By far, we all know Motorola (NYSE: MOT) is pushing its RIZR Z8 as a multimedia device. Powered by Symbian and UIQ 3.1, the Z8 is certainly the most powerful multimedia-enabled phone released by the American handset maker ever. What follows is Motorola’s TV ad for its “multimedia monster.” As expect, the video is the key selling point. Enjoy!

Here’s something I could easily envision being carried by some hard core environmentalists – a living plant (Cattleya or Cactus) cellphone strap. The plant comes submerged in a colorful fertilized liquid that provides all the nourishment it needs to survive. For mere $8 you can choose the color (pink or blue) and get some help in spreading the word wherever you are — and have no doubt about it, all of us at IntoMobile are pro-green oriented, though we’ll get ourselves different straps. Cool Yakuza strap, or… you got me — the drunken men one.

[Via: Gearfuse]

Having the full Napster’s catalog available for sale is just not good enough for AT&T (NYSE: T). They decided to go one step further and enhance their offering with some independent music from eMusic. The result is staggering – the carrier just added additional 2.7 million songs to its catalog.

Of course, you can preview each of the tracks before purchasing them and when you decide to go for it, you’ll get the track delivered to your phone over-the-air AND to your home computer. All you need is one of the compatible handsets like Samsung a717, a727, SYNC or the Nokia (NYSE: NOK) N75, and the will to pay $7.49 per five tracks. Have I mentioned that all songs from eMusic’s catalog are available as DRM-free? No? Well, they are!

See, iPhone does find its way to the enterprise market! Latest in the line to join the iPhone fray and add some seriousness on top of Apple (NSDQ: AAPL)’s primarily multimedia handset are the leading provider of UNIX software – SCO Group and a provider of rental and point-of-sale software for the specialty equipment rental market – Genisys Software. Last months, the two companies were working to bring AlphaRENTAL Solution for the iPhone handset.

The AlphaRENTAL solution is a mobile workforce automation application used by retail equipment and party rental centers to manage all aspects of their business, including CRM, sales, reservations, quotes, invoicing, receivables, parts, service and rental equipment inventory management.

There you have it – another industry is now covered with the iPhone. What’s next?

Synchronica is prepped to start free trial offers of their Mobile Gateway 3.0 solution for Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) Exchange on your iPhone. But, if you just can’t wait a couple more days to get your iPhone on the Enterprise tip, check out the hosted-Exchange service from Ice Web. The IceMAIL service is offered for free for the first 30 days, and will run you $8.50 per month after that – for a hosted service (they give you Outlook access and Exchange servers), that’s not too bad a deal.

It’s the complete hosting solution that sets Ice Mail apart from services like Synchronica’s Mobile Gateway 3.0, and we’re more than happy to welcome it with open arms. Microsoft Exchange doesn’t just appeal to suits and corporate-drones, but it turns out that they’re more likley to have a dedicated Exchange server backing them up (and even those with Exchange access can’t convince their IT overlords to open up the IMAP ports that the iPhone needs to sync with Exchange). If you want to get your own Exchange account, Ice Mail is for you. Check out the Ice Web site for details on setting up your iPhone with their Ice Mail service.

Source

With the iPhone’s file-system cracked open for all to see, everyone and their grandma is free to browse through the iPhone’s guts for kicks and giggles. And, all that snooping around has uncovered a few interesting bits of information within the iPhone’s firmware. It seems that there are 4 hidden references to unused, possibly hidden, applications in the “LocalizedApplicationNames.strings” file:

key: com.apple (NSDQ: AAPL).widget.translation
string: Translator

key: com.apple.unitconverter
string: Converter

key: com.apple.widget.phonebook
string: Business

key: com.apple.mobile.radio
string: Radio

This could hint at the future Google (NSDQ: GOOG)-collaborated apps that we speculated previously.

While the Translator, Converter, and Business references could simply be “left-overs” from Mac OS X (these are all widgets within Mac OS X Dashboard), the “mobile.radio’ reference is incredibly interesting. The iPhone’s hardware doesn’t even support radio functions – could we see a mobile, web-based radio app in the future? This is pure speculation, but we’re hoping that a future update will enable these “hidden” apps.

