With 3D displays and projector technology, the phone is mutating into an all in one entertainment. In the not too distant future the term "phone" will seem as archaic as "horseless carriage" does now as these devices continue to evolve into so much more than just a communications device.

[Source: ITMedia]

[Source: ITMedia]

Based on your actions you make when you move in a particular way (all of which the phone records via its sensors), sophisticated software will predict what your next actions wil be and will provide recommendations in advance. In other words, the phone will attempt to guess what you're doing, and the predict what you're about to do, which sounds just a little bit freaky if it works too well!

The work is part of Japan's "Information Grand Voyage" research project, in which they're trying to capitalize on the untapped data that can be harnessed through a world of sensors. Japan recognizes that Google effectively owns the Web's information, and so cannot compete with existing digital info.

However, data from sensors, particularly those from mobile phones, such as accelerometers, GPS, compasses, etc., are completely untapped, and so it trying to steal a march on the giant search engine by exploiting this data first.

DoCoMo are just one of several companies working on harnessing this sensor data. Already DoCoMo's prototype phones, which are worn on a belt and use accelerometers to determine movement, can sense when a person is standing, sitting or walking, though quite what the phone is meant to do with this information isn't clear.

Other companies can determine whether a person is on a train (although a combination of GPS data and knowledge of train tracks would surely also give you this info) or eating a meal, while Kyuden Infocom is considering using the data to "...prevent lifestyle diseases", which I can only presume means nagging you to get off your arse and do some exercise to stop you becoming obese!

Personally, although extremely impressive, this technology seems a little too invasive. Although the data's anonymized, the very fact that my phone would be second guessing my every move would make me feel depressed - am I really that predictable that a mobile phone can guess what I'll be doing next?! Why bother getting out of bed when your phone can tell you what you'll be doing throughout the day?!

Oh that we've come to this!!

[Source: Techon]

The iPhone, of course, has been with us for over a year now, so their response has been a bit late in coming - indeed, they're the last mobile phone company to release a touchscreen phone - but it's here now, and there's been a lot of hype around this phone, so it's time to take a look at some of its features.

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic overview

Firstly, the name.

"Nokia 5800 XpressMusic" is generic, bland, and conveys nothing of what Nokia are aiming for with this phone.

"Nokia Tube" was so much better, so I can't help but feel they've missed a marketing trick by insisting on following their branding scheme of naming their phones using an obscure numbering system.

You can tell they're engineers at heart!

That said, CruchGear have an interesting take on the name:

"Clever marketing on Nokia's part because they don't want to draw direct comparisons to the iPhone and the XpressMusic line is quite popular in the low end, at least in the U.S."

The main selling point of the 5800 is its touchscreen.

Based on the Symbian S60 platform, there's a new touchscreen-oriented user interface, and no physical buttons on the phone other than call accept and cancel, and a menu button.

The screen itself is huge - 3.2" with 640 x 360 resolution, and with widescreen proportions, it's designed above all for watching movies.

This should give you some idea of the main focus of the Nokia 5800 - multimedia. It's not a powerhouse phone like Nokia's N-Series monsters, so it's not quite all-singing all-dancing, but it features virtually every kind of multimedia feature you'd expect, and all of extremely good quality.

Nokia 5800 Specifications

The main feature is obviously the touchscreen. It's not quite as easy to use as the iPhone's (for example, tapping on it isn't quite as responsive), but it's good enough that you can use it without a stylus; although there is a stylus if you want one!

The reason for the stylus is that as well as a gigantic virtual QWERTY keyboard that you can use (and which apparently works really well), the 5800 also sports handwriting recognition. Personally, I've never been a fan of handwriting recognition on any device, let alone mobile phones, but the 5800 is going to sold around the world, and some countries have languages that are more suited to such input than a keyboard.

In addition to the touchscreen, you also get the following:

• 3.2 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens
• aGPS
• HSDPA
• Double LED flash
• Loud speakers
• 3.5mm headphone jack
• Web browser with support for Flash
• 8GB memory, expandable to 16GB
• Accelerometer
• DVD quality (30fps) video playback and recording
• Single-touch content uploading to sites such as Ovi, Flickr or Facebook.

In addition, there's also a brand new user interface that Nokia have developed specifically for the 5800. Actually, they had no choice, as this is the first S60-based touchscreen phone, and the classic S60 interface didn't support touchscreens.

Fortunately, Nokia haven't wasted all that extra software development effort on the 5800 alone - apparently there will be many more Nokia phones coming our way next year with the same user interface (and so, presumably, with a touchscreen).

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic video previews

OK, I know there's only so much writing you can absorb before terminal boredom sets in, so here are some videos of the Nokia 5800 to keep you going!

Nokia 5800 Reviews

Although it's only just been announced, there are already a few Nokia 5800 reviews out there.

Engadget, for example, got their hands on a Nokia 5800, and overall they like it. It's not an iPhone killer - the two phones, although similar in features, will operate in very different markets. Given Nokia's market share of the mobile phone market, the 5800 will more than likely match the iPhone for sales, but it won't take anything away from the iPhone. People who buy the 5800 would never have bought an iPhone anyway.

