Camera Phones Plaza

Smartphones, by definition, are smart cell phones, and they offer their users a lot of features: they can make calls, they can send/receive e-mail, surf the Web, be connected with their friends, family and work colleagues, they have multimedia centers on the mobile device, what could they want more? A smartphone is like a Swiss Army Knife for professionals.
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New tools are added to smartphones, and people seem to like them more and more daily. For example, more and more people use the built-in GPS and find it very useful, because it helps them to find specific locations and the best thing is that the number of the GPS-equipped models is continuously growing. Cell phone carriers understand its utility and they started to create special services for GPS devices, like Verizon's VZ Navigator, Sprint's Sprint Navigation and AT&T's TeleNav GPS Navigator.

GPS capabilities started to show their utility, and now they are not seen anymore like a luxury show-off. It really helps smartphone users to get real-time position tracking, they get text and voice guidance for reaching destinations, and a lot of points of interest. There are also trade-offs, not only advantages: the small screens are not suitable for car usage, and the GPS radio will affect battery life, in a negative direction, of course, but the voice prompts and helps you to avoid these problems, by announcing you when the battery is almost over.

GPS manufacturers are trying to enter mobile devices market, and they created a navigator-phone which offers part of a smartphone's features, but its design is focused on the GPS feature, and it somehow is a novelty, but it cannot be compared with the smartphones available on the market.

There are a lot of smartphones which have GPS capabilities, but if you already have one which cannot help you with this feature, you can add it this functionality with a Bluetooth receiver. Taking into account that a standalone GPS device is not anymore the only way to get navigation guidance, you can think of smartphones or cell phones which have GPS support, and if they do not have it, you can add software or accessories to transform your mobile phone into a navigation device.



If you have a Bluetooth enabled smartphone, you can pair it with a receiver, and this is how you will get real-time tracking on your mobile device. A lot of receivers come with mapping software, but you should check on the manufacturer's website on in the device's manual to see if it is compatible with the phone. If you don't need to deal with external gadgets, you can just get a car kit, which is a standalone GPS, with maps preloaded on an SD card.

With the solutions offered by network carriers you can get turn by turn driving directions and colored maps; moreover you can search for local businesses or interest points, and in some cases you can get the traffic updates so you can take the shortest and less crowded road to your destination. These solutions from the big carriers require a subscription fee, and as an alternative, you can use Google Maps for Mobile to get the same features (it is free, but you need a data plan for maps and traffic information).

Here are some good smartphones, GPS enabled, and for each of them a short description about how GPS works on them.



BlackBerry has released the latest device with a large touchscreen which can switch immediately between vertical and horizontal views. This large screen is perfect for GPS applications and it works better with business applications that its predecessors.



T-Mobile G1 is the first mobile device which runs the Android OS, and it includes a GPS receiver (built-in) and it has also location-based applications, like Loopt.



Palm Pre provides the standard locating information and the directions, and it is also linked to Pre's universal searching feature, which includes Wikipedia, Google, and Google Maps. Sprint Navigation is installed on the phone when you purchase it, and this application includes: driving directions (turn by turn), business finder with more than 10 million points of interest, traffic alerts and fuel prices, but full nationwide color maps too.

In the Apple AppStore, there are more than 400 navigation dedicated applications available for iPhone 3G, and it remains the champion in services and applications too. Just to mention some applications, I would name Snocatore, GPS Lite and Groundspeak for geocaching.



The only winner in all this competition is the customer, which has only benefits from this war between the smartphones manufacturers, because the features which are added in this competition between the companies only help the users and they make their smartphone user life easier.

Palm was the target of a lot of critics at the end of 2007, because they proved their lack of innovation and creativity in the smartphones segment. While HTC and Nokia were continuously improving their products, and there was and still is a strong competition between them, Palm brought only Treo on the market, and this meant nothing special or revolutionary. Maybe Palm will have better luck with this latest product, Palm Centro. It is the first product outside the Treo line, and it is ready to change the concept of Palm devices, from cell phones to smartphones. For this, Palm already tried this with Treo 680, and there are a lot of factors which didn't make this model succeed, and we are definitely expecting more from Centro.
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You can get it through Sprint network, it costs $99 if you also get a two-year contract, and this is a bargain for a smartphone. It offers all the features of the Treo line, and even more: ease of use, and it can be considered in the same time basic and youth oriented features and also business features. This device isn't the best choice for business users, and it isn't the type of the innovation which was expected from this company. Centro is an attractive option.

