Filed under: Handsets, Motorola

Yeah, we knew Motorola was still committed to making old-school car phones — heck, Telus carries one of ‘em — but we still can’t help but chuckle a little when we catch wind of a new one in the pipeline. The latest, dubbed M710, rides on Motorola’s own iDEN, suggesting that it might find its way to Nextel at some point (or not; after all, Telus operates an iDEN network north of the border, as do a good number of carriers across the world). Given the M710’s supposed lease in life as a commercial device, iDEN seems like the perfect fit considering that corporate customers account for an overwhelming majority of their base, but we’re still somehow having a difficult time picturing anyone taking this over an i880.

[Via Slashphone and infoSync World]

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Filed under: T-Mobile, HSDPA, UMTS

It’s going to be sometime mid 2007 when T-Mobile gets their much anticipated 3G network off the ground; thankfully, it looks like they’re moving right along, having announced both Nokia and Ericsson to be the providers of their UMTS network. Now even though the parent company of T-Mobile USA, Deutsche Telekom isn’t releasing any financial details of the contracts, first estimates are $2.66 billion to be spent over the next two or three years on its next-generation network. Having dropped a load of fat cash on thier precious towers, T-Mobile hopes to reach around 20% of the US market and grow its customer base upwards to 35 million by 2015.

[Thanks, TJ]

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Filed under: Handsets, Motorola, GSM, CDMA

We knew Motorola had something (really) skinny up its sleeve way back in July, and after it got the ole thumbs-up from our constituents over at the FCC, we knew a whiz-bang release couldn’t be too far out. Thankfully (at least for India), today’s the day, and the MOTOFONE will finally find its way into (and surely out of) slim fit pockets everywhere. Moto announced immediate availability of the GSM-based F3 within India today at a dedicated event held in New Delhi, and stated that “international markets” could expect to get their palms on one “in the coming weeks.” Furthermore, the CDMA sibling (F3c) is slated to hit shelves “before the end of 2006.” While pricing details were cleverly omitted, we’re sure they’ll surface soon when local carriers jump on the bandwagon.

[Via Mobiledia]

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Filed under: NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Misc

3.6Mbps downstream data is all well and good, but we’ve gotta keep looking forward to the next big thing, right? Don’t worry, the good folks at NTT DoCoMo have you covered (surprise, surprise). The Japanese powerhouse carrier has teamed up with NEC to deliver so-called “Super 3G” handsets, operating as high as 100Mbps down and 30-50Mbps up, in 2010. It’s not quite the 2.5Gbps NTT DoCoMo mustered earlier this year, but hey, we’re all about stop-gap solutions if it means downloading YouTube vids just a smidge faster.

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.

Filed under: Handsets, Motorola, Amp’d, Cingular, Sprint-Nextel, Verizon Wireless

While Best Buy’s been selling mobiles (and holding out on Wii hopefuls) for some time now, the big blue retailer is diverting a bit more fundage towards the cause. Aside from continuing to offer phones and plans in typical stores, Best Buy is opening up a smattering of New York-based Mobile stores to handle your cellular needs (and probably hassle you for an extended warranty as well). While details about the store layout and initial offerings are a bit scant at this point, we do know that nine locales will be opening up in the Big Apple alone, with a red (as in, not black) PRODUCT (RED) RAZR being their “exclusive” offering. The stores will partner with Verizon Wireless, Amp’d Mobile, Sprint-Nextel, and Cingular, and should have a plethora of promotional goodies surrounding each and every door to snag your attention.

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Filed under: Moblogs, Peripherals

It seems like now-a-days, almost every new piece of electronics is being introduced with some type of Bluetooth compatibility. From cellphones, headsets, cars and gaming devices, it is more of a standard now than ever. This being said, the influx of devices with Bluetooth technology supported has helped these devices reach over 1 billion sold. The Bluetooth SIG isn’t stopping there; they are getting more aggressive in the marketplace by adding functionality to home entertainment and medical devices to name a few. This being said, the influx of devices with Bluetooth technology supported has helped these devices reach over 1 billion sold (of which Engadget editors account for a decent percentage, we suspect).

