After Sony Ericsson it is Samsung’s turn to drop Symbian OS Platform, which is no good news for Nokia and their Symbian OS platform. As a result most members of Symbian developers’ community are left with no option other than developing apps for other platforms like WebOS or Apple’s iOS or Android. WebOS is the newbie in the mobile world, which as per schedule will be launched by Hewlett Packard very shortly.
Samsung broke the news about withdrawal of support for Symbian platform on Friday (1st of October) and all the related reference content or any developer forums will be deleted by December 31st from Samsung’s official websites. As a final nail in the coffin, Samsung will not be certifying Symbian Applications anymore.
Korea based mobile manufacturer, Samsung also announced that they are developing their own Bada OS and is “No more interested” in Symbian OS Platform. Efforts in that direction are already on. The company’s labs are geared up for release of its new Windows Phone 7 and Android based Smartphones.
Simultaneously, plans are afoot for hardware to support its new Bada platform. With these back outs, prospects for Symbian seems to be very thin as all its one time loyal partners are dropping off.
If you are interested in N8 on Vodafone, you can pre-order the Smartphone now from the official website of the service provider. Vodafone claims that pre-orders for Nokia N8 will be honoured by delivery on October 22nd.
And for those who love different shades, Vodafone has an exclusive green N8 which can make people around you green with jealousy. A 2-year tariff plan costs you £25 per month and the handset costs £99 on this plan. You get 100 minutes, 500 texts and 500 MB data.
Another option to grab N8 on Vodafone is to go for £30 per month plan where the handset comes for free. You get 600 minutes, unlimited texts, and 500 MB data and thus the deal is worth it.
And for those who care a damn for money, there is a £55 per month plan for 2 years. You get 3000 minutes, unlimited texts, and 1GB mobile internet. The Smartphone is free of course.
N8 is the first N-series Smartphone from Nokia based on Symbian ^3 operating system.
To brief out about Nokia N8, it is bundled with a 3.5 inch AMOLED capacitive touchscreen display, a 12-megapixel camera with Xenon flash, HD recording, a mini HDMI slot, Ovi Maps, Dolby Digital Plus technology along with 16GB memory.
The smartphone also features MP3 player, FM radio, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, social networking integration and three different home screens. N8 owners can also tune in to Web TV and get their dose of Paramount, CNN, E Entertainment, and National Geographic channels.
N8 is backed up by a great array of mobile apps thus making it all the more enviable. The free Ovi maps help N8 don the role of a GPS device across 70 countries.
Nokia has finally started shipping the much awaited N8 Smartphone. Despite the fact that the handset will be made available depending on the country and the service provider, customers who pre-ordered the N8 shall be the first ones to lay their hands on the Smartphone.
The N8 was available for pre-order since mid-August and Nokia claimed that it got the largest number of pre-orders in its history. N8 is the first N-series Smartphone from Nokia based on Symbian ^3 operating system.
The media is abuzz with reports about upcoming handsets from HTC and we are not very sure if HTC HD7 and HD3 are one and the same.
Reports from HTCInside.de claim that the Smartphone comes with a 4.3-inch WVGA capacitive TouchScreen, a 5MP camera with dual LED flash, 8GB storage and HD video capabilities.
Powered by a 1GHz Qualcomm QSD8250 Snapdragon SoC and the Windows Phone 7, the fastest operating system from Microsoft the handset is set to create ripples in the marketplace.
HTC HD7 has an array of sensors viz., the motion sensor, light sensor, proximity sensor and a digital compass. The handset has a 3.5mm audio jack and FM Radio to hep music lovers.
The handset has connectivity in the form of 3G and HSDPA so that users can do all kinds of surfing activities over the web and also keep up with their Social networking friends and relatives.
When Dell’s CEO pulled out a 7-inch version of Dell Streak Tablet PC at Oracle’s OpenWorld conference in San Francisco, signals were clear to the world that Dell will launch a 7-inch model Android-based Tablet PC on the lines of its current Streak.
Though the company has not shared more details about the new Tablet, analysts suggest that the bigger version of the 5-inch Streak is slated to run on Froyo ( Android 2.2 OS ).
