Motorola's new phone wants your old plastic bottles

Next time when you throw you used plastic bottle into the recycle bin think about this - that bottle could just give birth to a new phone in Motorola's production line. No, I'm not kidding! Motorola has in fact unveiled the world's first mobile phone which is made from recycled plastic bottles. Looks like since Motorola hasn't been able to offer any innovation in terms of technology, the marketing team has taken over to give a new image to its phones.

The Moto W233 Renew is described by Motorola as the "world's first carbon neutral mobile phone." Because it is based on recycled plastics, Motorola said today that 20% less energy is needed to produce the phone, compared to the standard plastic process. To further the green theme, the Renew will come to customers in a box that is reduced in size, and with brochures printed using vegetable-based inks on 100% post-consumer recycled paper.

Device specifications or price details are not available just yet. But will consumers care? I mean, would you choose the Motorola W233 over similarly priced Nokia or Sony Ericsson just because it is made from recycled plastics? C'mon moto - show us what this baby can do!

Read more...

New Palm phone to be launched soon?

Palm has been pretty quiet with its product launches to compete in the super competitive smartphone category. But the latest news is that Palm is will be launching its latest and greatest smartphone running the Nova operating system very soon - in fact it might even be launched as early as this week. This new phone will have a full QWERTY keyboard that will slide down behind the touchscreen.

Apparently the new operating system has been described as amazing - haven't we heard this before like a million times? But Palm is being smart by launching a full software marketplace as well during the launch of this smartphone. This is something that Android missed. Expect palm to make an announcement during CES this week.
[Via Crunchgear]

Read more...

iPhone 3G unlocked for version 2.2 via software

My dear readers, this is my first post for 2009 and I'm starting it off on a happy note. I finally managed to unlock my iPhone 3G version 2.2 via software! I did lose a few bucks on worthless turbo sims offering nothing but garbage on printed circuit boards. Thanks to this news from iClarified, my iPhone 3G has been unlocked and back in action! The only thing is that I needed to jailbreak the iPhone 3G which is ok considering that all the functionalities are well preserved. Once you jailbreak the iPhone 3G all you need to do is:

To perform the unlock you must install the yellowsn0w package from one of the following sources:
- Cydia source: http://apt9.yellowsn0w.com/
- Installer repo: http://i.yellowsn0w.com/


There is also a very good tutorial which has been written up by them and I tried as well. Yes it works, but sometimes the iPhone 3G might take some time to pick up the signal. You could try the following if that happens:

- Switch off WiFi
- Toggle 3G mode
- Toggle airplane mode

I tried these steps above a few times before the iPhone 3G picked up my carrier's signal. And yes, you will need to upgrade to version 2.2 for this unlock to work as well. So have fun with this iPhone 3G unlocking tutorial.

Read more...

Is there an Android G2 in the works?

After the initial hype of the Android G1 has finally settled, there are now rumors circulating that there is an Android G2 in the works. It is reported that this model will be non exclusive to T-Mobile and will be available in other parts of the world as well. I wonder what took them so long to realize that!

Some of the reported specs of the Android G2 are that it is expected to have a 5-megapixel autofocus camera, VGA camera for video calls, a full touch screen, and Wi-Fi connectivity. Nothing out of the ordinary I suppose. And oh yes, this model doesn't sport a QWERTY keyboard but still comes with a trackball. Well I'm guessing that this model doesn't really target the iPhone haters?
[Via CNET]

Read more...

iPhone 3G unlocked via software!

I'm sure a lot of you might have read that a software unlock for the iPhone 3G doesn't exist and the only way to unlock is to use a turbo SIM which is a piece of hardware attached to your sim card. But the iPhone Dev team has released a demo video on their upcoming iPhone 3G unlock through software. This process requires you to jailbreak the phone and software over writes the baseband.

