Samsung Instinct vs. iPhone 3G: which one will be better?

It's not only the battle of two devices it is the battle of two cell phone services providers: Sprint and AT&T. These two phones will be their best and most powerful presenters that they have. iPhone 3G is not out yet but AT&T was successfully selling the previous versions of iPhone for almost a year now. So some people love AT&T and other love Sprint and it's their choice. What we are going to do is compare the features of the two phones.

First of all let's do the comparison of the exterior of Samsung Instinct and iPhone. Instinct is made mainly of plastic which is not that neat today; iPhone has pats made of metal and harden glass to prevent it from scratching.

As to AT&T vs. Sprint there are some advantages and disadvantages; but concerning these phones Sprint is giving very high internet speeds and music store from any point of coverage. AT&T's iPhone can only connect to iTunes store via Wi-Fi, which restricts it to the city limits. Besides, everybody knows about Samsung Instinct's and iPhone's GPS capabilities.

I personally liked the voice control on Samsung Instinct; however not sure if it would work as good as they demonstrate it, so train your speech to be able to control it.
I'm not sure if it was a good idea to have the keyboard only in landscape mode. My personal opinion is that I want to choose what mode to use because it really frustrates me that I need to turn it every time I want to input some text.

One more thing that I love about Instinct is its open platform. I really like to install and use the software I choose. iPhone has made a pretty good job on giving positive experience for the customers but it is closed platform.

Another good thing about Instinct is that they give an additional battery and an external battery charger, which can be very helpful during traveling.

iPhone should be twice as fast in web browsing as the old iPhone is. It supports Bluetooth, GPRS, GSM, EDGE, Wi-Fi, HSDPA, UMTS connectivity and that's what they are proud about. One of the biggest news: it will be able to give you 3G video talks with your friends.

One other big news is that Apple is going to allow third party applications on their iPhone but only those that are approved by them. Not sure how popular that will be. Apple has done a pretty good job on the user interface. And the question I have is: "Will the third party applications be free or they are going to charge the customers for that?" The platform it is running on is Mac OS X Mobile which should bring the customers best experiences.

In the rest of features the iPhone 3G will be just as its predecessor (one of the best phones out there.) It will roll out on July the 11th in 70 countries of the world. The 8GB version will cost $199 and the 16GB version will cost $299.

Nokia X3 to give you new musical sensations

If you have been waiting for a new Nokia eye catcher, it seems to be your day as new Nokia slide phone is announced. Dubbed the Nokia X3, this innovative gadget features a slender and trendy design that offers some exquisite music capacities. This magnificent gadget makes it possible for its users to download or find a favorite tune from the millions pre-loaded songs.
This cool looking slider features the 16 GB of storage so you can easily play whatever music you like on the go. The Nokia X3 offers 3, 2 mega pixel camera that seems to be good enough to take high quality images along with some memorable video clips. The 2, 2 inches screen of the Nokia X3 sports home screen feature for you to keep track of data you might be in need of.

The Nokia X3 has stereo speakers while the 16 GB is accessible via its hot-swappable micro SD card (not included). This hands-free looker also offers Bluetooth 2,1 connectivity and USB 2, 0. It seems to be good for those who are fond of socializing as you can use features like e-mailing and instant messages, Nokia Chat and other trendy clients.

In order to listen to your preferable music you might use the traditional 3, 5 mm jack or follow FM radio via stereo speakers. There are also some games pre-loaded including Guitar Rock Tour, Rally Stars, Snake 3 and other amazing games. Nokia Maps include A-GPS navigation while thanks to OVi Store you might download applications, videos or games of your choice.

The Nokia X3 boasts up to 26 hours of high quality music playback, 7, 5 hours of talk time or up to 380 hours of standby time. It measures 96 x 49, 3 x 14, 1 mm and weighs 103 grams. This marvelous slider sports 262 colors and takes pictures with 4x zoom while video is recorded at QVGA quality offering 30 frames per second. The Nokia X3 is expected to hit the market with a sticker price tag of 163 USD.

New at Verizon Wireless: Samsung Rogue and Samsung Intesity

Verizon Wireless has announced availability of two new Samsung messaging phones. The cheaper model is Samsung Intensity. This one is a straight forward messenger with a sliding side full QWERTY, 1.3 megapixel cam, web and IM capabilities and 29.99 bucks on the tag. The other one, Samsung Rogue, is a whole different mobile phone however. The only thing it has in common with Intensity is a keyboard. Everything else is from a completely different division.

First and the best thing about Rogue is its AMOLED display. A 3.1 inch WVGA touchscreen promises to deliver state-of-art image and blazing response time. Good job Rouge has VCAST video on demand support, video recording and editing features. MicroSD slot limited to 16GB and 3.0 camera seem a bit yesterday, but who wants pictures on the go in hi-res anyway. I have mentioned above messaging trend of both, so AMOLED display, QWERTY and camera, all come on purpose of social networking. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other widgets are on their place in Rogue. Price is (just) 99.99 USD.

