Wait for it... Samsung Galaxy S4!

With the Samsung Galaxy S3 but couple of months old, rumors have already started to do the rounds about a sequel to the South Korean phone-maker’s flagship Android kit.

Citing unnamed supply chain sources, as well as what we’re guessing are some better informed sorts within Samsung, the Korea Times claims that the phone will land in February at the Mobile World Congress.

The handset is apparently set to hit retailers shortly after in March – just nine months after the release of its predecessor.

In news that’s unlikely to surprise anyone on nodding terms with prevailing trends in smartphone upgrades, Samsung’s new kit will purportedly pack a larger five-inch OLED screen – up from the S3’s 4.8-inches – and international 4G LTE support.

An unnamed deepthroat said: “Samsung wants to keep its one-year product schedule and the Galaxy S4 will be the first to match that strategy.

“The S4 will see some external changes but retain its popular rectangular shape with rounded corner concept.”

News of Samsung’s plans comes as it recently announced that the S3 has now sold some 20 million units, making it the company’s fastest-selling phone ever.

We're back!

Hello everyone!

Our blog is back! World of mobile phones changed completely since our last posts, but we're going to catch up. We'll keep you up to date with the crazy things industry has to offer. You'll see lots of new articles, tutorials, reviews and a brand-new show as well!

So stay tuned! :)

Mobile operators halt sale of Razr phones

Motorola said a "limited number" of the phones shipped to the U.S. market were affected by the glitch. The Razr is one of Motorola's most popular phones.
Razr

"Motorola and its customers are addressing an issue affecting a very limited number of Razr handsets sold for GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) networks over the last four weeks," Alan Buddendeck, a spokesman for Motorola, said in an e-mail. "Motorola and its customers have taken steps to ensure an easy exchange process for consumers."

T-Mobile stopped selling the Razr late Wednesday after Motorola told it about the problem, said Peter Dobrow, a T-Mobile spokesman. Cingular stopped selling it in stores earlier in the week, said Mark Siegel, a Cingular spokesman.

A faulty component in the sleek, thin phones caused the calls to disconnect and the phones to reboot.

"We pulled all Razr units from retail, since it was not immediately known which devices had the defective component," Dobrow said. "Motorola is currently working with us to identify the affected units."
In other news:

• Feds press for Google results
• At CeBit, gadgets are golden
• IDF: Virtualization's need for speed
• News.com Extra: PIN scandal 'worst hack ever'
  

Motorola said that phones that were affected were shipped on Feb. 1, and that new phones without the glitch have already begun shipping. It expects normal availability of the handsets by next week, Buddendeck said. T-Mobile expects to begin reselling the phones early next week, according to Dobrow.

Customers with affected handsets may contact their carrier for an exchange. The problem affects only GSM phones. GSM is a cellular phone technology standard in Europe that is also used by Cingular and T-Mobile in the United States. Razr phones on the Verizon Wireless network were not affected, because Verizon uses a different technology.

VK Mobile's Hot VK5000 EDGE Phone at CeBIT

The VK5000 from VK Mobile is a very impressive tri-band GSM/EDGE handset that combines a very slim form factor with a full feature set. Measuring a miniscule 91.8mm x 50.9 mm x 9.9mm (3.6" x 2.0" x .4"), the VK5000 is only very slightly wider than a Motorola SLVR L7, but is a full 22mm (.9") shorter, and a bit over 1mm thinner. Two triband GSM versions of the VK5000 are available. One of the two versions should work on any GSM network in the world.

Instead of the typical LCD display, the VK5000 uses a new OLED display with a 128x160 resolution and the ability to show 260k colors. Like other OLED displays we've seen, it has a barely perceptible refresh that often becomes obvious in photos, just as you would see when photographing a television. You'll notice that the bottom half of the display has deeper colors in the example on the next page. While it lacks a memory card slot of any kind, the VK5000 has an amazing 1GB of internal flash storage built-in. That's great news since the VK5000 has a 1.3 megapixel camera and the ability to play MP3, AAC, AAC+, and eAAC+ music files, as well as record video at 15fps.

