Is the arrival of the iPhone, a hybrid mobile phone and iPod music player from Apple Computer, right around the corner?

According to analysts, Apple is rumored to be ready to release the “iPhone” at the January 2007 Macworld conference. “From a technical standpoint, the phone is pretty much done,” said American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu. “It’s a big endeavor and we believe it’s beyond speculation.” Apparently the rumored existence of the iPhone has morphed from a question of “If” to “When.”

A trail of clues about the iPhone’s existence have been popping up all over the Internet for over a year now:

• In June 2005, the source code of an iTunes update contained multiple references to an Autofill phone playlist function.

• In March 2006, a source at BenQ, a Taiwanese phone manufacturer confirmed that an Apple product called the iPhone was in the works. Why would BenQ leak info about the iPhone to the media? Sour grapes. Hon Hai Precision, a competitor to BenQ, allegedly won the iPhone contract with Apple.
• Apple’s CFO, Peter Oppenheimer, might have let the ‘cat out of the bag‘ on an Apple analyst 2006 Q3 conference call when he said the following: “As regards cell phones, we don’t think that the phones that are available today make the best music players. We think the iPod is. But over time, that is likely to change. And [Apple is] not sitting around doing nothing.”

Since Apple’s introduction of the iPod five years ago, the company has sold more than 67 million of the devices and more than 1.5 billion songs from its iTunes online music store. We can only speculate what the iPhone will mean for Apple’s bottom line. But as a result of all this iPhone hype and rumors, American Technology Research has upgraded Apple stock (AAPL) to a ‘buy’ and raised the target price to $92 (US).

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The era of personal computers is coming to an end, and the future lies with the Smartphones. That is what Symbian is claiming, at least. This claim was reinforced lately when Sony Ericsson decided to acquire UIQ Technology, Symbian’s devision dedicated to user interfaces.

For those of you not familiar, Symbian is a consortium composed of the largest mobile manufacturers in the world (including Ericsson, Nokia, Panasonic and Samsung) and it represents the largest rival for Microsoft in the mobile operating systems segment. The consortium was created in 1998 and it has already shipped more than 100 million Smartphones worldwide. Read the rest of this entry »

In a word association game, most people would equate “VoIP” with “Skype”. Both words rhyme anyway, but I digress. Just as there are a variety of people living on this planet, so are there a bunch of different VoIP services, and Internet giant Yahoo! is one of the companies who have enabled users to make dirt cheap long distance phone calls via Yahoo! Messenger. Unfortunately, there are plenty of VoIP handsets in the market that just target Skype users, leaving the rest with an ugly and cheap microphone setup. Linksys decided to do something about the situation by unveiling the Linksys CIT310 VoIP handset that is not only capable of handling all your VoIP needs with aplomb, it can also be hooked up to your regular landline.

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What do you get if you cross a double mega pixel digit SLR camera, a swiss army knife, a zippo lighter, Photoshop and an over worked imagination, the Nokia 6639.

More crazy Nokia 6639 pics: Read the rest of this entry »

How would you like having your mobile’s internet connection as fast as your home Adsl? Well, depending on what you are getting from the Adsl provider it can even be faster than a home connection!

The Italian provider TIM (Telecom Italia Mobiles) just announced a new service called “TIM UMTS Hi-Speexd” that will provide mobile internet access with speeds that go up to 3,6 Megabits per second. Users will be able to connect to the Internet directly from the mobile phone or through the use of a Hi-Speed PC card that is integrated into a notebook. Read the rest of this entry »

Probably most of you are familiar with Vertu, a subsidiary of Nokia that produces luxury mobile phones. The “economic” version of their mobile phones start selling at $4,000 a pop. In some cases, however, the price can reach hundreds of thousands of dollars, like the limited edition (only 34 mobile phones will be produced) of the Bucheron phones which can cost as much as $300,000. Most handsets present finishes in gold or platinum, featuring a sapphire-crystal screen and ruby bearings.

Vertu just landed in India to present a new line called “Signature Diamonds”, which will sell for $50,000 each. India is one of the fastest growing countries in the world, and it has a strong appetite for luxury products. It represents the largest market for gold products and detains almost 60% of the international diamonds market.
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These have got to be the smallest earpieces I’ve ever seen, the micro earpieces slot into your ears and are near invisible.

I’m pleased to say all models are wireless (having an invisible earpiece with a wire dangling from it would have kind of defeated the object). Communications is via Bluetooth or an inductive coil that you wear under your clothes.

They may be small but they’re certainly not cheap with prices starting at over $200. More info over at wintec, thanks to fellow gadget enthusiast MystD for the heads up on these tiny devices.

Vodafone Italy and Disney are about to launch a mobile phone aimed at the young folks between the ages of 8 and 13. Italy has over 3 million families with children that fall into that age bracket, and it is estimated that 50% of those kids already have a mobile phone.

Most parents, however, are worried with the security issues that may arise when their kids go around with a mobile phone that was develop for an “adult” use. A market research revealed that the main concerns are related to the improper use of Internet through the mobile phone and to strangers that might be able to interact with their children for obscure reasons.
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