Hands-on with Verizon's Nokia 6205 "The Dark Knight" edition

 14.07.2008 14:15   engadgetmobile.com

Filed under: Handsets, Features, Nokia, EV-DO, CDMA Sure, you might be the biggest Christian Bale fan in the world right now, but what about this time next year when The Dark Knight DVDs are already collecting dust on bookshelves around the globe? That was the million-dollar question on our minds when we heard that Verizon was commemorating the launch of its Nokia 6205 and the latest Batman flick with a tied-in version of the low end flip. Turns out it's all good, though -- a look through the custom packaging revealed a grand total of two battery covers, one with the Batman logo and one without, so it should be pretty easy to avoid those embarrassing "what's with the batphone?" queries in a few months' time. Otherwise, there's very little to say about the phone -- it truly is a minimalist flip -- though we're definitely excited to see Nokia's apparently renewed commitment to working not just with CDMA, but with CDMA carriers in North America.Gallery: Hands-on with Verizon's Nokia 6205 "The Dark Knight" editionPermalink | Email this | Comments

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Samsung Instinct, LG Dare, iPhone 3G... fight!

 14.07.2008 12:15   engadgetmobile.com

Filed under: Handsets, Features, LG, Samsung, Apple Alright, you three are sworn enemies, so what are we waiting for? Let's get it on! Go ahead, seriously, exchange some blows. No better way to get the party started than with a little speed test; the Instinct's data services still seem to be jacked, but the Dare and iPhone 3G squared off with the LG model consistently besting Apple's by between 50-100kbps over Verizon's EV-DO network (see the gallery for the side-by-side). That's not to say the Dare is consistently the faster phone -- it has everything to do with the network in your area, the time of day, the circumstances, and which side of the bed you work up on this morning -- but it's an interesting observation here nonetheless. We'll follow up with an Instinct speed test (and another round of testing on the Dare and iPhone) when we can.Gallery: Samsung Instinct, LG Dare, iPhone 3G... fight!Permalink | Email this | Comments

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Orange's BIC phone comes ready to talk, doesn't require ballpoint licking first

 14.07.2008 11:21   engadgetmobile.com

Filed under: Handsets, OrangeThe BIC phone has very little to do with famed pen / razor / etc. maker BIC outside of the branding agreement, but we suppose the disposable nature of dried-up writing utensils and this curious cellphone is somewhat similar. Granted, the official word from Orange is that this handset is "not a throw-away product," but unless users mail off a registration form to the carrier and wait for the phone to be activated, the mobile (and the hour of calls it comes with) will be rendered useless in two months. The selling point here is the unpack-and-talk nature, not to mention the €49 ($77) price, but those hoping to grab a low-cost phone, hack it and use it elsewhere may be heartbroken to find that this one does nothing more than talk, text and tune into FM radio. Check it out soon (if you're so inclined) in French convenience stores.[Via The Red Ferret Journal]Read - Orange press releaseRead - More detailsPermalink | Email this | Comments

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LG Chocolate 3 hands-on

 14.07.2008 10:13   engadgetmobile.com

Filed under: Handsets, Features, LG, Verizon Wireless, EV-DO, CDMA "Chocolate" is a storied word in the phone industry. In terms of brand recognition, it's right up there with RAZR and iPhone thanks to well-executed marketing campaigns by both LG globally and Verizon in the US, but more recently, LG has moved on to other marques -- Shine and Secret, to name a couple -- leaving Chocolate to trickle downmarket. We wouldn't exactly call the Chocolate 3 "downmarket," but its launch is definitely not being played up to the same extent as, say, the original VX8500's was; these days, those honors seem go to iPhone fighters like the Dare.Gallery: LG Chocolate 3 hands-onContinue reading LG Chocolate 3 hands-onPermalink | Email this | Comments

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Palm Treo 800w for Sprint unboxing and hands-on