In the actual unlocking video, MuscleNerd shows that the phone is legitimately SIM locked to the AT&T network. He then shows that it is indeed locked by inserting a T-Mobile SIM card and attempts to make a phone call. MuscleNerd then runs the yellowsn0w program using terminal and the process is completed in just a few seconds. To show that the phone is unlocked he journeys to the about page which displays the T-Mobile carrier. MuscleMan then placed a call to the unlocked iPhone 3G confirming that the process has worked.

This is certainly a dream come true for many iPhone lovers. But the fact still remains that if you have upgraded your iPhone to version 2.2, then this unlock will not work. So don't upgrade your iPhone 3G just yet. I'm sure there will be a solution for version 2.2 in the near future. Click here if you would like to view the video of the iPhone 3G unlocking!

Read more...

iPhone Nano To Be Revealed In January?

There have been quite a number of blogs that have reported that the iPhone will soon be sold at Walmart - albeit a 4G model. But the latest news is that this could actually be the iPhone Nano. The rumor has been fueled by the fact that Idealschina is creating a silicone casing as shown in the picture which could fit the iPhone Nano's dimensions.

According to IdealsChina “It is the same height as the just release Nano but wider and thicker and with the same iPhone 3G contours. It has 3 sensors, camera, mirror screen but no 3G. Production will start on the 20th with 60,000 to 80,000/day pieces coming off the assembly line. Steve Jobs will be announcing it during the January MacWorld Show and you will find it in the stores shortly afterwards.”

I definitely feel that this is the right time for a stripped down, cheaper version of the highly successful iPhone. Keeping in mind the economic situation, it is highly unlikely that consumers would be looking to change their phones if they are going to be too expensive. With a phone which has all the coolness of the iPhone but with just enough specifications Apple might just hit the bulls eye once again!

Read more...

iPhone 3G activation in the comforts of your home!

Apple and AT&T have decided to bring the iPhone activation to the comforts of your home. Buy the phone online, receive it at your home or office, and activate the phone via iTunes from the comfort of your computer. Now you don't have to go into an AT&T outlet to get your iPhone activated.

At this moment it looks like this is applicable only for a new line and new account. Those who are looking to upgrading your iPhone might still have to do it the old way. Why can't they just make life easy for every one and offer the iPhone unlocked anyway?

Read more...

Femtocells To Boost Your Phone Signal

AT&T is set to trial run the use of femtocells in their network very soon. Their testing follows the one that was carried out by Sprint earlier. Femtocells are basically in-home cell phone boosters. You can think of it as a mini cell tower on your phone to boost the signal.

In telecommunications, a femtocell—originally known as an Access Point Base Station—is a small cellular base station, typically designed for use in residential or small business environments. It connects to the service provider’s network via broadband (such as DSL or cable); current designs typically support 2 to 5 mobile phones in a residential setting. A femtocell allows service providers to extend service coverage indoors, especially where access would otherwise be limited or unavailable. The femtocell incorporates the functionality of a typical base station but extends it to allow a simpler, self contained deployment; an example is a UMTS femtocell containing a Node B, RNC and GSN with Ethernet for backhaul. Although much attention is focussed on UMTS, the concept is applicable to all standards, including GSM, CDMA2000, TD-SCDMA and WiMAX solutions.

Read more...

Hardware Unlocked G1 Phone Now Available for $399

An interesting step taken by Google has led to the unveiling of a SIM/Hardware unlocked G1 phone specifically targeted at developers. Yes that's right, its to be sold exclusively to developers for the Android platform. The handset ships with a system image that's fully compatible with Android 1.0, and obviously, it complies with any SIM card and can "flash custom Android builds that will work with the unlocked bootloader."

Certainly a move which is to attract more developers I suppose. If you are burning with desire to create that cool application on the Android platform but don't have T-Mobile coverage then this might just be the right thing for you. All you have to do is to register yourself as an Android developer and you have to look out for the Purchase link. Just be ready to fork out $399 from your wallet. As of now the phone is shipped within USA only. I wonder if Apple would do the same or is it just wishful thinking?

Read more...

Do you still want to buy a fancy phone?