LG Chocolate BL20 slider, 5MP camera is best in it

LG Chocolate BL40 has been launched in early September. And now, right this Monday, 28 they have announced new Chocolate series BL20 slider. Is it much like Palm with its Pre and less well equipped Pixi sitting in the pipeline. Only that since Pre has gone cheaper, prices are on the different level. I've brought Palm example because it's the freshest of the case, all manufacturers do the same at some degree. Since LG Chocolate BL20 is not that much of a pump like Pixi, we'll just have a short specs walkthrough. Release of the BL20 is going to happen in Q4 in UK at O2.

Again much like Pixi, Chocolate BL20 lacks Wi-Fi and even 3G. for decent browsing Chocolate slider’s owner will have to find good EDGE signal and take his time. So, the specs: LG Chocolate BL20 stores its widgets on a 2.4 inch 240 x 320 QVGA TFT display, 262K colors. Camera is fairly nice, has Clear Memo Capture feature for better image of handwritten text, graphs or other stuff printed on paper, 5MP, autofocus and flash. I don’t need to indicate this every time anymore, do I? This is average. 900mAh Li-Ion battery provides 450 hours of standby and five hours of talk time. That should be enough since you won’t be browsing the Web too much on it. Internal memory has 60MB as standard and is expandable up to 16GB via microSD slot. We are only waiting for wider availability info. Price in Europe will be 269 EUR.

T-Mobile BlackBerry Onyx press image leaks out

The BlackBerry Onyx hasn't exactly kept itself a secret in the past few months, so it's no surprise that we're seeing what looks to be the official press image and release from T-Mobile well before the handset's launch. No big surprises here, really -- it's still a 3G mashup of the Bold and the Curve 8900 with that new optical trackball -- but apparently RIM's preloading it with the Amazon MP3 store, so that's slightly interesting. From what we can tell, it's due in early November, but pricing is still a mystery -- hopefully RIM and T-Mobile have saved the best surprise for last.

Lifecasting with Ovi to launch on Nokia N97 mini

Status updates are a very popular feature of Facebook. Many Facebook users like to use them to tell people where they are or what they are doing. Nokia is now offering a new application to make that task even easier.
Lifecasting with Ovi will allow people to publish their location and status updates to their Facebook account and do so in a very easy way. Users of the application will be able to perform updates from the home screen of their mobile device. Lifecasting will first be offered on the Nokia N97 mini. The Nokia N97 mini is expected to ship in October and will retail for EUR 450. The software will also be available for the Nokia N97 and Nokia N97 mini through Nokia Beta Labs.
This application offers a logical extension of what a lot of people already do on a regular basis. Now they will be able to do it easier by tapping into the GPS capabilities of their mobile device. Now before those with privacy issues air their concerns, here’s a simple thought. If you don’t want someone on Facebook to know where you are simply get rid of them as a friend on your Facebook account. I’ll send you my consulting bill later.

Things To Do To Get More Improved Battery Life On Your Mobile Phone

Today mobile phones are a necessity in one’s life. We talk much on phone and the battery of the phone gets used up. So we always find the means to save the battery of the phone so that we can talk as much as possible. To fulfill this need of user, mobile phone now come up with batteries with longer talktime backup and those which last for years if used according to some useful instruction.

Today we use many applications and programs which consume the mobile battery at a faster rate. Our bad habits of avoiding switching off the mobiles phones when not in use especially at night consume more battery. The new phones with greater megapixels also consume a lot of battery power. Here we will discuss some of the steps to increase your mobile phone battery life:

• Turn off your mobile: Turning off mobile handsets is one of the most effective measures to save the battery power. You can turn off your mobile during the time you go to bed or when you attend a meeting. Turning off your mobile phone when no connectivity is available also plays a vital role in saving your battery power.
• Turn off the connectivity means: Turning off connectivity means like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and infrared also save a major part of your battery power.
• Switch off the vibrate function: Vibrate alert function in mobile phones consumes a lot of battery power. So switch off the vibrate alert function of your phone.
• Reduce the screen brightness: More the brightness of your phone more is the power consumed, so keep the brightness level of your phone to a minimum level. Also set the display time out as low as possible.
• Avoid screensavers: To save battery power, avoid the use of screensavers on your mobile and use of simple wallpapers will be more beneficial.
• Terminate Applications: Termination of applications of your mobile phone when not in use also saves a lot of battery power
• Recharge your battery: It is good to recharge your phone properly and recharge the battery when three fourth of the battery has been used up.
• Avoid heating: Keep your mobile phone cool. Keep it off from direct exposure to sun or any heating appliance. The preferable range at which the battery works fine is 10-35 Centigrade.
• Avoid flash: Avoid flash light during photography also save a major portion of battery power. Flash light consume a lot of power, to turn off the flash in day.

Read more: http://www.mobiletipstricks.com/category/mobile-hacks/#ixzz0PA9arDYx

Nokia N97 Review

So, guess what Nokia came up with as a follow up for their Nokia 5800 XpressMusic Touchscreen phone? The Nokia N97, a Google G1 phone look-alike that sports a 3.5 inch touchscreen and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Here is a review by cellphone-reviews.co.uk

Design

The Nokia N97 looks like a cross between a lot of different phones from the iPhone to the Google G1 Phone to the AT&T Tilt (HTC TyTN II). Up front, the Nokia N97's 3.5 inch screen dominates the whole front of the phone except for the little button on the bottom left side corner which serves as the shortcut key to the N series multimedia applications. The call and end buttons are touch sensitive like ROKR E8. On the top of the Nokia N97 is the 3.5mm headphone jack and the power button. The Nokia N97 is just a tad bit larger and thicker than the iPhone and when you slide out the QWERTY keypad, you're reminded of the HTC TyTN II with it's angled screen. The Nokia N97 feels solid enough to hold though it just feels a bit too large especially if you have small hands.

