ZiiLabs To Make 1 GHz Android Smartphone?

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Ah, ZiiLabs, makers of the ill-fated but sexy ZiiEgg. Their first big Android device flopped, because no OEM was willing to buy and brand it. The company isn't going to quit there, though. At the Zii Summit 2009 the company is set to unveil a tablet PC, netbook, portable e-reader, and a "phone with fully featured Android platform".

Android and Me states that this new Android smartphone is likely to pack Zii's latest invention, the ZMS-08 CPU. The ZMS-08 is fair competition for NVIDIA's Tegra processor, as well as the Snapdragon processor.

Posted on Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:28:43 CST | by Robert Evans

Samsung Galaxy Spica I5700 Android Smartphone Now Official

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Samsung officially introduced its new Galaxy Spica I5700 smartphone. The handset offers powerful Android features with lots of connectivity and access to Google mobile services. The Spica can access Facebook and MySpace.

The Spica has an 800MHz processor and operates on the HSDPA 3.6Mbps networks and on EDGE/GPRS networks. The handset runs Android 1.5 and has a 3.2-inch HVGA 320 x 480 screen and a 3MP camera. Read more

Posted on Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:00:00 CST | by Shane McGlaun

Dell Confirms Smartphone Plans

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Well, this might qualify as the worst-kept secret of all time. Dell has just confirmed its plans to enter the smartphone category with the Dell Mini 3 Android phone. They state that the phone's first two carriers are China Mobile and Claro, the largest carrier in the Americas. This comes as...absolutely no surprise whatsoever. We've known about the Mini 3 for months now. Michael Dell even confirmed that the phone was being revamped for the U.S.

This announcement, however, didn't mention a U.S., Canadian, or European release. Dell seems to be aiming for two of the biggest carriers on earth right off the bat, which isn't a bad strategy. They're getting their feet in the door with an inexpensive, simple smartphone in an enormous and rapidly expanding market.

Posted on Fri, 13 Nov 2009 09:46:33 CST | by Robert Evans

Fujitsu Makes Smartphone With Modular Pico-Projector

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It's finally happened. Ever since the first ultra-tiny pico-projectors started to hit, I've been waiting to see one stuck on a smartphone. Now, according to Akihabara News, Fujitsu is about to make this wonderful dream a reality. At least for people who live in Japan.

The F-04B is like no smartphone you've ever seen. It's modular, and consists of up to three layers that slide together to make a Bluetooth-connected smartphone sandwich. This device has a display unit with a 3.4" touchscreen and a keyboard unit, each with its own Lithium-Ion battery. The full QWERTY keyboard can be removed, allowing you to use the phone as a thin touchscreen device. On its own, the keyboard acts as a microphone, speaker, and gamepad.

Posted on Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:20:21 CST | by Robert Evans

Samsung To Release New Smartphone OS 'Bada'

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Samsung's mobile division has been going through some tough times lately. Profits are down, and they're watching companies like Apple devour their market share. It's clear that something needs to be done if Samsung is going to survive as a major handset player. They got into the smartphone game too late, and they've yet to put out a release that's grabbed consumer interest in the same way as the iPhone or Droid.

In order to try and gobble up some hype for themselves, Samsung's decided to take a page out of Google's book. They're creating their own open mobile operating system. (Fierce Wireless) This new platform will be called "bada", which means ocean in Korean. Bada is being built to make it simple for developers to create apps for. While the OS will only work on Samsung phones, it will be heavily customizable for carriers.

Posted on Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:51:05 CST | by Robert Evans

Samsung Mythic & Flight Smartphones Launch

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Smartphones, smartphones everywhere. Today Samsung announced the availability of two new TouchWiz packin' smartphones. The Mythic has a 3.3" touchscreen, 3.2 MP camera, AT&T Navigator and stereo Bluetooth capabilities. The Flight has a sliding QWERTY keyboard, touchscreen, 2 MP camera, AT&T Navigator and stereo Bluetooth.

In terms of price, the Mythic costs a baffling $249.99 before a $50 mail-in rebate (if you get a 2 year contract). Warning; this rebate takes the form of a "$50 AT&T Promotional Card". To be entirely honest, you'll get a lot more bang for your buck if you just spend an equal amount of cash on an iPhone.

Posted on Thu, 5 Nov 2009 08:12:03 CST | by Robert Evans

Blackberry Curve 8520 Smartphone Review

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Tbreak published a review of the the Blackberry Curve 8520.
Quote from the review: "The Blackberry Curve 8520 launched by RIM recently is probably the best Blackberry for someone looking to get into the Smartphone/Blackberry market. Read more

Posted on Mon, 2 Nov 2009 16:00:00 CST | by Luigi Lugmayr

Sprint: WiMAX, New Smartphones in 2010

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Sprint's numbers showed some improvement last quarter, but the carrier is still weathering some financial issues. They're losing customers (albeit at a slowed rate) and it's going to take more than some new marketing and the Palm Pre to reverse that trend. Today, in a live chat (via Boy Genius), Sprint executive David Owens talked about how his company intends to get back on the right track.

