Unwiredview is reporting on a new patent filed by Apple for what looks like the iPhone 2.0: an iPhone-looking device with a transparent, touch-sensitive panel covering the whole display area. You can flip that panel open, making it a clamshell format, and the inside of the panel will change to the regular phone keypad. Apparently some folks just need their clamshell phones, so Apple is obliging. These pics have been made up by the Unwiredview guys (they’re talented, eh?), and the actual Apple drawings are after the jump.
Continue reading ‘iPhone 2.0: Dual Screen Flip Phone?’
HTC has filed a patent for a new type of slider phone that allows users to choose between keypad entry and full keyboard entry a-la-Helio-Ocean by sliding the screen at a funny angle. These mock-ups by UnwiredView give us an idea of what the final product might look like. Interesting idea, but it seems silly to make the screen so small when the keyboard already sets the footprint size. We’ll have to wait to see the final product, I guess, but you can see the sketches they submitted for the patent behind the jump.
Continue reading ‘HTC Patents New Slider’
Varioptic has teamed up with Seiko to begin mass producing liquid lenses for cameraphones, beginning Q3 of this year. Their first two models will be the Arctic 314 and Arctic 416, which are both 5 mega pixels in 0.33-inch and 0.25-inch modules, respectively. The two perks of these liquid-filled lenses are that they have a faster response time, lending themselves to improved video capture, and the draw less battery power, which is worth a thousand words.
At long last, Google has released a 2-way synchronization tool for Microsoft Outlook. Available directly from Google, it syncs your Google calendar to Microsoft Outlook, your Outlook calendar to your Google account, or both. The app installs in your system tray and lets you choose the sync frequency. Read more about it here.
SplashData has released SplashMoney for the PocketPC, letting you see how poor you are in real time:
From their website: Manage your money anytime, anywhere. Connect to your online bank from your desktop computer or wireless handheld and download transactions directly into SplashMoney. Create budgets and then track and analyze your spending with customizable reports and charts. Synchronize your phone with your desktop PC to Includes free desktop companion software for Windows.
It’s $30 with no trial, but it looks full-featured. This PocketPC version is new but it is also available for Palm and on the desktop. Maybe we’ll give it try - keep you posted.
The guys at unwired think that - in light of their poor showing at Mobile World Congress - Motorola might drop the highly anticipated Q10, the heir apparent to the successful Q9. The Q10’s key new feature is rumored to be a touchscreen, which would be a real draw for many.
CTIA (April 1 - 3) might also see the launch of several other Motorola handsets, including a cameraphone that looks to have come from their partnership with Kodak. Check out the original post for pics.
Research firm In-Stat is reporting that the world smartphone market will grow by an average of 33% each year through to 2012. In-Stat predicts the strong growth based on several factors:
Continue reading ‘World SmartPhone Market to Grow 30% Each Year Through 2012′
A new study published by ChangeWave shows that while RIM’s BlackBerry is the smartphone of choice for enterprise, the sliver of users with iPhones are happier.
Fully 73% of the 2,013 respondents said their companies used BlackBerry devices - a number that is unchanged from ChangeWave’s last survey in November - locking down the BlackBerry as the undisputed chap of the business class.Palm was a distant 2nd place, with 18% of respondents, followed by Motorola (9%), Nokia (7%), and finally Samsung and Apple, both at 5%.
Continue reading ‘Business Users Choose BlackBerry, Wish They Had iPhone’
Yet another item from the fanciful land of patent filings: the “Hybrid Portrait-Landscape Handheld Device With Trackball Navigation and Qwerty Hideaway Keyboard”. It might be thought that the whole hideaway keypad and orientation detection thing has been done, but obviously not with a trackball, otherwise this filing wouldn’t have gone through. Considering another patent of this variety has been released recently, it’s easy to get enthusiastic about the idea of a BlackBerry with significant form factor changes. For the bookish, you can check out the whole patent filing here.
Some news out of Mozilla on their much-anticipated Firefox Mobile: looks like we’ll get to try it out before the end of 2008. According to Mike Schroepfter, VP of engineering at Mozilla, they plan to release a mobile version of Firefox on two platforms before then: embedded Linux and Windows Mobile. And, in true Mozilla style, it will be free of charge!
There are rumours some carriers who might not welcome the free, possibly wicked browser, as it might threaten their ‘walled-garden’ approach of offering only for-fee services. Gee… too bad.