Cell Phone Hub

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Some of us are still trying to keep straight in our brains the difference between Windows Mobile Smartphone, Pocket PC, and Pocket PC Phone Edition devices, but with the impending arrival of Crossbow, that ship has apparently sailed. In the realm of new Windows releases, Vista has obviously been garnering the lion's share of the attention, but Windows Mobile 5 is about to ride off into the mobile platform sunset in favor of Windows Mobile 6 -- codenamed the aforementioned Crossbow -- and the naming convention to differentiate between its various flavors is riding with it. Smartphone (read: phones without touchscreens) is rumored to be replaced by the slightly less colorful "Standard," Pocket PC Phone Edition becomes "Professional," and the plain ol' Pocket PC becomes "Classic," perhaps to reflect the fact that phoneless Pocket PCs have been all but shunned to niche markets in recent years. With all due respect to Microsoft and its hardware partners, they could call it "The Stopgap Version To Hold Us Over Until Photon" for all we care; let's just get some product moving in the pipeline, eh?

 

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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

Some of us are still trying to keep straight in our brains the difference between Windows Mobile Smartphone, Pocket PC, and Pocket PC Phone Edition devices, but with the impending arrival of Crossbow, that ship has apparently sailed. In the realm of new Windows releases, Vista has obviously been garnering the lion's share of the attention, but Windows Mobile 5 is about to ride off into the mobile platform sunset in favor of Windows Mobile 6 -- codenamed the aforementioned Crossbow -- and the naming convention to differentiate between its various flavors is riding with it. Smartphone (read: phones without touchscreens) is rumored to be replaced by the slightly less colorful "Standard," Pocket PC Phone Edition becomes "Professional," and the plain ol' Pocket PC becomes "Classic," perhaps to reflect the fact that phoneless Pocket PCs have been all but shunned to niche markets in recent years. With all due respect to Microsoft and its hardware partners, they could call it "The Stopgap Version To Hold Us Over Until Photon" for all we care; let's just get some product moving in the pipeline, eh?

 

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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, Portable Audio, Portable Video

While Cingular (er, AT&T, but you know what we mean) couldn't seem prouder of its iPhone exclusivity, apparently Apple's first choice was Verizon, but the two companies couldn't agree on a deal that worked for both companies. "We said no." Said Jim Gerace, a VZW VP. "We have nothing bad to say about the Apple iPhone. We just couldn't reach a deal that was mutually beneficial." Talks began as far back as two years ago, but Apple's demands were steep. They also give us an idea of what exactly is behind the Apple / Cingular agreement: Apple wanted a percentage of monthly service fees, control over distribution that would limit iPhone sales to Apple and Verizon stores, and even some control over service and support for iPhone customers. "They would have been stepping in between us and our customers to the point where we would have almost had to take a back seat ... on hardware and service support," say Gerace. Cingular doesn't quite see it that way, so perhaps Apple changed its conditions a bit when it started courting Cingy. Says Mark Siegel, a Cingular spokesman, "I don't want to leave the impression that these (iPhone) customers are not ours. They are." Mark also mentioned that Cingular would field calls related to wireless service, and that "We think this is a win for Apple, and it is a win for Cingular." Whether consumers -- who would have presumably had a fair shot at an EV-DO iPhone with Verizon as a service provider -- will win in the end is yet to be seen.

 

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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, Portable Audio, Portable Video

While Cingular (er, AT&T, but you know what we mean) couldn't seem prouder of its iPhone exclusivity, apparently Apple's first choice was Verizon, but the two companies couldn't agree on a deal that worked for both companies. "We said no." Said Jim Gerace, a VZW VP. "We have nothing bad to say about the Apple iPhone. We just couldn't reach a deal that was mutually beneficial." Talks began as far back as two years ago, but Apple's demands were steep. They also give us an idea of what exactly is behind the Apple / Cingular agreement: Apple wanted a percentage of monthly service fees, control over distribution that would limit iPhone sales to Apple and Verizon stores, and even some control over service and support for iPhone customers. "They would have been stepping in between us and our customers to the point where we would have almost had to take a back seat ... on hardware and service support," say Gerace. Cingular doesn't quite see it that way, so perhaps Apple changed its conditions a bit when it started courting Cingy. Says Mark Siegel, a Cingular spokesman, "I don't want to leave the impression that these (iPhone) customers are not ours. They are." Mark also mentioned that Cingular would field calls related to wireless service, and that "We think this is a win for Apple, and it is a win for Cingular." Whether consumers -- who would have presumably had a fair shot at an EV-DO iPhone with Verizon as a service provider -- will win in the end is yet to be seen.

 

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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

Well, a hearty good morning to you too, FCC. Our favorite gadgety governmental org just approved a quad-band GSM version of Motorola's Maxx v6. Better yet, it supports UMTS in the US with a new 850MHz radio in addition to supporting 2100MHz for Europe -- there's no mention of 1900MHz which might (but not necessarily) make this a single-band HSDPA phone. Otherwise, it looks to have all the same hotness we've already seen -- QVGA display, 50MB of internal memory with a microSD slot for more, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR including A2DP profile support for untethered stereo audio, and a 2 megapixel camera with a second VGA cam under the clam for video conferencing. Now move over Verizon, your CDMA-based MAXX just got competition.

