Just wanted to get this out for discussion later since I must prepare for a hurricane now. 3GB seems pretty cool, but I wonder how well the OS handles since it is using Windows Mobile 2003. Where is 2005?

HP’s iPaq hw6500 series of mobile handhelds will be compatible with Cingular Wireless’ network. This means access to the Enhanced Data for GSM Environment, or EDGE, network allowing consumers to use wireless e-mail and other applications.

Also starting at the end of this month Cingular will be the only carrier for the new handhelds.

– via c|net

Samsung has introduced a 3 GB HDD embedded phone, the SPH-V7900. In September 2004, Samsung introduced SPH-V5400 touting it as the world’s first mobile phone, equipped with 1.5 GB HDD.

The new phone includes features such as a 262K color TFT (240 x 320) display, MMS, WIPI and WAP 2.0. The SPH-V7900 enables users to store over 700 music files with 4MB each, plus two or three full-length movies at 1.1 to 5GB each.

The SPH-V7900 weighs around 165.3g and is 103 x 52 x 27.6mm in size. It supports MPEG-4 AAC/AAC+ for audio, MPEG-4/H.264 for video, has 64-polyphonic stereo sound is provided by high-performance dual speakers, mounted on the exterior folder. The new phone offers IrDA and USB 2.0 connectivity.

Samsung’s new phone incorporates a 2 Megapixel camera, including MP3 player, 2x optical zoom and document viewer functions. It also features harmonic color, whereby musical elements like volume, tone, octave and scale get converted into visual images with different colors and patterns.

– Techtree

W900i is a swivel action Sony Ericsson 3G Walkman™ phone. It has everything you need to enjoy your music on the move and it supports the latest and most advanced 3G network services. An impressive large screen makes mobile video viewing pure pleasure and the audio quality is what you would expect from an advanced digital music player. A 2 megapixel camera with auto focus will let you take pictures to be proud of and you can send them straight from your phone.

– Sony

Now this looks smooth. 3G so it is useless in the US, but cool nonetheless. Love to see how you actually dial a number though. You know like a real phone number? Isn’t this still a phone?

Seems that the future of Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) won’t be in BlackBerry hardware sales, but from software licensing to other phone companies. Today they announced that the Treo 650 will install their push e-mail software on the Treo 650 early next year. Strange since rumors of the new Treos coming out soon have been floating around the web for the last couple of weeks.

And interestingly enough further down in the article we find this gem.

Palm will start selling the BlackBerry Treo 650 right around the time it introduces a new Treo that runs Windows Mobile. The Windows Treo will use Microsoft-developed push e-mail technology that is expected to be part of a new version of Windows Mobile available later this year.

Treo 600 users are out of luck.

– via MacCentral

Slider phones are an interesting breed because the idea behind their implementation seems really cool. Like the Matrix phones I should be able to press a button and POOF the coolest phone across the land pops up in front of me. Sure these phones exist, but unless you feel like throwing down a month’s rent plus a car payment you are pretty much out of luck.

For us poorer folks we have slider phones, but they just aren’t the same. They look cheap and the move cheaply and that’s what I think of when I see this image of Samsung’s SGH-E635. I don’t want to reach out and grab the phone for myself, I want to stick with the traditional clam-style phones simply because they are more stylish.

Sure c|net gave it a 7 out of 10, but that just adds more weight to my argument. Give me a Matrix style slider under $400 and then we can start talking.

Once I lost my phone in a parking lot, but was fortunate that someone found it and after calling the phone I was able to get it back. Unfortunately, the jackasses used up all my minutes doing prank calls across the country.

Once my phone got stolen and I was quick enough to cancel the number before the thieves made it past 10 calls.

I never go through the hassle of locking my phone, which I guess is something I should do, but figure it is a pain in the ass doing so every time I simply wish to make a call. This is where the Samsung SCH S370 comes in handy with its biometric security system.

The handset will be able to store and recognise upto 5 individual fingerprints. Depending upon how strictly you have set the privacy controls, the handset could get locked up if it does not recognise the print repeatedly or it could simply prevent usage. The fingerprint recognition sensor is at the bottom of the keypad in the clamshell phone.

What other features does it have? You standard phone and mp3 playing capabilities of course. A great phone to get if you don’t wish for your phone to get hacked no matter what type of locking features it has integrated.

Nokia has announced that it will release its E60, E61, and E70 line of business mobile phones in the first quarter of 2006. Each phone supports the most popular corporate mobile email solutions such as BlackBerry Connect, GoodLink, Nokia Business Center and Visto Mobile. The devices also offer advanced VOIP and push-to-talk functionality.

The Nokia E61 (see photo) features a typical Blackberry form-factor. It features a four-way joystick and full keyboard combined with a wide 16 million color screen. The Nokia E61 can send and receive emails, even when on a phone call. The Nokia E61 operates in GSM850/900/1800/1900 and WCDMA2100 networks.

They include a range of GSM frequencies and 3G capability as well as WLAN and Bluetooth wireless offerings. The new phones are expected to sell for $420-$540.

Hopefully I can find some pics of the E60 and E70 phones since I am curious to how much different they will look with a slightly different featureset.

Ah, found one of the E70, pretty cool looking.

– via I4U

Motorola’s E680i is a mobile phone that combines a PDA and a camera in one palm size device! It operates at GSM 900/1800/1900 networks and features an integrated VGA camera with 8x zoom. View oth video playback and recording on the large and bright 240 x 320 TFT color display. The E680i has a 50 MB internal memory and a SD memory card slot that is easily expandable to 2 GB. This PDA phone is based on the Linux operating system and uses a user interface that is written in Java.

Initially I was a bit worried about the size of the phone, but after seeing the size comparison it doesn’t seem to be much larger than other phones in its class. It is interesting that it runs on Linux as this should make hacking and customizing the phone a bit easier, but could also lead to the potential of not being able to return to the default settings if you decide to take things a bit too far.

The inclusion of Real Player as the main software leaves me with an uneasy feeling because I can only imagine what kind of resources it hogs up on the phone when put to use. Fortunately they got the browser selection right by going with Opera 7.5, although having the ability to upgrade to Opera 8.0 would be a welcomed feature. All the rest of the applications are typical Trolltech ones so there is nothing special, but good to see the basic necessities are covered.

An interesting complaint in the OSNews review is that you have to recharge the phone every two days if you use it regularly. This seems reasonable enough to me, especially with a phone that offers so many features and assuredly requires a bit more power than your average cellphone.

In the near future I do plan on getting a smartphone as they are improving vastly in both size and quality so hopefully Motorola doesn’t decide to wait too long to release the next version of the E680i. You can get the phone at Geeks.com for $339.0 (at the time of this writing).

First I must post the marketing spiel because this is priceless.

Samsung Telecommunications America (Samsung) and Verizon Wireless today launched the SCH-a950, the perfect music phone for turning customers into mobile DJs. A phone for all the senses, customers with an a950 will also experience enhanced sound quality - from ring tones to music/video playback to conversations via speakerphone - through the phone’s dual stereo speakers.

Sure guys, whatever you say. It’s a phone, not an iPod or turntable set. Nothing really to even report on this phone. It acts as a mp3 player and its storage is only limited to the size of the memory card you use. It’s not an attractive phone, but does offer a 1.3 megapixel camera. Meh.

– via Slashphone