RIM Blackberry Pearl 8100 Launches
Roger’s Wireless in Canada is getting the RIM Blackberry Pearl 8100, a great little Blackberry device that sports some nice features. Mobile Burn takes a look at it on their site.
The Blackberry Pearl 8100 not only includes all the features people have come to expect from a RIM device, such as push email, full PIM functionality, and corporate data access, but also sports some more ‘fun’ inclusions such as a 1.3 megapixel camera as well. A large, 240×260 pixel resolution 65k color TFT display features prominently on the front of the device, as does a glowing track ball, similar to that on the Sidekick III. Below the track ball, a SureType hybrid QWERTY keypad can be found.
People in the USA can expect to see it with T-Mobile starting today. And Rogers Wireless this October.
Sprint Adds Movie Streaming
Those of you on the Power Vision EV-DO service might have something else to be excited about today, as Sprint has added the ability to stream full-length feature films right to compatible handsets.
The movie catalogue will currently be made up of both recent box office releases and classics from companies such as Buena Vista, Lionsgate, Sony Pictures, and Universal Pictures. Prices for ‘renting’ a movie ranges between $3.99 USD to $5.99 USD, with the user able to watch the movie an unlimited amount of times but only for 24 hours to one week, depending on the title.
As an added bonus, the streaming movies behave similar to DVDs, in that the movie is divided into chapters that can be skipped and navigated between, and the movie will resume from the same point if it is stopped mid way through.
I don’t know if I would ever want to watch a movie on a small two inch screen, but I guess some people do, and screens on cell phones are getting bigger. Interesting idea.
Ericsson Gets Deal to Exapnd Chinese Mobile Network
When dealing with the Chinese market, most American and European companies would be criticized for succumbing to the whims of this strict regime. Even Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! weren’t spared from this. But the general response to such criticisms is that it’s better to open up the market, such that some information flow and exchange would occur–this is better than having nothing at all.
BusinessWeek has a brief report.
Wireless equipment maker LM Ericsson on Monday announced deals worth more than US$550 million to expand mobile networks in 17 Chinese regions.
Ericsson said the contracts were signed with China Mobile during the first half of 2006, and includes providing the country’s major cell-phone operator with GSM network equipment and technical support. The expanded networks will support more than 200 million subscribers, Ericsson said.
Ericsson, which is in the top leagues in wireless equipment manufacturing and sales, has been dealing with China Mobile since 1987, and this deal would further strengthen their position as a top equipment provider. And arguably, helping improve on the Chinese telecommunications infrastructure would be helpful to the country’s citizens, in general, as this would help in communications and information exchange.
Usability in SMS Sending Interfaces
Jayvee writes over at Cellphone9 that he’s now thinking of choosing phones based on how the SMS editor handles error messages.
No. I want to resend the message. I swear, choosing a phone based on failure messages is actually something I’m considering now. Sony Ericsson phones send an error message asking if you would like to save the message in a draft folder to be sent later. But network behavior dictates that a failed message could mean that the network was down. So no, I don’t want to save the message in a draft. I want to resend it.
Maybe mobile phone software manufacturers should take into account a priority list of options that a guy with a phone would instinctively want to choose in only one button press.
I agree with Jayvee that this is one big factor to consider, especially with the growing popularity of SMS. I do know of some mobiles that do not even display any error message even if your message wasn’t properly sent (due to network congestion, weak signal or even account problems). Some phones would automatically save your message back in the drafts list. Some would have an error messange linger for a few seconds before reverting back to the message editing interface.
The point is that cellphone manufacturers should consider usability in the way they display these error messages, and possibly take into account user preferences. Should an error message be displayed until a user presses a key to close it? Should a user be asked if the phone should attempt to re-send the message or just save it in the drafts folder for the meantime?
I’ve had my share of miscommunications due to un-sent or mis-sent SMS messages only to learn later on that my phone was unable to properly send. I sometimes have this habit of just stuffing my phone back inside my pocket when I click that “send” key without waiting if the message had actually been sent already. Lately, I’ve been relying on audible alerts from my SmartPhone–I’ve set the “error” and “sent” alerts to be different so I can resend in the event of errors. Sadly, my phone still doesn’t have an intuitive interface for re-sending messages that were unsuccessfully transmitted. I’d have to manually go to the “sent folder” re-edit the message and send again. Not so smart for a SmartPhone, eh?
Mobile Outage in New York
If you’re seeing yourself banging your cellphone on your head in frustration because it just won’t dang work, it’s probably because you’re in New York and you’re using Sprint. Apparently, some damage to underground network equipment have caused outages in some parts of Queens, NY.
Sprint Nextel Corp. said an outage of its cellphone service in parts of the New York borough of Queens on Thursday was caused by water damage to network equipment due to a burst pipe.
The outage came amid intensified airport security after British police said they had foiled a plot to blow up several aircraft flying between Britain and the United States. Two major New York airports — JFK and LaGuardia — are in Queens.
The service interruption, reported earlier by the New York City police, was caused by damage to equipment in Verizon Communications Inc.’s wired network, Sprint spokesman Mark Elliott said.
Sprint and Verizon (which runs the wired network that carries the data from cellular towers) have confirmed that the outage is due to waterlogging and not because of terrorist acts.
Nokia to Enter the Music Business
Realizing that mobile and music are a good match–at least in the present–Nokia has announced plans to acquire music distributor Loudeye.
