Motorola (NYSE: MOT) i410, which we saw at the FCC roughly a month ago, has been officially announced and it’s heading to Sprint (NYSE: S)-owned Boost Mobile. As it’s usually the case with iDEN phones, specs won’t impress many, and the same is true for the phone’s design. To be fair, that keyboard kinda reminds me on the Nokia (NYSE: NOK) N93, a phone that I had for a year and loved it. However, i410’s specs are far from the N93’s, which actually is an S60 smartphone.

The Moto i410 comes with two screens (96×32-pixel external and 128×160-pixel internal), Bluetooth, push-to-talk functionality, speakerphone, and that’s about it. No camera, no microSD card slot. It’s a super basic phone for those who need to text and call someone from time to time, and eventually rely on the walkie-talkie service (PTT) for some reason…

[Via: Engadget]

Even though most carriers around the globe still have to get the LG BL40 Chocolate, the Korean company has prepared a special edition of the device to celebrate the Christmas season. The so called New Chocolate Christmas Edition BL40 will drive the built-in camera’s megapixel count to 8, up from the “default” 5, and will hit South Korea on December 10th. In addition, this special edition handset comes in a special color – black case with golden accents, while each buyer gets a voucher that can win them up to 5 million KRW (more than $4,000).

And that’s about all we know at this stage. No word on pricing, nor whether the improved BL40 will ever hit the Western hemisphere. We think it will, but you never know…

[Via: Unwired View]

Google (NSDQ: GOOG) has tweaked some of its mobile web apps for Android-powered smartphones and the iPhone. Affected services include GMail, Latitude, Calendar and Tasks. The whole point of the tweak is to make the services slightly user friendlier with a bit larger, darker buttons. The image above illustrates best what’s new, so I’ll stop there leaving you only with the URLs of the tweaked services:

• Gmail – gmail.com
• Calendar – google.com/calendar
• Latitude – google.com/latitude
• Tasks – gmail.com/tasks

Or just visit google.com on your Android device/iPhone and look for these services under the “more” link.

[Via: Google Mobile Blog]

CellPhoneSoft’s Swiss Manager Pro used to be one of the top utility apps for the Symbian UIQ platform. For quite some time now, the mobile software company is also known for its S60 apps and their latest such application is Swiss Manager Pro 3.0.

As you may recall, this “composite utility” (as they like to call it) features enhanced memory and task management, detailed system information, and a fully fledged file manager. Additional features include memory cleanup functions, floating menu for instant access to all major services, Favorite/Recent list for quick applications launch, and more.

Swiss Manager Pro is compatible with all Symbian S60 smartphones, working equally well on keypad-based phones and on the latest touchscreen devices, like the Nokia (NYSE: NOK) N97 and X6, the Samsung i8910 (Omnia HD), and the Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE) Satio…

Symbian Foundation is stronger for yet another member company. It’s FancyFon Software which provides a portfolio of solutions for the mobile device lifecycle management market, enabling any number of mobile devices to be centrally and remotely managed over the Internet.

Like any other member of the foundation, FancyFon gains the immediate right to license the Symbian Foundation platform, royalty free and without source code fees; participate in the governance of the foundation; and take part in joint marketing and branding campaigns.

Commenting on the announcement, Symbian’s Shaun Puckrin said: “The Symbian Foundation welcomes FancyFon into the community. Developers and ISVs are crucial to creating the richest possible user experiences. We are eager to see the innovations that FancyFon Software will bring to Symbian consumers.”

In what seems as a desperate move to stay in power, Iran’s authorities are sending text messages to citizens warning them not to take part in anti-government protests. According to Tabnak, the SMS warns recipients that they have been identified as participants in past protests, and that they should stop attending demonstrations.

The reports come ahead of Student Day that is scheduled for December 7th, and which the opposition has vowed to “turn green” in support of the Green movement backing opposition leader Mir Hossein Musavi.

I’m all for expanding the use of mobile technology, but sometimes there’s the other side of the story, as you can see…

[Via: textually, SperoNews - image from AroundTheSphere]

Snappy is a perfect application for iPhone-ownin’ paparazzos around the globe. The idea is launch the camera in shortest time possible and quickly snap a photo (of a celebrity?). Snappy is ready to shoot in just 1-2 seconds, requiring users only to tap and hold the status bar from anywhere, application and lock screen included.

Unfortunately (or not), it’s a jailbreak thing only, meaning you’ll need to fully unlock your beloved handset prior to installing Snappy. The price is $1.99 and you can grab it from the Cydia store.

And now the video, as screenshots can’t tell the full story. Enjoy!

[Via: JustAnotherIphoneBlog]

Social networking in Latin America and Africa is set to increase ten-fold to 527 million users by 2015, according to research by Frost & Sullivan and Colibria. Within six years, the research company estimates the combined market will be worth almost $2.4 billion, with growth being driven by increased availability of the mobile internet.

In Africa, there are ten times more mobiles than landlines. Similarly, in South America, 80% of the population have a mobile phone compared to just 25% with regular fixed internet access.

Not surprisingly, mobile is the channel of choice for many social networks to get more customers. On that note, Colibria’s CEO Keith Gibson said: “The specific conditions in these markets have led to an increased need for solutions that make Mobilised Social Networking affordable and easy to implement. This is why we developed the Social Center – to provide operators with a reliable and cost-effective solution that provides all of their subscribers with access to social networks. With the growing consumer interest in social networks, it is important for operators to be able to deliver these services on top of the basic offerings to attract new customers.”

At the end, Colibria talks about its Social Center, which is presented in more details at their website.

[Via: CellularNews]

ZTE is working on the MTV-branded handset, or at least the FCC filing suggests so. It’s marked as the F870E, and it boasts a touchscreen along with a sliding QWERTY keyboard.

From the phone’s user manual, we see that it’s heading to Vodafone (NYSE: VOD), as it provides access to Vodafone’s MTV Music and the Vodafone Pass MTV websites. That makes me wonder – if it’s a Vodafone device, why on Earth does it need to get an FCC approval? Go figure.

Anyway, rest of the specs include a 3-megapixel camera, FM radio, Bluetooth, email client and so on.

We don’t know the release date nor how much will the F870E cost once it’s released. We do, however, think it will also be launched in China by China Unicom, as some screenshots indicate. As soon as we hear something new, you’ll be the first to know…

[Via: Unwired View]

Here’s a piece of software that should’ve come pre-installed with every Palm (NSDQ: PALM) Pre. It’s called Precorder and as you can guess from its name, it brings video recording to the webOS platform. Still in alpha, Precorder is a homebrew app that lets users capture 480×320-pixel video at 30fps in H.264/AVC format. Moreover, it allows controlling of the built-in LED light so you could continue your clip even in the low-light conditions. Audio can also be recorded, but that’s not a big deal.

On the downside, there’s no video preview presented while recording, but I assume that will be changed as soon as Precorder hits beta. Plus, the app is free, so we shouldn’t ask for too much… Search for it in the Palm App Catalog and let us know what you think.

[Via: Engadget]