LG Unveils New Touchscreen Mobile

LG has unveiled a new handset that's going to be the upgrade to their recently launched KF750 Secret slider handset. They’re calling it the KF755. The new slider handset comes equipped with a 2.4-inch TFT touch screen display with QVGA 320 x 240 pixel resolution. It also has a touch sensitive navigation panel. The KF755 will not feature HSDPA speeds but will of course support GPRS and EDGE. This seems to be the only difference between the two handsets. 

The other features incorporated into the KF755 include a 5 megapixel auto-focus camera, USB 2.0 connectivity and Bluetooth 2.0 so A2DP would be part of the package. It also has a media player and reads AAC+, WMA, and MP3 audio files, and MPEG-4 file formats. It will also feature a TV out, FM radio, accelerometer for auto screen rotation and microSD card support. 

There’s no price tag attached to the KF755 yet so stay tuned.

Samsung Launches Eco-friendly Mobiles

Like Nokia, Samsung is also getting into the environment friendly mobile groove and has launched 2 new handsets - W510 and F268 recently showcased at the World IT show in Seoul, Korea - with that motif.

W510 is Samsung's first mobile phone with 'bio-plastic' made from natural material extracted from corn. Samsung has been making an effort to develop more renewable and eco-friendly material compared with common plastic produced from petroleum. Even while producing the W510 handset, the company did not use any heavy metals, such as Lead, Mercury, and Cadmium, and applied water-soluble coating.

Samsung F268 with all the accessories including charger and headset does not contain BFRs (Brominated Flame Retardant) or PVC. In addition, the handset has an alarm function to encourage users to unplug their charger when the devices are fully charged. The product is also following the Energy Star requirements as well, which is strict energy-efficiency guidelines set by the US Environmental Protection Agency and the US Department of Energy.

"Samsung is striving to continue to be a strong corporate citizen that contributes to environmental sustainability," said Geesung Choi, President of Samsung's Telecommunication Business. "Now we are trying not only to launch more environmentally-conscious products with more renewable material and less energy consuming, but also to expand proactively set up a phone recycling system."

For now the W510 has been launched for the Korean market and F268 for the Chinese market. Hopefully they’ll make it to India as well, as keeping the environment safe should be a major concern here too

Nokia Announces E71 and E66

Nokia has introduced the latest in their Eseries range - the Nokia E71 and Nokia E66.

These e-mail optimized  devices come fully equipped for easy-to-install and easy-to-use professional and personal email. People who use Microsoft Exchange at work can access their email using the Mail for Exchange mobile email client, which comes pre-loaded with both the devices. Users can get real-time access to their email, calendar, contacts and tasks, as well as download attachments like Word, Excel, Powerpoint or PDF files directly to these devices.
 
The E71 and E66 support the Nokia Intellisync Wireless Email solution as well as third party email solutions like System Seven and Visto Mobile. Both devices come with the new switch mode that allows people easily to switch between personal and work home screens.
 
The E71 comes in a stainless steel case, with etched graphics and will be available in two colors - grey steel or white steel.

The Nokia E66 too comes in a stainless steel shell and shares the same key features as the Nokia E71, including an enhanced calendar, contacts and customizable home screen modes. 

The E66 also offers additions like an orientation sensor that automatically optimizes itself for full screen viewing or silences the ringer when the device is turned over. The device will be available in grey steel or white steel. 

"The Nokia E71 and Nokia E66 were designed for people who lead a mobile lifestyle and want quick and easy access to their personal and work email. With both of these devices, we have responded to consumer feedback by making calendar and contacts available at the touch of a button," said Søren Petersen, Senior Vice President, Devices, Nokia. "Equally important, people want well-crafted devices that are as beautiful to use as they are to behold. Stainless steel was chosen as the core material for these devices, giving them additional strength and a touch of class. Furthermore, the Nokia E71 and Nokia E66 offer all the latest multimedia features that people desire."

The E71 and E66 support the latest Ovi services including maps, music and media sharing. This includes seamless browsing with HSDPA, wireless LAN and 3G connectivity, Assisted GPS (A-GPS) and Nokia Maps for navigation, a music player with support for up to 8 GB expandable memory and a 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera. 
 
