News

Samsung announces the Samsung Steel

Another new device announcement today from Samsung, this time they announce the new, sleek-looking, Samsung Steel. You may, however, be disapointed to learn that the Steel will be exclusive to Vodafone customers.

Samsung Mobile today announces the new Samsung Steel, developed exclusively for Vodafone.

The Samsung Steel is designed for the style-conscious user who is keen to own the very latest in mobile design. This slim and stylish slider phone stands out from the crowd with its polished and sophisticated metallic finish, as recently seen on the popular Samsung Soul.
Made with the highest quality materials, the Samsung Steel boasts premium design with its minimalist exterior encasing a 2.2” screen capable of 262K colours. It also offers users super-fast internet access at turbo speed with HSDPA, making it the perfect choice for swiftly sharing images and video content, surfing your favourite websites, emailing friends or downloading great summer tracks.

The quality three megapixel camera is ideal for capturing those timeless moments and with the built-in auto focus you will never take a blurred photo again, giving you print quality shots everytime you click. You can also record those special moments with the video capture option, either way you will be proud to take out your phone to snap that perfect shot with the stylish Samsung Steel.

“With the Samsung Steel we wanted to create a multimedia handset with a timeless appeal and premium feel,” commented Mark Mitchinson, Vice President, Samsung Mobile UK and Ireland. “Samsung Steel’s elegant exterior and user friendly features will appeal to a broad range of mobile users making the handset the next must-have accessory.”

The Samsung Steel is capable of supporting up to 8GB of expandable memory which means you can store all of those precious moments on the handset. With the Bluetooth™ capability you can then share all of your files with friends and family by transferring them to your PC, laptop or any Bluetooth™ enabled device. The Samsung Steel provides today’s consumer with a multifunctional mobile encased within one of the slickest designed handsets on the market.

The Samsung Steel is an exclusive handset developed specifically for Vodafone. “We are incredibly excited that we will be offering our customers another great value exclusive from Samsung. We think it will really appeal to those customers who want to access the internet, stay in touch with email or update their favourite social network site while on the go. Above all we are pleased to be continuing our promise to range new and exciting handsets that deliver a great customer experience,” commented Chris Edwards, Head of Devices for Vodafone UK.

The Samsung Steel will be launched in the UK in June 2008.

Posted by: Matt

[Post tag(s): smartphone blog, Pocket PC blog, Tracy & Matt, Samsung, Samsung Steel]

HTC TyTN II – more issues?

I’m sure that most people are now aware of the complaints generally made about a few HTC devices and their apparent lack of video drivers and related performance issues. (If this is new to you then you might want to read our posts about HTCClassAction.)

Now I’ve had my HTC TyTN II since August 2007 and consider myself to be a pretty heavy user (I use the phone heavily, I’m not over weight!) but for the most part I’m unafected by the problems that many other people report, on the rare occasion that I watch video on the TyTN II it plays ok and for the business apps I use, email mainly, I have no problems.

Well, that’s true until recently. For the past few weeks I’ve noticed problems with the hardware keyboard. When I am typing a chunk of text the letters appear in the wrong sequence on screen. Now before you all call my typing in to question I’d like to point out that I thought I was making a lot of typos too to begin with but then the problem seemed to get worse. So after a little more testing I discovered that some key presses appear on screen quicker than others so, for example, when I type a line of text I might see ‘Hih owa rey ou?’ where other letters are taking priority over the space key. Closer scrutiny reveals that pressing the space and then a letter results in letter then space on the screen!

At first I thought this was a problem with the keyboard itself but later discovered that sometimes it would be ok but at other times it would be much worse. It seems ok straight after a soft reset but gets worse over time. Even a hard reset seems not to cure the problem!

So I thought I would ask all of you out there if you have the same or similar issues? Please share with the rest of us!

I’m really hoping that the official TyTN II ROM update will solve the problems!

Posted By: Matt

[Post tag(s): smartphone blog, Pocket PC blog, Tracy & Matt, HTC, TyTN II]

Symbian Publishes Q1 2008 Results

Symbian have just published their Q1 2008 results and it looks like Symbian penetration is very much on the increase. It would be interesting to see how Windows Mobile results compare though.

The press release is as follows:

Symbian Limited, the market leader in open operating systems for mobile phones, today released the following unaudited financial and operational figures for the first quarter ended 31 March 2008:

Symbian Limited unaudited Q1 2008 financial highlights

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Highlights – Q1 2008 as at 31 March 2008

Nigel Clifford, Symbian CEO, commented:

“We are pleased to report yet another significant milestone for Symbian. With our customers shipping a total of 18.5 million Symbian mobile phones through over 250 major network operators globally in the quarter, we have now surpassed the 200 million cumulative shipment mark. In fact, by the end of the quarter, a cumulative total of 206 million Symbian mobile phones have been shipped by the world’s leading handset manufacturers and each of our licensees has shipped a new Symbian mobile phone model since the beginning of 2008.

