LG KC550 5 MegaPixel Camera Phone

We just saw pics of a 5MegaPixel Motorola phone surface and simultaneously get torn apart for its failure to deliver auto-focus as a camera feature. Looks like LG might have your alternative.

The LG KC550 is touted as a 5 MegaPixel camera phone WITH autofocus - the cheapest of its kind on the LG product line. Like the quickly disrespected Motorola mystery phone, it is a slider without 3G connectivity. But if you’re really interested in the 5MP aspect of the camera, why would you choose the non-autofocus model?

You wouldn’t… and thats why Motorola is losing the Manufacturers arms race while LG is excelling. When the LG KC550 is released, we’re sure it will get its fair share of looks - at first glance, it looks pretty slick.

Motorola XYZine?

Remember that Motorola and Kodak 5 MegaPixel phone slated to come out? Well, someone got their hands on one… but is it what everyone expected?

No. Because it’s not the ZN5 (or Zine) at all. It’s a totally new phone we have not seen before. One dead giveaway was the slider. The other dead giveaway? How bad the specs suck.

What’s the purpose of a 5MP Camera if it doesn’t have auto focus? That’s like being blind, having a guide dog but no freaking leash. Yeah, enjoy that. I don’t see why someone would fork over the money for a phone with a sweet camera if it lacked this feature? I’m guessing neither will consumers.

Combine that with the fact that it doesn’t have 3G and a Motorola is getting beat up a bit about the whole thing. Check out the handset getting beat down by the BGR and EndgadgetMobile. But the biggest back slap comes from an EngadgetMobile commenter, Dustin Leiblein who says, “Give it up Motorola. You suck at making phones. Why don’t you open an antenna store or something.”

An antenna store? Hahahhaha… that’s epic.

Breezers for Geezers, Courtesy Pantech & AT&T

While the race to make the best, smallest, most feature packed sleek device continues, it’s nice to see that companies aren’t ignoring other markets. The baby boomer generation represents the largest portion of the population and AT&T and Pantech don’t intend to miss out on offering them what they need as they get older.

The Pantech Breeze is now available on AT&T and is, put bluntly, just what we suggest: a phone for the refined Geezer. The AT&T Press Release says it in a more politically correct way:

At its core, the Pantech Breeze is an uncomplicated mobile phone, specifically designed for people needing an easy way to stay in touch with friends, caregivers and loved ones. From its clean and uncluttered design to its simplified menus, oversized display with large keypad and quick-call keys, the Pantech Breeze includes a host of convenient features in a comfortable, modern design.

The opening paragraph even includes the phrase, “For first-time phone owners,”…. ummmm… are you kidding me? Sometimes we take for granted how quickly the mobile ecosystem has evolved. We’re sure the market research made it pretty obvious that phone like this could do gang busters by focusing on the features that the older generations want and need and we applaud AT&T and Pantech for getting it done.

That being said, we hope by the time we are geezers, our mobiles will be complete with a flux capacitor and 1.21 gigawatts of power. Until then, the Pantech Breeze is available on AT&T for $49.99 on a two-year contract and with mail-in rebate of $30

[Via AT&T]

HTC Diamond Tour & Accessories

So the recent release of the HTC Cubic Zirconia was all but ignored considering that the HTC Diamond is well on its way to becoming one of the top tier powerhouses in the mobile world.

Well, for folks who feel the same way and are eager for the Diamond to hit the streets, we wanted to let you know that HTC has a little promo site and tour of for the diamond. You can visit it here.

[Via HTC]

HTC Cubic Zirconia

Until the Diamond is released, everything coming out of HTC (minus an Android Phone) is nothing more than a second rate wannabe - sorry ’bout it. That’s why the recently revealed HTC P3400i is nothing more than Cubic Zirconia.

For mobile fans, you want to just move past the news until the Diamond drops, but in reality, it is a nice little entry level smartphone for those just entering the “phones that do more” market.

But don’t say we didn’t warn you. As soon as folks are flashing their Diamonds that only cost 1/3rd of the price more, and you’ve got your left-in-the-dust wannabe Cubic Zirconia, you’ll wish you took our advice to hold out, save up a few bucks and splurge on something a little nicer.

