11/18, 10:00am
Sony Ericsson in major cost reductions
Sony Ericsson is in the middle of a surprise, major cost-cutting measure that will close some of its key buildings, an internal memo has revealed today. The cellphone designer is notifying workers that it's closing its Research Triangle Park facility in North Carolina as well as offices in Chennai (India), Kista (Sweden) and Miami. As a result, Engadget hears the company will have to drop 2,000 jobs, or more than four times the 450 jobs it dropped in 2008.
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11/13, 1:05pm
Best Buy Thanksgiving sale flyer leaked
The flyer for Best Buy's Black Friday/Thanksgiving sale has been leaked on the Internet ahead of its official release thanks to a copy posted today. Among the 'doorbusters' are a $300 PS3 bundle that includes two games, while an Xbox 360 bundle with six games will carry the same sticker price. Another front-page deal involves a 46-inch, 120Hz LED-backlit Samsung HDTV with free home delivery, hook-up and recycling for $1,600, or $1,000 off.
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11/11, 8:20am
Samsung to replace Symbian with bada
Samsung senior VP Don Joo Lee today confirmed rumored plans that it will dismiss Symbian from its smartphones. The executive expects Android and Windows Mobile to remain but will completely phase out Symbian in 2010, replacing it with Samsung's in-house bada. A previous analyst forecast had Samsung scaling back its Symbian use to just a small percentage next year but had only anticipated a complete exit in 2011.
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11/04, 6:35pm
LG targeting iPhone, BlackBerry, Pre
LG now considers the iPhone one of its largest competitors in the smartphone space, CEO Yong Nam said in a Washington presentation today. He dismisses both market leader Nokia and Sony Ericsson as rivals and instead says most of LG's energy is now focused on beating Apple, Palm and Research in Motion. The Korean company is now "investing heavily" in smartphones and is putting most of its focus on touchscreen devices like the Android-based Eve and multiple Windows Mobile phones.
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11/04, 11:45am
SE Kurara pictured, gets 3.5-inch AMOLED
Photos of the upcoming Sony Ericsson Kurara handset have been revealed recently, thanks to PhonesDB. Newly revealed specifications reveal the handset will have a 3.5-inch color AMOLED display in what appears to be an ultra-thin, organic design. Hardware controls should remain intact but will be limited to call and media controls.
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11/03, 12:55am
Android-based device features new "UX" platform
Sony Ericsson has unveiled its latest flagship handset, the XPERIA X10, which had been previously referred to by the codename Rachael. The smartphone is promised to be the first of many devices built upon the company's Android-based UX "Open OS" platform. The X10 is the highest-end Android phone to date and features a fast 1GHz Snapdragon CPU, a 4-inch capacitive touchscreen with a 480x854 resolution, and an 8.1 megapixel camera with LED flash and autofocus.
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10/30, 4:50pm
Sony Ericsson posts official XPERIA X3 video
Sony Ericsson is offering a look at a new white version of its XPERIA X3 smartphone thanks to an official video (viewable below) released on Friday. The device will be the first from Sony Ericsson to run on Google's Android operating system. The November 3rd release date for the device is once again touted as part of the clip.
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10/30, 9:45am
Phone sales to bounce back in fall
Apple in two years has pushed the iPhone up to 2.5 percent of the entire cellphone market, Strategy Analytics estimates. The company has roughly doubled its share from a year ago and now has half the share of established firms Motorola and Sony Ericsson, which have remained flat at five percent. Some of the gain is likely to have come at Nokia's expense, as it shrank to 37 percent share, its lowest since the start of 2007.
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10/28, 8:00pm
Company's foray into touchscreen sliders
Sony Ericsson's Aino handset has arrived in the US market as an unlocked model sold through Sony's online store. The device marks the company's first touchscreen slider, with several high-end features such as an 8.1-megapixel camera with flash and image stabilization. A Media Home feature can be used to sync media content with a desktop computer via Wi-Fi.
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10/27, 4:25pm
Sony Ericsson Kurara to debut at MWC 2010?
A new handset, the Sony Ericsson Kurara, is expected to be unveiled at the Mobile World Congress show early next year, according to a Tuesday LetsGoDigital report. The handset is promising to be a less featured version of the recently revealed Satio, with both sporting the Symbian S60 operating system. It should also feature a touchscreen interface but use a lower resolution 8-megapixel camera.