The devices also come fully equipped with a suite of enterprise grade features, including a built-in encryption functionality for both the device memory and for the memory card. They include integrated mobile VPN support that gives mobile professionals access to their company intranet, and device lock and wipe to protect corporate information.

The E71 and E66 are expected to begin shipping in key markets in July and retail at at EUR 350, before applicable taxes and subsidies. 

Motorola Launches the ROKR E8 in Mumbai

Motorola launched the Motorokr E8 at the Grand Hyatt yesterday in Mumbai. Also present at the event to explain the features was Abhiskek Bachchan, who is the brand ambassador for Motorola mobile phones in India. 

The phone features a first with technologies like "Morphing", which basically entails illuminating only those keys on the keypad that are needed to work - like Camera, Music etc. The phone also comes with Modeshift technology that allows users to switch modes with the press of a button. 

The E8 comes with a virtual keypad and a fastscroll navigation wheel, which makes use of the haptics technology to provide tactile response. Other features include 2 GB internal memory with an option to extend it further by another 4 GB. Supplementing the music player is the 3.5mm stereo earphone jack with support for A2DP (a Bluetooth profile for wireless headsets). The supported music formats include MIDI, MP3, AAC, AAC+, Enhanced AAC+, WMA, WAV, AMR-NB and Real Audio (RA) v10. The camera is a 2 MP one with 8x zoom, and connectivity features include USB 2.0 Hi-speed, GPRS Class 12 and EDGE Class 12.

The Motorokr E8 costs Rs. 15, 455.

Transcend Introduces Transparent Digital Photo Frame

Transcend has introduced an all new transparent version of its first digital photo frame – T.photo 710C. The new T.photo 710C comes with a 7-inch (480 x 234) TFT flat-panel display, plays music and has 1GB of internal memory.

Austin Huang, Regional Head - Sales, SAARC and APAC, Transcend, said, "If you're looking to add a bit of fashion to your living room, bedroom, or office and show off your picture collection at the same time, be assured that the T.photoTM 710C offers exceptional quality, features and value. As opposed to the original T.photo 710's elegant black and gold color scheme, the new T.photo 710C's transparent frame offers a simple and pure look, making it perfect for setting on an office desk or mounting on a living room wall, regardless of décor."

The T.photo also includes a picture-clock and calendar, alarm, and built-in MP3 player with speakers. It comes with a remote control. It costs Rs. 5,700 and comes with a 2-year warranty.

It looks like the newest Sony Ericsson Cybershot camera phone is making the scene, though not officially. And from the information that's going around, here's what we know so far – The C905 - as it's being called is a GPS enabled handset. Of course being a Cybershot would mean having a high end camera so why not throw in Geotagging to spice it up a bit. And let's not forget why this handset WILL be a big deal when it's official - the C905 comes equipped with an 8MP camera. It'll have a Xenon and normal flash as well for video.

Some of the other specs include a TV Out port, an accelerometer for auto screen rotation, (let’s not hope they’ve stuck to just the media screen this time, though I have my doubts), external memory support through M2 cards and apparently Wi-Fi connectivity as well. The C905 could also have Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA), which is a protocol that runs on top of Wi-Fi that will enhance the sharing of various media. The handset will come with a 2.4-inch scratch-resistant TFT display made of mineral glass and will have a pixel resolution of 240 x 320 (QVGA) with 262K colors. This quad-band handset will also support HSDPA speeds. Let's hope that the real deal sticks to these specs plus, I wouldn't complain a bit if it had more to offer.

Pentax Imaging Company has announced the Pentax Optio W60 compact digital camera. Lightweight and fully waterproof, the Optio W60 features 10 megapixels and a 5X zoom lens with 28mm wide-angle capability. The design of the Optio W60 allows the camera to operate up to 13 feet underwater for two hours and at extreme temperatures well below freezing point.

The 5X optical zoom refraction lens never protrudes from the Optio W60, yet it covers focal lengths from 5mm to 25mm (approximately 28mm to 140mm in 35mm format). This range allows the camera to capture a wide variety of scenes including expansive landscapes, architecture, and group photos in confined spaces as well as close-up telephoto shots of subjects. A Digital Wide function merges two shots into one image for ultra-wide-angle image capture (equivalent to a focal length of 21mm in 35mm format).

