Helio Ocean - First “Dual-Slider” Phone

Helio, a joint venture between Earthlink and Korea's SK Telecom, unveiled Ocean, which is being billed as the first “dual-slider” phone that slides vertically to reveal a numeric keypad and slides horizontally for a full QWERTY keypad.

Ocean merges text and picture messaging, and emailing from all major portals with corporate email synchronization that allows users to get email from Microsoft Exchange server. While the full keyboard makes for easier text input, the Ocean also features an automatic search function triggered whenever you start typing.

Ocean includes 3G (EV-DO), GPS, 200MB internal storage, microSD card slot, MPEG-4 video recording, 2 megapixel camera and stereo Bluetooth capability. It is due later this spring for $295.

It comes with 2.4-inch, 260K colour high-resolution QVGA display, external stereo speakers, over two hours of continuous video recording, Bluetooth for wireless voice and stereo Bluetooth. Ocean supports an array of audio and video formats including MP3, AAC and WMA audio, and MPEG4 and H.264 video.

Mobile content and services going to be boom

According to research firm Informa, SMS, multimedia messaging and instant messaging on mobile phones will generate revenues worth $93 billion globally by 2011

LONDON: The market for content and services on mobile phones is expected to grow to $150 billion by 2011, as access to the web while on the move becomes easier and faster, research from Informa Telecoms & Media showed.

The research firm said that applications such as messaging led by traditional SMS messaging would still account for a lion's share of this market, generating over half of this revenue in 2011.

Informa predicted messaging services comprising SMS, multimedia messaging and instant messaging on mobile phones will generate revenues worth $93 billion globally by 2011 from $60 billion last year and an expected $67.4 billion in 2007.

Entertainment services comprising games, music, TV, adult content and gambling would grow to $38 billion by 2011 from around $18.8 billion in 2006, it said.

"Mobile music will be a major contributor to the revenues achieved in the mobile entertainment market in the next five years, although its overall share of the market will fall from 40 per cent in 2006 to 36 per cent in 2011 as new forms of entertainment such as mobile TV and video services begin to gain consumer interest," Informa said in its report.

Not all of the explosion in new services, although helped by the availability of broadband speeds on mobiles, would go to mobile operators.

"The introduction of a whole host of new players into the value chain presents new opportunities for growth in the mobile content and services market, whilst simultaneously posing a threat to mobile operators who face losing control of the billing relationship with their customers," Informa said.

It also forecast areas such as user-generated content, the rage of the Internet world in 2006, to come into the mobile space in the years ahead. Informa forecast user-generated content and communities to be worth $13.2 billion by 2011.

Samsung SGH-F700

SGH-F700 is an upcoming member of the Korean electronic company's Ultra Smart series. F700 is a landscape-orientated QWERTY thumb-keyboard, touch-screen phone, measuring 4.09 x 1.9 x 0.6 inches. The display measures 2.78 inches and it supports 262,744 colours and 440 x 240 pixel resolution.

The multimedia phone supports a wide range of audio and video file formats. It is a tri-band GSM handset with 2.5G EDGE and 3.5G HSDPA data networking support. F700 sports a 5-megapixel camera with auto focus and supports Bluetooth for wireless access to handsfree car kits, headsets, etc.

Samsung UpStage

Samsung UpStage is a thin wireless phone-cum-MP3 player from Samsung and Sprint. The device actually has a two-sided candy bar shape that looks like a phone on one side and an MP3 music player on the other. A “flip” button on the phone’s edge is pressed to switch between the two sides.

The phone side has a number pad and small screen for dialing calls and typing text messages, while the reverse features a large screen and touch-sensitive controls to navigate through song lists and view digital photos, video and Web pages.

Features of UpStage include over-the-air music downloads through the Sprint Music Store, stereo Bluetooth 2.0 with Bluetooth caller ID (greets callers with a spoken voice while music is playing), a 64 MB MicroSD memory card, and USB cable with Smith Micro software for transferring music to the device.

The phone will also come with an extended battery wallet that adds up to 6.3 hours of talk time, or up to 16 hours of music listening time. When connected to the battery wallet, the device has a dual battery gauge that shows remaining time of both batteries. UpStage weighs just 74g and is less than 1cm thick.