Memorial Day Weekend Wrap-Up

Perfect weather meant less computer for a lot of folks celebrating Memorial Day… including us. We thought we catch up, and fill you in on, some of the weekend’s mobile stories. Just a heads up - we didn’t miss much!

The Month of May has treated us fairly well, but lets hope there are a few golden nuggets remaining between now and Saturday, the 31st!

Samsung Instinct Gets June Release Date

Sprint has confirmed that the Samsung Instinct will be available soon… very soon!

With an e-mail update from the folks at Sprint, we learn that “Slow Ends This June”. Other sources are confirming that the phone will be available in June… June 20th to be exact.

We’re thinking a lot of Sprint folks have been waiting for this. If you all want to huddle up and talk with each other about your soon to be new phone, hit the Samsung Instinct Forum.

BlackBerry Bold Video

BlackBerry fans might like to see a little Bold action. Howard Chui from HowardForums got his hands on a device and shows off some of the basic elements of the handset. He’ll wait until he gets a product version for a full review.

Until then:

UPDATE:

BlackBerry Bold vs. iPhone Video

T-Mobileload Dropping June through August

We’re always excited to hear about announcements of new handsets - but 16?!??!

Some fairly credible documents have popped up that suggest an outrageous pace of handsets for release in the upcoming months. Here are the releases as announced by TMoNews.com:

Note that 3 of the 16 are missing. The rumor mill can only do so much chugging - stop being greedy! In fact, some of these might be a bit off base. Other solid sources suggest that the BlackBerry Bold will come out on T-Mobile in September, which would make this rumor inaccurate.

It is a rumor and it is subject to flexibility, not to mention complete inaccuracy, but there is good reason to believe that T-Mobile will indeed go on a release spree.

The Boy Genius followed through, giving us extensive details on five of the 16:

Not only that, he came through with internal infosheets. If our T-Mobile fans aren’t satisfied with today’s news, they must be looking for an anouncement that T-Mobile phones will be offering freaking time travel by December.

Here are the infosheets:

[Via TMoNews, BGR]

Christian Dior Phone - $5,000

For only $5,000 a Christian Dior Branded phone could be yours. Personally, if we had $5,000 to drop for the fun of it, we’d be much more likely to scoop a big screen TV, Wii, XBox 360 and PS3 with a handful of sick games and lock ourselves indoors for a few days.

Then again, if you have the $5,000 to drop, you likely have everything else you want anyways. The Christian Dior phone is for the type of people that have so much money they don’t know what to do with it.

The details are few as of now - it will have a touchscreen and all that jazz - but the cool part, for women at least, is that the “My Dior” phone will come with a mini-me. Clip it to your handbag and when your phone rings, no need to rummage around in order to pull it out!

The single guys are laughing right now, “how lame.” But the girls, and the guys who have ever been asked by their girlfriend to find something in their handbag, understand that this is actually quite practical and helpful.

But is it worth $5,000? If your answer is “yes” and you plan on buying the phone, please consider hitting the “contact” link at the top of this page and donating a large sum of money to MobileRoar since you have no problem throwing your money around like Floyd Mayweather:

[Via Crave]

3G iPhone Release Date: June 9th

The moment you’ve been waiting for is coming on June 9th and you heard it here… second.

Gizmodo is reporting that on June 9th, Apple will announce the 3G version of the Apple iPhone during their keynote at WWDC. But announcing it isn’t all they will do - the 3G iphone will be available for purchase just after the announcement, according to sources close to the Giz.

The official launch date might vary from country to country and the terms and price points and details will be variable and subject to change. For example, “the 3G iPhone will be available for sale at the June 18th grand opening of Telefonica’s megastore—an Apple Store-like shop located in the company’s historical building in Madrid’s Gran Vía— with nationwide availability right the next day or after a few hours.”

Sounds like they want to milk each launch in each location for as much press, publicity and fanfare as they can get. Can you blame them? On one hand, not really… but on the other, do they need any more press than they’ll already get?

Make sure to check your local newspaper the day afterwards for a priceless picture of yourself waiting in a long line that stretches numerous city blocks. Enjoy the festivities!

Mobile Projectors: Business Phones Just Got Busier

Mobile devices do a lot more than make phone calls these days, but this announcement is pretty incredible. Later THIS YEAR, handsets will be released with PROJECTION capabilities embedded.