The world’s five leading handset vendors announced nine products based on Symbian OS v9 during Q1 2008 including UIQ-based Motorola Z10, Sony Ericsson G700 and Sony Ericsson G900 as well as S60-based LG KT610, Nokia N96, Nokia N78, Nokia 6210 Navigator, Nokia 6220 classic and Samsung G810. We also experienced an increased demand for consulting services which indicates a broadening and deepening customer phone project pipeline.”

Q1 shipments – a wealth of new models

Eight handset manufacturers launched 13 new Symbian models (multiple variants not included) bringing the total number of models in the market at the end of Q1 2008 to 154 with a total of 235 models shipped since the formation of Symbian. These cover a broad range of market segments and form factors including high-end converged devices, smartphones and mid-range mobile phones. The majority of these new phones are based on Symbian OS v9 including Symbian’s latest product offering, Symbian OS v9.3, which is currently shipping in Japan. At Mobile World Congress 2008 in Barcelona in February, four licensees announced a total of eight new mobile phones based on Symbian OS.

Symbian Outlook – beyond the smartphone space

“Symbian continues to lead the smartphone OS market but is focused on increasing its share of the overall mobile phone market from 7% at the end of 2007” (Source: Strategy Analytics), said Nigel Clifford.

“For the past ten years, helping our customers succeed has been our number one priority. Deploying Symbian OS helps our licensees to differentiate their devices and deliver faster shipment times-to-market across multiple market segments as well as benefiting from Symbian’s superiority in platform quality, features and power management.”

“Achieving 200 million devices is testament to the commitment to excellence of Symbian engineers and of our thriving ecosystem of thousands of developers. We’re pleased with our progress and excited about the next wave of mobile innovation.”

Posted by: Matt

[Post tag(s): smartphone blog, Pocket PC blog, symbian, Tracy & Matt]

Orange launches internet radio device

News today that Orange have released their new internet radio device. Details can be found below but lets hope that we wont have to pay data charges on top ot that! 😛

Orange today announced its entrance to the UK internet radio market with a wireless internet radio device called Liveradio. The launch extends Orange’s provision of telecoms services for the home, allowing it to offer a complete end-to-end internet radio solution.

Liveradio is a wireless internet radio device which gives broadband customers access to over 4,000 local, national and international internet radio stations. Already a success in France, Orange is now giving consumers in the UK an opportunity to enjoy their or unique music experience with the product.

The radio works in conjunction with the specially designed Liveradio website: www.orange.co.uk/liveradio. Once registered on the site, users can customise their presets, create specialist folders for easy reference and add the stations they want to listen to via a simple ‘drag and drop’ function.

What’s more, if the song being listened to is shown on the Liveradio’s screen, users can simply press the ‘bookmark’ button on the radio and the details of the track are added to the ‘My Favourites’ section on the Liveradio website, along with an option to buy from the Orange Music Store*. By clicking on the ‘buy’ link provided, Orange Music Store will be presented in a separate window allowing the customer to purchase the track if available for £0.99 from a catalogue of over 1 million tracks. Orange mobile customers can also take advantage of the unique dual download service resulting in them instantly receiving the track on their mobile for no additional cost.

Figures revealed earlier this year show that more than eight million people listen to internet-based radio every week in the UK (source: Rajar 2008).

Mike Newnham, Vice President of Home, Orange UK said: “The internet radio market in the UK is growing at an increasingly rapid rate and Orange with its home internet pedigree is well placed to be part of it. The Liveradio device we’ve launched today is testament to our ability to offer consumers a multi-platformed entertainment experience, and is the first of many such products Orange plans to offer for the home.”

The Liveradio is priced at £99.99 and is available immediately from www.orange.co.uk/liveradio or from 1st June at selected Orange retail stores.

Posted by: Matt

[Post tag(s): smartphone blog, Pocket PC blog, internet radio, Orange, Tracy & Matt]

Samsung announces the F400

Samsung Mobile has today announced the launch of their latest music mobile, the Samsung F400, with audio technology by Bang & Olufsen ICEpower.

The Samsung F400 is the style-conscious choice for users who do not wish to compromise technology for design. This elegant and stylish music slider phone contains a fantastic portfolio of functions whilst remaining lightweight and simple to use.

This compact dual slider phone delivers high fidelity sound tuned by Bang & Olufsen and ICEpower audio technology via a slide up speaker that uses an adaptation of Samsung DNSe technology, creating a 3D sound effect. The Samsung F400 also contains the SmartBass™ system with full digital amplifier.

