SmartPhones

Could the battlefield for the smartphone wars get any more crowded? Apparently, it can—as Microsoft has so brazenly proven once again. The company that most recently tried to beat Google at its own game with Bing! is now out to take the Google phone and the iPhone down in one fell swoop with Windows Phone 7.

This past week was the Mobile World Congress, the annual event where pretty much everything mobile for the next year gets introduced. For Micorosft it was the new mobile OS, the successor to WinMo6 and WinMo6.5, Windows Phone 7.

Apparently in contrast to the clunky and overstuffed earlier WinMo attempts to pack a PC into a handheld device, Windows Phone 7 honed its efforts on two prime areas: a hip interface concentrating on games, photos, messaging, and music, and a suite of business and productivity features, like mobile Outlook email and Office.

In addition to Microsoft’s new Windows Phone 7, Nokia and Intel announced the merging of Nokia’s Maemo OS with Intel’s Moblin OS to create the MeeGo mobile OS.

written by SmartPhoneWizard

Among the master innovators of our era, Google, has just revealed one of the next big projects on its plate, and as would be appropriate for a company that just launched its own smartphone, the Google Nexus One, it’s a smartphone-related project. It is, in essence, a “universal translator” for smartphones.

The “universal translator” terminology is more a Gene Rodenberry term than Google’s, but the idea is the same – a piece of software (whether an app or a program built into a smartphone’s operating system) that automatically translates the words a person is speaking into the mic on a smartphone into the language understood best by the party listening on the receiving end of the line.

The promise for this type of technology is astounding, bringing the global community closer together than ever before conceivable.

Text translation and voice commands have long (in smartphone years) been a staple of the industry. So speech-to-speech translation shouldn’t be too tough to work out. At least so say the tireless innovators at Google.

Don’t get too excited, though. It’ll still probably take a couple years to iron the kinks out.

written by SmartPhoneWizard

So apparently Microsoft has made a half-billion dollar deal with Verizon to have its Bing search engine be the exclusive search application for Verizon smartphones. And just when we were starting to like Verizon!

Verizon's latest software update apparently auto-sets devices' default search applications to Bing. But if it were just a default setting, that would be one thing. Removing the sub-menu of alternative default choices is another. Apparently you can still search Google, Yahoo!, Wikipedia et al. You just can't set it as your default search engine. What a pain! And an affront.

With AT&T angering customers left and right, you'd think Verizon would welcome all defectors with open arms, excluding no one. But now, unless you want to accept Bing as your sole search provider, you'll no longer want to get a Verizon smartphone either.

The change is most notable in the latest from RIM, the Blackberry Storm2, but expect all other Verizon Blackberry models to fall in line soon enough.

written by SmartPhoneWizard

Information Week just put out an interesting story about the "Top 10 Smartphone Advances of 2009" - a look back before we take a look at the year ahead.

The article spoke of Motorola's comeback on the coattails of the Linux-based Google Android mobile OS, with the two highlights of Motorola's year being the eminently customizable Motorol Cliq and the Motorola Droid.

Speaking of which, Google's Android rollout was probably the headline stealer of the smartphone year.

It spoke of Blackberry's jaunt over from the enterprise market into the mainstream consumer market with features in the coming BB Storm 2 that include WiFi and a boosted 2 GB onboard memory.

Meanwhile Microsoft (especially with its WinMo 6.5 Mobile OS) and Palm (particularly with its webOS smartphones the Palm Pre and its follow-up the Palm Pixi) both companies have been scrambling to get their footing as they keep losing ground to all the newer, younger, better competitors on the field. Surprisingly, and thanks to those newest release, the both don't same too far behind to stay in the game.

Apple's overhaul of the iPhone was a welcome highlight of the smartphone year, with issues like copy and paste and 3G network access being finally being addressed, as well as improvements in its digital camera, processor, storage space, even GPS and a digital compass.

And of course, 2009 saw the explosion of the mobile app market, across all platforms, as every smartphone maker scrambled to offer more and better and (when they're on their toes) more relevant apps to their user base, with the iTunes App Store leading the way and Blackberry App World nipping at its heels.

The list rounded out with Apple's lockout of Google Voice, Symbian's move to Nokia (and beyond), and PC makers, like Dell, staking their claim on a piece of the smartphone pie.

written by SmartPhoneWizard

Latest and gentlemen, we have a Google Phone! No, really. An actual Google Phone. Not an HTC phone, Droid or otherwise (they were the first), or of any other manufacturer building their own hardware around the Google Android OS for mobile devices. But a Google Phone by Google itself.

It's to be called the Nexus One, and Google has handed it out to every person and company imaginable for some real world testing. According to the Wall Street Journal, Google designed the entire user interface (GUI) and initial Tweets call it the "iPhone on beautiful steroids". As for real world specs, it's got a capacitive touch screen, a scroll ball, and animated wallpaper. It has no physical keyboard, only a digital on-screen one.

