What a nice change; a device launched in the US, but at the launch, it was announced that the device will be coming to the UK!  T-Mobile UK are working with ICD to release the ICD Vega Kitchen computer / Android Tablet in the UK later this year.  Well, compared to the O2 Joggler, this might well have just those few extra facilities to actually be a bigger success story…

The spec of the Vega includes:

• Processor — Nvidia Tegra 250 (1GHz)
• Memory – 512MB DDR DRAM
• Flash — 512MB NAND flash; 32GB internal SD card; external Micro SD slot
• Display — 15.6-inch 1366 x 768 resistive touchscreen; HDMI output
• Wireless:
  • 802.11b/g WiFi
  • Bluetooth 2.1
  • Optional 2G or 3G cellular
• USB — 1 x USB 2.0 High-Speed OTG
• Camera — 1.3-megapixel
• Audio — 3.5mm audio jack; external speakers; dual microphones
• Other features:
  • Accelerometer
  • Ambient light sensor
  • Charging dock
  • Magnetic docking
• Power — 11AH 3.9V lithium-ion battery (4 hours life); 110-240V input; 12VDC output (35 W, for dock)
• Dimensions — 14.7 x 10.0 x 0.6 inches (373 x 254 x 16mm)
• Weight — 2.9 lbs (1.3kg)
• Operating system — Android 2.0

The dock may also feature an additional speaker, and possibly an HDMI port too, but with that 3G support, you’ll be able to make calls, and this is no sudden decision by T-Mobile, who have, apparently been working with ICD for 18 months.

Taken advantage of the Android platform, Linuxdevices have said “The Android software on the device offers one-touch access to a household calendar, enabling families to organize schedules in one place, say the companies. The web-accessible device can automatically send SMS text reminders of calendar items to cellphones. Additional features are said to include web browsing, on-demand TV, access to social networks, video chat, and games.”

ICD also announced a 15.6″ unit (ICD Ultra) and made reference to also working on an 11″ tablet too.  The ICD Ultra adds to the Vega specs with a GPS too.

One small point to watch out for; these, and many other “Android” devices are likely to be using the Open Source Android OS, and will not be “Google Experience” devices, so don’t expect this device to automatically take a Google account and support all the Google features that you may have on your “Google Experience” Android phone…

The only other unknown at this point is the price, but we would expect something similar to O2 and the Joggler where there are options for subsidised pricing…

Some content courtesy of Linux Devices, and thanks to Stuart for the Heads Up!

Whereas 2009 seemed to be the year every smartphone was exclusively with O2, it appears 2010 maybe Vodafone’s year, as they currently have the exclusive on the Nokia E72, will be selling the iPhone 3G (and iPhone 3GS) within a couple of weeks, and they have announced they will be the network to bring the brand new Google Nexus One Android phone to Europe. Google have said:

“Manufactured by HTC, the Nexus One features dynamic noise suppression from Audience, Inc., a large 3.7″ OLED display for deep contrast and brilliant colors and a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon™ chipset for blazing speeds. Running on Android 2.1, the newest version of Eclair, the software includes innovations like a voice-enabled keyboard so you can speak into any text field, fun Live Wallpapers, a 3D photo gallery for richer media experiences and lots more. Of course, it also comes with a host of popular Google applications, including Gmail, Google Voice and Google Maps Navigation.”

The full tech specs include:

Size and weight

• Height: 119mm
• Width: 59.8mm
• Depth: 11.5mm
• Weight: 130 grams w/battery

Display

• 3.7-inch (diagonal) widescreen WVGA AMOLED touchscreen
• 800 x 480 pixels
• 100,000:1 typical contrast ratio
• 1ms typical response rate

Camera & Flash

• 5 megapixels
• Autofocus from 6cm to infinity
• 2X digital zoom
• LED flash
• User can include location of photos from phone’s AGPS receiver
• Video captured at 720×480 pixels at 20 frames per second or higher, depending on lighting conditions

Cellular & Wireless

• UMTS Band 1/4/8 (2100/AWS/900)
• HSDPA 7.2Mbps
• HSUPA 2Mbps
• GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
• Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n)
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
• A2DP stereo Bluetooth

Power and battery

• Removable 1400 mAH battery
• Charges at 480mA from USB, at 980mA from supplied charger

