Author: pdasnews

“A year ago our readers had a chance to take a closer look at the first handset, featuring a 5 mpix camera – particularly it was Samsung SCH-S250. Today we’re offering you one more review of another device with 5 mpix camera onboard – this time manufactured by LG. This very model has a number of indexes, e.g. LG SV550 – non-operator index, and the mobile operators gave it the name of LG KV5500, LG LP5500 (LG TeleCom). The core difference between the latter two devices is the menu’s appearance and the label itself, but not the functionality. Since the version we are currently reviewing has been released for LG Telecom mobile operator, we will accordingly use LG LP5500 index.” Read this great review at mobile-review.

P901iTV, in black(Click to enlarge)Panasonic is shipping a Linux-based mobile handset capable of receiving digital or analog television. The “P901iTV” features a pivoting 2.5-inch color LCD, and works with NTT DoCoMo’s 3G network in Japan. Digital TV services will launch in Japan this spring, DoCoMo says.Panasonic jointly developed its Linux mobile phone stack with NEC, which also supplies phones for NTT DoCoMo’s 3G networks. Panasonic (Matsushita) and NEC have both invested in MontaVista, and use its Linux OS in a variety of mobile phone designs, such as the new dual-mode 902-series DoCoMo phones. DoCoMo is also a MontaVista investor. The P901iTV runs MontaVista Linux, a MontaVista spokesman confirmed.NTT DoCoMo says the P901iTV is its first mobile handset to receive terrestrial digital broadcasting signals, as well as conventional analog signals. It says the phone was created “in response to the planned launch of mobile digital broadcasting in April 2006.”The P901iTV features a 2.5-inch QVGA (320 x 240 pixel) TFT (thin-film transistor) LCD supporting 262K colors. The display actuates the TV receiver when it is pivoted sideways, and the display can also be twisted and folded open against the rest of the wallet-like phone. Panasonic claims that up to three hours of continuous digital TV viewing is possible, or up to one hour of analog TV viewing. More at linuxdevices.com

Imagine that you are heading out the door one morning. You check for your stuff – keys, wallet, bag or purse, and cell phone. If you’re traveling light, that’s probably about it. The daily essentials. If you have a cell phone you’re sure to bring it along. And, if you have the Nokia N70 you’ll be bringing along a lot more than you might imagine. Watch this Nokia N70 video review here. From slashphone.com via dlmag.com

“Main event of the exhibition for communicators and smartphones market was Palm’s announcement of new operating system based on Linux core. Another surprise was large amount of new models based on Windows Mobile and Symbian. We knew about most of new communicators before their official announcement at the congress due to numbers of leaks, but Palm’s new OS became something truly new, especially since it was announced during Day 2, when most people left hope for something new after Day 1.” Check out this great article at mobile-review to learn all about the new models at 3GSM!

The new Minimo is here. That would be the latest version of the Mozilla open source browser for handhelds. It’s Version 013, and it works on smartphones and PDS that are running Windows Mobile.Building on the success of its larger-screen cousins, it offers tabs for multiple open pages and a left-side screen bar with direct links to Google, RSS sites, and other popular Web destinations. A new interface completes the facelift, which is available for free download at the Mozilla website.Some industry observers have commented that the offering won’t make much of an impact in terms of dollars and cents because the number of people running devices powered by Windows Mobile is still rather small. Given the marketing muscle of Microsoft, however, that figure seems likely to rise. The Minimo update is, however, the next step in graduation from PC Web access to full-scale mobile Web access. Check it here: via mobilemag.com