No more hauling a laptop around to give that PowerPoint Presentation to the board of Directors - just whip your phone out of your pocket and set it on the table! Want to watch a movie? Find a wall and whip out your mobile. The years of teenage pranksters beaming annoying laser pointers on the movie screen are over - instead, beam another movie overtop the current movie!


Seriously though, this presents some amazing opportunities to further pack productivity and entertainment into that little handset in your pocket. We hope to be further amazed when the technology is made available to consumers.

Unfortunately, it’s not likely that most consumers will be able to afford the technology, so it’ll probably be more of a niche distribution. The ground breaking technology is being made available by Texas Instruments.

[Via IntoMobile, UnwiredView & DigiTimes]

HTC Touch Diamond Pictures, Unboxing

Ooh La La… the HTC Touch Diamond is looking better with each and every passing day. When the (somewhat) mysterious product was announced, many were disappointed HTC’s forthcoming Android phone wasn’t the cause, but these pictures are making us feel a lot better about the whole thing.

Diamonds may be forever, but when does forever start?








[Via SlashPhone & ePrice]

BlackBerry Bold Release Dates Announced

It might just be rumor, but InfoSyncWorld has definitive dates, prices and carrier info for the upcoming BlackBerry Bold. Here’s what you should know:

We’re not sure why T-Mobile is pricing it at $50 more, but apparently neither is anybody else.

[Via InfoSyncWorld]

Instinct vs. iPhone

Sprint has been somewhat shunned for dropping a cool million on a Sprint Instinct vs. Apple iPhone campaign with the purposes of proving it can unseat the iPhone based on performance. The problem is that half the iPhone’s glory stems from intangible, perception based affection.

The ease of use. The Apple brand. The App Store. The User Interface…

Still, the Instinct SHOULD get points for matching up with the iPhone. Trying to take the iPhone head on by directly comparing them is a risky move, since being dubbed an “iPhone Killer” is a cliche that has gotten very old very quick. Why make the comparison when the rest of the universe is going to do it for you?

Nevertheless, the people SHOULD be viewing the Instinct has a hot commodity. Take a look at these 5 videos from the campaign and tell us what YOU think:

(UPDATE: it appears the video isn’t working for some. If not, you can see the videos here)

FAST INTERNET

LIVE TV

GPS FEATURES

DIGITAL CAMCORDER

MUSIC DOWNLOAD

So… who wins? We’re guessing the Apple folks will say, “Once the 3G iPhone drops, there will be no comxparison.” But even if they’re right, you have to give the Instinct credit for matching up very, very, very well.

We’re excited for this phone to say the least.

Winning Packet-Phone Concept Is A Bad One

We have to give Emir Rafat, designer of the Packet Phone, credit for his innovation. The fact is, it is hard to be innovative when the best devices are kept ultra simple with a touch screen and nothing more. We credit him for his creativity and imagination.

But if his concept were reality it would spell disaster. i mean, cmon, how much more inconvenient can it be to use your mobile?

Want to type on your full QWERTY keyboard? No problem. Just swing open the packet which has the wing span of a freakin Pteradactyl and peck away at the keyboard which isn’t even organized in QWERTY fashion.

It won 1st place at an Istanbul Design Week contest and again, we realize it’s just a concept and credit the creator for going out on a limb, but somebody had to say something.

[Via IntoMobile]

Mobile TV Standards Pursued by LG & Samsung

On May Fourteenth Two-Thousand Eight, we learned of Mobile T.V.’s fate.

Don’t ask us why we just broke into rhyme. For some reason the recent Press Release from LG, the one where they submitted an official proposal to adopt governmental mobile TV Standards, it reminded us of the Columbus sailed the Ocean Blue thing. Anyways…

The proposal was submitted to the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) which company executives feel will, “help accelerate the ATSC standardization of mobile TV technology, which will benefit both consumers and broadcasters.”

They’re probably right. LG and Samsung devices have been the two leaders in featuring Mobile TV and right out of the gate, the pictures were clear, loaded fast, almost no buffering, had great channel selection and you really couldn’t have asked for much more for an infantile technology. Unfortunately, consumers haven’t been amazingly fast to put it to good use, as Mobile TV viewership has been slow to grow.