Google and Avaya are together for apps -

Avaya Inc., a renowned name in providing business communications applications, systems and services has tied up with Google Enterprise Professional program for developing new capabilities for small businesses around Google's enterprise products. This venture will provide new productivity-enhancing solutions for small businesses

As agreement say, market will be developed by Avaya and it will support offers which integrate its high technology rich communications for small businesses with the Google Application Premier Edition, instant messaging, email subscription services solution and web publishing services.

Companies will be able to increase productivity and better customer services also by using the intelligent communications with Web services as Avaya says. Google includes software vendors, all developers and consultants in its Enterprise Professional program.

Using their own domain name, organizations can utilize simple, powerful and collaboration tools of Google. Users can utilize Google’s facilities like its Gmail, Google Calendar, chat facility like Google Talk and Google Docs and Spreadsheets on their own domain to be connected and work mutually with the help of Google apps services. There will be no need of any hardware or software to avail this service.

The open standards-based abilities on which this solution will focus that includes following

Sharing contact information easily by enabling subscribers.
Presence information and alerts also.
One inbox for voice mail.
Email
Fax
Web calling through Google Talk.


Avaya IP Office will be focused in companies combined efforts.

Since Avaya is ready to provide a broad set of Internet Protocol (IP) and communications capabilities via telephone, Mr. Kevin Smith, head of Enterprise Partnerships at Google is excited to have Avaya as a business partner with Google Enterprise Professional program.

Geoffrey Baird who is the Vice President and General Manager of Appliances, Mobility and Small Systems Division in Avaya says that Avaya Inc is working with Google to accelerate the convergence of enterprise communications with Web services. APIs offered by Google Apps Premier Edition is very effective for enabling us to create new solutions that will help small businesses. It will make remarkable improvements in employee productivity and small businesses will get more return of communications investment making both Web and communications content available over a PC, phone or mobile device."

Top 10 phones at CTIA - Indiatimes Infotech

Top 10 phones at CTIA - Indiatimes Infotech:


"The three days of Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA) Wireless 2007 have so far seen a number of attention-grabbing announcements. World's all top cell phone companies have joined one of the biggest mobile phone gatherings in the world with their new devices, including a dual-sided music phone from Samsung, new phones that will operate in the new 1.7GHz and 2.1GHz cellular bands, and more 3G WCDMA phones incorporating high-speed High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) cellular data technology.

The new handsets also include Helio’s Ocean, dubbed as the first dual slider with two separate keypads. Here's a peep into the Top 10 phones at the show."

Nokia E90 - Indiatimes Infotech

Nokia E90 - Indiatimes Infotech


The world's largest mobile-phone maker launched the second generation of its successful E-series business phones at the 3GSM trade show in Barcelona. Leading the trio is the E90 Communicator, a mini computer with support for Wi-Fi and HSDPA-enhanced 3G with integrated GPS and route mapping.

A worthy successor to the previous Communicator 9500 which was launched over two years ago, E90 Communicator comes with a 4-inch wide screen that allows full-width Web browsing for the first time. It also features integrated GPS to allow turn-by-turn navigation.

The phone that could work as a phone, entertainment device and videoconferencing tool, will also offer an FM radio, a music player, a video player and two cameras -- a 3.2 megapixel one with flash and a second camera for video conferencing.

First deliveries of phone are expected during the second quarter of 2007, with global availability during the third quarter of this year.

Apple iPhone - Indiatimes Infotech

Apple iPhone - Indiatimes Infotech


The iPhone, which has no conventional buttons, instead uses a large touch-screen. The firm has patented keyboard technology on the 11.6 mm thick phone calling it "multi-touch". The 3.5 inch touch-screen-controlled device plays music, surfs the Internet and delivers voice mail and email differently.

The iPhone comes with a built-in, 2 MP digital camera as well as a slot for headphones and a SIM card. It runs Apple's OS X operating system, and has the Safari browser for Web access. The handset dispenses with buttons altogether, in favour of a powerful screen that responds to touch. It has a proximity sensor that automatically deactivates the screen and turns off the touch sensor when the device is raised to a user's face.

Music is automatically muted when a phone call comes in. The phone will play videos in widescreen format and automatically senses whether the screen is being held vertically or horizontally.

