When it comes to mobile phones, China is perhaps best known for its copycat handsets. You know them – looking like the originals but offering fewer features and a build quality that makes them un-recommendable. However, QiGi i6, one of the latest smartphones to come from China and is nothing like that. It’s a quite nicely-designed device.
On the 26th of last month we announce the Rumour of the VE66 from Motorola and yesterday it all came true.
Picture This: Motorola Announces MOTO VE66, Delivering Crystal Clear Calls, Brilliant Images and Pin-Sharp Music
MOTO VE66 sports audio-enhancing CrystalTalk™ technology and the first widget integration on a Motorola mobile device
SCHAUMBURG, Ill. – Nov. 18, 2008 – Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) today announced the arrival of MOTO VE66 with enhanced CrystalTalk™ audio technology, a 5-megapixel camera and MP3 player-like navigation for a 1-2-3 punch of great call quality, sharp pictures and an enjoyable music experience. The sleek, slider device also boasts the first widgets integration on a Motorola mobile device, which means you receive easier, more seamless access to what matters most – whether you crave sports scores, stock tickers or RSS feeds from your favorite blogs.
“The MOTO VE66 delivers on consumer’s demand for more personalized listening and imaging experiences on a mobile phone,” said Tracey Koziol, corporate vice president, Mobile Devices, Motorola. “With a diverse multi-media experience, the VE66 truly enables you to make a statement and express yourself on your terms.”Hear and Be Heard
MOTO VE66 amplifies your conversations and helps reduce background noise with enhanced CrystalTalk technology, so virtually nothing comes between you and your calls. From more superior voice quality to personalized noise adaptation, CrystalTalk makes a noticeable difference in the clarity and intelligibility of conversations while in a noisy environment. VE66 further enhances the audio quality with the addition of a second microphone, which helps eliminate more ambient background noise from the call.Click and Capture Like a Pro
MOTO VE66 captures crisp and clear images with ease, bringing out the inner photographer in everyone. The VE66 contains a number of features that you might expect to find on a dedicated digital camera. Pressing a dedicated camera key, the VE66 will quickly auto focus, activate an LED flash, if necessary, stabilize the image and reduce red eye – all to help to ensure that shots are of the highest print quality. Automatic color saturation delivers whiter whites, crisper blacks and colors true to life. Use the device’s landscape feature to view photos on the brilliant color display as desired.Quickly Connect to Your Music and Web Updates
MOTO VE66 takes you where you want to go with the FastScroll™ one-touch navigation wheel which allows you to breeze through menus and content with speed and accuracy. And that’s not all that’s fast. The MP3 player with USB 2.0 enables high-speed access to data and downloads on your PC while the Wi-Fi connectivity makes browsing the Internet or sharing photos, audio or video files with friends a cinch1. And with integrated FM radio with RDS2 – to help you "name that tune" – you can discover new music while you’re in motion.
Get access to real-time information such as weather, sports scores, stock tickers, flight information, social media and news headlines with pre-loaded and downloadable1 widgets on MOTO VE66, the first widget integration on a Motorola phone.Calling All Developers
Motorola today also announced the MOTODEV Widget Developer Challenge, a competition that allows developers around the globe to deliver the Web without limits to mobile users. Challenge entries will be accepted until Feb. 27, 2009 in three main categories including Best Widget in Category, Best Local Content and Best Use of APIs, and judged in their relevant subcategory. For more information and the official competition rules, please visit: developer.motorola.com/widgetchallenge.Availability
MOTO VE66 is expected to be available Q4 2008. For more information on technical specs, please visit www.motorola.com/motoinfo.
The VE66 is a sleek slider phone with a 5-megapixel camera and a host of miscellaneous multimedia features crammed into it. It boasts of Motorola’s new enhanced "Crystal Talk" facility. According to the company, "CrystalTalk makes a noticeable difference in the clarity and intelligibility of conversations in a noisy environment." The phone also enhances the audio quality with the addition of a second microphone, which helps to eliminate ambient background noise.
The phone sports a Freescale SCM-A11 processor clocked at a reasonable 500Mhz – which should ensure zippy performance. It will also run on Linux OS Montavista v2.6.10, thereby earning itself a "smartphone" tag. The 5-megapixel camera is without the "Kodak" branding, which the ZN5 has, but it looks like a similar unit. Video recording at QVGA resolution is supported, and yes, there is Bluetooth 2.0 support with A2DP. Another "unique" feature, according to Motorola, is the FastScroll touch-sensitive navigation wheel, which allows users to browse through menus and content with improved speed and accuracy.