It’s kind of a no-brainer for the industry and based on the press release, the partnership will be moving forward relatively soon: “ATSC is expected to adopt the mobile/handheld DTV standard for the North American market in early 2009 following trials of the technology by the Open Mobile Video Coalition (OMVC), a group of leading U.S. broadcasters who are vigorously promoting the development and early deployment of mobile DTV.”

Lets just hope porn channels don’t start popping up or vehicular homicide rates will increase by double digit percentages.

Android Top 50, Links and Descriptions

Google has announced the 50 Winners of Android Developer Challenge Round 1. Well… okay, we lied. They only announced 46 because 4 of the lucky 50 wanted their applications kept secret. Those buggers!

Here is the announcement form Google: http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2008/05/top-50-applications.html

But below, we’ve published a more exhaustive list from Phandroid.com that has links and descriptions for most of the winning applications:

  1. AndroidScan - Use your phone to scan a barcode, get pricing information from dozens of stores, product reviews and more. Never make a bad purchase again! (by Jeffrey Sharkey)
  2. Beetaun - Social network around geographical content created by people and for people (from your neighborhood, from your city, from your country, from all over the world). By Sergey Gritsyuk and Dmitri Shipilov
  3. BioWallet - Jose Luis Huertas Fernandez
  4. BreadCrumbz -Navigate your route using pictures instead of a map (there’s also a map, if you like). Easily record routes using your smartphone. Share them with your friends, share them with the world. By Amos Yoffe
  5. CallACab - Konrad Huebner and Henning Boeger
  6. City Slikkers - PoroCity Media and Virtual Logic Systems
  7. Commandro - Commandro shows where are your friends REALLY are and what they’re doing at the moment. Using GPS location information, it will display 100% true real-life event and location information with regards to you and your friends. By Alex Pisarev, Andrey Tapekha.
  8. Cooking Capsules -Simply “watch” a very short cooking show, “shop” with the grocery list, and “make” using the handy step-by-step recipe directions. If you are out of your usual neighborhood you can use the ‘find nearest market’ gps feature. If your friend is stopping at the market, simply hit the ’send to friend’ button to text your list to them. By Mary Ann Cotter and Muthuselvam Ramadoss
  9. Diggin - Daniel Johansson, Aramis Waernbaum, Andreas Hedin
  10. Dyno - Virachat Boondharigaputra
  11. e-ventr - Michael Zitzelsberger
  12. Eco2go - Reduce your carbon footprint. Eco2go finds and suggests public transit alternatives for your trips - right on your phone. By Taneem Talukdar, Gary Pong, Jeff Kao and Robert Lam
  13. Em-Radar - Jack Kwok
  14. fingerprint - Robert Mickle
  15. FreeFamilyWatch - Navee Technologies LLC
  16. goCart - Rylan Barnes
  17. GolfPlay - give support to all the real time necessities of a golf player during a game, using GPS location and an online querying site where it is possible to access to their game statistics, tournament creation and a social network to exchange impressions with other users about the sport that links them: golf. By Inizziativa Networks
  18. gWalk - Prof. Dr.-Ing. Klaus ten Hagen, Christian Klinger, Marko Modsching, Rene Scholze
  19. HandWx - Delivers 7-Day weather forecasts to your phone. By Weathertop Consulting LLC.
  20. IMEasy - Yan Shi
  21. Jigsaw - Mikhail Ksenzov
  22. JOYity - Coming soon. By Zelfi AG.
  23. LifeAware - Gregory Moore, Aaron L. Obrien, Jawad Akhtar
  24. Locale - Locale is one of 7 Android applications submitted by MIT students. It enables you to set up location- and time-based profiles for your phone, so you can make it shut up when you’re at work, forward calls to your landline when you’re at home. Clare Bayley, Christina Wright, Jasper Lin, Carter Jernigan.
  25. LReady Emergency Manager - Chris Hulls, Dilpreet Singh, Luis Carvalho, Phuong Nguyen
  26. Marvin - Marvin allows you to publish and browse geo-localized objects around you. Objects can be static or move by themselves and follow you. You publish and browse where you are, based on your current location or where you virtually are on the map. By Pontier Laurent.
  27. Mobeedo - Mobile Search. By Sengaro GmbH.
  28. Multiple Facets Instant Messenger - Virgil Dobjanschi
  29. MyCloset - Mamoru Tokashiki
  30. PedNav - an application that helps you plan your activities efficiently when moving around and interacting with an urban environment. Like a good personal assistant, PedNav first inquires about your general plans for the day. By RouteMe2 Technologies Inc.
  31. Phonebook 2.0 - Coming soon. By Voxmobili.
  32. PicSay - Eric Wijngaard
  33. PiggyBack - Christophe Petit and Sebastien Petit
  34. Pocket Journey - connects your location to the voices of a global community of artists, historians, architects, musician, comedians, and others so you can quickly know everything about anywhere. By Anthony Stevens and Rosie Pongracz.
  35. Rayfarla - Rayfarla turns your phone into a musical instrument as well as providing a variety of mini games that are music related. I’m not saying too much about Rayfarla at the moment as I’m now in competition with 49 other semifinalists but suffice to say there will be some interesting twists when it is finally released on hardware. By Stephen Oldmeadow.
  36. Safety Net - Michael DeJadon
  37. SocialMonster - Ben Siu-Lung Hui and Tommy Ng
  38. SplashPlay - SplashPlay offers the next generation in musical tuition and learning to play the guitar just got a whole lot easier. Simply attach the pod and light panel to your guitar and start strumming to your favourite songs in minutes. Songs are sent to the pod from a mobile phone or computer using a USB or Bluetooth connection, giving total portability. Other features include a guitar tuner, guitar metronome and a hands free, Bluetooth foot pedal. The product will provide an easy, portable and fun method of learning music.
  39. Sustain- Keeping Your Social Network Alive - Niraj Swami
  40. SynchroSpot - Shaun Terry
  41. Talkplay - Sung Suh Park
  42. Teradesk - José Augusto Athayde Ferrarini
  43. The Weather Channel for Android - The Weather Channel Interactive Inc.
  44. TuneWiki - Our goal is to have the lyrics always on, always available, always synchronized to music - on any device that can play music back and connect to the internet. By TuneWiki Inc.
  45. Wikitude-the Mobile Travel Guide - Find points of interest based on your current location. By Philipp Breuss.
  46. Writing Pad - ShapeWriter is an innovative, original, fun, and highly efficient method of entering text into touch screen mobile phones. ShapeWriter lets the user to simply draw a continuous stroke from letter to letter on a soft keyboard and lift to complete the word. The resulting trace is recognized as the intended word. For example: to write the word “fun”, land the pen (or mouse cursor) on the F key, drag to the U key, continue to the N key and lift up the pen. ShapeWriter recognizes the curso trace F-U-N as the word “fun”.By ShapeWriter Inc.

