Google map navigation is a brand new feature for mobile phone users that is generated from Google’s android operating system. The feature is announced to be free but the only problem encountered is that Verizon’s Motorola DROID is the only android 2.0 – based mobile phone on the market that supported this feature of map navigation.
Google has released information announcing the launch of the Google Maps navigation for all mobile users using Android 1.6 and above. This means that owners of other handsets can benefit from this navigation feature as those early adopters of DROID.
This Google Maps navigation is an application functioning as an internet connected GPS system with voice guidance and automatic rerouting, all working on your mobile phone. With the use of Google’s services over your phone data connection it brings important benefits to GPS users, and you can enjoy from the following benefits like using Google search to enter your destination, map traffic, business and weather data, satellite and street view imagery around your route.
Google also stated that the updated version of Google maps with navigation can be downloaded from the android market and this feature is only available in the US at the moment, but a few options are present in the Android 2.0 version are not available here, example is the “navigate to” on voice command. If you are not based in the US and have a G1 then there is also some good news as the Google maps navigation can also be run on a G1 outside of the US.
The GPS features also include the new layers feature, which enables the overlay of geographical information on the map. View my maps, transit lines, Wikipedia articles about places and lots more.
Archive for November, 2009
Google Maps Navigation Now on Android 1.6 Phones
Wednesday, November 25th, 2009O2 To Begin Unlocking Of iPhones
Wednesday, November 25th, 2009
One of the setbacks of owning an iPhone is that you cannot insert any other sim card into it, even if you are traveling abroad, but soon this will no longer be the case as O2 unfolds plans to unlock the iPhone.
The controversy of unlocking the iPhone has been cleared up by O2, as O2 has announced that it will be unlocking iPhone at no cost for all pay monthly customers during their contracts, but will charge a fee at the end of the contract term thereby allowing consumers use the phone freely on any network they please.
This has been confirmed through an interview with the CEO, Matthew Key, who confirmed this himself saying the network will allow customers to unlock the iPhone and once their contract period is completed they can freely move to any network of their choice. The unlocking service is available to all customers who call the customer care line and request for this service for £14.97.
The unlocking allows users to place any network’s sim into their iPhone. The unlocking is expected to take a space of 14 days and will be confirmed via text message. Some other networks in the UK like Orange have started offering the iPhone 3G and 3GS, which is available for pickup at Apple retail stores and other approved stores.
O2’s monopoly over the iPhone ended on the 10th of November, while Orange and Vodafone had put the device on sale giving the populace the opportunity to choose a variety of networks to use on their iPhone.
Orange has been confirmed as the second official iPhone carrier in the UK, with a subscription of over 250,000 subscribers on their iPhone network.
The Palm Pre WebOS Update
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009
Users of the Palm Pre are enjoying a series of continued technical support in the form of firmware updates that fixes bugs, adds new features and tweaks existing functions to add more capabilities to the device.
In the case of the 1.3.1 update of the Palm Pre WebOS, the device is getting a tie up with Yahoo! and LinkedIn –useful, but only if you have accounts on them. The new update will allow you to connect your contacts and calendar and synchronize them with your profile on both Yahoo! and LinkedIn. This also complements the new features added to the calendar (as well as a few tweaks that renamed some items).
Even better is the Palm Pre email function update. Now, there is nothing wrong with the email function, in fact, it works like a dream. What Palm did is actually improve an already good function into something great. The addition of new shortcuts for important functions and making copy-pasting easier is certainly a welcome treat.
Firmware updates like these are always welcome, but they can also be quite unnerving. It shows that a device has gone past all bug checking standards and still suffers many errors. While it can be argued that this is the norm for most of technology, it appears that the problem lies in the fact that manufacturers and consumers have accepted that norm.
Anyway, the rest of the tweaks and bug-fixes are listed on the official Palm website. What matters now is that users need to get on a secure bandwidth to download the huge 134MB update. It may not be that large for people who are on very fast connection speeds, but others who rely on wonky free WiFi hotspots need to update elsewhere.
Good thing Palm can also slowly upload the update to Pre owners via 3G when the device goes into idle mode.
Minor Software Issue Causes Major Problems with HD2 Camera
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009
The built in phone camera is a much used device, which is why it is surprising that factory problems with the camera can still go unchecked. But that is an early assessment of the problem with the HTC HD2, whatever the real problem originally was thought to be, HTC’s bright engineers have figured out the cause and will be delivering a solution to users soon.
The HD2’s camera is an impressive piece of hardware that takes excellent quality photos. Sadly, some HD2’s cameras are malfunctioning. According to a review from GSM Arena, several images they took with the HD2 camera had a spot of pink in the center. While they originally thought it was an isolated problem with their unit, they later found out that it was a case that was happening to other HD2 users.
