Fly MC100 Mobile, designed for lovers of music and games

The people of Fly presented its new model of mobile camera phone under the name of MC100, and say have focused exclusively on those music lovers, as it highlights their duties digital audio as well as games… since it has support for several models for the Nintendo platform.

The phone has a design-in-all pleasant and quite simple.

Here we list the characteristics of the Fly MC100 camera phone:

• Dimensions: 111.4 x 50.2 x 15 mm


• Weight: 106 grams


• TFT LCD with a resolution of 240 x 320px and up 262 thousand colors


• 2MP digital camera with video recording


• Audio Formats: MIDI, IMY, WAV, AMR, AAC, MP3



• Video Formats: MP4, 3GP


• FM radio tuner


• Support for games (NES, JMS, Game Boy, Game Boy Color)


• Bluetooth 1.2 with A2DP


• USB


• 23MB of Memory


• MicroSD slot


• Departure for headphones, 3.5 mm


• Built-in speakers, designed by Yamaha



• Li-Ion Battery 1050 mAh


• Autonomy until 5 pm in use (not much), 330 hours standby

The location of the launch of Fly MC100 will be in Russia, with a price of 620 us dollars.

Rumor: iPhones, iPod to be $100 cheaper very soon?

Are you one who’s been wanting that iPhone or iPod Touch but on a budget? You might be in luck within the next two months, there are rumors (of course) swirling that Apple is planning a $100 price drop across the board. That would make for a $300 16GB iPod Touch, or $400 for a 32GB Touch or 16GB iPhone.

Coupled with the pending SDK, that makes the iPhone almost appealing to even the most hardened anti-iPhone cynic. Even me.

$100 price drop on iPhones and iPods coming in the next two months [9-to-5 Mac]

PSP Phone reference spotted in Sony Magazine

Now obviously, before proceeding here you're going to want to find the largest grain of salt you can locate and keep it nearby. According to SEfanatics, a page in an issue of Sony Magazine (an office favorite over here) makes passing mention of a "PSP-Style phone" which is supposedly in development, then casually suggests the device could be "in shops as early as February." Of course, we've been hearing hushed conversations about this topic for some time now, though it does strike us as slightly odd that it's referenced in what is essentially a multi-page Sony advertisement. Sure, it's possible that something like that patent we recently saw could be headed our way -- obviously the company is still capable of throwing a few curve-balls in our direction, though we're going to need to little more evidence than this to start cracking open our piggy banks.

[Thanks, Teemu]

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Nokia Best Camera Phone - Nokia N96 Photos

Via engadget.com.

The Nokia N96 Camera Phone Announce

Rumored for a few weeks now as the N95's successor in waiting, the mighty N96 dual slider has gone all official on us at Mobile World Congress today. Though the phone it replaces is still a beast by any measure, the N96 pushes the envelope further by packing a solid 16GB of storage internally in addition to a microSD slot, something the N95 8GB lacks. The 5 megapixel autofocus camera with Carl Zeiss Tessar lens carries over, but there are now two LEDs doing flash and video light duty. The 2.8 inch QVGA display will come in handy for the integrated DVB-H mobile TV tuner, while a 3.5mm headphone jack, A2DP, and integrated stereo speakers should handle audio with aplomb. Other features include WiFi, AGPS, and morphing lights on the smaller second slide that hook the user up with game controls when it's time to relax with a little N-Gage action. Unfortunately, the first version of the N96 camera phone (and the only version announced thus far) supports HSDPA only on the 900 and 2100MHz bands, but we imagine the strength of the spec sheet should still be enough to sell a few of these stateside when it launches in the third quarter for €550 (about $797).

Via engadget.com.

Yokia! Why Nokia Should Buy Yahoo

Forget Microsoft, News Corp. or even Apple. Nokia, the world's no.1 mobile handset maker, should buy Yahoo. Or so says Information Week's Stephen Wellman, who puts forward a compelling argument: If Nokia is repositioning itself as a Web services company, to combat falling profit margins on its hardware, then acquiring Yahoo would help to give the company a much needed presence on the desktop (not just mobile), as well as beef up its Web offerings and Internet brand recognition in general.

"Nokia is now a Web company, not just a handset maker. But, the company acts as if the Web is just mobile and has no desktop component. This isn't a very smart strategy", writes Wellman. All of Nokia's mobile web rivals: Google, Microsoft and, of course, Yahoo all have desktop products.

"These Web giants are leveraging their vast desktop Web audiences to grow their mobile initiatives. While Nokia has tons of mobile phone customers, it doesn't have as many Web application users", notes Wellman.

