Day: February 11, 2010

“Sony Ericsson is an alliance of two tech giants and with phones like the Vivaz it shows. It’s a gadget all the way, one that will galvanize geeks and charm the regular user.A whole bunch of point-and-shoot cameras today boast 720p video recording, but are they not an endangered species feeling enormous pressure on both sides? For one, there are compact video recording DSLRs pushing down with competitive price tags, and then cameraphones are eating into compact camera territory with comparable still image resolution and video capture.Eight megapixel still images and 720p video with continuous auto focus make the Sony Ericsson Vivaz a predator of point-and-shoot cameras. The Vivaz is not just a cameraphone though, it’s a smartphone as well – a tricked out Symbian running on a 720MHz CPU with a 3.2” nHD display to show it all off. That’s all in a package more compact than any combination of a stand-alone camera and a phone you can think of.High-end smartphones have a long history of trading compact size for cramming in one feature more than the competition. The Sony Ericsson Vivaz strikes a perfect balance between being compact and feature-full – great news for anyone who doesn’t appreciate the recent craze of smartphones the size of a table… umm… tablet.” Read more here:

“The A50 brings premium navigation features to the Android operating system, offering users a seamless location based experience along with access to the wealth of applications that the platform affords,” said Benson Lin, vice president and general manager of ASUS’ personal mobile devices business unit, handheld business group.“Garmin-Asus, a co-branded alliance between Garmin Ltd, and ASUSTeK Computer Inc, today announced the Garmin-Asus nüvifone A50, a touchscreen Android-powered smartphone with multiple location technologies and apps. The A50 benefits from the personalization and enhanced features offered by the Android platform, and also includes Garmin navigation with turn-by-turn, voice prompted directions for use in a car or while walking. Location features are designed into virtually every function including email, text messaging, and photos. The A50 will be on display at the Garmin-Asus booth at Mobile World Congress, February 15-18, 2010.“Location is relevant to everything you do,” said Cliff Pemble, Garmin’s president and COO. “The A50 integrates navigation and GPS functionality throughout the device, which gives customers the versatility and reliability they need as they navigate their day.”The elegant and thin A50 has a 3.5-inch HVGA capacitive touchscreen display that incorporates a finger-friendly user interface. The QWERTY touchscreen keyboard makes it easy to send and receive messages, and predictive text helps customers type faster. It also comes with hardware features like 4GB internal storage, an expandable microSD card slot, and accelerometer so every screen can be viewed in portrait or landscape mode.

Access to thousands of applications

The A50 integrates Google™ mobile services with one-click access to Google Search™ by voice, Google Maps™, Gmail™, YouTube™, calendar, contacts and Android Market™, where users can find more than 20,000 applications to expand and personalize their phone to fit their lifestyle.

Powerful enterprise email capability

The A50 includes on-device sync with Microsoft Exchange server, with the ability to wirelessly synchronize contacts, calendar and enterprise email. Account setup is quick and easy, and in a few simple steps users will have their contacts, calendar and email ready to go.

High-sensitivity GPS receivers with Garmin navigation

The A50 receives its location (latitude and longitude) information from multiple sources including satellite, network-based and terrestrial sources. These overlapping technologies ensure that A50 customers have the best location and navigation experience a smartphone can offer.

Garmin navigation is included and preloaded on the A50. Because maps are installed on the device, customers will not have to wait for third party maps to download from a server, nor will they lose their turn-by-turn, voice-prompted navigation if they are out of cell phone coverage. The A50 also has many of the same features as a high-end Garmin nüvi® navigation device such as lane assist with junction view that guides drivers to the correct lane for an approaching turn or exit and realistically displays road signs. Ready for pedestrian or automotive navigation out-of-the-box, the A50 includes a custom Garmin car mount and vehicle power cable.

The A50 also supports cityXplorer™ maps so that customers can plan and use routes that include public transit options such as bus, tramway, metro and suburban rail systems. cityXplorer content is available as an optional download for select cities. Thanks to the A50’s e-compass, customers will know their heading even when standing still.

In addition to Android Market, the A50 has preloaded, apps through Garmin-Asus’ connected services, which includes real-time, location-relevant information like weather, traffic, fuel prices, safety cameras, flight status. Connected services information varies by country.

Customers also have access to Street View in Google Maps and 3D landmark images.

Surf the web

With a powerful, multi-touch capable WebKit browser, the A50 allows users to browse the web at quick speeds and view streaming content. In addition, it automatically identifies location information embedded within web pages allowing the user to quickly navigate to the locations published on the world-wide web.

Take quality photos

The A50 includes a three mega-pixel camera with auto-focus that automatically geotags images with an exact latitude and longitude reference of where the photo was taken. Customers may then save the image so they can navigate back to the location, or email the geo-tagged image to friends.

Availability

The Garmin-Asus nüvifone A50 is expected to be available in Europe in the first half of 2010. Specific availability and pricing details will be given in the future. Additional information about Garmin-Asus products is available at www.GarminAsus.com.

