For all the talk about solar-powered phones this year, there still aren't any that have taken the mass market by storm, or even a light breeze. Until one does come along, we'll be stuck with alternative solutions to harness the sun's rays for endless yakfests. But that doesn't mean we have to resort to carrying a purse to keep our batteries charged, so to speak.
Enter the "Vero Solar Power Bluetooth Car Kit," which claims to be the first Bluetooth portable system of its kind. We're not so sure about that, but it's still a good idea if it works as billed: With 15 hours of talk time and 600 hours on standby, according to Mobility Site. And it's better than having to witness fellow Craver Charlie Cooper do his sun-worshiping dance whenever the we need a new charge, as seen here.
Holiday shoppers will have one more 5-megapixel camera-phone to choose from when the LG Viewty KU990 makes its debut in Singapore this December. Priced at S$838 without mobile plan, the HSDPA-enabled phone features a full 3-inch touchscreen display, much like the Prada phone. According to LG, the KU990 is the first mobile in the company's "new line of high technology handsets".
The Viewty is certainly LG's most powerful camera-phone yet. In fact, the company calls it a "professional-level camera-phone". Its strong suite of imaging functions include a 5-megapixel camera (certified by Schnider-Kreuznach) with auto/manual focus, image stabilizer and Xenon flash. The Korean electronics maker claims the camera will perform well even in low-light conditions, thanks to its high ISO 800 capability and SmartLight feature. Other noteworthy features on the Viewty are 120fps video recording, Bluetooth stereo, microSD card slot, DivX video playback and full Internet browsing.
Singapore users will be the first in Southeast Asia to get hold of the Viewty handset, followed by other selected Southeast Asian countries in the coming months.
Contrary to popular belief, some of us at Crave are easy to please. Long before gadgets began mutating into all manner of lab freakism, we were happy with the simplest of inventions, such as a wireless mouse that stowed its USB dongle in its hull (this was well before Bluetooth, mind you).
That's why we can't quite understand it when manufacturers want to cram every possible feature into their products when just one or two will do nicely. Take this mobile phone on the Asian market that stores a Bluetooth headset in its case for convenience, according to Uber-Review.
Granted, the Chinese-made Naxin handset won't be mistaken for any of the better-known anorexic models on the cellular runway, but thin isn't everything. That, at least, will be our mantra throughout this gluttonous holiday season.
Imagine having your entire 10,000-song collection accessible on your mobile phone wherever you go. This is all possible due to a new service that Singapore mobile carrier StarHub has just announced. Launched over the past weekend in Singapore, Music Anywhere lets users remotely access music as well as photos stored on their PCs at home.
According to the service provider, music is streamed via 3G or HSPA networks, so a 3G/HSDPA handset and home PC with broadband connection will be needed to use the service. Besides remote access, users can also download the music files from the home PC into the phone memory for offline usage. (Note: According to StarHub, the songs are transcoded real-time to save on phone memory space.) It is estimated that Music Anywhere can access up to only 25,000 songs. This is due to the limited memory on the phone for caching the song list, though StarHub expects to up the cap once the phone's onboard memory increases. There is, however, no limit to the size of each song file. Podcasts can be accessed via the service, too.
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Nokia will have touchscreen mobile phones in the future--that much we know from its announcement recently about S60 (Symbian Series60) handsets supporting touch-sensitive displays. But did you know that the Finnish giant has been thinking about it for some time now? Since before May 16, 2006, if you want to be precise.
In the document discovered by Unwired View on the US Patent and Trademark Office site, Nokia envisions a device with two screens that will display different kinds of information depending on the angle which the clamshell is opened. Control of the device is possible using either the buttons or by touching the display.
Some may say that Nokia's move is a response to the success of the iPhone, but if this patent filing is anything to go by, the cogs have been turning before Apple's cellular was even announced.