The QWERTY keypad is evenly spaced and you won't have trouble typing nor would you have to worry about pressing two buttons at a time. The buttons are very minimal compared with other QWERTY keypads from HTC or Blackberry. I guess this is to make room for the directional pad on the left side. The sliding mechanism feels solid enough though I'm a bit worried about the hinge that connects the screen and the keypad since it looks thin and breakable.


Features and Performance

The performance of the Nokia N97 is based purely on the demo version but I have to say I'm quite impressed. It looks like Nokia has fine tuned the Symbian OS to work well with touchscreen. On the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, you won't get much of the swiping and flicking finger action but they've refined it so that you can get that much out of the Nokia N97. Also, compared with the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic demo version, the Nokia N97 interface is quite fast and responsive. You can barely see any hiccup on the accelerometer transition or when you're navigating the Symbian OS. The user interface on the Nokia N97 is also quite new but is still very user-friendly. Like I said, it's touch optimized and there are a lot of widgets you can play with. The built-in browser also looks promising though I wasn't able to see if it supports YouTube desktop PC version. Scrolling through webpages isn't as smooth and fluid as when you're surfing the Safari Browser on the iPhone but the webpages renders quickly though I don't know if that's because the pages that the person demonstrating the phone is already saved and bookmarked on the phone's memory.

The Nokia N97 also supports TV Out, WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, GPS, FM radio, and a 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics. If the camera on the Nokia N97 is as good as that on the Nokia N95 then I'm sure that the Nokia N97 won't have any problems when it comes to its camera software. The Nokia N97 runs on Quadband GSM networks and supports 3G/HSDPA.

It's just too bad that Nokia decided to go with Resistive touchcreen instead of capacitive like that on the iPhone. I'm sure with a bit of development, they'll be able to come up with a lot of good applications that can make use of capacitive touchscreen.

Outlook

Hmm, looks like Nokia got it right on their second try. I like the Nokia N97 better than their Nokia 5800 XpressMusic and I hope that they'll be able to incorporate the user interface of the N97 on the 5800 XpressMusic though I highly doubt that since the Nokia N97 is aimed at the high end market while the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic borders on the midrange to high-end phone segment. From the looks of the demo version, the Nokia N97 looks promising enough. It's fast and responsive. I don't know what processor or RAM they've used on this device but I guess they were able to make use of the new Symbian OS. All in all, it looks like the iPhone, Google G1 Phone and the Blackberry Storm has a new competitor to watch out for. And knowing that there are a lot of Nokia fanatics, I think that the Nokia N97 will definitely take a large part of the smartphone market.

Samsung Propel - green (AT&T) by Nicole Lee

The name might not indicate it, but the Samsung Propel is one of the latest in a line of AT&T messaging phones (the Pantech Matrix is another one), perhaps as a response to the recent text messaging craze that is sweeping the nation. Equipped with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, the Propel is not a smartphone, but that doesn't mean it's without features. In fact, the Propel's multimedia and 3G offerings are quite compelling, even if we weren't pleased with the keypad design. The Samsung Propel is available for $79.95 with a two-year service agreement and after a mail-in rebate.

Design
The Propel has a similar design to that of the Verizon Wireless Blitz. They both have a somewhat square shape, and both slide up to reveal a QWERTY keyboard. The similarities end there, however. Measuring 3.85 inches long by 2.33 inches wide by 0.58 inch thick, the Propel is much thinner than the Blitz, with a flatter front design. Though it is slightly bowed on the left and right side, the Propel is also much less curvy than its competitor. So while the Blitz appears cute and cuddly, the Propel is more lean and mean.




The Samsung Propel has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard.


On the front of the Propel is a nice 2.2-inch display with support for only 65,000 colors, which is quite a disappointment by our standards. The screen looks decent enough, but colors looked muted and dull. The menu interface is typical Samsung and is easy to use. You can adjust the backlight time, the dialing font (type, size, color, and background color), brightness, and the menu style.

The navigation array consists of two skinny soft keys, a round toggle with a middle confirmation key, a dedicated text message key, a Clear key, and the Talk and End/Power keys. The round toggle can be pressed in four directions, each of which doubles as four user-defined shortcuts. The middle confirmation key also acts as a shortcut to the Web browser. Though the two soft keys are raised above the surface, the rest of the keys are completely flat (with the exception of the round toggle). We didn't like the feel of the flat slippery keys and would've liked a bit more texture.







The Samsung Propel has a 1.3-megapixel camera lens next to a self-portrait mirror.

