Dell unveils Android-based Mini 3 smartphone

Dell said Friday that it's ready to enter the smartphone business with the Android-based Mini 3.

Long rumored to have a smartphone in the works, Dell said that the first two carriers to sell the Mini 3 will be China Mobile and Brazil's Claro.

In China, the Mini 3 will use OPhone, China Mobile's customized version of Google's Android operating system. "We are excited for Dell to be among the first manufacturers to introduce new technology based on the OPhone platform," an unnamed China Mobile representative said in Dell's press release.

Dell would not offer any specifics about the software on the Brazilian phone, saying simply that "the initial Mini 3 smartphones are designed around the Android platform".
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China Unicom to sell two versions of the iPhone in Q4

The iPhone now has an official ticket to China.

Mobile phone operator China Unicom plans to start selling two versions of the iPhone in China in the fourth quarter of 2009, under a three-year deal, an Apple representative confirmed Friday morning.

China Unicom didn't say what it will charge for the iPhones or what the service plan will include, but it does plan to keep the price modest by offering subsidies to customers, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the deal earlier Friday. The agreement does not include revenue sharing, the newspaper said.

In accordance with Chinese regulations, the iPhones will be sold with their Wi-Fi function disabled, the Journal reported.
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Now on sale: The Tata Nano

Tata Motors has begun taking orders for its Nano minicar.

The Indian automaker on Thursday opened up its booking system for the high-profile Nano, which it has pitched as the "people's car"--a first automobile for families that, until now, have had to crowd onto a scooter. There are only approximately nine vehicles per 1,000 people in India, according to the Reuters news agency.

Bookings will close in just more than two weeks, on April 25. The company had made application forms for bookings available at the beginning of the month and said the response has been "very encouraging".

Priced starting at about US$2,000 for the standard version, the Tata Nano is a very modest machine. It's about 10ft long, weighing in at about 1,300 pounds, and Tata says it can "comfortably" seat four adults. The top speed for the car, which has a two-cylinder, 624cc, rear-mounted engine, is about 65 miles per hour. The gas mileage is said to be about 56 miles per gallon.
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Tata Motors revs up its Nano plans

The Tata Nano may be small in stature, but it could be a big deal for car buyers in India.

Mumbai-based automaker Tata Motors on Monday announced that the time has come for the commercial launch of the Nano, a diminutive design intended to put four-wheeled transportation in the driveways of ever more Indian families. Some analysts also say the Nano signals positive development in the Indian auto industry.

"Nano is good for India. It marks the country's coming of age," Abdul Majeed, auto analyst at PricewaterhouseCoopers, told ZDNet Asia in a phone interview.

When it unveiled the Nano in January 2008, Tata billed it as "the people's car", a step up from overcrowded, unsheltered scooters. (On Monday, for whatever reason, the "people's car" phrase was not to be found on the company's press material or the Tata Web site.)
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Terrafugia's flying car makes maiden voyage

The startup Terrafugia first popped up on our radar screens in early 2006 with a one-fifth scale model, US$30,000 in prize money, and an urge to build a car that could fly. Or is that an airplane you can take on the highway?

Some signs point strongly to the latter. Terrafugia describes its Transition vehicle as a "roadable aircraft" and is pitching it in part as giving private pilots an easy travel alternative when bad weather makes flying a bad idea, or simply to avoid having to take a separate car to the airport. Also, in the eyes of the Federal Aviation Administration, the vehicle falls into the light sport aircraft category.

On March 5, Terrafugia got to show that--whatever the eventual business prospects--the Transition can indeed fly. The maiden voyage (the duration wasn't specified) took place at the Plattsburgh International Airport in New York, with a retired US Air Force Reserve colonel in the pilot's seat. The flight followed six months of static, road, and taxi testing.
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