Cricket Communications Inc. recently announced the availability of the Nokia 3606 phone. Along with a user-friendly interface, the phone packs in some quality features. Cricket Wireless presented the latest Nokia 3606, an ultra thin flip-styled phone that enables both messaging and calling function, plus, a 3G connectivity.

“The Nokia 3606 is an extremely attractive device that will be popular with customers who are looking for a handset with a sophisticated design and a high end feature set,” states Jeff Toig, vice president of marketing for Cricket. “The features are ideal for music lovers, with an MP3 player and stereo Bluetooth, which compliments Cricket’s Mobile Music offering.”



Supported by Nokia’s renowned user interface, the 3606 also features:

•      FM radio
•      Integrated Speakerphone
•      BREW 3.1.5 with 15MB of user memory
•      SMS/MMS with predictive text
•      Stereo Bluetooth
•      1.3 megapixel camera with LED flash
•      MicroSD card slot for up to 8GBs and a micro USB charger/connector

The Nokia 3606 measures 3.5in x 1.9in x 0.6in and can withstand up to 3.5 hours of talk time or 10 days of standby from a full battery charge. It is available at a price of US$179.99.

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News is spreading like fire that the Palm Pre is the right gadget to beat the iPhone and thus it has been dubbed the "iPhone killer". More, good news for Palm Pre is that it has topped the list of the 100 hottest gadgets on the planet compiled by gadget magazine T3.

Palm Pre was first unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January. The device runs on new software called Web OS, which lets users directly connect to information stored on the Internet, known as the cloud, rather than through a desktop PC.

The smartphone comes with a slide-out keyboard, 8GB of storage capacity, and a multi-touch 3.1 inch color screen.

The second place goes to the Sony X-Series Walkman, closely followed by Nokia N97 phone with a slide out keyboard taking the third position.

However, not a single Apple gadget made the top ten, with the iPhone 3G being 14th on the list.

The Top 10 hottest gadgets are:

1. Palm Pre

2. Sony X-Series Walkman

3. Nokia N97

4. Philips 21:9 Cinema

5. TomTom Go 940 LIVE

6. Sony Reader PRS-700BC Reader Digital Book Touchscreen

7. B and W Panorama

8. Toshiba TG01

9. Canon IXUS 980

10. Sony VAIO P-series

If anyone of you has used these gadgets, then do let know your experience about it.

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As already expected to be announced, Nokia has set out to make the best mobile imaging device by launching Nokia N86 in the second quarter of 2009. Nokia N86 is a 8Megapixel camera phone. It combines wide-angle Carl Zeiss optics and an 8 megapixel sensor, resulting in performance comparable to a stand alone digital camera. The Nokia N86 8MP mobile camera phone is designed to excel in both bright and low light conditions, and it's optimized for both video and still imaging. Its high-speed connectivity ensures easy and convenient sharing.

"People demand mobile cameras that take excellent pictures in all light conditions," says Juha-Pekka Sipponen, Director, Nokia N series. "That's why the aperture of the Nokia N86 8MP is comparable to that of a high-quality, stand-alone digital camera. Whether it's running with the bulls in Pamplona or capturing the panoramic beauty of a sunrise over Sydney, the Nokia N86 8MP mobile phone will take brilliantly clear, wide-angle images that are instantly geotagged to be uploaded onto sites like Ovi Share or Flickr."

The N86 really does pack a punch and take superb quality digital photo's that it can only be compared to that of a stand alone digital camera. There are some other fantastic features on the Nokia N86 other than the already mentioned brilliant 8 mega-pixel camera feature. There is a built-in music player system with dedicated music keys which supports MP3-MP4-eAAC+-WMA music file formats plus an FM Radio with RDS technology and an FM transmitter. Music can be enjoyed through the built-in stereo speakers or the Bluetooth stereo headset.

For other entertainment purposes the user can enjoy the Java MIDP 2.1 gaming facilities presented on the Nokia N86 mobile phone, especially with the N-Gage motion gaming feature which takes the gaming experience to a whole new level of fun and entertainment.

For the detailed specifications visit here. Lets wait for some more months to try hands on with this fantastic Nokia N86!!!

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The world's biggest phone maker Nokia and the Internet calling company Skype has joined their hands to preload Skype software into some of the Nokia smartphones. Cell phone bills can get expensive, so people try all kinds of things to keep talking without spending too much. With the increase in capabilities in cell phones, VOIP is becoming a viable option.

Putting Skype on handsets will give users low-cost calls to landlines and mobile devices. The N series will feature Skype and it will be built into the phone’s contact manager enabling the users to easily see when their Skype contacts are available online. The first phone to feature Skype pre-installed will be the N97. Nokia uses the Symbian S60 OS in its phones which should allow the application to run in the background so you can get your Skype calls on the go. The app will run on both Wi-Fi and on 3G.