Slide the phone open and you'll reveal a full QWERTY keyboard. The keyboard didn't feel either cramped or roomy; sort of somewhere in-between. The individual keys, however, were small and felt quite slippery--we would've preferred a bit more grip or texture on the keys. Aside from the typical function and Caps/Shift keys, the keyboard also has dedicated keys for the camera, AT&T's Cellular Video service, and the phone's sound profile.

The left spine of the Propel is home to a volume rocker and microSD card slot, while the right spine is home to a charger jack as well as a Shortcuts key. The Shortcuts key toggles between the phone, the messaging menu, the Media Net browser, the music player, and the games and applications folder. When the phone is slid open, you'll find the camera lens and self-portrait mirror on the back.

Features
The Samsung Propel has a generous 1,000-entry phonebook with room in each entry for two phone numbers, an e-mail address, an instant-messaging handle, and notes. You can also organize your contacts by caller groups, or pair them with a photo or one of 11 polyphonic ring tones for a customized ring. Other essentials include a vibrate mode, a speakerphone, text and multimedia messaging, an alarm clock, a calendar, a to-do list, a notepad, a calculator, a tip calculator, a unit converter, a world time clock, a timer, a stopwatch, and a voice recorder. On the higher end, you also get a wireless Web browser, stereo Bluetooth, mobile e-mail, instant-messenger support (AOL, Windows Live, and Yahoo) and A-GPS. Because of the A-GPS feature, the Propel comes with AT&T Navigator, AT&T's turn-by-turn direction service.

The Propel is a 3G/HSDPA phone, meaning it has access to AT&T's full array of broadband services and applications. They include AT&T's Cellular Video, a streaming video service with content partners like NBC and ESPN, and AT&T Mobile Music. The Propel is also compatible with AT&T Video Share, which lets you stream live one-way video to another Video Share-compatible phone.

One of the Propel's features is access to AT&T Mobile Music, which is a big umbrella of features that include the built-in music player, the capability to stream and download music from Napster and eMusic, access to MusicID (a song identification service), XM radio, and streaming music videos. If you wish, you can also upload songs directly to the built-in music player via USB. The player supports MP3, MIDI, MMF, WAV, SMAF, and AAC+ file formats. The interface itself is fairly generic, with the expected functions like play, pause, and skip tracks. Other music player options include a preset equalizer, repeat and shuffle modes, and the capability to create and edit playlists. The Propel comes with 50MB of shared memory between the camera and the music player, but there's a microSD card slot if you want additional storage.

The Samsung Propel has pretty good photo quality.

The Propel comes with a 1.3-megapixel camera. It can take pictures in three resolutions (1,280x960, 640x480, 320x240), five white-balance settings, four color effects, and three quality settings. Other camera settings include 3x zoom, brightness, a self-timer, three shutter sounds with a silent option, six shot modes (single shot, multishot, mosaic shot, frame shot, and panorama), and a night mode. Photo quality was pretty good. Images looked sharp and bright. However, colors looked muted. There's also a built-in camcorder that can record in two resolutions--short video for MMS, and longer ones for whatever amount of storage is available. The only available resolution is 176x144. Other camcorder settings are the same as the still camera.

You can customize the Samsung Propel with a variety of graphics and sounds to suit your taste. If you want more, you can download them via AT&T's Media Mall store. The Propel comes with games and applications like Mobile Banking, MobiTV, the Weather Channel, WikiMobile, Guitar Hero III, JewelQuest 2, Midnight Bowling 2, and Tetris. If you want more games and applications, you can download more via the same store.

Performance
We tested the quad-band GSM and dual-band UMTS/HSDPA Samsung Propel with AT&T in San Francisco. We were impressed with the call quality. Although we could hear the occasional static, we could still hear our callers loud and clear. We thought they sounded very natural, on both landline and cell phone calls. Callers reported the same thing--they said our voices sounded quite natural, as if we were calling from a landline. Speakerphone quality was surprisingly good--callers couldn't hear much of a difference, though we thought they sounded tinny with quite a bit of echo.

We were impressed with the HSDPA speeds on the Propel. We downloaded a song in about 50 seconds, and streaming video had little to no buffering issues. Loading Web pages took only a few seconds, too.

The Samsung Propel has a rated battery life of 5 hours talk time and 10.4 days standby time. According to FCC radiation tests, the Matrix has a digital SAR rating of 0.968 watts per kilogram.

UPDATE

How to get GMAIL on the Samsung Propel a767

I was disappointed to see that the built in "mobile email" providers did not include GMAIL, which in my opinion is by far the best free email service available.

The built in accounts are for Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, AIM, AT&T Yahoo, Bellsouth, Comcast, Earthlink, Juno, MindSpring, and Netzero. All of these, but no GMAIL!?!?!?

So my mission has started to get gmail to work on this thing. Here is how to do it.

The easiest way is to download GMAIL mobile from Google. Here is the address:

http://www.google.com/mobile/default/mail.html

Enter your number in the field and you will receive a text with a link to install the client.

Once the client is installed just set up your login and password to gmail and your ready to roll.

It is free, like most things from google. It is extremely well written (better than the built in email apps on the Propel)

I have also found a couple other programs that sort of work, but the google supplied client is by far the best so far.

