Samsung Unveils Bada Smartphone Platform
By Jason Ankeny
Samsung Electronics officially took the wraps off its new bada smartphone platform, first announced in early November. Unveiled at a London launch event, bada (translating to "ocean" in Korean) promises an open, feature-rich platform for creating enhanced mobile consumer experiences--based on Samsung's TouchWiz user interface, bada provides developers with flash control, web control, motion sensing, fine-tuned vibration control and face detection tools, complete with support for context-aware applications incorporating accelerometers, tilt, weather, proximity and activity sensors.
Samsung adds that bada will support a host of service-centric features like social networking, device synchronization, content management, location-based services, and commerce services, all enabled by back-end servers. In addition, bada-based applications can integrate with device functions to make phone calls, send messages or access the contact list--various service applications also can share information such as personal profiles, social relations, schedules or contents contingent on user confirmation.
Samsung also announced the bada Developer Challenge, encouraging programmers to build apps on the bada platform for their share of prizes valued at $2.7 million. The handset maker is also planning a series of Developer Days spread across the 2010 calendar, with events planned in Seoul, London and San Francisco. [FierceMobileContent]
Samsung Focusing on Touchscreens, Confident of Growth
By Phil Goldstein
Samsung unveiled a new touchscreen phone and said it was confident it would grow its market share despite a contraction in the handset market.
"We are very confident that we will continuously increase our market share not only in advanced countries ... but also in the emerging market," Hong Won-pyo, Samsung's executive vice president of global product strategy for mobile phones, said at a recent press event, according to Reuters. "Smartphones, touch phones and messaging phones--those are three major areas that we are addressing," he said. "That's why we are growing in contrast to the economy."
As for Samsung's intention to boost its global market share from 18 percent to 20 percent, Hong said: "Personally, I'm still confident that we will reach our earlier objective." The company plans to ship around 200 million handsets in 2009.
Hong's comments essentially stand as a line in the sand to Samsung rival LG, which last week said it intends to surpass Samsung by 2012 as the world's No. 2 handset maker. The two companies, both based in South Korea, have a long history of attempting to one-up each other.
Samsung also unveiled a new touchscreen phone, the Jet, which has a 3.1-inch AMOLED touchscreen and runs Samsung's new TouchWiz 2.0 user interface. The device is part of the company's effort to increase its touchscreen offerings; Hong said 30 to 35 percent of the 150 phones Samsung will release this year will have touchscreens.
"Touchscreen is almost now a generic requirement for high-end devices," Hong said. "We might go with touch even with the middle and low end" of Samsung's product range. [FierceWireless]
Samsung Launching Android Phones in Q2 2009
By Phil Goldstein
Samsung will release its first phone based on Google's Android operating system in North America in the second quarter of 2009 for both Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile USA.Samsung is said to have 80 people working on the development team for its Android phone. The news was first reported on the South Korean news site ET News.
"We are accelerating the development process for the Google phone in order to meet the specific need of local carriers," ET News quoted an anonymous Samsung official as saying. "We will be able to release the Google phone in the second quarter of the next year in the U.S. market.
"The phone is said to look much like many of Samsung's other touchscreen phones, and will incorporate design factors from both the Omnia and Instinct. The news that it will run on both Sprint and T-Mobile's network indicates that Samsung will either include both a CDMA radio for Sprint customers and an HSDPA/UMTS radio for T-Mobile users, or make different versions for the different networks.
There is no exact release date or pricing details available. Currently, the T-Mobile G1, manufactured by HTC, is the only Android-based phone available in North America.Huawei, which had announced that it was developing an Android phone for launch in 2009, indicated that it expected the launch to happen in the third quarter of 2009. [FierceWireless]
Amimon, Sony, and Samsung: Strange Wireless Video Bedfellows?
Amimon Inc. has taken a huge step forward by driving formation of a new industry group around its wireless video technology, WHDI. Surprisingly, they have brought along Sony and Samsung who are promoters of the other wireless video group called WirelessHD.
Journalists and other representatives of the media are invited to contact ABI Research to learn more about this significant development and to discuss its implications with Principal Analyst, Consumer Video Technologies, Steve Wilson.The WirelessHD consortium is based on SiBeam's 60GHz technology which is nearly ready for prime time, but hasn't quite made it to market yet. Amimon is already shipping its 5GHz-based video modem technology to several customers.
"Is another format war in the making?" asks Wilson. "Why would the same companies promote both standards?"
ABI Research has very recently released a study of wireless video home networking technologies. "Wireless Video Cable Replacement Market and Technologies" provides an in-depth analysis of these competing technologies and companies as well as an outlook for the adoption of these devices in the marketplace.
