Monthly archive: August, 2008

Samsung intros twelve (yes, twelve) phones at IFA

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IFA typically isn’t considered the strongest show in the mobile world, which Samsung apparently saw as an opportunity to grab just a little more spotlight than it’d normally have. Okay, maybe “a little more spotlight” is an understatement, seeing how it trotted out no fewer than a dozen handsets at the show — and granted, none of them are groundbreaking taken alone, but the collective ends up making for a mighty showing. Highlights include the S7330 slider, featuring a Soul-like display in the d-pad; the rumored D980 DUOS which adds an extra SIM slot to the F480’s design language; the music-centric M3510 Beat; and this here beast of a phone, the B2700, looking like it’s more than ready to take a lickin’ and keep on tickin’. Overall, we would’ve liked to have seen a little more high-end fare in the mix, but we’ll take it.

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Samsung Mobile SGH-E830


PLEASE DONT EVER BUY THIS MODEL AS YOU WILL FACE LOTS OF PROBLEM AND THE COMPANY WILL NEVER REPAIR THIS, AS IT HAS HAPPENED TO ME. I BOUGHT THIS …

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AT&T’s new Samsungs, USBConnect Mercury in the wild

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So a few shiny new pieces of hardware are starting to show up in AT&T stores; nothing to get terribly excited about, really, but the recently-released USBConnect Mercury is one of the purdiest data sticks we’ve seen in a while, and it’s certainly a hell of a lot better looking than the USBConnect 881 of old. We also have an a237 here from Samsung (or a dummy of it, anyway) — not bad for a dirt-cheap flip, we suppose — and another unidentified Sammy with a hidden front display. Anyone want to hit us up with some knowledge on what that is?

[Thanks, Kal]

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Samsung’s BlackJack II gets its Windows Mobile 6.1 treatment

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This has to wrap up the lunacy that has seen Windows Mobile 6.1 updates for just about everything that needed one in recent times. We’ve seen 6.1 hacked for Sammy’s BlackJack, but it’s sorta sweet of them to get it out to us all official-like. The release notes on Samsung’s site mention threaded SMS, Domain enrollment, and even a BMW iDrive patch as tout-worthy features, in this, the newest and best from Microsoft. As a word of caution, following the instructions to the letter is always a good plan during ROM updates, as failure to do so can lead to a very dead handset. Thanks Samsung, we appreciate the speedy software updates. Read link has the goods.

[Via Boy Genius Report]

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Samsung a837 coming to AT&T to do rugged battle with Verizon’s Boulder

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The lowly Moto V365 really can’t soldier on forever as AT&T’s only “rugged” (and we use that term loosely) clamshell; we’d thought the W760r was coming in to save the day, but sadly, it’s yet to materialize. So what’s a butterfingered AT&T subscriber to do? With any luck, the answer is to wait just a few more weeks, because Boy Genius Report claims that the Samsung a837 will launch in the mid-September timeframe with HSDPA, Video Share, Bluetooth, GPS, push-to-talk (naturally), and a 1.3-megapixel cam, making it AT&T’s first and only beefed-up 3G set. Yes, it could be prettier, but something tells us that’s not really the market AT&T’s going for here — then again, with de facto competitor Casio trotting out the Boulder in orange, maybe we’re off base on that one.

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Samsung i770, u810 pictured for Verizon

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Don’t worry, you throng of dual-band Samsung smartphone fanboys and girls out there — Verizon hasn’t forgotten about you. It’s been a little while since we’ve heard anything about the i770, but a new slide shows that Big Red’s positioning it (or trying to, anyway) for Q3 availability, which just happens to be the very quarter that we’re currently in. It features GPS, quadband GSM (which is strange — typically Verizon’s dual-band devices only do GSM on non-North American bands), WiFi, a 2-megapixel camera, EV-DO, and possibly biometric security, though that particular feature is currently marked down as “tbd.” Next up in the global stable is the u810, a stylish clamshell with a microSD slot, 2-megapixel cam, and not bloody much else — not really a great choice for the globetrotting businessperson, so Verizon might have the frequent pleasure traveler in mind here.

