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

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Word has it Google is going to come out with its own Google phone. As the likes of HTC, Samsung, LG, and Sony Ericsson (basically everyone except Apple) scramble to come out with the greatest integration of the much-hyped Google Android mobile operating system in a smartphone, Google itself has apparently jumped into the game and is in the process of doing the same thing.

That has wireless carriers like Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile doing a little scramble of their own to get the contract to carry the Google entry into the Android smartphone market. Or at least they had been, until it was leaked that Google's smartphone will not be sold with any specific wireless carrier requirements. That means people buying one of these devices will still be able to stick with their favorite carrier.

According to someone with inside sources, Google's Google Phone (??) will be sold unlocked, using a chip by Qualcomm.

written by SmartPhoneWizard \\ tags: Android, Google, Qualcomm

PC maker Dell's first Google Android based smartphone for US customers will be arriving on American shores soon, courtesy of AT&T. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, which first broke the story, Dell's first U.S. Android smartphone will be a touchscreen device with a built-in digital camera.

The Chinese got the first taste of Dell's foray into smartphone's (and Google Phones in particular) with the Dell Mini 3i, also a touch screen device with a 3.2 megapixel camera (though it is only 2G). How much the first Dell Google phone for U.S. customers will resemble the Dell Mini 3i is still unknown, but hopefully Dell is at least aware that it's got to give us 3G for us to even be interested.

The first Dell Google phone could be out as early as 2010, they say. And we say, well we should hope so.

The deal with AT&T to carry the Dell Android based device now means that all 4 of the major United States wireless carriers will have Google phones on their airwaves.

written by SmartPhoneWizard \\ tags: Android, AT&T, Dell, Google

Playing catch-up to the likes of Samsung and HTC, two other top smartphone makers - Motorola and LG - have both just unveiled their respective inaugural Google Phones, that is the first Motorola smartphone and the first LG smartphone to run on the Google Android OS for mobile devices.

The first at bat was Motorola, working on a Sunday to announce on September 13 its new touchscreen smartphone aimed at social networking and social media lovers - called (appropriately) the Motorola Cliq (i.e. clique). Also known as the Motorola MC9500, this device that one online reviewer called "a lifestyle phone" will be offered by T-Mobile sometime in mid-October.

Integration with Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace is a major part of the Cliq's feature-set; the 5 megapixel camera, meanwhile, lends credence to the other interpretation of the word cliq (or click). Synchronization of these elements with a user's personal data (i.e. contacts, calendar, photos, blog posts, emails, and RSS feeds) into a feature called "Motoblur" is a highlight of this device.

Then yesterday, Monday September 14, 2009 - LG Electronics revealed its LG GW620. Featuring a 3" touchscreen and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, the GW620 is the best of both worlds (at least in the controls department). Little else is known about this tightly-guarded coming attraction.

Don't expect LG to dig its heels too deeply into the Google Android platform, though, as LG still remains a Microsoft Windows Mobile loyalist, with 13 new WinMo smartphones coming out from LG in the next year-and-a-half. In fact, the next LG Windows Mobile 6.5 smartphone will be coming out on October 6, that is before the LG GW620 hits European shelves.

written by SmartPhoneWizard \\ tags: Android, Google, LG, LG-GW620, Motorola, Motorola Cliq, social media, Windows Mobile, WinMo 6.5

HTC is finally getting rid of Windows Mobile in place of the new and improved Google Android mobile platform, Android 1.5 Cupcake, with its HTC Lancaster, billed as "The Consumer Social Messaging Device".

The Lancaster is not HTC's first Android smartphone, but it is its first to be carried by AT&T. To boot, the HTC Lancaster is AT&T's first Android device. It's got most of the usual features you would expect from a modern smartphone, plus a slide-out keyboard and HTC's own unique social messaging interface.

Other big releases coming out from HTC any day now include the HTC Warhawk (aka the Touch Diamond2) and the HTC Fortress (aka the Touch Pro2). And other big upcoming releases from AT&T include the Palm Eos (the WebOS-enabled successor to the Palm Centro), the touchscreen Samsung Infinity, and two from Motorola: the feature-filled Sawgrass with built-in blogging interface, and the Heron, as it turns out another premiere Android smartphone from AT&T.

written by SmartPhoneWizard \\ tags: Android, Android 1.5 Cupcake, AT&T, blogging, Cupcake, Google, HTC, HTC Fortress, HTC Lancaster, HTC Touch Diamond2, HTC Touch Pro2, HTC Warhawk, Motorola, Motorola Heron, Motorola Sawgrass, Palm, Palm Centro, Palm Eos, social messaging, WebOS, Windows Mobile

The first smartphone company to use the inaugural Google Android mobile operating system was HTC with their T-Mobile G1 which was released to predictably mixed reviews. Well, it's time for the G1's first (of imminently many) competitor to make its introduction, and it will come to us courtesy of Samsung.