This device is 4'' x 2.1'' x 0.7'', weighs only 4.2 ounces and it is much smaller than the products in Treo line. It is a nice middle product between regular cell phones and business smartphones. This smartphone comes in two colors: ruby red and black onyx. It gives the person which holds it the feeling that they are holding a toy in their hands, and it is quite crisp and plasticky. It has a 2.25'' diagonal TFT screen which displays 65,000 colors, at a cool 320x320 pixels resolution.The screen is crisp and bright, and the most important thing is that it is touchscreen. The keyboard has some issues, and its buttons remind people of gelatinous stickers, but they are tactile and the back lighting is great.

Centro runs Palm 5.4.9 and it comes with 128 Mb ROM and 64 Mb RAM. This is actually a smartphone, and it comes with Documents and Go preinstalled (v. 10). You can create, edit and open Microsoft Word and Excel documents, and also view .ppt and .pdf files. For accessing e-mail there are several options, and there can be set up both personal and corporate e-mail account. This VersaMail installed on Palm Centro supports a pretty wide range of POP and IMAP e-mail providers, including AOL, AT&T Global, Earthlink, Yahoo Plus, Gmail and Apple.Mac.


Centro offers a speakerphone, and it has also vibrate mode, three way calling, speed dial, EV-DO and Bluetooth 1.2 support. This device doesn't support WiFi, but the 3G support can help you experience browsing speeds similar to broadband connections' speeds, and you cans watch short clips, from many channels, including CNN, NFL Network and Fox Sports. You can listen to music and radio from VH1 Mobile and Sirius, and a special feature on this smartphone, Demand Feature brings on your mobile device area's current headlines. Sprint offers all these features in the Sprint Power Vision pack, which ranges from $15 to $25 per month.

Palm Centro brings also PocketTunes Deluxe Edition and this is the first time when this version comes on a Palm device, and this means that you can enjoy MP3s and DRM protected music. Centro doesn't work with Sprint Music Store, but we hope that future versions will bring new features, like this one, on the market.

Centro has a 1.3 megapixels camera, with 2x zoom, which also has video recording capabilities. Like the previous versions, the Treos, the camera doesn't have a flash and actually cannot change the white balance, the resolution. the brightness and many other options. After the pictures have been taken, they can be sent to your friends via Sprint Picture Mail or any other online service. You may also upload them to an online album. Picture quality is decent, and the images have sharp definition but they aren't as bright as many people would like them to be.


Palm Centro is a dual-band mobile device ( CDMA 850/1900; EV-DO) and the call quality is somehow mixed. Volume is soft and tweak to callers, even if they have audio cranked to higher levels. Voices are covered out in louder streets. Centro has a 312 MHz Intel XScale processor, and the general performance is satisfactory. There aren't significant delays in its functioning, but notable lags were reported when opening Office documents or waiting for streaming content to load. Web browsing is also satisfactory, due to the EV-Do support. The battery should normally last for 3.5 hours of talking and 12.5 days on standby.

Palm Centro is much smaller than the previous versions belonging to the Treo line, and this makes it a more compact smartphone. This device has an attractive price tag, and it offers many features for those money, like EV-Do support, e-mail and a lot of productivity applications. Its keyboard is pretty cramped and the hardware has a toy look. Speaker isn't cool at all, and the main disadvantage is that this device lacks WiFi.

This device isn't the innovative product which was so anxiously expected from Palm, but the smaller size and the ease of use combined with the good price tag make out of it a good option for smartphone beginners.