As well as gaining a presence on the desktop, a Yahoo acquisition would help Nokia to further develop its range of location-based services (building on its purchase of GPS company Navteq), again to fend off challenges from Google. Ditto mobile advertising. In addition, Yahoo would give Nokia an instant bump in its U.S. brand recognition. Despite claiming a 40% worldwide market share for mobile phones, Nokia doesn't compete nearly as well in North America.

Overall, however, a combined Yahoo/Nokia (Yokia!) would provide Google with a formidable competitor in the pending battle for the mobile web. This is, as ex-Microsoftee Robert Scoble likes to point out, the real reason why Microsoft is attempting an aggressive takeover of Yahoo.

Alternatively, a nightmare scenario exists for both Microsoft and Yahoo: Yahoo sells it ad business to Google in return for an ad-revenue partnership. Meanwhile, the Open Handset Alliance starts to produce real results and Google's Android becomes a widely adopted mobile OS. The result? Google dominates the mobile Web (i.e. mobile ads) as it does on the desktop.

What do you think? Should Nokia merge with Yahoo? And yes, before you ask, Nokia does have the cash.

Via readwriteweb.com.

My Personal Cell Phone Journey to the iPhone

By R. Look.

Most of us here have been lucky enough to see how cell phones have evolved from the first portable cellular telephone (Motorola DynaTAC 80000X) in 1982 to Apple's groundbreaking "Internet Communicator" the iPhone (2007). The industry has come a long way for sure, back in 1983, I remember the DynaTAC was more than a foot long, weighed almost 2 lbs. and had a hefty price tag of approx. $4,000. If I recall correctly, it had a talk time of about 1 hour and could hold up to 30 numbers, an impressive feat for the to say the least.



Cell phones during this time were out of the reach of the common consumer and most people carried pagers. If you had a cell phone, you probably had the DynaTAC or had one installed in your car. Then, in 1993, BellSouth/IBM introduced the Simon. Billed as personal communicator, I actually was lucky enough to be involved in market testing for this device. Interestingly enough, I feel that this device paved the way for future phones such as the Treos, Blackberries, Windows Mobile Devices and of course our iPhone. In addition to being a phone, the Simon was also: a pager, calculator, address book, fax machine (yes that's right, it could send and receive faxes) and e-mail device. The one feature I feel that is worth mentioning is that it was a pen-enabled device (no handwriting recognition) that had a touch-screen interface. Sound good? It was considering it's feature set. The downside, it was huge, weighed 20 ounces and would set consumers back about $900.




Shortly after I gave up the Simon, the Motorola StarTAC hit the market (1996) and sold like hotcakes. It seemed as though everyone and their brother had one of these and I'm quite sure it still gives modern cell phones a run for their money in terms of size.



During this next phase of my cell phone history, I owned various Nokias and Motorolas, none of which struck me as being memorable. To give you an idea of what was in the market at the time, there was the Handspring Treo 180 (2001), the first edition of the SideKick (2002), the very first Blackberry (Blackberry 5810 in 2002) and the Nokia N-Gage (2003). I would have to say that from my standpoint, during these years, the cell phone industry seemed to be "lost" and needed some direction.

Then, in 2004, that much needed direction came from Motorola in the form of the Razr V3. Similar to the StarTAC, it sold like hotcakes and was available through almost every major wireless carrier.


Motorola tried to follow up the Razr V3 by introducing the Rokr (2005) which promised to be a music player and a cell phone. Unfortunately, the Rokr was a flop, but I feel that it still paved the way for other music enabled phones.

During this time (2006ish), I owned a Windows Mobile device from T-mobile called the MDA. It was an OK product, mediocre at best, but it did what it was supposed, albeit a bit unintuitively. It had a slide out keyboard, had all the office translators, could surf the web, receive email and play music and videos. I hated it but it was the only thing the cell industry could offer me at the time.





Finally, we arrive at the iPhone (June 2007). The iPhone threw out all expectations of what it meant be a "smart phone." It replaced the keyboard with a huge touchscreen display and was able to surf the Internet, get mail and of course play multimedia content from iTunes.

For me, the iPhone has changed how I am connected, how I interact with pictures, data and email. It makes my life easier and makes things I've never expected possible. Stay tuned for part 2 of my article in which I explain how the iPhone has changed my life.

iPhone Grabs 28% of U.S. Smartphone Market

iSuppli doesn't categorize the iPhone as a smartphone, but plenty others do. Market research firm Canalys, in fact, does, and says that despite not debuting until the middle of the year, the iPhone is the third largest-selling smartphone in the world, and also has 28% of the U.S. market.

