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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Screen shots posted on Chinese site wretch.cc allege that iPhone firmware 2.0 has added support for Chinese handwriting recognition in addition to a revamped (albeit non-recognition) Japanese interface. While that’s still light years from an Apple admission that not everyone is in love with the on-screen keyboard, it’s one small step toward functionality that seems to make boatloads of sense — in any language — given the phone’s generously proportioned touchscreen and its reluctant but unavoidable nomination as the Newton’s spiritual successor. What isn’t clear is how folks are expected to draw characters, seeing how there’s no provision for an on-board stylus, the entire interface is designed for finger use, and we don’t see many owner rushing out for a Pogo. However Apple intends for this feature to be used, the implementation looks pretty hot, capable of operating in both portrait and landscape modes. Sadly, it seems that Chinese is the one and only language supported at the moment; sure you don’t want to let everyone in on the Graffiti-esque retro fun here, guys?

[Via Mac Rumors]

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Source: Chris Ziegler

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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Mere mortals will need to wait until the third quarter of the year — if not longer, depend on their region and tolerance for some probable price gouging in the early going — to get their hands on the mighty Nokia N96. On the other hand, Mobile-review apparently knows the right hands to shake and eyes to wink to get hold of a prototype unit extraordinarily early, and they’re taking full advantage of the opportunity. A few hours of your time devoted to the novella of a review will net you a deep understanding and appreciation for the N96’s strengths and follies, but in a nutshell, the site seems to come away with a pretty ambivalent opinion of a device that should be knocking everyone’s socks off — especially for a sticker price that’ll hover in the $800 arena. Problems included a penchant for picking up dirt and fingerprints (the price you pay for a beautiful glossy face, we suppose), a cramped nav key layout with the tricky touch-sensitive Navi Wheel front and center, audio performance that wasn’t bad but was expected to be far better in light of the dedicated DSP, and a “shovel”-like feel in the hand, a symptom of the phone’s generous dimensions. Everyone owes the production version of the N96 a chance to show its true form when it’s released later this year — and hey, at least Nokia’s got a checklist of things that need improvement in the prototype now — so we’re keeping our chins up that this’ll still make the N95 8GB a proud daddy when it comes time to hand over the crown to the Nseries kingdom.

[Via Tech Digest and NokNok]

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Source: Chris Ziegler

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Filed under: Handhelds, Wireless

It’s not every day that we hear about a Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard device that lacks any cellular hardware whatsoever, so when we do, it’s sort of like winning the lottery except way less exciting and profitable. Enter the first volley of devices to support Motorola’s new Total Enterprise Access & Mobility initiative — TEAM, conveniently — which represent just the very front end of a whole infrastructure solution for business campuses looking to replace their desk phones with something just a little more mobile and modern. Eventually, TEAM will support true VoIP-cellular handoff, but in its initial form, it’ll be WiFi only, making these first handsets very unique indeed. We don’t have the complete picture on specs here, but they’ll support push-to-talk, text messaging, and as we mentioned, they’ll be loaded with the very latest and greatest that Windows Mobile have to offer when they launch later this year.

[Via PC World]

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Source: Chris Ziegler

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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

So it seems the X1 being shown off at CeBIT following its MWC debut last month is equipped with a particularly curious panel in its software load. Anyone care to take a guess? No cheating and looking at the one we’ve circled now. Yeah, okay, it’s that big AT&T logo front and center, which makes an appearance in several of PHONE Magazine’s shots of the interface. We’d like to believe that means that AT&T is a lock to pick up one of the hottest Windows Mobile devices ever manufactured, and indeed, it probably does — its 3G radio is certainly ripe for the job — but it’s entirely possible to think that Sony Ericsson is still in the process of selling carriers on the device, and is simply trying to get ‘em to crack a smile by loading their logo. Keep your fingers crossed, ladies and gentlemen.