Other features of note include Bluetooth, an email client, JAVA MIDP 2.0 support, and 40 voice polyphonic sound. Pretty amazing for such a small handset.

VK Mobile's 8.8mm Thin VK2020

VK Mobile's VK2020 appears much like a Motorola SLVR L7 that didn't eat its vegetables when it was a kid. This is VK Mobile's thinnest handset, and also one of the thinnest handsets in the world. It measures only 8.8mm (.35") in thickness, significantly thinner than the SLVR L7's relatively beefy 11m waistline. It is also 19mm shorter and 2mm narrower. For those of your keeping score at home, that equates to 95mm x 47mm x 8.8mm (3.7" x 1.9" x .35"). Don't forget the fact that it weighs 53g (1.87oz), just slightly more than half that of our review SLVR that comes in at about 101g. This thing is tiny.
The VK2020 also has support for Bluetooth and a whopping 1GB of built-in flash RAM for storing music files and photos. The music player supports the MP3 and AAC formats, and the built-in camera takes VGA resolution photos. USB 1.1 support means that transferring 1GB of music to the VK2020 could take a long time, though.

The VK2020 is available in two different tri-band GSM versions, one that supports 900/1800/1900MHz, and one that supports 850/1800/1900MHz. The VK2020 makes use of the same 1.5", 260k color OLED display as does the VK5000. The display works pretty well and has a resolution of 128x160 pixels. JAVA MIDP 2.0 support rounds out the package.

The keypad that the VK2020 uses is eerily similar to that found in the Motorola SLVR L7. As such, it isn't all that terribly great, but it works well enough and does keep the design quite thin. For a small and light handset like the VK2020, perhaps it is worth the sacrifice.

Microsoft's improved Windows Mobile 5.0 will boost applications choice for users

The availability of Microsoft's push e-mail service last week is the company's latest move to establish Windows Mobile 5.0 as the platform of choice for mobile users.

Interest in Windows Mobile 5.0 has grown steadily, and it now attracts far more developers than any rival mobile operating system. This should improve the likelihood of IT directors being able to buy line-of-business mobile applications for the Microsoft platform. More than 10,000 developers are currently working on applications for Windows Mobile 5.0.

Part of the reason for this developer momentum is Microsoft's programming model. Nick Jones, vice-president at analyst firm Gartner, said, "Every device using Windows Mobile 5.0 has the same interfaces, but that is absolutely not the case with other operating systems, such as Symbian."

According to Microsoft, companies that develop for Windows Mobile will be able to use the same skills they already have for desktop Windows development. Staff with Visual Studio and .net Framework languages, such as C# and Visual Basic, can develop for Windows Mobile.

The launch of Microsoft's .net Compact Framework 2.0 last autumn gave Windows Mobile developers improved managed code application programming interfaces (APIs) to simplify mobile development projects, plus a number of new APIs for Windows Mobile.

Future releases of Windows Mobile are expected to appear annually, with patches and upgrades issued more frequently. Microsoft is committed to ensuring that 95% of applications have backward compatibility on its platform.

Jones said, "One of the great strengths of Windows Mobile is that it has a single owner in Microsoft. Therefore it is a relatively consistent platform, even when devices are produced by different manufacturers. Although it is being forced to support greater diversity of devices, we expect Mobile to remain far more consistent and backward compatible than the Java operating system."

Combined with the Microsoft .net Compact Framework, Gartner believes Windows Mobile 5.0 delivers a platform that offers rich features and good consistency between manufacturers and releases, so is well suited to corporate needs.

The alternative programming environment for mobile applications is Java 2 Platform Micro Edition (J2ME). Gartner has warned enterprise users that J2ME is functionally far weaker than a Windows Mobile platform. This is because it has a big consumer focus, which means it is missing many enterprise features, such as a file system, an embedded database, management and security services, and middleware functions. Also, Gartner pointed out that J2ME, by design, does not support access to device-specific hardware features.

The second drawback is that J2ME is a client-side platform, so it must be combined with server-side products, which may be proprietary. Gartner said users may need to buy server-side products from companies such as IBM or Oracle to provide a more complete enterprise platform.

