Cell Phone Hub

Filed under: Cellphones, GPS

Taking a note from Japan, it's being reported that South Korean police are backing a highly controversial plan that would equip each new mobile sold in the nation with a GPS chip. Reportedly, Song Kang-ho, chief of the investigation bureau of the National Police Agency, has stated that the government has "already submitted a related bill to the National Assembly," and the general idea here is to crack down on the rise of kidnapping and various other crimes against children and women. Granted, there's not a lot of supporting evidence that this is actually set to go down, so until we see it inked in stone, our skeptic hats are remaining in place.

[Via textually, image courtesy of The New York Times]

 

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Filed under: Cellphones

At this point the Treo 800w has been outed by Bill Gates himself, so while the suspense factor is pretty low, it's nice to know that it'll finally be getting here in June. That's the word according to this purloined Sprint roadmap, which also indicates the newest Treo will have GPS and EV-DO rev. A -- but still run WinMo 6.0, which is pretty sad, especially if that revised version of 6.1 launches at CTIA next week as expected. Oh well, at least it's a new Treo -- let's just hope they can shake some more ugly off this thing before it hits the street.

[Via PhoneArena]

 

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Filed under: Cellphones, Tablet PCs

We know Apple's had its Inkwell handwriting recognition software in OS X for years now, so we might have otherwise just totally glossed over this Handwriting Recognition Engineer job listing on Apple's site. Except for the part that reads: "The recognition technology you create may extend beyond Mac OS X to other applications and the iPhone." They always love to throw those little tidbits in there, don't they?

[Via Macrumors]

 

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Filed under: Cellphones, GPS

It may have won approval from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and NAVTEQ shareholders alike, but it looks like the EU's European Commission needs a bit more time to think over Nokia's acquisition of the company, and it's now launched an "in-depth" probe into the matter. According to Reuters, the Commission said that the "proposed merger raises serious doubts with regards to ... competition concerns," although it was quick to add that the decision to open the inquiry does not prejudge the result of the probe. Among other things, the probe will apparently attempt to asses whether whether the purchase would affect the cost of maps for other companies providing navigation services on cellphones. If all of this has a familiar ring, it should, because it wasn't all that long ago that the EU launched a similar probe into TomTom's similar acquisition of map-maker Tele Atlas.

 

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Filed under: Cellphones

It's only just ended its ban on DVD player and computer sales, but Cuba's apparently not stopping it's technological catch-up there, with President Raul Castro now announcing that the country's also lifting its restrictions on cellphone use. As the AFP reports, there has of course been cellphones in the country for some time, but they have mainly been reserved for foreigners, government staff, or those who were able to obtain them through third parties. Under the new regulations, however, Cubans will be able to get cellphone service from state telecom ETECSA, but only in the form of prepaid contracts that must be paid for in foreign currency. Any other details are apparently pretty light at the moment, but ETECSA says it'll be providing information on how Cubans can switch over their existing service or sign up for a new contract in the next few days.

 

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Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless

We've been hearing that China Mobile would have its act together and get TD-SCDMA ready well in advance of the 2008 Beijing Olympics since last November, and with merely months to spare, it seems things just may work out. Reportedly, the carrier is all set to begin commercial trials of the home cooked 3G standard on April 1st, where it will be tested in Shanghai, Tianjin, Shenyang, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Xiamen, Qinhuangdao and of course, Beijing. Initially, China Mobile Group will provide 20,000 lucky souls with free TD-SCDMA phones and subsidies of 800 yuan per month, while folks outside of that group can also walk into retail outlets and pick up discounted handsets on a whim. Maybe it's just us, but we'd probably hold off until those guinea pigs gave everyone else a heads-up of the network quality before we went dropping our own change on it.

[Via mocoNews]

 

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Filed under: Cellphones, Features, Handhelds

Today, Engadget answers the singular question on the mind of everyone out there who's sitting at a solid oak desk in a glass office wearing a suit as they read this: what's up with the next BlackBerry? The rumored BlackBerry 8xxx / 9000 series is getting a lot clearer today, and we're happy to report that RIM's cooking up a beauty to keep its legion of devotees loyal -- and maybe even win a few converts along the way. Head on over to Engadget Mobile for pictures and video of the little beast in action!

[Thanks, BaggedLunch]

 

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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Mere mortals will need to wait until the third quarter of the year -- if not longer, depend on their region and tolerance for some probable price gouging in the early going -- to get their hands on the mighty Nokia N96. On the other hand, Mobile-review apparently knows the right hands to shake and eyes to wink to get hold of a prototype unit extraordinarily early, and they're taking full advantage of the opportunity. A few hours of your time devoted to the novella of a review will net you a deep understanding and appreciation for the N96's strengths and follies, but in a nutshell, the site seems to come away with a pretty ambivalent opinion of a device that should be knocking everyone's socks off -- especially for a sticker price that'll hover in the $800 arena. Problems included a penchant for picking up dirt and fingerprints (the price you pay for a beautiful glossy face, we suppose), a cramped nav key layout with the tricky touch-sensitive Navi Wheel front and center, audio performance that wasn't bad but was expected to be far better in light of the dedicated DSP, and a "shovel"-like feel in the hand, a symptom of the phone's generous dimensions. Everyone owes the production version of the N96 a chance to show its true form when it's released later this year -- and hey, at least Nokia's got a checklist of things that need improvement in the prototype now -- so we're keeping our chins up that this'll still make the N95 8GB a proud daddy when it comes time to hand over the crown to the Nseries kingdom.

[Via Tech Digest and NokNok]

 

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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds, Portable Video

They haven't revealed anything we didn't already know, but AT&T's finally come out with a semi-firm date for the launch of its MediaFLO-powered mobile TV service which will be branded simply as "AT&T Mobile TV." It'll be available to subscribers in May -- no specific date just yet -- on two exclusive handsets, the Prada-esque LG Vu and the more pedestrian Samsung Access; the Vu features an expansive touchscreen and 2 megapixel camera, while the Access makes do with a smaller landscape display and a 1.3 megapixel sensor. Both feature Bluetooth and 3G data, but the real story here is Mobile TV itself, which will come with two new channels that are exclusive to AT&T (in other words, unavailable on the other live MediaFLO service, VCAST TV from Verizon). The latest, hottest way to burn productivity on the go gets real in just a few short weeks, folks, so finish up whatever remaining work you have now.

 

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Filed under: Cellphones

Apparently not content to let Nokia Siemens have the upgraded mobile broadband spotlight to itself today, Ericsson has now announced that it's set to demonstrate what it's touting as the "world-first end-to-end HSPA Evolution technology" at CTIA next week. That, the company says, should allow for speeds up to an impressive 42 Mbps, a feat made apparently possible by a combination of higher order modulation technology (64QAM) and 2x2 Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) antenna technology. As for the actual demonstration, Ericsson is only going so far as to say that it'll be conducted with an unspecified "handheld form-factor device" that's based on the Ericsson Mobile Platforms access technology. Other details are unsurprisingly pretty light at the moment, but we're betting Ericsson will have plenty more to say about it when they actually light things up at CTIA.

 

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