Camera Phones Plaza

I know this sounds just like a dream come true, a dream that you wouldn’t have expected to become reality, but you’ll be pleased to hear about one hell of an idea that is about to be implemented in the near future.

You all know that whenever you buy yourself a new mobile phone, the device comes in package with a charger included, which is usually fitted to the device it comes with. And you’re probably familiar with a situation when you don’t have your charger with you, the battery is depleted and your friend does not have a Nokia cell phone, but a Sony Ericsson, so there is nothing left for you to do.

But things are on the point of changing, because the Groupe Speciale Mobile Association, also known as GSMA, which is the most important association that gathers up all major mobile phone manufacturers, has just made a very important announcement. The GSMA and 17 leading mobile operators and manufacturers decided to become part of a brand new project: the implementation of universal phone chargers, which are expected to be used with all the new cell phones that will appear in the future.

The target is very ambitious, as it was settled for 2012, and it consists of “a universal charging solution (UCS) which will be widely available in the market worldwide and will use Micro-USB as the common universal charging interface”. The new charger will be energy-efficient, being expected to reduce the standby energy consumption with approximately 50% and to eliminate up to 51,000 tons of duplicate chargers.

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The companies that joined the group include famous names like 3 Group, AT&T, KTF, LG, mobilkom Austria, Motorola, Nokia, Orange, Qualcomm, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, Telenor, Telstra, T-Mobile and Vodafone which are, as you can easily see, some of the most important and the largest carriers and cell phone manufacturers from all over the world.

“The mobile industry has a pivotal role to play in tackling environmental issues and this program is an important step that could lead to huge savings in resources, not to mention convenience for consumers”, said Rob Conway, the CEO and Member of the Board of the GSMA. In addition, he said that “there is enormous potential in mobile to help people live and work in an eco-friendly way and with the backing of some of the biggest names in the industry, this initiative will lead the way”.

(Source: Press release)

As mobile phone technology moves into a new age with touch screen, internet and digital cameras, there are so many makes, models and options you can choose from. However there still remains one thing that hasn't changed since mobiles were brought out, 'Pay-as-you-go' or 'contract'.

Pay-as-you-go and contract are and always have been the only ways available for you to use your phone. For those of you who don't know the difference yet, if you choose to go on a contract with your mobile phone you will pay a certain amount each month, and in return you will receive a free mobile phone handset as well as 'free minutes' for phone calls and text messages. If you go over the amount of 'free minutes' you are given you will have to pay extra for what you have used.

If you choose Pay-as-you-go you will have to purchase your own handset and then purchase credit which can then be used to make phone calls and send text messages. When the credit runs out you will have to 'top up' your phone with more credit before you can make any more calls or send any more texts.

If you are unsure of which would be the best choice for you then you should really weigh up the options. If you are somebody who rarely uses your phone to make calls or send text messages then a pay-as-you-go phone would probably be best for you. This way you will only have to top up every so often and will not be wasting money on minutes that you are not using. On the other hand, if you are somebody who is always on their phone then a contract would more than likely suit you. With so many mobile phones available you could potentially save you money if you shop online.

Famous cell phone manufacturers like Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson or HTC are expected to bring unbelievable novelties in the spotlight at the Mobile World Congress these days. But what you should know is that this year’s edition isn’t focused on these companies only.

Take Acer, for example, a computer manufacturer that unveiled four new smartphones: Acer M900, Acer F900, Acer X960 and Acer DX900. Part of the Tempo series, the four devices work with Windows Mobile 6.1 operating system, being the perfect solution for those who use mobile phones in both professional and personal purposes.

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Acer M900, the flagship model, is designed “for all your communications on the go” and comes equipped with the following features: quad-band GSM connectivity (850/900/1800/1900 MHz), tri-band HSDPA/HSUPA connectivity (850/1900/2100 MHz), Outlook Mobile email, Office Mobile, 3.8 inch WVGA touchscreen, 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and flash, GPS, FM radio, voice recorder, voice command, Acer Shell 2.0 user interface, G-sensor, 256 MB flash memory and microSD card support for expandable memory. Measuring 119 x 62 x 17.1 millimeters and weighing 188 grams, the device provides up to 5 hours of talk time and up to 160 hours of stand-by time.