Talk time

• Up to 10 hours on 2G
• Up to 7 hours on 3G

Standby time

• Up to 290 hours on 2G Up to 250 hours on 3G

Internet use

• Up to 5 hours on 3G
• Up to 6.5 hours on Wi-Fi

Video playback

• Up to 7 hours

Audio playback

• Up to 20 hours

Processor

• Qualcomm QSD 8250 1 GHz

Operating system

• Android Mobile Technology Platform 2.1 (Eclair)

Capacity

• 512MB Flash
• 512MB RAM
• 4GB Micro SD Card (Expandable to 32 GB)

Location

• Assisted global positioning system (AGPS) receiver
• Cell tower and Wi-Fi positioning
• Digital compass
• Accelerometer

This is an interesting development, if only because Google are happy to either sell the phone subsidised (currently on T-Mobile in the US, but Vodafone will be coming for European support in “Spring 2010″), or you can buy it unsubsidised (and unlocked) for $529, and you can even have up to 2 lines of text engraved on the back (although along with many engraved Apple products, this does limit your ability to send the phone back unless it’s faulty).

Expect to start seeing these phones in the UK very shortly…

Well, it was nice to have the LG 42″ LED-Backlit LCD TV for review for a week, before it nows gets boxed back up, and shipped onto our competition winner.  We’ll be inviting the winner to write up a review of the TV again in a while once they have really got used to all the features, but for now, here’s a brief review from me…

The screen is nice and bright, and even though one of the first things I did was to turn on the Auto Energy Saving feature, the device still offered a nice bright image at all times.  The 2 SCART sockets and 4 HDMI sockets offer more options than most people could need, but I guess allows for future options too.  The setup of the device was nice and easy, with an auto-setup running when the TV first powered on.  In fact, a small minor point, but my current LCD TV has a power button on the front (as well as a little button on the side; whereas the LG TV only has the button on the side), and it was amazing how much the family and I missed the easy to use front power button.

However, one thing I really liked was the fact the TV ships with 2 remotes.  Yes, two remotes.  I loved the main remote with the ability to illuminate the keys, and having full access to control the TV at all times, but you know what; I liked the smaller, simpler remote even more.  With a much smaller selection of buttons (power, input selection, channel and volume controls, and not much more!) this remote was easier to let the kids lose with knowing they could not get to the menus and accidentally make changes to the settings.  Whether in the long term this second remote is actually useful I don’t know, but for a short trial, is was certainly useful.

Less useful was the lack of auto-SCART selection I’m used to from my current TV, and I had some issues with the headphone socket not providing sound if a cable was plugged into the headphone socket on power on.  The second wasn’t a major issue, but the first did seem strange, and may have been a configuration setting that I missed.

On top of the ability to play TV / video information from SCART and HDMI sockets, the TV also features the ability to play media from USB devices and from Bluetooth devices too.  The Bluetooth can also be used to play back the audio via Bluetooth Headphones without disturbing others, which is a nice touch too.

I mentioned the “frameless design” when the TV first launched (see here); in fact, it’s more of a seamless design, in that there is no bezel where the TV image finishes and the black surround starts, but the main thing about this TV that does stand out is how slim it is; at 2.9cm it’s obviously crying out to be wall mounted (something I was unable to do, but maybe our competition winner will…); and I did feel that if the device was being placed on a TV stand, the extra cost of buying a slimmer device may seem excessive; although the power saving and image quality the LED backlighting offered did seem to me a worthwhile expenditure even without wall mounting the TV.

When not wall mounting the TV, it stands on a very nice square base, which is smaller than many of the normal bases, presumably due to the thinner nature of the screen.

Will I miss this TV?  Well, yes, in a way; the extra little technology (eg Bluetooth) and the sheer quality and brightness of the image will be missed, but for me, it’s not actually a great improvement over my current TV to warrant an upgrade right now; but if you are looking to increase your screen size, or move up to your first LCD TV, then this Full HD TV should at least be on the shortlist; the power savings and brightness of the LED Backlighting may not be obvious in store (where most TVs will be set to maximum brightness irrespective of the power draw), but are well worth factoring into the long term costs of the TV.

As to our competition winner; we’re in the process of contacting them, and arranging with LG for the TV to be shipped on to them, and we’ll announce who won later this week, and will look forward to seeing their review of the device in due course.

Thanks yet again to LG and The LG Blog for offering this competition prize, and thanks to everyone who entered.

