Camera Phones Plaza

A day or two ago, I told you about a new Samsung cell phone, the latest to be added to AT&T’s range of products. It was the Samsung A887 Solstice, a mid-end device with touch sensitive capabilities that was said to start selling on August 2nd.

Now, AT&T and Samsung Mobile decided to officially announce the handset, which is presented as “a compact and fun touch screen phone”. In addition, the Solstice will give user the chance to have easy access and connection to their favorite social networking sites and to messaging features, on one hand, and multimedia features, on the other hand.

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The new Samsung Solstice is based on the popular WouchWiz user interface and comes with the following list of features: quad band GSM and dual band HSDPA connectivity, a 3 inch touch sensitive display, a 2 megapixel camera, accelerometer, brand new widgets for websites like Facebook, MySpace and Yahoo! OneSearch, Bluetooth connectivity, music player, video player and a microSDHC card slot for expandable memory of no more than 16GB.

It seems the guys over Boys Genius Report were right. The handset will be sold by A&T for a price of $99.99, after a $50 mail-in rebate. All the customer has to do is to sign a contract agreement for a period of 2 years.

So, keep in mind the fact that the Samsung A887 Solstice, a touch sensitive phone, will start selling in a couple of days and I think it’s worth the bother.

(Source: Samsung)

It’s not unusual for cell phones to first appear in the spotlight under a name and then to be given the official treatment under another name. Such situations happen on a regular basis and it’s no surprise for anyone, because rumors have a very powerful word to say when it comes to this area.

The same happened with the Nokia Mako, which we had the chance to see several weeks ago, that now appeared, once again, under the name of Nokia Surge. The device was announced by both the Finnish company and the provider that is expected to sell it, AT&T.

Being a “Symbian S60 handset”, the cell phone is actually a mixture between the social style and the smartphone capabilities, all included in a very low price.

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The Nokia Surge comes with a QWERTY keyboard that slides out, browsing features that include Flash support so that users can view the websites they love most in full HTML, Facebook support using the pre-installed application called Juice Caster, quad band GSM/GPRS/EDGE connectivity, dual band UMTS/HSDPA connectivity (at 3.6 Mbps), a 2 megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom, AT&T Navigator, AT&T Mobile Music, AT&T Video Share, HTML browser with Flash support and Bluetooth connectivity.



“Designed in the U.S., this socially charged smartphone comes in a sleek slide form factor that supports social networking and messaging – and all on an open platform”, said David Petts, the Vice President and General Manager of AT&T Account, Nokia. “Together with AT&T, we’re excited to address the increasing demand for smartphones with a device that’s attractive to the customer as it is to his or her wallet”.

The phone is available starting July 19th for a price of $79.99, a price that the user will get if he’s willing to sign a contract agreement for a period of two years.

(Source: Press Release)

I’m aware of the fact that people’s mind goes to one direction and one direction only when they hear the word “karma”. According to Wikipedia, “Karma is the concept of ‘action’ or ‘deed’ in Indian religions understood as that which causes the entire cycle of cause and effect (i.e. the cycle called saṃsāra) originating in ancient India and treated in Hindu, Jain, Sikh and Buddhist philosophies”.

No one would blame you for not thinking about the new Motorola device that has just been announced by the company, in collaboration with AT&T. Those who are interested in cell phones more than they are in Indian religion should know that the Karma QA1 first appeared in the spotlight at the beginning of this year, back in February.

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According to the company, the phone is aimed at teenagers and young adults, being a quick messaging and social networking device. The features of the Karma QA1 include text messaging, instant messaging, easy access, directly from the homescreen, to Facebook and MySpace, a QWERTY keyboard that slides out, a display with high resolution and access to AT&T’s 3G network, the CrystalTalk technology, for a better sound without the background noise, a 2.0 megapixel camera, JuiceCaster support, a service gives the user the chance to connect with friends and share all sorts of pictures and videos with them, 3.5mm headphone jack.



“Unique visitors to Facebook from AT&T’s MEdia Net portal grew over 100% in 2008”, said Michael Woodward, the Vice President of Mobile Phone Portofolio, at AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. “Karma’s one-click access to Facebook and MySpace will resonate with customers who are committed to keeping up with social networking sites on the go”.

If you are interested in this new karma definition, then you should know that the Motorola phone is expected to become available starting June 28th in select AT&T stores or online, for a price of $79.99 after a mail-in rebate as long as you’re willing to sign a contract agreement for two years.

(Source: Press release)

And now the news imply two other important names that are involved in the cell phone realm, and I’m talking about Motorola and Android, the famous Google platform that was so very talked about in the past couple of months.

It’s still a mystery whether Motorola is going to have an Android-based cell phone or not, but there are rumors about the so-called Motorola Heron, also known as Iron Man, that is said to come equipped with the Google operating system. So, if you’re an Android fan, you should know that AT&T is keen on offering you the famous mobile platform.

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Maybe you already read (I think it was a month ago or so) about the Heron and the fact that it was prepared to be unveiled, but at the time there weren’t many technical details available. But here we have a full list of features of the Motorola Heron: a large 2.8 inch display with touch sensitive capabilities (it can be used for browsing and viewing media files), a QWERTY keypad that slides, an integrated GPS and assisted GPS, email, such as POP3, IMAP4, Pocket Outlook, Exchange ActiveSync, GMM, a 3 megapixel camera with LED flash, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR Class 2, microUSB 2.0, 256MB Flash, 128MB RAM and a microSD card slot for no more than 32GB of external memory.



The new Motorola cell phone measures 57.5 x 104 x 15.9 millimeters and weighs approximately 125 grams. The AT&T news are completed with a release date that is said to be sometime in November, this year, but it’s not a certain one.

(Source: UnwiredView)

Here you have a very good idea coming from one of the largest North American providers, AT&T, which thought that it would be great to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds when it comes to all sorts of categories of people.

I really think it’s important for a company to be focused on a large variety of customers, in order to satisfy as many of them as possible. Along with the Samsung Jack (which is also known as i637), AT&T announced another handset, the Samsung a167 (or Samsung SCH-a167), which comes shortly after another Samsung cell phone that was released by AT&T this week: the a177.

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Compared to the Jack which is a handset compatible with the Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard and stuffed with tons of rich features, the a167 is a simple cell phone that isn’t aimed at those who are interested in having the smartest device on earth. This is the reason why AT&T decided to sell the phone as a GoPhone, on the Pay As You Go service.

As for the features, on the other hand, it comes with dual band GSM/GPRS connectivity (850/900 Mhz), an internal CSTN display with a resolution of 128 x 160 pixels, web browser, an internal memory on only 2MB (disappointing!) and a VGA camera.

For only $69.99, without a contract agreement, you shouldn’t expect the phone to be smarter than it already is.

(Source: UnwiredView)