[Via Phandroid]

Blackberry Bold Officially Announced

The rumors have been confirmed by Blackberry with an official announcement and full website feature for their brand new product: The Blackberry Bold 9000! It’s looking like AT&T will roll it out in the summer and T-Mobile will follow.


Their marketing folks took a trip to clicheville with their opening promo copy: “Be Bold. Accept no substitutes. Power the passions you pursue with a smartphone that expresses your style and simplifies your life.”

Here is a look at the down and dirty specs… this story is developing so we’ll keep this updated as the details emerge:

And if you’re curious what RIM has to say about their new Blackberry… we’ve copied/pasted what’s on their Features list. Warning: beginning trip back to clicheville.

[Via Blackberry.com and BGR]

Rumor Mill: Blackberry 9000 Gets a BOLD Name

A couple reliable sources (Crackberry, BGR) are speculating that the name of the much awaited (and awaited, and awaited) Blackberry 9000 could be the Blackberry BOLD. Or is it Bold, Bold or BOLD?

Kevin Michaluk from Crackberry.com initially “broke” the news and is determined that the phone will go by the name BOLD. His evidence?

The BGR is a little more skeptical, saying, “the domain, which was purchased from a shady-looking comnpany in Canada, currently has text link ads on it. Not a good sign.”

Either way, there are two things we ARE sure about.

  1. The Blackberry whatever-ya-wanna-call-it 9000 is almost guaranteed to kick some mobile booty.
  2. Most people seem diabolically opposed to the name Bold.

We kind of like the name… and would you rather have a sweet name for a crappy device or  crap name for a sweet device? That’s what we thought…

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