Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

When a single manufacturer accounts for an overwhelming majority of your license revenue, it stands to reason that said manufacturer might save a little dough in the long haul by acquiring you outright. And so it goes for the long, passionate relationship between UIQ and licensee Sony Ericsson; of the 13 handsets running the Symbian-based platform, nearly half — six in all — have been designed and produced by Sony Ericsson, with the remainder split between Motorola and Arima units that haven’t seen been met with nearly as much publicity. The Swedish company, currently owned by Symbian itself, will be transferred to Sony Ericsson (pending clearance of the typical bureaucratic stuff, of course) for an undisclosed sum but will continue to operate as an independent entity with the current management team in place. Though UIQ promises that its platform will continue to be available “on equal terms to all its licensees,” the move makes official what’s been known for years: that UIQ is to Sony Ericsson what S60 is to Nokia, an interpretation of the Symbian smartphone operating system to call its own. Will UIQ ever match S60′s popularity, particularly in the Symbian-friendly European market? Probably not, but with a committed partner now laying out the requisite cash, it does seem more likely than ever that UIQ’s here to stay — and as always, we’re all about choice.

[Via All About Symbian]

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Nokia gets the lion’s share of the attention when it comes to the S60 platform and Symbian generally — perhaps rightfully so, considering they ship far more Symbian-based smartphones than any other vendor — but Samsung would like to politely remind everyone that they’re an S60 licensee, too. Their latest effort, the SGH-i520 slider, had its coming-out party this week at the Symbian Smartphone Show, and the spec sheet looks to give Nokia’s E- and N-series multimedia powerhouses an honest-to-goodness run for their money. The typical 2-megapixel camera and QVGA display aside, the i520 packs an HSDPA radio — something no released Nokia handset has managed to do; granted, the N95 does it, but we’ve got a little wait ahead of us for that monster. Lucky owners also get a microSD slot should they find the 45MB of usable storage a bit light, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, and a front-facing VGA shooter for those ever-popular video calls. Per protocol, it doesn’t seem that a US launch is in the works, but one can never be sure; stranger things have happened.

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds, Home Entertainment, Portable Video

It looks like the Symbian Smartphone Show is shaping up to be a bit of a showdown betwixt placeshifters today, with both Sling and Sony announcing Symbian support for their respective products’ players. Unlike Sling, which announced both UIQ and S60 versions of its SlingPlayer Mobile, Sony is only going as far as UIQ support for its LocationFree on the wings of its fresh P990 smartphone — a very Sony-like (read: proprietary) move, considering Sony Ericsson isn’t down with the Nokia-backed S60 platform. Odds are Sony would’ve liked to have cut a version for its smartphones a year or two back, but the P990 is the first phone in the P series to rock data fast enough (via UMTS and WiFi) to handle the heavy-duty bandwidth requirements LocationFree — or most any other placeshifting tech, for that matter — requires. Sony Ericsson’s claiming immediate availability of the Symbian client, though it’s not yet live on the P990′s download site. Of course, a LocationFree player doesn’t do much good without the device itself, and a US release of the P990 is nowhere in sight, so just keep on toolin’ around with those PSPs until further notice.

[Thanks, Alex]

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Filed under: Software, Symbian

My, how you’ve grown, Symbian. For those of us that have followed the platform since its EPOC roots, it’s with a tear in our eye that we hear version 9.3 of the veteran smartphone operating system has gone out the door. Although something of a maintenance release, the new cut has a little something for everybody: native support for WiFi, over-the-air firmware updates (FOTA), USB 2.0 on-the-go, HSDPA, push to talk, and improved memory management are among the listed improvements. Apparently, v9.3 has been kickin’ around for a while behind the scenes, as a Freescale / S60 reference platform is immediately available and Symbian claims handsets are already in development for 2007 releases — we suppose the v9.1-based N73 will have to suffice until then.

[Via Reg Hardware]

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Filed under: Handsets, Nokia, Symbian, GSM, UMTS

Are you loving the N93′s spec sheet, but gargantuan clamshells aren’t your cup of tea? No worries, friends; the 3.2-megapixel candybar N73 has just been approved by the FCC, and thanks to quadband GSM, we have a fighting chance of seeing this one drop in the States — at least in Nokia’s flagship store, if nothing else. Specs are enough to get the juices of any S60 fan flowing: UMTS (albeit on the 2100MHz band), 2.4-inch QVGA display, MiniSD slot, stereo speakers, FM radio, Bluetooth 2.0, and the list goes on. Now let’s just cross our fingers Qualcomm doesn’t get its way, and we might be seeing this hotness before too long in these parts.

