Aside from showing the Nokia (NYSE: NOK) E71x for AT&T (NYSE: T) and Nokia 1661 for T-Mobile USA, the Finnish giant also unveiled two new Bluetooth accessories at the CTIA Wireless in Las Vegas. The first of the two is the Nokia Bluetooth Headset BH-216, which is touted as a “comfortable headset with a curved form factor that enables handsfree calls in even the noisiest of environments.”
As for the other one, the Nokia Speakerphone HF-510 is an in-vehicle suction cup speakerphone with high quality echo and noise reduction — integrated DSP.
No more details were provided in terms of specs. We do know that the headset will be available in Q3 2009, when interested users will be able to grab it for $39.99. On the other side, the speakerphone will hit the store shelves and Nokia’s website in the “coming months” and will retail for $99.99.
Kyocera (NYSE: KYO) has unveiled two new CDMA phones at the CTIA Wireless in Las Vegas: the full QWERTY keyboard equipped G2GO M2000, aka Virgin Mobile Kyocera X-tc; and Laylo M1400 slider.
The first of the two looks more interesting, thanks to the mentioned keyboard, which makes the device a texter’s dream phone. Other specs include 2.4-inch QVGA screen, media player with dedicated music keys, 1.3 megapixel camera, built-in accelerometer (for auto-rotation, I guess), Bluetooth support, and of course a microSD memory card slot. Size wise, the G2GO M2000 measures 113×52x17 mm, and has a weight of 120 grams.
As for the slider device, there’s a 2.2-inch QVGA screen on board, Bluetooth, VGA camera, and the speaker-independent voice recognition. In terms of size, the Laylo M1400 has dimensions of 94.7×46.7×17.0 mm and weight of 90 grams.
While we know Virgin Mobile USA (NYSE: VM) will launch the Kyocera X-tc later this month, we’ve no idea whether some carrier will pick up the Laylo. We’ll certainly have more to share in the coming weeks…
Samsung apparently couldn’t wait for CTIA Wireless 2009 to kick off in Las Vegas. A couple days before the trade show was scheduled to begin, Samsung blitzed the media with a slew of affordable messaging handsets. And then they blitzed us again with the Samsung Instinct S30 and Samsung Mondi the next day. Nevertheless, we’re fully recovered from Samsung’s handset assault – recovered enough to hit the Las Vegas Convention Center for some hands-on time with the new Samsung Magnet.
The Samsung Magnet is being targeted at AT&T (NYSE: T) customers looking for an affordable handset with a full QWERTY keyboard to help take the hassle out of sending text messages to friends and family. Decked out in bright Orange, the Samsung Magnet we got to play with was as straightforward as they come. It won’t do anything that qualifies it as a smartphone. It won’t be taking incredibly high-resolution pictures. But, then again, the Samsung Magenta never set out to be a powerful handset. It just wanted to do one thing, and do it well – send text messages.
The Magnet is as thin as monoblock handsets come. The display sits above a set of navigation and the QWERTY keyboard. The keyboard is easy to use and offers good tactile feedback. Each key on the keyboard is slightly raised and is just big enough to be comfortable for even the stubbiest fingers out there. As for aesthetics, there isn’t too much hardware to take up space within the Magnet’s casing, and that makes for a slim, sexy handset that doesn’t make excuses for what it can’t do.
Samsung just yesterday unveiled their first WiMAX-capable smartphone for use with Clearwire’s WiMAX-based Clear network in the US. As the company’s first foray into the 4G WiMAX market, the Samsung Mondi is going to be an interesting device to watch. The Mondi isn’t a handset, it’s being billed as an MID (Mobile Internet Device), but with WiMAX and WiFi on board, you’ll likely never be out of reach of a quick VoIP call. The Samsung Mondi’s success is largely going to hinge on how well Sprint (NYSE: S) and Clearwire market their mobile broadband services. On its own merit, however, the Samsung Mondi shines as a seriously media-savvy mobile broadband device.
As always, Samsung’s show-presence is formidable. With mobile charging stations setup through the Las Vegas Convention Center, Samsung is making sure they get their name out there. The Samsung booth is as large and in charge as they come, and we had the pleasure of stopping by for a little hands-on time with the Samsung Mondi.
In our brief play-date with the Mondi, we can say that the upcoming 4G Mondi is impressive. It’s a big, chunky device, to be sure. But, that’s to be expected when you’re rocking a full QWERTY keyboard and a monstrous 4.3-inch touchscreen! Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional runs the Mondi-show, but Samsung has cooked up a nifty UI overlay to help you avoid any unnecessary interaction with WinMo (thankfully).
We can’t comment on the Mondi’s connectivity and wireless data speeds, since WiMAX isn’t setup for the CTIA Wireless show and WiFi was unreliable (at best) on the showfloor, but as far as UI usability and hardware quality go, the Mondi is tops. The touchscreen display is responsive without being squishy and the sliding keyboard mechanism is tight and wiggle-free. The QWERTY keyboard isn’t going to make any headlines, but for some quick on-the-go emailing or document editing, the Mondi’s keyboard is going to suit you just fine.
Samsung is looking to market the Mondi to WiMAX users in the US surfing on Clearwire’s Clear WiMAX network. Availability and pricing aren’t yet known, but expect the Mondi to carry a hefty price tag (at least a hefty unsubsidized price tag) when it launches late this year or early 2010.