[Via: MacRumors]

Those of you just itching to get your iPhone all hooked up with your Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) Exchange email account are in luck! Synchronica’s Mobile Gateway 3.0 software opens up the Enterprise world of Exchange mail right on your iPhone! The over-the-air system makes nice with your Exchange account via Outlook Web Access (OWA) and serves up that synchronized email to your iPhone.

As Dusan mentioned before, “Synchronica’s solution does NOT require the enterprise to expose IMAP and SMTP in their Exchange servers or install additional connectors — instead it uses Microsoft’s secure Outlook Web Access (OWA) to retrieve e-mail from the corporate Exchange server, a service enabled by many enterprises to provide users with access to corporate e-mail from home or while traveling. And the best thing is that you will be able to use iPhone’s built-in email client, not some web-based solution!”

The software will kick off its commercial availability with a free trial offer, starting this week. Head on over to Synchronica’s sign-up page to register for your chance to get yourself some sweet free trial offer action.

Source

Following on the heels of news that Sprint (NYSE: S) has made a major breakthrough in integrating the Nextel “chirp” feature into it’s CDMA network, Motorola (NYSE: MOT) has released a couple new iDEN phones – the ic603 being a hybrid iDEN/CDMA handset.

The i335 is marketed as an entry-level candy-bar with a rubbery finish. Not much else to mention on that front, other than the i335 bears a striking resemblance to the i290 that we showed you a little while ago. The rubbery finish and sleek styling are a welcome departure from the normally staid designs we’ve seen in the past – even if it is on a low-end handset that lacks a camera.

The ic602 is a mid-range hybrid Nextel/Sprint combo-phone. The clamshell is bulky and even has an ugly antenna, as we have come to expect from iDEN phones – but it will work on CDMA and iDEN networks, dramatically increasing the coverage range of the phones. The ic602 is reported to be packing EVDO, and a 2 megapixel camera, but no memory card slot or music-player.

Both handsets are expected to launch later this year. Pricing is not yet known.

We’re a bit surprised to see Motorola still pumping out iDEN phones, considering the iDEN network is rumored to be slated for commercial shutdown in the near future. And, speaking of which, why would Sprint want to merge the “chirp” feature from a network that is rumored to be doomed for re-purposing?

[Via: Gearlog]

If you just have to check up and control your BitTorrent download from your mobile phone, your time has come! With the open-source µTorrent mUI, you can monitor your BT transfer status from your mobile phone. As long as you’re using µTorrent to download torrents from your home computer, and you’ve installed the WebUI, you can log into the web-based µTorrent mUI to check-up on your “informational videos.”

Right, we don’t know anyone so fanatical about their BT status that they need a mobile update, but hey, there’s bound to be some of you BT addicts out there. We’d rather pick up this external hard drive enclosure with its built-in BitTorrent client. Yea, it’d be nice to shut down our rig once in a while.

So far, the µTorrent mUI is only available on Windows machines, but Mac versions are on the way.

Lifehacker has a great step-by-step tutorial on how to setup your Windows machine with the WebUI.

[Via: Tech Buzz]

Bluetooth headsets are getting smaller and smaller these days. BlueAnt’s newest headset offering follows in the shrinking tradition with their 1.5-inch, 0.35 ounce Z9 Bluetooth Headset. We last saw this pint-sized beauty winning a design award at CES 2007, so we’re excited to finally see this thing hit the market. But, don’t let the tiny size fool you, this little sucker packs a Bluetooth punch. The Z9 gives you the flexibility to pair up to 3 different devices, with the option to switch devices on -the-fly. Dual microphones, Voice Isolation Technology for noise reduction, and DSP fill-out the feature-set.

The noise reduction technology has two modes – Standard and Max, for normal and noisy environments, respectively. And, for a few cents shy of a C-note ($99.95) you can get your Bluetooth connectivity going for 5.5 hours of talktime or 200 hours of standby. Oh, and there are different rings for contacts and unknown callers – know that’s a pretty cool feature.

We like the translucent ear-hook that makes the diminutive headset almost seem to float in your ear. Still, we’d rather see the in-ear, hook-less design of the Samsung WEP200 implemented into this design.

Hit the BlueAntZ9.com site for more details and a peep at the slick, Z9-dedicated page.

[Via: TMCnet]