SmartBlogs for CTIA SmartBrief
Motorola SURF A3100 video (and pictorial) hands-on
Engadget Mobile | 1 hour 37 minutes ago
Filed under: Handsets, Motorola, Windows Mobile, GSM, EDGE, HSDPA, UMTS Like the Curve 8900, it turns out that Motorola's SURF is a device that kinda needs to be seen in the flesh to be fully appreciated. In light of TouchFLO and its endless competitors, the skin Moto's developed for this thing -- while tasteful and seemingly finger-friendly -- really isn't anything to get terribly excited about, but it does an adequate job of making the superficial surface of Windows Mobile reasonably finger...
The Red Button As A Multitasking Killer
Wireless Moves | 3 hours 36 minutes ago
When I see one of my non-tech friends having bought a new mobile I always ask them a lot of questions about their new toy to figure out what works and what doesn't. Recently, one of my friends bought a Nokia N78, following my advice, as he wanted to have a nice phone, a good camera and mobile Internet connectivity. Also following my advice, he installed OperaMini, all by himself, I might add, and has figured out how to use...
Hands-on with Sony Ericsson's C510 Cyber-shot
Engadget Mobile | 3 hours 42 minutes ago
Filed under: Handsets, Sony Ericsson, GSM, EDGE, HSDPASony Ericsson, while dwarfed by big brother Sony's launches at the show this year, did at least show a couple sets today. The Cyber-shot C510 will be released in a triple-band GSM single band HSDPA version for Europe, a quad-band GSM triple-band HSDPA, and a triple-band GSM version for China. Feature list includes a 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus, Smile Shutter technology that detects a smile a immediately grabs the shot, Snapfish, an...
Hands-on with Sony Ericsson's W508 Walkman handset
Engadget Mobile | 3 hours 42 minutes ago
Filed under: Handsets, Sony Ericsson, GSM, EDGE, HSDPAAlso on-hand -- and in -- tonight was Sony Ericsson's newest Walkman set, the W508. This clamshell, which is a bit of a departure for Walkman devices, features quad-band GSM and single-band HSDPA, and a W508a variant that has quad-band GSM and triple-band HSDPA for our shores. Other notables include a 3.2 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, video calling, and Exchange Activesync for some enterprise mail access. The W508 is shipping in both Metal ...
Hands-on with T-Mobile's BlackBerry Curve 8900
Engadget Mobile | 4 hours 30 minutes ago
Filed under: Handsets, Features, RIM, T-Mobile, GSM, EDGE Without touching, feeling, caressing, and loving the Curve 8900 in one's own hands, it's hard to understand why so many people seem to be stoked about losing the Bold's 3G and going this route instead. Once you pick it up, though... well, it's a different story. For anyone familiar with the Nokia E71's wiles, the 8900 strikes a similar tone with a svelte, sexy body that betrays BlackBerry's down-to-business aspirations (no complaints t...
LG's Skycharger, the Sun, and wind set to charge your depleted mobile
Engadget Mobile | 5 hours 6 minutes ago
Filed under: Handsets, Peripherals, Misc, AccessoriesOK, so you're at CES, you've been yammering on your phone all morning, and now your battery's dead, what's a tech type to do? Well, aside from popping in a new battery or plugging your phone into one of the millions of wall plugs littering the show floor, you hit up LG. Sitting in the middle of the parking lot across from the Las Vegas Convention Center is a circus tent-like affair with a wind turbine and ring of solar panels on top. The co...
Storage Isn't Much Of An Issue Any More
Techdirt Wireless | 5 hours 48 minutes ago
The trade group behind the SD memory card format today announced a new standard, called SDXC, that will support memory cards of up to 2 terabytes for devices like digital cameras and cell phones. While the amount of storage that can be crammed into smaller and smaller physical formats continues to grow, the idea of being able to carry around 2 terabytes of data in a device like a smartphone still seems pretty amazing. Combined with the growth of broadband networks, particularly wireless ones,...
Hands-on with T-Mobile's revised Shadow
Engadget Mobile | 6 hours 42 minutes ago
Filed under: Handsets, Features, HTC, T-Mobile, Windows Mobile, GSM, EDGE Windows Mobile Standard devices -- you know, those pre-touchscreen relics -- are getting to be tougher sales by the day. Touch is perceived as a "premium" experience (we're not entirely sold on that) and with boatloads of price pressure in that category, these little guys are liable to get squeezed clean out of the market. The new Shadow, even moreso than the original Shadow before it, definitely belies its Windows Mobi...