Almost every other piece of news seems to be filled with doom and gloom about the economy and how it is the next worst thing in history to the great depression. But then, life still goes on. I'm sure a lot of people might not succumb to these sentiments and still go one with their normal routines. So lets say you are cutting costs but still looking for a fancy phone. Which one would you choose?

Well first of all I guess you will need to consider which kind of mobile phone you would like to purchase. We recently published an article called Mobile Phone Buying Guide: 5 things you must consider! And then you can decide on how many fancy features do you want? And which service provider fees can you afford?

If you are looking at smartphones, I got to say that the iPhone should be on top of your list. It retails at around $199 with a data plan with AT&T. That's not too bad considering how cool it is. Then you could also consider the Blackberry Storm and the G1 as alternatives if you think Steve Jobs is the devil's reincarnation.

But smartphone buyers also need to examine the service fees they'll have to pay for two years, as phone discounts come in exchange for a commitment, as carriers look to recoup the portion of the phone's cost that they shoulder.

Also, operators won't sell you some smartphones unless you commit to a monthly fee for data services such as Web surfing, which take advantage of the phones' computer-like features.

Of course there is the option of completely ignoring the smartphones and choosing something which is more "basic". There are still tons of phones around which offer basic features and are quite cheap. These are the Nokias, Samsungs and the LGs of the world which offer such phones. But again it begs the question whether you can afford the carrier's voice and data plan. So if you are getting a good rebate on a phone you probably might want to investigate more into what kind of marriage you are getting into with the carrier!
Read more...

Why The Nokia N97 Can't Challenge the iPhone

It would be blasphemous for any technology blogger to not mention the Nokia N97 today! Yes, it is perhaps Nokia's best kept secret and I'm sure they have taken a leaf from Apple's book in keeping secrets. Nokia officially took the wraps off its mystery smartphone on Tuesday at the Nokia World 2008 conference in Barcelona, Spain. Nokia certainly has been very late to enter this market despite being a market leader in mobile phones. I hope that this is worth the wait!

Before we go further, take a look at this video:



Ok, what is the most obvious problem that struck you? For me it was the lack of clarity and the slowness in response to touch. This could be due to the fact that Nokia is rumored to be using resistive touch screen technology as opposed to Apple's capacitive touch screen technology. Resistive touch screens are more hardy, but less responsive and do not fall in the same league as capacitive touch screens in terms of clarity.

So what are the specs that this Nokia N97 offer? It has a slide out full QWERTY keyboard (remember Sony Xperia?) and a 3.5 inch touchscreen. The Symbian-based smartphone also features a music and video player, a 5-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, and a whopping 32GB of onboard memory that can be expanded with a 16GB microSD card. The quad-band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) world phone is HSDPA-capable handset, but it currently supports only the 900/1900/2100MHz bands (AT&T's 3G network runs on 850/1900MHz, while T-Mobile runs on 1700/2100MHz). There is integrated Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, however. And oh yeah, not to forget A-GPS as well.

The Nokia N97 does not mention much about an App Store similar to Apple's. In my opinion this is the one single feature which has made the iPhone so successful. With an army of software developers writing applications for Apple, iPhone users have tons of applications to play with. And yes, Apple takes a neat 30% cut from it too. So its a fantastic concept. Unless other mobile phone makers try to come up with something similar, they will not be able to challenge the iPhone - at least for now!

Any thoughts on this?

Read more...

iPhone 3G Silicon Case for the Visually Challenged

I never thought that the iPhone could ever be used by anyone without perfect vision simply because of the fact that the interface is built that way. There are no keyboards or shortcut buttons on the phone that could feedback to the touch. But here's a great new concept Silicon Case for the iPhone 3G that could well solve this problem.

As wonderful as the iPhone is, it leaves out anyone visually impaired. This Silicon Touch iPhone case works in tandem with an app to allow special accessibility functions like text to speech and moon type tactile feedback. The case is engraved with modified bas-relief buttons each corresponding to a modified home screen on the iPhone. None of the phone’s functions are compromised. Multi-touch and finger flick scrolling are all intact.