 14.07.2008 09:17   engadgetmobile.com

Filed under: Handsets, Features, Palm, Sprint, Windows Mobile, EV-DO If you've been really eager, it's possible you already bought one of these. If you haven't, then here's your chance to see Palm's latest Windows Mobile phone from just about every angle you could possibly imagine. We've got the company's new enterprise-themed phone in-hand (and on-table), and we're currently putting it through its paces. Take a look at the gallery below for a slew of pictures, and stay tuned for a review from us coming soon.Gallery: Palm Treo 800w for Sprint unboxing and hands-onPermalink | Email this | Comments

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Samsung Preps 8MP, GPS, DivX, 16GB Smartphone

 14.07.2008 07:12   trustedreviews.com

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Best Buy's $10 headset pairing service includes testing, finger pointing

 14.07.2008 06:16   engadgetmobile.com

Filed under: Handsets, Peripherals See what it's come to Bluetooth SIG? Bluetooth headset-to-cellphone pairing baffles consumers so much that they're now handing over a Hamilton at Best Buys in California (in support of the new hands-free calling law) to avoid the procedure. Eight years after the launch of the world's first Bluetooth headset from Ericsson, this is where we're at. Still, at $10, consider it a bargain -- that's half of what Best Buy will charge you for the already free-to-download (and free to ship on CD) Ubuntu OS.[Thanks, Tarek]Permalink | Email this | Comments

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iPhone 3G: guts, plants, and free SMS

 14.07.2008 04:15   engadgetmobile.com

Filed under: Handsets, GSM, EDGE, HSDPA, UMTS, Apple Craziest thing, Apple apparently launched some sort of device being loosely coined as a "cellular telephone" last Friday. The darned thing makes calls, keeps track of contacts, and even receives messages -- all right from your pocket! Wild, sci-fi caliber stuff, that. We're catching up on the latest iPhone 3G buzz, and here's what we've got going on at the moment: Jonny Gladwell, better known as the first iPhone 3G owner in the world thanks to his perfect storm of location (New Zealand) and line position (first), has been outed as a plant for New Zealand's Yellow Pages. Turns out the guy was hired by the directory service to see if he could "survive" the brutal multi-day sitting experience using nothing but -- you guessed it -- the Yellow Pages to get by. Ironic that you don't need a friggin' Yellow Pages when you have an iPhone, isn't it? Hmm, Jonny? Portelligent has sacrificed an iPhone 3G to conduct perhaps the most thorough teardown thus far, finding some incremental improvements, largely to accomodate 3G and bring the design in line with the iPod touch, while carrying over a good deal of componentry that had no reason to be upgraded. Infineon and Toshiba had big wins here in the radio and flash memory departments, respectively. AIM acts as a conduit for sending text messages by allowing users to add phone numbers as "buddies." The iPhone has an AIM client. See where we're going with this? Yep, it's a cheesy way to avoid shelling out for a text messaging plan, if you want to go to the trouble of using AIM in place of the native SMS app. The plot thickens in the yellow screen issue. As we'd mentioned yesterday, Apple claims the warmer color temperature seen in the iPhone 3G was a purposeful attempt to make things prettier and sharper -- but now, Ars Technica reports that forcing an update in iTunes from the 3G's shipping firmware of 5A345 to the ever-so-slightly newer 5A347 pushes things a little bit back toward the blue end of the spectrum. So what's it gonna be, Apple? [Thanks to everyone who sent these in!]Permalink | Email this | Comments

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Symbian Foundation adds another round of supporters

 14.07.2008 01:24   engadgetmobile.com

Filed under: Symbian, Hutchison 3The Symbian Foundation's founding member list was nothing to sneeze at, featuring the likes of Vodafone, Samsung, LG, AT&T, and of course Nokia, Sony Ericsson, and Motorola -- but the initiative is getting even stronger here with the addition of a couple other major carrier players, a chipset giant, and a heaping handful of software firms. From the carrier side, 3 and America Movil get added to the list; Marvell joins Texas Instruments from the silicon side of things, and the app developers now include Aplix, EB, EMCC Software, Sasken, and TietoEnator. We're not going to lie, we're not familiar with some of these devs -- but when you're fighting juggernauts like Android and LiMo to win the hearts and minds of the open-platform public, you need all the ammo you can get.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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