Why? Because the iPhone is more a status symbol and style icon that just happens to be a really good music phone, whereas the 5800 is just a really good music phone. If it's music you're after, you'll go for the 5800, as it's much cheaper. If you want a bit of bling, the iPhone wins hands down.

But I digress. Engadget liked the 5800 overall, but not all of it. They noted the price point, too, and reading between the lines, you can tell that if were more expensive, they'd have panned it. But it's not, and other music phones at a similar price point are going to have a real battle on their hands.

CrunchGear, in contrast, were less enthusiastic about the Nokia 5800. They write "We saw the Tube last night and neither of us came away impressed. I thought the accelerometer was quite responsive, but we were sorely disappointed in the Web browser. The menu system was overcrowded and wasn’t simple like the iPhone’s. S60 devices are just a big mess of menus and sub-menus and this was no different."

Nokia 5800 Price

Here's the key thing about the 5800, though - its price. The Nokia 5800 will be on sale for just £218 ($227 or 279 Euros) when it's released, and that's the unlocked price, not the operator-subsidized price.

Think about it - a touchscreen phone with GPS, super-fast 3G (ten times faster than the iPhone's), 3.2 megapixel camera, brand new interface, 30fps DVD quality playback on a huge screen, and all for just £218 (Note: not the £129 that CrunchGear are quoting!).

Nokia have been criticized for not releasing any spectacular phones this year, but it's clear now what theyve been up: focusing on driving down the costs of the components they use rather than developing brand new (and expensive) technologies, in order to release high-specced phones for bargain prices, just when the credit crunch happens! Genius!

Nokia 5800 release date

The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic release date is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2008, which roughly translated, means any time now!

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic Summary

The Nokia 5800 is an odd phone to summarize. It has its faults, not the least of which is that as Nokia's first touchscreen phone, it's massively overdue, and seriously underpowered. The company's "iPhone killer" (god I hate that phrase now!) should be an N-Series phone, and not a mid-range phone.

But therein lies its appeal as well. It's absurdly cheap given the features it has on offer, and this thing should fly off the shelves before Christmas.

It also means that there's still powder in Nokia's arsenal for finally taking on the iPhone at its own game, by releasing a monster N-Series phone with a touchscreen early next year. Look at the 5800 as a dry-run then - a phone to iron out all the creases before the real Nokia touchscreen monster that we've all be expecting is released.

And in the meantime, think of the 5800 as like a Nokia N82, but with a touchscreen interface and a poorer camera. If you like the look of the N82, but would prefer a cheaper phone, then buy the Nokia 5800. I really can't see you regretting it!

[Source: CrunchGear, Engadget]

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.

On the side of the phone it proudly says "8.0 megapixels", while the sticker on the back claims it's just 5 megapixels. Worse, closer inspection reveals it's actually just a VGA camera - just 0.3 megapixels!

Well who said a fake phone couldn't have a fake spec as well?!

Still, you have to hand it to them, if you didn't know any better, you'd swear this was a Sony Ericsson CyberShot phone. Indeed, if it wasn't for me shoving the Chinese text into Babelfish, I'd be raving about this phone actually being a new CyberShot phone!

Fortunately I'm a little more dilligent than that, but I expect a few people will be blogging about this as the next CyberShot phone. Always best to get your news frrm somewhere you trust - like MobileMentalism, for instance :) Fakes are never good, whether they're mobile phones or mobile phone blogs;)

[Source: ePrice]

Short for Long Term Evolution, 3GLTE is being touted as 3.9G - i.e. version 3.9 of the third generation of mobile network technology.

Ordinary 3G runs at just 350bps or so, but that's now been superseded by 3.5G technology in the form of HSDPA. This is at least ten times faster, and newer mobile phones support a full 7.2Mbps.

3GLTE makes that look like a dial-up modem. The technology DoCoMo was showing off was running at a stunning 250Mbps for downloads,and 50Mbps for uploads!

Their demo included two Playstations connected via their 3GLTE network and their was no lag in gameplay whatsoever. DoCoMo expect to have the tehcnology deployed by 2010. Once we have 250Mbps mobile phones, will there be any need for a landline?!

[Source: Akihabara News]

KDDI also had several other odd-looking concept phones on display at this year's CEATEC 2008 event, which you can see after the jump.

[Source: Akihabara News]

Seriously, LG, if you're going to market a phone based on its price, you should at least give some idea of what it is!

Given the dearth of features of the KP500, I'm guessing it'll be in the £100 - £150 range. The KP500 is a quad-band phone with touchscreen and accelerometer, but other than that, it seems to have no other feature. Net even a camera is mentioned.

So it seems that the ubiquitous touchscreen has now become a feature in its own right, and that LG are banking on people paying for a phone with nothing but a touchscreen. Which seems a bit like car manufacturers hoping people will buy their car because it comes with a steering wheel!

The phone looks stylish enough, but it'll have to be dirt cheap to do well, at least if it really has as few features as the press release implies.

LG KP500 in detail

Speaking of which, here is the press release:

LG Electronics, a worldwide technology and design leader in mobile communications, announces the launch of LG KP500 with an affordable introduction price never offered before. This attractively-priced full touch screen handset is complete with the latest touch technology and features found in the existing high-end full touch screen handsets currently available on the market.