[Thanks, Jake]

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Source: Chris Ziegler

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Filed under: Cellphones

A lot of readers might be surprised to learn that Mitsubishi even makes cellphones, but yeah, it sure does. Its domestic Japanese market has typically been the recipient of its impressive wares, selling models on NTT DoCoMo using the “D” model name prefix — but maybe not for much longer. Nikkei is throwing out some rumors today that Mitsu will be exiting the dog-eat-dog cellphone manufacturing biz and possibly doing so very swiftly, even withdrawing models due to hit DoCoMo in the next few weeks. Despite raking in over 100 billion yen (about $958M) annually from its mobile division alone, the company has apparently been unable to make it profitable and recently downgraded its handset sales forecast for the current fiscal year. Frankly, we wish Mitsu had sold enough handsets abroad for us to be really upset about this. Nikkei says an official announcement could come as soon as today, so we’ll update you when we know more.

[Thanks, rinse]

Update: Nikkei was dead on. Mitsubishi has just announced that it is ending its cellphone manufacturing business, a venture that goes back some 25 years with the introduction of car phones on NTT’s network. For what it’s worth, the company says that it’ll continue to support its devices and move the 600-odd employees in the business to other parts of the company. It also says that it will “work to maintain and further strengthen the partnership with NTT DoCoMo through the communication related business [it aims] to expand,” so don’t get too teary-eyed, DoCoMo. Hit the link for the official release.

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Source: Chris Ziegler

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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

We’ve caught wind from a number of employees — or ex-employees, as the case may be — that i-mate’s US division in Redmond, Washington has all but disintegrated after a Friday bloodbath that saw the entire engineering, QA, and tech writing departments laid off, among others. Several honchos who weren’t cut left anyway, perhaps unwilling to work in a ghost town or as a show of solidarity to their fallen brethren; notably, the Chief Software Officer and VP of Sales and Marketing are both gone, leaving a sales director to be promoted to the lofty title of GM of what seems to be all US operations. Apparently, the Dubai-based firm is in the hurt locker after its inability to get the Ultimate line (also known as “the basket with all of i-mate’s eggs in it”) fully deployed to retail channels in the time frame it had hoped, and meeting massive resistance from US carriers to carry the devices, it’s been left with no option but to leave behind just enough employees to set up and maintain a web-based portal for purchasing unlocked devices in the States. To those who’ve been handed your walking papers, we wish you the best of luck.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Source: Chris Ziegler

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Filed under: Cellphones

Well, it looks like the aggressively priced unlimited action really didn’t come a moment too soon. We’re no economists here, but it doesn’t take rocket science, a Ph.D., collegiate level maths, or even a fancy calculator to crunch the cold, hard numbers coming out of Sprint Nextel’s fourth quarter earnings call. For starters, the number three carrier in the US reported a net loss of nearly $29.5 billion, which — get this — is more than the combined value of its outstanding stock. Let us reiterate for emphasis and drama value: Sprint lost more money in the fourth quarter of 2007 than the company is worth. Wow. If it’s any consolation, the staggering figure is largely due to a $29.7 billion write-down of Nextel’s value, which as the Wall Street Journal lays out, makes the 2005 merger officially a “Deal From Hell.” With postpaid subscribers continuing to migrate to other carriers, there’s no telling how to stop the hemorrhaging — especially if the fresh $99 unlimited plan doesn’t end up doing the trick — but something tells us the move to Kansas isn’t going to magically patch it all up.

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Source: Chris Ziegler

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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Wow, sure enough, those green buttons are straight up legit — who’d have thought? The long-rumored GSM cut of the Palm Centro is now officially available on AT&T in the wake of Sprint’s expiring exclusivity, giving a whole new world of customers access to the freakishly small (yet strangely adorable) Garnet handset. Unlike Sprint’s version, the GSM Centro tops out with EDGE data for a moderately less snappy browsing experience; otherwise, though, your $99 on contract is going to buy you a 1.3 megapixel camera, microSD slot, Bluetooth 1.2, support for AT&T’s push-to-talk service, and a full (albeit miniaturized) QWERTY keypad. So who’s liking this more than the white / gray scheme we’d seen before?

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Source: Chris Ziegler

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