One of the main alternatives to Windows Mobile 5.0 is Blackberry from Research in Motion, which is based on Java. But the device and the version of Java it runs is severely limited, says Gartner.

Jones said, "RIM is a Java machine, so you can develop J2ME applications for RIM, but it's the brain-damaged version of Java. Also, the RIM device itself is an exceptionally limited piece of hardware."

Companies can now buy devices from Motorola and Nokia that run RIM's operating system on faster processors. Application development for RIM was held up because most of its devices had black and white screens.

The arrival of new Blackberry devices with colour screens and third-party devices with RIM's operating system - Blackberry Connect - increase the potential market for application developers.

RIM organised the first formal meeting of its developer organisation, the Alliance Partner Programme, this month. A total of 274 organisations have joined the programme.

RIM's commercial relations director, Lee Underwood, said, "The kinds of area where we have seen quite a bit of deployment are time and billing in the legal market, data streaming in the financial services market and sales force solutions, such as customer relationship management."

Gartner rates Symbian as the third most important mobile operating system. In a recent Gartner survey, 33% of IT managers and CIOs thought the system was important to their companies' mobile strategies.

Although Symbian is shipped in more mobile phones than any other operating system, most are bought by consumers rather than companies. Symbian lacks a common interface across all devices using the operating system.

The closest Symbian has to a single owner is Nokia. The world's largest handset manufacturer is encouraging application developers to work on Symbian by standardising its handsets using the operating system. Nokia's Series 60 devices use the same implementation of Symbian. More than 25 million Series 60 devices were sold last year.

A developer club called Forum Nokia has been set up to encourage application development on Series 60 devices. More than 400 businesses belong to the club. Some 37% of them are developing corporate applications and 31% are working on personal productivity applications, including e-mail and personal information management.

Some of the businesses developing applications for corporate users pay Nokia for additional support.

Nokia's senior marketing manager for Series 60, Dan Shugrue, said, "They get early access to devices. They get roadmaps for the platform itself. The developers also get marketing initiatives and they might want access to an operator."

Unlike Microsoft and RIM, Nokia has only just launched devices that can be managed remotely by a user's IT department. The manufacturer's E Series of devices will be the first that can be wiped remotely. They will be released to the whole market at the end of March.

While users have the choice between J2ME and Windows Mobile 5.0, there is some degree of cross-platform development. According to Gartner, tools such as AppForge Crossfire allow corporate .net developers to target Symbian platforms, and third-party virtual machines will allow Java developers to target Microsoft platforms.

Windows Mobile v Java 2 Micro Edition

Consider Windows Mobile if:

• You already have Windows API or .net skills
• You want to use Visual Studio and develop in Visual Basic or C#
• You are creating a complex (perhaps thick-client) application that will run only on a Windows Mobile handset or PDA
• Your application needs an embedded small footprint SQL database
• You need access to operating system services, hardware or peripheral drivers
• Rapid application development is important
• You want round-trip integration with PC data, and applications such as Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel
• You need a wide portfolio of device form factors, such as "ruggedised" PDA, executive PDA and smartphone, with a single, consistent operating platform
• You already have Java skills or tools such as Eclipse
• You are developing simple applications for the broadest possible range of handsets and are prepared to sacrifice corporate features for market size
• You are developing a complex PDA application but need to maximise platform portability - by extending to Linux, for example
• You need a better user interface than can be achieved with a thin-client browser application, but want to maximise the range of potential client devices
• You do not need direct access to operating system services, hardware features or device drivers
• The target device gives you no choice, for example when it is a Java-only handset
• You are developing consumer-facing "infotainment" applications

Source: Gartner

What happened to the Palm OS?

The Palm operating system had the largest share of the corporate market in the 1990s, but now Microsoft and RIM are the main options users have. Palm was rated the least important operating system to enterprise users in the Gartner survey of IT managers. It came behind mobile Linux.