Amid rumours that the new model will be powered by Nvidia Tegra 2 SoC, the new tablet is expected to provide better resolution (1024×600 compared to 800×480), Wi-Fi, and 3G.
And this should set the alarm bells ringing for South Korean technology major Samsung because this brings the Streak in direct competition with Samsung Galaxy Tab. The Galaxy Tab is available at £587 while the 16GB 5-inch Streak is priced at £399 and hence the 7-inch Streak is viable for sub-£500.
Given the fact that Dell Streak (any version) is out of stock with O2 and with no ETA available, the 7-inch Dell Streak Tablet might simply replace the 5-inch model altogether. Dell Direct is the only way to buy a Dell Streak where the 16GB version is priced at £449.
South Korean technology major, Samsung left no stone unturned to take on Apple’s iPad in its own backyard by launching its Galaxy Tablet computer in the US along with an online hub for movies and TV shows.
Samsung stated that US carriers Sprint, AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile will be selling the Galaxy Tablet unveiled early this month at the IFA electronics trade fair held in Berlin.
Touted as Samsung’s answer to the Apple iPad, the pricing of the Galaxy Tablet was not revealed though the announcement said that the tablet PC shall be available in the US in coming months.
A new content service named as “Media Hub” from Samsung.com will be offered access to the Galaxy Tab. Samsung wants to provide an overall digital experience to its customers by leveraging the new Media Hub. NBC Universal, Paramount, and MTV Networks partner the Media Hub along with Samsung.
The Media Hub shall offer a library of movies, along with new releases, full TV shows and television episodes.
The Galaxy tablet has dual cameras thus allowing video chatting and it supports Adobe Flash 10.1 too thus highlighting the glaring differences from Apple iPad.
Apple is set to find another competitor in RIM with the handset maker poised to launch its BlackPad as early as next week, reports from The Wall Street Journal suggest.
The rival tablet styled computer from RIM which some employees are calling the BlackPad will make its first public appearance in San Francisco at a Developers’ Conference. The Wall Street Journal claims that the report is based on information from people familiar with RIM’s plan and claims that the BlackPad launch is imminent at the end of this year.
Contrary to what you might have assumed, the tablet computer from RIM is going to be powered by QNX Software Systems, the company which RIM acquired this year instead of the new Blackberry 6 OS.
It will sport a 7-inch touch screen and will come with an in-built camera. Microsoft is also contemplating its options to make competitors to Apple iPad.
Blackberry lost a percentage point when its share of world-wide Smartphone sales was assessed at 18% for the Q2 of 2010 by a Gartner report. Apple and Android powered Smartphones are providing stiff competition to BlackBerry phones and hence the result.
It has been revealed by Microsoft today that all the five major UK mobile phone operators viz. Orange, O2, T-Mobile, Vodafone and Three are geared up to offer the Windows Phone 7 handsets.
Microsoft also revealed that it has received support from Phones 4U and Carphone Warehouse. According to Microsoft, Orange UK, which is said to amalgamate soon with T-Mobile, would be the lead partner for its Windows Phone 7 OS.
As such, Microsoft would have an advantage of offering a varied range of handsets to its customers along with an option to go with their desired network. Microsoft is said to be excited to work with all the major carriers in the industry who will be supporting their Windows Phone 7 launch.
Microsoft is also looking forward to get the support from smaller network operators like Tesco, Virgin Media and Talkmobile later on. However, Microsoft would launch the Windows Phone 7 on October 11th, 2010.
Also, it is still unknown if the recently revealed Zune music service would be offered by Orange or Vodafone. Moreover, Zune is said to be in direct competition with Orange’s Musicstore, 3 UK’s strategic partnership with Spotify and Vodafone’s Music.
also revealed that it has received support from Phones 4U and Carphone Warehouse. According to Microsoft, Orange UK, which is said to amalgamate soon with T-Mobile, would be the lead partner for their Windows Phone 7 OS.
As such, Microsoft would have an advantage of offering a varied range of handsets to its customers along with their desired network choice to go with. Microsoft is also said to be excited to work with all the major carriers in the industry who will be supporting their Windows Phone 7 launch.
Microsoft is also looking forward to get the support from smaller network operators like Tesco, Virgin Media and Talkmobile later on.
