AT&T and Pantech Brings the World’s Thinnest QWERTY Phone - Slate

AT&T is bringing yet again, another QWERTY mobile handset, and its another unit from Pantech. This time it’s being touted as the World’s Thinnest QWERTY keyboard handset - the Pantech Slate. Measuring less than one centimeter deep and featuring a premium form factor, the Pantech Slate was custom made for sending texts and pictures as well as for easily accessing the its instant messaging and email feature. What’s more, the Pantech Slate is available at AT&T for a very affordable price - $49.99 with a two-year service agreement after mail-in rebates.The Pantech Slate belongs to the trio of test messaging friendly handsets which was made available by AT&T to its customers. This phone offers the simplest text messaging interface using its QWERTY keyboard. It also features raised and tactile buttons, easy-to-read LCD as well as a rubberized back panel that gives comfort grip. Aside from being the world’s thinnest QWERTY phone, the Pantech Slate is also ultra-compact that you can easily fit it in to your pocket or purse without even noticing that it is actually there. Other features of the Pantech Slate include; multimedia functionality with support to AT&T’s MEdia Net and custom content, Bluetooth, video recording, a 1.3 megapixel camera with 2x zoom, live video capture and playback, 20mb internal memory, EDGE, 2.2-inch display, various PIM functionality, 3 hours talk time and 10 days standby time. The Pantech Slate is a quad-band 850/900/1800/1900 MHz phone.

AT&T Offers the Nokia 2600

AT&T has just made available Nokia’s basic candybar mobile phone – the 2600. Make no mistake into thinking that this mobile handset is just another one of ‘em cheapskate Nokia handset. Well it’s price tag maybe cheap but its features definitely not. For one, you’ll get a GSM/EDGE phone featuring a 1.8-inch display screen with 128×128 resolution that can let you browse the Internet through Media Net interface. It even has support for AOL’s mobile chat platform, Windows Live and Yahoo Messenger. If those were not enough, you can also use the Nokia 2600 to snap out some decent looking photo through its VGA camera. For ringtone savvy users, the Nokia 2600 supports MP3 ringtone and sports a built-in speakerphone. The Nokia 2600 also got Bluetooth connectivity. It’s got various PIM features such as calendar, alarm clock, caller ID, personal organizer. It’s got puzzle, sports, racing and other preloaded games to keep you company during an otherwise boring moments. For personal customization, you can use wallpapers, background, custom menus/popups, icons and more eye candy features. The Nokia 2600 gives out three hours of talk time and 16 days of standby time before  it needs to be charged. It is now available via AT&T’s online store for $150. Or if you want to get it for free you may opt to get the unit that comes with a 2 year service agreement with AT&T. Now why would you want that anyway?

AT&T Releases the Samsung Propel

Realizing the growing popularity of text messaging on the US mobile phone community, AT&T has released several new handsets which makes the task of creating and sending text messages a breeze. One of this handset is the sleek-looking slider phone, Samsung Propel. The Samsung Propel is a messaging-friendly mobile handset with full slide-out QWERTY keypad a slew of cool mobile phone features highlighted by high-speed conenctivity, full web browsing, and full support for various AT&T services such as, AT&T Music, AT&T Navigator andmore. The complete rundown of the Samsung Propel’s specs and features are as follow; a 1.3 megapixel camera with 4x zoom and live video capture and playback feature, a music player that supports MP3 files and AT&T’s Mobile Music, and Music ID for identifying song. The Phone’s messaging features makes it easy to insert pictures, video clips and sound clips to text messages and its instant messaging feature supports AOL, Yahoo and Windows Live Messenger. For additional connectivity features, the Samsung Propel has 3G high-speed data and voice, Bluetooth wireless connectivity and USB. The phone also boasts of n 8GB internal memory plus support for microSD memory card, a 2.2-inch display screen with 172 x 220 resolution, and offers up to 5 hours of talk time and 10 days standby time. The Samsung Propel is a 850/900/1800/1900 MHz quad band phone.