Equipped with a full host of music features to give ultimate clarity of sound and easy access to free your music, the Samsung F400 boasts a dedicated musical user interface with music recognition via FindMusic™. You can easily access your full music library at the touch of the music hot key. You can also use Windows media player sync to upload your favourite tracks and tune into your favourite station on the FM Radio with RDS.

The Samsung F400 employs a timeless contemporary design with sleek lines and great attention to detail, making the handset highly desirable to the brand savvy design conscious mobile user.

“With the Samsung F400 we wanted to create a multimedia handset which allows users to share their music with others as a way of expressing who they are and the Samsung F400 embraces this,” commented Mark Mitchinson, Vice President, Samsung Mobile UK and Ireland. “The handset demonstrates Samsung’s commitment to providing consumers with innovative technology which integrates seamlessly with everyday life.”

The Samsung F400 offers users Internet access via the 3.6 Mbps Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA), enabling them to download music at great speed.

Mobile photography is also made easy with the Samsung F400 which contains a 3 megapixel CIF camera with flash and uses a 2.2” 262K QVGA (262K colour) screen. Packed with a microSD slot that supports up to 4GB the Samsung F400 truly combines the needs of today’s consumer into one multifunctional device.

The Samsung F400 launch will be supported by an extensive £2 million national advertising campaign, including print, radio and digital mediums. Samsung will launch a microsite for artists to share their music offering the chance to have their music form a part of the Samsung F400 radio and online advertising campaign.

The site will feature a voting mechanism allowing users to rate from unknown bands’ music. Users can upload their music to the Samsung music bank which can be accessed via applications on Facebook, Myspace and Bebo social networking sites.

The Samsung F400 will be launched initially by O2, Orange, Virgin, The Carphone Warehouse and Phones4U.

Posted by: Matt

[Post tag(s): smartphone blog, Pocket PC blog, Tracy & Matt, Samsung, F400]

HTC Touch Diamond official desktop cradle

At the Touch Diamond launch event last week a few HTC employees mentioned that there would be a number of official accessories for the new device. So I managed to track down this photo of the official desktop cradle for the HTC Touch Diamond.

HTC Touch Diamond official cradle

I must say that this looks super sexy with its glossy black finish. You’ll also notice the decent looking set of headphones in that photo above which, in my mind, implies that the dock/cradle will allow you to sync, charge and use headphones while the device Diamond is plugged in! Now that would be cool!

You can pre-order the cradle for the Diamond from the Clove website HERE.

Posted by: Matt

[Post tag(s): smartphone news, Pocket PC news, Tracy & Matt, cradle, HTC, HTC Touch Diamond]

HTC press event photos

Here are a few more photos from the HTC Touch Diamond press event.

The initial introductions were made by Peter Chou, CEO of HTC. We were given a bit of background with lots of references to the HTC Touch and also mobile web browsing.

HTC’s Peter Chou

The first time we got to see the devices they were all held in plastic display cases so it wasn’t possible to play with them and taking pictures was tricky. However, you can see the cool media player interface shown in the image below.

HTC Touch Diamond Media Player

As you’ll be able to see from the shot below, the HTC Touch Diamond is extremely thin at just 11mm it’s less than half the thickness of the TyTN II. The Touch Diamond is also significantly lighter and weighs in at a mere 110 grams!

HTC Touch Diamond vs TyTN II

Although the buttons on the Touch Diamond are completely smooth they are still physical buttons with a positive click action rather than being touch sensitive. The ring you can see around the d-pad area is touch sensitive though and works like a jog wheel. Circling the wheel clockwise zooms in and counter-clockwise zooms out when used with Opera and Image Viewer, and probably other apps too.

HTC Touch Diamond navigation buttons

Finally, a number of the HTC people at the event had their own Touch Diamond devices and they all had nice leather slip or pouch style cases for their phones. The cases were good quality and had a soft material lining which wipes the screen each time you slide the Diamond in or out.

We’re not sure whether or not the case will be supplied with the Diamond as we were given conflicting information on this. Hopefully it will be included with the retail units.

HTC Touch Diamond case?

Posted by: Matt

[Post tag(s): smartphone news, Pocket PC news, Tracy & Matt, Orange, HTC, HTC Touch Diamond]

HTC’s Offical Touch Diamond press release

Here we have the official preess release from HTC:

A NEW AGE FOR MOBILE PHONES BEGINS; HTC UNVEILS ‘TOUCH DIAMOND’

Debut brings breakthroughs in size, style connectivity and overall user experience, leaves compromise at the door.

