We’ll start this week’s round-up with some of the highlights of the CTIA Wireless show held this week in Las Vegas, and then spend a little more time on some of the more exciting stories from the show later on.
1. CTIA Wireless Las Vegas.
Although it concentrates on the American mobile market, new hardware and gadgetry is always exciting! Aside from the Motorola Evoke, which we felt deserves it’s own spot, we did like the Transformers LG Versa as well as the overwhelming amount of new apps coming to various platforms. For example, Microsoft Office via DataViz is headed to the G1, Mobile Internet Explorer’s overhaul was pictured again and Palm stole the show with the Pre’s WebOS.
2. No Touching! Well, Not with Two Hands Anyway.
If you’re lucky enough to be looking at the exciting Palm Pre before its release, then chances are you haven’t got both your hands on it yet, because Palm won’t let you! Any journalists viewing the phone can only do so with a member of either Palm or Sprint (Palm’s US carrier partner) present who will only allow a single handed touch of the Pre
3. Samsung Open TouchWIZ for Developers.
We love the TouchWIZ user interface found on most touchscreen Samsung phones and are excited by the news the system is set to be opened up to developers, who will be able to create new widgets to sit in the side bar!
4. Where’s the Magic?
The HTC Magic is easily one of the most anticipated phones out this year and everyone is expecting an April release. However, some investigation by the Pocket-lint team suggests Vodafone are looking at the 1st of May as the actual release date! HTC have confirmed the delay and Vodafone say the date was not confirmed anyway. The curse of Android strikes again!
5. USA Gets Cool Motorola Shocker!
Spotted at the CTIA show in Las Vegas, the Motorola Evoke QA4 is a great-looking touchscreen phone from the troubled manufacturer. The Linux OS may look rather iPhone like, but that’s not really a bad thing, plus it sports a 2.8″ screen, haptics, a sliding keypad, 2 megapixel camera and GPS. To bad it’s currently a CDMA USA-only phone.
6. More Watch Phones on Display at CTIA.
Canadian company Neutrano is teaming up with a Chinese manufacturer to import and modify a selection of their watch phones. 2009 looks set to be the year of the watch phone and while they aren’t always the most attractive of gadgets, the Neutrano offerings look good, but there’s no word if they’ll make it over to the UK.
7. Nokia’s Point & Find Enters Beta.
Point & Find is a clever service which provides detailed information on a product or service from a picture taken with your phone camera. Currently the service is focussed on film, so if you take a photo of a movie poster, you have access to the trailer and local cinema times. Take a look at the official website to check if your phone is compatible.
8. Japan Gets Mobile TV Channel.
A Japanese broadcasting company has announced the launch of BeeTV, a new channel featuring a wide variety of programming including music, cartoons, dramas and general entertainment. Nothing special about that you may think, but BeeTV is an exclusive mobile phone channel!
9. Carrier Pigeons Carry Phones into Prison.
Surprisingly not an April Fools story, these pigeons really were trained to carry parts of mobile phones into prison for the prisoners to then reassemble and use! Brazilian police found pigeons outside the prison with little packages tied to their backs and rumbled the scheme, which has been used before!
10. Stunning Envelop Nokia Concept Phone.
This concept has been created by Fabien Nauroy, a French product designer, and it’s absolutely gorgeous! His E97 has a pull-out LCD screen, a full keypad (the French AZERTY alternative is pictured) and more shiny surfaces than is probably legal.