HP Intros the iPAQ Data Messenger

Recently, HP has announced its newest 3G smarthpone - the iPAQ Data Messenger. The iPAQ Data Messenger fully support 3G network connectivity and boasts of a large touch screen display, a full slide-out alphanumeric keyboard and GPS.This smartphone lets you communicate intelligently using email, phone and Internet. It’s got a Wi-Fi connectivity which lets you connect to the Internet for free in most countries. The phone’s full alpha-numeric slide-out keypad is a a breeze to use when typing and texting and you can view your work clearly with the phone’s large 2.8-inch diagonal QVGA display, which happens to support touch-screen functionality as well. In addition, the phone fully supports GPS functionality with its built-in GPS navigation tool. For mobile workers, the iPAQ Data Messenger runs on Windows Mobile 6.1 and utilizes Microsoft Outlook Office Mobile for synchonizing contacts, appointments and tasks with your PC. Mobile workers can easily access and edit their documents using Mobile Word, Powerpoint and Excel applications. The iPAQ Data Messenger also features a 3.1 MP auto-focus camera with 5x digital zoom and flash LED and comes with a microSD card slot for storage expansion of up to 8GB. Here’s a quick rundown of the other features of the iPAQ Data Messenger; Integrated WLAN 802.11b/g, with WPA2 security, Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR, 3G wireless broadband connectivity for voice and data, Tri-band UMTS (900/1900/2100 MHz), HSDPA Category 8 (up to 7.2Mbps downlink) and HSUPA Category 5 (up to 2Mbps uplink), Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz), 128 MB SDRAM main memory for running applications, 256 MB flash ROM, and Full alphanumeric slide-out keyboard, 5-way optical navigation, 2 soft keys, ringer/sound switch, send/end buttons, keyguard button, volume control, camera button, 2 quick access keys. The HP iPAQ Data Messenger will be initially available through  Vodafone but HP resellers will offer them without contract at  around $677.

AT&T Offers the Samsung Epix; First Mobile Phone with Mouse

AT&T has just released a new smartphone which the company describes as a smartphone of “epix” proportions. We’re referring to the Samsung Epix smartphone. This innovative smartphone gives users three ways of navigating its touch screen. Users can either use their fingers to scroll through the phone’s menu, a built-in stylus for a more accurate navigation or use the smartphone’s optical mouse. This device contains right and left soft keys which are located at its center. By a single click on those keys, users can access any of the phone’s menu. This mouse can also be transformed into a four-way navigation key to make it a more traditional way of navigating the phone’s menu. The Samsung Epix runs on Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional OS and features 3G network connectivity. Additionally, the smartphone also gives access to multiple e-mail accounts through Microsoft Direct Push. This would enable corporate users to have access to their corporate email account. The phone also allows over-the-air contact, calendar and task list synchronization through Microsoft Exchange Server or Xpress Mail plus support for Good Mobile messaging service. Other features of the Samsung Epix include, WiFi (802.11 b/g), built-in aGPS that supports AT&T Navigator, AT&R Navigator Global Edition and other GPS-based applications, support for AT&T Video Share service, support for Global connectivity, a 2-0 megapixel camera, full QWERTY keyboard, a 2.5-inch TFT color display, access to AT&T Mobile Music, AT&T Cellular Video program, MobiTV, Windows Media Player support, and microSD memory card support up to 32GB. The Samsung Epix is available now selected AT&T retail outlets for $199.99 with a two-year service agreement.

Motorola Presents the Aura Luxury Phone

Motorola may seemed to be embarking on a new mobile phone niche currently occupied by the likes of LG and Samsung where mobile phone, fashion and sophistication mix together. We’re referring to a new stylish mobile handset offering from Motorola simply called the AURA. According to Motorola the Aura handset breaks convention and re-estalishes artistry in the design and manufacturing of mobile devices. This evident in the Aura’s circular display which enables the handset to deliver a sensory experience. The design of the Motorola Aura closely resembles luxury watches which are products of sophisticated craftmanship.Major feature of the Aura phone is its circular display which utilizes a brilliant interplay of 16 million color at 300 dpi resolution. This display is further capped with 1.62 carat sapphire crystal lens for that elegant and scratch-resistant look.The Motorola Aura features a stainless steel housing, and chemically etched textures and patterns. This luxury phone also features a mechanical heart-shaped Swiss-made main bearing that serve as its foundation for allowing the blade to rotate with seamless precision. Its gears are composed of Rockwell 50-55 hardened steel which are protected with the same coating used in high-performance acing engines. Now, for its mobile phone features, the Aura boasts of CrystalTalk Technoloy that delivers supreme clarity and deep resonance to every single conversation that AURA users would have, this is true even in noisy environments. It also features an aluminum keypad with anodized, spin-finish. Other features of the Motorola AURA include; MMS/SMS/Email support, music player that supports AAC, AAC+, AAC+ Enhanced, MIDI, MP3 and WAV, video capture and playback at H.263, H2.64 and MPEG4 format, 2MP fixed focus camera, Stereo Bluetooth Class 1, EDR, A2DP and USB 2.0 connectivity, open source mobile web browser, 1.55-inch rounded LCD, and 400 hours standby time and 7.3 hours talk time. The Motorola AURA is expected to be released in Q4.