Samsung Omnia Pro B7330 has leaked, only not priced

Well, it looks like we finally got our selves a leak from Samsung of their upcoming replacement for Omnia PRO B7320. The B7330 has been rumored around the Web for a while now, so we know that most of specs represent a steady progress of its predecessor. And now fresh photos do the same thing with design. So far, we can say B7330 is less thick, has a slightly bigger screen, keyboard has been changed a bit but still is a QWERTY. Omnia PRO B7330 will come out in October for a price we can only guess. Specs follow.

I might have intrigued you saying about bigger screen. So it is, but not by much. Future Omnia has a 320 x 320 2.63 inch TFT display. Operating system was upgraded from Windows Mobile 6.1 to 6.5 version. Rest is pretty standard: Wi-Fi, HSDPA, Bluetooth, MicroSD expansion slot. Onboard memory you get out of stock is 320MB. Could be worse, but I'm just interested in the upper limit of its expansion. Anyway, in addition to all of that B7330 features a 3.2 megapixel camera and 1500mAh battery. Now it's your word, guys, how much of your own money would you give for it?

T-Mobile Pulse is set for October with 257 EUR on the tag

Remember the Huawei U8220? Do you like the idea to bring it to Europe as a T-Mobile Pulse? If so, you then will be pleased to hear some recently appeared details on that. First, we have a new picture of it differs from the old, especially the bottom console keys, they are now placed vertically and the overall shape is smoothed out. In addition, the color scheme is also different. I liked the old one better I should say, but anyway, T-Mobile Pulse, as it was recently presented at a Dutch e-store preorder list, sports a cool black and white body. Price at the same place is 257 EUR. Specs after the jump.

So, here's what we have on T-Mobile Pulse:


* Touch sensitive 320 x 480 3.5 inch display

* 3.2 megapixel camera

* HSDPA 7.2 Mbps, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps

* Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth 2.0
* MicroSD slot



T-Mobile Pulse will arrive in Europe in October with Android locked to T-Mobile network. There is a sense in the air that this is not the final information.

Nokia Surge 6790 (AT&T)

The Nokia 6790 Surge for AT&T is a bit of a departure for the Finnish handset manufacturer. You wouldn't know it just by looking at it, but the little guy is actually a smartphone like the Nokia N and E series devices. It runs on the Symbian S60 platform and includes Exchange support, a number of productivity tools, GPS, and 3G support just like the big boys. However, the Surge isn't intended for the same audience of business and power users as the others; instead, it's geared to a younger audience, offering easy access to social networking sites and a spacious full QWERTY keyboard for easy messaging. The wallet-friendly price tag of $79.99 with a two-year contract is also quite appealing, but realize you have to sign up for a data plan with it. We're not in love with the design, but the Nokia Surge definitely fills a gap in AT&T's lineup for its younger customers who are looking for something a little more full-featured than a basic messaging cell phone for a more affordable price.

Design
When we first saw the Nokia Surge in pictures, we didn't quite know what to make of the design, and now that we have it in hand, well, it's interesting. The Surge is a lot smaller than we expected, measuring just 3.8 inches tall by 2.2 inches wide by 0.6 inch thick and 4.3 ounces. Even though the compact size is nice, we weren't so fond of the plasticky and slick feel of the phone, and the battery cover creaks at the slightest amount of pressure.

The Nokia Surge is quite compact, but we're not fond of its plasticky feel.

On front and slightly off center is Surge's 2.4-inch QVGA display. It shows 16 million colors at a 320x240-pixel resolution, and while it's clear and bright enough, it's definitely not as sharp or vibrant as some of the recent smartphones we've seen. Also, the user interface looks it belongs more on a basic cell phone than a smartphone, which has more to do with the aging Symbian operating system. The screen is also on the smaller side, so there was a bit more scrolling involved and it wasn't the best for viewing videos and Web pages. Plus, it's a magnet for fingerprints and smudges.

That said, you'll most likely be using the phone in landscape mode a lot of the time, so at least you get a wider viewing area when the screen is horizontal. To make things easier for you, the display has a built-in accelerometer, so the screen orientation will automatically switch from portrait to landscape mode when you rotate the phone. The accelerometer was fast, and the screen changed with minimal to no delay. However, we did notice that some of the onscreen icons looked jagged as if the screen was about to go on the fritz, though it never did during our testing period.

Surrounding the display is a handful of navigation controls and shortcuts. Below the display (when the phone is held vertically), you have the standard soft keys, Talk and End buttons, and a four-way directional keypad with a center select button, and to the left, there are shortcut buttons to the browser, main menu page, and messages. Though they're handy for navigating the phone, we have to say the buttons are stiff to press, and the phone creaks when trying to punch them. Another annoyance is that you have to slide open the phone to dial any numbers not in your address book.

The one bright spot about the Surge's design is the spacious full QWERTY keyboard.

While we aren't huge fans of the above controls, we were quite happy with the full QWERTY keyboard. You can get to it by pushing the screen to the right, and the sliding mechanism is smooth and securely locks into place. The keyboard buttons are nice and large and don't feel too squishy or flat, so the typing experience is great.

On top of the device, you'll find the speaker, a 2.5mm headset jack, and the power connector, which is protected by an attached cover. The microUSB port on the left side also has a protective cap, which we appreciate, but they're both difficult to remove and get in the way when trying to connect the respective cables. There's a volume rocker and camera activation/capture key on the right. Finally, the camera is located on the back, while the microSD expansion slot can be found behind the battery cover.