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Filed under: Misc

While we know there are fanatics out there claiming that cellphones are a tumor’s best friend, we’re still skeptical of just how dangerous they really are — but only in that sense. Operating a motor vehicle while keying in an old pal’s number certainly isn’t a recipe for safe driving, and these acts would probably make protective parents irate if, say, their kid’s bus driver was chatting it up while make the rounds. Although we find it quite astounding that cellphone use while operating a school / motor bus isn’t already outlawed, it’s even more amazing to find that the National Transportation Safety Board is simply “urging” federal and state governments to ban motor coach and school bus drivers from using cell phones except in emergencies. So just as a heads-up, you may want to check with your local school board to make sure John and / or Jane Doe aren’t discussing the news while wheeling your offspring around town, as apparently it’s still not entirely illegal.

[Via TheWirelessReport]

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Filed under: Cingular, Sprint-Nextel, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, Misc

It isn’t anything new that wireless companies are now providing service in the cities’ subways and tunnels, but now customers of the Big Four in Boston are going to get an extra special treat of the use their cellphones in the Big Dig Tunnels. According to the documents filed at the Turnpike Authority of Massachusetts, Verizon Wireless, Cingular Wireless, Sprint PCS, and T-Mobile are going to split the initial access cost which is expected to come in around 1.6 million and cost approx. $140,000 annually. That’s no small chunk of change considering construction and installation costs are estimated to top out over $7 million. With all these costs adding up, don’t hold your breath waiting for your provider to cut back on fees.

[Via The Wireless Report]

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Filed under: Handsets, Pantech, Verizon Wireless, 1xRTT, CDMA

Maybe the KRZR K1m isn’t in your budget or maybe you really don’t care about what kind of cellphone you carry around. Verizon Wireless recognizes those run of the mill folk and is going to add another midtier phone to the lineup, the Pantech 7075. According to The Roc, the phone sports a 800 / 1900Mhz CDMA 1x and analog radio, has a VGA camera and a speakerphone; nothing to write home about, but then again, that’s exactly what Verizon and Pantech are gunning for with this one. No word yet on pricing or availability so stay tuned! Check out another pic after the break.

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Filed under: Handsets, Motorola, Linux, GSM, GPRS

Well hot damn, looks like Motorola went and sprung their smokin’, linux-based ROKR E6 upon China today. Better yet, we now know that this 14.5-mm thinster delivers the much appreciated GSM 900/1800 bands in addition to the 1900 band we saw tested and approved in the FCC filing. That makes it of limited use (but use nonetheless) here in the US as long as you stay within the T-Mobile network. The phone delivers a 2.4-inch, 260k color QVGA touch-screen with stylus, a 2 megapixel camera and push-to-talk capabilities in addition to handwriting recognition, a QR code (barcode) scanner, business card reader, and document viewer for PDF and the most common MS Office apps. And unlike the first gen ROKR, this pup drops iTunes in favor of RealPlayer which means support for MP3, MPEG4, AAC+, WAV, and RealAudio formats — fine and all, but most importantly, no artificial song cap — so load up that 2GB SD card to your heart’s content kid. Rounding things out on the audio front is the native 3.5-mm headphone jack and support for Bluetooth stereo audio (A2DP), integrated FM radio, dedicated music controls along the side, and a USB 2.0 jack up underneath for quick data transfer. When not lapping up the media you can talk for up to 7 hours or just sit and stare at the E6’s clean lines for about 235 hours on standby. Yours for 4,280 chinese yuan or $545 retail if you can track ‘er down.

[Thanks LordFarkward]

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Filed under: Handsets

With Skype and other assorted VoIP services getting more and more popular, you might be eyeing one of those new handsets we’ve been showing your for the last few months. However, some of you might have wondered why you’d want to buy another handset when you probably have a perfectly good cellphone with the necessary internals to do the job, right? You’re in luck, as such a product just debuted at the VoIP / IPTV World 2006 expo in Korea: Clipcomm’s BS-T100V will convert your home VoIP service and send it over Bluetooth to your celly, letting you talk up a storm without using a ton of those precious minutes. (Of course, if you’re a T-Mobile customer in Seattle, you could get HotSpot @Home right now.) As happy as this product makes us, we still can’t get too excited yet given that we don’t know what it’ll cost, nor if it’ll ever make it across that bigger pond to the West.

