Bell today launched its HSPA+ network and its first devices, including the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G. The network supports up to 21Mbps downstream on the Novatel Wireless U998 ($75) and future modems that support HSPA+ and should also supply as much as 7.2Mbps for the iPhone 3GS and other current smartphones.
The Samsung Omnia II demonstrated at CTIA will apparently be released by Verizon on November 1st, according to PhoneArena. While this is a rumor thus far, the source is said to be a reliable one. The handset will sport a 3.7-inch AMOLED screen, along with a 5-megapixel camera that can record video at 720x480 pixels.
Adding to details leaked in an earlier report, documents from the Canadian carrier Bell appear to show launch plans for the iPhone, BlackBerry Bold 9700 and Samsung Omnia 2, according to the Boy Genius Report. The latest source claims the iPhone 3G will be available for $150 with a three-year contract after rebates, while off-contract pricing is set at $600.
Samsung previewed several upcoming handsets at CTIA in San Diego, including the Omnia II headed for Verizon later this month. Although the company representatives cautioned that the software is not yet finalized, the demo devices ran Windows Mobile 6.1 paired with the custom TouchWiz interface.
Samsung's Omnia II when it reaches Verizon may not use Windows Mobile 6.5 like the HTC Imagio, a detailed rumor said late Wednesday. A source that also correctly detailed the Imagio claimed the Omnia II would ship in mid-October, shortly after Windows Mobile 6.5 will be available, but will instead ship with an older Windows Mobile 6.1 release instead. The WMExperts contact didn't explain why this would be but cautioned that the modern OS would only come through a firmware update a significant amount of time after the phone is ready.
Samsung today pledged itself to Windows Mobile with both a major software update and a new phone. All of its current Windows Mobile devices, including the Omnia II I8000, Omnia Lite B7300, Omnia Pro B7610, and Omnia Pro B7320, will be upgraded to Windows Mobile 6.5 for free. The update availability will vary by the carrier but at the earliest should be available sometime after the official debut of the new OS on October 6th.
Despite Apple's claims to the contrary, a test by a forum member at Weiphone suggests the iPhone 3GS may already have enough performance to smoothly play full HD video. By manually copying over videos using file transfer apps on a computer and the iPhone, the community member says he could play up to a 1080p (1920x1080) clip at 30 frames per second at up to a 35Mbps without any lag or stuttering. Although they don't show in the official iPod app, they work using Apple's built-in video player when called by a third-party program.
Samsung's flagship Omnia II smartphone may be the first to directly compete against the iPhone in the US if an FCC filing (PDF) is an indication. Previously thought only to be headed to Verizon, the Windows Mobile phone has appeared in the US agency's testing with both GSM support and HSPA-based 3G on the 850MHz and 1,900MHz bands used by AT&T. No labels or other branding have necessarily confirmed a carrier deal so far.
LG today said it now plans to ship a 15-inch OLED TV sometime between December this year and January 2010. The screen, which may be made for a third-party instead of LG itself, should ship first to Korea but will be available in other countries soon afterwards. Its specifications haven't been made firm by LG VP of OLED sales Won Kim but, according to an interview with OLED-Info, will likely involve a higher resolution than the 960x540 (quarter HD) Sony XEL-1, which so far is the only commercially available stand-alone OLED display.
As a final addition to its Omnia phone line, Samsung today put the Omnia LITE into its roster. The handset is the least expensive of the new generation and does so by using a 3-megapixel camera as well as a slightly smaller touchscreen; it's not known what resolution it uses or whether it's LCD or OLED, though the former is more likely in the name of price.. Cellular data over 3G as well as GPS and Wi-Fi still make their way to the device.
Samsung used its smartphone introductions today to reveal the Omnia 2 as Verizon's newest and most capable Windows Mobile device. The phone centers on a very large 3.7-inch, 800x480 AMOLED touchscreen that uses a new approach to resistive touchscreens, dubbed R Touch, that makes them more accurate and sensitive without having to use more advanced capacitive displays. Accordingly, it can both record and play back 480p video from its 5-megapixel camera without losing detail on screen.
As part of launching a suite of existing phones in its native Korea, Samsung on Monday launched the B7610. The handset is arguably its new flagship with a 3.5-inch, 800x480 AMOLED touchscreen and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard underneath. It also gets a 5-megapixel camera, 3G, GPS and Wi-Fi and has a simplified front interface designed for finger input. Although just 1GB of storage is built-in, it has a microSDHC slot for 16GB or more of added space.
