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More Microsoft Pink phone pics, still underwhelming

Marin Perez — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 18:19:32 +0000

When it leaks, it pours. Some more Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) Pink phone pictures and details have emerged, but it’s nothing to get too excited about. Both handsets are expected to be made by Sharp and will run a proprietary operating system that has Zune-like influences. Previous reports said the OS is supposed to be intuitive, fast and “better than Android.”

Microsoft is targeting the teens and tween markets with these devices, so expect some hardcore social networking integration and multimedia. The handsets could come to Verizon (NYSE: VZ) Wireless as soon as April 20 and a GSM version is expected to hit Vodafone (NYSE: VOD). I still have to question how smart it is to target such a narrow demographic. Sure, teens text like nobody’s business but they still want cool technology like an iPhone, Droid or Droid Eris. Additionally, the monthly costs on feature phones or messaging phones aren’t much less than a full on smartphone. Ah well, Microsoft gets a pass for now because I’m still in love with Windows Phone 7 Series.

[Via Engadget]

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Video: Hands-On with the First ELSE Phone

Simon Sage — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 17:26:49 +0000

You might remember that back at CES, we got a first look at the Israeli-born, Linux-based First ELSE handset. Well, they were here at Mobile World Congress, and we thought to check in and see what’s new. As it turns out, they have been busy at work, and have included quite a few new features.

Before getting into that, let’s talk a bit about what we already know. The so-called Intuition user interface is optimized for one-handed operation, both for general navigation and smooth picture zooming. From the home screen, you navigate to one of three categories aligned in an even arc, and with inward gestures, you can drill down right to pertinent data, like frequently-used contacts, and upcoming calendar items. A slightly more standard icon grid can also be pulled up if you’re not into the crazy avant-garde thing. As far as hard specs go, the First ELSE has a 5 megapixel camera, Of course, lefties may be out of luck for this particular phone.

New to the phone is the media player, which minimizes into a nice little player in the top-right corner, accessible from any screen. A programmable gesture area is also working smoothly just to the left of the home screen arc. So, for example, you could draw a G with your finger to pull up Google (NSDQ: GOOG) in the browser.

I asked about why they went with hardware-based LEDs along the top and side, rather than include them either in the software (for the top band) or as separate keys (for the right-side band), and they said that it was mostly in an effort to dedicate the entire display to the user interface, rather than static information. They’re all still touch-enabled so perfectly useful, but they just seem a bit out of place to me – maybe they seem a little low-tech for something that’s supposed to be drawing inspiration from Minority Report. Now, ELSE is doing some pretty cool stuff here, but I still can’t help but think they’re letting the whole project go to their heads – the team won’t refer to it as a phone or smartphone, since it’s “something else“. Apple (NSDQ: AAPL)-esque snobbery aside, ELSE is certainly doing something different, which I can only applaud and be excited about.

We should be seeing this out in the market in Q2 or Q3, and talks are certainly in place to get the First ELSE into North America.

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FCC gives us a peek at Microsoft’s Turtle Project Pink phone

Will Park — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 21:37:24 +0000

Microsoft will be going all out at Mobile World Congress with the unveiling of the Windows Mobile 7 OS, but they’ve still got a couple aces stuffed up their sleeve for next month – Pink-ish aces, to be exact. The FCC has just unveiled some certification documents that show what is believed to be a diagram of the “Turtle” Project Pink phone and a mention of another phone that could very possibly be the “Pure” Project Pink phone. We don’t know too much at this point, but the gagged docs are slated to reveal more information in March.

When we first saw the Project Pink mockups, the Turtle handset immediately stood out as a unique and, for lack of a better (more manly) term, cute little phone. The curved exterior and slide-out QWERTY keyboard befits the Turtle moniker, and makes the phone a fairly easily recognizable device. So much so that we can almost certainly say that the wireframe diagram of the backside of the PB10ZU is our first peek at the Turtle.