“Making Skype available everywhere through mobile devices is essential to fulfilling our vision of ‘enabling the world’s conversations’,” said Scott Durchslag, Skype’s chief operating officer.

Jose-Luis Martinez, vice president at Nokia's N series division, said in a statement: “With more than 400 million Skype users worldwide, the integration of Skype on Nokia N series mobile computers is a significant step in bringing converged Internet experiences from the desktop to the world’s most advanced mobile computer."

Skype will be rolled out on other devices after the Nokia N97 goes live in the third quarter. New Nokia N97 devices will have it pre-installed, whilst early versions will be able to get it through a software upgrade. Other select N series devices are also likely to come with integrated Skype functionality which includes Skype contacts, Chat, VoIP and Presence.

This is a cool little feature that should distinguish Nokia phones from others. Lets wait till the launch of the first N97 with Skype.

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It looks like Nokia will be revealing a 8 megapixels Nokia Nseries phone with Carl Zeiss lens at the upcoming Mobile World Congress a few days from now. This can be judged from the sample photo posted on the Nokia NSeries blog which is said to have been taken from the said device.

The doubts come when you analyze the image's EXIF data. The photo is 3274×2448 pixels which equals to 8 megapixels. If you see the below image, it displays "Make and Model" as "Nokia Undisclosed (Carl Zeiss)" which raises real doubts that Nokia is finally coming with a 8 megapixels phone.

So lets keep close watch on the upcoming Mobile World Congress for Nokia to make this announcement.

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Samsung Electronics has unveiled a solar-powered full touchscreen phone called "Blue Earth".  Samsung's Blue Earth handset might just be taking the green thing to a whole new extreme. Made from PCM, a recycled plastic from water bottles, the phone boast an "eco" mode for efficiently adjusting screen brightness, backlight duration and Bluetooth usage, and an "eco walk" app / built-in pedometer to tell you how much CO2  emission you've saved by walking instead of driving.

Both the handset, and its charger, are free from harmful substances such as Brominated Flame Retardants, Beryllium and Phthalate. Samsung says the Blue Earth comes with a unique user interface designed "to draw attention to preserving our fragile environment".

With recycled packaging, and energy efficient charger, the Samsung Blue Earth will be available in the UK during the second half of 2009. We're waiting on more specification information about the handset from Samsung and will update the story when we have it. Not a word on price has been specified yet.

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We have not heard of the Zumbafone yet, but its makers are confident it could revolutionize the way we communicate. The Zumbafone is currently considered top-secret and hence they are not revealing us much more.

The Zumbafone is a carefully shrouded device being developed by a British company called IA Technologies. The company manufactures military technology and a bunch of other stuff too.

The Zumbafone is the size of a credit card and contains two interlocking pieces. One half snaps off to function as an all-inclusive earpiece-phone. The other, when connected, offers a more traditional keypad and screen.

Once we attach the earpiece half, the Zumbafone links us to an "Internet portal" that holds all of our information. Say the name of a contact, and we're instantly connected. By tapping a button, we can speak out a text message and have it sent wherever needed. Incoming text messages are displayed on the screen half of the phone if we have it attached, or spoken aloud if we're wearing the earpiece.

The device is slated to be on store shelves by the end of 2009. Visit PCWorld site for more details.

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Adobe has joined its hands with Apple to develop Flash for the iPhone. Adobe chief Shantanu Narayen made this revelation in an interview with Bloomberg at the Davos, Switzerland event. "It’s a hard technical challenge, and that’s part of the reason Apple and Adobe are collaborating," he says.

He also added, while no specific details were given as to the parameters of their teamwork, it was mentioned that Flash Lite will not be an acceptable alternative as it’s too feature-limited as opposed to the real thing. However, Flash itself is resource-heavy which is too much for the small processor of the iPhone or any smart phone for that matter to handle which is the real challenge in making the much-awaited feature finally available on Apple’s mobile phone.

As to whether it will be offered as a 3rd party app or plug-in, the chances of that happening is near impossible as the iPhone SDK’s guidelines strictly prohibits 3rd party app from serving as plug-ins. It’ll most likely debut as part of a firmware update, but no information regarding as to when this will all happen.

For more details visit Apple insider site.

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Apple's iPhone stands in the first place again. ComScore, a reputed market research firm, reported that, among the top ten phones used to download games in USA, the first, second, third and seventh spots are taken over by four different models of the Apple iPhone. The 8GB Apple iPhone 3G took over the number one spot followed by the original 8GB and 16 GB version. The old 16 GB iPhone is in the seventh position.

PC World report says that the iPhone and iPod dominated the list of finalists recently named in a competition sponsored by the Independent Games Festival Mobile. A total of about 1.1 million U.S. owners of the four iPhone models have used the device for downloading games, according to comScore.