Samsung Intros its i7110 Symbian Mobile Phone

 

Samsung has launched a new smartphone which is powered by the S60 platform and Symbian OS - the i7110 mobile phone. This candybar phone measures 12. mm thick and features a 2.6-inch AMOLED screen display. It also boasts of excellent navigation, multimedia and connectivity features. The Samsung i7110 features geo-tagging and GPS navigation complemented by its bright AMOLED screen which is perfect for providing sharp images even if users are under direct sunlight. It features a pedestrian navigator but it is only available in Western European countries. The i7110 enables users to get voice navigation through its  car speakers via FM transmitter. Other notable features of the Samsung i7110 include a 5 megapixel camera with auto focust and LED flash, smile shot and blink shot functionality, multi-codec format supports such as Div, a 50MB internal memory, and SDHC-support up to 16GB. The i7110 is packed with a 1200 mAh battery that provides 11 hour talk time. A quick rundown of the Samsung i7110’s specs would give the ff: HSDPA, WiFi, 8-way optical mous, Symbian OS v9.3, S60 3rd edition feature pack 2, 30fps VGA video capture, FM Radio with RDS, DNSe 2.0, music player that supports MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA, RealAudio, GPS Navigation with Pedestrian and Driving, Geotagging, accelerometer, DLNA, 3D games, Bluetooth 2.0, 427 standby time. The Samsung i7110 is slated for a November release in Russia. No words yet on whether this will be released in other markets. Via

G1 Phone Review Roundup

Next week will be the G1 week as the whole of the mobile phone community set their eyes on the release of the much anticipated G1 Android Phone comes into reality. It’s the first Google phone, so everybody is excited. Finally, an iPhone killer has arrived, and so some people say. But first things first, the G1 is not really a Google-manufactured phone, like the iPhone is a genuine Apple product. The first G1 mobile handset is actually an HTC mobile phone powered by Google’s Android mobile platform and will be released through T-Mobile network. But since Google is the more popular market brand, it is but fitting that people call the phone the Google Phone. The HTC-Google phone is just the first mobile phone which will have the Android as its OS. Who knows which other mobile phone manufacturers are going to join the bandwagon as soon as they’ve found out how successful or not the first Google Phone would be. The G1 is up for release on October 22. Words on the streets say that there were already 1.5 million pre-orders for the unit. If that figure is true, well the G1 might be on the road to success then.

While those who have pre-ordered the G1 awaits the shipment on October 22, some lucky tech geeks have already had their first taste of the G1 as early as last week. And the whole week, we’ve seen several of them writing out their initial impression of the Google phone. We’ve rounded some of these reviews of the Google Phone to help you gauge whether the Google phone is worthy of your money, is worthy of the monicker iPhone killer and is worthy of the attention that it is getting right now.

Om Malik  pointed out immediately that the G1 is certainly not an iPhone killer. The G1 lacks the sophistication of the iPhone touch screen features. But nonetheless he also pointed out that the G1 is certainly smartphone which fulfils what a mobile phone should do. Something which the iPhone failed to accomplis.

CrunchGear’s Peter Ha on the other hand was not very pleased with the Android as an OS and contends with the fact that the Android is still in beta stage. Hence, it is not yet a powerful and robust mobile phone OS. But he nonetheless pointed out that the G1’s hardware would have to be the one to pull off the success factor for the G1.

The Boy Genius Report wrote a very comprehensive review of the phone and pointed out that users will love the G1 for as long as they what it is. It is not a BlackBerry, nor a Sidekick but an adult Sidekick phone.

Lifehacker’s Gina Trapani also got her hands on the G1 and said that she will never trade her iPhone for the G1 for reasons such as; the device bulky form factor, T-Mobile’s 3G coverage in her area which renders the G1’s GPS utterly useless, the inability of the phone to handle multiple Google accounts. But she also praised the G1’s fast mobile web browser which is as robust as the iPhone’s Safari browser, the copy and paste functionality which we all missed on the iPhone and customizable keyboard shortcuts.