[Via Mobilewhack]

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Filed under: Cellphones, Digital Cameras

Filed under: Handsets, Others, Symbian, NTT DoCoMo, UMTS

Fashion phones not your cup of tea? Looking for something a little more business oriented perhaps? NTT DoCoMo has you covered with their D702iBCL FOMA smartphone, brought to you by the good folks at Mitsubishi. The D702iBCL sports NTT’s MOAP (Moblie Oriented Applications Platform) UI sitting atop Symbian 8.1 along with a QVGA display, all while coming in at a relatively sprightly 130 x 47 x 16.8mm and 97g. A camera is conspicuously missing, but being that this is a business phone, that’s just as well.

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Filed under: Handsets, Nokia, Sharp, Vodafone, Symbian, GSM, UMTS

New Softbank property Vodafone K.K. has announced four new 3G handsets -- along with the 2G Toshiba V304T "simplephone" -- that will be released this summer in Japan, including Sharp's 905SH clamshell with a 2 megapixel camera and One Seg digital TV reception. Also seen before was Voda's version of Nokia's N71, dubbed the 804NK, which sports those same multimedia and smartphone features along with obvious addition of bilingual menus. Like the three models mentioned previously, the Toshiba 705T and Sharp 705SH SLIMIA also sport clamshell designs, with the Tosh featuring external music controls and the Sharp (pictured) rocking dual cameras. Additionally, a sixth model, Sharp's 2G V403SH (also a flip phone), was announced as getting a summer makeover, and will now come in your choice of cloth beige or cloth blue.

Filed under: Cellphones

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Filed under: Handhelds

We’ve known since February that Nokia was working on a QWERTY-sportin’ followup to the 770 Internet tablet, and now the Wall Street Journal has confirmed that the included VoIP app will indeed be, as we anticipated, Google Talk. Unfortunately this means that the device will still be unable to call regular phone numbers out of the box, although G Talk members will at least be able to chat among themselves for free. The WSJ is also reporting (only to its subscribers, not to us) that sources close to Nokia have said that the new device will be officially unveiled on Tuesday, and sell for around $390 when it hits stores.

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Filed under: Handsets, Nokia, Symbian, GSM, UMTS

border="0" src="http://www.engadget.com/media/2006/05/n83_shot.jpg" alt="" />

We still can’t guarantee the href="http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2006/05/01/nokia-keeps-em-coming-possible-n83-spotted/">N83 is the real deal,
but it certainly looks to be taking shape, and New Mobile has a very slick looking front-on of the device with those
same promising details: UMTS, 2.5-inch 352 x 416 display, 4GB drive, 5 megapixel camera, Bluetooth 2.0, FM radio,
MicroSD, and 3.5mm headphone jack. The over the top specs make it out to be one of the hottest Symbian devices we’ve
ever seen, which is exactly why we’re not going to go getting our hopes up just yet that all those pie in the sky
features are going to turn up roses.

[Thanks, MacBoy]

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Filed under: Software, Nokia, Symbian

align="right" src="http://www.engadgetmobile.com/media/2006/04/ipass.jpg" alt="" />Owners of WiFi-enabled, Series
80- and S60-powered Nokia handsets will soon have "one-click" access to over 50,000 hotspots worldwide thanks
to a new software client being developed in conjunction with trusted connectivity services provider iPass. Already
available for Windows, Macintosh, and Windows Mobile devices, the iPassConnect client gives people an easy way to
connect to any hotspot across some 28 different networks, including T-Mobile, Wayport, and The Cloud, offering both a
consistent user experience and simplified billing. The first models to receive the iPass treatment will be the href="http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2006/02/03/nokia-9300i-communicator-reviewed/">9300i and href="http://www.engadget.com/2004/03/30/nokia-9500-communicator-preview/">9500 Communicators, which should see the
new software sometime this summer, followed by a version for href="http://www.engadget.com/2005/10/12/nokias-e60-e61-and-e70-e-series-mobile-business-phones/">E-series devices
by the end of the year.

[Via href="http://www.pcworld.com/resource/article/0,aid,125566,pg,1,RSS,RSS,00.asp">PC World]

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Filed under: Handsets, Multimedia, Software, Nokia, Symbian, UMTS

Taking a cue from other design-obsessed companies such as Apple and Sony, Nokia has announced plans to open a line of retail locations in the U.S. -- the first ones outside Russia and perhaps Finland that we're aware of -- and even better, will be offering models not available from carriers or traditional channels. The flagship store is set to open in Chicago on June 21, and will sell "virtually anything that could possibly be available in this market," according to a Nokia spokesperson, including such high-end handsets as the recently-launched N93 and N73 3.2 megapixel cameraphones, N91 4GB musicphone, and UMTS-enabled N80 smartphone (which happens to sport a three megapixel CCD as well). PC Mag's article on the upcoming stores, the second of which is scheduled to hit New York before the end of the year, also includes an update on the N91, which will apparently receive a key software upgrade sometime after launch that enables playback of DRM-protected content.