British Sky Broadcasting (Sky) and Symbian announced that BSkyB selected Symbian OS for Sky by mobile, the interactive application which puts the UK’s leading digital TV service into the hands of millions of mobile phone users. Symbian develops Symbian OS, the market-leading open mobile operating system for advanced mobile phones, also known as smartphones, which is licensed to the world’s leading handset manufacturers. Sky by mobile, offers Sky digital and Sky Bet customers an value-added way to access Sky on the move at no extra cost. Once downloaded from Sky by mobile onto an appropriate 2.5G or 3G Symbian OS phone, users are presented with a viewing guide with the same look and feel as the Sky Guide, Sky’s electronic programme guide. The Symbian OS application offers a range of TV content, including sports, entertainment, news and weather and provides access to a wide range of interactive services including personalised news, sports headlines and ‘on the fly’ betting for Sky Bet account holders. In order to handle this large volume of real-time multimedia content in an effective way the application was developed using native C++ on Symbian OS to ensure the best user experience possible without compromising quality. Symbian’s market leading position underpinned Sky’s decision to select Symbian OS as the platform on which to develop its Sky by mobile application. As of Q3 2005, 13 handset manufacturers had shipped 48 million Symbian OS phones to over 250 major networks worldwide. Gartner forecasts that by the end of 2006 smartphone sales will reach 87m with Symbian OS owning 83% of the market share at 72 million. Sky by mobile is free to Sky digital customers in the UK and Republic of Ireland who subscribe to two or more premium channels or who have a registered Sky Bet account. via phonemag.com

What’s new in iLauncher 2.3? * Captions Support * D-Pad navigation support * Look and Feel Customization * New Menu Replacement * iLauncher Settings Enhancements * Context Menu Enhancements * New True VGA hack option This option is intended for VGA devices only! * Additional Meters Path Selection * Command-line parameter support * Installer Changes * Fullscreen Mode Changes * Bug fixes and other enhancements Read more here:

According to market sources, Sony plans to release a version of its PSP (PlayStation Portable) using NAND flash from Samsung Electronics in the second half of this year. The PSP will feature 8GB of NAND flash, the sources stated.Although recent reports stated that Sony would opt not to use NAND flash in the next version of its PSP, and would instead use a microdrive, the sources indicated that Sony was stalling to negotiate better pricing from Samsung.When rumors circulated on February 16 that negotiations had broken down between Sony and Samsung, spot prices for 1Gbit and 2Gbit NAND flash dropped 5.3% and 3% in one day, according to the Chinese-language Economic Daily News (EDN).Deutsche Bank was also cited by the report as commenting that the failure of Samsung and Sony to reach a supply agreement will suppress NAND flash prices further and push oversupply to 10% this year.According to data from DRAMeXchange, 8Gbit spot prices have fallen from US$39 to US$34 since Chinese New Year, while prices for 4Gbit parts have fallen from US$23.36 to US$16.60 From digitimes.com via engadget.com

AT&T Inc. and Yahoo Inc. are launching a service that lets people use Cingular mobile phones to get access to their photos, e-mail, instant messaging and address books on their Yahoo accounts, AT&T said on Tuesday.The AT&T Yahoo Go Mobile service is part of the Yahoo Go brand, the Internet media company’s push to make its services available to users on a variety of devices from mobile phones to televisions.”It’s the first kind of baby steps toward this whole concept of an anytime-anywhere device,” said Matt Davis, director of consumer multiplay services at IDC, a market research firm in Framingham, Massachusetts. The phone also includes an MP3 music player and a digital voice recorder.Go Mobile, which will be available on the Nokia 6682 mobile phone, will be sold online, in AT&T’s 13-state service area and at some Cingular Wireless stores in Austin, Texas; Columbus, Ohio; and Los Angeles. Cingular, the nation’s largest wireless company, is jointly owned by AT&T and BellSouth Corp..The phone costs $199.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate from Nokia with a two-year subscription to a Cingular wireless service plan. AT&T also recommends that customers subscribe to its wireless data service. The unlimited monthly service costs about $19.99 a month, an AT&T spokesman said. via news.yahoo.com