Kudos to the designer for coming up with this all new innovative design. If you would like to read more about this design then you can read all about it and look at some of the cool pictures here at Yankodesign.

Read more...

Full HD 1080p Video Processor for Cell Phones

Renesas is set to announce a Full HD 1080p Video Processor for cell phones. It will announce video processor that enables mobile phones to process 1920 x 1080 (1080p) resolution 30fps full HDTV video at ISSCC 2009, which will take place in San Francisco, California, from Feb 8 to 12, 2009. Renesas had announced in May 2008 that it was developing a full HDTV video processor.

The 6.4 x 6.5mm chip was manufactured using 65nm CMOS technology. Its power consumption is 342mW when it is processing full HDTV video in real time via 166MHz 64-bit DDR-SDRAM.

Some overseas semiconductor manufacturers have already started sample shipments of their HDTV-compatible application processors. Broadcom Corp announced its HDTV-compatible processor in October 2007, while Nvidia Corp and Texas Instruments Inc announced theirs in February 2008. All these processors can encode and decode 1280 x 720 resolution 30fps HDTV video but are not compliant with full HD video.

But this definitely begs the question if the phone screens are sufficient for us to actually appreciate a 1080p full HD movie. I already have trouble watching movies on my iPhone for anything more than 20 minutes. Even though this is certainly a technology breakthrough, it still looks like one of those "nice to have" features rather than a good value proposition to drive customers to purchase cell phones with HD capability.

Read more...

Unlock the iPhone 3G - yes even version 2.2!

Well I just got myself an all new iPhone 3G about 2 weeks ago. It was an unlocked iPhone 3G which came with a turbo sim and version 2.0. Being the adventurous type, I connected it up to iTunes and upgraded it to version 2.2. Now it has been rendered totally useless and version 2.2 overwrites the baseband software and locks the iPhone. I still am to figure out how to unlock this baby. But while I was looking for ideas, I did come across this story on CNET on how the iPhone 3G can be unlocked.

The author reports that a certain shop in Hanoi, Vietnam offers this service for a surprisingly low price of $80. I would be willing to part with $80 just to get my iPhone 3G fixed as I spent $800 on it in the first place. But illegal or not, Apple's idiosyncratic policy has in a weird way given this bright man an opportunity to do more than just make a living. He's proven that we really can be the master of our tools, not vice versa. I certainly hope that there would be others who would find ways to unlock the iPhone 3G as well.

You can read the entire story here.

Read more...

All new Nokia E75 photos leaked!

How many of you have been waiting for this all new QWERTY slide keyboard phone from Nokia? Well, pictures of the Nokia E75 have been leaked on the net and here are some of them. There is a decent 2.4″ screen which looks to cramp up the alphanumeric keypad a bit but a quick slide reveals a QWERTY keypad for more roomy messaging. There isn’t much new info at this point unfortunately but at least we can make out FP2 now that there’s a clear image of the display. Slim and sexy, no question - let’s hope Nokia managed to stuff a decent battery in there somehow. Still no details on release or pricing!

Read more...

Mobispine iPhone MMS Application

Although the iPhone has been celebrated as one of the greatest innovations of recent, I must say that some of the designers probably were living under a rock or inside a cave for most of their life - how can you not have an MMS application on a multimedia phone?

Luckily, Mobispine has designed an iPhone MMS application which is to be launched very soon. Mobispine says that the app will be branded to each particular operator, and distributed via Apple's App Store, but I don't know when all of this is going to go down. I'll definitely be looking forward to this one!
[Via Mobispine]

Read more...

Now your cellphone and landline phone can work together

How many of us have ditched our landline telephones since cellphones have become popular and dare I say - cheap? Well I'm pretty sure that most of us don't rely on the landline phone anymore. But at times, I do miss my landline phone simply because of its simplicity and of course - no coverage issues or dropped calls. Thanks to Xtreme Technology, now there is a solution for both the cell phone and the landline phone to work together.

