Gadget Venue

Windows Phone 7 Series has been officially announced at MWC today. The new operating system was designed to “re-invent” how phones actually operate and how the UI functions. In the past a lot of phones tend to try function like a PC. Microsoft’s [MSFT] new approach is that the phone is more intimate than a PC, and should have a new user interface.

What Microsoft wanted to achieve when planning Windows Phone 7 Series is a device that can focus on an individual and their needs as well as helping to organise information and applications.

The new operating system features flatter icons than before that actually look good. They are large allowing for 1 or 2 to fit across the page and work easily without the need of a stylus. The home page scrolls down and displays several of these blocks which house the most common details and contacts you need. [Read more…]

Samsung have unveiled another phone called the Samsung I8520 Halo Projector Phone. This comes alongside the Samsung Wave that we just mentioned a few moments ago.

The I8520 Halo has a 3.7 inch WVGA Super AMOLED display (similar to what the Wave has in that there is no motion blur on films and it has a crisp display showing as close to true life colours as currently possible). It also has an 8 megapixel camera along with a VGA camera on the front. It can capture 720p video at 30 frames per second and has plenty of wireless connectivity in allowing it to connect up to Bluetooth devices as well as 802.11b/g/n devices. Assisted GPS can also be found inside and for storage it comes with 16GB of internal which can be expanded by using a microSD card. [Read more…]

Samsung have created a new phone called the Samsung Wave. The Wave uses the new Bada OS and is actually the first device to utilise this operating system.

The Samsung Waves comes with a 1GHz processor along with a 3.3 inch WVGA Super AMOLED touchscreen display that can show 800 x 480 pixels. The Super AMOLED screen claims to have no motion blur, be ultra crisp and true to the original colours that it represents on-screen. The quick 1GHz processor allows for HD video to be played back smoothly as well as applications also run smoothly. We’ve seen how 1GHz processors perform in the past on other various devices and have definitely seen an increase in performance when used over slower 500 – 600MHz CPU’s. [Read more…]

Although the latest OS from Microsoft [MSFT] has yet to be unveiled (will be official later today), some sneaky people have managed to capture images of the new OS when some changes were being made to a display. The display changers didn’t seem to think to check around them when they lifted the covers and someone managed to capture some photos of the OS underneath.

What is seen is some XBox Live integration on the home page along with larger icons for items such as messages, missed calls etc… Also a new “Me” section seems to be on the screen too.

From what we see on the images it looks fantastic, although hopefully it’s not just a new skin for the current WM 6.5. We are expecting a lot more from Microsoft this time around as they seem to be caught behind on reskinning old mobile operating systems making it difficult for users to drop the unwanted stylus. [Read more…]

The Unifeye Mobile Augmented Reality SDK has been launched that allows iPhone and Android developers to more easily create augmented reality applications on smartphones.

The new system is demonstrated on the video below and shows how augmented reality scenes can be created more easily. It uses a number of systems to function such as the latest image recognition technologies along with 3D rendering allowing for real-time interaction with various things.

The demonstration shows how pointing the camera of your smartphone on to a magazine could pop up a 3D set of drawers to move around. Other ideas show 3D cars being looked at in magazines and also even giving the option to create augmented reality games with your own environment. [Read more…]

Acer have announced their latest Acer Liquid e phone. The device will run the latest Google [GOOG] OS Android 2.1 (aka Eclair) and be powered by a 1GHz Snapdragon processor from Qualcomm.

The Acer Liquid e Android phone has a 3.5 inch high definition screen that is capacitive touch allowing good quality images and video to be displayed. Plenty of connectivity can be found on the Liquid e with wireless 802.11b/g being supported along with Bluetooth 2.0 and HSDPA, HSUPA and GSM/EDGE.

RAM and ROM on the device is set at 512MB and 256MB respectively. The camera has a 5 megapixel sensor although no flash is mentioned. [Read more…]

Distinctive Developments have build a 3D animation that displays a few charachters (animated) in a 3D room with the camera moving around the scene to test the iPhone 3G S graphics performance VS that of the Nexus One.

Both the GPU and CPU on each device is tested. The GPU gets it’s stress test from the number of polygons present in the scene while the CPU handles the bone and skinning in the animation. The iPhone 3G S looks to be the superior model here reaching speeds of up to 61 frames per second vs the Nexus One that achieves 30 – 35 frames per second. [Read more…]