WiMAX Forum Announces Long-awaited Wave 2 Certification
By Lynnette Luna
It's the moment the WiMAX industry has been waiting for. The WiMAX Forum today announced certification for Wave 2 products using MIMO in the 2.5 GHz band. The announcement includes four base stations and six mobile-station terminals operating in the 2.5 GHz band--the spectrum the new Clearwire will be launching nationwide 2.5 GHz mobile station modules passed the mandatory MIMO testing protocols.
The eight companies not surprisingly include Intel, Motorola, Samsung, Beceem, Sequans, Alvarion, Airspan, and Zyxel. Alvarion, Motorola, Samsung and Sequans each received the WiMAX Forum Certified Seal of Approval for a 2.5 GHz base station. Airspan, Beceem, Intel, Samsung, Sequans and Zyxel each received the WiMAX Forum Certified Seal of Approval for a 2.5 GHz mobile station module.
Ed Iges, co-chair of the WiMAX Forum's certification working group, told FierceWireless that certification for MIMO for 2.5 GHz products sets the stage for the quick implementation of future profiles. As such, the forum announced that it will begin to accept certification applications for 3.5 GHz equipment during the third quarter, with testing to begin in the fourth quarter and certification completed for those products before the end of the year.
The WiMAX Forum estimates that more than 100 Mobile WiMAX products will be certified by the end of 2008, and by 2011 more than 1,000 products will undergo Mobile WiMAX certification. The WiMAX Forum said it plans to stay ahead of the demand for certification with a robust global lab infrastructure, including six WiMAX Forum partner labs that are now open and ready to accept products for certification testing in China, Korea, Spain, and the U.S., along with two labs in Taiwan, ADT and TTC/CS. The WiMAX Forum plans to open two more certification labs by the end of 2008 in India and Japan and an additional lab in Brazil in 2009 in order to support the anticipated growing demands in those regions.
Wave 2 certification has taken some time to achieve because of the complexities associated with MIMO technology. "The challenge has been getting MIMO on the uplink," noted Iges. "It's not easy to certify having multiple scenarios. What happens on MIMO is that we are adding more stress to the base station." [FierceWireless]
Samsung Tries to Steal iPhone's Thunder
By Sue Marek
In a clever twist, Samsung today tried to upstage the anticipated release of Apple's 3G iPhone by debuting its Samsung i900, or Omnia handset, with a 3.2 inch haptic-enabled touchscreen display.
The i900 is a quad-band phone that will operate on both W-CDMA and GSM, and will support 7.2 Mbps HSDPA data speeds. It also comes equipped with a five-megapixel camera, GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth and a choice of either 8GB or 16GB of internal storage.
The phone will be officially unveiled at Communicasia in Singapore next week and will go on sale the same week in Southeast Asia. It will be available in Europe in July. No word yet on when it will make its way to the U.S. market.
Sprint's iPhone Killer to Debut June 20
The rumors are true. Sprint confirmed that it will debut the Samsung Instinct on June 20. The phone, which has been pegged as the carrier's answer to the iPhone, is expected to cost between $200 and $300 and will be available initially to Sprint's "Simply Everything" rate plan customers.
The EV-DO Rev. A phone features a camera, video camera, music player and a turn-by-turn navigation. It comes with a touchscreen and has Web browsing capabilities.
According to Sprint Connection.com, Sprint confirmed that the Samsung Instinct, Sprint's answer to the Apple iPhone, will start showing up on store shelves on June 20.
The phone, expected to cost between $200 and $300, initially is expected to be available in limited markets. It also will be available first to Sprint customers who sign up for one of the company's "Simply Everything" plans. Sprint said the phone is expected to be in short supply initially, and is recommending that potential buyers pre-register at Sprint's Instinct Web site.
The Instinct includes standard features -- camera, videocamera, music player -- and adds turn-by-turn navigation and a number of other features.The Instinct was developed jointly by Sprint and Samsung. The phone includes full HTML Web browsing and other features included in the iPhone. However, unlike the current iPhone, it works on Sprint's next generation high speed network.
Although Apple and CEO Steve Jobs have stayed mum on the release of the much anticipated 3G iPhone, analysts are widely expecting the second generation phone to be unveiled on June 9. Jobs kicks off the Apple 2008 Worldwide Developers Conference 2008 that day. [FierceWireless]
Open Mobile Video Coalition Completes Mobile DTV Technical Trial
The Open Mobile Video Coalition (OMVC), an industry association representing over 850 commercial and public TV stations in advancing mobile digital broadcast technology, announced today that it has concluded technical trials and evaluations. The Independent Demonstration of Viability (IDOV) trials for proposed digital Mobile/Handheld (M/H) technologies were conducted in close cooperation with engineering experts from the Association for Maximum Service Television (MSTV).