According to comScore analyst, Alistair Hill, "the main reason behind this popularity is Apple's sound marketing strategy. Now, hundreds and thousands of people know about the App Store which is also very easy to use. Apple also allows gamers to develop games in a very easy and transparent way. Prior to that, mobile phone companies tried to gain large amount of revenue from mobile phone gaming. As a result, developers had to develop hundred different versions of one game to be used in different mobile phones. Apple changed that scenario."

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Predictions says that very soon most of the economic functions will be carried out through mobiles. Already cellphone credit(the transfer credit between phones with a simple text message)has partly replaced cash to in some parts of the African continent, a paper now predicts that more economic functions will soon come to be carried out through mobiles all over the world.

The paper has been submitted to a workshop on the future of social networking organized by W3C, the body in charge of global web standards. It says that the next step is to give cellular phone users the equivalent of social networking websites like Facebook.

Gloria Ruhrmund, a South Africa-based mobile social media consultant, envisages that combining social network-style services with existing mobile credit transfer systems may further take over from traditional banking systems. According to her, such mobile social networks may provide new routes to pay salaries, provide health advice, mobilize voters, and to connect and educate isolated communities.

Some social mobile tools, such as instant messaging service NokNok, are already established in Africa, reports New Scientist magazine.

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Samsung is expected to introduce its new entry-level sliding handset, the S3500 soon. Recently gaining approval from the FCC, chances are that will be available from AT&T or T-Mobile in the US although nothing is finalized yet. Features of the Samsung S3500 include,

• Quad-band GSM/EDGE connectivity (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)
• QVGA display with 262K colors
• Music player
• FM radio
• 2 megapixel camera
• Bluetooth and USB
• WAP browser, email
• 35MB internal memory
• microSD memory card slot
  

There is no word on pricing, but its expected to be an affordable one.

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Are you a serious gamer on iPhone. If so, then there is a good news for you. Apple may be planning to add a new "premium games section" to the App Store which will offer games for the iPhone and the iPod Touch around the range of $20 USD after Apple recently noted that the store had hit a half billion downloads and was home to 15,000 applications.

This section will be open to a restricted number of commercial game publishers such as Electronics Arts, so that iPhone can be represented as a "serious gaming" hand held.

Most games in the App Store currently come from low budget publishers or casual coders, and many sell for 99 cents to $9.99 USD, so this initiative of locking out the smaller developers would appear to clash with the ideals by which the store has operated to date.

In an interview published this week, Apple vice president of iPhone and iPod product marketing Greg Joswiak spoke directly to this end, noting that the one of the benefits of the App Store is the low overheard required to become an influential player in the market.

App developers don't need a publisher, he said, "It's not somewhere you have to be represented by somebody; you have to be in the development programme, which is very inexpensive."

Asked if smaller developers are really competing with the established players, Joswiak said: "What we'd like to do is show off the games - the 3D and the casual ones. Everyone from the big developers is excited -- the EAs, the Gamelofts, Hudsons and Segas -- but what's also cool is the small guys.

"You get the one or two-developer shops like the Pangeas, who are doing a great business, with anecdotal stories like paying off their home mortgages after a month or two of being in the store," he said.

Apple has not confirmed the report, and neither has any large publisher, but it is believed that the Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) would be a likely launch date.

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A new mobile Gurbani Search engine for the Apple iPhone and  iTouch devices was released. This is considered to be one of the first Sikh related apps for the iPhone. There is MS Pocket PC version of SikhiToTheMax, but this is the only other mobile search software which is released so far.

The Gurbani database on iSikhi is the same as the one from SikhiToTheMax so it includes Bhai Gurdaas Vaars and parts of Sri Dasam Granth. You can download the iSikhi (Version 1) application on your computer from ishiki, or directly from your device by going to the "App Store" icon on your iPhone/iPod Touch. Do a search for "iSikhi" and it will show up.

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A new competitor is planning to enter into the Mobile industry. Dell, the world’s second largest PC maker (after HP), may be edging much closer to its emergence into the smartphone market, according to the Wall Street Journal. Sources says that Dell could make this announcement at 3GSM or the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona in mid-February 2009.

Dell who wants to compete with apple's iPhone, has been working on a smartphone for more than a year, and that prototypes have been constructed, running Google's Android and Microsoft's Windows Mobile. According to sources, one model has been built with a touchscreen (like the iPhone), and another with a slide-out keyboard (like the Palm Pre). It is currently unknown which model will be used, or whether Windows Mobile or Android will be the main OS for the smartphone.

"We haven't committed to anything," a Dell spokesman told the Wall Street Journal, meaning that the plans for a Dell-branded smartphone could still be scrapped yet, and nothing is finalized.

