Archive for the ‘Mobile Phone’ Category

The tiny mobile phone from Sony Ericsson, pictured above, made the rounds through the FCC today.  The device is known as the Yizo, and is part of Sony Ericsson’s Walkman line.

Measuring only 3.7” x 2.0” x 0.6” and weighing in at 2.9 ounces, the Yizo is one of Sony Ericsson’s smallest devices.  It also packs a 320 x 240 QVGA screen, support for quad band GSM/EDGE, Bluetooth, and up to 4 hours of talk time.  The device also features Facebook and Twitter apps, as well as Sony Ericsson’s Media Go media management software.  You can view all of the Yizo’s specs here.

No word on pricing or a release date, although today’s FCC filing suggests that the Yizo should be coming soon.

With just hours before the official launch of the Samsung Epic 4G, we thought it’d be interesting to take a look inside the device, thanks to internal photos provided by the FCC.

Much of the Epic 4G’s functionality is provided by the circuit board to the left.  You can see a Qualcomm QSC6085, which enables CDMA and EVDO calling/data capabilities.

Next to the QSC6085 is the brains of the Epic 4G – a Samsung Hummingbird processor running at 1GHz.  The Hummingbird is actually quite similar to Apple’s A4 processor – both chips are manufactured by Samsung and both chips feature a Cortex A8 core.

Near the top of the main board you can see a NEC MC-10170 image processing chip – the same chip found in other Galaxy S devices.

Finally, there is what appears to be a Samsung memory module below the NEC image processor.  We don’t have a good close-up view of the chip’s part number, but it appears to be some sort of MCP.

You can see additional pics of the Epic 4G in various stages of disassembly below.

[View with PicLens]

Developing: HTC just passed a phone called the PC10100 through the FCC.  We don’t have any pics of the device, but we do know that the PC10100 will support HSPA+ on the 1700 MHz frequency, below.  That’s the same frequency T-Mobile USA is using for their HSPA+ network, so we’re guessing that the PC10100 is the HTC Vision QWERTY slider.  Leaked pics of the Vision have already popped up on the net, and it’s expected that T-Mobile will launch the device at their launch event on September 15th in London.

modu Ltd. makes small mobile phones.  The company’s modu T device holds the Guinness Book of World Records title for the smallest touchscreen phone in the world.

Today, the company passed a new Android-powered phone called the modu W through the FCC.  Although we don’t have exact measurements for the device, it appears that the modu W will rank among the smallest Android smartphones in the world.

The modu W’s user manual shows the device running what appears to be Android 1.6 – hopefully the phone will get an upgrade before it’s released.  The modu W will support apps from the SlideME app store, and offer standard features like microSD card support, Bluetooth and WiFi.

No word on pricing or a release date for the device.  So far modu hasn’t brought their phones to a US carrier, but today’s FCC filing suggests that we may see the modu W in the States.

The Motorola Droid 2 was launched somewhat quietly this Thursday.  At launch, Verizon had a modest selection of cases available for the device.  Our partner site iGear 360 took a look at these cases, and posted the video reviews below.

One thing iGear 360 observed is that all Droid 2 cases make it somewhat difficult to press the top row of keys on the device.  This issue is due primarily to the small gap between the device’s screen and the keypad.

Other than that, most cases performed well in iGear 360’s testing.  Check them out below:

Body Glove Snap On Cover for the Motorola Droid 2:

Verizon Snap-On Hard Cover for the Motorola Droid 2:

Verizon Kickstand Snap On Hard Cover for the Motorola Droid 2:

Verizon Shell/Holster Combo for the Motorola Droid 2:

Verizon Snap-On Gel Cover for the Motorola Droid 2:

It’s been a big week for Android news, and tonight, Sprint added to the fray by formally announcing that the Samsung Epic 4G will be available on August 31st for $250, after rebates, with a two year contract.  The Epic 4G is Sprint’s second 4G WiMAX phone, the first of course is the HTC EVO 4G.

Based on the Samsung Galaxy S platform, the Epic 4G features a 4” Super AMOLED display, Android 2.1, a 1GHz Samsung Hummingbird processor, front (VGA) and rear (5MP) facing cameras, 720p HD video recording, 802.11 b/g/n/ WiFi, wireless hotspot functionality, and a 16GB microSD card.  And as you can see, the Epic 4G will sport a full QWERTY keypad.

Interestingly, the Epic 4G doesn’t appear to have any onboard storage, while other Galaxy S smartphones such as the Captivate featured up to 16GB of onboard memory.  We’re also a bit disappointed to see that the Epic 4G will sport Android 2.1 – according to Sprint, an Android 2.2 update will be available for the device in “the coming months.”

You can reserve the phone on August 13th here.

Finally, the Motorola Droid 2 leaks can end.  Verizon finally made the device official today, with presales happening now, and in store pickups taking place on Thursday for a cool $200 with a two year contract.  At this point, there’s not much about the device that we don’t already know – it will feature Android 2.2, a 3.7” display, 5MP camera, 8GB onboard memory with another 8GB available via microSD card, Flash Player 10.1 and wireless hotspot functionality for an additional $20 per month.

Better yet, those rumors of a R2-D2 version of the Droid 2 were legit.  Check out this teaser site, and sign up for an email alert to be notified when this limited edition goes on sale.  According to Engadget, the R2-D2 Droid 2 will be available in September.

That’s it folks…all that’s left is for you to pick one up on Thursday.

Engadget appears to have gotten the scoop on Droid 2 pricing.  The pic above purportedly shows Best Buy’s display for the Droid 2, and as you can see the device is priced at what has become the standard price for smartphones – $200 with a two year contract, or $600 without a contract.

While there has been no shortage of Droid 2 leaks and rumors, Verizon has yet to formally unveil the device.  With an expected release date of August 12th, we’re wondering if Verizon plans to just slip the Droid 2 in the spot once held by the original Droid without much fanfare.  Droid Life observed today that the original Droid is now listed as “out of stock” on Verizon’s website, so it does appear that the launch of the Droid 2 is quickly approaching.

It looks like Droid X users may have to wait for another month to update to Android 2.2, aka Froyo.  According to “Matt,” a Motorola employee on Motorola’s Droid X support forum, the Android 2.2 update is scheduled for deployment by “early September.”  This timeframe does jive with other reports that the Android 2.2 update would be available by the end of Summer.

Matt posted this info in response to Microsoft Exchange 2003 notification problems posted on Motorola’s Droid X forums.  You can check out the whole thread here.

It’s nice to finally get a Android 2.2 update timeframe from an actual Motorola employee.  Especially after all the rumors than an OTA update for the Droid X was being rolled out last week.

The iPhone 4 was jailbroken just a few days ago, and today the good folks at the iPhone Dev Team released an ultrasn0w unlocking tool for the device.  The tool works with iPhone 4 baseband version 01.59, as well as 3G/3G S basebands 04.26.08, 05.11.07, 05.12.01 and 05.13.04.

In order to install ultrasn0w, you’ll first need to jailbreak your iPhone 4 by going to http://www.jailbreakme.com .   Next just search for ultrasn0w (you may have to add the repo repo666.ultrasn0w.com first), and install.  It’s that easy.