Definitely a winner in design, Samsung has brought the “Soul” back into mobile phones. The Samsung U900, better known as the Soul is really an aesthetic play with the phone’s real estate. The directional keypad is a show off of Samsung’s DACP or Magic Touch Dynamic Active Control Panel. This basically turns the directional buttons into context sensitive fields for various functions. In terms of usability, the DACP has gone a long way since the time LG’s Chocolate phone launched with a rather blah keypad.
The Soul is packed! It comes with a 5MP camera with face recognition, Bang and Olufsen Ice Power speaker technology, and HSDPA. My only complaint is that the U900 doesn’t come with WiFi. A phone so packed with features should have had built in wireless Internet at the very least.
e enjte, 17 prill 2008
Samsung U900 Soul
Samsung SGH F480 With Widgets
The Samsung SGH F480 is IMHO the most attractive Samsung mobile phone to date. It comes bundled with innovative features such as smile detection, a feature that is quickly becoming popular with point and shoot digital cameras. But what makes the F480 truly shine is the support for drag and drop widgets.
The F480 capitalizes heavily on customization of the home screen and borrows the concept of having “widgets” … or “gadgets” … depending on what computer OS you run. I was easily able to drag and drop a calendar and clock in the two minutes that I spent with the device.
e martë, 15 prill 2008
Samsung SGH F400 Bang & Olufsen Speakers
are some photos of the new Samsung SGH F400. This is obviously Samsung’s high end music phone calling forth the serious technology of Bang and Olufsen speakers built into the real estate. The SGH F400 borrows the dual slider that the Nokia N95 made popular. Sliding the body upwards reveals the keypad while sliding the top downwards turns the phone into music mode. The interesting thing about the latter form is that the touch sensitive navigation is made of rubber for easier thumb gripping and scrolling. Ingenious really! This mode also pulls out the rich B&O speaker that’s dominant on the phone’s top.
e mërkurë, 2 prill 2008
Motorola Z9
The Motorola Z9 is a classic slider phone with built in GPS. It is packed with music playback and online music downloads as well as HSDPA connectivity to support the GPS downloading and online store. This is pretty much a straightforward classic design and is a good upgrade for anyone who loves Motorola’s design and user interface.
HSDPA 3.5G
2.0MP camera with flash
Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR
MPEG4 video support and capture
e martë, 1 prill 2008
LG KF600 Slider Touch Screen
The KF600 is a nifty slider equipped with a touch screen. What makes the KF600 nifty is that it comes with an InteractPad, a touch sensitive area located below the main screen that is context sensitive. This, in theory is a good idea because it allows the user to combine touch screen interactivity with the default keypad. Some phones only present one option to input data - the KF600 seems to be a marriage of two technologies. Looking good so far. Features-wise though, the KF600 doesn’t have smartphone functions so it is to be treated like a regular cellphone with MP3, video and call functions.
e martë, 25 mars 2008
Sony Ericsson W980i: Shake, Rattle, Song!
The W980i is the latest music phone from Sony Ericsson. The phone is of clamshell design and is basically the same thing we get from previous Walkman phones but with two updated features.
The first feature is the shake recognition via the built in accelerometer. I wrote about how these small pieces of hardware are going to change the way we use mobile phones - and yes, they are being implemented in creative ways with current mobile handsets. You can shake the W980i while pressing the Walkman key to skip to the next track.
The second feature of the W980i is the Track ID, something which I talked about here and is also being implemented as a feature called SongID with the new Motorola ROKR E8.
Apart from these features, the Sony Ericsson W980i will ship with HSDPA connectivity, video calling capabilities, and FM tuner.
Nokia Morph: Not a phone
The future of mobile phones is this: there won’t be phones as we know it. Looking at the “future” as suggested by Nokia, the concept of the Morph goes way beyond mobile phone technology. Essentially speaking, a “phone” by definition today implies more than just making calls - there is a camera function, MP3 playback and web surfing. Pretty much, by design - a computer.
The Morph is the closest thing to a portable environmental suit: more than calls, it becomes a repository for otherwise useless information like pollution levels, smell analyzers and other such things that require the use of nanotechnology. it can help us locate places and people, be worn as a fashion accessory, and be folded up into something more portable.
The funny thing is that when I re-read what I just wrote, I’m basically describing phones as they already exist today (save for the smell analyzers and pollution level thingees). Cliche as it may sound, the future is not too far away, really.
