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]

AT&T’s Chief Lobbyist, Jim Cicconi, is pissed that Andrew McLaughlin, the White House Chief Technology Officer, said this regarding China’s censorship of the internet and how companies in the USA are treating their networks:

“If it bothers you that the China government does it, it should bother you when your cable company does it.”

Jim says that Andrew’s comments are “ill-considered and inflammatory” and that:

“It is deeply disturbing when someone in a position of authority, like Mr. McLaughlin, is so intent on advancing his argument for regulation that he equates the outright censorship decisions of a communist government to the network congestion decisions of an American ISP. There is no valid comparison, and it’s frankly an affront to suggest otherwise.”

That pretty much sums up AT&T. They pay this Jim dude to pester people in Washingston all day to make sure that the law is favorable to the company’s bottom line. They’re not even ashamed to admit it, the man’s title is “Chief Lobbyist”, implying that there are many more serving under him.

How about this AT&T:

1. Fire all your lobbyists and spend the salaries of those fired lobbyists on actually improving your network
2. Change your business model for wireless data so that it respects the law and doesn’t impact profits too negatively
3. Stop suing people who talk smack about your network

Brainstorm that shit out and get back to me later kthxbye!

[Via: Washington Post]

Am I seeing things here? Is that really a laptop stand designed to clip to your steering wheel? Yessir, it is. What you’re looking at is the AutoExec WM-01 Wheelmate. This product was designed as a ‘tray’, but you’ll surely notice how well the thing doubles as a laptop stand.

Of course, this product could never be used while driving… and if you did use it while on-the-move, consider yourself a royal dirtbag for doing such a thing.

A little offbeat I know, but it’s late and I had to share. Steering wheel laptop stand FTW? Not a chance!

[Via: GeekWithLaptop]

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…

Analysts over at ABI Research are saying that as of the end of September 2009, there are 100 operators around the world who are trialing, or close to trialing, LTE technology. Of those 100, over 40 of them are in Asia. Close to 200 operators are in the process of upgrading from 3G to HSPA+, increasing download speed to 21 megabits/second; 50 of those operators are in Asia. As expected, it’s the Japanese and the South Koreans who are in the lead when it comes to getting the latest and greatest in infrastructure equipment up and running. With the amount of data usage on mobile devices exploding, ABI Research Analyst Bhavya Khanna is telling mobile operators that they “must upgrade their existing 3G infrastructure” and that they “cannot afford to neglect their existing networks”. I can only hope for our American readers that AT&T is listening.

Yesterday I reported about Telecom Italia’s trial in Turin, they’re already hitting 140 megabits/second. We also know about TeliaSonera in Sweden, who are trying really hard to become the first operator in the world to offer LTE service. Don’t forget Telnor in Norway who is replacing their entire network over the course of the next few years. ABI Research expects the first LTE networks to go live by the end of 2010, and that by 2013 there will be over 32 million people using LTE, so don’t start queueing up those torrents just yet.

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]