The FCC docs detail the Turtle as a dual-band CDMA slider phone with EVDO Rev. A, Bluetooth, and WiFi. The CDMA part of the spec sheet leads us to believe that either Sprint (NYSE: S) or Verizon (NYSE: VZ) will be picking up the Turtle later this year. The phone is apparently made by Sharp, which makes sense seeing as how Project Pink is the brainchild of Sidekick creator Danger, who have used Sharp as their Sidekick manufacturer for years. You’ll probably recall that Danger is now a part of Microsoft empire, and most recently suffered a major server failure that left Sidekick users stranded without critical data for days.

There’s also mention of a handset bearing the model number PB20ZU in the FCC’s documents. We’re given even less information about the PB20ZU than we were with the Turtle (PB10ZU), but all signs point to this second phone being the more traditional, but just as curvy, Project Pink “Pure” phone.

At this point, the CTIA tradeshow in March is looking like a likely launch window for Project Pink. We’re crossing our fingers for more details at Mobile World Congress. Stay tuned for more info!

[FCC via: Engadget]

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T-Mobile rolls out Sidekick LX 2009 OTA update

Will Park — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 23:33:01 +0000

T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) is all about rolling out over-the-air (OTA) updates recently. The Sidekick carrier has started pushing Sidekick OS updates to Sidekick LX 2009 handsets that should improve system stability and allow the user to backup their Sidekick contacts onto T-Mobile’s purpose-built backup servers. We all know how reliable Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT)’s Danger servers proved to be, so it’s good to see T-Mobile taking a proactive approach and issuing their own contacts backup service to Sidekick LX 2009 users. That’s assuming you haven’t already ditched T-Mobile and the Sidekick in search of greener smartphone pastures.

If you haven’t yet gotten the update, sit tight, T-Mobile will get you yours soon.

[Via: HipTop3]

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LG, RIM, Samsung and Sharp to support JIL widgets

Dusan Belic — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 13:40:33 +0000

The Joint Innovation Lab (JIL) announced that LG, RIM, Samsung and Sharp will support the JIL widget specification in future mobile handsets from the first quarter of 2010. As a result, developers will be able to make a single widget that works across multiple platforms and devices. On the other hand, end users will have more widgets available for download.

Other JIL member companies include large carriers like China Mobile (NYSE: CHL), SOFTBANK (OTCPK: SFTBF), Verizon (NYSE: VZ) Wireless and Vodafone (NYSE: VOD), which have a combined user base of more than 1 billion.

Commenting on the announcement, JIL’s CEO Peters Suh said: “The decision of LG, RIM, Samsung and Sharp to incorporate the JIL widget specifications in their future product roadmap is proof of the tremendous potential that JIL offers both to developers and customers. All four companies are innovation leaders and this is another strong affirmation of both JIL strategy and its robust technical specifications.”

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Bundle of New Phones Coming to Japan from KDDI

Simon Sage — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:48:55 +0000

Thirteen impressive new phones are coming down the pipe for Japanese service provider KDDI. Here’s the breakdown:

Casio Exilim Keitei CA003: 12 megapixel camera with 3x optical zoom, autofocus, image stablizer, and 20 images/second rapid shot
Sharp Aquos Shot SH003: 12 megapixel camera, FM transmitter, transfer and view Blu-Ray movies
Sharp Aquos Shot SH006: 12 megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, GPS, transfer and view Blu-Ray movies
Casio Exilim Keitei CA004: 8 megapixel camera with face detection, autofocus, and VGA video recording
Sharp SH004: 8 megapixel camera with noise reduction and low-light filter; low-power mode and call noise-cancellation
Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE) Bravia U1: 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and image stabilization; transfer and view Blu-Ray movies; waterproof
Kyocera (NYSE: KYO) SA001: 3.2 megapixel camera with image stabilization; 14.7mm thin closed
Toshiba (OTCPK: TOSBF) T003: 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus, face detection, and image stabilization; waterproof
Sharp SH005: 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and image stabilization; transfer and view Blu-Ray movies; waterproof
Sony Ericsson S002: 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus; GSM support
Sony Ericsson Urbano Barone: 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and image stabilization; large keys for the elderly; transfer and view Blu-Ray movies
Kyocera Mobile Easy K004: 2 megapixel camera with autofocus; easy-to-use UI
Kyocera Mamorino: Security-centric, helps parents keep tabs on kids; waterproof

Oh yeah, and the vast majority have WVGA displays and infrared support. Man, it’s a whole other universe over in Japan. The Bravia-branded phone is pretty slick, and the only other time we’ve seen optical zoom on a 12 megapixel cameraphone was on the Samsung W880. Overall, a solid winter lineup from KDDI – I just wish we had something comparable over here.

