android &Apple iPhone &deutsche telekom &HTC Dream &Mobile Minute &mobile phone news &sony ericsson &T-mobile 11 Mar 2010 04:05 pm
Mobile Phone News: Symbian^3, Sony Ericsson Vivaz, Android 2.1
There’s plenty of Mobile Phone News this Thursday to satisfy your cravings. Let’s get right into it with some Symbian mobile phone news. A live demo of the upcoming Symbian^3 OS has been released on YouTube compliments of PhoneDog. The video shows off the multiple homescreens, how to customize widgets, add and remove apps as well as add new pages. One of the big changes in Symbian^3 is the graphics improvements which take the OS from 20fps to 60fps. The best example is in the music player when scrolling the cover artwork. Multitouch support for both capacitive and resistive touchscreens and multitasking round out the video.
In Verizon Wireless mobile phone news, the water / dust and shock resistant Casio G-zOne brigade is now available for $249.99 after a $50 mail in rebate on 2 year contract. The Brigade packs a 3.2-megapixel camera with LED light and up to 9-point autofocus, push to talk, Microsoft word / excel / powerpoint and pdf support, 3G data and a full QWERTY keyboard.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Verizon is ahead of schedule on their 4G LTE network. After showing off their LTE gear at CES we’ve been waiting for an update on the rollout date. Verizon’s CTO Anthony Melone has announced that next summer the carrier will release their first LTE handset.
Opera Mini 5 beta for Android is now available for free in the Android market or at m.opera.com/next. The software works on any Android handset and promises to deliver Desktop-like Web browsing experience on your mobile phone. Speed Dial, tabbed browsing, password manager and bookmark synchronization are all included in the release.
Apple Insider has confirmed that Apple is working on multi-tasking support for the upcoming OS 4.0 set to release this Summer. The Software has quite a ‘way to go’ before it’s ready for prime time and clearly will not ship with the iPad next month, but it could be ready for the fourth generation iPhone in late June.
The HTC Tattoo available on Vodafone in the UK is set to receive the Android 2.1 Update, also known as Eclair. This low-end Android handset which features Sense UI could be the first device other than the Nexus One to be updated. Last month we heard the Motorola Droid would be updated to Android 2.1 but no additional news has surfaced.
The T-mobile G1 received a minor update this morning. The update addresses the radio and improves call quality just in time for the March 15th deadline set by T-mobile. Future Android OS updates for the G1 are unclear at this point, but it’s still nice to see the carrier updating the device – even if it is a minor update.
In other Vodafone Uk news the Sony Ericsson Vivaz has officially launched. The Vivaz is available in two color choices – Venus Ruby, a Vodafone UK exclusive, or Moon Silver. The phone features a 8.1-megapixel camera and 3.2-inch high definition widescreen display. The Vivaz is available for free on many 24 month plans.
Last up this morning are a dozen LG handsets just shown off at a media event in the Netherlands. Some of these devices we’ve seen before at CeBIT 2010, but one device caught our attention – the LG Pure. The Pure looks like a traditional slider, but packs a touch-sensitive screen, 5-megapixel camera, FM radio and microSD slot with support for up to 32GB.
That wraps up the mobile phone news for Thursday March 11, 2010. As always if you have any questions feel free to drop us an email nick.marshall[at]cellfanatic.com. We always love to hear from the readers and hope that the Morning Mobile Minute takes care of your mobile phone news needs.