SmartPhones

Armani phone anyone? No, we're completely serious! Ask Steve Ballmer, Microsoft pres.

The unlikely newcomer on the high-tech scene is a high-fashion inspired Samsung smartphone called the Samsung B6720. Just announced last week, the Samsung B6720 will be running on the latest mobile OS from Microsoft, Windows Mobile 6.5 (or WinMo 6.5 for short). But that's not what's such a big deal about it.

The big deal is that there at the official unveiling was none other than world-renowned fashion designer Giorgio Armani whose name and stylistic seal of approval marks the B6720, a high-end smartphone for high-end Armani types. Thus $1,032 price tag.

So this is more an interest story than a practical product announcement for most people (as who can afford to spend over a grand on a phone: or 700 Euros?), but interesting it is indeed. What would an Armani phone look and feel like exactly?

Well, it looks like a slider phone, with a candybar 3.5" AMOLED touchscreen design and a slide-out tilt-screen QWERTY keyboard. It's got 8 gigs of internal memory (plus a microSD card slot for as much as 32 gigs of expandable memory), a video player, 5 megapixel digital camera, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth connectivity, TV-out, an FM radio, a built-in GPS...and of course the status symbol of the king fashion plate GIORGIO ARMANI name emblazoned on its crest.

At the unveiling, the smartphone was introduced as a high-class feature-filled business smartphone for today's business managers. Taking that into consideration, the photos of Steve Ballmer standing beside Giorgio Armani standing beside a Samsung B7620 may actually sell a few of these things after all.

written by SmartPhoneWizard \\ tags: B6720, Giorgio Armani, Microsoft, Samsung, Windows Mobile, WinMo 6.5

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The Director of the Microsoft Mobile Team Unit for the Greater China region announced the other day that 15 smartphone developers will be releasing over 30 new smartphones by the end of this year that will be running on the upcoming and long-await Windows Mobile OS upgrade - Windows Mobile 6.5.

Among those 15 develops that have Windows Mobile 6.5 smartphone launches on the near horizon are: Acer, HP, HTC, LG, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, or Toshiba. Among the wireless service carriers that are on-board to carry many of these devices are the big 3 - Sprint, Verizon, and T-Mobile.

As we mentioned in an earlier post, among the first of these 30 new Windows Mobile 6.5 smartphones to come out will be several from HTC, including the HTC Touch 2 and HTC Tilt 2 (said to be the WinMo equivalent of the TouchPro 2), as well as the Sony Ericsson Xperia2. Following shortly on their heels will be 3 from LG and a WinMo revamped line of Samsung Omnia devices.

What is there to look forward to in the new WinMo update? Home screen widgets, Internet Explorer 6.5, Flash Lite support for IE 6.5, and My Phone, an online file synchronization service.

The official Windows Mobile 6.5 launch date is October 6. People who already have smartphones running Windows Mobile 6.1 will be able to update their OS to WinMo 6.5 at that time with a software patch. And WinMo 6.5 will also be available for sale at the Windows Marketplace app store.

written by SmartPhoneWizard \\ tags: HTC, Microsoft, Omnia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Tilt 2, Touch 2, TouchPro 2, Windows Marketplace, Windows Mobile, WinMo 6.5, Xperia X2

The Acer F1 is almost here. The second Acer Snapdragon smartphone, a 3G and 3G+ (HSDPA) Windows Mobile based smartphone (running WinMo 6.5), will be released on October 6, the same day Microsoft will be releasing Windows Mobile 6.5 - and pre-orders for the F1 (for U.K. residents) are being taken now.

The Acer F1 features a 3.8" TFT WVGA touchscreen with a motion accelerometer, a 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and flash, and built-in FM radio, 3.5 mm headphone jack, Wi-Fi, and GPS. The device also comes with Microsoft's latest mobile web browser upgrade, Internet Explorer Mobile 6.

As for memory, the Acer F1 will come with only 256 MB out of the box, but a microSD card slot supporting as much as 32 GB is built-in. The included Lithium-ion 1350 mAh battery is reported to hold power for about 5 hours of talk-time and 400 hours of standby time.