This new Palm Treo Pro is a redesign product for the Treo line, and it is very welcome on the market. With its dimensions: 4.4 inches high by 2.3 inches wide and 0.5 inch deep, the stylish design and the small weight (4.7 ounces), this is the new attraction of smartphones' market. You can easily slip this Treo Pro into a pocket easily, and it is one of the few models which combines a full keyboard with a touchscreen.
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It has a black eye-catching case, but it has a high tendency to hold smudges. This Treo Pro has a 2.5 inch TFT touchscreen, with a 320x320 resolution, which offers a bright, crisp visibility, but many voices say that the colores are a little bit washed out. The touchscreen gives you access to the wireless connection settins, at the appointments and lets you check the e-mail, make Google searches and also customize the background and the theme.

The navigation array is redesigned, you get the soft keys, End and Talk button, the OK button, shortcuts to Start menu, Inbox and Calendar and a navigation toggle with a center key for selections. The controls are easy to use, and this Treo Pro is pretty cool inside the line, but when compared with the competition it doesn't offer anything revolutionary.

For checking the e-mail you have Direct Push from Microsoft, which means real-time message delivery and automatic synchronization with the Outlook features, all via Exchange Server. Treo Pro can be also configured for POP3 and IMAP e-mail accounts, and it is capable of 3G too. It supports the 850/1900 HSDPA bands, which means that you can get up to 3.5G speeds. GPS is integrated for users' navigation needs, and Treo Pro includes an utility, QuickGPS, which offers you the latest satellite images via Internet connection.



The 2 megapixel camera has 8x zoom and it can record movies too. Objects appear in images clearly defined but the colors look washed out. It seems that no matter how much you adjust white balance and brightness, you won't get a decent picture. Video quality is acceptable for short clips, the battery lasts up to 5 hours and 10 days on standby time, and you should know that Treo Pro has a digital SAR rating of 1.5 watts per kilogram.

Palm Treo Pro provides productivity and communication tools for business users and offers a lot of wireless options, like Wi-Fi, HSDPA, Bluetooth and GPS, but it is expensive and sluggish sometimes. The keyboard is a little cramped and it doesn't seem too professional. The Palm Treo Pro offers some improvements, but these can be called improvements only inside the line and between the company's products, and it actually doesn't offer anything revolutionary. Moreover, it costs more than its competitors products, which may make it a hard to sell product.

It seems that Palm is keen on constantly improving the products and services they’re bringing to the customers, and a relevant proof is the fact that they have already introduced another version of the Palm WebOS, even if the last version was brought in the market a month ago or so.

The smartphone manufacturer considered probably that it’s time for the WebOS 1.0.4 to be improved and for the WebOS 1.1.0 to be launched as soon as possible.

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There are many improvements for you to enjoy, and of course some additions also, such as the enhanced EAS (also known as Exchange ActiveSync), support for the popular emoticons that you all know very well, enhancements related to the messaging area and the Web and a brand new application that is known under the name of NFL Mobile Live by Sprint.

But the most interesting part is the fact that the access to the newest version of iTunes is re-enabled by the WebOS 1.1, so you’ll be able to use it on your Palm Pre.

If you’re curious about the amount of changes brought by the new operating system, you’ll have the chance to view all of them if you pay a visit to the official website of Palm.

(Source: UnwiredView)

Don’t let the three Ps mislead you. PPP isn’t the same thing as the four Ps that you might know from your marketing classes when you learned about the marketing mix and the four elements it consists of: the product, the price, the place and the promotion.

And if you take into consideration the WebOS, you will surely realize that PPP has something to do with the Palm Pre phone. Exactly, you got it right!

The webOS 1.0.3 has just been released (it was ten days ago when the operating system hit the market) and here we have a brand new version, the webOS 1.0.4 firmware, which is especially designed for the new Palm Pre phone.

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Compared to the previous update, this one wasn’t meant to come with more and more applications. It seems that the purpose was to address “several security issues with Palm webOS software”. Another change refers to the fact that users will no longer be able to install the so-called homebrew applications (also known as unsigned apps), once they have their Palm Pre updated with the webOS 1.0.4.

This firmware update is available for an automatic download that can be done over the air, but if you like, you can check for it manually. The only thing you should do is to just open Updates.

The Palm Pre phone (the PPP) is currently available in the United States via Sprint, but it will soon become available in Canada and some European countries.

(Source: UnwiredView)