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10/26, 11:20pm
Company's first Android-based smartphone
Sony Ericcson has launched a teaser site for its upcoming Rachael smartphone. Although the site does not directly name Rachael, se-blog.com blogger Michell Bak noticed that several references to the project's codename are contained in the page's source code. Sony Ericsson South Africa later confirmed the association between the teaser page and the upcoming device.
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10/26, 12:00pm
Equinox gets a date for T-Mobile, full specs
As reported earlier, Sony Ericsson will begin shipping its Equinox flip phone to wireless provider T-Mobile on October 28th, the company announced on Monday. Full specs of the device have also been revealed, and include 3G network support, a built-in GPS sensor and a unique lightning effect that pulsates when a call or message comes in, the color of which can be customized for each specific caller.
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10/23, 4:45pm
UN approves UCS universal cellphone charger
A new Universal Charging Solution (UCS) has been approved by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a division in the United Nations, according to a Thursday report. The energy efficient charger will be compatible with all cellphones regardless of make and model, with certain unnamed manufacturers already incorporating the standard into their products, the ITU says. Other than the energy savings, the new charger will also help eliminate waste as the charger can be retained as new phones are upgraded and older ones are thrown out.
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10/21, 10:20am
HTC's main Android phone in tight supply
HTC's Android-based Hero is selling well enough that it's causing supply issues, the company's Asia Pacific VP Jack Tong revealed on Wednesday. Sales in the phone's initial Asia and European launch areas are described as "brisk" enough that demand has put a strain on HTC's production lines and won't see manufacturing catch up until November. The pace is expected to continue at least until early 2010.
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10/16, 5:55pm
Photo, detailed specs show for Sony Ericsson X3
Sony Ericsson's first known Android phone, the XPERIA X3, has finally been spotted and been given more detail. The phone is now thought to have a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon inside and would tie the Acer Liquid for the title of fastest Android phone. It should also have a slightly sharper than expected 4-inch, 852x480 touchscreen, GSMArena says.
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10/16, 8:55am
Sony Ericsson Q3 still negative
Sony Ericsson today reported largely poor results for its summer quarter. The cellphone maker shipped 14.1 million phones during the three-month span; the number is an increase from 13.8 million in the spring but a sharp 45.1 percent drop from summer a year earlier. It successfully reduced the rate at which it has bled money down to a $244.7 million loss versus $317.8 million in spring but also saw some of its lowest revenue in recent memory, dropping slightly season-to-season to $2.4 billion but still far from nearly $4.2 billion a year earlier.
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10/14, 4:50pm
Sony Ericsson Aino supports PS3 Remote Play
Sony Ericsson has begun shipping the Aino, the first handset to support Remote Play on Sony's own PS3 game console. The Aino is a touchscreen slider, another first for the company, and was introduced alongside the Satio this spring. With the Aino, users will be able to turn on or off their PS3s, navigate the XMB interface and access the web as well as DRM-free media saved on the drive.
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10/12, 11:25am
Four touchscreen phones hit Vodafone UK
Vodafone UK today added three touchscreen smartphones to its roster that in most cases represent world premieres. The Sony Ericsson Satio is now finally shipping after having been detailed in May and is the handset designer's first Symbian S60 smartphone; besides full third-party app support, it's considered a high-end media phone with a 12-megapixel camera, a 3.5-inch touchscreen, GPS and Wi-Fi. For Sony Ericsson, the phone is a symbolic first as one of its first major devices to use microSDHC cards instead of Memory Stick Micro for storage.
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10/09, 4:25pm
Sony Ericcson to bring smartphones back to the US
Sony Ericsson announced it will return to the North American market with cellphone sales at the CTIA show which wraps up today. Sony Ericsson's head of developer and partner content and services, William Maggs, said in a Friday Gearlog report that the company is planning on coming back to the US market with its smartphone sales, and the XPERIA X2 is likely to lead that return. The new-gen Windows Mobile handset is being shown off at CTIA.
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10/08, 11:00am
JD Power says iPhone tops, hurts normal phones
The iPhone today claimed an even larger edge in satisfaction versus its rivals in JD Power's second phone satisfaction study of 2009. Apple's smartphone climbed ten points from an earlier score to 811 out of 1,000 while its closest rival, LG, managed just a four-point increase to 776. The two were the only smartphone designers to score above the industry average.
