Posts filed under News

Nokia seems to be gearing up to announce something big. It’s running its own developers’ show next week, so the announcement may have something to do with that. All we know at the moment is that a new countdown site has appeared, counting down to a time on Tuesday morning when…well, we’ve no idea what will happen, but Nokia are starting to drive the hype machine, so presumably they’re up to something.

A new handset would be nice, but as its being timed to coincide with their developers conference, it might be something more software-orientated, like a major revision to its Ovi social network/file sharing service.

[Source: EngadgetMobile]

LG are warmly welcoming Christmas with a competition, in which you can win either an LG Secret, an 8 megapixel LG Renoir, or a new LG Cookie. Just go to the promotional Web site at LGHoliday.com, play around with the phones a bit, and then enter the comp by clicking Apply.

I should have a hands-on review of the LG Cookie in the New Year.

When I first saw these pictures, I thought “blimey, now that really is a camera phone.” Actually, what I was really thinking was “is that a phone, or just a camera?!” I then noticed the word “Cyber-Shot” emblazoned on it, and the title “Sony T700″, and I got all excited. A new Sony Ericsson CyberShot phone that’s never been seen before? Better still, a new Sony Cyber-Shot phone, sans Ericsson?

Alas, no, it’s none of these things. It’s another fake Chinese phone, and this one isn’t even sure of what it is either. It’s a camera phone alright, it’s just that it doesn’t quite know how good a camera phone it is.

HTC have revealed that they first engaged in discussions with Google about a new Google phone over five years ago. That, remember, is way before the iPhone, and before anything remotely like a smartphone came into existence. Indeed, back then the RAZR hadn’t even been released, and a 1 megapixel cameraphone was unheard of!

The fact that it’s taken so long to develop the new Android phone shows just how committed Google has been with the new platform, and how forward thinking the company has been with the mobile market. The Android platform is based on a company of the same name that Google bought a couple of years ago, but Google’s discussions with HTC began a couple of years before that.

I’m not sure what’s more impressive – the fact that Google has committed five years of work to their new device, or the fact that both Google and HTC managed to keep under wraps for five years!

[Source: EngadgetMobile]

One of the big questions surrounding the launch of Google’s first Android phone was just how well supported it would be by third party application developers. If today’s news is anything to go by, very well indeed should be the answer, as Visa have announced that they’re about to launch a brand new mobile payment service on the Android platform.

The new service will alert you to any payments that have been made on your Visa card, ensuring you know exactly what’s being spent on your card and when, which should be a great help in combating fraud. You’ll also be able to see the locations of ATMs that support your Visa card within your local area, and receive offers from merchants that are redeemable in stores close by.

Sony Ericsson have been a bit promiscuous with their smartphones. They started off using the Symbian platform, moved over UIQ (which is a user interface layer on top of Symbian), and then recently moved again to Microsoft’s Windows Mobile with the forthcoming XPERIA X1, which they’ve also created a brand new user interface for.

Now it seems that they’re actively looking at the brand new Google Android platform for their future smartphones.

Having returned from my hols just in time for the big Google Android announcement that’s expected on Tuesday, it seems the whole mobile blogosphere’s abuzz with Android news. With bloggers arguing over the likely success or failure of the first Android phone, the HTC Dream, market research group Strategy Analytics have waded into the debate by estimating that the Dream could sell as many as 400,000 units before the end of 2008.

However, although 400,000 units sounds a lot, it’s small compared to the huge number of smartphones that are shipped annually…

It’s holiday time again, mobile phone fans, so I won’t be posting much until next weekend. In the meantime, feast yourselves on our mobile phone archives from the past three years – you’ll never know what you’ll find!

Final news today on the XPERIA X1: Sony Ericsson have finally officially confirmed tha the XPERIA X1 release date will be September 30th 2008, well before Christmas. Wahoo!

The mobile Web looks like it’s about to catch fire.

Not content with smartphones that really are smart from the likes of Apple, Google’s Android, Nokia’s Symbian platform and Windows Mobile (which has just received a boost thanks to Sony Ericsson’s decision to open up the new Panels-based user interface on its forthcoming XPERIA X1 smartphone), graphics chip company NVIDIA have announced a deal with browser developer Opera to create a new optimized version of the Opera 9.5 mobile browser that should bring a real desktop browsing experience to mobile phones.