Other notable features include WLAN support and integrated FM Radio with RDS.
The VE66 is the first to have widget integration on a Motorola mobile device with a host of pre-loaded widgets, which enables the user to look up the latest happenings around the globe, be it market news or the latest sports headlines. The screen is a 2.2-inch 240 320 affair, which is acceptable by today’s standards.
With an internal memory of 110 MB, it does need external storage. The phone supports microSD cards. Available in 2 versions – one with UMTS/3G capability and another a Chinese GSM only version. Both are expected to be out this quarter, worldwide.
Posted by: John
If your into Windows Mobile you should take a listen to the msmobiles podcast. It’s a weekly podcast hosted by Edward who runs the msmobiles.com website, I am involved along with Mickey Papillon and Alli Flowers. It covers everything going on in the Windows Mobile world and quite a bit mre and is always a lot of fun to take part in. This week we discuss Skyfire, HTC Touch HD alleged issues, geocaching and some “fruit phone” comparisons. You can find all the details here.
RussianiPhone.ru claims that they have seen iPhone 2.2.1 Beta 1 and that it implements Push notifications as well as over-the-air MobileMe syncing with Notes support. As proof they’ve posted a screenshot showing the Notes and Calendar applications with update badges displayed. Developers and users have been anxiously awaiting the release of this new feature. In the current iPhone firmware, applications are not allowed to run any background tasks. As a result, an application like an Instant Messaging application would be unable to notify the user that a new message had arrived. Push notifications would provide the tools to trigger these alerts.
via MacRumors
We’ve been looking at lots of camcorders lately and, if you read our group test report, you’ll know that we were particularly impressed with the Sanyo Xacti HD700. The only criticism of the HD700 was that it isn’t full HD supporting 1280×720 only. For many, this wouldn’t be a big problem, especially when you consider the cost but we wondered what spending the extra cash on the HD1000 got us.
I’ve been using the HD1000 for a few months and I’m very happy with it. However just a few weeks ago Sanyo launched the HD1010. This has additional features over the HD1000, including both 60p and 60i modes as well as high speed 300fps mode and an uprated sensor.
So we’re working on our review of the Xacti HD1010 and will compare it to the other cameras in our group test and the HD1000 itself. Have a look at the unboxing video below to see more.
Sanyo Xacti HD1010 specification:
Posted by: Matt
[ Post Tags: Sanyo Xacti HD1010, camcorder, video cameras, tracyandmatt.co.uk ]
Spotted this over at WindowsMobile Cool and though it was a great way to get your device running TouchFlo 3D into the festive spirit. All you have to do is download the Christmas Icon Pack from XDA and you’ll get bells, mistletoes, snowflakes, stars, cottages and more in place of the stock icons. Full instructions after the break.
Those of you in the UK are undoubtedly already familiar with Proporta. Unfortunately, we don’t get the opportunity to get our hands on Proporta’s accessories often enough in the US. Proporta is innovative, and has a range of accessories that is unparalleled. One of my personal favorites is Proporta’s emergency charger, so it was with great pleasure that I got to try out their new laptop bag.
Nokia have come up with a very neat way of picking the right phone as a Christmas Gift this year by creating the Nokia Christmas Guide online.
On entering the site you are given the options of who the phone is for and when you click on that you are then given a list of phones that Nokia think would be suitable for that type of person.
Understandably it is of course down to personal taste but this is a great and fun way to pick out a new mobile.
Posted by: John
According to the blog.iphone-dev.org website, one of its members has reverse engineered Apple’s hardware drivers and managed to port a version of Linux to both the iPhone and iPod touch. So far, so good, but the downside is that this is really just the first step. There are no Linux drivers yet for the actual phone side of things, sound or Wi-Fi, nor does the touchscreen work yet. In other words, you’re not going to be able to do anything much with your Linux iPhone yet. However, if the comments on the community website are anything to go by, it can’t be long before those wrinkles are all ironed out and the hackers move on to the next project. Android, anyone? Video after the break.
HighAndes have released a new version of their software, trakAxMobile. Available for Windows Mobile QVGA and VGA devices, trakAxMobile is a groundbreaking software package for mobile devices that enables users to transform captured and downloaded media (video, audio, or images) into polished and sophisticated productions. It allows users to put mobile video clips and photos into a context; combining credits and text overlay, transitions, photo and video effects, cropping tools, boarders and themes, soundtracks and narrations – so now their mobile mixes will look as good and be as interesting as PC productions.
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