Hands-on with T-Mobile's Nokia 7510
Engadget Mobile | 7 hours 12 minutes ago
Filed under: Handsets, Features, Nokia, T-Mobile, GSM, EDGE Color us impressed (literally). If T-Mobile can manage to subsidize the 7510 down to, say, $50, they're dealing with a serious winner; it's attractive, different from your run-of-the-mill midrange Samsung, and offers that all-important UMA for crazy cheap calling. The phone can be best described as fashion-conscious with a Finnish sensibility, and for us, the formula works. 3G would've sealed the deal, but there's no such thing as th...
T-Mobile gets official with Shadow -- yep, just Shadow
Engadget Mobile | 7 hours 12 minutes ago
Filed under: Handsets, HTC, T-Mobile, Windows Mobile, GSM, EDGE T-Mobile doesn't seem too concerned about the fact that there already is a Shadow -- it's the very phone they're trying to replace here, actually -- but whatever, it's Windows Mobile, it's HTC, and it's finally here. The new model thankfully features WiFi and full support for T-Mobile's UMA-based HotSpot calling service, but spec-wise, it's kinda the same as the outgoing piece (which possibly explains the carried-over name). On-b...
T-Mobile announces Nokia 7510 sans Supernova branding
Engadget Mobile | 7 hours 31 minutes ago
Filed under: Handsets, Nokia, T-Mobile, GSM, EDGEAs expected, the Nokia 7510 has gone official on T-Mobile -- albeit with less "Supernova" branding than we would've figured on. We're not sure why T-Mob decided to drop the naming convention, because it sorta relegates an otherwise-interesting phone to anonymous number-dom, but that's why there are well-compensated marketing folks making these critical decisions, right? It's got WiFi, making it one of the hotter HotSpot-compatible phones curren...
Refreshingly, iPhone apes HTC with AniWeather app
Engadget Mobile | 9 hours 1 minute ago
Filed under: Software, Apple, OS X All kidding aside, buying an iPhone and saying "gee, I wish this worked a little more like my Touch Diamond" really isn't a totally ridiculous thing to say. The topmost layer of TouchFLO 3D's one of the most refined UIs you can find on any mobile platform, and while we don't really see Apple ganking UI elements from it directly, independent devs are more than happy to do as they please. On that note, check out AniWeather -- now available in the App Store -- ...
Impossible-to-use Hello Kitty phone taunts you with feigned cuteness
Engadget Mobile | 10 hours 51 minutes ago
Filed under: Handsets, Others, GSM We can't picture this thing up against a head, and frankly, we don't want to. The monstrosity you're looking at here is somehow a phone, but in an overzealous attempt to completely destroy it with Hello Kitty branding, it's been formed into that fricking cat head -- a shape that makes absolutely no sense for a phone whatsoever, may we add. We're pretty sure you could make little kids cry on command by pulling this out of a pocket, so even if you can't imagin...
Matias' Tune Blocker alleviates the need to ever push "cancel sync" again
Engadget Mobile | 10 hours 51 minutes ago
Filed under: Accessories If hitting that "Cancel Sync" button in iTunes is just too terrifying of a task, the Tune Blocker from Matias is here to save your day. For the low price $24.95, you get the three-foot cable which allows you to toggle between data syncing and charging only modes. For another five bucks, you can score another three-feet of mouseless anti-syncing bliss, or you could just take the economical high road and stick to the included cable that comes with your iPod or iPhone ou...
Nokia N810 WiMAX reaches 'end of life'
Engadget Mobile | 12 hours 28 minutes ago
Filed under: Nokia, WiMAX Well, that certainly was a quick little experiment, wasn't it? Just months after quietly becoming available, Nokia has just as quietly slapped an "end of life" label on the N810 WiMAX Edition, officially ending Nokia's consumer-level support for the wireless standard -- for the time being, anyhow. Though we've been able to confirm that the discontinuation is official, no word was given as to why it fell off the market so quickly -- Nokia inststs that it was a "natura...
Logic Wireless' Logic Bolt makes luminous appearance at CES
Engadget Mobile | 13 hours 19 minutes ago
Filed under: Handsets, Others, GSM, EDGELogic Wireless, a new startup has jumped right into the CES mobile fray with this, the mini projecting Logic Bolt. Logic Wireless assumed all rights to this device from ChinaKing -- which we saw early in the summer of 2008 -- and have tuned it up and have it here at the show. Featuring a quad-band GSM chipset, 3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, projected display size of 36 to 64 inches, and a rated talk time of 2 to 3 hours. Video can apparently blast on f...
