Video: K&S Unveils Smallest, Affordable GSM PhoneWatch At CES 2010

January 7, 2010

The W is both a classic digital watch and a full blown GSM smartphone!

Kempler & Strauss’ W Phonewatch is one the most innovative product I’ve seen at this year’s CES this year, along with Parrot’s drone.

The W is the world’s smallest full-function GSM quad-band cell phone watch, but no 3G data yet.

It incorporates many of the features found in full-sized smartphone, including a wrist watch, a touchscreen interface, still and video cameras, MP3 player, a 4GB microSD card, and productivity applications: calendar, address book, voicemail, SMS, call log, speed dial, ring tones with vibration mode, calculator, stopwatch, and various games and utilities.

For $199, the phone watch comes unlocked – for AT&T and T-Mobile networks – with a stereo Bluetooth headset, the Communicator.

Here are the main technical specifications for the W PhoneWatch shipping during the first quarter 2010:

  1. It incorporates a GSM phone that supports the 850MHz, 900MHz, 1800MHz, and 1900MHz bands;
  2. Has a 1.5-inch TFT LCD micro-touch touchscreen with a screen resolution of 128 x 128 and displays 260,000 colors;
  3. The watch measures a mere 57 x 45 x 18mm and weighs only 2.5 ounces;
  4. Fully compatible with Bluetooth v2.0 headset and hands-free devices;
  5. The still camera captures JPEG images at resolutions up to 640 x 480, while the integrated video camera captures video in MPEG 4 (AVI) format at a resolution of 128 x 104;
  6. Supports video playback of MPEG4 files and music files including MP3, WMA, WAV, and AMR but no AAC :-(
  7. It can be charged by USB or via the included battery charger;
  8. A full charge provides up to 150 minutes talk time, up to 150 minutes of music playback, and up to 100 hours of standby time.

Finally, below is a video excerpt of the demo we had of the W cell watch taken at yesterday’s Pepcom Digital Experience media event during CES:


Palm Frees “GSM” Pre, Cuts Exclusive Deal With UK Operator O2

July 2, 2009
The GSM version of Palms Pre has surfaced in Vietnam. Next, the UK?

The GSM version of Palm's Pre has surfaced in Vietnam. Next, the UK?

Palm Pre second act is set to begin in Europe, a month after its launch in the U.S.

According to British daily newspaper The Guardian, the Sunnyvale, Calif.-company chose O2 as the exclusive operator for the U.K. market. A press conference will be held next week to unveil the news.

O2 is also the sole distributor in the UK for the iPhone 3GS which comes free with an 18-months contract (for the 16GB version), spurring rumours that the Pre will also be available for free with an 18-months contract.

Palm GSM Pre has been ready since February

Palm first showed the “world” version (or GSM) of its smartphone last February at the Mobile World Congress last February in Barcelona.

Indicative of an imminent launch – presumably in September – Palm’s GSM Pre has recently been seen “in the wild” in Vietnam and reviewed by a local reseller.

However it first appears that Palm’s Pre data transmission speed will not match that of the iPhone 3GS.

Here’s the video excerpt of the Palm GSM Pre review from a local Vietnamese reseller:


Mobile World Congress Opens In Smartphone Fanfare

February 16, 2009

The Mobile World Congress just opened this morning (Europe time) in Barcelona, Spain, and the mood is still upbeat despite the recession.

Nokia, HTC and many other mobile vendors were inviting loads of reporters/bloggers to the event, all expenses paid of course!

The GSM Association which organizes the yearly event expects over 1,200 companies to show off their new wares in the Catalan capital and more than 60,000 attendees.

Smartphones: the bright spot in a declining mobile phone market

A slew of smartphones make up the main attraction of this year’s show. Gartner expects the smartphone category to grow 32% this year despite a 4% to 5% drop of the overall mobile phone devices market in 2009; the first in 10 years!

Here are some of the smartphones unveiled at the show: Sony Ericsson’s Symbian-based 10-megapixels prototype Idou; Acer’s first ever touchscreen smartphones; GPS smartphones from Garmin (Nuvifone) and Inventec; Toshiba TG01; HTC Touch Diamond 2 and Touch Pro 2; LG Arena; Nokia’s E75 and solar panel phones from LG and Samsung.

No words yet on Dell’s eventual entry in the smartphone business.


Novatel Wireless Shows Mobile 3G Wi-Fi HotSpot (video)

January 13, 2009

 

MiFi is equivalent to a walking Wi-Fi hotspot!

MiFi is equivalent to a walking Wi-Fi hotspot!

At the Consumer Electronics Show, Novatel Wireless showed its 3G mobile Wi-Fi hotspot the size of a credit card, MiFi, which was previously announced last month but won’t be available until mid 2009.

In a nutshell, MiFi is a walking 3G Wi-Fi HotSpot: subscribe to a data plan (CDMA or GSM) and as soon as you turn on the device up to 5 users can share the same wireless broadband connection. And it also works in a car!

Applications hosting will lower data plan costs

MiFi will cost around $200 before carriers’ subsidy. The card-size device has also an
on-board linux capable to host applications.

“MiFi being able to host software applications is going to help bring the price of data plans down because the carriers are going to be able to sell software applications in addition to just connecivity. That’s what we all want, a $20 to $30 data plan versus $50 to $60 today,” explained Novatel’s spokersperson Michael Kelly.

Below is an excerpt of Kelly’s presentation of the MiFi:


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