[KDDI via MobileCrunch]

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Rumor: Microsoft To Revive T-Mobile’s Lost Sidekick Data?

Will Park — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 06:45:57 +0000

The latest development in the T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) Sidekick server crash saga should give burned Sidekick users a little pick-me-up. TechCrunch is reporting on a fresh (unconfirmed) rumor from inside Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) that all lost Sidekick data might not be as lost as once thought. According to a Microsoft insider, engineers in the Danger division (which is responsible for the Sidekick backend) are incubating hopes of recovering all the lost data. If the rumor pans out, and Danger engineers can pull it off, T-Mobile will be able to triumphantly tell it’s Sidekick customers that their little Sidekick “snafu” has been completely fixed!

The rumor is totally unconfirmed at this point. But, remember, T-Mobile recently announced that they might be able to restore data to a portion of its Sidekick fleet. In fact, some users have been seeing data coming back online. That has to mean Danger has been making some headway since they initially announced that all Sidekick data was “almost certainly” completely lost in the server crash.

For the sake of Sidekickers with major data loss, we hope this rumor has legs.

[Via: TechCrunch]

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Free Peek Pronto for burned T-Mobile Sidekick users

Will Park — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 20:44:45 +0000

Were you burned by Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT)’s T-Mobile Sidekick server crash? Well, Peek has an offer to help you deal with losing all of your Sidekick data. Like many good marketing campaigns, Peek is taking advantage of another company’s misfortunes by offering Sidekick users a free Peek Pronto for a limited time.

The Pronto is a purpose-built email/text device. For $20 a month, Peek will serve up unlimited email and text messages to your Pronto. It’s got a color screen and a squared-off QWERTY keyboard, but that’s about where the spec-sheet ends. And, through October 16th, Peek will mail Sidekick users a free Pronto. Of course, you’ll have to show that you’re an actual Sidekick user (photo of you and your Sidekick, a T-mo bill, or any form of hard evidence you can dream up). Email proof to sidekick@getpeek.com.

[Via: Peek]

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T-Mobile: Sidekick data partially restored, $100 gift cards on the way

Will Park — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:13:40 +0000

T-Mobile isn’t taking its Sidekick outage lightly. The Sidekick carrier has been hard at work trying to get Sidekick service back in full working order, and it seems they were successful in restoring at least some Sidekick users’ data. After being told by T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) and Microsoft’s Danger division that Sidekick data was likely lost forever, some users were pleasantly surprised to see some of their lost data show up again on their Sidekick handsets.

As for the rest of the Sidekick camp with permanent data loss, T-Mobile has announced that they will be sending out $100 T-Mobile gift cards over the next 14 days. The gift cards can be used on any T-Mobile products or phone bills, in addition to the free month of service that T-Mobile is giving to every Sidekick user.

For what it’s worth, T-Mobile hopes “that for the majority of our customers, personal content can be recovered.”

Fingers crossed! Especially for heavy business users.

[Via: T-Mobile]

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Microsoft’s Project Pink Zune-Phones Leaked: Turtle and Pure

Simon Sage — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:33:05 +0000

After ages of rumours surrounding Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT)’s “Project Pink” and its links to Zune, we now have some pictures of the devices in question. The Pure and the Turtle will be made by Sharp and aimed squarely at the youth market, a forte Microsoft can claim since acquiring the desiginer of the Sidekick, Danger. Zune services and an app store will also be found on the Turtle and Pure, but little else one the specification-front is known. If you take a close look at those screens, it’s difficult to spot any signs of Windows Mobile, but it’s hard to imagine Microsoft using anything else. As for carrier, we had heard Verizon was sniffing around a Zune phone… What do you guys think? Zune Pass-compatible phones for a youth market sound like they could do pretty dang well.

[via Gizmodo]

http://www.intomobile.com/2008/04/15/microsoft-completes-danger-acquisition-danger-integrated-into-premium-mobile-experiences-division.html

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