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Nokia has announced its three new devices today, 2700 Classic, 6303 Classic and 6700 Classic. Despite the low cost of some of the models, Nokia said that they combine the functionality and user experience buyers are looking for with premium designs and materials. And also added that these phones will be available from the second quarter of 2009.

The Nokia 6700 Classic belongs to classic category, it also comes with pretty high-end camera, which boasts a resolution of 5 megapixel, and it also comes with assisted GPS navigation with Nokia Maps. This is the successor to the Nokia 6300 and features a slim and beautiful design with a full metal keymat. The Nokia 6700 classic is retailing at an estimated EUR 235.

The Nokia 6303 Classic at an estimated retail price of EUR 135, offers a 3.2-megapixel camera, 2.2-inch display and boasts excellent features and battery performance. It also ships with Nokia Maps, but needs an external GPS receiver for navigation. The major advantage of Nokia 6303 is that it weighs 20g lesser than Nokia 6300.

The most affordable, yet full featured handset, Nokia 2700 Classic which is designed with 2GB of storage via the memory card slot, integrated digital music player and a 2.0 megapixel camera. All these features at an estimated price of EUR 65.

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A new cell phone music service that Microsoft launched in the UK is one of the most restrictive DRM-based music stores yet. Tracks can only be played on the phone and cannot be transferred to another device or even backed up on a PC.

The world's largest software maker just launched a mobile phone-based music store in the UK that charges nearly twice the price for media while offering even fewer rights. Dubbed MSN Mobile Music and tied to Microsoft's MSN Mobile portal, the service offers over one million songs and 10,000 videos to UK cell phone users from the big four labels.

MSN Mobile Music was launched in partnership with VidZone Digital Media and offers songs for $2.07 (£1.50), ringtones for $4.05 (£3), and videos for $2.77 (£2). These prices include a fairly steep premium over the standard 99¢ charged for most MP3s, though MSN Mobile Music is compatible with over 130 handsets.

The service can be reached via mobile browser at msn.co.uk if you're in the UK, otherwise it redirects to uk.msn.com. For more details visit here.

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For the past few weeks there had been more rumors about the "honeycomb"-style home screen for the upcoming Windows Mobile 6.5. Now it has made its appearance in another leak.

Small-time handset manufacturer Compulab, has posted a few images of its upcoming handset supposedly running Windows Mobile 6.5 Alpha. The two screen shots show the honeycomb launcher and a full screen background image.

The screen shot of the honeycomb appears to be more friendly than the current application. But still this is only an alpha we’re looking at, so things can certainly change.

We can expect more of these leaks in the upcoming weeks as Mobile World Congress approaches and the expected announcement of Windows Mobile 6.5 draws near.

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Copy & Paste is the most important basic feature that the iPhone has been lacking.  Everyone would benefit from some nice copy/paste action. Clippy can be called the first and real copy-paste app that works with most of the iPhone’s native apps.

Clippy is a new native app (not a web app) that allows you to copy paste between the stock iPhone applications like Mail, Safari, Notes, etc. While it doesn't work with some AppStore apps. To use you first need to be in the txt editor mode on the iPhone. It’s very easy to use this app. Once installed, start typing text, then select it with your finger, and tap the “123 key to show a new line at the top of your keyboard. Now tap copy and then enjoy yourself to paste your text in every other app you want. As long as you can access the keyboard in the application, you utilize the “Copy & Paste” feature. Clippy is not for all iPhones. It’s designed for jailbreak one and you can download it for free via Cydia.

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Apple has announced its milestone achievement through an image in its website. A new banner has appeared on the Apple homepage in the last 48 hours that boasts that there are now currently 15,000+ apps on the App Store, and that they have reached the incredible milestone of 500 Million downloads.

Considering that the App Store only opened 6 months ago on July 11, 2008 it is an amazing achievement. Apple achieved its first milestone by hitting 100 million downloads in September 2008 and last milestone announcement came on December 5th 2008, which stated that they had exceeded 10,000 apps and 300 Million downloads. This shows a massive increase in apps and downloads in comparison to previous announcements. Although the image states that “iPhone users have downloaded an incredible 500 million” apps, it is assumed that this number encompasses both iPhone and iPod touch users, and that downloads also includes post-purchase updates.

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According to ZDNet, rumors at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco last week reveals that the iphone's next firmware version 3.0 will support multiple processing cores. Apple updated its iPhone's firmware past two months back. Hence, its the high time for the rumors to come up about the next version of the mobile OS X.

The speculation also states that the iPhone hardware will also be upgraded to use the quad-core processor for Serious gaming. As such, it would be a serious threat to not just other phones, but also to dedicated gaming platforms like the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS.

Of course, by the time anything like that becomes reality, who knows what Nintendo and Sony will have up their sleeves. Which brings us to another couple of rumors.

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