The Optio W60 also accompanies users to new aquatic depths. With improved design and construction of the shutter button and controls, as well as reinforced, airtight joints, the Optio W60 allows underwater photography up to 30 percent deeper than previous Pentax waterproof models. In addition to the JIS Class 8 waterproofing standard, the camera is JIS Class 5 dustproof against dirt, sand and dust and operates in extreme temperatures as cold as 14 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 10 degrees Celsius).

Other important features and modes of the Pentax Optio W60 include a High-Quality Movie mode with HD resolution up to 1280 x 720 pixels (comparable to a 720p HDTV) as well as Auto Picture mode, fast Face Recognition, Smile Capture, Blink Detection, an Underwater Movie mode, High Sensitivity Digital SR mode that automatically adjusts the sensitivity up to ISO 6400, and an LCD monitor with a 170 degree wide-angle view and Anti-Reflection coating to reduce glare.

The Pentax Optio W60 will be available in the US by July 2008 for US $329.95 in a choice of two colors - Ocean Blue and Silver. No information on the Indian launch and pricing yet.

Zotac Releases 9800 GTX Zone Edition GPU

Zotac today has released its liquid-cooled, near-silent single GPU graphics card – the ZOTAC GeForce 9800 GTX ZONE Edition. Cooled by a custom water-cooling system, the ZOTAC GeForce 9800 GTX ZONE Edition delivers high-performance in DirectX 10 and OpenGL 2.1 titles while keeping thermal and noise levels to a minimum.

Unlike conventional water-cooling units, the ZOTAC GeForce 9800 GTX ZONE Edition features a self-contained water-cooling system that requires no end-user maintenance. The self-contained unit comes already attached to the graphics card and only requires the user to mount the 120mm fan and radiator module. The water-cooling system delivers up to 21.5% lower GPU temperatures compared to traditional air-cooled solutions. In addition to the water-cooler, the new card receives a slight performance boost through higher clock speeds. This is done by raising core, shader and memory clock speeds to 700 MHz, 1700 MHz and 2250 MHz, respectively.

"Many enthusiasts seek better cooling performance and quieter operation from their graphics card cooler through third party vendors, but maintaining low noise with high-performance using air-cooling solutions is a hard task," said Carsten Berger, marketing director, ZOTAC International (MCO) Ltd. "With our ZOTAC GeForce 9800 GTX ZONE Edition, customers can have the high performance and quiet operation of water-cooling without the hassles of regular maintenance or installation, which often voids the factory graphics card warranty."

All Zotac cards carry a warranty of 5 years, with the cost of the 9800 GTX Zone edition being available for an approximate cost of Rs. 23,000.

MWg Enters India, Launches WinMob Handsets

Singapore-based Mobile and Wireless Group (MWg) has entered the Indian market and unveiled their latest Windows Mobile handsets - the MWg Atom V and MWg Zinc II.

The MWg Atom V is a full-featured, touch-screen operated device with in-built GPS, 3.5G HSDPA and onboard Wi-Fi. The handset is 14.95mm thin and comes in midnight blue hue. The front face of the device houses the 2.8" LCD screen, a scroll wheel and four buttons. The phone also features a 2.0 mega-pixel camera with auto focus and FM radio with RDS (Radio Data System) that provides data on the station, the current track on air from a station and traffic alerts.

The Atom V features an Intel processor running Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 Professional at 520 MHz and will retail at Rs. 27888.

New Eve Online Expansion Launched

The latest expansion to Eve Online – Empyrean Age – went live today. This is the eighth free expansion the game has seen and is available on the one and only server that is live. Here’s a little about the game:

EVE Online: Empyrean Age destroys the peace of New Eden as long suppressed political tensions between the four major Empires of EVE boil over into direct conflict. Stalwart starship pilots join the newly mustered militias and make solitary strikes deep within enemy territory. By choosing sides in this epic war, players have the power to direct the course of the conflict. New players can quickly immerse themselves in the EVE universe by diving into large-scale factional battles.

