Omnia HD: The World’s First HD Mobile

The Samsung Omnia HD, set for release later this year, will be a GSM quad-band phone with a set of powerful multimedia features. It will be the first phone to offer 720p HD video recording.
Additionally, it will be equipped with an 8 megapixel camera, TouchWiz user interface, GPS receiver, and FM radio.

Quick Specs

Operating System: Symbian S60 5th Edition
Screen Resolution: 3.7" QHD AMOLED Touch Screen
Keyboard Type: On-screen
Communications: Bluetooth, GPRS, GSM, EDGE, HSDPA, Wi-Fi, UMTS
Meda Type: microSD
Camera Resolution: 8.0 megapixels
GPS: Yes
Dimensions: 4.84 x 2.28 x 0.51 inches
Battery Type: Lithium – Ion, 1500 mAh
Release Date: 6/30/2009

Amazing product, I think this is the long-awaited iPhone-killer 🙂

Microsoft Renames and Revamps its Phone OS

Don’t call them Windows Mobile phones anymore. In announcing the latest revision of Microsoft’s OS for handsets at Mobile World Congress today, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said that henceforth, the devices will be known as Windows phones.

"It’s a mouthful to say, ‘You want a Windows Mobile phone?’" Ballmer said when asked about the decision to once again re-brand the OS, which has over the years been known as Windows CE and Pocket PC.

Ballmer’s three main announcements to a crowd of journalists in Barcelona, Spain, had been widely leaked beforehand: Windows Mobile 6.5, a new version of the handset OS with a revamped, touch-optimized user interface; My Phone, an online backup and sync service for Windows phones, and the Windows Marketplace for Mobile app store.

My Phone and the Windows Marketplace will be accessible to Windows phones running Windows Mobile 6.5; Ballmer said support will be available via download, at the discretion of the vendor, to Windows Mobile 6.1 devices, but not to handsets running earlier versions of the OS.

Windows Mobile 6.5, which in addition to the new user interface sports an improved, more desktop-like browser, will make its debut later this year on handsets also announced on Monday, including the HTC Touch Diamond2 and the LG-GM730.

Interestingly, however, neither handset presents the new user interface unadulterated: Both HTC and LG have made changes they believe make the UI more user friendly. In fact, fiddling with the Windows Mobile UI is not uncommon, and Ballmer squirmed when asked how bothersome this was to Microsoft.

"It’s not the area where I would have aspired to see the first add-ons," he admitted. But he said that with the new UI, Microsoft hopes to get more vendors on board without significant changes.

iPhone’s App Store Alternative

Appulu.us propose a catalog of free and commercial apps (ipa files) for the iPhone (iPod touch too sure) you can download this apps directly from your iPhone with the help of the awesome Installous interface or from your desktop and load them onto iPhone with SSH and install them with Installous too, all you need is Jailbroken iPhone and Installous.

Confirmed iPhone 3G Software Unlock Date

Well it is now official, the Dev-Team has updated their blog today to let you all know when the iPhone 3G software unlock will be released. Seems as if New Years eve is what they are aiming for.

• The target release date for the unlock is New Year’s Eve 2008.
• This unlock method is available to iPhone 3Gs that have 2.11.07 baseband or earlier, we did warn you.
• The unlock requires a jailbroken 3G iPhone.

Microsoft’s first iPhone app, yes Microsoft !

Given the popularity of the iPhone, this was bound to happen sometime, and here it is: Microsoft Live Labs today becomes the first group inside the Redmond company to release an application for Apple’s mobile phone.
Seadragon Mobile, published to the App Store this afternoon, is a free demonstration program meant to test the viability of the high-tech Seadragon photo-display technology on mobile platforms.
Seadragon is best known as a core technology behind Microsoft’s Photosynth photo-browsing program. It’s designed for zooming smoothly in, out and around photos over the Internet, regardless of bandwidth constraints or image size. Seadragon’s technological trick is to store images in multiple resolutions and deliver only the bits needed to present the view a user wants at any given moment.
So why release an iPhone version? Alex Daley, group product manager for Microsoft Live Labs, said the Seadragon team wants to make sure the technology works well on everything from a wall-sized display to a mobile device.
"The iPhone is the most widely distributed phone with a (graphics processing unit)," Daley explained. "Most phones out today don’t have accelerated graphics in them  The iPhone does and so it enabled us to do something that has been previously difficult to do. I couldn’t just pick up a Blackberry or a Nokia off the shelf and build Seadragon for it without GPU support."
The iPhone presents a dilemma for Microsoft more broadly, because it competes with the mobile phones that use the company’s Windows Mobile operating system.
Previously, the speculation had been that Microsoft’s Tellme voice-recognition service would be the first technology from the Redmond company to be offered for the iPhone, but that app isn’t expected until next year.
There are signs that more Microsoft groups may also be interested in iPhone app development, with David Geller of Eyejot commenting yesterday on TechFlash about the "large number" of Microsofties attending a recent Seattle-area iPhone developers group meeting. Continue at source

Microsoft Zune "Gaming" Phone Coming to CES 2009?

CES 2009 could see the pre-release of Microsoft’s much needed answer to Google’s Android and the Apple iPhone according to various sources on the Internet.

According to Trip Chowdhry from Global Equities Research, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer could take the centre stage at CES to unveil a device that will combine features from the Zune music players and Danger’s Sidekick handhelds.

But Zune’s Group Manager, Brian Seitz, has already said "No Zune phone at CES" but Project Pink, which is the name given to a group of services that Microsoft aims to deploy on mobile platforms could well be on the agenda.