Responding to a request for a broadcast industry perspective, the OMVC Technical Advisory Group, led by Sterling Davis of Cox Broadcasting, has submitted an extensive report to the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) for its M/H digital television (DTV) standard-setting process.
The IDOV trials and the OMVC recommendation are crucial milestones in enabling mobile DTV as a major consumer benefit of next year's digital broadcast transition. OMVC recommends that ATSC maintain momentum by quickly setting an open mobile DTV standard in time for the federally mandated digital broadcast transition in February 2009.
"Growing collaboration on the mobile broadcast TV vision promises further consumer value from the transition to digital broadcast television," said Brandon Burgess, President of the OMVC and CEO of ION Media Networks. "In only nine months, we have facilitated broad-based industry collaboration, putting us on track for a mobile ATSC DTV standard in time for the February 2009 digital transition."
OMVC applauds this week's agreement between LG Electronics and Samsung Electronics, the providers of the two leading ATSC-compliant mobile DTV systems submitted for the IDOV trials. Based on the technical results, the OMVC believes the LG-Samsung joint approach points to a standard centered on LG's "Mobile-Pedestrian-Handheld" (MPHTM) transmission technology as the baseline of the "physical layer" platform, augmented with features from Samsung's "Advanced VSB" (A-VSB) technology. Such an approach should find broad support from participants, as well as third-party manufacturers and content providers interested in a single open mobile digital U.S. broadcast standard.
"Agreement on a standard takes our industry to the next level in the development and rollout of products and services, and the OMVC remains fully committed to the ATSC's current planned schedule of adopting a final standard by July of 2009," said Anne Schelle, Executive Director of the OMVC. "Next we'll be focused on consumer trials with the goal of realizing mobile DTV for consumers as soon as possible."
The OMVC initiated the IDOV trials at ATSC's request to assist with the technical information needed to adopt a standard for mobile broadcast technology. ATSC is the recognized standard-setting body for this technology. Laboratory and field trials were conducted during February, March and April of 2008 in the San Francisco Bay area and Las Vegas. OMVC worked with MSTV to conduct the trials, and participating television broadcasters volunteered the use of their facilities. More than 140 hours and 1,000 miles of mobile data were collected across the two trial areas.
"We are very grateful to our partners without whom the technical trials would not have been possible," added Mr. Burgess. "On behalf of OMVC's members, we would especially like to thank NAB's David Rehr, MSTV's David Donovan, APTS's Mark Erstling, as well as the ATSC for their support and hard work. We also want to recognize Dr. Woo Paik of LG and Dr. J.W. Park of Samsung for their commitment to jointly advancing the consumer value and reach of U.S. digital TV broadcasting through mobility."
The OMVC report concludes that mobility for digital broadcasting in compliance with existing ATSC DTV standards is viable. The IDOV trials demonstrated full-motion mobile DTV at pedestrian and highway speeds; they also showed that mobile reception can be achieved as much as 40 miles from the transmitter, and that mobile DTV does not interfere with the regular FCC-compliant primary digital television broadcasts.
As ATSC moves toward finalizing technical specifications this summer, the OMVC will continue to assist with incorporating broadcasting industry considerations into the technical framework. In addition, the group will conduct consumer trials later this year in an integrated collaboration among OMVC, LG and Samsung. Further details on these trials will be announced in coming months.
After the ATSC Candidate Standard is approved in October, the group will work toward pursuing full standardization and product development to reach the ultimate goal of introducing commercial mobile DTV services to the consumer marketplace in 2009. Bringing products and services to market in this timeframe will enable broadcasters to meet consumer demand for mobile DTV and improve utilization of their digital TV infrastructure investment. [FierceWireless]
Samsung, LG to Develop Joint Standard For North American Mobile TV Market
Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Co., South Korea's world-class electronics manufacturers, said today they agreed to jointly develop a mobile television technology aimed at becoming the industry standard in the North American market.
Executives from the two companies signed a deal for the joint standard at a hotel in Seoul, the companies said, adding that they plan to forward their proposal to the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC).
The ATSC is an international group, established in 1982, that develops technology standards for digital television that are used in the United States and have also been adopted by Canada.
The ATSC's U.S. office is scheduled to pick a mobile television standard in the first half of 2009 for the U.S., following examinations of candidate technologies by the Open Mobile Video Coalition, an alliance of U.S. broadcasters committed to the development of mobile digital television.
The joint effort is expected to combine LG's technology, dubbed the Mobile Pedestrian Handheld (MPH), and Samsung's A-VSB, also known as advanced-vestigial sideband, according to the companies.
"We will step up our effort to provide a technology that will benefit both consumers and broadcasters," said Park Jong-woo, head of Samsung Electronics' digital media division.