LONDON — May 6, 2008 — Born from a unique heritage of innovation and a deep desire to blend design with simplicity, HTC Corp., a global leader in mobile phone innovation and design, today unveiled its new flagship phone, the HTC Touch Diamond. Delivering unmistakable style and meticulous craftsmanship the HTC Touch Diamond is defined by its compact size, game-changing Internet and its new captivating 3D touch interface called TouchFLO 3D. The result is an uncompromising mobile phone that sets a new benchmark for phone sophistication and shapes consumer expectations for how a phone can be used.

“Today we mark a new era in mobile phone evolution, an era where beauty and size integrate with uncompromising innovation at broadband speeds,” said Peter Chou, president and CEO, HTC Corp. “The HTC Touch Diamond will make browsing the Web and using Web-enabled applications just as practical and easy to use as making calls.”

A New Dimension To Touch

HTC has taken a great leap forward in touch screen innovation with the introduction of its new 3D touch interface called TouchFLO 3D. TouchFLO 3D provides animated access to people, messaging, email, photos, music, weather and more. In addition, HTC is introducing a new innovative touch-sensitive control for interacting with Touch Diamond.

Making The Mobile Internet Fun

With the introduction of the Touch Diamond, HTC delivers an entirely new mobile Internet experience that utilizes broadband-like speeds with HSDPA 7.2 Mbps and HSUPA wireless connectivity. Committed to improving Web browsing, HTC provides a new customized mobile Web browser that enables easy viewing and effortless navigation of Websites in the way they were designed. As part of this browsing experience users can zoom and pan Websites with one-hand and automatically view optimized content that has been specially created to fit the display. Turning the device sideways automatically rotates the web page view from a portrait to landscape view.

In addition to Web browsing, the Touch Diamond includes a customized new, HTC-developed, YouTube application for watching a variety of user generated video content as well as utilizing Google Maps for mobile for mapping and traffic data.

Unmatched Style and Size

The Touch Diamond is crafted with precision to fit comfortably in a user’s hand without compromising on features or functionality. Blending contrasting design elements of metal and unique geometric facets, the Touch Diamond complements a user’s personal style.

Bursting with Innovation

The Touch Diamond delivers an unrivalled combination of features and functionality that set a new standard for integrating mobile phone innovation into a small package. The 2.8 inch display provides near-print quality viewing that enables beautiful Web browsing and viewing of photographs. The built-in camera includes an optical auto-focus lens that ensures the photos you take will be clear and consistent. Advanced wireless and auto sensor screen pivoting are just a few of the features that make the Touch Diamond experience a stand out.

Availability

The HTC Touch Diamond™ will be available to customers across all major European carriers in June. It will be available later this quarter in Asia and the Middle East. The North American and Latin American versions of the Touch Diamond will be available in the second half of 2008.

“Our long-standing relationship with HTC meant they shared their phone concept and worked with us from the earliest stage. This early collaboration is important to us because at Orange, we know that the right multimedia experience is about more than just the phone,” said Olaf Swantee, EVP of Orange’s global mobile operations. “Our approach is to select and test the best phones and integrate our applications, combining them with access to the Orange World portal, the best tariffs, integrated billing, a user-friendly interface and excellent customer support. With the Touch Diamond from Orange we have created a unique phone which has taken advantage of our latest service innovation to build upon the consistently rich experience customers expect from Orange.”

Posted by: Matt

[Post tag(s): smartphone news, Pocket PC news, Tracy & Matt, Orange, HTC, HTC Diamond]

HTC Confirm the HTC Touch Diamond

As expected, HTC have launched the HTC Touch Diamond at today’s press conference. You can find all the details on the HTC site (they’ve just updated it) but I’m just editing and processing the photos and video of the event. These will be online shortly.

Lots of cool features in the device:

HTC Diamond vs TyTN II

Confirmed HTC Touch Diamond Specification:

Posted by: Matt

[Post tag(s): smartphone news, Pocket PC news, Tracy & Matt, Orange, HTC, HTC Diamond]

HTC press event coverage

Today HTC are holding a press conference in London where they will be announcing ‘something big’.

It is expected that the big announcement will involve their new HTC Diamond and Raphael handsets but there could well be some surprises along the way.

I’m on my way in to London now and the event starts at 11am. It’s rather a full programme with several activities scheduled with Peter Chou (CEO of HTC), Eric Lin (HTC’s Chief Designer) and John Wang (Chief Marketing Officer).

I’ll be posting news throughout the day and uploading video where possible. As HTC are allowing only one reprsentative from each publication, Paul (MoDaCo) and I will be working together and between us we hope to bring you the best possible coverage.

Fingers crossed we’ll be getting some hands-on time with new devices so please check back throughout the afternoon to see what we’ve found out!

Posted by: Matt

[Post tag(s): smartphone news, Pocket PC news, Tracy & Matt, Orange, HTC, HTC Diamond]