China will soon get LG’s first smartphone running on the Android based OMS (Open Mobile System) platform. To be launched with China Mobile, the new GW880 smartphone has a 3.5-inch WVGA touchscreen display, a 5MP camera with Flash, GPS, Bluetooth Mobile TV 512 MB ROM and 256 MB of RAM.
The phone supports GSM and TD-SCDMA connectivity, but what it lacks is WiFi. Considering that China Mobile’s OMS (or OPhone) platform has an iPhone like interface, the GW880 will probably be cheaper, or so to say, the poor man’s iPhone.
Though China has a number of mobile phones running on Android, like the anticipated Sunno S800 that promises to dual boot with Android and Windows Mobile, a phone from a globally reputed manufacturer makes things different.
The LG GW880 is expected to be made available sometime later this year, but the price has not been announced yet. The phone may never be sold outside of China, but we hope that LG’s experience with Android in China will help it create better Android based phones in the near future.
Home theater PCs are good, but expensive to own, but it looks like Asus is about to change the game with the EeeBox Home theater PC. Asus isn’t speaking about the pricing or release dates just yet, but there are some delicious details to feed on. The compact EB 1012 will measure just 222mm x 178mm x26.9mm and will run off an Atom N330 dual core processor.
The PC will have a 150 GB SATA HDD, 2 GB RAM (expandable to 4 gigs), gigabit ethernet, 802.11n WiFi, S/PDIF 5.1 audio connection, HDMI output, multi card reader, port for external SATA hard drive, 4x USB ports, and of course, support for full HD (1080p). Plus, this one is likely to handle flash videos well, something that will make it enjoyable for watching movies online, and also get an upper hand on the competition. That long list makes it almost a complete home theater, even though the lack of Blu-ray capabilities may be a bit of a dampener, but the price will more than likely make up for it.
NEC Display Solutions has just released a new, wide-aspect professional installation projector, the NP4100W. The new projector is aimed at areas with high ambient lighting, and for larger spaces. To that end, the projector has a high level of brightness at 5500 ANSI lumens, and a display resolution of 1280×800 with a 16:10 aspect ratio and 2100:1 contrast ratio.
The NP4100W comes with the ECO mode technology that can increase the lamp life by up to 50%, while decreasing fan noise at the same time. This will of course have effect on the display and brightness, but is a good feature to use when ambient lighting is lower and suitable. It comes with five optional lenses that can work for screen sizes ranging from 40-inches to 500-inches, while at a distance of 2.8 feet to 304 feet.
Other features include AutoSense that lets the projector sync with any computer, DynamicBlack and BrilliantColor that improve the black level and video color and saturation respectively, integrated RJ45 connection for LAN, and remote diagnostics. The projector is able to take input from a number of sources like DVI-D with HDCP, RCA, s-video, component, 15-pin and BNC. To be put on sale this month, the projector costs $5,499.
Success of the iPhone’s app store has been phenomenal, and while other similar app stores may not be such huge hits, they do show promise, profitability and consumers usually heart the availability of such options. The latest phone maker to announce an app store is Samsung, whose application store for smartphones will go live on September 14. Coming quick on the heels of Samsung’s announcement of readying a new Linux-based smartphone OS, this just goes on to give an indication of the plans Samsung has for the mobile phone market.
Upon its launch, the Samsung application store will host nearly 300 apps and support only the Samsung Omnia and Samsung Omnia i8910 HD phones. Samsung hopes to increase the number of applications to 2000 by the end of this year, and also increase the number of supported handsets. To be available online at http://samsungapps.com/ the store will initially be available in UK, France and Italy, and will eventually be available in more countries.
Sprint has announced that the HTC Touch Pro 2 will be soon available on the carrier, and that it will be as expensive as T-Mobile’s Touch Pro2. The high-end superphone will make its way to the consumers starting September 8, and its goodies will be expensive to own. The phone with Windows Mobile 6.1 Operating System will be available for $350 for a two year contract, and that price includes the $100 mail-in rebate.
That sticker price puts the Touch Pro2 at $50 pricier than the Touch Pro, and also, $150 more over the Palm Pre and the iPhone 3GS 16GB. The price does seem to be a bit too inflated, considering the obvious price advantages that the Pre and iPhone have over the Touch Pro, sales may not be going through the roof.
Paying all that cash will get you a phone with 3.6-inch WVGA tilting screen with touchscreen display, full QWERTY keyboard, EVDO Rev. A, Wi-Fi, GPS, 3.2 MP camera, micro SD card support, and access to Sprint TV, NFL Mobile Live and NASCAR Sprint cup mobile applications.
With T-Mobile and Sprint going the high price way with the Touch Pro 2, you can expect Verizon and AT&T to tread the same path when this high-end phone becomes available on these networks.