This week sees the CES trade show in full swing out in Las Vegas and several of this week’s top news stories feature mobile phones making their debut there. Other news includes the Nokia 5800 UK release date, a new HTC and Motorola phone, plus some Hello Kitty madness!
1. Sony Ericsson Reveal C510 and W508.
Sony Ericsson didn’t waste much time and have shown us two new mobile phones during the first week of 2009! The W508 is a clamshell Walkman phone with a front panel which can be changed for different colour ones, external music controls and a built-in accelerometer. The C510 is a 3 megapixel Cybershot phone with plenty of great imaging software including face and smile detection, plus an LED flash, autofocus and geotagging via your phone location rather than GPS. Expect the W508 to be released sometime during Q1 2009, however the C510 has been made official by Sony Ericsson and will be released in February. For reviews check out Mobile Phones UKs Sony Ericsson C510 Review and Recommended Buys’ Sony Ericsson C510 Review.
2. Pharos Traveler Wins CES Innovation Award.
The Pharos Traveler 137 is a proper GPS mobile phone with full navigation software, also produced by Pharos, installed with real time traffic reposts and a clever application named Follow Me, where your location can be tracked over the Internet. The phone is a 3G handset with a 3.5″ screen displaying 480×800 WVGA resolution and a 3 megapixel camera. It’s only available in the USA at present, but with this award win, Pharos may decide to spread their wings a little.
3. New HTC Iolite Spotted!
The Internet pounced on the pictures and specs of a new HTC Windows Mobile handset found on a retail website this week. The phone in question is the HTC Iolite, running Windows Mobile 6.1 and TouchFLO 3D, and boasts a 2.8″ screen, 3G with HSDPA, GPS, Wi-Fi and a 3.2 megapixel camera. Nothing was mentioned on price or availability though.
4. 10 Million Touchscreen Phone Sales in 2008 for Samsung.
We gave special mention to three of Samsung’s 2008 touchscreen phones in our ‘Best of 2008′ roundup – the Omnia, the Tocco and the Pixon, so it should come as no surprise that Samsung sold 10 million touchscreen handsets around the world during the last year.
5. Nokia 5800 Finally Comes to the UK!
It’s been a long wait! We gave it an award, we’ve given it our in-depth Ultimate Review treatment and on the 23rd January 2009, you can get your hands on Nokia’s first full touchscreen mobile phone, the 5800 XpressMusic!
6. Even in Hospital, You Can’t Escape!
For years, the use of a mobile phone in hospital has been a no-no, due to phone signals being thought to interfere with medical equipment. Now this has been disproved, phones will be allowed inside the majority of hospital wards so even the sick can be annoyed by loud conversations or the latest ringtone craze. Nurse! The sedatives please!
7. Motorola Unveil Touchscreen Mobile.
The A3100 or MotoSurf, features a 2.8″ touchscreen which can be operated by a finger, stylus or the trackball located in between the call start and end buttons below the screen. Other features include a MicroSD card slot and a 3 megapixel camera. This 3G HSDPA mobile with Wi-Fi is set for release during the first quarter of 2009.
8. Flexible OLED Screen on Display at CES.
Fair enough, it’s a prototype, but it shows the tech is there for a very cool – and usable – watch-style mobile phone. Developed by the Universal Display Corporation with the US Department if Defence, it currently has a 4″ screen which as you can see from the picture, bends rather a lot!
9. Clever New Noise Reduction from LG.
Good to see some actual new phone technology being developed rather than more megapixels! Late 2009 will see ‘DSE’ on LG mobiles, featuring two microphones, one for speech and the other for ambient sound. Clever algorithms will filter out the background noise and return a very clear call.
10. Hello, Kitty?
We’ve got the clamshell, the candybar, the slider and now, the cat face! Obviously this phone is no ordinary cat, this is Hello Kitty and should not be used by anyone over the age of 12, not that this would be possible judging by the very odd shape! Plus, although we see a screen, we don’t see many keys, so it’s probably not packed with features either.
What a great start to 2009! See you next week.
3 Trackbacks
[...] Sony Ericsson didn’t waste much time and have shown us two new mobile phones during the first week of 2009! The W508 is a clamshell Walkman phone with a front panel which can be changed for different colour ones, external music controls and a built-in accelerometer. The C510 is a 3 megapixel Cybershot phone with plenty of great imaging software including face and smile detection, plus an LED flash, autofocus and geotagging via your phone location rather than GPS. Expect the W508 to be released (more…) [...]
[...] here: Top Ten Mobile Phone News Stories of the Week – 9th January. (No Ratings Yet) Loading [...]
[...] Sony Ericsson didn’t waste much time and have shown us two new mobile phones during the first week of 2009! The W508 is a clamshell Walkman phone with a front panel which can be changed for different colour ones, external music controls and a built-in accelerometer. The C510 is a 3 megapixel Cybershot phone with plenty of great imaging software including face and smile detection, plus an LED flash, autofocus and geotagging via your phone location rather than GPS. Expect the W508 to be released (more…) [...]
One Comment
on the nokia website it states that the nokia 5800 xpress music release date is ctually the 23rd february not the 23rd of january. which is actually the correct date?