Samsung and LG are the world's second and fifth-largest handset makers, respectively, and compete in many areas of electronic goods, including televisions and household appliances. [FierceWireless]
Samsung Tops New Mobile WiMAX Equipment Vendor Matrix Ranking
Samsung has been ranked at the top of the latest Vendor Matrix for WiMAX equipment vendors released by ABI Research. Motorola and Cisco Systems claimed the second and third spots in the company’s new evaluation of worldwide mobile WiMAX equipment vendors. The Vendor Matrix is an analytical tool developed by ABI Research to provide a clear understanding of vendors’ positions in specific markets.
Principal analyst Philip Solis comments, “The top companies in this ABI Research Vendor Matrix are all strong in providing various wireless and wired parts of telecommunications solutions, which will be critical in constructing a comprehensive offering. Most of these companies have also done early work in critical smart antenna solutions and OFDMA, holding strong intellectual property portfolios in these areas.”
Vendors are assessed by ABI Research on the important parameters of “innovation” and “implementation” across several criteria unique to each vendor matrix, such as customer wins, contract awards, global reach, market share, patents, R&D spending, time to market, and first movers, among others.
For this particular matrix, under "innovation," ABI Research examined early product development for mobile WiMAX; intellectual property for OFDMA, MIMO, and beamforming; early MIMO R&D; early beamforming R&D, and end-to-end telecom product offerings.
Under "implementation," ABI Research scrutinized the following criteria: major customer wins announced; number of trials acquired; major mobile operator customers; focus on high-growth developing countries, and partnerships with other companies in the WiMAX ecosystem. [ABI Research]
Samsung SGH-P960: Watching Live TV Made Easy
The SGH-P960 isn't the only DVB-H device to be launched this week, the Nokia N96 is another one. But most people will never have seen a DVB-H handheld, and with the possible exception of the upcoming N96, it's likely that it will be a while until they actually get their hands on one.
If you ignore the SGH-P960's DVB-H capabilities, then this is a capable but not exceptional 3G device. With a 2.6" 240 x 320 pixel display, FM radio, 3 megapixel camera, document viewer, web browser, Bluetooth and support for HSDPA high-speed data, the Samsung P960 is a practical phone for everyday use.
But unlike either of the aforementioned models the Samsung P960 features a DVB-H TV Broadcast receiver for watching Live TV broadcasts in supported areas and preconfigured shortcut key for one touch access.
And it includes TV Output for watching video clips recorded on your phone on your TV. Music features such as the MP3 Player and FM Radio with RDS pretty much go without saying. Overall the Samsung P960 is really impressive, its sleek and stylish, understated yet bold in its abilities.
The 2.6inch TFT QVGA display screen certainly comes in handy and the option for memory expansion is always a plus. And if you need to get out of office but still have a mountain of work to get through, the onboard organizer, document viewer, email and internet browser go a long way to helping manage your workload.
Connectivity options also include bluetooth v2.0 and USB connectivity, for which both regularly come in handy. Available in Onyx Black, the Samsung P960 was recently shown off at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and since has had nothing but positive feedback.
Samsung P960 can not be compared to Nokia N96 and either ways if you still do not have DVB-H broadcasts in your area then there is very little point in purchasing this one.
Samsung say that the SGH-P960 should be available in certain markets from April onwards. Price is unknown still.
General:
2G Network - GSM 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network - HSDPA 2100
Features:
Messaging - SMS, MMS, Email
Browser - WAP 2.0/xHTML
Games - Yes
Colors - Onyx Black
Camera - 3 MP, 2048x1536 pixels, video
- DVB-H TV broadcast receiver
- TV out
- FM radio with RDS
- Java MIDP 2.0
- MP3/AAC/AAC player
- T9
- Document viewer
- Organiser
For starters, the Samsung SGH-P960 is a slider phone, as appears to be norm for anything fashionable coming out of Sammy. Secondly, it has a mirror-finish, shining brightly in your eye on a nice, sunny day. The metallic keypad is a little difference, but it just meshes better with a shiny silver surface of the phone. Naturally, they've kept the profile to a minimum as well. /PR
Sprint and Samsung Announce Availability of Samsung Ace Smartphone
Sprint, a provider of wireless and wireline communications services, has added another world roaming phone to its lineup: the Samsung Ace.
The dual-mode Samsung CDMA /GSM smartphone is a BlackJack doppleganger that runs on Sprint's CDMA network in the U.S. but also comes with an unlocked SIM, which allows travelers to buy a local SIM at their destination.
The Samsung Ace smartphone sports a QWERTY keyboard and is running Windows Mobile 6 Standard Edition, according Sprint and Samsung Mobile will be available shortly.
The Samsung Ace is powered by the Sprint Mobile Broadband Network and Windows Mobile 6. The phone has access to exclusive Sprint content, including Sprint TVSM with more than 50 channels of live television and on-demand video and audio and On Demand with up-to-date information on sports, weather, news, and money customised to the user's zip code.