Well, I’ve had an INQ Mini 3G (courtesy of 3mobilebuzz) for a couple of weeks now, and overall, I’ve been quietly impressed by the phone.  From the automatic importing of Facebook and Skype contacts into the Contacts list, to the fact the phone has support for these Social Networking sites, and Twitter support, and all for less than £50!

Now, let’s be honest, I’m used to smartphones, and there are a number of little things that annoy me with the device; the start up sound can’t be cancelled by pressing a key (as per Nokia devices), and the whole menu system is a little bright and colourful for my taste (and with no theme support, no opportunity to change it either), but these are minor niggles, and certainly don’t detract from the phone.

Supporting Social Networking sites directly in the device, combined with the standard 3UK support of Windows Live Messenger makes this a well supported device, and well worth a look.  I liked the fact the homepage supports 3 widgets (I used weather, world clock and an RSS feed of the BBC website, all options built into the phone), although I have heard some people warn there may be a memory leak, as I’ve heard of people needing to reboot the phone after a long time turned on with widgets in use.  That’s a key issue to me; I rarely turn my phone off, so long term stability is key, and it maybe that a firmware / application update is needed to resolve these issues; hopefully they will be addressed before the INQ Chat ships.

The phone also shipped with Google Mail and Google Maps (v2.3.2; nice!), which was useful for people like me who use Google a lot, and the phone can be used with GooSync to sync data from the likes of Google Calendar too.  Personally, I found the calendar a bit simple when entering new entries, but I suspect most people will use the phone linked to Google or Outlook, and not enter directly onto the device (again, I’ve been spoilt by smartphones offering a decent Calendar app).  In fact, the only thing missing is the Last.fm scrobbling support that the INQ1 had, and it’s still not clear why INQ dropped this function, especially with the likes of Last.fm and Spotify moving more into the mobile space…

Again, a personal point, but it uses miniUSB (not the end of the world, although many manufacturers are moving to microUSB), which is used for both the headphones and charging.  With Bluetooth support for a headset in the car, this isn’t the end of the world, but I’m not a fan of the combined port; let’s hope when INQ move to Android next year we’ll see a dedicated headphone socket on their devices.  Whilst I’m looking at the hardware, I wasn’t a big fan of the way the rear cover clipped on (it did have a release button at the top, which makes it better than the Sony Ericsson T715 I reviewed here), but only just, and I couldn’t find any sight of the other 6 coloured interchangeable backs on the 3Store, so right now you’ll be stuck with the red back).

Let’s be honest, for the price and based on the software on this device; if you are not in the market for a smartphone but want connectivity options to keep upto date with your Social Networking sites, then the INQ Mini 3G should be high on your list of options, if not at the top.  Here at UK Gadgeteer, I’ve covered a number of hints and tips over the last few weeks, and INQ Mobile should be congratulated for providing online support, and being willing to engage with their customers.

When the INQ Chat arrives with the QWERTY keyboard, and GPS, it’ll be interesting to see whether INQ can still compete in the mid-tier marketplace against devices like the Nokia E63…

Oh, and finally, a small point, but having performed a master reset of the device to return it, the phone still had all the contacts on it, plus the sign-in details for Skype, so if you ever decide to sell your INQ Mini 3G, be careful about removing all your personal data as well as performing a master reset.

This is an innovative desk stand for your phone.  As well as including an 8-in-1 memory card reader, a 2 port USB hub, having a variety of connectors to charge your phone, and running solely off USB power, it also claims to be able to hold any phone in portrait or landscape formats without any additional support!

The Desk Genie is apparently made from a special rubberised material, which is strong enough to hold an phone in portrait or landscape positions, and should even still hold the phone in place when the phone is vibrating, yet should leave no sticky residue on the phone.  For only £15 (+ delivery) this looks an interest device, if only to hold your phone at the right angle for use on your desk, let alone all the additional properties it has.

Mobile Fun do warn that with time the rubbery surface’s ability to hold a phone will fade as dust collects on the surface, but a quick wipe with clean water should restore it back to normal.

As for those mobile phones charging connectors: iPhone, Nokia (both 2mm and 3.5mm), Sony Ericsson, Samsung and LG are all supported, as are the miniUSB and microUSB formats (the latter being the standard connector for many manufacturers moving forward).   This power connector does not use either of the USB ports on the device, although it would appear at first glance that this is a power only connector, so it may not be possible to sync and charge many devices (unless you use Bluetooth to sync between the device and your PC/Mac).

