China Unicom, a Chinese mobile network operator, is in negotiations with Apple company regarding introduction of iPhone to China. China Mobile, a competitive operator, is also in talks with Apple and doesn’t want to comment on its rival’s activity. Meanwhile there are many iPhone users in China. Naturally, these devices have been imported in the country unofficially. As for the official appearance of iPhone on the Chinese market, it may not be that welcome because the Apple brand is not very strong in China. Moreover, there are different similar and fake devices available in the market.  

  Global Mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) reports that 26 mobile network operators are eager to develop 4G mobile networks based on LTE technology. The severe competition can be explained by the fact that the world's first LTE operator will be able to expand its range of services drastically and attract a huge number of subscribers. LTE is a technology of building mobile networks, a derivative from 2, 2.5 and 3G, based on IP technologies. Ten mobile network operators have the year 2010 marked as 4G network launch time. In the USA they are Verizon, MetroPCS, and CenturyTel; in Sweden and Norway – TeliaSonera. In Japan LTE 4G network is to be launched by NTT DoCoMo and KDDI; in Canada – by Rogers Wireless, Telus, and Bell Canada. Sixteen more operators are planning to launch LTE 4G after 2010. One of the factors that make it impossible to launch LTE 4G immediately is the lack of mobile devices supporting this standard. GSA says that two manufacturers, Ericsson and LG, plan to release respective mobile devices next year. What will we get from 4G? First of all, we’ll enjoy exceptionally high data transfer rates supported by high end mobile...

  The LG KM900 Arena mobile phone unveiled at MWC last month in Barcelona, is extremely popular with mobile operators in various countries around the globe. The company has already received pre-orders for more than 1 million devices or twice the pre-order sales of well-known Chocolate that eventually sold 20 million units. Taking into account the market reaction, LG expects the phone sales to catch up with Chocolate, Viewty, and Shine. We think that it is very likely to happen and especially because the company has expanded the initial launch market by several European countries.  

  The ezy100 mobile phone has a large high-contrast monochrome backlit display. The text size, keys, and inscriptions on them are quite large. There may be up to 500 contacts in the phonebook. The maximum ring volume is 100 dB and the maximum caller voice volume is 25 dB. Ezy100 has a powerful vibration alert and a one-touch emergency call function that deserves special attention: there is the emergency switch on the backside of the phone – once you slide it, the phone starts dialing a sequence of up to 5 numbers that have been programmed. Moreover, the mobile phone has 3 quick dial buttons. The retail price of the ezy100 will be $249. For a limited time, there will be a bonus desktop charging base in the package valued at $49. Kevin McDonnel, Oricom's Managing Director, says that the development of the phone is a response to feedback from the elderly and people with hearing loss or low vision.  

  If you were lucky to attend MWC 2009, you remember that solar-powered mobile devices were everywhere. The only thing the manufacturers including LG and Samsung didn’t say a word about was the price of eco-friendly mobile phones. What we are about to surprise you with is that a solar-powered mobile phone may cost as little as… 40 USD! According to some reports, this is the estimated price of a new Coral 200 Solar mobile phone by ZTE, a Chinese company. Naturally, the device won’t incorporate the latest features and functions. It’ll be a low-class mobile device, but with an alternative way of charging the battery. An hour in the sun results in 15 minutes of talk time. The Coral 200 Solar mobile phone can also be charged traditionally – via a charger.  

  Palm company is getting through hard times. A decline in revenue is expected to last through the Q3 2009. Moreover, the demand for Centro and Treo devices has reduced probably because the new Palm Pre has already been announced and is highly anticipated by consumers. These circumstances only aggravate the situation and Palm cannot start shipping its new smartphone as the company hasn’t got enough cash means for that. Palm CEO says that the company “got a difficult transition period to work through” and the new smartphone is slated to start shipping in the first half of 2009.  

  We have updated a new Motorola ZN300 mobile phone specifications and uploaded better quality photos of the device. As far as we have got the information from the official source, we may suppose that the new phone will be announced in the nearest future. The shipping date is unknown so far but we think it’s not that long to wait…  

  There’s a ROM update utility or RUU available on the HTC website. Download and run it if you have one of the following troubles with your HTC Touch Diamond: • The screen becomes black if you turn on the camera while other applications are running on the phone. • When playing a video, a portion of it is cut off. • While listening to music via the speaker the sound turns off (and on but not always) after 10 minutes (you may also hear a buzzing sound). • The phone is not able to receive MMS messages when in standby mode. • The sound turns off and on from time to time when you launch music via the Music tab on TouchFLO 3D. On updating the software all these troubles disappear. The manufacturer warns that all data and device settings are deleted during the update process. Before running the RUU make sure that all applications are closed and the battery is half-charged at least. You must not use the device during the update: don’t press any buttons, make or receive calls or disconnect the phone from your PC.  