The phone includes quad-band capabilities, and operates globally on CDMA and GSM/GPRS networks where Sprint has international roaming agreements. This will also allow Samsung ACE Sprint customers to make or receive calls in approximately 180 countries and access professional and personal e-mail, view documents and files, surf the web, and sync their Outlook calendar in nearly 100 countries.
The Samsung Ace also features full QWERTY keyboard, a large 2.3" TFT colour display, a slide click wheel, stereo Bluetooth wireless technology and support for up to 2GB MicroSD card as external memory.
The Samsung ACE is available immediately in business sales channels and is priced at USD199.99, with a two-year service agreement and USD100 mail-in-rebate.
The phone is expected to be available in Sprint retail stores beginning in March 2008. /PR
The Slim Samsung L310 For The Ladies
Samsung unveiled two new sleek-looking handsets L310 (and L320). Aimed at the fashion-conscious ladies they are sure to excel with looks rather than functionality.
Samsung L310 is a black-and-gold clamshell. It has a rather uncommon S-shaped hinge that should be able to make it stand out in a crowd. The tri-band phone comes in the compact dimensions of 93.4 x 44 x 17.9 mm and has a number of Female applications - Shopping list, Fragrance type and Calories consumption.
The phone sports a 1.8" TFT display with a resolution of 176 x 220 pixels. It has 20MB of internal memory that can be expanded through the built-in microSD card slot.
The Samsung L310 also provides some multimedia features - including a 2 megapixel camera, MP3 player and Bluetooth connectivity. USB v2.0 is also included.
Samsung L310 will be available in selected markets from February at a price of around 240 Euro before taxes or subsides. /PR
Samsung L310 main Specifications
• GSM 900 / 1800 / 1900 - 2G Network
• 1.8 Inch TFT 65K colors - 176 x 220 pixels display
• MP3 & Polyphonic Ringtones
• Vibration
• Customization – Download
• 30 dialed, 30 received, 30 missed calls (Call records)
• Photo call & 1000 x 12 fields Phonebook
• 20 MB built in memory plus microSD (TransFlash) Card slot
• USB v2.0
• GPRS & HSCSD
• Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP
• EDGE
• SMS, EMS, MMS & Email Messaging
• Games
• WAP 2.0/xHTML Browser
• 2 MP Camera 1600×1200 pixels + video
• MP3, AAC, ACC+ player
• Java MIDP 2.0
• Organizer, T9, Calculator, Unit converter, Built-in handsfree, Voice memo
• Ladies applications include - shopping list, calories consumption, fragrance type
• Dimension 93.4 x 44 x 17.9 mm
Touchscreen Trend Affects Keypad Crowd
At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona earlier this week, Digit Wireless seemed happy that the industry is currently obsessed with touchscreen technology for mobile devices. That's not because Digit makes touchscreen technology -- far from it.
Digit Wireless is the company behind fastap technology, which is an approach to keypad design that integrates a raised set of alpha keys and a lowered set of number keys, supported by error prevention software.
Fastap-enabled handsets are geared toward that middle 70 percent -- not the emerging market crowd or the BlackBerry toting heavy data user. Even before the release and success of the iPhone, buttonless touchscreen phones have been capturing the consumer eye. As this trend continues to rise, new phones are being announced that call into question the suvival of buttons on future phones.
Digit Wireless says it has seen a lot of interest since the launch of the iPhone, because consumers, carriers and handset makers are once again looking to provide a better user interface for handsets and touchscreens are too expensive for the mid-range user.
Digit Wireless' new CEO Robert Blumenthal said that touch screen feature phones are sometime limited by the technology. "The Prada phone, for example, is too sensitive," he said. Blumenthal and other Digit executives agree, however, that fastap is targeted at the middle 70 percent of wireless subscribers: Not the upper 15 percent or bottom 15 percent. – [Brian/FierceWireless]
LG-KE850 Prada
The handset is a mere 12 mm thin (just shy of Samsung's Ultra Thin 10.7 mm phone) with a 3.0 inch wide LCD screen, a 2.0 megapixel camera and an MP3 player. It boasts USB v. 2, EDGE tri-band, BlueTooth 2.0 and GPRS connectability. One of the breakout features of the phone is that it's "buttonless," meaning is makes use of a touchscreen (no stylus.)
On top of the hardware specs, the LG KE850 PRADA comes with a comprehensive set of software. As you might expect, there's a multimedia player capable of playing MP3, AAC, WMA and RealAudio sound files, plus MPEG4, H.263 and H.264 video.
The KE850 has a web browser with Adobe/Macromedia Flash support, a document viewer (supporting text, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Adobe Acrobat file types), plus an email client and messaging applications.