However, Microsoft would launch the Windows Phone 7 on October 11th, 2010. Also, it is still unknown if the recently revealed Zune music service would be offered by Orange or Vodafone. Moreover, Zune is said to be in direct competition with Orange’s Musicstore, 3 UK’s strategic partnership with Spotify and Vodafone’s Music.
The Android 2.2 powered SmartPhone, HTC Desire Z is expected to be shipped to users from October 6. Despite the initial reports that the Desire Z will be a Vodafone exclusive, the handset is all set to be available on O2 and T-Mobile.
Taiwanese mobile phone maker HTC Corporation unveiled its Desire HD and Z smartphone models this week. The handset now is available via mobilephones.direct.co.uk as is mentioned by HTC’s official website.
The Desire Z will feature a 3.7-inch touchscreen display; however it would not have the boastful AMOLED screen that its super-hit predecessor had because of some manufacturing issues HTC faced earlier.
The hinged display screen of the Desire Z helps to get a full QWERTY keypad with clearly defined programmable buttons which can act as shortcuts for an array of apps, and menus on the handset.
A 5MP camera with flash equipped with a 720p HD Video capabilities jazz it up on the back. The HTC Desire Z will run on the Froyo OS with the HTC Sense UI powered by an 800MHz Qualcomm processor.
For £30 to £40 a month contracts, one can get the handset from T-Mobile. Users get 900 monthly minutes, 500 texts, unlimited web surfing, and 3 months insurance for the £30 per month contract. O2 on the other hand offers the Desire Z for monthly contracts between £30 and £45. Users get 300 minutes a month, unlimited texts and unlimited mobile web for £30 a month.
The website asks for 17 days of delivery time though and expects to provide the handset dispatch on October 6th.
The Samsung Galaxy tab, a rival to the Apple iPad, is already on its way to land the UK market this quarter. Amazon UK is now offering the world’s largest smartphone on its airwaves for £799. This price seems to be quite higher than £608 for which another carrier is said to offer the device.
However, it is not yet confirmed if this is going to be the actual price of the much hyped device. Moreover, this comes as a dampener as the 16GB Wi-Fi version of Apple iPad can be grabbed at a cheaper price of just £429.
As such, this sky-high cost of the tablet would also bring down the volume of its much awaited users looking ahead to buy the device. Moreover, the Galaxy Tab costs twice to that of the Android tablet, Toshiba Folio 100, even at a price of £600. This also seems to be Samsung’s strategy of attracting customers by offering the device on contracts during its launch.
The display of the Galaxy tab is said to be limited to 480 x 800 which indicates that iPad is a step ahead in this regard. It will be sporting a 3.2 megapixel camera to its rear with a 240 x 320 resolution camera on its front. It will be powered by a 1GHz ARM11 chip and also possess a new Swype keyboard.
Nokia World saw the unveiling of its C3 Touch and Type handset on the second day thus creating more choice for Touch and Type users.
The Nokia Series 40 phone has a rare combination of traditional keypad along with touchscreen. The C3 comes equipped with a 5MP camera with flash, FM Radio, music player and a 32 GB memory card. For connectivity, the handset supports WLAN and 3G.
The C3 Touch and Type is expected to be out in the fourth quarter with a price around €145, exclusive of taxes and subsidies. The handset was however shown to the world during the Nokia World on second day.
Analysts at the The INQUIRER however were not able to understand how people can afford to buy a mobile phone for €145 when many people in the emerging economies have a $1 per day income.
Taiwanese giant Acer is all set to come up with three Android-based tablet PC models in the Q1 of 2011. All the three tablets will run on Android OS 3.0(Gingerbread). The three tablets are said to sport a 5-inch panel, a 7-inch panel and a 10-inch panel.
Acer is looking ahead to build its tablet PCs by joining hands with Quanta Computer or Compal Electronics, which are said to be two of the major ODM/OEMs in Taiwan. However, it is yet to be decided as to Acer will go with which player to place its order.
Acer which has geared up to go with an ARM-based solution is still evaluating between Nvidia Tegra 2 and an unnamed Qualcomm Cortex A9 solution to adopt in its Android tablet.