First off, Sprint will be giving its customers more of what they want. More Android smartphones (mostly from HTC) will be coming soon, and Owens stated that he expects a price decrease for Android smartphones once a significant volume have been sold. Sprint's current Android devices, the Samsung Moment and HTC Hero, are both due for an update soon. For the Hero, this likely means Android 2.0; the Sense UI doesn't work on 1.6, and HTC has confirmed that they are working out a 2.0 release for the Hero.

Posted on Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:06:03 CDT | by Robert Evans

Nokia To Create AT&T Smartphone

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While it is the #1 smartphone and mobile phone manufacturer on the planet, Nokia's US numbers leave a lot to be desired. They're looking to change that fact, though, with a bevy of new releases aimed at attracting American customers to Nokia smartphones. According to VentureBeat, one of those new releases is going to be a smartphone designed for the AT&T carrier. If true, this is big news; the rumored phone is said to have a Qualcomm chip.

Qualcomm does not currently make any chips that support GSM networks. This smartphone with Nokia will be their first foray into that territory. Qualcomm did announce earlier today that they have joined the Symbian Foundation, which makes this rumor a bit easier to believe. It's certainly sensible of Qualcomm to want to hedge their bets between as many different manufacturers as possible.

Posted on Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:55:13 CDT | by Robert Evans

Ericsson Android Smartphone Coming Soon

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Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh. I'm sorry folks, but journalistic detachment is going to take a holiday for this article. All of the tech blogs have been geeking out over the upcoming Ericsson Rachel smartphone since the first news of it leaked a few months back. Now Android and Me brings news of a promo on Sony's website that hints at a November 3 announcement concerning 'Project Rachel'. We don't know yet who will carry the X3, but current rumors hint at T-Mobile.

AndroidGuys has some more detailed information about the new Xperia smartphone. It will run Android 2.0 (d'uh), pack a 1 GHz snapdragon processor, and come with a beastly 8.1 MP camera. It's also set to have 32 GB of internal storage and a 4.1" OLED touchscreen. That's right a 4.1" OLED touchscreen. Are you drooling yet? Because I am.

Posted on Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:34:46 CDT | by Robert Evans

Android Pulse: A Pre-Paid Smartphone

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Usually pre-paid phones mean crappy, off-brand feature phones with very little 'wow' factor. T-Mobile UK appears to be challenging that trend with the new Android Pulse (via Boy Genius). The Pulse will cost around $292 (in USD) and be available as part of T-Mo UK's pre-paid platform.

Posted on Thu, 22 Oct 2009 11:58:32 CDT | by Robert Evans

Asus Android Smartphone: Before 2010?

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Let's get one thing straight right off the bat; the Garmin Asus Nuvifone was not a bad smartphone. It was a decent smartphone that came out in the U.S. 18 months too late. If it had been released much earlier, it would've had some impressive features. As it happened, the Nuvifone ended up going against the 3GS and the Pre and a whole bunch of other smartphones that beat the hell out of it in every conceivable category.

Now then. With that out of the way, we'll turn to the spectre of Asus' mythical Android smartphone. According to chairman Jonney Shih (Digitimes) an Asustek Android smartphone will be revealed before the end of 2009. This news should be taken with a big, heaping grain of salt. We still have yet to see even the faintest glimmer of an Asus Android smartphone in the offing.

Posted on Mon, 19 Oct 2009 10:32:32 CDT | by Robert Evans

Mystery Android Smartphone Spotted

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It seems like there is a new Android smartphone out every time you turn around. Manufacturers are really starting to choose Android more and more often these days. HTC was the first company to put out an Android phone and, according to The Unlockr (via Boy Genius) they've got another Android smartphone on the horizon. Snapshots of this new mystery phone have made it onto the Internet.

Posted on Sun, 18 Oct 2009 05:00:00 CDT | by Robert Evans

Armani Smartphone Officially Unveiled

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Remember that dangerously sexy Armani smartphone that got leaked last week? Well now it's officially been announced. Today Giorgio Armani presented their new $1,032 smartphone to the world. Yes, the price is ridiculously high. That doesn't stop the Armani phone from looking really, really cool.

Posted on Fri, 9 Oct 2009 10:15:54 CDT | by Robert Evans

Sexy Toshiba Smartphones Could Hit Holiday 09

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Windows Mobile 6.5 isn't exactly an exciting OS. It's been panned by reviewers and customers alike for being too little, too late. That said, the release of 6.5 could still herald some very cool things; like Toshiba's new line of WinMo 6.5 smartphones. According to Akihabara News (via Gizmodo) at least one of these slick new Toshiba beauties could be released before the end of 2009.

Both new smartphones, the K01 and the K02, were displayed at CEATEC recently. The K01 is a thin, glossy QWERTY slider with a 4.1" capacitive touchscreen, a 1 GHz processor, and a 3.2 MP camera. The K02 is a clamshell phone with a 3.5" resistive touchscreen, and a second dual screen that might display a touchscreen keyboard.