The Acer F900, “developed to give total control over web browsing on the go”, comes with a 3.8 inch WVGA touchscreen, touch keyboard, a 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus and flash, GPS, FM radio, voice recorder, voice command, expandable memory, direct access to the applications you like most, 3.75G HSDPA/HSUPA and Wi-Fi connectivity.



Acer X960 is “an all-purpose tool designed for those who want multiple features without having to carry several devices”, being provided with a high-resolution 2.8 inch VGA touchscreen, a five-way navigation button, GPS functionality, a 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus and flash and a camera placed on the front of the phone (for video conferences).



The DX900 “is the world’s first Dual-SIM smartphone to support both 3.5G (HSDPA) and 2.75G (EDGE)”, which means that the first SIM works on quad-band and tri-band frequencies, while the second one works with the 900/1800/1900 MHz GSM bands.



As far as the availability is concerned, the company didn’t mention anything for the moment, but the four new Acer cell phones are expected to start selling sometime in the near future.

(Source: Press release)

The obvious competition that you can see in the mobile phones market between the iPhone and all sorts of iWannabes, is more powerful and captivating that you could ever imagine. There are many manufacturers that would do right about anything in order to come up with a similar-to-iPhone device and to convert it into their personal recipe for success.

Gigabyte Technology, for example, “a Taiwan-based manufacturer of computer hardware products best known for its motherboards” (Wikipedia), is one of the companies that would love to be part of this competition, in order to make Apple behave itself (metaphorically speaking, of course). In consequence, the Taiwanese company developed a brand new Gigabyte handheld, the GSmart S1200, which is said to be presented at the Mobile World Congress 2009.

Unfortunately, there are not many details available at the moment, because Gigabyte is saving the best for… the last, meaning for the event that we are all waiting for these days. It’s understandable, if you think about it. Anyway, what we know for sure is that the company will introduce three new “families” of cell phones, which will be labeled with the following names: Multimedia, Business and Style.

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Part of the latter category, the GSmart S1200 is so very thick, measuring only 0.43 inches or 11 millimeters, as you prefer, and runs on the Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional operating system. In addition, the interface, the SmartZone, is brand new, designed by scratch and developed by the company itself.

As far as the features are concerned, the Gigabyte handheld comes with a 528MHz Qualcomm 7200A CPU, while the display seems to be large enough to come with a VGA resolution. This is everything we know about this new smartphone which is meant to kick iPhone’s ass, but we’re looking forward to finding more information at MWC.

(Source: unwiredview.com)

If you don’t know what Archos is, then you’ll be happy to find out that it’s a France-based manufacturer which is very well known all around the world for developing innovative portable media players. The company has just announced that it decided to join the family of those who are trying to design and develop devices based on the Android mobile operating system.

First of all, we’re not talking about a common smartphone, but about an Internet Media Tablet (also known as IMT) that comes with mobile phone capabilities, indeed. The reason for something like this to happen is that the device is a mixture between the “Google’s Android telephony stack and the Archos’ multimedia framework”. Then, you should know that the IMT is equipped with the OMAP 3 platform, which is created by Texas Instruments Incorporated.

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If you’re curious about the features of this Archos Internet Media Tablet, here’s what you can find on board: a 3.5 inch touchscreen display, support for Adobe Flash and Flash Video, full screen, unlimited access to TV, movies, photos, music, games, 3.5G 7.2 Mb/s HSUPA, High-class TV recording and High Definition (HD) playback and up to 500GB or memory. Measuring only 10 millimeters in thickness, the Archos IMT is equipped with a powerful battery that provides up to 7 hours of video playback.

“Archos was proud to announce the introduction of its ARCHOS 5 HSDPA IMT last year with SFR. We are continuing to advance our efforts in the IMT space with the introduction of this new product”, said Henri Crohas, CEO and ARCHOS founder. In addition, he said that “support for an Android-based device represents a historical opportunity for ARCHOS to combine all the best of our IMTs with a phone in a single device delivering high quality video and a full web experience in true mobility”.

Archos and Texas Instruments say that the Android mobile operating system based device will become available starting the third quarter of 2009.

(Source: unwiredview.com)