Thursday, December 3, 2009

Motorola Announces the Cliq Android Phone


Motorola Announces the Cliq Android Phone
Today at the Mobilize Conference, Motorola and T-Mobile announced the Motorola Cliq, a new Android handset. They call it “the first phone with social skills.” It is a touch-based handset that has Motorola’s new MOTOBLUR service on board. The Cliq is a sideways slider that has a full QWERTY keyboard and 3.1-inch HVGA touch-screen display. It has a 3G, Wi-Fi, 5 megapixel camera with autofocus, video capture at 24 frames per second, 3.5mm headset jack, full HTML Google browser, and Google services. It will support microSD cards up to 32GB. It will be available in titanium and white, pricing wasn’t disclosed. It will be sold worldwide as the DEXT starting in 2010.

HTC Announces Touch2

HTC Announces Touch2


HTC has been getting in on the act today with the unveilling of the Touch2, a compact WinMo smartphone that will be one of the first devices to run WinMo 6.5, which will itself be unveiled on 6th October. Other pioneering efforts include support for Windows Marketplace and Microsoft My Phone. HTC’s TouchFlo UI has been given a revamp with lessons learned from the popular Sense UI found on HTC’s Android devices.

The handsets ships with Internet Explorer Mobile, which includes Flash Lite meaning that there is some native Flash support even if it isn’t the full hog. A text optimization option allows the user to resize onscreen text for best results. The My Phone service allows the backing up of information like pictures, music and contacts straight from the handset to the web. Available in Q4 pricing hasn’t yet been confirmed.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Samsung Corby Pro (Samsung Genio Pro / B5310)


The Samsung Corby Pro B5310 (to be sold in the UK under the name Samsung Genio Pro) is a fun messaging device with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, 2.8" touchscreen display and a 3 megapixel camera.

Following on from the original Samsung Corby (or Genio), the most obvious improvement with the Corby Pro is the keyboard, but the handset also adds 3.5G and WiFi support and a better camera to the mix.

Don't think that the Corby Pro is some sort of fuddy-duddy business phone, the customised TouchWiz interface has a cartoony feel to it, and the media player supports all major formats including DivX video. The Corby Pro also has an integrated FM radio and a useful 3.5mm audio socket.

The Corby Pro is designed to be used with social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook through built-in applications. It also supports popular web mail applications plus standard email protocols, and one neat thing is that the Corby Pro can send messages and updates out to several sites at the same time.. including Blogger, LinkedIn and Flickr.

 Samsung Corby Pro (Genio Pro)

The addition of 3.5G support is a huge improvement as the Corby Pro can download data at speeds of up to 7.2 Mbps, making web browsing a much more pleasant experience. And with WiFi, you can get even faster speeds without worrying about the cost, just connect it to your home or office wireless network and you can pretty much use it for as long as you like.

There are a range of different colours available, as with other handsets in the Corby / Genio line-up. In this case the phone has changeable battery covers, so you can easily change the colour if you get bored with it. The overall design of the handset is fairly straightforward, it borrows heavily from theS3650 when it comes to the detailing. Overall, the appearance is quite pleasing.

All these features take their toll when it comes to weight, the Corby Pro comes in at 134 grams and measures 105 x 57 x 16mm. Internal memory is 100MB, expandable to 16GB using a microSD card. Talktime isn't specified, but the 960 mAh battery isn't particularly large.

The Corby Pro (or Genio Pro) seems to be a very capable device, combining a good specification set with some fun features that could give it a wide appeal. Samsung haven't given any guidance on price, although they do say that the Corby Pro should start to be available in Europe from November 2009 onwards.

Samsung Corby Pro (Genio Pro) B5310 at a glance

Available:

November 2009

Network:

GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 +

UMTS 900 / 2100

Data:

GPRS + EDGE + UMTS (3G) + HSDPA + WiFi

Screen:

2.8" 320 x 240 pixels, 16m colours

Camera:

3 megapixels

Size:

Large slider
105 x 57 x 16mm / 134g

Bluetooth:

Yes

Memory card:

MicroSD

Infra-red:

No

Polyphonic:

Yes

Java:

Yes

GPS:

No

OS:

TouchWiz

Battery life:

Not specified