Cell Phones

The LG Chocolate Touch was announced as being available yesterday over at Verizon. The LG Chocolate Touch is designed for those who love music and comes equipped with Dolby Mobile sound. On the music side of the phone it has an FM radio, integrated song ID, dedicated side key for access to songs and for connectivity to headsets, Bluetooth is also included.

Software built in to the phone has a feature called “Join the Band” where a drum kit is launched on the screen allowing users to tap away to music and join in. As well as having the band feature the phone also has the Join the Band piano function that allows users to join in music on an 88 key on-screen piano. [click to continue…]

LG have announced that they are creating a new Android based phone that will run a SnapDragon processor. The phone is set to launch in about 5 – 6 months time in Q2 of 2010. Other than known what OS it will run and that it will be powered by a SnapDragon processor, there isn’t really anything known just yet.

LG have commented that the phone will be a more mature device than the LG GW620 that was recently launched. [click to continue…]

Both the HTC DROID Eris and Motorola DROID are now available over on the Verizon store as of today. The Motorola DROID has been the phone to get the majority of the spotlight over the last few weeks and rightly so as it runs the Google Android 2.0 operating system that is a big upgrade from 1.5/1.6 that other phones have. One of the big features of Android 2.0 is Google Maps Navigation that provides a free turn by turn sat nav system for Android 2.0 based phones.

The Motorola DROID currently has an online price of $199.99 (that includes a $100 discount) based on a 2 year service plan. If you opt for a 12 month contract then the price is $269.99. Contract prices start around $39.99 although that is for a voice plan with an extra $29.99 being mandatory for a data plan. If you opt for a month to month plan the phone sets you back $559.99. Full prices can be found here. [click to continue…]

The Ezy100 is a mobile phone that has huge buttons and a clear screen also representing large numbers. The phone has been designed for those who are hard of hearing. The ringer on the phone is capable of +100dB and the earpiece also has been boosted and is compatible with hearing aids.

The battery on the Ezy100 is good for about 120 minutes of talk along with 170 hours of standby and the phone works on dual band networks at 900/1800MHz.

The Ezy100 is perhaps one of the first phones that has been launched in a long time that is literally just a phone. It has no wifi, no bluetooth and nothing really except the ability to talk to somebody. [click to continue…]

Expansys have just listed the Nokia X6 on their site based in the UK. The Nokia X6 is priced at £529.99 off contract with a release date set for the 12 November which is next week.

The Nokia X6 has a 3.2 inch touchscreen display along with a 5 megapixel camera and runs the Symbian Series 60 5th edition operating system. The phone measures 111mm x 51mm x 13.8mm and is a quad band phone on 2G networks as well as working on 3G and HSDPA. Other connectivity on the Nokia X6 includes Bluetooth 2.0 and wireless at 802.11g. [click to continue…]

Verizon have officially announced that they will be offering the HTC DROID Eris and that it will be launched tomorrow on their network. The DROID Eris is another version of the HTC Hero and has a 3.2 inch capacitive touchscreen along with a 5 megapixel camera, EVDO Rev.A and it uses the HTC Sense user interface.

For storage the HTC Eris has a microSD card slot with an 8GB microSD card being provided in the box. The phone unfortunately does not run the Android 2.0 operating system which of course means it will lack the fancy new Google Maps Navigation that the Motorola DROID will be getting. [click to continue…]

Google have announced that their voice search software now understands Mandarin Chinese on Nokia S60 phones allowing Google to move in and grow their search business in that area of the world.

The software is currently capable of understanding various English accents and also a few Mandarin accents although not all just yet. As well as working on the Nokia S60 range of phones, Mandarin voice search will also come soon to Android based phones as well as the iPhone in China. [click to continue…]

Nokia have announced five new mobile phones that are heading to Indonesia. The phones named the Nokia 1280, Nokia 1616, Nokia 1800, Nokia 2220 slide and Nokia 2690 are all affordable phones and easy to use which support the Nokia Life Tools. As well as being targeted at Indonesia, Nokia also mention that the phones will be available worldwide.

“Following the successful launch of Nokia Life Tools in India, where people are getting the benefits of vital information sent directly to their mobile phones, we are pleased to bring this service to consumers in Indonesia,” said Dieter May, Vice President, Emerging Markets, Nokia. “Inform, Involve, Empower – the vision of Nokia Life Tools – applies no matter where it’s implemented. With the number of devices that Nokia Life Tools supports, including the five new phones we are announcing today, we are giving people the solution that suits them the most.”

[click to continue…]

HTC have announced that the HTC HD2 is now shipping in Europe and Asia and will be heading to the US in early 2010. The announcement was made in a press release published today. Although the phone is shipping today, you wont be able to get your hands on it for another few days yet it seems.

The phone it’s self is very highly anticipated due to it’s huge 4.3″ capacitive multi-touch screen and 1GHz Snapdragon processor making things run very smoothly on it. The phone will run HTC Sense making it the first Windows Phone to offer the HTC user experience. [click to continue…]

When getting a new phone with high speed internet available on it, a common want is to be able to use the phone as a modem for your laptop so you can access the internet on a larger screen while on the move. Often this ability, referred to as tethering, is blocked, but recently we are seeing more phones and carriers open up to allowing phones to be used for this, for a fee of course. We now hear that the Motorola Droid will have tethering ability on the Verizon network starting early next year.

Verizon have mentioned that their Broadband Access Connect plan will be made available for Droid early next year. This mobile plan is designed to allow you to use your phone for tethering. [click to continue…]

BlackSn0w has now been launched that provides unlocking for both iPhone 3G models and the 3G S running the latest iPhone OS numbered 3.1.2 with baseband 05.11.07.

When using this tool your phone will be capable of being unlocked so it can work on any network. To get the unlock working you first need to jailbreak your iPhone using the Blackra1n tool from here, and when jailbreaked you will see a blacksn0w icon on your iPhone which will allow you to unlock your phone for use on other networks. [click to continue…]

Orange have launched a new iPhone app for Orange Wednesdays in the UK. Orange Wednesdays have been running since 2003 and allow those on the Orange network to text a number and get a free 2 for 1 voucher for use in cinemas across the UK every Wednesday of the year.

The new Orange Wednesdays app for iPhone and iPod Touch allows you to actually check cinema listings in your area, read reviews and grab a free voucher to redeem while at the cinema. Although not the most exciting of app launches this year it could be a handy app to have if you are going to pick up a new iPhone on the Orange network when launched next week. [click to continue…]

Just this morning we mentioned that the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 had been officially announced. After some hunting around on youtube we then came across a promo video showing the phone in action and how the interface works. The video shows an ultra smooth version of Rachael UI working and although pre-production models are a little more choppy, it’s still time for SE to iron out any bugs considering the phone wont be launched for another few months. Video after the break. [click to continue…]

After a few months of rumours and leaks about the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 and it’s change of name from Rachael to X3 and finally to X10, it has now been officially unveiled. The new SE Android based phone runs a 1GHz Snapdragon processor built by Qualcomm and has a healthy 4 inch capacitive touchscreen display which isn’t quite the size of the HTC HD2, but is still quite a large screen to work with.

It runs the Rachael Android UI which we showed a little of yesterday that features a complete overhaul of the media menus and video playback. As well as the fast processor, large screen and nice UI the phone has an 8.1 megapixel camera although on the downside for now, the phone is a little choppy and the snapdragon processor seems to quickly kill the battery. Don’t be too worried about that though as the UI is a very early stage as the phone isn’t getting released for another few months yet. We expect that when it is released the battery and choppy issues should be all sorted. [click to continue…]