[Via AVING]

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Filed under: Handsets, Others, CDMA

Anyone else notice that most of the fanfare surrounding the concept of the almost-free unsubsidized handset has been largely restricted to the GSM camp? Sure, we have occasional CDMA examples like Kyocera’s K122 and K132 — but with all due respect to Kyocera, cooler looking GSM goodies like the MOTOFONE have been generating just a bit more buzz. No worries, though; a handful of scrappy Korean startups are looking to correct the imbalance, committing to deliver $30 handsets utilizing CDMA2000 1x radios (no EV-DO, we’re guessing) to India starting in December of this year with other Southeast Asian countries hopping on the bandwagon in ‘07. According to Rose Telecom, one of the startups involved in the initiative, the phones should take another dive to the $20 mark in 2008. We can almost sense American prepaid MVNOs expressing interest already.

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.

Filed under: Handsets, Multimedia, Others, Windows Mobile, GSM, GPRS

Last time we touched base with the g-Smart i120, the Windows Mobile 5 candybar was making waves over at Taiwan’s Computex shindig; this time around, the news is of a slightly more official nature, with Gigabyte triumphantly announcing the TV-friendly Pocket PC in a press release. Though we’d have to put that tricky keypad through its paces ourselves before signing off on its goodness, the specs don’t lie: you get a 2.1 megapixel cam, 256MB of ROM with miniSD expansion, Bluetooth, FM radio, 64MB of RAM, 802.11b / g (for when the GPRS data speeds don’t quite cut it) — and perhaps most notably, a TV tuner capable of pulling in NTSC, PAL, and SECAM with recording capability. As is too often the case, North America is left in the lurch without GSM 850 (come on, Gigabyte!) but we’re counting on our global readers to let us know how that offset keypad pans out, y’hear?

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Filed under: Misc

Using cellphones to pay for stuff via NFC (near-field communications) is certainly nothing new; Sony, for one, has been doing it for years with its FeliCa system in Japan. Regardless of how dominant FeliCa or NXP’s Mifare are, though, standardization is always a welcome move in an industry that hasn’t quite taken off yet on a global scale. Sony and NXP have committed to putting their noggins together to come up with a unified standard for NFC payments that will ultimately support both FeliCa and Mifare-based equipment, while also bringing together two of the most widely-deployed systems to date. Given that both Sony and NXP parent Philips are members of the NFC Forum, we have hope that this announcement lines up nicely with that group’s efforts, too, rather than going against the grain with a parallel effort. Not to say we’d put that kind of buffoonery past Sony, of course.

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Filed under: Misc

Robots lending a helping hand certainly isn’t a new spectacle, but a determined and forthright mechanical worker is about to hit cellphone stores in Japan (and probably send an actual human back to the job market in the process). While we’ve seen less intelligent forms of robotic cellphone salesmanship, Tmsuk’s Ubiko bot is slated to “join the crew of temporary workers” that a Japanese job-referral company hopes will be used at “stores, events, and even weddings.” Formerly known as the RIDC-01, this newly-named 44-inch tall employee on wheels sports a “catlike face,” internal DVD player, LCD display to show advertisements / presentations, built-in cameras and infrared sensors, and remote-controllable arms that hand out balloons and other niceties to potential customers. Ubiko can even spark a conversation about how bad you’ll need downloadable movie services on your next mobile, and reportedly boasts a “nasal electronic voice” that’s sure to grate passerbyers’ nerves. While the programmable (and always on call) employee can be snapped up for a hefty ¥30 million ($254,194) one time fee, it’ll also be available to handle two-hour shifts for “only” ¥105,000 ($890).

[Via Textually]

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.

Filed under: Features

We here at Engadget Mobile tend to spend a lot of way too much time poring over the latest FCC filings, be it on the net or directly on the ol’ Federal Communications Commission’s site. Since we couldn’t possibly (want to) cover all the stuff that goes down there, we’ve gathered up all the raw info you may want (but probably don’t need). Enjoy!

Phones
Read - Samsung SGH-A706
Read - Samsung SGH-X540
Read - Samsung SGH-A401
Read - Pantech PN-810
Read - Pantech PG-C3B
Read - Casio G’zOne Type S

Peripherals
Read - Motorola S9