Nokia announce laser-etched 7900 and 7500 Prism phones

Which camera phone takes the best low-light pictures?

Camera phones are notorious for taking extremely poor pictures in low light conditions due to the weak nature of the LED flashes that they use. Recently, however, new technologies have emerged that produce superior low light performance without compromising the camera phone's battery. Both Xenon flashes and new high current LED flashes are capable of taking much better pictures in the dark than the traditional low power LED flashes of old. But how much better are they? Can a camera phone really take good pictures in low light conditions? And which camera phones are best at taking low light pictures? This article compares a variety of camera phone flash technologies, and identifies the camera phones that are best at taking low light pictures.

Nokia N81 pictures by the dozen

Things is quiet in mobile phone land at the moment as everyone's on holiday. The next major release on the horizon is the new Nokia N81, which should be announced on August 29th. To keep your appetite whetted until them, here are dozens more pictures of a mockup of the N81 so you can see what's in store in a few weeks' time.

More pics of the Nokia N81 after the jump.

Casio Exilim camera phone released

Casio have released their new Casio W53CA Exilim camera phone. Featuring a 5.1 megapixel camera that's based on Casio's well-respected Exilim brand of digital cameras, the W53CA sees Casio take on Sony Ericsson's Cyber Shot brand of camera phones.

Among the features of the the W53CA are auto-focus and image stabilization to prevent blurred pictures when taking snaps of your mates when you've had one too many!

The phone itself is a standard clamshell, and none too pretty at that. In fact, it looks like most other Japanese phones.

Casio is releasing the W53CA in the Korean market at the moment, which gives me a bit of a dilemma: do I file this under "Japanes phones" or "Korean phones"?! Oh what the heck, I'll file it under both!

No news yet on whether they'll be releasing it in Europe or the States.

[Source: Aving.net]

Pictures of Samsung U708 shiny phone

This shiny beast is the new Samsung U708 mobile phone. The U708 is another of Samsung's Ultra series of phones, meaning it's ultra slim, but it differs from other Ultra phones by being shiny silver, which gives it a really sleek look. According to Sogi's review of the U708, all the girl's love its sleek appearance, but then I claim that about myself!

It's also really well-specced, as you'd expect from a Samsung Ultra phone. HSDPA is standard, as is a 3.2 megapixel camera. In short, it's a great combination of superb looks and fantastic features.

More details and pictures of the Samsung U708 after the jump.

Pictures of the world’s worst concept phone

Fanboys and Photoshop are a really bad combination. Whenever news is slow, or someone just wants to show off their love for their favourite mobile phone manufacturer, up pops a new "concept phone" or "leaked picture" - except it's not, it's just a mock-up of what a fanboy thinks the latest phone should look like.

Genuine leaked pictures are what blogs like this live for, and certain fanboy mockups, like those for the iPhone, are very welcome, as they're usually extremely well done, and give everyone something to salivate over while waiting for a phone that people are genuinely eager to see.

It's pictures like this that annoy me...

Motorola fanboy shoves phone in his earlobe

OK, bit of an offbeat story this, but it shows the level of devotion certain fan-boys will go to to show their love for their favourite gadget. Still, it looks better than Motorola's attempt to integrate their mobile phones into a pair of Oakley sunglasses!

[Source: Techeblog]

Leaked pictures of Nokia N81

Rumours that Nokia are about to launch the Nokia N81 on August 29th are gathering pace, and are helped no end by these leaked pictures of Nokia's new uber-music phone. The pictures show what is, apparently, just a mock up, but the finished product shouldn't look too different from this.

Nokia's teaser site shows the outline of a phone that resembles this picture of the Nokia N81 extremely closely. As such, I think most people will be more surprised if Nokia don't release the N81 on August 29th than if they do!

Specs of the Nokia N81 after the jump.

Nokia teaser site promises new phone on August 29th

Nokia has taken a leaf out of Sony Ericsson's book by creating a new teaser site for a new phone that it'll be releasing on August 29th.

The teaser site's not bad, actually, if a bit geeky, but the combination of nearly showing what the phone is without actually telling you anything about it is a perfect bit of marketing. This is one teaser site that's going to go viral in seconds!

So what phone is it then, do we think? Well, current rumours speculate it'll be the Nokia N81 and Nokia N82, which you can read more about after the jump.

Google phone hardware prototypes up and running in Google labs

Rumours surfaced last March that Google was working on a mobile phone. Now those rumours have come back with a vengeance, with the Wall Street Journal claiming that Google is courting mobile phone operators to provide an ad-supported mobile phone service to Google-customized handsets.

Furthermore, the article also claims that the company has already built Google phone hardware prototypes that are up and running in its labs.

Fuelling the rumours are reports that Google has been talking to mobile phone operators regarding handset specifications, and their recent proposal to offer the US Government $4.7 billion for wireless spectrum.

Suddenly, it seems, the Google phone rumours are starting to seem like more than just hot air.

More details of the Google phone after the jump.