  There are more people with internet enabled phones than there are people with broadband, so it makes sense that Volantis Systems has provided simple ways to create a website for mobile viewing. Their “Ubik” offering, whilst only a beta offering, was one of the shortlisted products commended for mobile innovation at this year’s Barcelona GSM World show, where it was a finalist for the “Best Mobile Internet Service 2009” award, which would have added to the “Best Publishing Platform 2008” it had picked up at Mobile Entertainment Awards. Quite simply, you pick a template on Ubik.com and create your site, edit the content, and publish. Templates are available for a variety of personal and small business needs, and the templates are customisable via an Editor with which you can see a list of all pages, add, amend or remove them, and adjust current content or images. A Preview pane shows changes in real time which makes editing really rapid, and, of course, you can see your site before it is loaded. Once the site is uploaded, you can send images to the site from anywhere via email or MMS and access them in the gallery instantly. The gallery sections have unique address codes, so you can send images to the specific...

  If accessing the web on your mobile phone is difficult with a small screen and smaller keypad, why not just talk to your phone to navigate the web? This was the thought of Dortmund, Germany, based Materna Communications who demonstrated their new VoiceFlash product in Barcelona. As Materna says, VoiceFlash user can control navigation menus “with their own voice input” – or by talking into their phone. This also means that online forms can be filled in, and even a genuine dialogue be held with the web interface, and information can be requested from websites. An example application would be requesting timetable information, by speaking the starting point of your journey and your destination, as well as the date and approximate time of departure or arrival. Similarly, it would be relatively easy to construct and then navigate by voice to quickly obtain phone numbers or local addresses from business directories. And of course, the voice doesn’t have to be via a phone call, but can be using a microphone or headset connected to a PC, and thereby help those less able to use a keyboard, or us geeks who like to show that we aren’t restricted to a keyboard, but can navigate the web by voice. Materna are working on making their...

  What a competition: there were four regional tournaments around the world, and the search took one year, but now the Champion of the 2009 Mobile Innovation Global Awards is known. The winner is CooTek for their TouchPal soft keyboard for touchscreen devices. It wasn’t just the spelling correction software which impressed judges, but also that experienced users can type at a staggering 400 characters per minute on a touchscreen. So it’s no wonder that TouchPal has become the most popular keyboard software in the world, with more than 2 million downloads last year. Touchscreen phones are getting popular these years. But typing on touchscreen is no fun. Many iPhone users, for example, have complaints about its onscreen keyboard. Due to the small buttons and the lack of key-pressing feedback, users are more likely to press wrong keys on a virtual keyboard than on a real keyboard. TouchPal was carefully designed to resolve these issues by introducing many breakthrough technologies. One example is the impressive mistyping correction technology -- even if a user mistypes all the letters in a word, it can still predict the correct word. One can thus type much faster without even looking at the keyboard. Another eye-catching feature is called...

  The GSMA reported that Mobile World Congress was attended by more than 47,000 visitors from 189 countries with executives from the largest mobile operators, software companies and equipment providers as well as government delegations. Attendees holding C-level positions constituted 50% of visitors and there were more than 2,800 CEOs at the conference. Leaders from companies including AT&T, China Mobile, China Unicom, Ericsson, Microsoft Corp., MySpace, Nokia, Telefonica, Telenor, Verizon Communications and Vodafone gathered to outline the plan to cope with the global economic slowdown and lessen its impact on mobile industry. The Congress featured 1,300 exhibiting companies on more than 57,000 square metres of space, 11% larger than in the previous year. Announcements made at Mobile World Congress were reported by nearly 2,400 international, Web, and broadcast media. Prospects and strategic issues facing the mobile industry will be explored at the Mobile Asia Congress that will be held in Hong Kong in autumn 2009.  

  Scalado, a leader in mobile imaging software solutions that are both fast and memory efficient, and Eastman Kodak today announced that Scalado's SpeedTags™ technology will be used in KSP-720060, a new Kodak's CMOS TRUESENSE image signal sensor. With SpeedTags™ mobile devices will process common and large JPEG images much faster. Thanks to SpeedTags™ it will be much easier and more convenient to handle files directly from a mobile device. KSP-720060 with integrated SpeedTags™ technology will be used in camera phones, digital still cameras and other mobile devices equipped with a camera.