“The feedback we receive from consumers around the world indicate that there’s more people who wish to try the latest touch screen phones,” said Dr. Skott Ahn, President and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. “We want to reach out to this group and LG KP500 is our answer to deliver a high quality full touch screen phone that is easy to use and much easier to afford. Within reach of many consumers, we hope that more people will experience the joy of using the latest touch screen technology with LG KP500.”

Since the first full touch screen phone, the PRADA Phone by LG arrived on the market, LG has been advancing touch screen technology in new models of phones that suit different consumer needs such as the LG Viewty, the top-selling 5 mega-pixel camera phone with full touch screen providing a complete new viewing enjoyment.

With continuous advances in touch screen technology, the LG KP500 has LG's latest precision refinements for when the human touch meets the vivid digital screen.

From LG's experience in producing stylish and sophisticated handsets, the LG KP500 also receives the same attention to the finer details. Slim-profiled and lightweight, the LG KP500 comes in black, Vandyke brown, Anodizing silver, and Elegant gold, giving consumers more choices for their personal tastes.

As a slim and stylish handset, the LG KP500 is a GSM phone which can operate in four frequency bands, giving it a far-reaching reception range, and upon its global release, the LG KP500 can be used in 39 languages. But no matter what language one speaks, the vivid and intuitive user interface of the LG KP500 is simple for anyone to understand with vivid icons on the wide 3 inch screen.

Keeping in touch with friends has never been easier as the LG KP500 has the latest UI that allows the user to attach a friend's photo for the speed dial feature and then page through the portraits and touch the friend to be called. "We optimized the user interface to keep the tactile operations smooth and simple which is necessary when you’re opening up a new technology to a wide group of people," said Skott Ahn. With such ease of use, LG expects to broaden the base of touch screen handset consumers around the world.

The LG KP500 has an embedded stylus pen concealed in the base that can be easily removed for the advanced handwriting recognition program that allows the user to write memos and text messages, and also edit photo images by touching the screen with the pen tip. The QWERTY onscreen keyboard slides into view when the LG-KP500 is held horizontally, and the auto rotating display always shifts images or documents for proper viewing no matter which way the handset is turned.

Also packed into the LG KP500 are motion sensor games that are played by turning, flipping, and shifting the handset for a more active and fun gaming experience.

The LG KP500 will be available at the end of October 2008 in Europe and then on to the rest of the world. The price of the LG KP500 will be announced during the launch.

Also from the same source comes news of another Sony Ericsson CyberShot phone currently codenamed the Yurika. Apparently, this will be a message-based phone designed for the "yoof" market, and so will feature on easy access to Facebook, Yahoo!, YouTube, etc. As it's based aroud messaging, the Yurika will come with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard as well as a touchscreen and similar iPhone-like interface (again, based on S60) to the Kokura.

Interestingly, it'll move away from Memory Sticks towards the more universal SD card storage format, which represents a departure from Sony Ericsson's existing strategy of sticking with Sony's proprietary storage technology.

That said, neither phone will come with mini USB socket or 3.5mm headphone jack, relying instead on Sony Ericsson's usual proprietary connector, so they've not exactly rushed to embrace more open technology.

Truth or dare

Now, how true are these rumours? I received the tip via email, with no pictures and no indication of where the information came from, so they are, at these stage,entirely unverified rumours. However, the details in the tip aren't just very detailed: they're also mundane in parts as well, which to me, adds to their credibility.

By mundane, I mean specifying the TI chipset and the bit about the headphone jack. Anyone can invent a wishlist of amazing features, but including details about chipsets and what connectors a phone will have reveals a surprising level of detail that your average fanboy would never think of dreaming up.

The phones themselves fit rather well with Sony Ericsson's portfolio, too. Having announced a 12 megapixel camera phone for this year, it should be no surprise that a 12 megapixel one is being worked on, regardless of whether it'll be the Kokura or not.

So I'll remain skeptical until I can find out more about the source of these rumours, but my hunch is that they're not too far from the truth.

You may have noticed a growing trend in camera phones this year, with the number of megapixels slowly rising. At the start of the year, 5 megapixels was the upper limit and only available in top-end phones. As the year has progressed, 5 megapixels have made their way down to more mid-market phones, while the high-end phones have upgraded to 8 megapixels.

Apparently, this trend reflects the race for megapixels in the dedicated digital camera market, which has seen a steady rise up to a massive 14 megapixels. According to LG, this same trend has now moved over to the camera phone market, with mobile manufacturers racing to cram more megapixels in the mobile phones and so claim the title of the best camera phone.

Samsung have already announced a camera sensor designed for camera phones that supports 9 megapixels, and it shouldn't be too long before a mainstream 10 megapixel camera phone is released.

In addition to megapixellage, camera phone manufacturers are also working on incorporating HD technology into their camera phones, meaning that soon your humble camera phone will be able to shoot HD videos as well as take cracking photos with a 10 megapixel camera.

Makes you wonder if the days of the dedicated digital camera and camcorder are numbered!
[EngadgetMobile]