Update: Several readers have very kindly pointed out that Nokia has stores in much of Europe and Asia.

Filed under: Cellphones

Along with the N93 and N73, Nokia just launched their new N72 multimedia tri-band GSM/EDGE cellphone. This Symbian S60 handset features a 2.1-inch, 176 x 208, 262k color display, Bluetooth 2.0, and 20MB internal memory expandable via SD memory cards. Media support includes a digital music player with dedicated music keys supporting MP3 and AAC playback, an FM Radio with Visual Radio support, and throws in a swivel-activated 2 megapixel shooter with integrated flash capable of CIF video capture at 15fps. Nokia is positioning this pup as a "multimedia computer" which is a bit of a stretch, but we'll play a long, for now. Expected in Pearl Pink or Gloss Black sometime in June 2006. More pics on the flip.

[Via PhoneScoop]

Filed under: Handsets, Nokia, GSM, EDGE

Along with the N93 and N73, Nokia just launched their new N72 multimedia tri-band GSM / EDGE cellphone. This Symbian S60 handset features a 2.1-inch, 176 x 208, 262k color display, Bluetooth 2.0, and 20MB internal memory expandable via SD. Media support includes a digital music player with dedicated music keys supporting MP3 and AAC playback, an FM Radio with Visual Radio support, and throws in a swivel-activated 2 megapixel shooter with integrated flash capable of CIF video capture at 15fps. Nokia is positioning this pup as a "multimedia computer" which is a bit of a stretch, but we'll play along for now. Expected in Pearl Pink or Gloss Black sometime in June 2006. More pics on the flip.

[Via PhoneScoop]

Filed under: Cellphones

src="http://www.engadgetmobile.com/media/2006/04/01_n93_lowres.jpg" />

alt="" src="http://www.engadgetmobile.com/media/2006/04/08_n93_lowres.jpg" />

border="0" alt="" src="http://www.engadgetmobile.com/media/2006/04/01_n73_lowres.jpg" />

hspace="4" border="0" alt="" src="http://www.engadgetmobile.com/media/2006/04/03_n73_lowres.jpg" />

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Filed under: Handsets, Nokia, Symbian, GSM, EDGE, UMTS

src="http://www.engadgetmobile.com/media/2006/04/01_n93_lowres.jpg" alt="" />

border="0" src="http://www.engadgetmobile.com/media/2006/04/08_n93_lowres.jpg" alt="" />

hspace="4" border="0" src="http://www.engadgetmobile.com/media/2006/04/01_n73_lowres.jpg" alt="" />

vspace="4" hspace="4" border="0" src="http://www.engadgetmobile.com/media/2006/04/03_n73_lowres.jpg" alt="" />

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Filed under: Handsets, Nokia

src="http://www.engadgetmobile.com/media/2006/04/post40811441041893kp.jpg" alt="" />

hspace="4" border="1" src="http://www.engadgetmobile.com/media/2006/04/image24pt.jpg" alt="" />

Next to href="http://cellphones.engadget.com/2005/12/01/the-nokia-6233-and-6234/">Nokia 6233.

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Filed under: Software, Symbian

If you haven't found an anti-virus solution yet for your Symbian phone, and the mere thought of a piece of malicious code wreaking havoc on your contact list or private pics sends you spiraling into despair, then you might want to give the new Kaspersky Anti-Virus Mobile 2.0 a look-see. Along with your everyday virus blocking, the software works to stop SMS and MMS spam, and can receive regular updates via WAP or HTTP. Currently in beta, the software runs on S60 phones with 6.1, 7.0, 8.0, or 8.1 versions of the OS, but UIQ and Windows Mobile versions should be out for the second beta.

Filed under: Moblogs, Software, Symbian

You love Flickr, we love Flickr, Flickr's just great. But it's about time we figured out how the hell to moblog with it best, since we've all been using it for, well, what seems like forever. So if you've got a S60 phone and want a quick rundown of four of the more popular moblogging apps, including Shozu and ZoneTag, peep Chris Heathcote's Flickr off. Just try not taking too many pictures of your food, ok? We're getting like, way sick of that one.

[Via All About Symbian]