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Sprint getting Katana Eclipse in more colors, Rumor replacement?

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We’ve been slipped a handy little document that indicates the dates that Sprint is currently targeting for the release of a few of its fall hotties, and although we already knew some of this stuff, it’s always good to have some corroborating evidence in these situations. First up, the Motorola Renegade V950, i365, and Samsung M220 and M320 are all still apparently locked for September 2, as is the Touch Diamond. We’ve heard a groundswell of concern from tipsters that the Touch Diamond may have been bumped out to October — it certainly wouldn’t surprise us, given our jaded, overwhelmingly pessimistic personalities — but here’s hoping, anyway. It also looks like the just-released Katana Eclipse in silver will be getting pink and black siblings come October 16, along with an “LG LX600 Messaging Handset.” We’re not sure what the LX600 might be beyond what a confidentiality-bound FCC filing tells us, but the Rumor is getting a little long in the tooth, so it could conceivably be replacement device or a slightly higher-end QWERTY set that would sit somewhere above the Rumor in the lineup.

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Sprint prepping Motorola i365, Renegade, and a pair of Samsungs

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Okay, Samsung, we get it: you’re really good at pounding out the cheap clamshells. Point taken. Oh, what’s that, you say? You still feel like you have something to prove? Oh, well then by all means, dump another couple $20 flips on Sprint! Please, we insist. As expected, it looks like we’ll all have the fabulous opportunity to pick up our choice of the M220 or M320 for $19.99 come September 2, offering Bluetooth, speakerphone, and in the case of the M320, a VGA camera.

Out of the Moto camp, we get the i365 ruggedized brickphone for iDEN fanboys and fangirls — you know who you are, so stop looking around — which will run $90 and include Bluetooth despite its early-90s appeal. Finally, the most exciting of the foursome has to be the V950 Renegade, but excitement comes at a cost: $199.99, to be exact. In this case, your pair of Benjamins is going to net you QChat capability, Bluetooth, a 2 megapixel cam, microSD expansion, and external music controls, which makes it just about the coolest Direct Connect phone going. Line starts over here, folks.

[Thanks, anonymous tipster]

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Samsung makes mobile memory go zoom with new software

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If there’s one thing smartphone can never be, it’s too fast. Yeah, granted, mobile processors have been intentionally throttled for years in the interest of keeping battery times reasonable — so we’re always delighted to hear when someone’s doing something to boost speeds in different, creative ways. That’s where flash memory giant Samsung comes into play, rolling out new file systems and drivers for its OneNAND, Flex-OneNAND, and moviNAND storage solutions (none of which are pictured to the right) that it claims will slap a turbocharger on boot and access times. The new software is available for basically every major mobile operating system, and Sammy even claims that it’ll decrease engineering times, so it looks like it’s a win all the way around.

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Samsung Omnia review

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No longer does Windows Mobile alone a capable smartphone make. The platform’s core is as relevant, powerful, and well-supported as ever, but that’s not the problem — the real issue is that it’s just plain hard to look at. The days of WinMo looking even remotely modern in its stock form are long gone, and top-tier manufacturers clearly recognize that; everyone from ASUS to HTC has taken matters into their own hands to craft custom skins that kill off as many of the ancient visuals as possible while still holding onto everything that makes Windows Mobile great.

Enter the Samsung i900 Omnia, a phone that submits to design direction forced upon the industry largely by the iPhone — full touchscreen, no keyboard, you know the drill by now — and does pretty much everything in its power to overcome WinMo’s limitations to make it competitive in the year 2008. Did Sammy succeed? Read on.

Thanks to the good folks at Wireless Imports for the hookup!

Continue reading Samsung Omnia review

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