Court blocks Sprint from offering service in iPCS areas
Engadget Mobile | 13 hours 51 minutes ago
Filed under: Sprint It didn't manage to block the Sprint / Clearwire merger, but iPCS is still scoring little victories for itself in its continued fight with Sprint over alleged violations of the exclusivity agreement it's had in place with the (much, much larger) carrier for nearly a decade. An Illinois court has now ruled that Sprint can't offer service in areas where iPCS has a presence, while Sprint's partners have their fate decided in the hallowed halls of justice starting March 30. iP...
HTC said to be dipping into Ericsson's silicon for 3.5G chipsets
Engadget Mobile | 14 hours 17 minutes ago
Filed under: HTCDigitimes claims that HTC intends to launch a 10-strong mix of WinMo and Android handsets in 2009 -- sounds about right, if we had to guess -- and not all of 'em will be Qualcomm powered. Apparently, HTC's HSPA devices will employ guts from Ericsson's Mobile Platforms group, and as lucrative contracts go, the HTC's chipset contract going into a serious Android year has to be at or near the top. Funny how HTC makes the X1 for Sony Ericsson and Ericsson makes chips for HTC, but ...
Nokia 5800 XpressMusic comes to the UK on January 23
Engadget Mobile | 15 hours 38 minutes ago
Filed under: Handsets, Nokia, Symbian, GSM, EDGE, HSDPA, UMTS Half of the would-be buyers are probably holding out for the N97 at this point, but for what it's worth, the first S60 5th Edition device is ready to rock in the UK this month. Starting January 23, 5800 XpressMusics will be shipping for £249 (about $377) -- while Moscow residents are already totally over with it and onto the next great thing, by the way, and North Americans can keep right on lusting for a few more months. Lov...
SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone demoed on video, coming in Q1
Engadget Mobile | 16 hours 27 minutes ago
Filed under: Multimedia, Software, Apple, OS X No surprises here, but Sling Media has created a new SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone portal on its website in order to accomplish two important tasks. 1) To announce that it will indeed be submitted to Apple for certification this quarter and 2) to show off a new video of the software in action. If you just can't wait, head to the read link and mash play.SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone demoed on video, coming in Q1 originally appeared on Engadget Mob...
Virgin Mobile: bad economy is just what we needed
Engadget Mobile | 17 hours ago
Filed under: Virgin Mobile, MVNOsScant few companies prefer a crappy economy in which to do business, but Virgin's latest financials suggest that this kind of operating environment might just be the sweet spot. 'Course, Virgin's US offerings are all about "value" -- prepaid and all -- and it seems that the Sprint-based MVNO is getting mad play from that angle, reporting close to a quarter million net adds in the fourth quarter of '08. For the record, that compares with forecasts of 60 to 100K...
China finally awards 3G licenses, winners no surprise
Engadget Mobile | 17 hours 34 minutes ago
Filed under: China Unicom, EV-DO, HSDPA, UMTS, CDMA, HSUPA, China MobileIf you thought Vodafone or Telefonica would somehow emerge as a big winner in China's 3G spectrum launch... well, yeah, think again. China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom have now been armed with licenses for TD-SCDMA, WCDMA (UMTS and HSPA that is), and CDMA2000 / EV-DO, respectively, meaning the world's largest carrier will be rolling out China's homegrown 3G standard -- not to say Unicom's or Telecom's footprint...
LG's CTO flaunts GD910, we get it on video
Engadget Mobile | 17 hours 34 minutes ago
Filed under: Handsets, Features, LG, GSM, EDGE, HSDPA, UMTS LG finally figured out how to do a watch phone that doesn't make us physically ill, and fortunately, the company's CTO happened to be sporting one at the press conference today. Head on over to Engadget to check out the very device that -- let's face it -- will probably be on your wrist later this year.LG's CTO flaunts GD910, we get it on video originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 07 Jan 2009 12:34:00 EST. Please see our t...
Verizon to embrace Kindle rivals, third party devices
Engadget Mobile | 18 hours 20 minutes ago
Filed under: Handsets, Peripherals, Verizon WirelessLooks like Amazon may soon be getting some competition for the hearts of the Kindle-loving literati over at the Algonquin. In a pre-CES interview with Reuters, Verizon's Tony Lewis -- the man in charge of their Open Development program -- doesn't see the current state of the economy as halting production of e-readers or other nonessential consumer electronics. "Competitors to the Kindle are out there and ready," the man said. "In 2009 I'd ex...
Paying with the Mobile at the Vending Machine - Yes, Really!
