If I managed to ship 100 million anything, I’d call it a day and go lay around on a beach somewhere. I don’t care if it’s 100 million pasta noodles; once you break the 9 digit wall, you’ve done some good.
ZTE, China’s largest telecoms equipment manufacturer, has leaped past that hurdle, announcing this morning that they’ve shipped their 100 millionth handset worldwide since getting in the game back in 2002. ZTE made its first US appearance in February of this year, when they partnered with MetroPCS for the ZTE C88 (shown on right). According to their announcement, ZTE is now the 6th largest handset manufacturer in the world.
Looks like LG isn’t the only one doubling up their entry into the 8 Megapixel market. While word got out about Samsung’s not-the-INNOV8 M8800 Pixon (previously known as the Bresson) handset a few days ago when a popular UK phone retailer put details up on their site a bit early, actual shots of the handset have managed to avoid making their way online.
Before any official word has really made its way out on the M8800, Russia’s Mobile.RU has managed to get their hands on it and have put it through the paces. Tucked between that 3.2″ 240×400 TFT Touchscreen and the 8 megapixel camera (w/ 30 fps video recording) is a Qulcomm MSM6281 chipset, Quad-band GSM/Tri-band HSDPA, FM Radio, an accelerometer, and 100 mb of internal memory expandable via microSD support. As UnwiredView points out: Wheres the GPS and WiFi?
European folk should expect to see it floating around next month at around 550 EUR.
Remember just last week, when someone at Sprint said they’d still be launching their XOHM WiMax service in September? Turns out “September” is just a fancy way to spell “October” around the Sprint campus, with the company announcing that XOHM will launch in Baltimore come October 8th.
Don’t cruise out to Baltimore to try to bask in the glorious rays of WiMax right off the bat, however. According to PhoneNews, the October 8th debut won’t be a commercial launch, with only select individuals gettin’ the chance to paw at the service immediately after the announcement.
Once the switches are flipped in Baltimore, expansions are in the works for Washington, DC., Chicago, Boston, Dallas, Philadelphia, and Providence, with the latter four not expected until at least 2009.
Round 2 of the 5-part Kingston 8GB SDHC Kit Giveaway spree came to an end last night, and a winner has been drawn. Congratulations to Kevin H.
We’ve still got 3 more 8GB SDHC kits to give away before October 2nd. How can you enter? Comment on any MobileCrunch post published between today (9/24) and Friday (9/26). Each post you comment on (including this one) is an entry. Comment on 5 posts, you’ve got 5 chances to win. One comment per post is counted toward the contest. The winner will be drawn at random. For full contest details, click here.
After the Q9, where was Motorola to go with the model numbers? Q10, you say? Heck no. Sequential numbering is for jerks. This new Motorola handset will be dubbed the Q11. Number skipping. That’s innovation right there, folks.
All of squat is known about it so far, besides that it runs WinMo 6.1 and packs Bluetooth, WiFi, GSM, GPS, and a 3 Megapixel camera (up from 2 on the Q9)
Aesthetically, it seems like a step down from the Q9, and the improved specs (WiFi, one megapixel on the camera) don’t really make up for it. That new d-pad and the buttons surrounding it just make the whole thing look pretty bargain bin. What do you think, Q9 owners – would you make the trade?
Imagine today, but a year from now. You might still be waiting for the next version of Windows Mobile. Apparently hardware vendors had been expecting the final version to arrive “by early next year” but were recently told that it wouldn’t be ready until the second half on next year, according to CNET.
In other news, guess what’s white hot right now? Operating systems for mobile phones. Microsoft stands to lose a lot of market share by sitting on WinMo 6 for another year. Apparently we’re to see a big update to the Internet Explorer mobile browser this year still that’ll allow it to harness the IE6 rendering engine, which means true Ajax and Flash support. That’s a step in the right direction, but I betcha every other mobile browser is about to add the same functionality, and some might even beat Microsoft to the punch.
Did you feel a small glimmer of hope that Android might be the next platform donned by the Xperia line when Sony Ericsson mentioned that the brand wasn’t tied to Windows Mobile? We’ve got bad news.