However, the Taiwanese company is also expected to come up with a small volume of Wintel tablet PCs. The tablets which will be developed by Compal Electronics will be based on Windows 7 OS and using an Atom processor.
The 5-inch tablet from Acer is expected to come as a hybrid device allowing customers to experience both smartphone and tablet PC functionality. As such, the device can be expected to possess built-in 3G capabilities.
Have you been on the lookout for a Walkman-branded budget handset in the market on PAYG? If you are indeed looking for one and if you love the white and green combination, then you can jump in joy because Virgin media is offering the Sony Ericsson Spiro in spring green on PAYG for just £59.99.
The Spiro is up for grabs in a variety of colours viz., contrast black, sunset pink, and stealth black; however it is only Virgin Media which offers the green coloured handset.
Powered by Sony Ericsson’s Walkman branding, Spiro has FM Radio in-built along with an MP3 player. The handset comes with a free 2GB memory card which can easily be expanded to 16GB enabling you to save an array of multimedia files.
The Spiro has got a full set of dedicated music keys on the front side and a numerical keyboard behind the screen on the slide-down. The Spiro is all about music. As an example, it comes powered by TrackId to find details of the song from a recorded snippet, a 3.5 mm connector and access to PlayNow store.
The low-priced handset weighing just 90g comes spruced up with an impressive 2 megapixel camera, and pre-loaded apps for Twitter and Facebook so that you can keep up with all near and dear. Spiro can be lapped up through other providers like Vodafone and Orange on PAYG. O2, Vodafone, and Orange provide monthly deals for Spiro as well.
Here comes some great news for those who have been waiting to own the white iPhone 4. Carphone Warehouse is all set to offer the white HTC Desire and that can turn people waiting for the white iPhone 4 to its side.
The amazing version of the HTC Desire which holds second place in T3’s Hot 100 will now be featuring the Super LCD display. Latest set of Desire handsets have been chosen by the company to sport the LCD displays as the availability of AMOLED displays have been delayed.
Apart from this, rest all features of the latest HTC Desire will be as usual as that of the current Desire. The handset will feature a 3.7 inch display, 1GHz Snapdragon processor, a 5-megapixel camera coupled with LED flash, Android 2.2 OS and much more.
No further details regarding the availability and pricing of the handset have been revealed yet. However, the device is likely to land the UK market during Christmas time.
Moreover, the HTC Desire HD and the HTC Desire Z are expected to be out during the HTC event happening next week. Also, few other devices are expected to be out from HTC in the weeks ahead.
Were you one amongst the gizmo freaks who expected to have a Smartphone powered by a 1.5GHz processor at the start of next year? In that case, we have got bad news for you as Qualcomm CEO apparently gave away wrong information when he claimed that it would be offering a 1.5GHz processor in Q1 2011.
The CEO’s statement claiming that the 1.5GHz processor would be on the shelves starting Q1 2011 has since been corrected by the PR team to end of 2011.
It might have been a slip of the tongue given the fact that 1.2GHz dual-core chips from Qualcomm have already been despatched to mobile phone manufacturers so that the same can be inserted into mobiles.
The stock prices saw a sharp rise because of the misquoted information and hence someone in the hierarchy should face the wrath.
Dual core chips are not from reality as well and given the chance that we will get to see them next year, Smartphones will be able to handle snazzier applications very soon.
Although the launch details for the much hyped Research In Motion’s (RIM) BlackBerry 9800 Torch have not been revealed yet, the pricing details for its UK customers have been found across the internet on Vodafone’s network.
The UK customers will be required to shell out anything between £20 and £40 a month which varies according to the tariff they choose for the data plans.
The smartphone might dig a hole of anything from £49 to £399 to the customers. However, if you are looking at grabbing the handset for free, then there is an option of going with a more expensive as well as longer deal.
RIM hopes that the BlackBerry 9800 Torch which will run on the latest BlackBerry OS 6 will rival Apple’s iPhone 4 which has already sold millions of units in just first month of its launch.
RIM said that the BlackBerry Torch was its ‘best BlackBerry ever’. The Torch 9800 which is the RIM’s latest device to hit the smartphone market sports a full 3.2 inch touch screen along with a QWERTY keyboard and trackpad.