You can see more of the Desk Genie at Mobile Fun.

Last night I was privileged to be invited to a small, cosy location in London 2 floors underground to discuss with LG some of their new phones recently released, and about to be released.

John Barton, the UK Sales & Marketing Manager, spoke candidly about the LG range, and there’s a summary of the devices that were discussed after the break…

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Although possibly only for the US, Garmin are planning to release an ecoRoute ESP Cable, which allows you to connect a Bluetooth enabled Garmin Nuvi 1xxx device to your car’s OBD on board diagnostic connector to be able to display certain information, including:

• Fuel and Intake Air Anformation (Fuel Flow, Intake Air Temperature, etc)
• Coolant Temperature & Oil Pressure
• Throttle Position
• Combustion Mixture (Emissions)
• Engine Component Operation & Status
• Battery and Charging System Information
• Climate Control Information (Heat & AC)
• Drive Train Status and Condition

Interestingly, this is referred to as a cable, yet something that needs to be paired via Bluetooth, so it’s not clear exactly what it is, and how it works, (unless the cable is used between the device and the Nuvi as part of setting it up).   However, offering this information is an interesting new take on providing SatNav functionality, and something that we hope comes to the UK and other Nuvi models next year.  It looks like it will cost $150 in the US when it formally launches in the New Year, and there’s no word of UK availability (although there should be no reason why not).

Information courtesy of GPSCity [via Engadget]

3UK have just announced that they are now selling the Sony Ericsson Satio, a 12 megapixel cameraphone, which will cost £30 per month on an 18-month contract with the Mix’n'Match 300 tariff, or £399.99 on PAYG.  As well as the impressive camera, the phone features touch focus, face detection, and a Xenon flash.  As a 3UK phone, it features Skype on 3 and Windows Live Messenger as well.  The phone features a 16:9 640×360 3.5″ widescreen display for playback of those pictures and videos, but there are other, sometimes overlooked features on this phone, such as the 12x digital zoom, geotagging of photos, image stabilizer, as well as all the other features and applications one would expect of a Symbian 5th Edition touchscreen device, including an accelerometer, HSDPA, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

In fact generally there aren’t many downsides to this device; the 1000mAh battery worries us slightly, as this sounds a little low for a good day’s usage (why oh why do smartphones force a daily charge), and our only other concern area is how much effort Sony Ericsson put into firmware updates for the device, as often seems needed on Symbian (or other smartphone OS) devices.  Oh, and the final issue with the device (which isn’t really an issue, but something to be aware of); most Nokia specific Symbian applications may not work on the device, so don’t expect the full Nokia suite of apps on this device.  Of course, it ships with Google Maps, which often negates the need for Nokia / Ovi Maps (don’t forget to take out the £5 per month Internet Add-On with this phone, as it will be well worth it), and other apps such as Nokia Sportstracker won’t work either (although a quick look through other Symbian applications should soon find a worthy free alternative).

3UK are continuing to innovate both at the lower end of the price market, and still signing up powerful high spec devices like this too, and this bodes well for next year…

We’ve been talking about these two devices for a while now, but what exactly are they, and what’s the difference, and, possibly more importantly, which is the “flagship” device for the Nokia N-Series?

Well, the Nokia N900 is a Maemo based Internet Tablet (following on from the Nokia N810, N800 and 770 Internet Tablets), but it adds phone capabilities, and not just to improve data access, but to also act as a phone.  Having said that, there does appear to be an element of just bolting the phone software on top of the existing platform; the phone application is pretty much the only application that supports the portrait mode (at launch). We make the point about “at launch” because many of the apps included on the device are by third party developers, who may well provide portrait support in their apps faster than Nokia and Maemo can achieve the same for the core applications.

The device includes a 5 megapixel camera, 3.5″ 800 x 480 touchscreen display, 32GB onboard storage, plus microSD support, A-GPS with Ovi Maps, 3.5mm headphone jack, FM transmitter, TV-Out, Bluetooth, and DivX Support.