In Copenhagen this week, Sony Ericsson’s chief technology architect, Mats Lindoff, confirmed that while they had a few prototype Android devices back in the labs, they didn’t currently have any plans to bring any to the market. During an executive panel this morning, SE mentioned that followup devices to the X1 were already in the works.
Put the two comments together and toss in the fact that Sony Ericsson still hasn’t hopped onboard with the Open Handset Alliance, and it doesn’t sound like we’ll be seeing an Android-powered Xperia handset any time soon.
When we mentioned Summizer, a Twitter search application for the iPhone, a few days back, I noted that the 1.1 version of the application I had been using for the review hadn’t yet made its way through the App store approval process. Sometime last night, said version was approved and made available (iTunes link).
One of my only gripes with the application was that it cost $4.99. Fortunately, Mustache Inc. has since shaved it down to $2.99, a much more reasonable entry fee for the curious.
You just know a company isn’t having a good day when they’ve got two unrelated product leaks on the same day.
On left is the LG Xenon, a QWERTY slider that looks to be borrowing some facial aesthetics from the LG Dare, though there doesn’t seem to be a touchscreen. It’s on its way to AT&T, and it’s got a 240×480 2.8″ LCD, 3 megapixel camera, A-GPS, Wi-Fi, Quad-Band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, and Dual-band UMTS/HSDPA packed into its slidin’ shell (105.5 x 53.5 x 15.8 mm).
Doubling up on the 8 megapixel endeavour they began with the Renoir (Viewty II), LG’s also cracking away at the 8 MP KC780 shown on right. The spec sheet is still a bit veiled at this point, with the only known details being Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, 140 megs of internal memory w/ microSD support, Bluetooth 2.0, and the 8 megapixel camera (with autofocus, red eye reduction, face recognition, and 30 FPS video capture) itself.
Don’t be too bummed about the leaks, LG. Lookin’ good so far.
After months of private beta, Skyfire, a free mobile browser lauded for offering support for Flash, AJAX, and other goodies generally reserved for PC browsers, has opened its doors to the public. Just in time for the resulting stampede of new users, they’ve also introduced a fresh release of the browser for Windows Mobile complete with a handful of new features.
(Update: Though they’ve taken the beta public, Skyfire is still only for US residents for the time being. We asked them when it would open up to folks outside of the states, and while they couldn’t pin it on a specific date, they did say it would happen “in weeks, not months.”)
After months of leaks and a brief appearance in The Dark Knight, it looks like the Nokia 5800 Xpress Music handset may be just about ready to make its debut. Mobil.cz [Via Unwired View] has managed to scrounge up a rather official looking promo shot, which is generally a pretty strong indication of an impending announcement. Though nothing is set in stone, the current rumor pins October 2nd as the launch date. I don’t know about you guys, but we’re ready to put our mitts all over some S60 Touch goodness.
If there’s anyone out there dying to delve into Android development who couldn’t bring themselves to start crackin’ away on the v.9 beta release, your moment of coding splendor has arrived. Alongside today’s T-Mobile G1 announcement, Google has released v1.0 of the Android SDK to the masses.
With this release, developers can trust that the applications they write won’t require last minute API compatibility modifications when the first Android handsets make their way to consumers come October 22nd. Though the patch notes detail a few API additions and bug fixes, it doesn’t seem like there have been any major changes since the v.9 release (Which is a good thing, seeing as that was the point of that release.) We’ll be tinkering with the SDK emulator, and will let you know if we spot anything.
With Google’s application Market launching in just under a month, there’s no better time to start cranking away at your potentially money-printing application. Well, I’m sure getting started a few months ago might have been better, but hey – better late than never, right?
This morning, NewsGator released a small batch of usage statistics for the free iPhone RSS aggregator NetNewsWire, a port of the OS X application of the same name.
According to the blog post by Josh Larson, NewsGator’s Community Manager, NetNewsWire has already seen over 200,000 downloads, 115,000 of which have signed up over the last 30 days.
On average, NetNewsWire for iPhone users subscribe to 26 RSS feeds. One crazy blacksheep out there somehow handles over 2,800 feeds, which is absurd – I only pull down a few hundred, yet things can already seem a bit torrential at peak times. 2,800 feeds would be mind boggling.