Snapdragon is the state-of-the-art Qualcomm 8250 1GHz processor.

written by SmartPhoneWizard \\ tags: 3G, Acer, F1, Internet Explorer Mobile 6, Microsoft, Snapdragon, Windows Mobile, WinMo 6.5

Microsoft has just revealed that the latest version of Windows Mobile is slated for release on October 6, and HTC has just revealed that the first smartphone device to be released running WinMo 6.5, will be the HTC Touch 2. Shortly thereafter, Sony Ericsson will release its first ever WinMo phone, using this new Windows Mobile 6.5, the Xperia X2. And sometime before the twelve days of Christmas are out, LG will have 3 WinMo 6.5 smartphones out (among its 13 new devices promised by New Year's), 2 of those devices sure to be the LG GW550 and the LG GM750.

The new Windows Mobile 6.5 will include a new and improved Internet Explorer Mobile web browser that includes Flash support (something even the iPhone can't yet claim). WinMo 6.5 also features the Microsoft My Phone back-up service, immensely popular in Beta and finally taken out of Beta for full release for the first time. And WinMo 6.5 it will include the long-awaited Windows Marketplace for Moble app store.

But more than anything, this is an OS improvement, as Microsoft attempts to regain some serious ground lost to rivals RIM, Google, and Apple. For a more feature-filled upgrade, stay tuned for WinMo 7.0. It's biggest and best improvement - perhaps - no more need for the stylus. Windows Mobile 6.5 is "finger friendly" they say.

Meanwhile, a quote released by one of Motorola's senior engineers (ironic because Motorola has all but proposed to Google Android) suggests that WinMo 7.0 is already in manufacturer's hand in Beta. ,Supposedly according to LinkedIn leaks, Windows Mobile 7.0 will include a Microsoft Mobile version of Internet Explorer 7.0 or even 8.0, as well as a digital compass, an accelerometer, Nickname Cache, and Windows Live ID, among others.

written by SmartPhoneWizard \\ tags: Christmas, GM750, GW550, HTC, LG, Microsoft, Sony Ericsson, Touch2, Windows Mobile, WinMo 6.5, WinMo 7.0, Xperia 2

While the mainstream press is focused on the new Microsoft-Yahoo deal, we'd like to talk about the Microsoft-Nokia deal: in particular, what will it do for smartphones?

For one, it will bring a Microsoft Office enterprise version to Symbian smartphones. Plus new Nokia devices will ship with Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile built in. Also, the new team-up plans to use Exchange ActiveSync to optimize corporate customers' data access.

But in the live teleconference call yesterday in which the partnership was announced, a Microsoft exec professed that this was by no means all there was to the arrangement.

In a much larger context, Microsoft hopes to dislodge RIM and its Blackberry from its domination of the mobile enterprise market. Plus, Microsoft is eager to benefit from Nokia's 200 million subscriber base while Nokia is eager to benefit from Microsoft's U.S. presence.

Strange, though, is that Microsoft's Windows Mobile OS and Nokia's Symbian mobile OS will still compete with one another in the platform wars.

written by SmartPhoneWizard \\ tags: ActiveSync, Blackberry, enterprise, Exchange, Microsoft, Nokia, Office, RIM, Symbian, Windows Mobile

It was last November that Google announced their entry into the smartphone OS battle (alongside Symbian, RIM BlackBerry OS, Microsoft Windows Mobile, and of course the inimitable iPhone) but we have yet to see the first Google Android smartphone on the market. Well that is soon about to change.

A British chip maker named ARM has released a prototype of its unbranded handset running the Google Android operating system, equipped with:

• email (provided by Gmail)
• text messaging
• multimedia apps
• internet browser (with Google as the default home page)
• Google Calendar functionality
• GoogleMaps software

Meanwhile, Google's own engineering director has unveiled an Android smartphone prototype as well, this the Google branded GPhone. While Google won't be manufacturing the GPhones itself, it aims to design the basic handset in such a way that manufacturers of all capacities can still deliver a quality, Google-worthy product. The first of these looks to pack the equivalent power of the iPhone into a smaller, tighter package (and that includes the screen size).

The first Google Android smartphones are expected to hit markets later in the year.

written by SmartPhoneWizard \\ tags: Android, ARM, BB OS, Blackberry, British, Gmail, Google, GoogleCalendar, GoogleMaps, iphone, Microsoft, RIM, Symbian, text messaging, Windows Mobile

Don't you just hate sitting in traffic? Don't you wish there was a way to avoid getting stuck in a traffic jam, a way to check up on the real-time road conditions, on demand, on the roads you're planning travel? Well, Microsoft has heeded your call!