It is unlikely that Microsoft will take on its own partners with a competing product; instead Microsoft could an intermediate version of Windows Mobile which will bridge the gap between the current Windows Mobile 6.1 and 7.

This could be a beta Windows Mobile 6.5 which is rumoured to be a minor upgrade and one which should bring in much needed improvements to the platform.

The Inquirer is also predicting that the new Zune phone could also double as a gaming phone – in fact, it could be more gaming console than phone.

Microsoft is already working with Nvidia on the Tegra platform which will boost the video capabilities of its mobile platform.

Danger is the mobile phone company Microsoft acquired at the beginning of the year for an undisclosed sum; Danger is also the company which was founded by Andy Rubin, who moved on to Google – through the acquisition of his startup, Android – to spearhead the Internet giant mobile project.

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iPhone OS 2.0.2 fails to fix 3G reception issues, apps problems

Apple has released iPhone OS 2.0.2 with its obligatory, but unhelpful, release notes indicating only “bug fixes.”

Unfortunately, a resolution to widespread, frustrating 3G reception issues is not among those fixes. In fact, some users have reported that the update manifests poorer 3G reception than 2.0.1, with devices now giving a “No Service” message in previously 3G-accessible locations.

“I use to get one to three bars of 3G service in my house and now I can’t make a call,” wrote an Apple poster. “I have to switch off the 3G to get any bars. Things are going the wrong way!”

Even worse, many users are experiencing incompatibility with previously operational third-party applications. “Yes, I have about 15 apps loaded and now only eight to ten work with the new 2.0.2 software,” said a user. Some are reporting even worse predicaments. “All my downloaded applications crash within 5 seconds of being opened,” said another person. “Restarting the phone and reapplying update has done nothing to fix it.”

What does iPhone OS 2.0.2 fix? Both typing and scrolling, which were plagued by extreme lag and slowness prior to this update, are now operating at acceptable speeds for many users, but not all.

“[The update] didn’t improve my 3G signal, or my signal in general for that matter,” said a poster. “And I still am getting the keyboard lag.”

iPhone OS 2.0.2 can be installed by attaching your iPhone to your Mac or Windows computer then clicking the “Update” button. Based on current reports, however, the benefits may not outweigh the risks.

from CNet.com

Originally posted on iPhone Atlas.

iPhone 3G jailbreaking tool released

The well-known iPhone Dev Team has released one of the first utilities to jailbreak iPhone 3G and let it run unsanctioned apps, albeit one with more than a few catches.

The group’s new Pwnage Tool 2.0 now simplifies the process of removing Apple’s restrictions on allowable software for all iPhone models as well as the iPod touch.
What it won’t do, however, is unlock iPhone 3G for use with wireless carriers other than those Apple has officially chosen. The different cellular hardware prevents the unlock process for the original device from translating directly to the newer phone. Unlocking is still possible for earlier phones.
The software also breaks backwards compatibility with earlier iPhone and iPod firmware and requires version 2.0 firmware on all of these devices.
Apple has historically been relatively passive in its responses to unlocking tools. While the company warned that its 1.1.1 firmware update risked rendering unlocked iPhones unusable, most other updates haven’t created a similar effect and the company has largely kept to thwarting unlocking efforts by patching against security exploits that would also compromise locked devices.
With iPhone 3G, the iPhone maker has primarily relied on controlling the retail experience by requiring that iPhones be activated for a contract in-store, discouraging casual unlocking. The availability of approved third-party apps is also widely believed to curb the demand for jailbreaking and unlocking tools.

More informations about 3G iPhone Specs and Prices

MacRumors has heard some unconfirmed whispers about the 3G capable iPhone due at next week’s WWDC. Besides 3G support, the following features/specs were also passed along, mostly consistent with circulating rumors:

– Lighter weight
– Black + other colors
– Focus on Multimedia with Video recording
– Video Conferencing
– GPS
– 16GB $499
– 32GB $699

As with all pre-release specs, confirmation can be difficult and intentional misinformation may be common, so we provide it for interest alone. If released exactly as described, this would eliminate the $399 8GB iPhone, keep the $499 16GB and add a $699 32GB model. This, however, does not necessarily preclude the possibility of a low end iPhone suggested by Kevin Rose in an rumor earlier today.

WWDC kicks off on June 9th with a keynote address by Steve Jobs.

Coming everywhere, next month: iPhone 3G Launch Date Confirmed

We all suspected it, but now it is confirmed: someone very, very close to the 3G iPhone launch has told me that Apple will announce their new model at the WWDC Keynote on June 9th. The second-generation iPhone will be available worldwide right after the launch, and not at year’s end, as previously thought. The new model will also herald new sales policies in some countries.

In Spain, for example, the 3G iPhone will be available for sale at the June 18th grand opening of Telefonica’s megastore—an Apple Store-like shop located in the company’s historical building in Madrid’s Gran Vía— with nationwide availability the next day or after a few hours. The other European countries with iPhone availability will have similar launch schedules.

According to another source involved in the launch, the 3G iPhone will no longer be available at a fixed price point—at least in some countries, and its launch will also bring new sales policies, although these have not been completely specified yet.

The move is a logical step, since the iPhone has clearly solidified its position as the cellphone to beat during the last 12 months, and companies in the cutthroat European cellphone market need to use it as an incentive to capture clients aggressively.

This most probably means the new 3G iPhone will be integrated in the usual marketing systems of carriers, with point-based trade-ups, discounts for carrier switchers and other service-based subvention packages.