Nick Jones, vice-president at analyst firm Gartner, said, "The operating system is very dated and the replacement to the Palm OS is still up in the air. It's a much less sophisticated and mature operating system than its rivals."

The Palm operating system was replaced with Windows Mobile 5.0 on Palm's own smartphone brand, Treo, last month.

Nokia Announces AD-42W Wireless Audio Gateway

Nokia today announced a new Bluetooth accessory for the music lovers, the AD-42W Wireless Audio Gateway.

The little magic box connects to a home stereo through industry standard RCA jacks, and allows you to either stream audio to the connected stereo, or send audio from it, over the Bluetooth A2DP profile.

The simple Nokia AD-42W includes only two buttons - the power on/off switch, and a button to change usage modes (to/from audio source).

The Nokia AD-42W Wireless Audio Gateway will be available during Q2 this year, though no pricing information has been announced.

Pantech Shows iPod-esque G-3600V Slider

Pantech has displayed a new music handset at the CeBIT show in Hannover, Germany, with an iPod inspired music control mechanism and a slick design to boot.

The slider-style Pantech G-3600V, the company's flagship GSM handset, features a touch-sensitive wheel on the front, and includes a WMA, MP3, AAC, AAC+, and AMR compatible music player with a 10-band graphic equalizer. Unfortunately, we were unable to find out how much storage space is provided on the G-3600V at the time of writing.

On the imaging front, the Pantech G-3600V includes a 1.3 megapixel camera, and comes with both photo and video editing applications. Additional features include Bluetooth, a 262k color screen, and speakerphone functionality.

The Pantech G-3600V is being touted as a 'global GSM slider', and is expected to be available in Europe and Asia later this year.

Live shots from CeBIT are available on the following page.

Specifications for the Pantech G-3600V
Band	GSM (unknown bands)
Data	Unknown
Size	103mm x 46.8mm x 17.9mm (4.05" x 1.84" x 0.70")
Weight	96.3g (3.39oz)
Battery Life	Unknown
Main Display	1.9" 262k color TFT LCD, 176x220 pixel resolution
Sub-Display	N/A
Camera	Yes, 1.3 megapixel resolution
Video	Video capture/playback
Messaging	MMS/SMS
Email	Yes
Bluetooth	Yes
Infrared	No
Java	Yes
Polyphonics	Yes (64 voice)
Memory	Unknown
Availability	2006

Three UK Loses 12,000 Units In Robbery

Thieves have hijacked a lorry (truck) in Leicestershire, UK recently, escaping with over £1.6 million (US $3 million) worth of mobile phones from the operator Three. The robbery took place last week and the hijackers made off with over 12,000 units including the LG U880 Muse and Nokia 6280 phones.

The crime is currently being investigated by the National Mobile Phone Crime Unit. The robbery is not thought to have halted supply to retailers by a massive amount although it will be another few days before fulfillment is met.

After MobileBurn.com revealed last month that Three have introduced a new measure to combat cellular crime, Three confirmed that a lot of the handsets being carried had their sim cards already glued into them. This will ensure that the handsets are rendered useless in the market.

New smartphone by Tatung

The Taiwanese electronics maker Tatung has announced it will demonstrate its new M1A smartphone at the CeBIT 2006 show, which started yesterday. Now there is just general info about it. It is meant for GSM networks (quad-band) and powered by Windows Mobile 5.0.

The smartphone is made as a candy bar, equipped with a 2-megapixel camera, an expansion slot for miniSD cards (hot swap is possible) and Bluetooth 1.2 interface with the support of A2DP profile, which enables stereo sound. The LCD features a QVGA (240x320 pixels) resolution. Its Li-Ion battery capacious of 1100 mAh ensures 4 hours of talks and 200 hours standby.

Taking into account this piece of info it’s unclear what makes it different from the M1 smartphone introduced at 3GSM Congress. It might be a camera resolution – that had a 1.3-megapixel camera. There are no photos of the M1A, so have a look at the M1:

Vodafone K.K. releases Vodafone 904T 3G flagship model

Vodafone K.K. today announces that on 10 March 2006 it will commence nationwide sales of the Vodafone 904T, a new 3G handset by Toshiba. Vodafone K.K. will also simultaneously launch three new services and features with the sale of the Vodafone 904T: Vodafone live! CAST, a service that automatically delivers mobile magazine-like content to handsets, Vodafone Address Book, a service that lets customers back up their handset address books to a dedicated network server, and Deru Moji 3D Pictogram Display, which displays pop-up 3D animations in received mails.