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10/06, 3:50pm
Company active on toxins, groups say
Two environmental advocacy groups have praised Apple in a joint report, newly distributed to the media. ChemSec and Clean Production Action claim that Apple is one of the more respectable companies in eliminating bromine and chlorine from its products, through an "innovative program that restricts the use of nearly all bromine and chlorine compounds across all their product lines," the groups say. A number of smaller Apple products -- including iPods and iPhones -- are now free from any PVC or BFRs (brominated flame retardants), and its computers are said to be mostly free of PVC, and entirely free of BFRs.
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09/30, 4:40pm
Dell, LG, Lenovo suffer criticisms
Activist group Greenpeace has released a new edition of its Guide to Greener Electronics, which ranks major high-tech corporations in terms of their alleged environmental friendliness. Among the companies favored by Greenpeace's press efforts is Apple, which the group notes recently disclosed its carbon emissions. Apple has risen in rankings from 11th to 9th, aided not by the disclosure but by being the "most progressive" computer maker in terms of removing product toxins.
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09/23, 9:40am
More than 30 WM 6.5 phones due before 2010
More than 15 phone manufacturers will release over 30 new smartphones running on Microsoft's upcoming Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system before the end of 2009, the copmany's GCR Mobile Team Unit senior director Benjamin Tan said recently. Tan was speaking to a group of reports at the time, according to a Wednesday Digitimes report. Among the phone manufacturers slated to introduce models are HTC, Acer, Samsung, LG, Sony Ericsson, Toshiba and HP.
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09/22, 5:05pm
Sony Ericsson Equinox due at T-Mobile October 28
An upcoming handset from Sony Ericsson, the Equinox, is due soon at provider T-Mobile. The device was first spotted undergoing FCC testing back in May. Slated for an October 28th release, the flip phone sports a 3.2-megapixel camera and a picture messaging feature. The Equinox will otherwise have a pulse light on the outer shell and stereo Bluetooth support.
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09/21, 8:05am
MH907 Motion Activated Headphones
Sony Ericsson this morning claimed a minor industry first through the MH907. The in-ear buds have built-in capacitive motion sensing that automatically start or stop audio on a phone based on their contact with the wearer's ears. Putting both earbuds in place will either start music or answer an incoming call; taking one earbud out will pause music or end a call.
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09/17, 3:45pm
XPERIA X3 due out in January?
Sony Ericsson's first Android-powered handset will be released in January, according to unofficial sources. The device is expected to launch just a season after the XPERIA X2 and should receive the XPERIA X3 badge despite running the Google platform. Both the X1 and X2 have run Windows Mobile.
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09/15, 1:05pm
Sony Ericsson event next week
Sony Ericsson has launched a teaser website that promises to introduce a "world first product launch" that will "forever change the way you listen to music." The website invites users to register in order to get an invitation to a live webcast presentation of the new product, which is scheduled for 11:00AM GMT+1 (5AM Eastern) on Monday, September 21st.
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09/08, 2:40pm
Sony Ericsson Aino, Satio phones due in October
Sony Ericsson has recently sent out a press invite to certain media outlets in the UK that, the gadget maker says, involves the official unveiling and retail launch of its Aino and Satio touchscreen handsets. The event is scheduled for October 7th, which is when the two cellphones are expected to launch.
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09/03, 12:05pm
Fashion phone centers on the basics
In an unusual step, Sony Ericsson today unveiled a new designer phone meant to address those who just want to focus on core phone features. Although part of the XPERIA line, the Pureness is the exact opposite of smartphones like the XPERIA X2 and follows the mantra of "talk, text, time." Its standout feature is a transparent, monochrome display, and its only added feature is music playback locally or on FM.
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09/02, 2:15pm
Sony Ericsson XPERIA X2
Sony Ericsson today launched its long-in-the-making sequel smartphone. The XPERIA X2 updates to Windows Mobile 6.5 and gets the more touch-friendly interface changes of the new OS. The company's own panel interface has an improved panel interface with a more natural, Cover Flow-like navigation in landscape mode and time-sensitive organization that can bring different panels to the front, such as games in the after hours. It can also bring up missed calls or messages quickly and has speedier access to media playback.
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08/24, 3:35pm
XPERIA X2 May Show Next Wk
Sony Ericsson's XPERIA X2 smartphone may finally have its public appearance next week if a rumor bears fruit. A press launch has purportedly been "confirmed" by SEMC Blog for next week that would center on just one device, likely involving the new smartphone. Other details aren't provided and potentially cast doubt on the claim.
