Gadgety News

After hearing that T-Mobile have dropped the UK price of the G1 Google Phone the second Android phone has been announced in Australia and you can get hold of it in the UK too!

The Agora and Agora Pro will start shipping in January thus kitting out Aussies with Google’s OS.

The new Google Blower packs 3G, a 2.5 inch touchscreen and a QWERTY keypad.

The Agora will cost $299 and the Pro will cost $399. They’re essentially the same phone, although the Pro also packs Wi-Fi and a 2 megapixel camera.

The best news? They’re also being offered to international customers. The Kogan Agora will cost £152 with international shipping, while the Pro version will set you back £203.

Kogan

I love smartphones and I’m one of those people that loves it when convergence works. I was one of those guys that searched to find if I could actually buy the Wasp T12 Speechtool after seeing it on the very first episode of Nathan Barley back in 2005

Now I’ve stumbled across this bad-boy. The Pomegranate NS08 built and designed in Nova Scotia, of all places.

The millimeters-thin touchscreen phone handles voice, web browsing, and e-mail with ease but has some other surprises up its shell!

After checking your e-mail in the morning, the Pomegranate can brew coffee by using special single-serve coffee pods. There are currently four flavours available (Hazelnut, Columbian, French Vanilla, and Sumatran), which is a nice start.

Once you’ve gotten your first cup of coffee in your system, the NS08 features an electric razor for trimming on the go.

You also get a high-definition projector for movies and the thing will even turn into a harmonica: “You can play along with preset beats or go freestyle. No other phone in the world plays like the Pomegranate,” according to the NS08 website.

All of the above sounds fab but that keyboard looks almost impossible to use and the small problem that the phone isn’t real.

Sorry

It’s the brainchild of Nova Scotia tourism, the idea that “Someday you’ll be able to get everything you want in one device” but “Today you can get everything you want in one place”.

Now NS 08 makes sense doesn’t it?  Great idea and kudos to the marketing team!

Pomegranate Phone

It seems that Nokia have slipped out details of the N97 whilst my back was turned!

Their new flagship phone packs a 3.5-inch, 640 x 360 pixel (that’s a 16:9 aspect ratio) resistive touchscreen display with tactile feedback.

Nok have also slipped a QWERTY keyboard into this sliding communicator that features an “always open” window to favourite internet or social networking site.

Nokia is calling the N97 the “world’s most advanced mobile computer.”

Well they have crammed in HSDPA, WiFi, and Bluetooth radios, A-GPS, a 3.5-mm headjack, 32GB of onboard memory with microSD expansion (for up to 48GB total capacity), and a battery capable of up to 1.5 days of continuous audio playback or 4.5-hours video.

As befits the N9* series it has that rather spanky 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss glass and “DVD quality” video capture at 30fps.

It does read as being quite the special smartphone but will the S60 5th Edition OS can support it?

Also for that “mobile computer” claim it will have to drag the likes of me away from the simple and effective iPhone interweb browsing experience.

The N97 will launch early 2009 with a retail price set at around €550 - don’t forget to add on all those lovely taxes as well.

Nokia N97 announced – via Dialaphone

The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) of Taiwan has conjured up a flexible display that allows a smartphone’s screen to double to five inches.

This actually makes the screen size comparable to many netbooks and all-in-all a lot less bulky than the iCEPhone.

The demo device is branded the “Nokia Communicator” and comprises an editing keyboard (lower half) and a wide format display (upper half). The user only would see the top half of the screen — the rest is hiding behind the keyboard and can be pulled out when required.

Looking at the pics it looks like the screen is separated down the middle but apparently that grey line marks the task border which can be shifted up and down the display as the user prefers.

ITRI has partnered with Pilot Fish to produce this demo model and is now seeking world-wide manufacturers to adopt the new technology which they say will be ready in a year.

Could we be seeing an iPhone with a screen that can be pulled out to three times it’s original size in a year or so?

The Xperia X1 should be available next month or so but it seems that SE are already working on a new Xperia smartphone if rumours are to be believed on the internet.

