Posts filed under CTIA 2006

LG showed off a slurry of new phones at CTIA 2006, including this, the rather nifty looking LG 550. A CDMA phone with EV-DO support, the LG 550 features iPod-style music-keys on the front and has a 1.3 megapixel camera, FM radio and MP3 player.

LG also showed off another five mobile phones, most of which were low-end affairs. One phone of note, however, was the LG 8300 GPS phone.

Pantech has announced the launch of its new Pantech Hero mobile phone for new US MVNO Helios. The Pantech Hero’s features are reasonably good, but nothing close to some of the features of Pantech phones sold in Korea.

Helios is a new MVNO formed by US ISP EarthLink inc. and Korean telecoms firm SK Telecom. The aim, according to a recent Wired article, was to create a new MVNO in the US that would provide cutting edge phones with features comparable to the latest Korean technological monsters. However, the specs of the Hero are only average at best.

Falling under the ‘why?!’ category comes the LG Style-i, which is a Bluetooth controller that lets you use your mobile phone even when you’re not holding it. The Style-i slips easily into any pocket or purse and allows customers to continue to make or receive calls even if their Bluetooth-enabled handset is charging at their desks up to 30 ft. away. Once paired with a Bluetooth- enabled phone, customers can use the Style-i to answer, end, make or transfer a call. The Style-i is equipped with a caller-ID display, an ergonomic keypad for easy dialing, last number redial, 3-way calling and call waiting. It is a virtual remote control to your mobile phone.

As promised, CTIA 2006 displayed some of this year’s latest mobile phones using a fashion show event called ‘Fashion in Motion’. Whilst some bloggers made this the highlight of the show as it let them “…sit down after a day of walking the convention center” (sure, Jon, my heart bleeds ;), others were more pleased to see mobile phones being demonstrated by catwalk models. Though quite how you could see the mobiles on the catwalk is anyone’s guess (is that envy creeping in?!)

More links and pictures from the CTIA Fashion in Motion event after the jump.

[Source: Aving.net, mobiletracker.net]

If Mickey Mouse phones are your thing, then why not go for the LG DM-L200 phone offered exclusively on Disney’s new mobile network. Yes, that’s right, Disney have launched themselves an MVNO, and are offering this LG phone (above) and a Pantech DN-P100 (below) to its (presumably) young customers.

Be interesting to see the press when one of their young chavs clients is caught Happy Slapping on a Disney phone! Perhaps Happy Slappy will feature as the eighth Dwarf in a new Disney remake for the 21st century?!

[Source: Akihabara News]

LG were a bit quieter than their Korean neighbour Samsung at CTIA 2006. While Samsung were busy announcing new Blackberry phones, WiFi phones, HSDPA innovations and washing machine phones (OK, I made that one up!), LG contented themselves with just a few simpler phones and a Bluetooth mobile phone remote control!

Samsung announced the new Samsung SGH-T719 mobile phone at CTIA 2006 yesterday. The T719 comes with seamless Blackberry support, and it’s getting rave reviews by those fortunate enough to be in Vegas at the moment. According to EngadgetMobile, “the BlackBerry integration was so seamless it was actually invisible (emails just showed up in the unified email / SMS / MMS messaging app)”, while InfoSyncWorld were “impressed by the big, flat function and navigation keys, as well as by the smooth, easy-to-press keypad, which borrows the two-letters-to-a-key conceit of the pseudo-QWERTY BlackBerry 7100 series.”

More pics and impressions of the Samsung SGH-T719 after the jump.

[Source: EngadgetMobile, InfoSyncWorld]

Many commentators were expecting Motorola to pull something out of the bag at CTIA 2006. Having had a quiet 3GSM, and offering little of note since the RAZR (we’ll ignore the ROKR!), most people were expecting Motorola to release something to recapture people’s interests in the company’s phones. So what did they release? Another set of RAZRs, only in blue, maroon and violet!

OK, so the RAZR’s popular, but it’s a 2004 phone, and as Carlo Longino of MobHappy points out, it’s also a fashion phone – and fashion changes like the wind! It looks like Motorola got lucky with the RAZR, and just don’t know what to do next.

[Source: MobHappy]

Right, Samsung at CTIA 2006 news time. Sit down for a bit, Samsung tend to make more announcements at these events than the rest of the manufacturers put together! In fact, they’ve announced no fewer than 35 new products, network solutions and alliances. This may take some time…!

First up is the new Samsung A960 (above). Not many details on the new mobile phone yet, but apparently it sports a cool-looking OLED display on the outside.

May 22nd was announced at CTIA 2006 today as the date when the first and only Internet address created for mobile phones goes live: “.mobi”.

“The dotMobi Internet address brings the ease of accessing the Internet from the PC to mobile phones everywhere, and clearly indicates Internet sites and applications that are designed for consumers on the go,” said Neil Edwards, CEO, mTLD Ltd. “dotMobi is the Internet made mobile.”

To make creating Web sites for mobile Internet functional and reliable, mTLD has developed rules and best practices, all based on open standards, for content developers and service providers. This ensures that their Web sites can be viewed and navigated by any mobile phone. The consultative dotMobi Switch On! Web Browsing Guide may be found at mtld.mobi. A guide for mobile messaging will be launched later this year. These guides are based on best practices specified by the World Wide Web Consortium’s Mobile Web Initiative (MWI).