The Vodafone 904T's Grip Style design allows the main display to be rotated 180 degrees, enabling customers to use the display as a large camera viewfinder while the handset is closed. Grip Style is also convenient for checking messages and browsing the web. The Vodafone 904T is a flagship model that fully supports current 3G services like Vodafone live! FeliCa for e-money shopping, flight e-ticketing, and point card services, and Vodafone live! NAVI for GPS navigation.

The main features of the Vodafone 904T are as follows:

*Multifunctional Grip Style design with 180-degree reversible main LCD

*3.2 megapixel camera, music player and other entertainment functions

*Flagship model that fully supports the latest 3G services

ImCoSys Linux-Smartphone debuts with Skinplex NFC

CeBit -- The Swiss based company ImCoSys has announced its Linux Smartphone at CeBIT 2006 in Hannover. Its feature list includes: GPS-receiver, Skinplex NFC, Bluetooth and a TFT touchscreen with 262,144 colors at a resolution of 240x320 pixels.

The new release, named "ImCoSys Smartphone", contains a TFT touchscreen which can be controlled with a stylus. The user can also control the smartphone through a 5-way navigation key, application buttons, and telephone keypad.

Inside the 125x64x18mm mobile phone, you'll find an OMAP-730 processor from Texas Instruments running at 200 MHz. Applications have 64 MByte memory available with an SD card slot for expansion. GPS-Software is preloaded on an SD card and is delivered with the product. The smartphone specifically does not contain a built-in digital camera so that it may be used inside companies with prohibit camera use.

Preloaded software includes Webbrowser, Email client with POP3, push email, sms, mms, and the usual PIM functionalities (contacts, address book, tasks, notes).

The smartphone can display Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents, and supports hands free operation as well as Java MIDP 2.0.

The Quad band GSM smartphone supports the 850, 900, 1800 and 1900 MHz bands, GPRS class 10, WLAN 802.11b as well as Bluetooth 1.2.

The ImCoSys Smartphone is on display this week at CeBIT 2006 and deliveries are planned to begin in June at a price of 298 Euro.

The ImCoSys also includes a modular hardware expansion slot with could be used to directly integrate a camera or customer specific hardware.

An additional application is "Skinplex NFC" which makes possible, through the cooperation of ImCoSys AG and Ident Technology AG, novel solutions for mobile data entry. Functions such as access control, security monitoring, and authentication are possible through Skinplex. In order to make use of Skinplex, the smartphone need only be carried on the person. The phone senses the person's presence within a distance of 3 meters, making possible man machine communications which were previously thought to be not possible.

UK HSDPA trial to begin early April

Following successful testing in Newbury, Vodafone UK will start customer trials on its live HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) network from April.

With 100 business users testing Vodafone UK's HSDPA-enabled Mobile Connect Cards across central and greater London, the trials represent an important milestone in the evolution of the company's 3G network.

Tim Miles, CEO Vodafone UK said: "The start of our high speed 3G broadband trial marks our relentless commitment to offering the best possible experience to our customers. We have seen high demand for 3G since its launch two years ago and our customers are hungry for the improvements that HSDPA will deliver. These important trials are part of a continuing drive to lead the UK through superior network performance and a customer experience that is second to none."

HSDPA will deliver a faster mobile broadband experience to Vodafone customers in the UK from mid-2006, initially offering the mobile transfer of data from the internet and intranet at roughly four times faster than current 3G speeds. It will also deliver greater capacity (three times that of current 3G levels) meaning that more people in the same location at the same time can benefit from a superior experience. In addition, HSDPA offers improved latency, giving faster access to web-based content. As a result, customers will be able to work faster and download larger documents, such as PowerPoint presentations and email attachments, more quickly.