The report says that in Q4 of 2007, Nokia had 52.9% of the worldwide "smart mobile device" market, RIM had 11.4%, and the iPhone had 6.5%. Motorola also had 6.5% of the market, but sold 19,020 fewer phones.

Even more telling is Apple's Q4 2007 share of the U.S. market. The iPhone scored 28% of the market, second to RIM with 41% but far ahead of third place device manufacturer Palm.

Anyone remember when Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said about the iPhone when it was introduced?

"There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance."

Uh, huh. Canalys' report also says that combined Windows Mobile smartphones totaled 21% of the U.S. smartphone market in Q4. That's combined. About that insignificant market share, Steve?

Speaking of Steve, Jobs said he wanted 1% market share by the end of 2008. But he was talking about total cell phone market share, not smartphone market share, so the iPhone still has a ways to go. However, it seems likely that Apple may sell the 10 million iPhones they projected by the end of 2008, so Jobs may get his wish.

iPhone 16GB and iPod Touch 32GB Available

The iPhone 16GB is now available for ordering at the Apple Store. Same specifications, no 3G in the iPhone, just more space so you can put double the music, double the images or double the non-authorized applications. Both the iPhone 16GB and the iPod touch 32GB will be available for $499. Full press release after the jump.

Apple Adds New iPhone & iPod touch Models


CUPERTINO, Calif., Feb. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Apple(R) today added new models of the iPhone(TM) and iPod(R) touch which have double the memory, doubling the amount of music, photos and videos that customers can carry with them wherever they go. The revolutionary iPhone now comes in a new 16GB model for $499, joining the 8GB model for $399. iPod touch now comes in a 32GB model for $499, joining the 16GB model for $399 and the 8GB model for $299. "For some users, there's never enough memory," said Greg Joswiak, Apple's vice president of Worldwide iPod and iPhone Product Marketing. "Now people can enjoy even more of their music, photos and videos on the most revolutionary mobile phone and best Wi-Fi mobile device in the world."

Both iPhone and iPod touch feature Apple's revolutionary Multi-Touch(TM) user interface and pioneering software that allows users to find and enjoy all their music, videos, photos and more with just a touch of their finger. All iPhone and iPod touch models include the latest software enhancements announced last month including the ability to automatically find your location using the new Maps application*; create Web Clips for your favorite websites; customize your home screen and watch movies from the new iTunes(R) Movie Rentals. Both iPhone and iPod touch feature the world's most advanced mobile web browser in the world with Safari(TM) and great mobile applications including Mail, Maps, Stocks, Weather and Notes.

Pricing & Availability

The new 16GB iPhone is available immediately for a suggested retail price of $499 (US) through the Apple Store(R) (http://www.apple.com), Apple's retail stores and AT&T retail and online stores. The 32GB iPod touch is available worldwide immediately for a suggested retail price of $499 (US) through the Apple Store (http://www.apple.com), Apple's retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. iTunes Movie Rentals are available in the US only. iPhone and iPod touch require a Mac(R) with a USB 2.0 port, Mac OS(R) X 10.4.10 or later and iTunes 7.6; or a Windows PC with a USB 2.0 port and Windows Vista or Windows XP Home or Professional (Service Pack 2) or later and iTunes 7.6.

Zong Mobile App Platform Comes to the US

Zong, a mobile SMS app framework from Europe's Echovox, has cut deals with eight major US mobile carriers to enable the Zong turnkey applications and API to be used in the US.

Publishers can now use Zong apps to offer their customers polls, quizzes, alerts, RSS feeds and more via SMS shortcodes and responses. The company says its API also allows publishers to leverage web content, serve up and bill customers for a wide variety of applications beyond SMS interactions.

Zong says it will announce deals with AT&T, Sprint, Nextel, T-Mobile, Boost, Cellular1 and Virgin early next month. No Verizon yet, apparently.

Publishers are expected to charge customers for use of the apps and billing functionality is built into Zong. The US carriers will take 40 to 60% of revenue from the apps, Zong will take less than 10% and the publishers can pocket the rest. That sounds like the kind of revenue split that could prove viable in the long run. While a lot of the apps we'll start seeing soon will probably be pretty corny, there will be some good ones too. Good mobile apps that work are something I'm willing to pay to use.

Competitor Golife Mobile just began offering limited Java application access last week. Some comparison to Google's Android Mobile OS can't help but come to mind - but Zong is a far more limited application framework, is explicitly commercial in its relationship to end users - and it's live now. While the Android SDK has been released - the Operating System isn't live on any phones yet.

Via readwriteweb.com