Archive for the ‘Cell Phone Reviews’ Category:
Verizon officially launches the rugged, text-friendly Casio G’zOne Brigade
Just yesterday we were saying that Casio’s built-to-be-beaten G’zOne Brigade would be launching today — and sure enough, it just went live on Verizon’s web site.
As a rugged phone, it’s flagship feature is that it’s.. well, a rugged phone. These things usually don’t pack much functionality beyond that. This one, however, sneaks a full QWERTY keyboard into its clamshell body, along with push to talk, visual voice mail, and a 3.2 megapixel camera with flash.
Alas, durability doesn’t come cheap; the G’zOne will set you back $299 on a 2-year contract, though they’ll knock that down to $249 if you buy it online.
Opera Mini 5 Beta Now Available For Android
Sure, Opera Mini may (or may not) already be the most popular mobile browser in the world — but why stop there? Following up on the Android release of Opera Mobile 4 just over a year ago, Opera has just launched Opera Mini 5 for Android into public beta.
The jump from version 4 to version 5 is pretty huge, introducing a handful of features that Opera says “makes your mobile browsing experience as close as it can be to your desktop experience.”
The biggest change here is probably the introduction of tabbed browsing — a must, given that just about every default smartphone browser supports it out of the box at this point.
Some of the other big new features:
- Speed Dial: Gives you one-touch access to 9 of your favorite sites.
- Password Manager
- Opera Link: Syncs your bookmarks (and Speed Dial) between your handset and your desktop (be it that you’re running Opera on your desktop, that is)
Is Opera Mini 5 a worthy contender to the default Android browser? I’d say so. Opera Mini’s primary selling point is that they pipe everything through a data compression proxy before sending it to your handset. For those days when 3G just isn’t as fast as it should be, it’ll save you time; for those of us not on unlimited data plans, it’ll save some money. Alas, the current Beta doesn’t support multi-touch, which may very well be a deal-killer for some
Still: throw in Opera Mini 5’s seemingly rock solid build quality and its pretty dang decent UI, and I’d say it’s worth giving it a serious test session at the very least. Look for it in the Android App Market.
LG GW370 Shannon Leaked
Another upcoming messaging phone ‘GW370 Shannon’ from LG has recently appeared over at Mobile.Sooyuu.com. Although it’s not officially announced, the phone is said to feature a touchscreen display with 240 x 320 resolution and have a full sliding QWERTY keyboard. Other specs remain unknown at the moment including pricing and release date. Stay tuned for more updates. [Mobile.Sooyuu.com]
K-Touch X90+ Mini Twister Cell Phone
The K-Touch X90+ is a new Chinese touchscreen phone that boasts dual cameras, dual SIM, and a rotating keypad. Priced at $260.99, the phone also has an FM tuner and an analog TV. The K-Touch X90+ is compatible with GSM at the two frequencies of 900MHz, 1800MHz. Too bad, it will not work in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. [ChinaGrabber]
XNA 4.0 games on Windows Phone 7 Series look awesome (but won’t be for Zune HD)
A bundle of screenshots just hit the net showing off the latest Direct3D-based mobile games running on a WinPho7 device, adn they look pretty hot. We knew that the Tegra chipset in the Zune HD and likely in several upcoming WinPho handsets (Tegra 2, to be precise) is capable of some nice 3D, but these are better than anything I’ve seen yet. The game shown is The Harvest, a dungeon crawler which, if indicative of the general quality of WinPho7 games, portends good times to be had.
In slightly less-enthralling news, it seems that the Zune HD will be sticking with XNA 3.1. Hmm. So basically the Zune HD is being abandoned as far as game development — bad news for Zune owners, since it means less value for their device and suggests an upcoming Zune HD 2 or Super HD or HDX or whatever name they come up with. Zune HD 7 Series?
[via Engadget]
Want to sleep with Android? Now you can.
Do you love Android? Like, really love Android? So much so that those Android action figures just don’t seem like enough? Well, now there’s a way for you to show the world how much you really care about your favorite OS: by bringing it to bed with you.
Now, now, get your mind out of the gutter (There are no intentional innuendos anywhere in this post. Honest!). Etsy seller Craftsquatch has just started churning out the Android-themed throw pillows you see above for $19.99 a pop. If you want one of these, you may want to act fast for two reasons: A) it’s Etsy, so its handmade, thus inherently being limited edition and B) we’re guessing that, unlike the aforementioned Android toys, this use of the Android logo isn’t exactly licensed.
HiPhone W008 Cell Phones
HiPhone has launched their latest handset namely the W008. Priced at $130 each, the handset comes with dual cameras, a slideout keyboard, and support for JAVA, MP3 and MP4 files. What makes the HiPhone W008 special is that it has the “shake-function”, so you can browse music in a different way. [Product Page]
HTC Supersonic Teaser Video
We have a teaser video of the upcoming HTC Supersonic. According to rumor, this Android-powered phone is powered by a 1GHz Snapdragon processor with a 4.3-inch full touchscreen display, and HTC’s Sense UI. Watch the video after the jump to get more details.
Nokia files patent for kinetically-charging mobile phone battery
Question: can you file a patent for something that’s existed for a long time? I guess the question is of implementation. While self-winding watches and shake-to-charge flashlights already harvest kinetic energy to store and later discharge, I suppose they do it in a different way than this proposed system from Nokia. Not sure I trust something sliding back and forth in my phone, either. And wouldn’t that necessitate a bunch of empty space that could be taken up with, I don’t know, a bigger battery?
Well, I shouldn’t carp at a perfectly practical idea. How often have you been stuck somewhere with a low battery, and no outlet in sight? Shake your phone a few hundred times and you’ve gained… a couple minutes of power. And a lot of weird stares.
[via Unwired View, Symbian Freaks, Slashgear]
Review: Case-mate Hug Wireless Charging Pad and Case for iPhone 3G/3GS
Short Version: A bit of a twist on traditional induction chargers, Case-mate’s “Hug Wireless Charging Pad and Case” attempts to offset its $100 price tag by adhering to the Wireless Power Consortium’s universal charging standard, which promises interoperability with other charging pads and devices that are developed using the same technology.