The phone also boasts a 5 MP camera with autofocus & flash. Other specs of the gadget are a 3.2-inch HVGA touchscreen display, 4GB memory, 624MHz processor, microSD card reader and Wi-Fi.
Be it a deliberate act or be it by mistake Apple UK has let the news out that the much-awaited iOS 4.1 will be out in the market on September 8 much sooner than the expected arrival date.
September 1 marked Apple’s special event and fans of the tech giant across the geographies knew that they can expect things to happen. Reports initially trickled that the UK site of Apple has put the release date of Apple iOS as September 8. It was just a matter of few hours that everybody started talking about it. Now, Apple UK, US as well as France websites show the “Coming soon” message.
The iOS 4.1 platform is compatible not just with the iPhone 4 but also with iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G despite the fact that the iPhone 3G does not support the multi-tasking feature. The Second, third and fourth generation iPod Touch also are compatible with the Apple iOS 4.1.
Users will get to experience Game Centre, HDR photography, iTunes Ping and more, thanks to iOS 4.1.
OVI, the mobile-based file sharing service from Nokia will now be called off by Nokia from 1st of October. Nokia has introduced Ovi as one of its ventures into internet services.
The Finnish company Nokia Corporation which is the world’s biggest mobile phone maker has decided to shut down Ovi, the file-sharing service as per an email received by the service users.
Nokia says that effective from 1st October 2010, the Ovi files connector service will be called off by the company. Nokia is looking forward to expand its horizon in offerings like email, messaging, mobile maps, social networks, media and music.
The Ovi users have been requested by Nokia to uninstall the Ovi Files Connector app by 1st of October from their systems. Users will lose nothing by uninstalling the app. According to Nokia, less number of subscriptions is referred to be the reason for its shut down decision. However, there are above 1.5 million members who have registered the service worldwide as per the company.
Nokia which acquired the US-based company Avvenu in 2007 rolled out the Ovi file sharing service by using its technology. Using this service, users can remotely track their files on their systems by connecting any Nokia device.
Waiting for the HTC HD3 to land the UK market? At last, the much awaited successor of the Windows Mobile powered HD2, the HTC HD3 is expected to be launched on October 18th. Obviously, the new HTC device will also be based on Windows Phone 7 OS.
O2 UK has already listed the new handset which has been codenamed 6HTHD7XM in its backend system. The carrier also shows up the Alcatel PAYG handsets.
The launch date has been revealed by Engadget, who however has not provided with any further details about the device. However, according to Digital Review, the handset would sport a 4.5-inch AMOLED touchscreen having 1280×800 pixels resolution, 1GB RAM, 32GB storage, a dual core 1.5GHz ARM-based processor, a 8-megapixel camera with two LED flashes, Wi-Fi, HD video recording, HDMI port along with an 1800mAh battery.
However, until and unless the phone gets officially listed on O2’s website we need to keep our fingers crossed about the specifications as revealed by Digital Review.
Meanwhile, HTC HD2 continues to command its position in the Smartphone segment and notches up monthly contracts of £35 and above.
Mobile phone maker Motorola has unwrapped two new Android handsets, one is the Milestone 2, an incarnation of the Milestone handset and the other is the all-weather Defy. Both the devices run Motorola’s Motoblur, a tool which bundles messages, e-mail and social networking updates.
The Milestone 2 is bundled with a 3.7-inch touchscreen having 480 x 854 pixels, internal memory of 8GB extendable up to 32GB via microSD card and 1GHz processor. Other specs of the device are a 5MP camera capturing 720p video, QWERTY keyboard along with the Webkit-based browser supporting Flash 10.1.
The handset functions as a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot, thanks to the 802.11n Wi-Fi. Also, the handset has the ability to share its multimedia content with compatible devices.
Coming to the Defy, the handset which exceeds the IP67 standard for dust as well as water can survive even if it is submerged in water for 30 minutes. The Motoblur featured device runs Android 2.1 OS and sports a 3.7 inch touchscreen, an 800 MHz CPU along with an on-board storage of 2GB.
Both the Smartphones come with the Connected Music Player which allows song downloads as well as song lyric presentation in a karaoke style. Both the devices will hit the UK market in Q4. However, no prices of the handsets have been unveiled yet.
