A cuddly phone to snuggle up

For all of you who like to snuggle up to their phones and talk the night away, here is something that is cuddly and cute if you are into this stuff. Willcom, a Japanese mobile service provider is showing the Kuma Phoneat the Good Design Expo 2008 in Japan, according to Trends in Japan. The Kuma Phone (Bear phone in Japanese) is a teddy bear that can make mobile phones using an embedded SIM card and you can make or receive calls by holding the bear up to your face just like a regular phone. The bear can be programmed to store 4 phone numbers, one for each paw, and you dial the number by squeezing the paw. The bear vibrates and plays custom ring tones when a phone call is received. To answer the phone, press the tail :). All these features, do come at a price which is listed at approximately $500.

Willcom also has a colorful candybar phone called the Nico.Marble. This phone is targeted for women looking for a cute phone with basic functionality.

Nokia E71 review

Here is a review of the Nokia E71 from D-Caf, a WMExperts discussion member. He likes the phone and impressed with user interface. He also likes the liberty to install any third party software on the phone he wants. He compares it to his old Palm Treo 680 with Palm OS and feels the S60 simplicity is as good as the Palm. The multimedia playback capabilities are way better than Palm’s and as are the camera and GPS capabilities. Above all, the 3G capabilities and battery life make it a very nice purchase for him.

HTC S740 hands-on review

Here is a hands on review from the folks at newmobile.com who manage to get their hands on the new HTC S740, aka the little brother to the Touch Pro. The short story is that it is thinner than Touch Pro, the answer and disconnect keys were small, and the back of the phone gets easily smudged. Other than that, the demo piece did not have a SIM card nor was the Windows Mobile implementation production-ready. Here is a picture from the site and you can see more on newmobile.com site. You can read my earlier post on S740 here.

Andriod Market to be bundled with device

Google today announced the Android Market which as the name suggest is a user generated content distribution for Android devices. What does that mean? Essentially, Google is applying the You-Tube model to applications for Android based mobile devices including the feedback and rating system. According to Eric Chu who works on the Android Platform:

Content can debut in the marketplace after only three simple steps: register as a merchant, upload and describe your content and publish it. We also intend to provide developers with a useful dashboard and analytics to help drive their business and ultimately improve their offerings. 

The first handsets will have the beta version of the Marketplace and will include free (unpaid) applications. Soon after launch, the Marketplace will include support for paid content, analytics, etc. Chu also included some screenshots of the security features in the Marketplace which I have included here.

AT&T sets Oct 2 launch date for Blackberry Bold

AT&T has confirmed today to BoyGenius Report that the Blackberry Bold will be available in stores starting October 2nd. As I had mentioned in July, this phone was slated to release in September. However, they launched it in Canada and Europe earlier than planned but the US launch is delayed.  If you need to a reminder of the features on the Bold, you can read them here and read the comparison to Nokia E71 here.

Xperia X1 delayed until 2009

Update: Sony Ericsson’s E-Shop is showing that the Xperia X1 is still slated for release in October 2008

Sony Ericsson today confirmed to Engadget that the Xperia X1 has been delayed until December 2008 or January 2009. That is a shame as the X1 is one of the eagerly awaited Windows Mobile devices and especially when the software (or SE’s implementation of it) is blamed for the delay. According to Engadget, the three devices on display at the IFA conference in Europe were having trouble running. Let’s hope SE resolves those issues quickly and gets the device out soon.

Sony Ericsson relationship in question?

Recently, Sony Ericsson announced a quarterly loss for Q2 of 2008 which also brought down the profits at one of its parents Sony. Today, the CEO of Sony Corporation, Howard Stringer, stated in an interview with a German online magazine Welt Online that Sony was reviewing the future of this joint venture. He felt that SE needed to be nimble but it was difficult to do that in a joint venture. He had also thought of buying out Ericsson but it was not an easy thing to do. According to Mr. Stringer, the partners need to work together as they have done in past otherwise SE will have to make its own future. So, what is the future for SE? Will it be spun off or acquired by one of the partners? We will have to wait and see what Mr. Stringer decides.

An in-depth review of Palm Treo Pro

Here is an in-depth review of the Palm Treo Pro from Dieter Bohn at WMExperts who says:

It is one powerful smartphone, focused primarily on the business user but with plenty of features that will appeal to consumers in the “power user” segment as well.

Dieter certainly likes the Treo Pro and very enthusiastic about its prospects. It certainly looks very polished and will fare well in the smartphone market. However, Palm needs to follow up with additional phones that can make it a contender once again. Otherwise, it could end up being a one-hit wonder.

Vertu Signature: 3G luxury

Vertu, the luxury arm of Nokia, released the new Signature, a stylish candybar phone. It is the first time that Vertu has gone 3G with its Signature series. It operates on dual band WCDMA and quad band GSM with WLAN and VOIP support. It sports a 320 x 240 pixels QVGA OLED display and an innovative SIM drawer to exchange SIM cards for international travel. No word on the pricing or release date but you can be sure it is going to be pricey.

Verizon preparing Blackberry Storm 9530 for release

Today, we have more evidence that Verizon is preparing for late September or early October release of the Blackberry Storm. Engadget Mobile has a photo of the packaging for the Storm. For those of you wondering what Blackberry Storm is, it also goes by the name of Blackberry Thunder. The Thunder name is being reserved for Canada and European launch. From the packaging, it appears that the Storm will be usable worldwide and will come with 8GB microSD card preinstalled.