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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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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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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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
Read – Samsung WEP320

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Filed under: Handsets, Sony Ericsson

While Sony’s been dealing with exploding batteries, PS3 craziness and now a recall for some Cyber-shot cams, the Japanese behemoth’s handset division is trying to expand into the mobile television sector by partnering with Ericsson. Already the two form a significant presence in cellphones with the Sony Ericsson brand, and they hope to continue that with television as well. Per Nordlof, Ericsson’s director of Product Strategy, said at a press conference in Stockholm on Thursday that a third of the world’s mobile phone users will be watching TV on their handsets on a regular basis by 2008 — something the folks at Qualcomm and others are thinking, too, with MediaFLO and the like. According to The Associated Press, the corporate duo is also working on a way to send clips from your living room’s TV directly to a handset. Of course, if you don’t want to wait until 2008, you could just buy a Slingbox or a Sony LVTV Box right now for the same effect.

Read – Reuters
Read – The Associated Press

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Filed under: Software, Nokia, Palm, Cingular, Palm OS, Symbian

After initially announcing availability on a handful of devices last month, Cingular and TeleNav are expanding their partnership by bringing navigation to the recently-launched Nokia E62 (and, oh yeah, the Treo 680, too — though there’s no specific mention of Big Orange involvement on that one). The software package rings in at $6/month for 10 trips and $10/month for unlimited use, offering all the same navigational features that you’d find on TeleNav’s previous Cingular offerings — the 8125 / 8525, Treo 650, and HP hw6925 — with a couple of added bonuses on the E62: the new “fuzzy search” feature, as the name implies, completes user entries based on predictive logic and previous searches, while 3D maps also make an appearance for the first time. Sorry, 680 users… maybe next version.

[Via Slashgear]

Read – Nokia E62
Read – Treo 680

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Filed under: Handsets, Reviews, Nokia, Symbian, GSM, GPRS, EDGE, HSDPA, UMTS

It might be a few months yet before we see Nokia N95s start to circulate amongst the general populace, but far be it from that to stop Nokialist from putting a preproduction unit through its paces. Other than a niggle about the d-pad — the reviewer would’ve preferred a joystick, a la E70 — the hands-on was overwhelming positive, despite the fact that the super-ultra-early test model in their hands lacked some hardware (GPS, WiFi) promised for the production version. As one might expect, the software (S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1, that is) is apparently the best thing since sliced bread, the dual slide is trick, the screen is gorgeous, and the 5 megapixel shooter is bananas. Sadly, about all the review has managed to do for us is make us want to lay our hands on this sucker a little more than we already did, but we’re still in for a bit of a wait. Hang tight, folks.

[Thanks, Phill]

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Filed under: Handsets, Others

Hey LG: why slide just two ways, like your SH100, when you could slide four? That’s the question Fujitsu seems to be asking with a new concept phone they’re parading around these days. The rounded, almost egg-like handset appears to feature touch sensitivity for virtually every control — well, it would, anyway, if it were a functional prototype — and can be slid in all four cardinal directions for access to different functions. Left reveals a keypad (though usability might be a concern here), right offers music controls, up gives you camera / video recording stuff, and down appears to reveal gaming controls, not to mention a traditional d-pad on the phone’s surface. While this particular example will never be seeing the light of day on a store shelf, Fujitsu says they expect to see similarly-equipped models coming to market some time in 2007.

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Filed under: Culture, Verizon Wireless

We’d be willing to be more than one of you know the likeness of Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington, but how many among us would go so far as to try to break into his phone? Apparently a 27 year old woman by the name of Devon Townsend used a machine at a Sandia National Lab in New Mexico to gain access to Bennington’s Verizon account, and obtained call records and cameraphone shots; apparently she also got access to his wife’s email and went so far as to verbally threaten the poor Mrs. Bennington. Like Chappelle before him, we can understand Bennington not wanting someone playing on his phone, but think he should be glad he made it out of this one relatively scot free. Celebs before have faced the wrath and aftermath of leaked sex tapes to leaked A-list phonebooks, so be glad, Chester, that you still have your dignity.

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Filed under: Handsets, Others, Windows Mobile

Symbol’s handsets, while plenty rugged and capable for everyday use, don’t exactly meet the… uh, aesthetic requirements demanded by average folks carrying smartphones around as part of their daily routine. Enter the MC35, a rumored Windows Mobile Pocket PC coming down the pike for a possible January launch. If the blurry picture we have here resembles the final product, it looks like Symbol is taking a sharp turn in the direction of form over function — but no worries, corporate users and Symbol fanboys — it should pack pretty much all the typical goodness you’d expect from a Symbol. The company is apparently billing it as a “durable, lightweight… all-in-one enterprise communication device” with integrated GPS, VoIP, and push-to-talk. Foreign-language and WiFi versions will be following shortly after the plain vanilla variant launches.

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Filed under: Handsets, Features, Pantech, Verizon Wireless, Windows Mobile, 1xRTT, EV-DO, CDMA

It looks like our favorite mobile tipster Roc A Fella is at it again. This time he shows us the soon to be released Pantech PN-820 for Verizon Wireless, latest addition to their growing PDA lineup. This clamshell bad boy runs on Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone with an EV-DO dual band radio, 1.3 megapixel camera, expandable memory via miniSD, Bluetooth, and a QVGA display. Pantech has updated the color scheme from what we previously have seen, and we like it way more seeing how the all-black scheme might be a fingerprint magnet. Look for the device as an exclusive on the web and B2B on 12/18 and in retail on 12/29. The pricing isn’t confirmed yet, so stay tuned for that tidbit. Check out more pictures after the break!

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Filed under: Handsets, LG, Verizon Wireless, 1xRTT, EV-DO, CDMA

We seen spy photo after spy photo. We learned about the incredible feature set. And we waited (and waited) for Verizon Wireless to announce the when and at what cost. Thankfully, our questions have now been answered. Verizon has set full retail pricing at $320.00, one year contract is $200.00, and a two year contract is $149.99, with the one and two year prices reflecting the mail-in rebate. Granted, it ain’t gonna launch on Black Wednesday as some of us would’ve hoped, but “a few days later” still sounds a lot sweeter than “December,” does it not?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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

Not everything can be cutting edge now-a-days and maybe the LG VX8600 just isn’t your cup of tea. No worries, we’ve got you covered; here comes the the Kyocera K323. Feature-packed it’s not, but the clamshell can still hang with the best of the (low tier) lineup with an all-digital dual band radio, VGA camera with flash, 65k inside color screen, speakerphone, Bluetooth (no OBEX profiles folks), and support for VZnavigator. Look for it sometime mid-January for a reasonable $220 at full retail, $150 on a one year, and $100 on a two year contract before the mail in rebate of $50. Check after the break for a posterior shot!

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