But hark! We look at bit closer here and see that the hardware that Google built, it didn't really build. It was more like Google designed the hardware. HTC built it. Figures. Still, with Google calling it their own - the first Android based smartphone to receive that honor - maybe this really will be a smartphone game changer.

written by SmartPhoneWizard

AT&T and LG just unveiled the first smartphone in the U.S. to have a 1 GHz processor. Monday, November 30, the eXpo was revealed, Windows Mobile 6.5 device with a slide-out keyboard. It includes many features designed to appeal to the corporate user who's always on the go.

Among those features are full integration with Exchange, deploying contacts, calendar, and mobile mail on the go. The 1 GHz processor aims to make such convenience a reality, another other example being the ability to download full applications, quickly and completely, while you're out and about. There's also the wireless My Phone backup service.

This 1 GHz processor is for much more than multitasking (though it helps with that too). And before long, you're going to see all the smartphone makers and wireless carriers coming up with a line of 1 GHz processor devices. LG and AT&T just happen to be the first.

written by SmartPhoneWizard

Taiwanese company Acer has traditionally been associated with Windows Mobile smartphones (actually it's been traditionally associated with netbooks and notebooks, smartphones being a relatively new thing for Acer), but now it's branching out into the Google phone game with its first Android based smartphone, the Acer A1 Liquid. Similar in design to the iPhone (though Acer is probably not unwise enough to think this would be its iPhone-killer), the Liquid has a 3.5" touchscreen on the face and 4 buttons below it, and a 5 megapixel digital camera (which is, admittedly, better than the iPhone's - even the iPhone 3GS).

After having just unveiled the Acer A1 Liquid last month, the company says it plans to ship the devices starting next week, showing that it's at least interesting in staking its share of the holiday shopping game (good thing - it's already Black Friday).

Acer says to look for about 10 new smartphones from them in 2010, with a balanced mix of WinMo and Android OS's.

written by SmartPhoneWizard

As Samsung comes out with its Android-based Galaxy Spica smartphone (aka the i5700) and then announces that it's not going to be available yet to U.S. consumers, and as Dell announces its entry into the smartphone market, but in China and Brazil, not the U.S., one of the world's premiere smarthone makers, Nokia, is finally bringing one of its most revered devices, the Nokia E72, to U.S. shores.

The Nokia E72, arguably Nokia's greatest stab at the Blackberry Curve, is now being sold to U.S. customers on Amazon.com for around $469 (a welcome step down in price from its price in Euros, equating to $525 U.S.). The E72 is primarily a messaging and email phone, with a built-in desktop email client and chat, and is being targeted at the business community.

Meanwhile, as Palm rolls out its Palm Pixi, analysts and prognosticators are buzzing about the rumors coming out late last week that Nokia might purchase the faltering Palm.

written by SmartPhoneWizard \\ tags: Amazon, Android, Blackberry, Brazil, China, Curve, Dell, E72, Galaxy Spica, i5700, Nokia, Palm, Pixi, Samsung, U.S.

All iPhone bashing aside, the HTC TouchPro2 is still one of the hottest smartphones on the market today. Two months ago, when it first came out, this slide-out keyboard, touchscreen smartphone was flying off the shelves so fast it had gone out of stock after even at Verizon's own online store. Then, when they refilled inventories, the device voted Hot for the Holidays at the last CTIA convention, only remained in stock for one day. A little less than one month ago, the TouchPro2 was sold out again.

But now, as of November 9, nearly two months after the TouchPro2's release, supplies have finally been restocked once more. How long will it last in stock, though?

Probably not long, even in the face of the Droid. The HTC TouchPro2 is a world phone, for one, and the Droid is not. Add to that a tilting touchscreen and one of the best keyboards for texting and you have a device that looks way more like a champ than a contender.

written by SmartPhoneWizard \\ tags: Droid, HTC, iphone, TouchPro2, verizon, Windows Mobile Smartphones

Look out, HTC! There's another new Droid in town - that is, another new smartphone running on the Google Android OS besides the highly-hyped HTC Droid Eris - and it's coming from LG. It's the LG EVE, the aptly titled debut of LG's promised line of Android smartphones to look forward to.

Interesting on the name: EVE. Recent advertisements for the Droid have already stigmatized it before even hitting the stands as a "masculine" smartphone. So here comes a more feminine alternative, rolled out the same day, and running on the same shiny new mobile operating system from the geniuses over at Google.

So while the HTC Droid is targeted at guys who are into their gadgets (big on music, video, games, and apps), the LG EVE is targeted at social media addicts, with a killer aggregator for the Twitter, Facebook and Bebo set. A prediction on that: both smartphones will be competing viciously for the YouTube set.

The LG is a touchscreen smartphone and a keyboard smartphone with a 3" touchscreen with stupendous 480 x 320 pixel resolution and a built-in accelerometer and it has a full slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Take your pick. The camera on the LG EVE, at 5 megapixels, could take over as the only digital camera you need too. And expandable up to 16 GB means you can hold plenty of photos - and home videos too! Yes, the EVE has video recording capabilities.

The price on the LG EVE makes for an interesting spread, as unlocked it costs around $400, but you can get it for about 70%, making it $49.95, with contract.

written by SmartPhoneWizard \\ tags: Android, Droid, EVE, Google, HTC, LG