New photos purporting to be the next generation Sony Ericsson smartphone have surfaced on the interweblogosphere.

Called the X5 (erm - X2, X3, and X4 anyone?) the new model will supposedly feature an 8 megapixel camera with autofocus and flash, 8GB of internal memory plus the usual array of connectivity options like Wi-Fi HSDPA and GPS.

Other rumoured specs include a 3.2-inch touchscreen display.

Dunno if this is a truth or a falsehood but hey - a good rumour to start the week huh?

Via - Mobileburn

Those incredibly well informed people over at Crackberry have managed to get themselves some marketing pics of RIM’s new non-3G smartphone, the Blackberry Javelin!

It looks like the Javelin will be running a 512 MHz processor, coupled with 256 MB of onboard flash memory plus a hot-swappable microSD slot, a hi-res 460 x 360 HVGA+ display, Wi-Fi with UMA and GPS, and a 3.2 megapixel camera.

What is rather tantalising is the “integrated lens/LCD technology.”

Could this be pointing to a second camera hidden behind the display?

Alternatively it could just be marketing chatter for “a really nifty bit of kit”…

We’re still looking at a  2009 release date though.

Click the pics to go large

Crackberry

Skip over to Play.com for they have announced that they will be selling the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 Sim free from the 30 October!

So, if you wanna get your hands on a Sony Ericsson X1 smartphone this is your chance to have it at day one without having to sign up for any lengthy contracts.

Ok so it will cost £499.99*

But just imagine all that 3.2 megapixel camera, slide out Qwerty keyboard and heavily customised version of Windows Mobile 6.1 loveliness!

Scamper over to Play.commy children

*Corrected by Naz

N96 Out Sept 08

I’m a fan of Noks N95. 

I love the camera, I love the screen and I loved it as anyone would love their first smartphone.

Looking around the City I see that it is still a very popular phone.

I’ve had plenty of searches regarding the release of it’s heir and then saw this.

It looks like the N96 is coming in September.

It will be running the Symbian OS 9.3 Series 60 3rd Edition Feature Pack with a 16.3 GB (accessible: 16.2 GiB) memory and a screen res of 240 x 320.

It also will be packing DVB-H, Satellite Navigation with Assisted GPS the 5mp snapper we all knnow and love with the bonus of everyone’s new favourite toy; a Built-in accelerometer.

Can’t wait to get one to review!  (Hint!)

Update:  It appears that it has been pushed back to October according to Carphone Warehouse.

Thanks Rob :0)

The long awaited arrival of the N96 (similar to the fabby N95 but one better) is almost coming to an end.

To remind us it now has its own special Flash-based web-tour.

You get all the dirt on things such as GPS, music playback, and Internet browsing.

Go on - indulge yourself and decide if you’re still going to get an iPhone.

Would you chose the N96 over the 3G Jesusblower?

It can’t be much more than a month since Acer dropped a big wad of cash to acquisition 75% of Packard Bell.

Not satisfied with that, Acer has now thrown $290 million at E-TEN, the makers of the rather fabby Glofiish smartphones, and for that they acquire 100%!

Acer chairman J.T. Wang said that the “acquisition of E-TEN increases Acer’s global footprint by giving us a strong and highly credible presence in the mobility segment.”

Via Phone Scoop

Word on the street is that Sony Ericsson are planning to announce a high-end smartphone.

The P5i is said to be the successor the the P1 and P990 and will be launched within days, say folk who’ve seen the handset and - helpfully - provided renderings of what the device looks like.

Described as “considerably more portable” than the P990, the new P5i is apparently a smartie slider and boasts a 2.8-inch touchscreen.

HSUPA connectivity will compliment Wi-Fi and, unusually for a smartphone, it’s said to incorporate a 5-megapixel camera, complete with auto focus and flash.

GPS mapping may get thrown in and the interface is said to have had a revamp. Expect an announcement as early as November 15th, if the sources are on the money.

>> Via - Electronista and Pocket Lint