At the company's Microsoft Research India facilities, researchers are working on just such a solution.

With its promised new software solution for smartphones, TrafficSense, Microsoft will enable Windows Mobile smartphone users to get an up-to-the-minute traffic report on any route they want to know about, whenever they need to know it. How it plans to compile this information is an interesting subject.

The application will aggregate traffic information from other Windows Mobile smartphone users and disseminate that data to those supported users querying road conditions at that time, in their area. Plainly put, if you're a TrafficSense user, then whenever you get in your car to go somewhere, a piece of software inside your smartphone will relay the route you took and the traffic conditions along them to a central database from which others could query those same road conditions for their routes.

Sadly, we sense a potential privacy concern at risk here. Would you join? Let us know.

written by SmartPhoneWizard \\ tags: Microsoft, road conditions, traffic, TrafficSense, travel, Windows Mobile

That's right, there's a new smartphone coming to market - two actually - and they're not from Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, Palm, RIM, nor any of the familiar old diehards - not even Apple. No, this one is from Velocity Mobile.

Who? That's what I said.  

Formed by Invantec and some folks from Microsoft, this new dialer in the great, big smartphone conference call in the wireless skies is set to give its forerunners a run for their money. With the new Velocity 111 (which looks a lot like a BlackBerry) and Velocity 103 (which looks a lot like an iPhone), Velocity plans to improve on what's been working so well for its competitors and getting rid of all that doesn't meet up. It will have more icons and interfaces familiar to Windows PC-users and promises to be the most customizable smartphone yet.  

As might be expected, both devices will be running Windows Mobile 6.1.

written by SmartPhoneWizard \\ tags: apple, Blackberry, customizable, Invantec, iphone, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, Palm, PC, Research in Motion, RIM, Samsung, Velocity Mobile, Windows, Windows Mobile 6.1

The ASUS P735 is a Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.0 Pocket PC 3G smartphone. With tools and features for both the professional user and the general consumer, the P735 is bundled with an impressive combination of multimedia features and productivity tools.

For example, its multimedia features include:

• Dual camera
• Video calling
• Total multimedia playback
• Business card reader

And its productivity tools include the deft and dexterous ASUS Remote Presenter app that allows users to access and manage Microsoft PowerPoint presentations from your PC, as well as a meeting planner capable of scheduling teleconferencing across three time zones.

The ASUS P735 lacks GPS or HSDPA, but it does operate on GPRS Class 10 networks. It has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity as well as a miniSD card slot for extra data storage.

The look and feel of the ASUS P735 resembles the Apple iPhone with a large screen dominating the face of the smartphone, though it has a few other buttons surrounding its primary, multipurpose button. A touch screen smartphone, the P735 has no keyboard or numeric keypad.

written by SmartPhoneWizard \\ tags: 3G, apple, ASUS, ASUS P735, Bluetooth, GPRS, GPRS Class 10, GPS, hsdpa, iphone, Microsoft, Microsoft Windows, miniSD card, miniSD card slot, multimedia, Pocket PC, Remote Presenter, touch screen, touchscreen, Wi-Fi, Wifi, Windows, Windows Mobile, Windows Mobile 6

Research in Motion (RIM) has now released a new software package for the BlackBerry for use in small and medium sized businesses. BlackBerry Professional Software, as it’s called, is primed to be a big hit, available for instant download by IT Managers with Administrator capabilities for email servers of companies using either Microsoft Exchange or IBM Lotus Domino.

BlackBerry Professional Software comes bundled with a huge number of features and functionalities, far too numerous to list here, but with some of the most exciting utilities and capabilities including:

• selecting which company smartphones have browser access and restricting which sites can and cannot be viewed
• limiting long-distance calling to only approved numbers
• defining automated backup schedules

BlackBerry Professional Software has been put together so as to be simple to install and manage, with all sorts of step-by-step wizards at your disposal, as well as advanced security features (like end-to-end AES or triple DES encryption) and IT policies and commands (for imposing lockdown, wiping data, and defining and enforcing security protocols such as for using Bluetooth and voice calling).

written by SmartPhoneWizard \\ tags: AES, Blackberry, BlackBerry Professional Software, Bluetooth, DES, encryption, IBM, IBM Lotus Domino, IT, IT Manager, Microsoft, Microsoft Exchange, Research in Motion, RIM, security, voice calling