Posted 11/18/09 at 10:58:03 AM by Paul Lilly

The dust hasn't had a chance to settle on Motorola's Droid, but that hasn't stopped the Android camp from looking ahead to the next hyped up handset that could, once again, prove to be an iPhone killer. So what has the Android community giddy with anticipation? The Dragon/Passion (and something else, but more on that in a minute).

According to Michael Arrington over at TechCrunch, HTC's upcoming Dragon/Passion will be much thinner than either the Droid or iPhone, and as of a couple of weeks ago, it's been the smartphone of choice among senior Android guys at Google. Pat yourself on the back if you sensed a caveat, because unlike the Droid or G1, this one won't ship with a physical keyboard.

But there's even bigger news in the Android camp. Perhaps tired of waiting for a handset maker to develop that must-have smartphone capable of socking it to Apple's iPhone, Google is apparently building its own branded phone, or so Arrington claims to have confirmed. Originally intended to ship in time for the holidays, the date has been pushed back to early 2010.

According to Arrington, a major phone manufacturers will produce the handset, but with Google's branding (similar to how Toshiba manufactured the first Zune players of Microsoft). and Google will sell the smartphone both directly and through retailers. Hoping to avoid any quirky compromises, Google is in complete control of the entire design and should represent the search giant's vision of what an Android smartphone should ultimately be.

Arrington says the rest is unconfirmed speculation, but that's okay - this is plenty to drum up some buzz and chatter in the Android community, don't you think?

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Posted 10/20/09 at 08:30:53 PM by Ryan Whitwam

Acer isn’t content with just being the number two PC maker in the world. Taiwan-based Acer has not been known as a major manufacturer of phones, but maybe they’re seeing which way the wind is blowing. The manufacturer is claiming that they plan to ship 400,000-500,000 Acer-branded handsets in 2009. In 2010, they expect that number to be 1.5-2 million units.

Acer has already been working with Far EasTone Telecommunications in Taiwan. Agreements have also been reached with Bouygues of France, Wind of Italy, and CSL of Hong Kong. Acer expects to begin working with North American telecoms in 2010. Could this mean that the Acer A1, with its Snapdragon CPU, will grace American shores in 2010? By then, it might be just another Android phone.

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Posted 09/15/09 at 07:25:38 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Prepaid carrier MetroPCS will launch its 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) network in the second half of 2010. The company today announced its choice of vendors for the launch of its 4G service. It has chosen Ericsson as its infrastructure partner and Samsung as the provider of its first “dual-mode LTE/CDMA smartphone.”

With this announcement, MetroPCS has stolen a march on Verizon, as the latter plans to offer such a LTE handset only in 2011, although it too plans to launch its LTE service in 2010. 

“As the Internet goes ‘mobile’ we are excited to be at the forefront of this wireless evolution with the building out of our 4G broadband data services. We anticipate to begin offering our 4G LTE services and a dual-mode LTE/CDMA smartphone in our major metropolitan markets in late 2010,” said Roger D. Linquist, president, chief executive officer and chairman of the board of MetroPCS.

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Posted 02/26/09 at 05:18:56 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Nokia has quietly been observing the influx of tech bellwethers into the cellphone market. Now, the world’s largest handset manufacturer is the one contemplating an invasion. Nokia’s CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo told a Finnish news channel that the cellphone maker is giving serious thought to entering the laptop market.

"We don't have to look even for five years from now to see that what we know as a mobile phone and what we know as a PC are in many ways converging," Kallasvuo said. Nokia is widely expected to enter the netbook segment, if it does actually foray into the PC market.

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Posted 01/20/09 at 04:32:41 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Qualcomm has bought AMD’s handset division for $65 million. AMD has disposed of the handset business to exclusively focus on its fundamental businesses. The handset business has only spewed losses and caused despair ever since it fell into AMD’s lap as part of its 2006 acquisition of ATI.

Qualcomm has agreed to retain some of the existing employees involved in the handset division, although the exact figure hasn’t been revealed. Qualcomm will use the technology, which has changed hands as part of the deal, to develop more advanced graphics and audio solutions for mobile devices. 

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Posted 07/12/08 at 11:51:42 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Apple’s ingenious anti-hacking strategy for the iPhone launch – the phone must be activated in-store - resulted in long queues outside stores, as customers waited for their new iPhone 3G phones to be activated. But the iTunes and AT&T servers connived against the eager customers and crashed. However, the bedlam has subsided and now activations are going along at a canter.

The iPhone firmware 2.0 update for the original iPod Touch is also available on iTunes, finally. Apple might have made a mockery of the Iphone 3G launch but it put a useful feature on its website that allows you to check Iphone availability at your nearest store.

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Posted 07/10/08 at 01:06:49 AM by Pulkit Chandna

 

There have been rumors galore about Google’s Android mobile operating system as is the case with any thickly-veiled technology before launch. Another rumor doing the rounds is that T-Mobile USA will soon commercially roll out the world’s first Android-based handset to coincide with its planned extension of 3G services in fall 2008.

Though this is just an ordinary unsubstantiated rumor, T-Mobile might be amongst the first operators to launch an Android phone as it is part of the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of different companies that patronizes the Android platform.

Our friends at eWeek are reporting that a T-Mobile spokesperson made them aware of his company’s determination towards launching an Android handset in Q4 2008 – not a confirmation of this rumor. Also, speculation is rife that the first commercially available Android handset might be the HTC Dream. All we can do is wait and watch.

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Posted 06/20/08 at 11:45:54 AM by Paul Lilly

If you already own an R2D2 droid, then move along. For everyone else, be prepared to beam 3D images to and fro in the not too distant future. That is, if you're drinking the same Kool-Aid as Infosys. The ambitious tech company promises a holographic handset by 2010. With it, you'll be able to capture and send 3D snapshots by taking a series of 2D shots and using an algorithm to transform and calculate the extra third dimension. Infosys also envisions the technology being used in games, movies, and more.

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