CTIA's Hottest Products and Services
These are the things that had them talking at the big CTIA wireless show.
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CTIA's Hottest Products and Services #1
Samsung Tries to Upstage the iPhone
Samsung's innovative, super-slim, two-faced UpStage (M620), which will be sold by Sprint Nextel, has a standard-looking cell phone on one side, but turn it over and it has full-fledged music player controls. We loved its Nano-esque look and innovative recharging wallet of Samsung's Upstage music phone. But the two-faced design has some drawbacks: the keyboard isn't great for texting and it has a smallish screen for video.
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Pretty Baby From Kyocera
Kyocera's E5000 wowed 'em at CTIA for its sweet good looks. Is it Deco? Retro? Whatever, the unusual S-shaped hinge on this phone is eye-catching. So much so that we'd expect future owners to go out of their way let others see it opened up. Only one problem, the phone is so glossy that you have to keep wiping your grubby fingerprints off of it.
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A New Shift for HTC
Design-wise, the HTC Shift is a cross between an Ultra Mobile PC and an ultraportable notebook. It carries a 7-inch, 800-by-480 resolution touchscreen, 1GB of RAM, a fingerprint reader, a 1.2-megapixel digital camera on the left side of the screen, a SecureDigital memory card slot,a 30GB hard drive, and Windows Vista Business Edition. It also offers several connectivity options: Wi-Fi, tri-band UMTS/HSDPA, and GPRS/EDGE for data; quad-band GSM for phone calls; and Bluetooth 2.0 for headsets. HTC says the Shift will be available in the U.S. and in Europe in the third quarter of 2007.
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Zoom to Mobile Content with ZenZui
The ZenZui application, created by a new company formed by former Microsoft researchers and others, promises a slicker, quicker way to access and interact with Web content through a cell phone--but only from sites that buy into the company's technology and business models. That's quite a drawback. People who download the free ZenZui application when it ships later this year will be able to customize their experience by choosing a lineup of "tiles"-- clickable squares, each from a different ZenZui partner site, that are displayed on a grid. In the prototype version, the default launch view (which ZenZui calls a Zone View) shows 4 tiles, or one quadrant of the full ZenZui ZoomSpace, which consists of 16 tiles.
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Pay Attention to Pantech
Best known in North America for its prepaid and Disney Mobile handsets, the Korean phone manufacturer made a strong showing at CTIA with its inexpensive, good-looking handsets. The C150 (left) and the C600 particularly impressed with their clean, simple designs.
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Microvision PicoP: Use Your Cell Phone as a Projector
Not so long ago, it seemed incredible that a projector could be the size of a typical mass market paperback. But at CTIA Wireless 2007, a company called Microvision is demonstrating technology that could pack a projector into a phone no larger than Samsung's skinny BlackJack. The idealized image above is quite a bit nicer looking then the current level of the technology, which produces a mediocre image. So mediocre we couldn't get a good snap of it, but you get the idea. And don't expect this technology soon, it's still pretty alpha
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Waterproof Cell Phone
Dropped your cell phone in the pool? No worries--but only if you're using the NTT DoCoMo F703i. Manufactured by Fujitsu, the F703i is only available in Japan. Sigh... The good people at the DoCoMo booth told us that it can be submerged underwater for up 1 meter and up to 30 minutes. However, the more likely scenario is using it while sunbathing or soaking in the tub. The phone's internal components are protected by rubber rims to prevent water from seeping in. We're a little dubious, though: NTT DoCoMo showed a phone submerged in water at the booth, but it wasn't a live demo proving that it could still work.
Bulky TV Phones
With Verizon's V CAST Mobile TV service up and running in Orlando, we got a taste of live television on your handset. Video quality was pretty good and channel surfing was simple. We only wish the compatible phones--LG's VX9400 (shown above) and Samsung's SCH-u620--were more attractive. Both are chunky and have pull-out TV antenna (which is so 20th century).
Chunkier Razr
Motorola's Razr Maxx Ve is the monster truck version of the Razr line. Chunkier and taller than regular Razr phones, it does have a bigger display, a better camera, and a nicer keyboard. We sure hope its additional bulk makes this Razr more durable.
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Handmark Adds More Apps
Handmark, a mobile content developer and distributor, announced the fourth edition of its Pocket Express at CTIA today. The company adds a new travel portal (shown below on the BlackBerry 8700c) to its existing suite of mobile content, which includes news, sports, weather, stocks, directory search, movie times, maps with turn-by-turn directions, and MobileCierge (a concierge service). The new edition will be available in the late spring
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The Walkman Phone
Sony Ericsson rolled out its slim new W580i Walkman phone at CTIA. The sliding design is a nice touch for this music phone because it stays compact when you're simply listening to music and not using the keypad. And with the phone closed, the audio controls are still at your fingertips as they're located just below the 2-inch screen.
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