Posted on Thu, 8 Oct 2009 11:02:36 CDT | by Robert Evans

Why Are 12 New Smartphones Version 2?

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The fall line-up of smartphone has materialized and one crazy thing is that phone makers got hooked on calling their new smartphones version 2. HTC is even going so far as naming a new model a version 2, where there was not a version 1 to begin with, just for consistency I assume. I am talking about the HTC HD2.
Lets take a look at the version 2 smartphones that are available now or coming soon:

HTC HD2
HTC Touch Pro2
HTC Tilt 2 (same as Pro2, but AT&T)
HTC Touch2
HTC Touch Diamond2
BlackBerry Curve 2
BlackBerry Storm 2
BlackBerry Bold 2
Samsung Saga 2
Samsung Omnia 2
Samsung Behold 2
LG Rumor 2

Read more

Posted on Thu, 8 Oct 2009 05:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Eric Schmidt Pictured With Mystery Android Smartphone [Update]

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Earlier today Verizon Wireless and Google announced the forming of a new handset alliance. The announcement was made with great fanfare and a flurry of press shots of executives of the two companies being friendly. One shot in particular caught the perceptive eye of the Boy Genius crew. This photo of Eric Schmidt (on your left) shows the Google CEO holding an unknown Verizon branded device.

It's not clear what the new smartphone is, but from the distant shot we have of it the Android UI is barely intelligible. From the overall shape of the phone, it looks a lot like an HTC manufactured device. Could this be an early version of the smartphone Google and Verizon are working together to create?

Posted on Tue, 6 Oct 2009 12:46:20 CDT | by Robert Evans

Flash Player 10.1 Brings Open Screen Project To All Smartphones besides iPhone

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Adobe made an important announcement today about bringing Flash to smartphones today. Adobe unveiled Adobe Flash Player 10.1 software for smartphones, smartbooks, netbooks, PCs and other Internet-connected devices under the Open Screen Project.
A public developer beta of the browser-based runtime is expected to be available for Windows Mobile, Palm webOS and desktop operating systems including Windows, Macintosh and Linux later this year.

Public betas for Google Android and Symbian OS are expected to be available in early 2010.
In addition, Adobe and RIM announced a joint collaboration to bring Flash Player to Blackberry smartphones, and Google joined close to 50 other industry players in the Open Screen Project initiative. Read more

Posted on Mon, 5 Oct 2009 00:53:20 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

New Acer neoTouch, beTouch Smartphones Leaked

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Acer is new to the smartphone business, but the products they have in the pipe right now look very promising. We've known for a while that the Acer F1 would pack the fabled 1 GHz Snapdragon processor. Now, thanks to Cloveblog (via Electronista we have much more information about this new family of Acer smartphones.

Currently Acer is calling these new phones by internal, pre-release codenames. There's the F1, the C1, E1, and L1, which will be renamed to the neoTouch, beTouch E100, beTouch E101, and the beTouch E200. The neoTouch is definitely the high-end mobile of the group; it's got a 1 GHz Snapdragon processor, 3.8" touchscreen, WinMo 6.5, a 5 MP camera, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, and a microSD slot. It will support quad-band GSM and tri-band HSDPA.

Posted on Sun, 4 Oct 2009 12:30:07 CDT | by Robert Evans

Samsung W8200 Giorgio Armani Smartphone Leaked

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Gadgets today aren't just useful tools and entertainment devices; they're also a fashion statement. That's what Apple built the whole iPod line on, and that's what Samsung is betting on with their latest smartphone project. The handset maker has teamed up with famed fancy suit makers Giorgio Armani to create the latest Armani smartphone. (OpenMobile via Samsung Hub)

You may remember their previous collaboration together. The offspring of that first union was clunky and weird-looking, but with this new smartphone they seem to have gotten it right. The W820 is made of black plastic and burnished gold-colored metal. It has a slim profile, a 3.1" AMOLED touchscreen, a 5 MP camera 'round back, HSDPA, Bluetooth, and up to a 15 GB microSD slot.

Posted on Thu, 1 Oct 2009 10:54:17 CDT | by Robert Evans

LG Pop: Solar-Powered Smartphone

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As my co-workers will tell you, I'm a sucker for solar power. There's just something awesome about having the ability to keep your gear powered anywhere in the world, without worrying about having enough fuel or spare batteries. LG knows that people like me exist, and that's why they've launched the LG Pop (via Electronista) today.

The Pop (it's friends call it GD510) has an aluminium shell and a 3" touchscreen. It has a single-button interface and an optional solar panel on the back. Unfortunately, the Pop is not 3G capable; it can only handle EDGE (2G). That's a bit disappointing, but the rest of the specs are fairly solid; 3 MP camera, 8 GB of space, and a 3.5 mm headphone jack.

Posted on Wed, 30 Sep 2009 09:33:47 CDT | by Robert Evans