Now, the Nokia N97 Mini is another key device launched at Nokia World.  It is basically a slightly cutdown Nokia N97, although it still features many of the high technical specs of the Nokia N97;

• It has 8GB storage, as against the Nokia N97 32GB
• It has a 1200mAh battery, compared to the N97’s 1500mAh
• The screen drops from 3.5″ to 3.2″, but retains the resolution

The main other difference is the removal of the D-pad on the keyboard, which is replaced by a set of four cursors keys to the right.  Of course, it will retail at a slightly lower price too.

So, which is the flagship device; well, that’s for you to decide; the Nokia N97 Mini is a smaller, lighter, lower spec device than the Nokia N97, but that slight size reduction may make it more popular at time goes on; as for the Nokia N900, it is lacking some of the all round features of Symbian S60 (and application support), and so right now, we reckon the Nokia N97 remains the top device, but whether it can retain this crown throughout 2010 as Maemo apps improve is another question…

HTC have announced another Android phone, the HTC Tattoo, claiming it’s been designed for the masses.  It’s not the highest spec device out there, although it still does pretty well…

• 256MB RAM (512MB ROM)
• 2.8″ Resistive touch display with 240×320 QVGA resolution
• HSPA
• Built in GPS
• Bluetooth, Wi-Fi
• 3.5mm audio jack
• 3.2 megapixel camera
• G-Sensor and Digital Compass
• FM radio
• microSD card support
• 1100mAh battery

The phone also features interchangeable covers, the HTC Scenes UI, and other HTC customisations.  Until it’s released in a few weeks, head over to the HTC Product Tour to see more information on the phone.

This is the new Garmin nuvi 1690, which launched a few weeks back in the US, but has now been launched in the UK as well.  The important part of this device is the use of a built in mobile phone connection, allowing it to have a whole range of “connected” services, like those of the TomTom LIVE range.

Garmin are providing the following services over that connection:

• Instant Traffic information
• Speed Camera alerts (continually updated apparently)
• Fuel prices
• Ciao! Friend Finder (Garmin’s Social Networking application which also features on the nuviphone range)
• Google Local Search and Telephone Directory
• Flight Status
• Weather Forecast
• Currency Exchange
• White Pages

There are also two other useful services in the range; Send To GPS allows you to “send” your route direct to your GPS, although we believe this will involve a direct connection between your PC and the SatNav unit.  The other is Panoramio, which will allow you to plan ahead and “conveniently go online to set your sat nav’s destination”.  Little detail exists about this function right now, and even on a UK specific page it mentions this service may not be available everywhere.

As a device it features a whole raft of standard features; Bluetooth (for Hands Free phonecalls), Lane assistance, photo navigation, Where Am I?, ecoRoute fuel saving routes, and Park Position Recall.  Also, Garmin will preload the device with Pan European maps, and have stated that the online nuLink services will be available in 15 countries (not all services are available in all countries though), which is better than TomTom managed when they launched their LIVE services, which were limited to the country the device was obtained from.

For example, England (sic), France, Spain and Netherlands all offer all the services mentioned, whereas Italy and Belgium offer all but Fuel Prices, and Germany offers all except Fuel Prices, Safety Cameras and Ciao! location sharing.  Some services (although Garmin do not state which) are also available in Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Sweden and Switzerland.

In terms of Ciao!, Garmin have stated “Ciao!, is a patentpending social network application that links multiple location-centric social networks onto one application, Ciao! currently aggregates information from GyPSii and uLocate’s Buddy beacon social network services. Ciao! is expandable and additional social network partners are expected in the future.”

The device ships with 12 months nuLink services, and will cost €79 per year to renew (no UK pricing released yet); unfortunately Garmin also failed to provide any indicative pricing for the unit either, but this unit is likely to be the first of many well connected devices from Garmin, and appears to be a good move for Garmin, especially in the run up to Christmas.

Nio is a new Bluetooth based security solution, which launched yesterday.  It works by establishing a Bluetooth connection between your mobile phone (not all devices are supported, and some are supported, but the app must remain in the foreground) and the nio device, and then, should the two become separated, both will sound an alarm.

Ever left your mobile in a taxi / on a train?  Ever lost your keys and wanted to find them?  In both cases, this device can help; as well as both devices sounding an alarm if they go greater than a set distance apart, you can also use the application on the mobile to locate the tag.

If you buy multiple tags, you can track them all within the application (and configure different alert tones for each tag), and even specify times as to when the monitoring should be turned on (eg during your commute by public transport you may want to turn it on automatically to ensure you don’t get separated).  As well as visual and audible alerts, you can even configure a vibration alert.  Tenbu, the comany behind the Nio claim you should get around a 20m connection between the devices.

