Samsung SGH-F480 and its new TouchWiz interface back in MWC 2008. We were promised a April/May release date and true to their word, Samsung has announced that the 5-megapixel shooter is now headed to Europe. No word on availability in US, but considering that it is triband GSM designed for Europe and Asia, the phone would pretty much be a dud here anyways. With the new TouchWiz UI comes support for widgets, which can be dragged on to the home screen, which wasn’t available on its predecessor, the Croix 2.0 interface. Also available are 22 different vibrations which provide haptic feedback to the touch of a finger. Otherwise, the cell phone is basically the Samsung Armani with a 2.8-inch touchscreen, video messaging, email, USB 2.0 and Bluetooth connectivity, mobile blogging, and a 5-megapixel camera equipped with auto-focus as well as image stabilization.The SGH-F480 will be released in the European market with a graduated release in other countries, most probably Asian." via mobilewhack.com
"Looks like every major player out there is taking a shot at the Apple’s pride and joy, the iPhone. First, we saw the Nokia Tube emerge. Then there was the Thunder from Blackberry. And let’s not ignore the HTC Touch Diamond, which, according to me, sits on a throne higher than these other wannabes. Now, it’s Sony Ericsson’s turn with a video clip showing a yet unnamed touchscreen phone, which truly resembles the iPhone, but wouldn’t it be unfair to call every touchscreen device similar as a copy?The video implies this unknown device will be a powerhouse of media, web, and communication technologies. It is tipped to be the next product in the Xperia line after the X1 with icons that look similar to the ones on a PSP.If Sony Ericsson is trying to stir up some viral advertising with this new device, it’s definitely got our attention! Head over to YouTube to take a look at the video." via mobilewhack.com
"Roughly a month ago, Opera Software released Opera Mini 4.1 in beta. The final version is now out, and it packs all of the features the beta version had in a more stable packaging. Let's recap the features:
It's up to 50% faster than Opera Mini 4.0
URL completions support makes address input a snap
Web pages can be saved for later off-line viewing
Quick access to the word or phrase you want in Web pages
Images, ringtones and other content can be downloaded without leaving Opera Mini
Opera Mini 4.1 is freely available from here, and yes we urge you to download it!" via intomobile.com
"Samsung's Glyde handset, which has a slide-out QWERTY keypad, has been released on Verizon, a US network operator. As for pricing, the Glyde will cost $249, after a rebate of $50, this is on a 24 month contract. Here is a brief rundown of the tech specs:
Connectivity: CDMA Dual Band (800/1900MHz), with 3G support
2.78-inch 240 x 440 pixels touch screen
Music player, supporting the following formats: MP3, AAC+, eAAC+, and Real
2 megapixel camera, with digital zoom and video capture
Memory: 150MB built-in, with Micro SD card slot
Extras: GPS built-n, Bluetooth, 3.5mm jack" via mobile-review.com
"During the first quarter of this year, the market for mobile phones worldwide were unaffected by the economic slowdown. In fact, shipments rose by a double-digit percentage compared to the same period in 2007.Global mobile-handset shipments reached 296 million units during the first three months of this year, up 17% from the first quarter of 2007, according to market-research firm iSupply.Nokia easily maintained its market dominance last quarter. Its shipments of 115.5 million units gave it a market share of 39%. Shipments were up 26.8% year over year.Samsung reinforced its No. 2 position in the first quarter of 2008. Its world handset market share rose to 15.6% in the first quarter, and its shipments were up 33%.Amid serious losses, declining market share, and restructuring, Motorola's mobile-handset business continued to struggle. It had a 9.3% share of the market last quarter. It's mobile phone shipments had a yearly decline of 39.6% last quarter.Just slightly behind Motorola was LG with 8.2% of the world market and Sony Ericsson with 7.5%. LG's shipments increased dramatically -- 54.4% -- to put it ahead of Sony Ericsson, whose sales only went up 2.3%. LG credited its sales growth to strong results in emerging regions and in its home market of S. Korea. Sony Ericcson, on the other hand, blamed its weak performance in the first three months of this year on slow demand for mid-range to high-range handsets, areas which have traditionally been strong for the company.Because shipments of smartphones are dwarfed by those of feature phones and dumbphones, companies like RIM and Apple are unlikely to make it in the top five list any time soon." via brighthand.com
"Well, well, well… Look who’s getting into a full touchscreen mobile phone game. It’s Philips, with a new Philips Xenium X800 e2e handset. Actually, it’s not THAT Philips, but a former cellphone subsidiary of the Dutch CE giant, which is now fully owned by Chinese investors and has the right to use Philips name for a while still. Apart from the news that it will be a full touchscreen phone , with the abbreviation of “e2e”, which means a touchscreen that stretches from “edge to edge”, not much is known about the new Philips Xenium e2e phone. Except for the pics (if they are the real deal): The handsets under Philips Xenium brand are best known for some extraordinary battery time, so I guess that should also be a distinguishing feature of Xenium e2e. The pics indicate that this phone will come with Wi-Fi connectivity, which implies other high end features as well. If this phone is real, much will depend on how well the touchscreen works and how well the touch UI is implemented. Which is no easy feat, as many iPhone wannabe’s can attest. Still, it would be interesting to see what new can Philips bring to the full touch screen phone marketplace, which is getting crowded pretty quick this year." via unwiredview.com