Samsung Giorgio Armani
The tri-band handset features a 3-megapixel camera, 2.6-inch 262K color QVGA touchscreen LCD, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP support, microSD expansion and more. Most notably, the device features "haptics," which means that users can feel an immediate mild vibration when they touch icons on the display.
The Armani phone's interface is similar to the menus on the Ultra Smart F700. A three by four grid, each column and row is lit by a band of color that highlights your choice, creating a cross effect. The phone uses haptic feedback, buzzing slightly to indicate it has accepted your input, and the screen seemed very receptive to our touch. We would have liked some scrolling effects, perhaps a tracking cross that followed us as we dragged our finger from choice to choice, but the menu is still quite luscious.
HTC Touch
The compact HTC Touch features an advanced touch screen that lets you operate the smart phone with your fingertips. The Windows Mobile 6 smart phone also has an updated interface, integrated Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, and a 2-megapixel camera.
It's not quite multi-touch like the iPhone, though it does offer "a new and unique way of controlling touch screen-based devices by recognizing and responding to the sweep of a finger across the screen," according to HTC's press release. What's more, TouchFLO automatically distinguishes between stylus and finger input and will act accordingly.
Apple iPhone 
Apple iPhone has been at the center of technology circle discussions since its announcement in early January 2007. The touchscreen device is an AT&T-serviced phone fused with an iPod, multimedia center, email and Internet connection and most major features common to smartphones.
It is a sweet, glorious specs of the 11.6 millimeter device that include a 3.5-inch 480 x 320 touchscreen display with multi-touch support and a proximity sensor to turn off the screen when it's close to your face, 2 megapixel cam, 4GB or 8 GB of storage, Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR and A2DP, WiFi that automatically engages when in range, and quad-band GSM radio with EDGE. Amazingly, it somehow runs OS X with support for Widgets, Google Maps, and Safari, and iTunes with CoverFlow out of the gate.
Samsung “Lifestyle” Soul is the Ultimate Essence of Mobile
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., provider, just made its debut during Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain by the launch of ‘Soul’, Samsung’s new flagship product for 2008. Samsung named ‘Soul’’ to honor the completion of its exclusive ‘Ultra Edition’ series of handsets which offer this perfect balance of design and features.
Soul, an abbreviation of “The Spirit Of Ultra", will appeal to style-conscious users who are not willing to compromise between design and technology and search out the best of the best for inspiration and stimulation to enrich their lives.
Samsung Soul is a feature loaded full metal slider. The front is dominated by the 2.2-inches 16M QVGA display along with the magical touch navigation pad. The navigation indicators on it change icons and functions across applications. A similar navigation decision is implemented in the recently announced LG KF510.
“We believe that Soul is the answer for today’s style-conscious consumers, excited by outstanding quality design and performance,” said Geesung Choi, President of Samsung’s Telecommunication Business. “Soul is set to continue the success of past Ultra Edition handsets, such as D900 and U600, and will further enhance Samsung’s leadership in the premium phone category.”
Among the other innovations is the new customizable graphic user interface (GUI). Users are allowed to create their own skins with the on-handset User Created Skin setup. Additionally, display skins are customizable with fonts, colors and background images.
Samsung Soul is also recognizable for its 5-megapixel autofocus camera with powerful LED flash, equipped with the latest camera tech goodies like face detection, image stabilizer and Wide Dynamic Range. On top of that, the camera is capable of video recording in QVGA resolution at 30fps.
The multimedia set includes FM radio with RDS (Radio Data System), MP3/WAV/WMA player with Music library navigation. Sound quality with no distortion even at the highest volume is entrusted to the Bang & Olufsen-patented ICEpower technology.
Along with has quad-band GSM support, Samsung Soul features HSDPA (7.2 Mbps), as well as Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP. The built-in memory is still unknown, but there is a microSD slot onboard.
Soul is the ultimate essence of mobile; a slim, lightweight and stylish product yet still boasting all the essential functions in one single device. This product, a sleek combination of highly styled design and functionality, is a triumph of extreme opposite values, ‘Portability’ and ‘Multi-function.’
Soul enhances the usability for the user with features that adapt to the user depending on the application. With Magical Touch by DaCP™, navigation indicators on the keypad of the phone change according to the user’s needs, making navigation of the menus simple, intuitive and direct. The navigation panel’s icons change according to function. When in music mode, for instance, music related icons will light up on the navigation indicators. When in camera mode, camera related icons such as zoom and brightness icons will appear. /PR
Samsung G810 With HSDPA/WiFi/GPS Rival to Nokia N96
Samsung has just announced at the MWC (Mobile World Congress) its new handset, the slider smartphone G810, with a 2.6" QVGA screen, GPS, a 5 megapixel camera with 3x optical zoom, anti-shake, and face recognition, HSDPA connectivity at 3.6 Mbps, Wi-Fi, a 3.5mm headphone socket and based on S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1. The Samsung G810 will be available in Europe come March 2008, and be a direct competitor to Nokia’s freshly announced N96.
