T-Mobile has just announced several new “flexible plans” featuring lower early termination fees for customers signing service contracts with T-Mobile USA.  The new flexible plans are expected to be available early in 2008, and will apply to new T-Mobile wireless service customers, as well as those with existing T-Mobile service contracts.

JD power and Associates ranked T-Mobile as first in their wireless customer care performance evaluation in 2007, making T-Mobile the only wireless provider to hold the top spot for five consecutive years.  The new flexible service contracts are seen as an attempt by the Company to expand on their customer service, and pull customers from AT&T and other large American carriers.

T-Mobile UK has already had similar flexible plans in place for some time, and by all accounts they been a big hit.  Sue Nokes, T-Mobile senior vice president for sales and customer service says, “We want to do everything possible to create a great experience so customers stay with us for years.”

The new flexible contract terms would seem to indicate that T-Mobile USA is listening to request by its customers to provide a more “open” wireless market, giving consumers the freedom to choose networks without undue penalties.

The big question is, will the other large carriers in the US follow T-Mobile’s lead?  AT&T, in particular, has been reluctant to consider an open cell phone market, so there is some doubt as to whether they will be able to match T-Mobile’s new flexible plans.

Of course, market forces may end up forcing AT&T and other carriers to either follow in T-Mobile’s footsteps, or provide an alternative incentive to keep their customers on board.

Source:  techluver

LG has released its new LG-KS20, a HSDPA-enabled handset featuring a large touch-screen, both WiFi and Bluetooth compatibility, 128 MB of internal memory, one-button e-mail, and other groundbreaking features.  In fact the LG-KS20 is so loaded down with technology, many are hailing it as the “iPhone killer.”

The LG-KS20 certainly looks stylish, with a 2.8 inch wide LCD flat touch-screen.  And at only 12.8 mm thick, the LG-KS20 has a slim and clean design, with smooth lines and a larger than expected touch-screen.

But despite its cool appearance, it’s what’s under the LG-KS20’s hood that has mobile users intrigued. The handset runs on Microsoft’s Windows mobile six, ensuring compatibility with existing mobile software. And the LG-KS20 is compatible with the new HS PDA high speed mobile network, allowing users to enjoy speeds of up to 3.6 MB per second when surfing the net.  This makes it not only possible, but actually a breeze to download music or video clips and other content online.

The LG-KS20 certainly does seem to be designed as an Internet surfing phone.  For example, full Internet browsing capability, including full-screen display mode is supported.  You can also save sites to your favorites and add shortcuts.

While the iPhone looks the business, and has advanced MP3 playing features, the new LG-KS20 is the first true high-speed Internet PDA/smart phone that allows users to surf the Web just as they would on their home PC.

The LG-KS20 has just been released in Europe, and will be hitting the American market within the next three months.  We’ll have to wait and see if it’s the “iPhone killer” gets cracked up to be.

Source:  lge

It wasn’t that many years ago that a 10 megapixel digital camera would have been unheard of, even in professional photography circles.  And even two years ago a state-of-the-art camera phone would have made do with a meager 1.5 or 2 megapixel digital camera.

But times change and technology marches on; Samsung has just released the world’s first 10 megapixel camera phone, the SCH-B600. The new camera phone will be launched first in the Korean market, but is expected to begin appearing in North America within the next six months.

It’s kind of fitting that Samsung should be the company to launch the first 10 megapixel camera phone; the company was responsible for launching the first camera phone back in 2000.  Besides an integrated 10 megapixel digital camera, the new SCH-B600 is thinner and lighter than its predecessors, and integrates mobile TV capability.

You also get all of the sophisticated digital camera functions you would expect, including a 3x optical zoom, a 5x digital zoom, autofocus, and an onboard flash unit.  The SCH-B600 also includes white balance, manual focus and is Bluetooth enabled, allowing users to send photos wirelessly to printers, other mobile phones or Bluetooth devices.

And course, like every new mobile phone released these days, the B600 includes a top-notch MP3 player, as well as a variety of state-of-the-art bells and whistles.  Retail price for the SCH-B600 is expected to come in at about $900 US, making it either a fairly expensive cell phone, or a very reasonably priced 10 megapixel camera.

In fact, with so much camera technology included in the new 10 megapixel camera phone, you have to wonder if the SCH-B600 is actually a phone with a built-in camera, or a high quality camera that just happens to include a phone? Either way–itís pretty sharp.

Source:  ultimate mobile phones

Are cell phones and other wireless devices hazardous to your health?  Electromagnetic radiation, or EMR, produced by cell phones is a real concern for many experts studying phone usage.

One particularly alarming study, conducted by the British military, discovered that wireless phone use disrupted the brain’s ability to process memory, causing confusion and short-term memory problems in users.  Other studies have shown that electromagnetic signals from cell phones reduce concentration and affect physical coordination when driving a car.

Even tests conducted by the U. S. Department of energy concluded that cell phone use severely degraded memory and physical reaction times.  And if you’re thinking that hands-free mobile systems are any better, you’d better think again.  Speaker free phones were found to cause more accidents than standard cell phones, presumably because they emit almost 10 times as much interference than a standard handheld phone.

But despite the many studies that have concluded that electromagnetic radiation from wireless devices can be damaging, cell phone carriers and other big players in the industry continue to downplay the existence of EMR radiation.

How much damage is actually being done by cell phone emitted EMR radiation is impossible to say, but some governments around the world aren’t taking any chances.  For example, New Zealand recently passed a law forbidding the construction of cell phone towers anywhere near public schools.  Both Canada and Britain are also considering similar legislation to protect children from potential electromagnetic radiation.