Cheers to set a new trend with the Wine-powered cell phone

Would you like to amaze your friends with alcohol powered cell phone? This eco gadget is beyond imagination as it is powered by wine setting a new trend in cell phones. This ingenious concept offers a new sustainable energy still being under development and promises to power your portable gizmos. Engineered by designer Tryi Yeh it is about to take your eco friendliness to the next level.

Called “Cheers”, this intelligent cell phone is shaped like an alcohol bottle but what is interesting about the concept is that it is going to be powered by alcohol itself. Once the cap of your green mobile phone is removed, you will be able to get the fuel cell holding wine which appears to provide more efficiency in battery power saving.

On the top of the bottle there is a cap shaped fast function switch while using Cheers
Unfortunately, there is no data on technical specifications but hopefully we will have one handy once our eco consciousness is at high level. This green mobile phone will surely bring a lot of fun using it especially when you need to refuel it.Would you like to amaze your friends with alcohol powered cell phone? This eco gadget is beyond imagination as it is powered by wine setting a new trend in cell phones. This ingenious concept offers a new sustainable energy still being under development and promises to power your portable gizmos. Engineered by designer Tryi Yeh it is about to take your eco friendliness to the next level.

Called “Cheers”, this intelligent cell phone is shaped like an alcohol bottle but what is interesting about the concept is that it is going to be powered by alcohol itself. Once the cap of your green mobile phone is removed, you will be able to get the fuel cell holding wine which appears to provide more efficiency in battery power saving.

On the top of the bottle there is a cap shaped fast function switch while using Cheers
Unfortunately, there is no data on technical specifications but hopefully we will have one handy once our eco consciousness is at high level. This green mobile phone will surely bring a lot of fun using it especially when you need to refuel it.Would you like to amaze your friends with alcohol powered cell phone? This eco gadget is beyond imagination as it is powered by wine setting a new trend in cell phones. This ingenious concept offers a new sustainable energy still being under development and promises to power your portable gizmos. Engineered by designer Tryi Yeh it is about to take your eco friendliness to the next level.

Called “Cheers”, this intelligent cell phone is shaped like an alcohol bottle but what is interesting about the concept is that it is going to be powered by alcohol itself. Once the cap of your green mobile phone is removed, you will be able to get the fuel cell holding wine which appears to provide more efficiency in battery power saving.

On the top of the bottle there is a cap shaped fast function switch while using Cheers
Unfortunately, there is no data on technical specifications but hopefully we will have one handy once our eco consciousness is at high level. This green mobile phone will surely bring a lot of fun using it especially when you need to refuel it.

June 12th, 2009 by Ally in Audio/Video Gadgets, PC Gadgets, USB Gadgets, iPod gadgets

If you enjoy having your iPhone or iPod integrated with all of your technology, you’ll enjoy this new line of iHome products. They add docks into products you’d normally have lying around anyway. Such as adding a spot for your iPhone or iPod into a keyboard. Then it’s always within reach and it can charge up. There won’t be the issue of added cords that way either or a random dock sitting on your desk. It’s just another part of the current technology and it looks great.

There are two separate additions to the group that iHome signed a licensing agreement with LifeWorks Technology Group to create. They are in true Apple style too, holding to the nice sleek lines that go with a lot of Apple products. The range includes the iConnect Media Keyboard, which can be purchased for $149. Which isn’t too bad since there’s an attached dock, but hopefully you have a fairly wide keyboard drawer. Then there is also the iStand Notebook Media Bundle that includes an embedded dock for the iPhone and iPod. It can be purchased for the slightly more expensive $299.

Samsung announces first solar powered GSM Cellphone

Samsung is going green with it’s first solar-powered GSM cell phone. Known by the catchy moniker “Crest Solar,” the E1107 (as it is officially known) has a large solar cell on the back of the handset and can provide up to 10 minutes of talk time for every hour it sits in the sun charging up on your basic sunny day.

In addition to it’s environmental bonafides, the camera is dual band for use in both the 900 Mhz and 1800 Mhz range. Other features include all the usual refinements including an FM radio and MP3 ringtones, and games. It can even work as a flashlight but you can bet that’s a battery killer which will force you to wait until sunrise to recharge without the AC adapter. Security features include Samsung’s proprietary Mobile Tracker - which will alert the authorities in the event of an emergency with an SOS like signal, and there’s also a fake call feature for use when wanting to disengage from a sticky situation with a well timed phone call. Lastly, there’s specialized features for things like specialized markets and even religious preferences.

Cost is currently $59 US for the Asian market with no word on when it’ll be available in the Western world.

Microsoft My Phone available to everyone

If you want to sync your contacts, calendar, photos, videos, text messages, music and more to the cloud and are running a Windows Mobile phone with version 6 or above, then you now have a free way to do it thanks to Microsoft’s My Phone service.

Back in February Microsoft slipped a bit and prematurely made its new My Phone service live. Now it’s officially available to everyone.