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08/24, 2:10pm
MacMedia updates two apps
MacMedia has released v1.4 of PhoneDirector, and v1.6 of PhoneAgent. The latter application is a tool for managing a user's phonebook, SMS, MMS, Themes and Calendar of numerous Sony Ericsson phone models. Users can edit, upload, delet, backup and export their phonebook with an extended amount of numbers and texts supported in v1.6. The latest version also features Snow Leopard support and bug fixes from the previous version.
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08/18, 12:15pm
RBC on AAPL PALM RIM
Three American firms are ultimately going to take control of the smartphone business, RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky said today in a research note. He believes that Apple, BlackBerry maker Research in Motion and eventually Palm are all "positioned for leadership" and should command the smartphone market when it reaches 35 percent of all phones, or over 500 million smartphones, by 2012. They represent the few companies that properly integrate the hardware and software from top to bottom, according to the analyst.
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08/17, 8:40am
Sony Ericsson Gets New CEO
Sony Ericsson this morning set in motion a significant change in its strategy with news that its existing CEO Hideki Komiyama is being replaced. The executive will retire at the end of the year and is being replaced by Ericsson's Bert Nordberg on October 15th. The Swedish official specializes in "business realignment" and was responsible for growing that telecom company's business earlier this decade.
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08/10, 2:15pm
Sony Ericsson Smartbook
Sony Ericsson may be entering the smartbook field with a model of its own, based on a rumor today. A purported Taiwan-area source says the company is developing one of the mini notebooks. Most details aren't available to NetbookNews, including the choices of processor or operating system; The smartbook concept usually centers around a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor fast enough to rival a netbook and either Android or another Linux variant, but any ARM processor and a suitable operating system are candidates.
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08/09, 12:00pm
Sony Ericsson C905 Review
Sony's Cyber-shot themed handsets are currently headlined by the C905. Of course, its most notable feature of this uber-cameraphone is its 8.1 megapixel camera, and Sony has been known to produce some great digital cameras with its Cyber-shot line; but can the C905 live up to its photographic heritage and still be a great phone? We've come to an important conclusion in our complete C905 review for the slider handset on AT&T's network.
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07/31, 12:00pm
IDC Phones in Q2 2009
Three of the top five cellphone manufacturers have faced severe drops in their market share in spring while Apple and other newer participants are on the rise, according to a final estimate by IDC. Confirming some predictions by the companies themselves, the study finds that Nokia, Motorola and Sony Ericsson all lost double-digit percentages of their share from a year ago. Motorola and Sony Ericsson lost the most, falling 47 percent and 43.4 percent in the number of phones shipped to account for just 5.5 percent and 5.1 percent of the market each.
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07/27, 4:50pm
XPERIA X2 video out
The upcoming Sony Ericsson XPERIA X2 handset was the star in a recently found video, confirming the 3.5-inch OLED touchscreen smartphone will run on Windows Mobile 6.5. The video also shows Sony Ericsson's in-house Panels user interface, though no other new details are revealed. Sony Ericsson has been teasing the public with the XPERIA X2 for a while now, without officially releasing any specifications. The video of the device suggests a production version is still a ways off, as the Windows Mobile 6.5 OS does not have a heavy Sony Ericsson influence.
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07/24, 2:55pm
ABI on Phone Share
The world cellphone market is shifting in a way that could permanently change the market in the next year, according to ABI Research. In spite of Research in Motion's strong fiscal quarter, estimates now suggest that its market share for spring has suffered from "contractions" along with companies that have been losing share for months, such as Motorola and Sony Ericsson. By comparison, Apple's 5.2 million iPhones have contributed to the company "making headway" with 1.93 percent share along with relatively small smartphone producers like HTC.
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07/22, 3:10pm
LG Ships 29m Phones in Q2
LG claimed to be flying in the face of the phone industry today with claims of a record spring quarter. The company said its worldwide revenue grew 13.8 percent to $11.2 billion but was particularly happy with its cellphone sales, which saw its revenue surge 25.8 percent to almost $4 billion. The Korean company shipped about 29.8 million phones during the period, also a high point for its results, and notes that the results skewed towards more expensive mid-range phones: actual shipments grew a more modest 7.8 percent.
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07/21, 1:00pm
XPERIA X3 exposed?
UK vendor eXpansys has reportedly leaked information on upcoming Sony Ericsson phone, the first from the company to run Google's Android operating system. Previously known only under the codename Rachael, the official name is alleged to be the XPERIA X3, marking a radical departure from the Windows Mobile-based X1 and X2. eXpansys specifications suggest quad-band GSM, with dual-band HSPA capable of downloads up to 10Mbps. In practicality, most HSPA networks are limited to 3.6 or 7.2Mbps.