While there are several HD2 devices that showed this error, other HD2 units were not affected by the pink spot error.
The initial response of HTC support was that it was a hardware issue and that the device needed to be replaced with the retailer. This raised concerns regarding the number of units that actually had the problem and the units that did not.
Fortunately, HTC took the time to actually figure out what the problem was and were able to isolate the cause to a software problem. HTC support officially states that “We can confirm that this issue has been determined as a software issue. The developers are working on a hotfix to resolve, and it will be released as soon as possible. There is not a specific date for the release as (of) yet, please continue to monitor the support pages for the release”
This is good news for any HD2 owners who are having the spot of pink problems with their camera as replacing a device can be quite a hassle.
Symbian Now Supports Spotify
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009
Everyone loves streaming music. Well, maybe not everyone, but there are plenty of people out there who rely on streaming music to listen to the newest singles and mixes being released. File storage issues aside, streaming music services deliver a versatile music experience to any client online
Spotify is a major peer-to-peer music streaming service with millions of users and thousands of songs. The iPhone has it, Android phones have it, and now, much to the exuberant joy of Symbian phone owners, various Symbian devices will now support Spotify!
Users of the Sony Ericsson Satio, Samsung i8910 HD, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, Nokia E71 and the Nokia 6220 Classic can now log in to Spotify to listen to their favorite tunes.
For those who are unfamiliar with the Spotify service, it is a paid internet service that allows users to stream or purchase music through their service. They also get money from online advertising as well.
The monthly service fee clocks up to 9.99 Pounds a month, and while streaming music is an excellent service to get for this price, non-music fans obviously have nothing to gain from this deal. In fact, even music fans might want to opt out. If you are the kind of individual who is rarely able to access a network for any reason, or you are the type to not stream music (maybe you prefer to buy the albums and singles the moment they are released), then Spotify has little to offer.
On the other hand, anyone who wants to access their online playlist at Last FM, or to check the latest hits from a new upcoming band or simply want to listen to new tunes instead of sticking to the same old tracks stored on the mobile would definitely enjoy the Spotify music streaming service.
Sony Ericsson Kurara: HD, Symbian and More
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009
The amount of leaked images and information regarding the Sony Ericsson Kurara is staggering. Since the device was initially leaked out, the public has been constantly informed over almost every little updated change of detail (like the inclusion of the HD label on the back cover that was not present in the first shots). Still, nobody is complaining, the Kurara is shaping up to be a pretty little 3G phone with 720p video recording capabilities and an ARM Cortex A8 processor (just like the N900’s; if speed is not the main issue, the A8 seems like a viable alternative to the Snapdragon lately).
The newest image of the Kurara to be released shows the device in all black glory (a stark contrast to previous leaked images). The look in black is impressive, if not totally captivating. While the original lighter Kurara images had been noteworthy in their own way, nothing says that a phone is almost production ready than seeing it in black.
So far, it has been rumors about the new Sony Symbian specs and nothing has been made final or confirmed, but many are expecting certain specs to come with the final version. Among the most expected is 720p video recording. With the letters HD written on the back, anything less than HD quality videos would be a disappointment. The Kurara will also have a 3.2 inch touch screen display. No word yet on the actual resolution; but we can expect this to complement the HD camera as well.
Other leaked specs are to be expected, a 3.5mm audio jack, GPS, WiFi, microSD and Bluetooth are all staple features for a mobile phone. The battery is rumored to be 1200 mAh, while it is not yet confirmed if the camera sucks up a lot of juice for HD recording, 1200 mAh should still provide enough power for regular mobile phone functions.
Leaked: Images of the New BlackBerry Pearl
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009
The Phone Arena just got their hands on leaked images of the upcoming BlackBerry Pearl. The new BlackBerry is undoubtedly a Pearl –complete with the half-QWERTY keyboard, the front button layout and the simple, streamlined form live up to the series standards.
New to this model is the inclusion of the BlackBerry Track Pad which is seen with the Curve and the Bold 9700. No surprise here, despite the definitive success of the track ball used in older Pearls and BlackBerry phones in general, the track ball was prone to damage, overuse and loads of lint (no kidding). The new track pad is just as accurate as the track ball, but has a much smoother feel and has less stress on the finger thanks to the lack of pressing involved. Of course, the pad does not suffer from any lint problems.
The Pearl keyboard is what you could call a ‘half-QWERTY’ keyboard due to the fact that two keys share on button. “Q” and “W” share one button, “E” and “R” share one button and so forth. It’s a little tricky when you want to type fast, particularly if you are new to the device, but overall, it does not take long to get used to this phone. Though the Curve and Bold 9700 offer a much pleasant typing experience, getting used to Pearl 9100’s pad is not so bad.