 

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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

Well, a hearty good morning to you too, FCC. Our favorite gadgety governmental org just approved a quad-band GSM version of Motorola's Maxx v6. Better yet, it supports UMTS in the US with a new 850MHz radio in addition to supporting 2100MHz for Europe -- there's no mention of 1900MHz which might (but not necessarily) make this a single-band HSDPA phone. Otherwise, it looks to have all the same hotness we've already seen -- QVGA display, 50MB of internal memory with a microSD slot for more, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR including A2DP profile support for untethered stereo audio, and a 2 megapixel camera with a second VGA cam under the clam for video conferencing. Now move over Verizon, your CDMA-based MAXX just got competition.

 

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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, Portable Audio, Portable Video

We're not sure if the pics above are the result of an engorged, Chinese fanboy fantasy or actual product renderings of Meizu's rumored M8. We wouldn't be surprised either way what with China-based Meizu's history of uh, Apple inspired design. Posted by a senior discussion-forum jockey on the Meizu site, the M8 is now said to measure in at a scant 57x105x11.5-mm and packs both a GSM and Chinese TD-SCDMA 3G radio, a 3.3-inch 720x480 pixel display, Bluetooth, a 3 megapixel camera, and an ARM11 CPU capable of recording video at 30fps at the device's full 720 x 480 resolution. Too good to be true? Perhaps, but if not Meizu then certainly some other nimble Chinese outfit will be unveiling their iPhone clone soon enough and likely well before the iPhone hits Asia sometime in 2008. And as we've seen, even Apple's tenacious legal team can be helpless in the face of shutting down copycats on foreign turf.

[Via dapreview, thanks Vinn]

 

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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, Portable Audio, Portable Video

We're not sure if the pics above are the result of an engorged, Chinese fanboy fantasy or actual product renderings of Meizu's rumored M8. We wouldn't be surprised either way what with China-based Meizu's history of uh, Apple inspired design. Posted by a senior discussion-forum jockey on the Meizu site, the M8 is now said to measure in at a scant 57x105x11.5-mm and packs both a GSM and Chinese TD-SCDMA 3G radio, a 3.3-inch 720x480 pixel display, Bluetooth, a 3 megapixel camera, and an ARM11 CPU capable of recording video at 30fps at the device's full 720 x 480 resolution. Too good to be true? Perhaps, but if not Meizu than certainly some other nimble Chinese outfit will be unveiling their iPhone clone soon enough and likely well before the iPhone hits Asia sometime in 2008. And as we've seen, even Apple's tenacious legal team can be helpless in the face of shutting down copycats on foreign turf. Picture 'round back after the break.

[Via dapreview, thanks Vinn]

Continue reading Meizu's M8? Apple lawyers, start your engines

 

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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, Wireless

Any Brits reading this will probably already be aware of the occasionally questionable exploits of the "red top" tabloids, but for those that prefer not to take their tea with crumpets, the news that Clive Goodman, a journalist for the UK Sunday tabloid the News of the World, was found guilty and sentenced to four months jail time for intercepting over 600 phone messages left for three senior officials in the royal household will probably come as a mild shock. To British readers, the fact that a tabloid hack was willing to go to such lengths in order to provide such thrilling exclusives as the "news" that Prince William casually asked an ITV reporter to borrow a video editing suite won't be a surprise at all. Perhaps the most depressing fact in this case is the complete incompetence of the assailants: Mr. Goodman and Glenn Mulcaire -- the freelance investigator who was sentenced to six months prison time for his role in this plot, and for independently tapping several other notable figure's phones -- illegally and recklessly accessed voicemails before the rightful owners had retrieved them. If there's any good to come out of this case, it'll be a tightening of the security at the network operators that provided the royal official's mobile phones: apparently Mulcaire somehow managed to obtain the passwords "issued by the mobile phone companies to their own security staff. This allowed him, having obtained the mobile phone numbers of his targets, to call customer services and to obtain the voicemail retrieval numbers." We don't know whether to be flattered by the fact that royal staff slum it with the rest of us by using the same mobile phone networks that us "commoners" do, or to freak out at the lax security exercise by the unnamed network operators.

[Via Boing Boing]

 

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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, Wireless

Any Brits reading this will probably already be aware of the occasionally questionable exploits of the "red top" tabloids, but for those that prefer not to take their tea with crumpets, the news that Clive Goodman, a journalist for the UK Sunday tabloid the News of the World, was found guilty and sentenced to four months jail time for intercepting over 600 phone messages left for three senior officials in the royal household will probably come as a mild shock. To British readers, the fact that a tabloid hack was willing to go to such lengths in order to provide such thrilling exclusives as the "news" that Prince William casually asked an ITV reporter to borrow a video editing suite won't be a surprise at all. Perhaps the most depressing fact in this case is the complete incompetence of the assailants: Mr. Goodman and Glenn Mulcaire -- the freelance investigator who was sentenced to six months prison time for his role in this plot, and for independently tapping several other notable figure's phones -- illegally and recklessly accessed voicemails before the rightful owners had retrieved them. If there's any good to come out of this case, it'll be a tightening of the security at the network operators that provided the royal official's mobile phones: apparently Mulcaire somehow managed to obtain the passwords "issued by the mobile phone companies to their own security staff. This allowed him, having obtained the mobile phone numbers of his targets, to call customer services and to obtain the voicemail retrieval numbers." We don't know whether to be flattered by the fact that royal staff slum it with the rest of us by using the same mobile phone networks that us "commoners" do, or to freak out at the lax security exercise by the unnamed network operators.

[Via Boing Boing]

 

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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!