Handango has released their 2005 Year End edition of the Handango Yarkstick, a global report on the state of the mobile content industry. The reports include a 2005 Year End edition as well specific reports for each of the five major mobile operating systems: BlackBerry, Palm OS, Symbian OS and Windows Mobile Pocket PC and Smartphone. Comparing Handango’s 2005 year-end statistics with 2004, the Year End Yardstick reported several new mobile content trends. Surge in Multimedia ContentAlthough mostly absent from the 2004 Yardstick, multimedia was the hot new category for 2005. Overall, multimedia content ranked seventh in the top ten sales by categories. MP3 and music players; DVD/video converters and viewers; ringtone managers and more topped the best sellers lists for each platform. Top titles include Ring Tone Megaplex for BlackBerry, Ringo Pro for Palm OS, Pocket-DVD Studio for Windows Mobile Pocket PC and SmartMovie for Symbian OS. The trend continued with the top search terms. Three of the top ten searches were for multimedia applications. ‘MP3/music’ topped the list in 2005 with 4.94 percent of all searches, ‘ringtones’ ranked fourth with 4.75 percent and ‘DVD/video’ rounded out the top ten with 2.23 percent. Increase in Average Selling PriceThe Yardstick reported an overall increase in the average selling price (ASP) of content, up from $16.96 in 2004 to $20.03 in 2005. Each category also saw an overall increase. The Recognition & Languages and Hobbies categories had the highest ASP at $40.04 and $39.94, respectively. The Medical category — 2004’s highest ASP category — ranked third at $39.34, despite a 50 percent increase from 2004. Personal Finance and Document Management completed the top five at $30.37 and $28.76, respectively. New Phones Adding ContentOnly four of the top ten devices adding content in 2004 — the Palm Treo 600/650, O2 XDA, Sony Ericsson P900/P910 and Palm Tungsten T Series — made this year’s top ten list. The shift highlights the dynamic nature of the market as well as the strength of new devices. New smart devices making the list this year include the Motorola RAZR V3, the BlackBerry 7100 Series and the BlackBerry 7250/7290. The latter were the first BlackBerry smartphones to ever make the top ten list. Palm OS ReportWhile the Palm OS platform boasted more than 2,125 new applications in 2005, this number was down 89 percent year over year. Regarding average selling prices by category, Medical had the highest ASP of all categories at $59.09. Development Tools ranked second at $44.31. For sales by category, the Productivity category generated 21 percent of sales. Combined with Utilities and Business & Professional, the three categories accounted for 47 percent of total sales. The Palm Treo 650 dethroned the Palm Treo 600 as the number one device adding content, pushing it to number two. Other top devices adding content included the Palm Tungsten E, Palm Tungsten T3 and Palm Tungsten T5. The following were the top ten best-selling applications for Palm OS: Agendus Professional Edition Treo Voice Dialing AOL for Treo 650 Agendus Standard Edition PocketMirror Standard Edition Diet & Exercise Assistant SplashID KeySuite SOLITAIRE PACK Ringo Pro You can download the Palm OS Yardstick here. (PDF) Windows Mobile Pocket PCWhile Windows Mobile Pocket PC had the most new applications across all platforms in 2005 with 3,024, like Palm OS, it was also down year over year by 17 percent. For the top ten searches, the term ‘Voice/Voice Command’ ranked as the second most searched term at 3.74 percent, just behind ‘GPS’ at 4.92 percent of searches. Concerning sales by category, Utilities dethroned Productivity, ranking as the number one category with 17 percent of sales. Overall, Utilities, Productivity, Business & Professional and Games accounted for 51 percent of total sales. Software Tools had the second highest ASP across all platforms at $69.99. Hobbies and Medical followed at $49.30 and $39.28, respectively. The top ten Windows Mobile Pocket PC applications were: Spb Pocket Plus Battery Pack Pro Agenda Fusion Pocket-DVD Studio SBSH PocketBreeze Microsoft Voice Command – US Edition Pocket Informant eWallet Pocket Controller-Professional Spb Weather Download the Windows Mobile Pocket PC edition of the Handango Yardstick here. (PDF) You can find reports for BlacBerry, Symbian and Microsoft Smartphone here.