Samsung's Mobile Display group has unveiled a new display likely to improve the quality of touchscreen smartphones. The 800x480 AMOLED (active matrix organic light-emitting diode) screen has the resolution of the latest mobile LCDs but is far more color-rich, thinner and power-efficient. Despite the resolution increase, the panel actually increases brightness to 350 candelas and consumes 40 percent less power than an earlier 400x240 AMOLED display.
A leak today has revealed that Hitachi is planning the imminent launch of only the second phone to record HD video after Samsung's Omnia HD. Named in the brochure as the Hi-Vision Cam Wooo, the thin swivel phone found by Engadget would have a 5-megapixel camera capable of recording 720p video along with face detection. It would also get HDMI video output and a microSDHC slot that, with an 8GB card, could hold 2 hours of footage.
An Italian rmor from this weekend claims that Samsung is developing a new, flagship Omnia that would significantly improve on even the i8910, which itself was originally named the Omnia HD. Supposedly titled the Omnia Pro, the new model would get a 3.5-inch, 480x800 AMOLED screen but would also be the first Omnia with a hardware QWERTY keyboard, sliding out from underneath the screen. It would still have a 5-megapixel camera and would get a fast 624MHz processor.
Nokia may give the 5800 XpressMusic and more of its phones an upgrade to a capacitive touchscreen, tips from Taiwan's phone part makers would claim. Although Nokia built the 5800 around a resistive touchscreen, which requires pressure and is sometimes better-suited to a stylus than finger input, the company has supposedly ordered a switch to capacitive screens with the explicit goal of rivaling the responsiveness of Apple's iPhone and newer Korean phones like the LG Arena or Samsung's i8910 (Omnia HD). About 2 million of the upgraded phones would be shipped between May and June based on these plans.
Canada's Telus is now offering the Palm Treo Pro smartphone, the handset maker announced on Monday, and has also recently added the Samsung Omnia handset to its lineup. The Treo Pro is being touted as an ideal handset for business professionals, as the 320x320 pixel touchscreen-and-QWERTY handset runs on Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, has integrated Wi-Fi and 3G data network support through EVDO. Its keyboard has dedicated shortcut keys to the e-mail client and calendar.
Rumor has it that Samsung will officially release a 16GB version of its i900 Omnia smartphone at the Mobile World Congress in Spain in a couple of weeks. The pictured handset will double the current version's onboard storage space, though other specs and features sound identical. As such, the quad-band GSM phone will run on Windows Mobile 6.1 and connect to HSDPA networks for a maximum data transfer speed of 7.2Mbps. The same 3.2-inch, 240x400 pixel touchscreen remains, along with the familiar 5-megapixel camera with an integrated flash.
Verizon on Monday has already dropped the price on the Samsung Omnia less than a week after its introduction. Originally priced at $250 with a contract and a $70 rebate, the device will now cost $200 with the same discount and now almost matches the pricing of both the BlackBerry Storm as well as the iPhone 3G, which has an inferior two-megapixel camera but shares a similar 8GB of built-in storage, 3G, GPS and Wi-Fi.
Verizon on Tuesday became the first American carrier to offer the Samsung Omnia. The company's second full touchscreen smartphone in as many weeks, the Americanized edition of the Omnia adds a new, customized version of Samsung's TouchWiz interface to Windows Mobile 6.1 that lets users quickly check informational widgets and change core settings without leaving the home screen. It also brings VZ Navigator as an option for the phone's native GPS and the VZAppZone as a portal for downloading third-party native apps.
A Thursday report confirms several Samsung handsets will soon be shipping to various wireless providers, including the long-awaited Omnia i910 smartphone coming to Verizon. Along with the Saga i770, it will use Windows Mobile 6.1 as its operating system, with a Renown U810 flip phone also joining the Verizon offerings. The Omnia should share the GSM original's five-megapixel camera, GPS and Wi-Fi but may not have the T*Omnia's higher-resolution display.
Samsung has only just introduced the T*Omnia in its home country but may already be enroute to the US within a matter of weeks, a claim from BusinessWeek. The company is reportedly in talks to bring the Windows Mobile touchscreen phone with an unspecified US carrier by the end of November, though whether it represents the fully-upgraded T*Omnia or its lower-resolution, lower-capacity ancestor is unknown.