Samsung have featured in excess of a dozen new and tweaked handsets - including the U900 Soul, KF700, KF600 and KF510 sliders and the i900 smartphone - which is pretty much their line-up for the next six months.
Instead of GPS, the G810 -- a successor to the G800 -- also features with Wi-Fi, Bluetooh 2.0 and 150MB of internal storage. The phone breaks from Samsung's fascination with Windows Mobile and goes the Symbian route.
The G800 was noted particularly for its camera phone performance and some reports suggest the same optics are being used in the G810. The camera also reportedly features auto focus, a xenon flash, anti-shake technology, face recognition, and macro mode.
The Samsung G810 smartphone takes all the good stuff from the original G800 and adds some extra goodness to bring it up to par with its Nokia counterpart. Reading through the feature set, you'll find plenty of similarities between the two phones.
For instance, the Samsung G810 is equipped with a 5 megapixel camera (with 3x optical zoom, anti-shake, face recognition, macro mode, etc.), GPS navigation, 802.11b/g WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, and Symbian 9.2 OS with S60 3.1.
Wireless data on the go is here too with 3.6Mbps HSDPA connectivity thrown in to supplement the standard GSM radios.
The specifications of the G810 phone:
- Symbian 9.2 OS, S60 3.1
- GSM/UMTS/3.6 Mbps HSDPA Connectivity
- 2.6″ 262K Color QVGA TFT Display
- 150 MB of Internal Memory
- MicroSD Memory Card Slot
- WiFi 802.11b/g
- Bluetooth 2.0 ED
- USB 2.0 (microUSB connector)
- Integrated GPS Navigation
- 1200 mAh battery
- 104x53x18mm
These specifications would suggest it will look to compete with Nokia's high end Nseries devices such as the N96.
LiMo Foundation to Debut Mobile Linux Platform
Open source industry consortium the LiMo Foundation announced the first release of its Linux-based LiMo Platform will arrive in March, with API specifications now available to the developer population.
LiMo Foundation co-founders Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic Mobile Communications, Samsung Electronics and Vodafone all collaborated on Release 1, promising nearly all of the enabling technology has already been commercially deployed and proven within handsets now on the retail market.
The modular open software platform is plug-in-based and hardware-independent, promising a secure runtime environment for downloaded applications.
Linux was selected as the core technology for the LiMo Platform for its acceptability by the whole mobile industry, its rich functionality and scalability, its record of success in embedded systems and mobile phones and its potential to easily "cross-platformize" with other product categories. Middleware components may be implemented in either C or C++ programming languages.
"With LiMo announcing the first release of the platform that is common across many handset vendors and models, the stage is set for mobile innovation on Linux," said Vodafone's director of terminals technology and LiMo Foundation vice chairperson Guido Arnone in a prepared statement.
"The LiMo Platform enables operators and handset makers to assign greater investment to technologies that improve the consumer experience and technology vendors and ISVs to target their products for a software platform that is being broadly adopted by the whole industry," he added. [FierceDeveloper/FierceWireless]
zzzPhone Offers Customized Features Mobile Phones
An online mobile phone vendor, called zzzPhone, has adapted the Dell model of customized, factory-direct computers for the mobile phone industry. zzzPhones aims to focus on feature phones with large touchscreens and customized features, offering competing devices to Nokia's N95, the Palm Treo and Apple's iPhone. zzzPhone has a near equivalent handset to the N95 that costs significantly less than Nokia's pricetag of $739: this zzzPhone costs just $149.
zzzPhone assures shoppers that it uses the "same high quality components" as major handset brands like Motorola, Nokia, Palm, and Samsung. The phones are unlocked, tri-band and can support two SIMs.
Manufactured by an American company with assembly plants in the heart of China's mobile phone supply chain right next to the factories of major brands Motorola, Nokia, Palm, and Samsung; these unlocked, tri-band cell phones deliver features that exceed the ultra-popular Nokia N95 and Apple iPhone, at a significantly discounted price.
Customization starts with customers choosing a base model and a custom pattern or color for the cell phone case; standard features such as a beautiful extra-large touchscreen panel and dual SIM card slots are immediate standouts. Next, customers may add various features such as GPS navigation, a second front-facing camera, and even a flashlight.
Various upgrades are available as well, such as; 4GB memory, stereo quality speakers, and even a 5 or 7 MP camera with a high quality processor. Customers can also select from a range of accessories such as Bluetooth headsets and handsfee car kits, and can even have their favorite music and movies pre-installed at the factory so their cell phone is ready to use when it arrives at the door.