In terms of the phone ranges supported, they prominently feature BlackBerry devices in their marketing, but also support Nokia N-Series, E-Series, and a whole range of devices via their Java client.  They also list Windows Mobile 5.0 and 6.1 as compatible.  No iPhone or Android devices at present though.

The nio features a rechargeable battery, which they say should last a few weeks, although whether this duration is only achievable with only using the connection for a few hours a day isn’t clear.

Each device currently costs £39.95 (RRP £59.95) and is available direct from the manufacturer here (and they accept Paypal if you are nervous of giving them your credit card).  This looks an interesting way of ensuring you don’t lose your valuable gadgets, yet manages to be a gadget in it’s own right too.

It’s been a big week for LG, with LG Mobile launching the new LG Chocolate BL40 phone, and their TV division launching a number of ranges of new devices today…

Firstly, they have launched the LU7000, range of TVs (19″ and 22″) with a built in front loading DVD player (and also built in Freeview).  This uses two glass sliding doors which slide from the centre outwards to allow access to the DVD drive.  This TV is designed for a variety of uses; in the kitchen, for kids, or for students.  Even with the design, it’s a wall mountable unit, featuring a standard VESA mount, and supports a USB connection for accessing pictures or mp3 music.  It also features 2 HDMI connections, and Scart support too.

Other ranges follow in the rest of the article…

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This is the new Nokia Booklet 3G, a small form factor laptop (similar to many other devices, like the Vodafone netbook / Dell Mini units).  This, however, as well as featuring what appears to be a Windows OS, will also include some special features.  Firstly, like some other units, it will have 3G capabilities built in, possibly via a hot-swappable SIM card slot (allowing you to change or remove the SIM with the machine booted up).  It will also have A-GPS facilities for location based services.  Now, let’s remember that other devices, such as the Dell Mini 9 have similar capabilities, so this isn’t yet a unique device.

It will though, ship will access to a number of the Ovi Services, which will make a difference, including Ovi Maps (device widget), Nokia Music Store (including music streaming), Ovi Files (cloud based file storage), and Ovi Suite, allowing syncing with your mobile.

The spec, what little is currently known, looks good on paper: 10″ glass fronted screen, 3G, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, 120GB Hard Disk, HDMI port, integrated SD card reader, stereo speakers.

If you want to know more about this device, head over to All About Symbian.  More information is likely to be revealed by Nokia next week at their Nokia World event, where we expect a number of the phones we’ve covered recently to be announced as well.

Our review LG GD900 Crystal arrived yesterday, and I’ve been using this since then, and wanted to share some of my initial thoughts on the device.  I haven’t really had time to spend with the device yet, so some thoughts and opinions may change as I use the phone more and more.

Before this, I was using an LG Renoir on a regular basis due to the nice 8 megapixel camera, but the LG Crystal combines that camera with the new S-Class UI from the LG Arena, and seems to do a good job too.  It’s a slider, and therefore features a keypad too, which I prefer.  However, the transparent keypad is more like a touchpad, so has no real keys; in fact, within certain parts of the UI, it actually acts as a touchpad, allowing you to scroll through screens (eg your contact list) with ease.  Closing the slider can also end a call (this can be turned off), which is a nice touch too.

The phone is a nice colour, and matches in with the stylish designer look LG seem to be perfecting with all of their recent phones.  It’s moved from a proprietary LG connector to microUSB, which is a good thing (although does mean a new investment in chargers), although LG are still sharing that single port with the headset, which I don’t personally like, but on this handset may well be acceptable…

Why do I say that; well, the main drain on the battery of a modern phone is using the GPS, and simply put, this phone doesn’t have a GPS.  So, no geotagging of photos and no moving maps in Google Maps (which is included as standard on the device, but with no GPS, and the version installed not supporting Cell ID location information nor Google Latitude, it’s a little limiting).  The phone does feature WiFi and Bluetooth though, so for those looking for a stylish feature rich phone, as opposed to a SatNav workhorse, this phone really does shine.

DivX support is there again, as is TV-out, although the Dolby Mobile features of the LG Renoir and LG Arena seem to be missing.

