Tech.Wapline

Sling Media to partner with major carrier soon?

Written on December 20, 2006 – 1:58 pm | by admin | No Comments |
Posted in » Mobile News

   Not a lot of info on this one just yet, but apparently Sling Media’s reveling CEO made a potent announcement at the recent Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco. While Sling has made accessing your time-shifted material easier than ever — even on a myriad of mobile devices — Blake Krikorian has reportedly claimed that a deal is in the works to partner with “a major mobile carrier” here in the States. He also made note of a few European deals that were also going down, but giving MobiTV such much-needed competition here in the US of A is certainly what’s piquing our interest. mocoNews seems to feel that T-Mobile or Cingular (or Amp’d?) could be the lucky provider to get Sling’s blessing, but as of know, we’re admittedly being left in the dark about exactly who’s in line to seal the deal.

i-mate shows “PDA L” Pocket PC phone

Written on December 17, 2006 – 1:57 pm | by admin | No Comments |
Posted in » Mobile News

 

<   It looks like the midrange Pocket PC phone market (is there such a market?) is about to get a little more crowded. i-mate used Microsoft’s TechEd in Barcelona to show off its new PDA L, a 16.5 millimeter-thick device packing 128MB of ROM and 64MB of RAM, a 2.4-inch QVGA display, Bluetooth, WiFi, and a 2 megapixel cam, all sitting atop a 200MHz OMAP800. While we’re not sure 200 million clock cycles per second is really going to meet the needs of the speed demon inside us, the phone’s dimensions are definitely too our liking — especially considering that it’s running Pocket PC under the hood. No word on a release date or price, but it’ll apparently come out some time around “soon” at a price of “not very much.”

[Via MSMobileNews] 

LG and Schneider-Kreuznach for better cameraphones

Written on December 15, 2006 – 8:46 am | by admin | No Comments |
Posted in » Mobile News

 

 

   Angelina’s got Brad, Nokia’s N90 has Carl Zeiss, and now LG has Schneider-Kreuznach. After working together on the Shine, LG has decidedly joined forces with the German lens manufacturer to provide better optics for their cellphones. Their previous collaboration resulted in a very lustworthy and capable cameraphone, so we’re hoping it only gets better from here. With the hopefully better image quality in the cards from yet another high profile manufacturer, perhaps we’re another step closer to starting to leave those full-size cameras at home.

Helio Drift official: $225 in black or white

Written on December 14, 2006 – 8:43 am | by admin | No Comments |
Posted in » Mobile News

 

 

   Ushering in what appears to be an ongoing partnership with Samsung, Helio has officially taken the wraps off its Drift slider. While it might not be able to run with the latest and greatest that Korea has to offer in its domestic market, the Drift looks to stand head and shoulders above the lion’s share of handsets in US circulation with a fairly impressive spec sheet. Besides the expected QVGA display, decent storage (128MB, to be exact) with microSD expansion, 2 megapixel shooter and EV-DO, the Drift sports a true GPS receiver. That in itself isn’t terribly notable or interesting, but Helio’s bundling the Drift with a GPS-enabled version of Google Maps, which when you take into account the routing, real-time traffic, and satellite view capabilities, might make a dedicated nav system obsolete for some users. Helio’s also using the launch as an opportunity to introduce “Buddy Beacon,” a location-based system in the same vein as Loopt for locating and mapping a preselected list of friends. Add in a web browser that’s been revamped for speed and A2DP support, and the Drift — in either white or black — suddenly seems like a bargain at the $225 asking price.

Motorola RAZR V3r drops iTunes like a bad habit

Written on December 13, 2006 – 8:29 am | by admin | No Comments |
Posted in » Mobile News

 

      When we first caught wind of Motorola’s RAZR V3r for Cingular, we thought “whoop de-doo, a red V3i.” Well, turns out we missed one critical detail: the V3r eschews iTunes support for a more traditional MP3 player. While that’s good news for folks that aren’t a big fan of the infamous 100-song cap, it might irk some iTunes junkies that are going to have a slightly more difficult time toting their locked music around with them. Then again, we’re all about choice, and the V3i is still available. Look for the V3r for a reasonable $100 on contract after rebates — and no, not a dime of that cash is going to RED this time around.