Since zzzPhones are tri-band and unlocked, these phones work with any mobile carrier service worldwide (except for some European carriers). Simply swap the SIM card into a zzzPhone and even pair a second SIM card to allow two phone numbers to be used at the same time on the same phone; especially useful for international travelers and individuals who want to separate business from personal phone expenses.
To make this service even more accessible to the public, zzzPhone provides a white-label service that allows any website to sell customized cell phones through an API and wholesale dropship program. This innovative sales feature allows website operators to earn a profit for selling customized phones without having to deal with order processing and fulfillment, as the orders are redirected to zzzPhone who fulfills them as if they were orders from the website. [FierceWireless]
Motorola Mulls Spinning Off Mobile Biz
Motorola has finally succumbed to investor demand and has said it is prepared to "separate" its beleaguered mobile division. That is code for "make us an offer" with analysts suggesting Motorola could get $20 billion for the handset business. There has been market speculation that a Chinese buyer is interested in the business which has a 12 percent market share of the hyper competitive handset sector.
"In a statement released after market close yesterday the company said it is: "exploring the structural and strategic realignment of its businesses to better equip its Mobile Devices business to recapture global market leadership and to enhance shareholder value. The company's alternatives may include the separation of Mobile Devices from its other businesses in order to permit each business to grow and better serve its customers."
Motorola has been facing break-up calls from billionaire shareholder Carl Icahn, who owns 3.3 percent of the stock. Icahn lobbied for a boardroom seat last year and last night approved the separation: "For many months I have been publicly advocating the separation of mobile devices from Motorola's other business and I am pleased to see that Motorola is finally exploring that proposal."
Motorola was an early leader in the mobile space and dominated the U.S. handset market for a number of years, but has seen its market share collapse in the face of innovative and cheaper products led by European manufacturer Nokia. Last year Korean consumer electronics giant Samsung eclipsed Motorola for the number two position.
The possible sale comes as the traditional tight relationship between U.S. carriers and manufacturers is being challenged by a new open handset alliance led by Google and with a heated auction battle for new 700 MHz spectrum--with Google and Verizon speculated to be the two remaining companies bidding. In the face of Google's alliance Verizon late last year agreed to open its wireless platform to third party applications.
Motorola's handset business represents about half of the company's annual sales of $36 billion. A sale would leave Motorola with its home and networks division, plus its enterprise and government business. Once the mobile business is separated it is likely the remaining business will become attractive to a vendor looking to strengthen its position in the network and media sectors. Cisco? -Tom / FierceWireless
New Samsung BlackJack II
Samsung BlackJack II will be among the first Windows Mobile 6 devices from AT&T to support Microsoft's System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008. The System Center Mobile Device Manager offers companies an end-to-end solution for managing and securing Windows Mobile devices. Employees will also have access to company information and a line of business applications from a single, secure place behind the firewall by using a cutting-edge Mobile Virtual Private Network (VPN).
"Samsung and AT&T are delivering a worthy successor to the wildly popular first generation BlackJack," said Pieter Knook, senior vice president, Mobile Communications Business at Microsoft Corp. "Windows Mobile 6 is a great option to those wanting to run errands or take a walk in the park, all while staying in touch with important business and personal matters."
With its glossy black body, smoky glass-like menu keys, and sliver accents on the side, this smart phone is certainly more attractive than the original. The BlackJack II is also slightly heavier (4.1 ounces versus 3.5 ounces) and a tad thicker than its predecessor. That's because a larger 1700-mAh battery offers more than double the BlackJack's talk time. The Windows Mobile 6-powered sequel sports a sexier design and a lot of other improvements, including a beefier battery, more internal memory, and GPS navigation support.
Like most Windows Mobile phones, the BlackJack II offers excellent integration with Outlook and the ability to read and edit e-mail attachments with Office Mobile. AT&T's push-enabled Xpress Mail client did a decent job updating our Inbox, which Windows Mobile 6 makes easy to search.
The included instant messaging application offers support for AOL, Windows Live, and Yahoo. It took a relatively brisk 20 seconds for it to sign into Yahoo and load our contact list. We liked that the BlackJack II notified us of incoming messages when we had other apps open.
The BlackJack II offers smoother performance than its predecessor, thanks to Samsung's doubling the amount of memory, to 128MB of RAM from 64MB, and to 256MB of ROM, up from 128MB. The 260-MHz processor (up from 220 MHz) loaded applications pretty quickly, and having multiple programs open didn't slow things down much.
Samsung upped the camera resolution from 1.3 megapixels to 2 megapixels. We were more impressed with the camcorder, which captures 320 x 240-pixel footage. Playback on our notebook looked decent in a small QuickTime window, and the footage is just good enough for YouTube. /pr
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