Has built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and includes free BlackBerry-style 'push' email service from Yahoo. Apple is partnering with Yahoo Inc. on Web-based email and Google Inc on maps. To make a call, users can tap out the number on an on-screen keypad or scroll through their contacts and dial with a single touch. To zoom in on a photo or Web site, tap twice. To zoom out, tap once with two fingers.

HP iPAQ 500 - Indiatimes Infotech

HP iPAQ 500
HP iPAQ 500


A big launch at 3GSM World Congree 2007 was the Hewlett-Packard iPaq 500 smartphone. Hewlett Packard unveiled its first smart phone, a slimmed-down iPaq that will be among the first Windows Mobile 6 handsets when it launches by second quarter this year.

The 500 series will be the first iPaqs that look like cellphones, with phone keypads instead of QWERTY keyboards or touch screens and styli. iPaq 500 comes with VOIP compatibility, push e-mail, Microsoft Internet Explorer and Outlook Mobile. The phone features 1.3-megapixel camera, Bluetooth, 64MB of memory and 128MB of storage with a micro SD card slot to expand memory.

The iPaq 500 connects to the Internet via GSM/GPRS/Edge networks, as well as via Wi-Fi. The handset also allows users to play music and videos, store photos and play games on the device.

The Hottest Technology of 2007

The Hottest Technology of 2007

What gizmos are going to buy this year?

If display at CES & Mac world was a signal. Then customers very soon will be provided networked televisions, cell phones with video & touch screens & a host of other products that take advantage of breakthroughs in multicore, HDTV, computing, ubiquitous broadband and third-generation cellular networks.

In one sentence it can be said this is going to be a revolution year. It’s going to be busier market than last year while last year it was a very busy market with huge amount of product circulation. Almost 24 million screens in droves were sold last year. Customers who bought it now desired for content, which would truly utilize the capabilities of their new sets. They can get these products in 2007.

A potential hit:

Media Smart wireless networking HDTVs from Hewlett-Packard & the Bravia Internet Video Link system from Sony which will make tight in the Internet to grip content over the Internet from AOL, Grouper, & Yahoo! Sony Pictures Entertainment deliver it right to the TV, without the need for a computer.

Apple launched its Apple TV box, which allows users to wirelessly stream movies and music from iTunes on their computer, while Netgear's upcoming Digital Entertainer HD can stream pretty much every other type of video and audio file from your PC and can also show videos from YouTube and songs from BitTorrent.

Further, Companies such as LG, Sharp and Samsung all have articulated their concentration towards networking their upcoming TVs. It means the television is becoming just another knot on the network. And it makes sense, seeing how today’s digital televisions are basically the evolution of the computer monitor, and the more processing power we stuff into the television, the more computer-like it becomes--a powerful tool that can pull its weight on a home network, taking back the title of the entertainment hub of the household.

Just as customers have invested money for new televisions, cellular providers have spent billions on their 3G networks. Sprint and Verizon now recommend EV-DO, while Cingular has just rolled out its UMTS/HSDPA service (Its nothing to know what the letter jumbles used for), both providing near broadband speeds for wireless devices. Business customers have gotten used to the speedy access to e-mail on the go using their smartphones, and now a new generation of these devices is slimmer, smarter and multifunctional. Even non-business types are also following this.

The market of CES was flooded in new smartphones (Treo 750) and music phones (Samsung SGH-F300 Ultra Music Phone), as well as television phones (LG VX9400). And Apple teased it and going to launch a phone with all the mentioned functions. (IPhone or whatever it’s going to be called once the Cisco lawsuit is over).

In this new era when cellular phones and televisions are getting joint its need a remanagement of technology. In the living room, remote controls are swiftly approaching an unmanageable array of buttons for various devices and on-screen menus so broad that it may spoilt more than an hour to get from channel 1 to channel 1001.So, as smartphones have become both smaller and more button heavy, there was a need for the design experts at Apple to move in and second thoughts the vital edge.

Watch for multitouch screens, led by Apple’s iPhone, to change the way we act together with our devices by eliminating hard buttons in favour of on-screen dynamic direction of icons. Voice control interfaces will also go from laughable novelties to amazingly exact input devices. Colbration of Microsoft with Ford motors shows, it has been smoothly trying his hand

They may introduce the Sync system in over a dozen of the automaker’s vehicles. As its name implies, Sync promises to link the entire driver’s various electronic devices under one voice-command system.

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