Nokia said on Tuesday it had agreed to buy U.S.-based digital music distributor Loudeye for $60 million as the world’s largest handset maker aims for a bigger slice of a potentially lucrative market.
…
Handset makers see digital music as one of the key drivers for selling more expensive new phones.“Music is now the number one service for selling advanced mobile phones–it has been cameras, and in the future it might be television–but in 2006 music has become the service phone makers have been concentrating on,” said FIM Securities analyst Erik Sucksdorff.
Music and mobile phones are hitting the sweet spot in today’s consumer market. while other technologies are on the horizon–such as mobile television and perhaps even videoconferencing–Nokia is apparently learning from today’s iPod generation. It even has the right to claim the “largest manufacturer of digital music players” title.
Loudeye aggregates rights and content from major labels and hundreds of independent labels and currently offers licensed catalog and complete media for over 1.6 million tracks.
…
Nokia said it had sold more than 15 million music-enabled phones in April to June, making it the world’s largest manufacturer of digital music players, and it aims to sell more than 80 million music devices this year.
Does this pose a challenge to the iPod+iTunes dominance? Perhaps not today, but having a convenient way to purchase music for use on mobile phones sure is a good marketing move for the number one mobile manufacturer.
Here’s the press release from loudeye.com.
Texting About Razor-Toothed Piranhas (or The World’s Fastest Texting Record)
The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human.
That’s the standard text used for professional competition SMS typing. What? They have such a contest? Apparently so. And this year an 18-year old from Utah broke the record.
Ben Cook, 18, of Provo, returned to the top of the cell phone text-messaging heap Friday at a Denver text-off, blazing through a 160-character standardized message in 42.22 seconds.
I don’t know why one would need to text so fast. If it were about a life-or-death situation, I would rather call.
At any rate, I have my T9 dictionary turned on most of the time, to make typing easier. I’m not much of a fan of txt spk (or text speak). And if I were asked to text about the razor-toothed piranhas mentioned above, I would’ve just said:
Dude, check out my cool fish!
MOTOKRZR K1
A new RAZR? Well, kind of… The Motorola MOTOKRZR K1 is the new evolution of the RAZR, and it’s even thinner. The new ultra-sleek MOTOKRZR K1 is only 16mm x 42mm x 103mm, and weighs 3.6 ounces. You can expect to see a 2MP camera sporting an 8x digital zoom, integrated MP3 player, airplane mode (whatever that is) and Stereo Bluetooth headset support. The camera is not only for pictures, as now you can capture and playback MPEG4 videos of up to 25 minutes. If you want to add more space to the phone, the K1 supports MicroSD.
Some other great features on this new phone include
- Enhanced phonebook with new contact fields: URL, IM, Postal Address, Birthday, and other information
- EDGE for high speed data access (class 12)
- Rich, pre-loaded J2ME games, screen savers
- Downloadable themes, ringer tones, images, animations
- Midi, MP3, AAC, AAC+ enhanced music player for listening to your favorite music on-the-go
- PIM functionality with Picture Caller ID
- Voice memo, enhanced predictive text and enhanced voice recognition for easy, hands-free connectivity
- MotoSync – sync your contacts and calendar at the touch of a button
- Push-To-View for sharing of images real time
- Screen 3 technology for zero-click access to your favorite news, sports, and other premium content
You can expect the MOTOKRZR K1 to be available in the second half of 2006.
First Cingular HSPDA Phone Out!
Cingular has announced the launch of its first HSPDA-enabled handsets, which can run on the network’s High Speed Downlink Packet Access.
HSDPA was launched by Cingular late last year, but so far Cingular customers have been able to use it only on notebook PCs with PC Card or built-in modems. The network offers typical downstream speeds of 400 kilobits per second to 700 kbps, with burst speeds as high as 1 megabit per second, according to the carrier.
The mobile is the LG CU500, a thin and lightweight clamshell that is capable of playing/streaming and 15 frames per second of video, a well as record on the same framerate through its 1.3-megapixel camera. The phone’s memory can be expanded via microSD. The CU500 also supports MP3, WMA, AAC and AAC+ formats for music playback. Users would find external music controls and support for Bluetooth stereo headsets convenient.
The phone is priced at $99.99 (after $50 rebate) with a 2-year Cingular contact.
Cellphone Manufacturers to Standardize Charger Plugs
You know the feeling. You’ve just upgraded to a brand new phone, and you suddenly can’t use your previous phone’s charger because of mismatched plugs. Nor can you use chargers from your other, older phones, because they’re all of different brands!
With similar brands–such as Nokia, for instance–you could swap chargers across models. But most other brands will change charger ports and plugs as new models are released. And of course, you cannot use chargers across different brands.
This is such a pain in the backside, especially for people who own and use more than one phone (of different brands).
The Japanese mobile phone providers and manufacturers are in the lead in trying to unify mobile charger ports, and hopefully the rest of the world will follow suit.
The industry bodies of cell phone service providers and makers have informed the industry ministry of plans to unify specifications of cell phone sockets and battery charger plugs around 2010
…
The standardization would enable cell phone users to continue to use the same chargers even after replacing phones with ones marketed by different service providers, they said. At present, the specifications used for cell phones’ sockets by NTT DoCoMo Inc, KDDI Corp and Vodafone KK differ and their chargers are incompatible.
They should come out with something like the USB for the computer, which is standard across platforms and manufacturers. This would definitely make the world a better place. I’ve had my share of leaving my non-standard charger at home and running flat on the move, when everyone else is using a Nokia, and can borrow a charger from practically anyone.
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