“Garmin-Asus, a co-branded alliance between Garmin Ltd., and ASUSTeK Computer Inc, today announced the Garmin-Asus M10, a full-touch, all-in-one smartphone powered by the latest version of Windows Mobile from Microsoft Corp. The M10 keeps professionals connected with business and personal contacts, email, calendar and IM, in addition to featuring preloaded mobile navigation from Garmin. The M10 is expected to be available through carrier and retail channels in Asia and Europe in the first half of 2010. The M10 will be on display at the Garmin-Asus exhibit at Mobile World Congress, February 15-18, 2010.“The Garmin-Asus M10 is our answer to people’s need for work-life balance. The M10 runs Windows Mobile, making it the ideal smartphone for business use, while its smart navigation capabilities, comprehensive social networking features and connected services enable users to lead a truly smart lifestyle. The M10 is the phone for the new Smart era.” said Benson Lin, Vice President and General Manager of ASUS’ Personal Mobile Devices Business Unit, Handheld Business Group.“The Garmin-Asus M10 is a powerful time-saving tool that is designed for anyone who is tired of carrying numerous devices and instead wants to carry one device that gives them many of the same features found on a stand-alone phone, laptop, PND and digital camera,” said Cliff Pemble, Garmin’s president and COO.The Garmin-Asus M10 runs the latest version of Windows Mobile. Windows Mobile 6.5.3 features upgrades that enhance user experience and provides access to Windows Marketplace for Mobile, which offers a vast number of Windows phone applications for download.“Windows phones move seamlessly from work to play, creating new experiences through a variety of hardware, applications and services,” said Andy Lees, senior vice president of Mobile Communication Business at Microsoft. “We are pleased to work closely with Garmin-Asus to bring to market Windows phones based on the latest version of Windows phone today and look forward to our work bringing more Windows phones to market in the future.”The M10 has a sleek design with a 3.5-inch WVGA display and a finger-friendly user interface. The Billboard feature displays the most important information so users can review all at one glance. An intuitive 3D Task Manager also allows users to switch easily between running applications. Keeping the phone responsive and the navigation smooth are 512 RAM and 512 ROM, while 4GB of Flash memory provides ample storage for multimedia and data.The M10 is equipped with a 1500 mAh battery for hours of uninterrupted use, as well as a full QWERTY soft keyboard for speedy text input. HSDPA wireless connectivity and Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g) ensure that messages are sent and received quickly. In addition, the M10 can be synched to Microsoft Exchange so that contacts, calendars and emails are always available and secure.

‘Click and Go’ Navigation

Recognizing that location is relevant to every aspect of every day, the Garmin-Asus M10 is designed with location information at its core and it delivers the most advanced location experience on a Windows phone. Navigation functions are linked to frequently used applications such as calendar, contacts, email, internet browser, and messaging; making an exceptionally intuitive and smooth navigation experience.

The M10 has advanced navigation features equivalent to a high-end Garmin nüvi® such as lane assist with junction view that guides drivers to the correct lane for an approaching turn or exit and realistically displays road signs. It also has highway mode that tells drivers the next three upcoming street exits so they can plan ahead*. The M10 is ready for automotive navigation out-of-the-box, and it includes everything a customer needs to use the device in a car, including a powered cradle and windshield mount*.

Ushering in a Connected Lifestyle

The Garmin-Asus M10 boasts a range of social capabilities, including access to Facebook™ and Picasa Web Albums™. It also places real-time information on connected services* such as weather, safety cameras, traffic, flight status, and fuel prices at users’ fingertips. In addition, the M10 is equipped with a high performance five mega-pixel camera that automatically geotags photos so that users will always know where they were taken and can easily share them with friends via Facebook and Picasa.

Availability

The Garmin-Asus nüvifone M10 is expected to be available through carriers and retail distribution channels in Asia and Europe beginning in the first half of 2010. Journalists should contact Garmin-Asus media representatives to arrange product demonstrations or interviews. Additional information about the nüvifone product line is available at www.GarminAsus.com.

“Samsung’s long (oh so long) awaited i8910 HD firmware update has just been released. Firmware JB1 is now online via PC Studio 7, as the screenshot below shows. Improvements include kinetic scrolling in most (but not all) parts of the interface, major improvements to Web, faster operation and many bug fixes. Comments welcome if you notice something else new. As ever with these i8910 HD updates, there’s no Nokia style User Data Preservation, so back up fully and be prepared to put all your data back and then reinstall all add-on applications. [If, like mine, your unbranded i8910 HD came with Italian as the default language, note that you’ll have to pick ‘Regno Unito’ as your location, followed by Settings/Phone/Language (obvious, despite the language differences) etc.
Changelog:

• Kinetic scrolling in more parts of the interface (but not in the main Applications menu – behaviour here is unchanged and similar to that in Nokia’s 5800, for example)
• The Next Gen (NG) version of Web: (faster, full-screen automatically)
• (alleged) Camera and video recording settings improvements
• Bux fixes throughout (no doubt)

Sadly, Samsung has made worse the already critical lack of flash memory on disk C: By default, you now only get 17MB free after the update/reset. This is utterly ridiculous and is a huge impediment to power users while causing potential chaos for inexperienced users. If I remember rightly, the previous firmware allowed the user some 30MB or so free, so things just got dramatically worse. Quite understandably, Symbian OS starts to complain if it’s got less than 10MB of workspace free for temporary files (e.g. web cache) – starting with 17MB free is just Stupid with a capital ‘S’. And galling, in view of the fact that skilled hackers elsewhere in the world have managed to cook up i8910 HD firmwares (don’t ask how) which have up to 100MB free. Samsung, you dropped the ball here.” via allaboutsymbian.com