What else has impressed me so far with the phone?  I like the way the slider covers up the camera, thereby not needing a separate camera cover (which always seem to open on it’s own on the LG Renoir), and I like the way LG has put a nicely designed battery in there, which is on show when the transparent slider is shut.  However, it appears there’s no contact or calendar syncing built into the device, which for someone who normally keeps all that data synchronized across multiple devices via syncML is a shame, but probably not a key requirement for the target market for this device.

Oh, and I like the little slip case it ships with to keep the device in good condition; and although the touch keypad is made of tempered glass, I don’t think the actual main screen is, which, without that slip case, may make it more prone to scratches (the LG Renoir equally doesn’t have a tempered glass screen, and my model is looking quite scratched up now, whereas the LG Arena, and LG Secret before that, do have the tempered glass screen, and still look wonderful even after regular use).

More opinions on this device after I’d used it for a while, but right now, it’s looking a very stylish phone that should be popular.

These are pictures of a Nokia prototype called RX-51.  Now, the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet was the RX-44 and the N800 was RX-34, so it’s fair to say that with a product code of RX-51 this is likely to be the new Internet Tablet running the new Maemo 5 OS, and it may well be labelled the N900 by Nokia when announced (expected next month at Nokia World).

Mores pictures and technical specs after the break…

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Back in March, we stated that a replacement for the Nokia E71 was due soon (including information that it was likely to be called the Nokia E72, have a 5 megapixel camera, and could well feature S60 3rd Edition FP2).  Further to that, in May we suggested it would be available in Q3 (we said September).

Well, today Nokia have released the Nokia E72, which does indeed feature a 5 megapixel camera and S60 3rd Edition FP2, although Nokia have stated it will not be available until late in Q3, which again hints at September availability.

The full spec for this phone includes

Size

• Form: Monoblock with full keypad
• Dimensions: 114 x 59.5 x 10.1 mm
• Weight: 128 g
• Volume: 65 cc
• Contemporary design with fully integrated QWERTY keypad

Display and 3D

Main display:

• Size: 2.36″
• Resolution: 320 x 240 pixels (QVGA)
• Up to 16.7 million colours
• TFT active matrix

Keys and input method

• Numeric keypad, QWERTY keyboard
• Nokia Eseries one-touch keys for Home, Calendar, Contacts and Email
• Volume and mute keys
• Intuitive Optical Navi Key

Applications

• Media (Camera, Gallery, Music Player, Radio, Real Player, Voice Recorder)
• Messaging (Messaging, New email, New message, Read emails, Read messages, Read new emails, Read new messages)
• Organiser (Calculator, Calendar, Clock, Converter, Data Synchronisation, File manager, Notepad, What time is it)
• Profiles (General, Silent, Meeting, Outdoor, Pager, Offline)
• Tools (Connection manager, Device manager, Help, Landmarks, Personalisation, Profiles, Settings, Speed dialling, Voice commands, Voice mail)
• Application manager
• Bluetooth
• Browser
• Logs
• Navigator (= GPS data)
• Phonebook

Colours and covers

Available in-box colours:

• Zodium black
• Metal grey
• Topaz brown

Connectors

• Micro-USB connector which supports charging. High-Speed USB 2.0
• 3.5 mm Nokia audio connector

Memory

• 4 GB MicroSD memory card (with hot swap), support for up to 16 GB
• One-touch use as USB mass memory storage
• 250 MB free user disk space

Power

• Nokia Battery BP-4L 1500 mAh Li-Ion standard battery
• Talk time (maximum):
  - GSM 12 h 30 min
  - WCDMA 5 h 54 min
  - VoIP 13 h 42 min
• Standby time (maximum):
  - GSM 492 h
  - WCDMA 576 h
  - WLAN 110 h
• Video playback time (maximum): 13 h 6 min
• Video recording time (maximum): 6 h 24 min
• Video call time (maximum): 4 h
• Music playback time (maximum): 37.5 h

Environmental features

Power Save mode, ambient light sensor, unplug charger reminder, High Efficiency Charger AC-8
Eco zone via download/Ovi Store, Eco bookmarks. We offset via Download!/Ovi Store. Eco tips in tutorial. Maps for route optimisation and pedestrian navigation.

This is likely to be a very popular phone, given the success of the Nokia E71 across many of the UK networks; and we’ll provide more information on pricing and network availability closer to the release date.  We can’t get pre-release information correct every time, due to lots of false rumours put out by the phone manufacturers, but we’re happy to report we were pretty spot on 3 months before Nokia released this information.