It will be a touchscreen smartphone similar in many ways to both the Samsung Instinct and Samsung Omnia.

With an anticipated release date of June 2009, the company has announced that it's amping up production of the as-of-yet unnamed Samsung Google Phone in order to stay competitive. Whatever it'll be called, it'll be available on both T-Mobile and Sprint networks.

Chances are high that the Samsung Google Phone will be unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain next month.

written by SmartPhoneWizard \\ tags: Android, Barcelona, Google, HTC G1, Instinct, Mobile World Congress, Omnia, Samsung, Spain, T-Mobile

Motorola sure is busy. Fresh off announcing the latest in the Motorola Q series, the MOTO Q11, a pared-down, budget smartphone, both in features and price, the same company has now anounced that it is working on its own Google Phone.

Following fast on the heels of HTC, the first company to release a smartphone running on the new Google mobile OS, Google Android, with its HTC G1, Motorola is looking to market more on Google's mastery of the web with the heavy integration of social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace into the device.

The Motorola Google phone will be similar to the HTC G1 in a number of ways, not least of which is that they'll both have a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and a touch screen both. The Motorola Google phone, however, will reportedly cost just $150, $30 cheaper than the HTC G1.

written by SmartPhoneWizard \\ tags: Android, Facebook, Google, Google Android, HTC, HTC G-1, HTC G1, Motorla Google Phone, Motorola, MySpace

Even those of us not lucky enough to put our lives on hold to travel to Beijing or sit glued to our TVs can still keep up with all the latest goings-on at this year's Olympics with their smartphones.

Thanks to Google (of course) anyone with an internet-enabled smartphone can visit Google's summergames page for mobile devices and get all the updated information they could possibly want on almost 40 Olympic events. Among the information listed there is the full schedule of each event and the winners (once known). Best of all, the mobile site is available in more than 60 countries and in 36 languages.

Video coverage of the 2008 Summer Olympics is also available for people on a BlackBerry or a Palm OS or Windows Mobile device, through MobiTV.

Alternatively, sports fans can also hook themselves up with a SlingMedia Slingbox and redirect any program coming through their television to their smartphone device - including NBC's coverage of the Olympics.
The Slingbox, however, is the only option with an extra up front cost (for both the box and the mobile software), and is available on Windows Mobile, Symbian S60, and Palm OS devices.

written by SmartPhoneWizard \\ tags: 2008 Olympics, 2008 Summer Olympics, Blackberry, Google, MobiTV, NBC, Olympics, Palm, Palm OS, Slingbox, SlingMedia, Symbian S60, Windows Mobile

In this face of broad-sweeping success with their HTC Touch Pro and HTC Touch Diamond series handsets, the smartphone maker has announced that they are still on course to release their first (and possibly the first) Google Android OS powered device by the fourth quarter of this year.

Expected to be called the HTC Dream, the new smartphone from HTC flies in the face of recent rumors about possible delays in the launching of any Google Android powered smartphone.

Promised to bear both a large touchscreen and a complete, slide-out or swivel-out QWERTY keyboard, the HTC Dream will be about 5” long and 3” wide with controls for online navigation placed on the handset itself, beneath the touchscreen.

The HTC Dream is readying to face its biggest competition, at least initially, from Samsung, which seems poised to put out the 2nd Google Android smartphone to be scheduled for release (with Motorola not far behind).

written by SmartPhoneWizard \\ tags: Google, Google Android, HTC, HTC Dream, HTC Touch Diamond, HTC Touch Pro, Motorola, QWERTY, Samsung, touchscreen

The CEO of Symbian, the company, producer of Symbian, the operating system, OS for such popular smartphones as the LG Joy, Motorola MOTORIZR Z8, Samsung SGH series, several Sony Ericsson smartphones, and dozens of Nokia smartphones, has suggested that collaboration with search giant Google, and makers of the long-awaited (by users) and feared (by competitors) Android mobile OS, would be more than welcome by him.

Avoiding specifics as to whether the releationship would remain in the realm of applications or venture into OS territory, chief Symbian-ite Nigel Clifford points out that Google and Symian have already been working closely together for a while now, mainly on search and mapping applications for Nokia smartphones.

It would be quite difficult for the two to merge their operating systems, so the likes of RIM and Apple don’t have too much to be nervous about, but the mutual back-scratching of the two giants in their respective industries leaves a lot for fellow partners Motorola, LG, Samsung, and others a lot to be excited about. Only time will tell however, what such a collaborative venture will produce.

written by SmartPhoneWizard \\ tags: Android, apple, Google, LG, Motorola, Nokia, RIM, Samsung, Symbian