Posts filed under News

The M500 mobile phone watch was first announced a few months’ ago, and it looked like it could finally be the phone-on-a-watch that gadget lovers everywhere have lusted after since they were ten years old.

Whereas other phone watches either look like huge mobile phones attached to a strap, or are simple Bluetooth proxies with no internal GSM radio (like Sony Ericsson’s range), the M500 actually features full mobile phone functionality into a watch that’s actually, well, of watch-sized proportions.

But how good is it really? Check out the M500 video after the jump to see for yourself!

Xiao Jinpeng, a 22 year-old Chinese man, has been killed by his Motorola mobile phone, the battery of which apparently exploded while in his chest pocket, causing rib fragments to pierce his heart. Although exploding batteries have been an issue in the past (certainly with laptops), this is the first fatality that’s ever been recorded from a mobile phone.

Motorola are currently investigating, but the fact that the phone was being used in a high temperature environment (an iron mill), and the battery may have been either a secondary or after-market battery, may be the more likely cause than any issue with Motorola’s phones.

According to TechNewsWorld, Motorola spokesperson Jennifer Erickson said “Motorola’s priority is, and always has been, the safety of our customers, and all Motorola products are designed, manufactured and tested to meet or exceed international and local standards for consumer safety and performance,”

“At this time, preliminary evidence suggests that it is highly unlikely that a cell phone caused this accident; however, we are cooperating with the Chinese authorities to determine and investigate the root cause,” Erickson added. “Of course, our thoughts and prayers are with the individual’s family and friends,” she said.

[Source: TechNewsWorld]

The Nokia N95 has been around for a few months now, and still remains one of the most feature-packed mobile phones on sale today. But what if you wanted more than a 5 megapixel camera, GPS Sat-Nav, Wi-Fi and HSDPA? What other feature could you squeeze into this amazing phone? How about a laser pointer?…

…Eh?!

No, don’t worry, Nokia haven’t gone mad – this is an N95 clone phone. Looks like a Nokia N95, but is in fact just a no-name Chinese clone that’s called the N95. It has a 2 megapixel camera and not a lot else, so clearly a laser pointer is just what’s needed to make it stand out from the myriad other clones that are out there!

[Source: JustAMP]

Something’s happening tomorrow…what was it again? Oh yes, the launch of the iPhone!

Apple’s new wonder-machine is being released tomorrow (June 29th) at 6pm amidst the biggest load of hype since the launch of the Motorola ROKR (the ill-fated and much criticised “iTunes phone”). Indeed, so much coverage is being give to the iPhone at the moment, that other manufacturers are running for cover and hiding their new releases until the hype blows over.

Sony Ericsson may have released the K850i, its latest and best Cyber Shot camera phone, but it’s no match for Japan’s latest technological marvels. 5 megapixel camera? Pah! White-balance, BestPic technology and Xenon flash? So last year!

No, what the techno-savvy Japanese market cries out for is an x-ray phone – not to see people’s bones, you understand, but to see what’s under their clothes! This is Japan, remember, what else would they use an x-ray phone for?!

You can see a picture from the latest Japanese X-Ray phone, the 5005x, after the jump – but be warned, it may not be safe for work!

Nokia have decided to help intreprid explorers Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman indulge their mid-life crises by giving the pair a Nokia 6110 Navigator phone for their latest around the world on a motorbike trip.

The pair famously went from London to New York on a motorobike in 2004 in a trip they called the Long Way round. They’re now aiming to follow on from that trip by travelling from John O’Groats in Scotland all the way down to Cape Town in South Africa in what they’re calling the Long Way Round.

Nokia failed to ask the pair quite why they’re doing this!

More details after the jump.

One of the most eagerly-anticipated mobile phones in the first quarter of 2007 was Sony Ericsson’s W880i. Codenamed the Sony Ericsson Ai, a succession of spyshots were leaked well before its official announcement, ensuring a lot of hype was generated around the new phone.

Everyone expected the W880i to be unveiled at CES 2007, but they were disappointed. Instead, Sony Ericsson released teaser photos of the W880i on January 9th, which at the time, seemed a bit odd. A day later, though, Steve Jobs dropped the iPhone onto the world, and killed CES stone dead. All talk of any other phone was completely overshadowed.

Sony Ericsson’s strategy had worked, though…

What do you do if you’ve got a crap phone and thousands of competitors, yet no way to differentiate your phone from theirs? Simple – make it look like a Sony Ericsson phone (though don’t try too hard – sticking a few plasticy buttons on the front will do), and add what you think is a great name to your product.

Great name eh? Hmmm….how about “King of Superman” – yeh, that should do it!

Bonkers!

As mobile phones have shrunk in size, so one boffin or another has invariably thought “at last, it’s small enough to strap onto someone’s wrist and call the thing a watch phone!” The result has invariably been a frankenstein-esque device that looks remarkably like a mobile phone bolted onto a watch strap – in other words, more phone than watch, and not at all what you want hanging on your wrist.

Finally, though, all that’s set to change as mobile phone technology has at last reached the size where it can be incorporated into the dimensions of a watch and so actually look like one. The proof is this, the SMS Watchfone M500, from Australian company SMS Technology.

More details and pics after the jump.

Mobile phones have come in all manner of different shapes and sizes over the years. Standard candy bars, clamshells, sliders, swivel designs – even odd origami-like multi-twisty phones. One thing all these different phone types have in common, though, is flatness. The fascia of the phone is always completely flat, largely because the screen itself has to be flat.

All that may be about to change, though, as Sony have been showing off a brand new flexible LED screen.