When I was using a Windows Mobile phone as my primary device I used to pay for a hosted Exchange service at 4smartphone. Then I moved to Google Sync since I also use an iPhone and other devices. The process was a bit involved but it was worth it for me.

For the everyday Windows Mobile user, though, this service is a no brainer since you just have to install the My Phone service on your phone and then Microsoft takes care of the rest. If you lose your phone in the future or want to make changes to your information from a web-based interface, My Phone will deliver what you need.

Read more about the My Phone service or give it a try at MyPhone.Microsoft.com

First Impressions: Palm Pre

I waited in line this morning for about 45 minutes and managed to be number 2 in line. This is a drastic difference then my experience waiting in line for both the iPhone and the iPhone 3G. That said, once in the store the process took about 40 minutes to get me going from start to finish, including buying the Pre and then going through the mandatory tutorial.

I managed to get about an hour of playtime with the Pre before it had to be recharged (it comes charged with about 45 percent battery life) and have detailed my thoughts below.

Setup
Getting the Palm Pre up and running is very straight forward. It requires you to have an e-mail address to work, though, so make sure you know which one you want to use. From there you can setup whatever accounts you want and they magically appear on the Palm Pre–at least in theory. I thought I had setup Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Contacts but really only Gmail ended up working right. For some reason my Calendar was setup but wasn’t populating in the Palm Pre and my contacts haven’t all appeared yet.

Interace
As for the interface, it’s just as I remember, though a bit snappier. It’s very easy to navigate, though I did find myself getting a little lost in some of the menus. I also found that the e-mail program was pretty to look at but a bit too unfamiliar to interact with out of the box. Again, I only had about an hour with it so far so I’ll write more when I have had more time to play around.

I also looked for a Facebook application so that I could reply to some comments and it was nowhere to be found, but I was able to enter my Facebook information and see it start populating and syncing on the Palm Pre.

One thing I have noticed is the poor battery life. After only an hour of use it was all drained. We’ll see how it does on a full charge later but I believe the battery life is definitely gong to be an issue, especially since the sales associate at the Sprint store recommended that I buy the car charger since the battery is “really bad”. It does run out of power eloquently, though, with a little reminder that it’s about to shut off and then a complete shut off.

Keyboard
It’s still too close to the bottom of the Palm Pre’s touch screen, and makes it a bit awkward to type on. I also noticed that it feels a bit “sticky” to the touch, but I’m sure that will wear down as I use it more.

Mirror
Palm put a mirror on the back of the slider so that you can see exactly what you look like, as opposed to using one of those little circles that you find on most cameras that claim to be a mirror.

Purchase breakdown

I bought the Palm Pre and all available accessories and here’s how it broke down:

• Palm Pre 100 - $299.99
• Leather pouch - $31.99
• Palm car charger - $25.59
• Palm Touchstone charging dock - $55.99
• gross receipts surcharge - $20.68
• Total (including tax): $464.64

I should also mention that because I bought all of these things I got 20 percent off each accessory. There’s also a $26 activation charge, which my rep waved.

More to come on the Palm Pre as I have more playtime. So far it’s an interesting experience, but not as simple as I had expected it to be, and certainly much worse battery life than I had expected.

Update: I had a chance to take the Pre outdoors to a soccer game. The camera interface is fantastic and it takes great pictures, too. More to come but check out the one below to see how well it handles itself outdoors.

Nokia N95 vs Samsung i8510 - which one is better?

Nokia N95 was, and actually is, the most advanced smartphone in the S60 lineup. After a while Nokia released updated version, N95-8 which had 8 GB of internal storage and a larger display. However it is a mistake to think that N95 will be unrivaled. Samsung Company recently announced its answer to Nokia N95 - Samsung i8510. This smartphone on S60 platform has amazing specifications, and has all chances to become a real "N95 killer". Let's look closer on both smartphones (N95-8GB version and i8510), compare them, and decide, which one will be the winner of this comparison.

Design and controls

Both phones look very similar, both are made in form-factor of sliders. However, while N95 can slide in two positions, revealing multimedia buttons or number keys, i8510 is limited to usual one way of sliding. It is hard to tell, whether this is an advantage of N95, but it definitely is an original way to control your music or other media functions on the phone. Aside from two soft keys and dial / reject buttons under them, there are two unlabeled areas that look like buttons. Even considering them as unknown buttons, N95 has two times more buttons on its front, 8 buttons opposed to 4 in Nokia i8510. Both phones have 5-directional navigational button.

Interesting enough, both phones have an indication of how much memory they have left, it is placed on top left corner of the front part. They are slightly different on the back part; Samsung i8510 camera can be closed to avoid lens damage, while N95 has no protection on camera lens at all. Samsung also has two holes for built-in dynamics on back.

Hardware

While looking similar, they are very different inside. Both phones have same display size and amount of colors they can show, but they differ in all the rest. Samsung i8510 has a twice bigger internal storage capacity - 16 GB, and a microSDHC slot, so you can double its capacity by using 16 GB microSDHC card, which will be enormous 32 GB! Shame for Nokia, they dropped expansion slot on their 8 GB model, which leaves you with only 8 GB with no ability to expand it.