The CTIA Wireless 2009 Las Vegas show isn’t what you’d call a booming success. Attendance is noticeably down and the general atmosphere is just a little muted this time around. The Las Vegas convention center showfloor is peppered with more small- to medium-sized booths than the big, marketing budget-blowing extravaganza that we’ve seen in shows past. Unfortunately, that’s a sentiment that we’re all too familiar with given the dour economic conditions affecting the globe. Which is why it’s always fun stopping by LG’s booth.
LG, as usual, boasted a sprawling booth with lights, DJs and chic decor. The dearth of similarly decked-out booths may be skewing our view, but it sure looks like LG came to CTIA Wireless 2009 to play. LG is showcasing their LG Arena, LG Rumor 2 and LG Style here at CTIA 2009. We’ll wait to post more in-depth LG hardware coverage until we get some proper hands-on time with the handsets, so you’ll have to make do with the booth tour pics below.
Zer01, the new wireless carrier offering unlimited voice and data plans for just $69.95, has gone official with their network at CTIA Wireless 2009 in Las Vegas. Since their initial announcement earlier this month, Zer01 has been working hard to make it publicly known that they are not an MVNO. Given the MVNO fad’s spectacular failure last year, it’s not surprising that Zer01 would want to distance themselves from the “MVNO” label. But, are they really a “new” wireless carrier?
Zer01 CEO Ben Piilani took some time to give us a run-down on just what makes Zer01 such an innovative new wireless carrier. He starts off by explaining how Zer01 uses cell-towers throughout the US to route voice calls and data through Zer01’s own back-end servers. By licensing access to cell towers across the country, Zer01 can hook up just about any smartphone into their network. Zer01 manages to keep costs low and offer sub-$70 unlimited wireless plans by treating all network communications as data, which is routed through Zer01’s IP-based network. Voice calls are transformed into data packets and sent through Zer01’s redundant communications servers (note, they’re not sent over a carrier’s circuit-switched network).
Zer01 touts itself as an open network. Any smartphone user is welcome to bring their own smartphone to the Zer01 network. Getting Zer01 service is as easy as picking up a Zer01 SIM card, paying a $30 one-time activation fee, registering the Zer01 SIM online and popping the SIM into the smartphone. The Zer01 network will automatically detect the new SIM and send configuration files to your handset over-the-air. It really doesn’t get much easier than that.
Zer01 is in beta at the moment, which means we won’t be seeing any commercially available Zer01 service until July. During the beta we’ll only see Windows Mobile smartphones supported on Zer01’s network, but we’re told that all smartphone platforms (iPhone OS, Android OS, Symbian OS, BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM)) will be supported within a year. Zer01 did, however, have a few Pharos smartphones on hand to demonstrate Zer01’s wireless service. The company demonstrated its custom widget-based “phone-top” interface to give users a convenient and intuitive UI to use on their smartphone. The Zer01 phone-top serves as a launching point to access social networks, email, text messages and even a proprietary dialler that is needed to make voice calls.
We can’t wait to put Zer01 through its paces. Mr. Piilani assured us that Zer01’s VoIP algorithms and data-on-demand (remember, Zer01 doesn’t use carriers’ network communications, which allows for maximum data throughput) makes for an uncompromised voice calling experience. We’ll reserve judgment until we can get our hands on some actual Zer01 hardware. For now, at least, we’re impressed.
Samsung has finally did the thing I’ve been thinking about for some time – they’ve opened up their TouchWIZ platform to enable interested companies and individuals to bring their widgets to Samsung phones.
UI Evolution is developing a set of developer tools for Samsung to support the easy development of TouchWIZ widgets.
Based upon the Eclipse IDE, developers will have a custom interface to easily access code samples, FAQ’s, device emulation, and submission of content for sale through the Samsung Rich Connected Application storefront.
At the same time, the Korean giant announced three new widgets – Yahoo, Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and AccuWeather.com. I guess you know what each one of them does, so I won’t go into details there. I’ll only conclude that I LOVE TouchWIZ and that I’m ultra-excited that Samsung decided to go this route!!!
With the growing number of iPhone apps, it gets harder and harder to find out about all the cool things in the AppStore. Mobui Corporation saw that problem and at the CTIA they’ve announced the private beta launch of the new AppsWeLike mobile application referral network with the idea to provide iPhone application developers and publishers the opportunity to “insert recommendation lists of mobile applications that they like within the iPhone applications that they build and generate revenue based on a click-per-action model.”
As a result, we may see the AppsWeLike icon appearing in many iPhone apps by clicking on which, you could find out about other cool apps developers suggest.
Nokia (NYSE: NOK) announced a new entry-level candybar for T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) USA – Nokia 1661. There’s nothing too exciting about this device, except that it may help the Finnish giant expand its U.S. market share, at least a little.
Specs wise, there’s a dual-band GSM radio on board, 1.8-inch 128×160 pixels screen, FM radio, speakerphone, flashlight, and a battery that can sustain up to 8 hours of talk and up to 624 hours of standby time. Pre-installed on the device are two games – Sudoku and Mobile Soccer.
There’s no word on the pricing, but we’re thinking the Nokia 1661 will be available for free on a contract, or for about $50 sans any contracts signed. Release date is set for “later this month.”
Just when you though Palm (NSDQ: PALM) might have totally blown their load at the CES launch, they might have one more thing up their sleeve for CTIA Wireless. There’s an icon here labeled “Classic” with some old-school graphics, leading us to believe that WebOS will somehow support legacy Palm applications, potentially through an emulator. We’ll be holding our breath for an announcement sometime during the show, maybe as soon as tonight!