Just in time to ride the tide of excitement from today’s G1 announcement, Google has released a video detailing all of the “google goodies that come preloaded” on the handset: Search, Maps, Gmail, Contacts, Calendar, and IM (Google Talk), with a strong emphasis on the over-the-air sync functionality.
I can’t imagine what the “erick.the.cyclist@gmail.com” account inbox will look like in a few hours.
Today in New York, T-Mobile finally unveiled the much anticipated G1 Android phone. The handset will hit the shelves on October 22nd for $179 on a two-year contract in the US, with pre-orders beginning immediately for existing T-Mobile customers. It’ll make its way to the United Kingdom in early November, and Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic, and the Netherlands in Q1 of 2009.
To get the rest of the details as they come in, hop on over to the Crunchgear liveblog.
Talk about cutting it close. With less than 12 hours before T-Mobile officially pulls back the curtain on the ultra-hyped G1 Android phone, the floodgates have opened. Images extracted from the depths of T-Mobile’s G1 site have begun hitting tip boxes, and now TmoNews has managed to get their hands on a bunch of specs and details.
What’s known so far:
In-store, immediate sales only available in locations within 5 miles of a 3G covered area. If a store is beyond that range, representatives will walk customers through a T-mobile.com purchase
One touch access to: Search, Maps, Gmail, Youtube, Calendar, and Google Talk
Gmail account and data plan required
GPS
3.1 mp camera, no video recording
No stereo bluetooth (A2DP)
Dimensions: 4.6 x 2.16 x 0.63 in
Weighs 5.6 ounces
480×320 65K color screen
5 hour talk time, 130 hour standby time
Expandable up to 8GB
We’ll update as more comes in and, of course, be covering tomorrow’s happenings as they go down.
Timberland, makers of boots and outdoor wear, and GSI Commerce, the e-commerce company behind the online presence of Timberland and many other companies, might just owe you some money.
After a heap of unauthorized ad-filled text messages were sent out between January 2003 and August 2008, frustrated recipients banded together for a class action lawsuit. Though the companies insist that the blame belongs on a third-party who had been tasked with securing recipient consent, they’ve agreed to pay $7 million towards reimbursing anyone who received the unsolicited texts, with a cap of 150 bucks per recipient. That’s a lot of boots.
Congratulations to the winner of the first round of our Kingston 8GB SDHC card giveaway marathon, Orlando. We’ve still got four to give away over the next 10 days, so be sure to enter!
How do you enter? Comment on any story published between 9/21 and 9/23. Every story you comment on is one entry. If you comment on 5 stories, that’s 5 entries. Only one entry per post is counted, but you’re free to comment as much as you want. After 9/23, a winner will be drawn and the giveaway will begin again. For the full contest details, click here.
We’ve got a bit of good news for anybody lookin’ to get their mitts on the BlackBerry Storm over in the UK. According to Pocket-lint, Vodafone will be bringing the touchscreen handset to the sovereign isle sometime in the next two months.
Be it that their sources ring true, Vodafone should be making an announcement in early October, with the actual product hitting the shelves sometime closer to November. If Vodafone is anything like Verizon, UK Storm-hopefuls can look forward to a bunch of hype involving e-mails and postcards that serve pretty much no purpose.
A beta version of Nokia’s mobile media management software, Nokia Photos 1.5, has been released, complete with a visual overhaul and a handful of new features.
The New Features:
Picture/Video management support for any S60 device, digital camera, memory stick, or local hard drive
Automatically converts and compresses media for playback on your handset for the sake of optimal storage space usage.
View geotagged photos and video by location via the map view
Improved Share on Ovi support
The beta isn’t quite bulletproof yet, having locked up on me immediately after the initial startup. Everything went without a hitch after that, which allowed me to develop a bit of a crush on Nokia’s photo mapping implementation. After being scared away from the idea by a bad experience with Flickr’s solution for manually mapping non-geotagged items, Nokia Photo’s drag-and-drop methods make me want to give the concept another shot. If you’re running Windows and are looking for a solid photo management tool, give Nokia Photos a look.