"HSDPA offers a win-win opportunity for both customers and Vodafone - it delivers on the promise of 3G to provide broadband-like services whilst on the move," comments Michael Ransom, Research Director for Wireless at Current Analysis.

He continues: "With higher HSDPA-driven wireless performance, Vodafone will enable business customers to move beyond mobile email and become mobile enterprises."

From mid-2006, Vodafone will phase in the introduction of a high-speed mobile broadband service. Customers within the M25 will be the first to benefit with coverage rolling out across all major UK towns and cities by the end of 2006.

BlackBerry Enterprise Server v4.1 now available

Waterloo, Ontario -- Research In Motion (RIM) today announced the immediate availability of BlackBerry Enterprise Server(TM) v4.1 and BlackBerry Enterprise Server - Small Business Edition v4.1 for Microsoft Exchange and IBM Lotus Domino(TM). The latest versions of BlackBerry Enterprise Server build upon the manageability and power of BlackBerry as a platform for wireless communications and mobile access to corporate data.

BlackBerry Enterprise Server v4.1 includes new functionality that makes it easier than ever to expand populations of BlackBerry users and manage larger scale deployments. The new release further expands wireless communications in the enterprise by providing tight integration with leading platforms for enterprise instant messaging, including Microsoft Windows Messenger, Live Communications Server 2005 and IBM Lotus Sametime. BlackBerry Enterprise Server v4.1 also incorporates support for the new BlackBerry Mobile Data System(TM) v4.1 (MDS) application development and deployment environment, which includes BlackBerry MDS Studio(TM) (a new visual development tool for creating BlackBerry wireless applications from Web Services).

"RIM continues to enhance the BlackBerry platform and extend its industry leadership. BlackBerry Enterprise Server v4.1 gives IT departments increased control over their wireless deployments as they extend the benefits of mobility to a broader range of users," said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at Research In Motion. "This release will also provide developers with a new and powerful visual tool to create mobile applications based on the open standard of Web Services."

The BlackBerry wireless platform delivers unparalleled security and utility and continues to be the platform of choice for corporate and government organizations. BlackBerry Enterprise Server v4.1 adds powerful new functionality for administrators, users and developers, including:

- BlackBerry Manager - provides a single common interface for managing multiple BlackBerry Enterprise Servers - Group-based administration - enables properties and tasks such as IT policies, email filters, MDS access controls, application pushes, synchronization settings, auto signatures and software configurations to be easily applied to groups of users - Support for multiple administrator roles - allows IT departments to control access rights to certain functions based on tiered administration roles from "help desk" to "full administrator" - Enterprise Instant Messaging - supports presence, group chat, "buddy list" synchronization, message auditing and enterprise access controls with Microsoft and IBM messaging servers - PIN to PIN and SMS message audit logs - provides an optional setting that enables compliance with corporate or government regulations - Support for BlackBerry MDS application development and deployment environment - RSA integration with MDS for authentication - the ability to easily create BlackBerry client applications that integrate with Web Services using the new BlackBerry MDS Studio visual development tool - BlackBerry Java(TM) Development Environment v4.1

"As the industry continues to move from wireless messaging to a stronger focus on wireless computing, enterprises will look for stable, robust platforms that allow them development choice, a wide array of IT policies for management and administration, as well as standards-based architectures that allow for easy integration with best of breed products," said Kevin Burden, Program Manager, Mobile Markets at IDC.

"As a leader in support of the real estate and financial industries, Fidelity National Financial must continually update our mobile staff with important business information," said Larry Augustine, Fidelity National Financial's Corporate IT Systems Manager. "BlackBerry Enterprise Server v4.1 provides us with the technical power and capabilities we need to automatically relay critical information throughout the corporation to improve customer service, productivity and communications."

BlackBerry Enterprise Server v4.1 and BlackBerry Enterprise Server - Small Business Edition v4.1 both support IBM Lotus Domino versions 5.0 through 7.0, as well as Microsoft Exchange version 5.5 through the most recent Exchange 2003 Service Pack 2.