This little 3G phone is a lot thinner than its full keyboard cousins and will easily slide into the thinner pouches that just hate other BlackBerry models. Aside from that, the Pearl 9100 packs your usual 3G needs. It has WiFi, a micro USB slot for transferring data, FM radio and of course, a built in camera. No confirmation yet on the exact specifics of the camera, but it is known that it will have LED flash (as seen in the images).
Samsung’s Touring Bus Showcases Two New Devices
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009
Samsung has been one busy bee this year, with their Omnias, LinMo phones and the new Bada; one would assume that the major mobile phone manufacturer would already have their hands full -seems like Samsung is keeping their production teams on turbo as they suddenly drop two new devices on everyone during their Corby event.
The Samsung S5150 Olivia and S7070 devices were spotted by GSM Arena during the Corby event and the two new phones are looking really promising. With designs inclined more towards women in general, the phones have a sense of grace and style in the photos (neglecting the huge security cable that is).
The Samsung S7070 looked like a female version of the Galaxy Spica; with its “clamshell” backing and soft white finish, this demure looking phone definitely showcased style over function. Like any woman, that initial impression is quite deceiving. Seen among the glamour is a 5 mega pixel camera with autofocus, a 3 inch resistive touch screen and the TouchWiz user interface. It also has Bluetooth, USB and FM radio support and capability.
Looking even more fabulous is the S5150 Olivia. An outright lady’s phone, the S5150 is a flip open device with a dark mirror clamshell finish. This one sports a little less hardware than the S7070 with its 2.2” QVGA screen, 3 mega pixel camera and simple, black matte keypad. The phones are not slated for release anytime soon and are predicted to be available next year.
Samsung’s Mobile Tour bus went across Eastern Europe, Romania and featured many major Samsung devices; the bus stopped at Bucharest on September and featured a mobile phone showcase, promotional games and DJ music. The bus itself attracted a lot of attention with its unique shape, size and the loud decals accenting the overall white colour.
ASA Orders MPX to Rescind Misleading Ad
Monday, November 23rd, 2009
Mobile Phone Xchange (MPX), the recycling company for mobile phones, has been forced to remove their ads. According to the Advertising Standards Authority, their ads were designed to mislead the viewers.
The TV ad, which was telecasted by MPX, stated that the users could exchange their unwanted handsets for cash at mobilephoneexchange.co.uk. They were inviting all those people, who recently had updated to a newer model or were looking for a change, and wanted them to get an immediate valuation of their old mobile.
ASA received complaint from one of the viewers. According to him, MPX were not accepting his old mobile phone for exchange of cash, completely opposing to what their ad was claiming.
As per the recent reports, MPX did admit to ASA that they were not offering cash for all the mobile phones that were coming to them. However, they said that they were not misleading customers. They had exchanged almost 900 mobile phones since the ad was launched on live in exchange of cash. This was proof enough for confirming the authenticity of the advertisement.
However, ASA did not accept the points that MPX made in front of them. They ordered that the broadcasting intensity of the ad, which was currently very high, should be lowered to a considerable level. This move was made to remove the misconception that most users were having with regards to their mobile phone. Now, they will be aware of the fact that not all phones are available for a payment from mobilephoneexchange.co.uk.
Samsung Unveils the Galaxy Spica i5700 in the European Market
Monday, November 23rd, 2009
Competition in the European Mobile Market has gone to another level as Samsung, one of the top manufacturers in the world, has come out with yet another wonderful device. Samsung Galaxy Spica i5700 is the mobile phone that has been launched to give the market a new dimension.
Apart from that, as an answer to the Booklet 3G from Nokia, Samsung has also announced that they will unveil a netbook simultaneously with their competitors.
About the Galaxy Spica i5700, you get a phone with an impressive 3.2” HVGA resolution touchscreen. What is more exciting about this phone is its rapid data transfer, which is powered by the HSDPA connectivity. Wi-Fi has been included, if you wish for a wireless communication system for connecting to the internet. GPS Features, 800MHz Processor, DNSe 2.0 and Google Mobile Services have also been included in this fantastic device from Samsung. Especially for music fans, there is a 3.5mm headphone, which they can use for listening to their favorite numbers.
With the Galaxy Spica i5700, you are also going to get 3.2 MP inbuilt camera. You even have the option of upgrading the internal memory by using the included micro SD Card Support. To power this magnificent device, there is a 1500 mAh battery provided with it.
Another point which a user can consider, is that this Samsung Galaxy is the only Android smartphone that gives support to DivX. All this and much more are available with Samsung Galaxy Spica i5700 at only €320.
Meanwhile, the new Samsung Go Netbook is going to be provided with the Starter Edition of Windows 7, 3G Support and a display that is scratch-resistant. However, there is no information available with regards to the price and distribution of the device yet.