Wireless Moves | 18 hours 26 minutes ago
It must have been 10 years ago when I first heard that soon we will be able to pay with our mobile phone at vending machines in train stations and other places. However, until today I've never seen it anywhere. And now this: In the Austrian countryside I've seen the vending machine shown in the picture on the left where you can actually pay with your (Austrian) mobile phone and if you are subscribed to paybox.at. It works as follows:...
LTE Performance Simulations
Wireless Moves | 18 hours 26 minutes ago
Two pointers today to performance simulations performed in 3GPP for LTE and comparison to baseline HSPA: 3GPP R1-072580: Liaison statement with an overview of the results of LTE performance simulation in uplink and downlink. 3GPP R1-071956: Simulations performed by Ericsson on the downlink (referenced in the document above) The result is that 2x2 MIMO and 4x4 MIMO bring a tremendous benefit for the average cell throughput, with average cell spectral efficiency for 2x2 MIMO at 1.58 bits/s/Hz a...
LG shows off GD910 Watch Phone, production later this year
Engadget Mobile | 18 hours 33 minutes ago
Filed under: Handsets, LG, GSM, EDGE, HSDPA, UMTS Now that we have serious buy-in from a major phone manufacturer to bring watch phones to market, we're just going to go ahead and say it: the Dick Tracy era has begun. LG's just announced that the GD910 will start production later in 2009, featuring 3G, Bluetooth, speakerphone, an integrated music player, and a touchscreen in case those three side-mounted buttons don't cut it. We hope to have a hands-on shortly!LG shows off GD910 Watch Phone, ...
Palm's new website devoid of dedicated PDAs
Engadget Mobile | 19 hours 10 minutes ago
Filed under: Palm Palm is kicking off the new year with an all-new site (worthy of an entirely new platform, perhaps?), and while that's not really news in and of itself, it's interesting to see that they've now completely cleansed the most visible pages of traditional PDAs -- you know, those crazy things Palm made its name building. The move was expected since Colligan announced last year that they'd be moving to a phone-only model, but what wasn't expected was the optical illusion Palm's tr...
Pantech's SKY IM-S390 "Cupid" doesn't inspire a lot of love
Engadget Mobile | 20 hours 44 minutes ago
Filed under: Handsets, Pantech, CDMA We're not sure why Pantech would bother attaching such a lofty, lovely name to such a positively pedestrian handset, but let's be straight: any manufacturer with a phone named "Duke" probably works in ways we don't fully understand. Like just about every domestic Korean handset you can find, this one features a T-DMB tuner -- which is cool, we guess -- and it's just 12.5mm thick on the slim battery. Thing is, the QVGA display and lousy 1.3-megapixel cam ar...
Unified Messaging Take Rate Soars
TelecomWeb blogs | 21 hours 4 minutes ago
The take rate for unified messaging (UM) grew by a healthy 10 percent globally during the first half of last year, according to a new T3i Group LLC research report. The biggest growth spurt came in the United States (already at the top of the heap with a 29.8-percent take rate) as UM adoption grew to...
Best Buy now selling refurbed iPhone 3Gs
Engadget Mobile | 22 hours 8 minutes ago
Filed under: Handsets, Apple You know what's awesome about used phones? They're usually cheaper than new ones. Like that time AT&T started selling refurbished iPhone 3Gs for $50 off (even $100 off), fr'instance. Best Buy's getting on the action now, too, hawking the reconditioned 8 giggers for $149 and the 16GB models for $249 on contract at 350 of its Best Buy Mobile locations nationwide. Since AT&T's pushing these for the same price directly, wouldn't Equivalent Buy be a better name...
iVoice debuts Diamond-X dual mic Bluetooth headset
Engadget Mobile | 22 hours 52 minutes ago
Filed under: Peripherals Sure, it's not as thin as the Bluetrek Metal or as eye-catching as the Swarovski crystal-infused Shimmer Kit, but iVoice's Diamond-X Bluetooth headset is sporting some very nice features, including noise-canceling dual microphones and the ability to report the callers' name from a phonebook. As for the other stats, we've got 5.5 hours of talk time and 200 standby. The Jury's still out on how convincingly it can tell us when our friend Slartibartfast gives us a ring, b...
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Techdirt Wireless
Techdirt analyzes technology, media and communications technology. The weblog strives to help businesses make better-informed decisions.
Pogue's Posts
This New York Times blog features technology insights from technology columnist David Pogue.
Wireless Moves
Thoughts on the evolution of GSM, UMTS, WLAN, Bluetooth, and WiMAX
Engadget Mobile
Engadget immobile focuses on the technology and developments of the mobile marketplace.
TelecomWeb blogs
Broadband News, Interviews & Global Industry Analysis