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07/16, 3:55pm
Sony Ericsson Q2 2009
Sony Ericsson warned of worsening trouble at the company as it recorded a steep drop in the number of phones shipped this quarter as well as in its financial well being. The company shipped just 13.8 million phones this quarter, dropping 43 percent compared to one year earlier; the number was also a 5 percent shrink from already weak performance in the winter. Accordingly, the company swung from a roughly $8.5 million profit in spring 2008 to a $300.5 million loss in 2009.
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07/15, 10:05am
S Ericsson C905 W518 ATT
Sony Ericsson got a much needed expansion of its American catalog today with two additions to AT&T's phone catalog. The C905a slider has the sharpest-ever camera in the US carrier's roster at 8.1 megapixels and stands as its most advanced cameraphone as a whole, with autofocusing, GPS-based geotagging and a xenon flash giving it more professional-looking shots. It appropriately gets AT&T-native 3G data and Memory Stick Micro support up to 16GB.
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07/10, 1:35pm
C905a at AT&T by July 19th
AT&T stores to get Sony Ericsson C905a on the 19th
The 8.1-megapixel Sony Ericsson C905a will soon become available at wireless provider AT&T, BGR recently reported. This would be the first 8.1-megapixel phone from AT&T, and the second expected appearance of the C905a in North America after a parallel T-Mobile leak. The leaked photo of the AT&T-branded handset reveals a front-facing camera as well, though whether it makes it to the production version is questionable; AT&T so far doesn't believe it can support two-way video calls.
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07/08, 1:30pm
Sony Rachael, Kiki phones
Updated images have allegedly leaked for Sony Ericsson's next major smartphone, codenamed Rachael. A follow-up to the XPERIA X1, the phone is expected to use the Android 2.0 operating system, running on a Snapdragon processor. It may also have 7.2Mbps HSDPA, advanced 3D rendering capabilities, and an eight-megapixel autofocus camera. Little new is revealed in the photos, except that white may be an option, and that the back contains a slight bulge.
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07/06, 4:25pm
Sony Ericsson Twiggy outed
A Sony Ericsson handset, only known as Twiggy, has been spotted recently, though no specific information regarding its features is known. Believed to be a replacement for the Walkman W350, the device sports an uncommon form factor in Sony Ericsson's lineup. Less a flip than a candybar with an opening flap that covers the keypad, the handset is nevertheless unique among recent Sony Ericsson offerings.
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07/06, 8:55am
Sony Ericsson Bao handset
A new handset from Sony Ericsson was spotted online recently, with styling that not only resembles the Nokia 7070 Prism phone but also a stealth jet fighter. Called the Bao, the flip phone has a built-in camera, although details on its megapixel count or any of the device's other features and functions are not yet known.
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07/04, 1:30pm
Sony Ericsson Rachel Leak
Sony Ericsson's first Android smartphone will be a very high-end touchscreen device most likely taking the iPhone head on, a Danish scoop shows. Codenamed the "Rachel," the phone would fit into the XPERIA line occupied only by the X1 but would emphasize speed, according to Mobil. Like the Windows Mobile-based Toshiba TG01, it would have a very high-end 1GHZ Qualcomm Snapdragon processor at its heart; it may also compete against the iPhone 3GS through "great" 3D graphics capabilities.
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07/02, 12:20pm
EU gives up on phone taxes
In some good news for local cell phone manufacturers, the European Union's plan to introduce new taxes for handsets sold throughout Europe has been scrapped, says a Wednesday report. The new taxes would have raised prices customers pay for new phones and most likely lowered the sales numbers of an already falling market. The decision came from Sweden, which hosts the rotating presidency of the EU, and will mean the Customs Code Committee will continue to treat cell phones as duty-free items.
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07/01, 12:40pm
Greenpeace attacks PCs
Large PC builders are dragging their feet when it comes to environmental promises, claims Greenpeace. The activist group has once again updated its Guide to Greener Electronics, which assigns relative rankings to major high-tech corporations. A new development is the assignment of "penalty points" to major PC builders, including HP, Dell and Lenovo. The companies have delayed plans to strip PVC and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) from computers, Greenpeace says, and in the case of HP, none of its current systems have reduced toxicity.
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