The unveiling of the Samsung Moment is definitely the biggest handset announcement at the Fall CTIA conference in San Diego. With an Android OS, AMOLED technology and a beefy processor, the handset definitely piqued my interest and I was curious to see how it stacked up to other Android offerings.
Motorola's entry into the Android game, the Motorola Cliq, is coming just in time for the holidays. The Cliq will be available to existing T-Mobile customers October 19 and everybody else on November 2. The $US200 pricetag is comparable to the iPhone 3GS, but $20 more than Sprint's HTC Hero (also an Android phone) and $100 more than the Palm Pre. With less expensive options out there, will the Cliq shake up the competition?
We all knew it was coming. When Steve Jobs said that there was "one more thing" at Apple's Rock and Roll event, I don't think anyone in the Yerba Buena theater was surprised when he announced that the new iPod nanos would have video recording.
INQ Mobile stopped by PC World's offices last week to show off their new Chat 3G and Mini handsets. INQ Mobile is a relatively new mobile company based in the UK and previously only had one phone on their roster, the INQ 1. But this is a company to watch: INQ phones offer smartphone-like features at an inexpensive price point. And, according to Co-Founder Jeff Taylor, the new INQ phones will be available in the US in 2010.
When I first got my hands on the WiMax-enabled Samsung Mondi back in April at CTIA, I was impressed by its slick design, polished TouchWiz 2 interface and multitude of applications.
While Google Chrome OS is the hottest news right now, Google's Android OS is still revving to invade the smartphone market. At the T-Mobile myTouch 3G launch event in New York City this morning, T-Mobile execs announced that the T-Mobile myTouch 3G is available for online pre-orders starting today. Delivery is guaranteed by August 5.
Apple Stores around the world will open their doors at 7 a.m. local time to accommodate eager shoppers who want to be the first to get their hands on the new iPhone 3G S. The stores will open 1 hour earlier than the company had previously announced at last week's Apple WWDC keynote. AT&T stores in the U.S will open at 7 a.m. as well, but only for existing customers who preordered the phone; everyone else will have to wait for AT&T's regular opening time of 10 a.m.
On paper, the Nokia looks as if it could rival the other big phones of this summer, the Palm Pre, the Apple iPhone 3G S, and HTC's Android-based Magic. It has more memory than the other three, supports a wide range of multimedia files, and has a large touchscreen and a full QWERTY keyboard. But the N97 falls short of its potential, largely because the operating system it uses--the Symbian S60 5th Edition--lacks the refinement of other OSs. Still, the N97 impresses in certain areas, particularly audio and video.
The Palm Pre and the Apple iPhone 3G S are the smartphone standouts of 2009, but they're not the only news. Operating systems are receiving updates, new devices are debuting, and app stores are growing by the day. Here's what to look for from the six big operating systems in smartphones today.
The Palm Pre might have a slick OS and stylish hardware, but when it comes to apps, it has a long road ahead of it. The Apple iPhone OS has the largest (more than 35,000 apps now) and most comprehensive native app store of any mobile operating system. And if Palm wants WebOS and the Pre to challenge Apple's smartphone juggernaut, it's going to have to step up its apps game. But Palm's App Catalog shows a lot of promise: Its design makes navigating and shopping for apps from the Pre easy, and many of the apps take full advantage of WebOS's best features.
Finally: The Palm Pre has a confirmed availability date and price tag attached to it. iPhone Killer, Palm's Hail Mary, or a complete flop--we'll finally see what the hype is all about.
Most of the smartphones we saw at CES were updated versions of older models. But the new Palm Pre (and its webOS) was a breath of fresh air--and it definitely stole the show.
One of the many smart-phone rumors that have been floating around prior to this year's CES is that T-Mobile will unveil the G2, the successor to the Google Android-based G1. People have speculated that the HTC Touch HD, already available overseas, will be rebranded for the United States as the next Android phone. But so far the only new HTC phone announced at CES is a Windows Mobile phone, the HTC S743.
Samsung announced that it is breaking out its LED-backlit HDTVs into their own line, called Luxia.
Bicycles at a consumer electronics show? You bet. But Schwinn's Tailwind is no ordinary cycle: It's a hybrid bicycle, which can be ridden the old-fashioned way, powered by its pedals, or in motor-assist mode. So if you live in a hill-ridden city like San Francisco, you can get an extra boost getting up those arduous inclines.