The events leading to the outbreak of war in the expansion are based on the science-fiction novel, EVE: The Empyrean Age, utilizing a rare and dynamic creative style where an MMO and traditional literature mirror each other's development. Written by EVE novelist Tony Gonzales, EVE: The Empyrean Age will be released in the UK by ORION Books on June 19, 2008 with worldwide distribution to follow.

New Firefox Browser to be Released Tuesday

A new version of the Firefox Web browser is scheduled for release Tuesday with improvements in security, speed and design.

Many of the enhancements in Firefox 3 involve bookmarks. The new version lets Web surfers add keywords, or tags, to sort bookmarks by topic. A new "Places" feature lets users quickly access sites they recently bookmarked or tagged and pages they visit frequently but haven"t bookmarked.

There's also a new star button for easily adding sites to your bookmark list - similar to what's already available on Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7 browser.

Other new features include the ability to resume downloads midway if the connection is interrupted and an updated password manager that doesn't disrupt the log-in process.

In a nod to the growing use of Web-based e-mail, the browser can be set to launch Yahoo's service when clicking a "mailto" link in a Web page, the ones you might come across clicking on a name or a "contact us" link. Previously such links could only open a standalone, desktop e-mail program.

Yahoo is the only Web service initially supported. To use rivals like Google's Gmail and Microsoft's Hotmail, developers of those services will have to enable that capability first.

Firefox also will start blocking rather than simply warning about sites known to engage in "phishing" scams that try to trick users into revealing passwords and other sensitive information. The new version adds protection from sites known to distribute viruses and other malicious software.

The list of suspicious sites come from Google Inc. and StopBadware.org, a project headed by legal scholars at Harvard and Oxford universities.

Security researchers who need access to problem sites can manually turn the feature off.

Firefox 3 also offers speed and design improvements - the back button is now larger than the forward button, for instance, because people tend to return to a previous page more often, said Mike Schroepfer, the project"s vice president of engineering.

Firefox is the No. 2 Web browser behind Microsoft's Internet Explorer. It comes from Mozilla, an open-source community in which thousands of people, mostly volunteers, collectively develop free products.

Mozilla has been developing Firefox 3 for nearly three years and has been publicly testing it since November for Windows, Mac and Linux computers.

Its supporters are organizing launch parties around the world next week, and Mozilla is trying to set a world record for most software downloads in a 24-hour period.

Microsoft is currently testing Internet Explorer 8, while Opera Software ASA released Opera 9.5 on Thursday.

Virgin Mobile Launches vSleek

Virgin Mobile has announced that on the purchase of every vSleek mobile phone, Virgin Mobile users can now avail a lifetime validity voucher, a starter user kit and 2000 minutes of free local calls to any network.

These 2000 free minutes, spread over five months, will be credited into the account of customers 400 minutes every month and will come with a validity of 30 days from the date of credit.

At 66gms and 10 mm, vSleek features a 1.77-inch screen with 65K TFT display, supports 64K polyphonic ringtones and a phonebook memory that can store upto 250 contacts while the RUIM (SIM) can store up to 250 contacts.

vSleek has 32MB of flash memory, 8MB of SRAM, 5MB of user memory, FM, camera, MP3 player, memory card support and is priced at Rs. 4,799.

Deval Parikh, Chief Officer, Handsets, VAS and Procurement, Virgin Mobile India said, "The vSleek offer is based on our finding that youth like to talk a lot. They want to stay connected with their peers and are always looking for the best deal. With this offer we want to surprise our users by clubbing a mid segment, stylish, functionality rich (with MP3 player, FM, micro data card, camera) and attractively priced CDMA handset with an unmatched deal of 2000 minutes of free local calls to any network."

vSleek is capable of doubling as a data modem with a speed of up to 153 Kbps. The Micro SD card gives users the option to store upto 2 GB of data including songs and games for fun. vSleek has a one-touch access to Vbytes, Virgin Mobile's VAS data portal, where users can get unlimited access to Virgin Mobile selected content and other applications for a charge of Rs. 5 per day.

Like all other Virgin Mobile branded handsets, vSleek is being made available across 15,000 outlets nationally and at retail outlets including The Mobile Store, RPG Cellucom, Univercell, Croma, Convergem and Mobile NXT.