But with cell phone and wireless technology use at a record level, it seems clear that, even if there are health risks involved, we are simply going to have to learn to live with them, as wireless technology is not going away.

Source:  ehso

Remember back in the day, when a cell phone used to be called a “cell phone?” Well not any more. Nokia has just introduced the N77 “Multimedia Computer,” a beast of a smartphone/mobile TV/MP3 player/computer that includes integrated DVB-H technology.

Nokia’s new N77 is so packed with features; I honestly had to read all the way down the bottom of the brochure to find out if it actually WAS a cell phone at all! The biggest selling point of the N77 is its integrated mobile TV, which uses DVB-H technology for up to 16 million colors and high definition stereo sound.

The N77 will be launched first in Vietnam, where consumers are already used to mobile television services, and in fact the country now boasts several TV programs made specifically for mobile TV viewers. No date has been set for a US release at this time.

The N77 is certainly a neat little gadget. It remembers the last Channel viewed when you switched it off, and will also allow you to set up alerts for when your program is about to begin. You can view a program guide up to seven days in advance, and it use a TiVo like 30 second replay function to “rewind” and watch something you may have missed.

The N77’s music functions are just as impressive, with 2 GB of memory and integrated stereo speakers. Storage space is provided for up to 1500 songs in a variety of popular formats including MP3, AAC and WMA.

And when you get tired of watching mobile TV or listening to music, you can surf the Web, manage all your day-to-day e-mail and calendar tasks easily, or take pictures with the inbuilt two megapixel digital camera. The new Nokia N77 attempts to be all things to everyone — and mostly succeeds.

Source: i2-mobile

With every major wireless player introducing so-called “smartphones” into the marketplace, you might easily overlook the new T-Mobile ìDashî as just another attempt to cash in on a trend.  But the Dash has a few tricks up its sleeve to ensure it won’t get lost among the myriad of other smartphones currently competing for shelf space this holiday season.

Weighing only 4.2 ounces, the Dash is small for any cell phone, but especially small for his smartphone.  And with a slim, sleek design (only .5 inches thick); the Dash is both tiny and attractive.

Texting and e-mail input is accomplished with a full QWERTY keyboard, and there’s a 1.3 megapixel camera around the back for uploading photos online or via e-mail.

Technically the Dash is a four band GSM phone, with both Bluetooth and WiFi capability. WiFi connectivity is automatic when ever you’re within one of T-Mobile’s 7200 WiFi hotspot locations around the US.  There’s also a MicroSD slot for increasing the phone’s memory by up to 2 GB.

Dash uses Windows mobile operating system, which includes the mobile versions of Internet Explorer, Word, Outlook and Windows media player, just to name a few.  Syncing the Dash to your home PC or laptop is easy, and mostly automatic.  You can also sync up via USB to exchange larger files like photos, MP3s or video.

And unlike many so-called “smartphones,” the Dash appears to have plenty of battery life, running for 48 hours or more before needing a recharge.  Most regular cell phones would be happy with this kind of battery life, but for a smart phone is very impressive indeed.

Source:  msnbc

Although Europeans, especially northern Europeans, are often introduced to new wireless and computing technology before it is released in America, they’re now finding out how it feels to be on the other end of technology curve. Apple’s iPhone will hit the European market this Friday, beginning with releases in Germany and Britain.

Of course the iPhone has been available in North America for four months now, so the Europeans are slow getting their hands on the new technology — at least for once.

Many phone and wireless technology manufacturers routinely release products in Europe months before they make it to the United States. Nokia devices, for example, are almost always released in Europe well ahead of the American market. And it is surprising to many Americans to learn that the new cutting edge phone they just purchased is already old news in places like Finland, Norway and even Iceland!

But at least for now, the Europeans are getting a taste of what it feels like to be second in line for a high technology release. Prices for the iPhone in the UK will be roughly the same as they were for its launch in the United States, and sales are expected to be “brisk,” according to Apple’s UK headquarters.

German sales are expected to also be substantial. CNBC Europe is reporting that pre-registration demand for the iPhone was “strong” in Germany. In fact Apple’s German headquarters expressed concern over whether they had enough devices to meet consumer demand.

Following the German and UK release, the iPhone will be introduced in France and Scandinavia on November 29th, and most of the rest of Europe in the weeks to follow.

Source: intomobile

After months of wild speculation, Google has finally introduced its new “GPhone.” There’s just one problem: it’s not actually a phone at all. What Google has created a something far greater than a shiny new mobile phone. The company is planning a worldwide alliance between various mobile phone companies, programmers, and cell phone service carriers.

If Google has its way, all of these disparate entities will develop a new worldwide “open source” wireless phone technology. It turns out that Google’s new phone, is actually a cell phone operating system known as “Android.” The idea is for android to do for mobile phones what the development of the Internet did for home computers. Think of it as Windows XP for your phone — now you’re getting the idea.

And because the new Android cell phone operating system is “open source,” programmers around the world will be able to develop software to run on any phone using Google’s system, pretty neat, eh?

But before Google can take over the cell phone world the same way it has the Internet, it’s going to have a bit of a fight on its hands to make this worldwide open cell phone market a reality. In the United States, the cell phone market has been traditionally closed, with carriers “locking” phones to their specific network as a type of protectionism.

Google is going to have to win over (or crush) some huge cell phone industry players in the US to make their “open source” plan a reality. You can just imagine that old giants like AT&T will not be very happy with the idea of an “open source” cell phone market in the United States. Oops! There goes their entire business model…

Source: Google-Phone