Gizmodo also has a comprehensive review of the G1 and declared that it is not a finished product yet. He pointed out that there are only three working Google Apps so far – Gmail, Maps and Calendar. Bottomline is, according to Gizmodo, still depends on users’ preferences. The phone is definitely better than other smartphones available in the market today. Hopefully more Google apps will be ported as well as more third-party apps will be developed.

Walt Mossberg of All Things Digital thinks that the G1 is a very good first effort and a godsent for people who prefer physical keyboard. He also pointed out the inferiority of the G1’s user interface as copared to the iPhone, particularly the lack of ability to flick between multiple pictures and web pages or to zoom in and zoom out of a photo or web page.

Suzanne Choney of MSNBC immediately noticed the striking resemblance of the G1 with that of the iPhone particulary the black-slab form factor. But she pointed out that Google has done a good job of making the phone one of the easier-to-maneuver touchscreen smartphones, thanks to the Google Android platform. She thinks that the G1 is not as fluid and simple to use as the iPhone but it will be a popular alternative for those who don’t like the iPhone or AT&T as their wireless carrier.

AT&T Brings the Pantech Matrix to the Market

Responding to the growing number of American mobile consumers who are getting into more texting activities rather than calling to communicate, AT&T has added a new QWERTY phone to its product lineup, the Pantech Matrix. This phone offers a full QWERTY Keyboard that makes it easy for users to compose their text messages as well as access various mobile phone functionality.The Pantech Matrix is compatible with AT&T’s messaging bundles that offer 200, 1,500 and unlimited text messaging for $5, $15, and $20. It can also be bundled with FamilyTalk plan whereby users can get unlimited text messaging for all lines for $30. Available in navy blue and black with green, the Pantect Matrix is available now for $79.99 plus a two-year service agreement and main-in rebate. For that you’ll get a dual-sliding, double-keypad mobile phone that boasts of a 1.3 megapixel camera, Instant messaging, mobile email, AT&T navigator, AT&T mobile music, CV, AT&T Video, and share calling. Other features of the AT&T Pantech Matrix include; live video capture and playback, a music player that supports MP3, MIDI, iMelody, MMF, WAV, SMAF, AAC+, support for AT&T’s music service such as eMusic Mobile, Napster Mobile, steraming radio through XM Radio channel, instant messaging support for AOL, Windows Live and Yahoo, web browser, wireless internet access through MEDIA net, various mobile games, graphics and themes, various productivity tools such as calendar, alarm, call waiting, caller ID and more. The Pantech Matrix is a 3G Quad Band phone with Bluetooth and USB connectivity. It comes with a 4GB internal memory and support microSD expansion. The phone boasts of a 1.2-inch display with 1280 x 960 pixels resolution. And finally, the Pantech Matrix gives out up to 3 hours of talk time and 10 hours of standby time.

LG Brings Rhythm to Alltel Wireless

 LG is sharing some rhythm to Alltel Wireless by bringing its slider phone that boasts of a thumbwheel and countless customization and interactive UI features. If you’re looking for a good music phone, the LG Rhythm just might be the right phone for you with its 3D sound feature as well as a nifty GPS functionality. For web video freaks, you’d be glad to know that the LG Rhythm supports streaming web videos as well. And for still image fanatics, the LG Rhythm answers your needs to with its 1.3 megapixel camera that can capture videos as well. And since we’re talking here of Alltel Wireless, the LG Rhythm also provides full access to various Alltel services including; Music Connect, Navigation, TV and Search City ID, Celltop-ready, Voice-Activated Command, Bluetooth Wireless Technology, various messaging feature such as IM, picture messaging, text messaging and video messaging as well. The LG Rhythm also caters to mobile phone gamers with its support for 3D graphics enhancer technology. Other features of the LG Rhythm include; downloadable tones and graphics, voice activated dialing, MP3 player, support for expandable microSD card, 3.5mm plug, 4.0 oz., hearing aid compliance, camera flash, and various PIM features. This phone can give up to 130 mins. of talk time and 130 hours of standby time. The LG Rhythm phone will set you back for $119.99 after online discount and mail-in-rebate. You’ll be tied up to a two-year service plan with Alltel though for that price. 

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