This appears to be the new Sony PSP, called the Sony PGP Go, which is due to launch very soon (as soon as today!).  The specs appear to include:

• 3.8-inch display
• 43 percent lighter than the PSP-3000
• 16GB of Flash storage
• Bluetooth built-in; supports handset tethering and BT headsets
• No UMD drive
• Memory Stick Micro slot
• New Gran Turismo, Little Big Planet and new Metal Gear Solid (!) on the way
• Full PlayStation Network support (movie and TV rentals / purchases)
• Integration with PlayStation 3 (works the same as the PSP-3000 does)

With the demise of the UMD drive, it will be interesting to see how this device fares in the current climate, in essence, forcing people to buy their games afresh…

Some content courtesy of Playstation Forums and Engadget.

Last week, Nokia released new firmwares for the Nokia N79 and the Nokia N85, both solid candybar smartphones.  This new firmware, v20.175 seems to fix lots of little niggling issues that were present in the previous firmware, including:

Fixed Bugs in Nokia N79;

- Accessing to SIM Card Contacts is Fixed
- Music will play when you receive SMS in Silent Mode
- Audio is correctly routed from headset to speaker when receiving a SMS message
- Nokia Maps application problem was causing Phone hang. This problem is also Fixed!

New Features;

- Bookmarks updated to remove Download link folders
- Email Plugin functionality is improved
- Files support in OVI Widget
- Media Player in Nokia N79 will come with new settings
- 7-bit encoding is available in Turkish Characters
- Memory card ID change for Indonesia CTR’s. was MC001 and changed to –> MC002
- TP Wizard to check availability of Nokia email service

SW improvements and corrections:

Active Idle
- Search & WLAN information difficult to read in Active Idle
- Active Idle screen becomes blank in landscape mode
- Default Active Idle shortcuts configured
- Active Idle going dead after quickly accepting and rejecting an incoming video call
- White boxes shown on the screen while doing orientation change quickly in idle mode

Application Manager
- The sis file which is installed to MoviNand or SD card cannot be seen in application manager.
- Wrong Feature Manager flag used for seamless link functionality.
- Flashlite sis installation is not successful in the first attempt.

Application Update
- Unable to upgrade graphic icons in Media Player / Media Settings via sis file.
- Unable to upgrade ROM based UI application by installing new version to memory card.
- Application Update self-update never completes.
- Upgrade of BrowserAudioVideoPlugin.rsc via sw installation is not possible.
- Upgrade of Connection Manager via sw installation is not possible.

Audio Performance
- Tunings improvements for IHF audio.
- Keypad tones cannot be tuned for IHF.

Auto-Rotate
- UI Accelerator toolkit (Hitchcock/Alfred) stub file missing.
- Locking keys and then opening camera reveal confuses orientation sensor.
- Disable orientation in alarm ringing, incoming call and semi active state.
- Panic after orientation change.

Bluetooth
- Bluetooth headset disconnects when Wireless Keyboard is disconnected from the phone automatically.
- Phone panics when changing views in Bluetooth menu while choosing the last connected device from paired view.

Probably the key features out of that list are the ability to flip the phone over to silence incoming calls and alarms (this has traditionally involved using 3rd party software), Nokia’s email wizard and the inclusion of email notifications on the Active Standby screen.

Of course, as always, this is only currently available for the generic Nokia product codes, with both Orange and Vodafone’s Nokia N85 firmwares still only offering v11.047.

Changelog information courtesy of Symbianv3.com.

LG launced the LG Smart this week.  This is the direct follow on device to the LG Viewty.  It enhances the Viewty by increasing the camera to 8megapixel (with sensitivity up to ISO 1600), a high resolution WVGA touchscreen (same as the LG Arena), and the new S-Class UI which also features on the LG Arena.  As this is a device heavily weighted towards imaging, the camera includes several new features including Multi Face Detection and DVD-quality D1 video recording.  Other camera features include Touch Shot, Art Shot, Beauty Shot, Panorama Shot and Continuous Shot.

With Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and A-GPS for geotagging photos and 1.5GB of internal memory (plus a microSD card slot), this phone seems to tick many boxes.  It’s only 12.4mm thick, making it the thinnest 8megapixel camera on the market today.

Unlike companies like Nokia who announce phones months and months in advance, this will be available on Orange next month.