HTC Launches P3350 in India

HTC Corporation has announced the launch of the P3350, "exclusively made for the music lovers in India."

In a graphite silver shell, the P3350 features a 360-degree scroll wheel and 8-way touch pointer flanked by control keys that make it easier to access certain functions. It runs on Windows Mobile 6.0 platform, comes with a 2.0 megapixel CMOS camera, a 2.8-inch QVGA display screen, has in-built FM radio, high-speed WLAN, an audio manager and audio booster with a 10-band equalizer range.

The PDA comes with a 128MB built-in ROM and 64MB RAM. It is equipped with Microsoft Office programmes like Outlook Mobile, Word Mobile, Excel Mobile, PowerPoint Mobile, IE Mobile, DirectPush and Windows Media Player 10 Mobile. Users can also have access to Adobe Reader (PDF), Activesync, Comm Manager, Internet sharing, Network Wizard, Audio Manager and Audio Booster or communicate through Pocket MSN. The device also includes Sprite Backup and GPRS Monitor.

The P3350 also features additional 128MB flash memory, while WLAN 802.11b/g, quadband, GPRS, EDGE and Bluetooth v2.0 provide the connectivity.

Ajay Sharma, Country Manager, HTC India, said, "The launch of the HTC P3350 is line with our efforts of offering a device that combines and supports data capabilities along with a platform to provide and support music and entertainment experience for users while on the move. We are positive that this device will be a big hit among music enthusiasts."

The HTC P3350 is available at all authorized resellers for Rs. 18, 490.

Cheaper High-End Mobiles

In this age of mobile wizardry, anything is possible. You could watch TV on your mobile, use two SIM cards simultaneously, and still walk away with no dent in your wallet. While mobile phones also have a fair share of knock-offs, or 'clones' as we like to call them, there are plenty of handsets that aren’t clones and yet deliver in the features department. We know these as the nameless ‘Chinese Mobiles’. I managed to get hold of some and tested them for you.

I may not be able to give you too much by way of detail about the handsets themselves, but I can tell you what they essentially offer and how good they are. Those of you who aren’t aware of their prices (which is unlikely since they’ve pretty much flooded the market) please listen up. All the handsets I've tested in this feature are priced under Rs 10,000 (they range anywhere between Rs 5,500 and Rs 9,000).

V323

The V323 mobile is a rather bulky handset and heavy too. But it has a superbly clear 3-inch touchscreen display that’s great for watching videos and TV, if you have the reception. The interface looks identical to Nokia Symbian interface handsets, so navigation should be easy for Nokia users... or just about anybody. The interface is a little bit slow though. The phone supports analog TV, but unfortunately I couldn’t get decent reception anywhere and all I saw was a lot of static.

The V323 comes equipped with a 1.3MP camera (with plenty of settings) and the image quality isn’t too bad. There various features, including a pretty good media player and an FM radio, in addition to regular stuff like a converter, calendar for schedules and appointments etc. The best thing about the V323 is that it supports dual SIM cards, both GSM. It’s a bit tricky figuring out messaging and calling the numbers stored on the SIMs, but poking around helps. Both SIMs are simultaneously active and incoming calls from the second SIM will simply have a ‘(2)’ attached to the callers name. You can switch off either SIM if you wish. The V323 also supports external memory.

TV01

If you thought the iPhone was the big daddy of cell phones, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. I’m not referring to the handset in technological terms and calling it that, but more in terms of its size, especially with its external battery pack that includes an additional speaker. It’s unfortunate that the company that designed this handset with the external additional pack has given those annoying individuals who play their mobile music in the train some rather heavy artillery.

This handset also supports analog TV with pretty good pickup. Don’t expect to get crystal clear reception, but the image quality is okay and so is the sound. The external pack has a little stand to prop up the handset. The TV01 supports dual SIM cards too, but as far as I could tell, both are not simultaneously active, though there is a dedicated button to switch between the two. This handset has a large touchscreen interface that supports quite a high resolution. The interface is quite catchy and easy to navigate, with the five-way nav-pad or the stylus. Feature-wise the TV01 is quite well equipped with multimedia, a 1.3MP camera and the relevant features that all mobile handsets come with including alarms, calendar, notes etc. External memory is supported via microSD cards.