It recently announced two new Xlink Bluetooth gateways, the Xlink BT and the Xlink BTTN, that allow you to use your regular telephone to handle your cell phone service. Both gateways let you take cell calls on your landline phone and support up to three Bluetooth-enabled mobile handsets. The new XLink BT, however, is for those without a landline service, like me, while the XLink BTTN lets you take your landline calls on your mobile phone and vice-versa.

Certainly something very interesting I must say. Now you can marry your cellphone to your landline phone!

Read more...

Welcome the all new Nokia E63

Anyone looking to ditching their E71 should take a serious look at the all new Nokia E63. The folks at TamsS60 have done a great job of unboxing and providing an initial impression of this Nokia E63 handset. For starters, it definitely seems like Nokia did a good job in getting rid of the annoying keyboard on the N71 and replacing it with a better looking (and better feeling?) keyboard. Apparently the keyboards are now made of rubber which definitely feels better to the touch.

The Nokia is also supposed to "address major issues found on the E71". I wonder what they might be? C'mon Nokia, get your act together. And oh I almost forgot, if you still plan to hang on to that leather case that you got for your E71, tough luck! This baby doesn't fit into it and you got to ditch it as well. No indication on launch date or price as of yet. But stay tuned and I will post more details as they become available.
[Via TamsS60]

Read more...

Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 Review - Stands Out In a Crowd

Yeah I hear you... the smartphone market is really getting crowded. Some don't even deserve to be called smartphones because they are so dumb. But the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 is definitely a refreshing addition to this smartphone market and is due for launch this month in the US. The Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 features an interactive panel interface that lets you customize the smartphone to your wants and needs. The Windows Mobile device also has an attractive design and full QWERTY keyboard.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 is a well-designed and fully stocked smartphone that offers great customization through the interactive panel interface. However, with its high price tag, the X1 will be a hard sell for most customers and will be a purely luxury item.

Here are some of the specifications:
Microsoft Windows Mobile
WCDMA (UMTS) / GSM 850/900/1800/1900
Wifi
Bluetooth

Pretty much the same stuff that other smartphones have to offer. But the design is definitely awesome. I especially like the compact build, screen and the slide out QWERTY keyboard. But its a pity that its priced at $799, a huge hold in the wallet in these difficult times. It is perhaps time for Sony Ericsson to look for carrier partners?

Check out this review video...

[Via CNET]

Read more...

HTC Fuze from AT&T - First Look

iPhone, Blackberry, G1... what next? Well HTC has the answer to that - its the HTC AT&T Fuze! Released for AT&T, the HTC Fuze is a 3G tri-band HSDPA Windows Mobile smartphone design to access to the world. It features a 5-row slide-out QWERTY keyboard for text entry and a large VGA touch screen using TouchFlo 3D user interface. It keeps connected with email, text and instant messaging, Internet access, personal organizer, video, satellite radio, and more - all at broadband speeds. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS navigation, and Push-to-Talk. With Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, the Fuze can access Microsoft Outlook mailbox, contacts, calendar, notes, and tasks; edit Microsoft Office documents or view Adobe PDF attachments; or take advantage of support for multiple email applications including Microsoft Direct Push, Good Mobile Messaging, and Blackberry Connect.

Here are some of the features:
# Surf and download at broadband speed with HSDPA and Wi-Fi
# 2.8-inch touch screen, with four times the resolution of most phones
# Vibrant TouchFLO 3D user interface
# Five-row QWERTY keyboard for quick and easy text entry
# 3.2-megapixel auto-focus camera with flash light for quality stills and video
# microSD slot for expandable storage
# Integrated GPS can be used with maps software for a full turn-by-turn navigation experience
# Built-in HTC-developed YouTube application for watching user generated video
# Google Maps for Mobile is included for mapping and traffic data

It definitely looks impressive. Look out for the review that we will be posting on the HTC Fuze very soon!

Read more...