Samsung today stepped up the quality of its flagship smartphone with the launch of the T*Omnia. A major upgrade to the original model released just in mid-year, the new version carries a slightly larger 3.3-inch LCD but with a much higher 800x480 resolution versus the earlier 400x200. The extra resolution helps both with Windows Mobile as well as with a new DMB TV tuner that gives it over-the-air digital TV in its native Korea. The size has increased slightly to fit the new display and hardware.
Phones using Samsung's full-screen TouchWiz interface will finally reach the US in an official capacity soon, the company acknowledged today. Where the interface was previously available on Asia- and Europe-only devices like the Omnia and F480, the company now plans to introduce "several" devices to the US between late 2008 and early 2009 that carry the touchscreen software. The platform centers around a widget tray that can be customized with shortcuts to complete apps like a browser or media player as well as small, quick features like clocks.
Samsung's Omnia smartphone, considered to be one of many rivals to the Apple iPhone, may arrive in the United States by mid-November, a leak suggests. A purported rebate document shows a $70 discount applying between October 14th and November 15th, even though no formal release date has been announced. Although the entry could be outdated or otherwise inaccurate, it does hint that the phone might be available next month at the latest.
In addition to the just-introduced Haptic 2, Samsung has introduced a second touchscreen phone already examined by Russian site Mail.ru. The M8800 Pixon is the first known touchscreen cellphone to carry an eight-megapixel camera and carries extra photography features normally reserved for dedicated cameras, including blink and face detection, a wide dynamic color range and image stabilization. Video capture is also sharper than most at a roughly DVD-level 720x480 at full speed.
Samsung on Friday stepped up its efforts to lead touchscreen phones with the launch of the AnyCall Haptic 2, the second generation of its device in one year to rely on its namesake vibration feedback technology to simulate physical button presses on its screen. The quick follow-up to the March original is distinguished by its customization: users can personalize the vibrate mode and have access to more than three times the number of widgets on the home screen for quick access to weather and other info.
A report published over the weekend has revealed a new smartphone from ASUS, a relative newcomer to the full-touchscreen handset game. Unlike the company‘s P552w handset unveiled last week, the device (codenamed Glaxy7) looks to feature a more original design, though it looks basically like Samsung's Omnia range. The unofficial specs for the quad-band GSM phone reveal it will not use the North American WCDMA frequency, only supporting 900MHz, 1900MHz and 2100MHz. Believed to wear the Zest name when it launches, the phone will feature a 3.5-inch touchscreen with an 800x480 resolution and ASUS’ custom Glide 1.5 interface running on Windows Mobile 6.1.
New versions of Samsung's i900 Omnia smartphone are incoming, FCC filings appear to document. Two new Samsung phones, the i907 and i910, have been tested and approved by the FCC, revealing some of their features. The i910 may be the most significant of the two due to CDMA support, allowing use with carriers such as Sprint and Verizon. The i907 meanwhile supports dual-band WCDMA, which may mark it as the rumored AT&T edition.
A Czech leak today has revealed a Samsung phone in development that will stand as an alternative to the i900 Omnia. The i740 will still have a 640x480 touchscreen with Windows Mobile 6.1 but makes a number of cuts to reduce the cost, including dropping 3G and Wi-Fi access in favor of EDGE, a three-megapixel camera instead of the Omnia's five, and no large amounts of internal storage.
Samsung's i900 Omnia is already in queue to appear at AT&T, according to a claimed leak surfacing from BGR. The touchscreen phone would be close to the reference design but add a MediaFLO tuner that allows it to receive AT&T's Mobile TV live digital broadcasts; it should also have access to the carrier's Internet streaming music and video services and would use AT&T's Navigator service with its built-in GPS reception.
Samsung on Monday hoped to preempt Apple's announcements with the launch of the i900 Omnia. The Korean firm's latest touchscreen phone is also its first to use Windows Mobile 6.1 but includes a custom TouchWiz front-end more friendly to home users; like the HTC Touch Pro and Touch Diamond, it uses Opera Mobile in place of Internet Explorer for web browsing. A relatively unique miniature trackpad serves as a fallback for when on-screen buttons are too small to control, while an accelerometer (still rare in Windows Mobile devices) auto-rotates the display when the phone is tilted on its side.
