Japanese mobile phone company AU KDDI is renowned for releasing concept phones that eventually make it into production. However, when the company unveiled its latest concept, the InfoBar2, back in November 2006, no-one really expected them to turn it into a production model.
Yet that's exactly what the company has done, and will be putting it on sale in Japan in November 2007.
More details and pictures after the jump.
Amid sighs of disapointment by mobile phone fans, Sony Ericsson's senior marketing manager, Richard Dorman, has ruled out any PSP gaming phone or Bravia mobile TV phone for the UK, at least for the next twelve months.
"It is not a focus for us with the UK and western European market at the moment," he said. "I've seen our road map for the next 12 months and neither of those two handsets will feature in it."
However, this is not necessarily unexpected, and doesn't rule out either of those phones for 2009. Read on to find out why...
Nokia have announced the new Nokia 6301, another mobile phone that should delight businesses. The Nokia 6301 offers UMA (Unlicensed Mobile Access) technology, which enables calls to be routed either through a mobile network over GSM, or across your own Wi-Fi network.
Better still, when you need to switch from Wi-Fi to GSM (such as when you walk out of range of your Wi-Fi router), the 6301 will transfer to the mobile network seamlessly. Of course you pay more over the mobile network than you would over your Wi-Fi network, but neither you nor the caller will know that the handover has taken place. Told you businesses would love it!
More details of the Nokia 6301 after the jump.
More iPhone rumours, this time about the features of iPhone 2.0. According to GPS Magazine, Apple will be releasing a new 3G version of the iPhone in 2008 that will also incorporate GPS Sat-Nav.
The current iPhone already has Google Maps built-into it, but has no GPS module, so you have to manually type in where you are and where you want to go.
Nokia have announced the new Nokia E51, a small, compact smartphone designed specifically for the business market. The E51 is designed to provide all the features needed in a business environment, and to make it as easy as possible to access those features.
To this end, there's a user-configurable homescreen, enabling the user to place icons to their most-frequently used applications; One Touch keys to such applications as email, contact, calendar, etc.; and easy integration with a wide range of business email applications.
More details of the Nokia E51 after the jump.
Those nice people at Vodafone are offering another limited offer. With every contract mobile phone you buy, they'll throw in a free Bluetooth headset if you enter the voucher code vodablue1 at the checkout in the promotional voucher box.
The deal's only available while stocks last, so get yours now while you can.
Nokia have relaunched the N-Gage, but this time, instead of a dedicated mobile gaming phone, it's now a gaming platform, from which you can download games, set up high score contests, etc. You can even rent games for 1Euro a pop, then buy the full game if you like it.
N-Gage games will work on a variety of Nokia phones, including the Nokia N95 and new Nokia N81, which is featured prominently in the video of the new N-Gage platform, showing off its nifty mobile gaming prowess.
Video after the jump.
Apple has finally announced the release date for the UK Apple iPhone. It will be coming out on 9th November, will be carried by O2, sold via O2, Carphone Warehouse and Apple stores on an 18 month contract, and the 8GB model will cost £269 (or £69 more than it costs in the US).
Despite rumours suggesting the UK iPhone will come with 3G, in fact it won't - it's the same iPhone sold in the US, with just EDGE mobile connectivity.
To help offset this lack of speedy connectivity, O2 have created an agreement with Wi-Fi provider Cloud to provide 7,500 free Wi-Fi hotspots around the country.
In addition, you get unlimited EDGE data for a fixed monthly tariff of £35 (other tariffs of £45 and £55 a month are also on offer, and feature more free minutes and free texts), so at least you don't have to worry about paying for the content you download.
However, there is, of course, a catch...
More details on the UK Apple iPhone after the jump.
After months of speculation, the news is out that O2 has won the rights to use the iPhone over its network in the UK - but at a hefty price. According to The Guardian, O2 will give Apple 40% of all revenue it makes from customers using the iPhone.
That's 40% of all call charges, data charges and content downloads that would normally go straight into O2's pocket. No wonder Vodafone walked away from the deal.
More details after the jump...
One of the surprises of the year has been the resurgence of the camera phone. Whereas 2007 was meant to be the year that mobile TV took off, it's actually died a quiet death while a plethora of stunning new camera phones that really perform well have emerged to take its place.
Nokia began the trend with the Nokia N95, a feature-rich Sat-Nav phone that also comes with a great quality 5 megapixel camera. Hot on its heels was the superb new Sony Ericsson K850i Cyber Shot phone, which will be out very shortly. The two other competitors come from the Korean giants LG and Samsung, with the LG KU990 Viewty and Samsung G600 respectively.
Read on to find out which of these is the best 5 megapixel camera phone on the market today?...