While camera on N95 was considered one of the best phone cameras for now, Samsung tries to beat it not only with quality but also with the resolution - i8510 will have 8 megapixel camera on board, which makes it the most "megapixeled" smartphone. Every feature that is usual nowadays is present, such as autofocus, LED flash, even smile detection. Video recording is the same, QVGA and VGA resolutions supported.

On the multimedia side, both phones look very advanced, with a big list of supported audio and video formats and FM radio with RDS, both have the regular 3.5 inch headphone port. i8510 features internal graphics accelerator, which can be used later in games, and accelerometer just like the N95, so the phone can decide whether to display image in landscape or portrait mode.

Connectivity options are similar, with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0 support, such as 3G networks. We must notice that both phones are quad-band, so they will work all over the world. GPS feature is present in both of them, so there is possible to geotag the picture you made, and use many navigation programs available for S60.

The battery in both phones is of the same capacity - 1200 mAh. Official press release of i8510 states that it has an Optical mouse feature. What it can be? Could this smartphone be used as a mouse for your laptop? If it can, it will be a very interesting feature to have. It can be clearly seen, that in hardware battle Samsung i8510 is a clear winner, overdoing N95-8 in almost everything.

Software

On the contrary with the hardware, software side is what makes this phones look almost completely the same. Both are based on Symbian, which means that they have one platform and the same programs. However, it is still unknown which version will have this new Samsung smartphone. It will have two preinstalled games, FIFA 2008 and Asphalt, which fully use abilities of its integrated graphics chip. While it is unknown, will the software from N95 be compatible with i8510, the recently launched N-Gage 2 platform games will most likely do not work on it, making them exclusive to Nokia smartphones.

Conclusions

Of course the true conclusions can only be made when Samsung i8510 is revealed to the public, but even now we can see that Samsung is releasing a very strong competitor, which overcomes N95 in many domains. It is still too early to say that i8510 will be better than N95, but according to the specs it will most likely be the true long-awaited "N95 killer". Let's wait for the August, this is when this smartphone from Samsung is scheduled for release.

With new TRRAM chips transparent phones are no longer a dream!

Usually, concepts, while looking curious and interesting, rarely make their way from the paper to the real device. Not so long ago, when Nokia Morph pictures hit the net, it was clearly obvious that it is just an original idea, nothing more. How an electronic device would be fully transparent? However, due to recent technological developments, we possibly have a chance to see it implemented in real life, or even buy it!

Scientists from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology made a revolutionary discovery that can be used to bring all these concepts of transparent devices to life. It is called TRRAM (Transparent Resistive Random Access Memory), and is almost fully transparent, while operating just like normal non-transparent chips. It is similar to usual CMOS chips in functionality, so it can be easily used in manufacturing various devices, cell phones included.

As stated by Jung Won Seo, one of the Korean researchers: “It is a new milestone of transparent electronic systems. By integrating TRRAM device with other transparent electronic components, we can create a total see-through embedded electronic system.”

This development can truly revolutionize the world of modern devices and gadgets. With transparent chips it will be possible to implement electronic hardware into the windshield of a car; it can be used in sunglasses or highly-fashioned transparent cell phones. It really widens the area in which electronic devices can be implemented, making many concepts look much closer to the real life. Bendable screens, transparent chips - all these improvements are making electronics more flexible and easy to use.

Transparent chips have some disadvantages though: transparent phones would be much easier to hide or lose, and how do you solder a chip if it is fully transparent? Of course, these are not serious, hope that technology doesn't have any major disadvantages that will prevent it from being widely used. First devices on these chips would appear no sooner than after 3 - 4 years, so let's wait until TRRAM will be used in a working prototype.

Van Der Led WM2 Cellphone Timepiece

Combining several gadgets into one is not novelty anymore, but every now and then, there comes a certain device that actually makes the combo valuable. This is the case for the WM2 Cellphone watch from Van Der Led, a quad-band GSM watch that looks very stylish and good enough to wear.

You don't have to watch the Bond movies anymore to see ingenious devices such as this one. The WM2 has a tiny 1.3 inch, 260k color touchscreen display, stereo Bluetooth and, on top of that, it manages the performance of 240 hours of standby or 300 minutes of talk.

But that's not all because the Van Der Led WM2 has quite a lot to offer. For music lovers, the sleek device comes with 1GB of storage for MP3 or MP4 files, while the data transfer is made, as usual, via USB. Not to mention the micro SD support, calculator, stopwatch function, 1.3 MP phone camera and practically whatever else you can imagine a wrist watch and a cellphone could support.

The numeric pad on the wrist band stands out as the buttons resemble studs from the distance and they are even easy to use. That's it with the chunky and awkward mobile phone watches, the WM2 has put an end to this fashion tech faux pas.

One of the best parts of this device is that the phone is simlock free and works with all the providers across the globe, supporting languages like English, French, Arabic, Russian, German, Italian, Turkish, Vietnamese, Thai, Chinese and Traditional Chinese.

The WM2 comes with a mobile phone charger, Bluetooth headset charger, wristband, Bluetooth headset, USB data cable, battery and 1GB Micro SD and the price is measurable with its benefits. The Van Der Led WM2 retails for $471, but that doesn't seem that much if you take into account the fact that you practically get two devices into one and, on top of that, it also looks great.