Computerworld Philippines :: mobile phones

Sony Ericsson outs smallest Android phones yet

By JM Tuazon on July 26, 2010

By John Mark V. Tuazon
Computerworld Philippines
July 26, 2010

In keeping with its strategy to provide a seamless communication and entertainment experience, Sony Ericsson on Friday released what could possibly be the smallest Android smartphone units yet, the Xperia X10 Mini and Xperia X10 Mini Pro.

Scaled-down versions of Sony Ericsson’s flagship Xperia X10 line, the Mini and Mini Pro units sport 2.55-inch TFT touchscreen displays and five-megapixel cameras. The Pro version, typically marketed for business users, comes with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard below the touchscreen display.

Both new releases will sport the Timescape and Mediascape UI popularized by the firm with its Xperia X10 line. Timescape pools all messages from various communication portals under one application, while Mediascape houses all multimedia files from both offline and online sources.

Dennis Manzano, general manager of Sony Ericsson Philippines, said during the Sony Ericsson Expo 2010 that the Android phones will also put social networking in center stage. “Communication has evolved into entertainment, and entertainment has taken a different step. [The popularity of] Facebook and Twitter is evidence of how social media affects our daily lives,” he emphasized.

Manzano said these two social networks, among others, are already embedded applications within the handsets, “so [users can] enjoy it on the go.”

During the three-day expo held at the Megatrade Hall 1 of SM Megamall in Mandaluyong City, Sony Ericsson also unveiled their HD phone line, the Vivaz and Vivaz Pro; and the new addition to the Walkman series, the Spiro and Zylo Walkman phones.

The company is also set to release their entry-level Xperia offering, the Xperia X8, and the first full-touch Walkman phone, the Yendo, both of which are due out by the end of the third quarter this year.

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Top-rated cell phones also rank high in radiation emissions

By JM Tuazon on February 24, 2010

By John Cox
Network World (US)
February 24, 2010

FRAMINGHAM - An environmental activist group has issued its latest list of popular cell phones that emit comparatively high levels of RF radiation, though all are within federal limits.

The press release and full report on new 2010 cell phones by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), based in Washington, D.C., are intended in part to highlight the fact that technology writers and product reviewers rarely evaluate radiation emissions when rating cell phones.

The press release singles out four recent, well-reviewed cell phones: Motorola Droid, Blackberry Bold 9700, LG Chocolate Touch and HTC Nexus One by Google. “EWG has found that all four phones’ emissions are pushing the edge of radiofrequency radiation safety limits set by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC),” according to the group’s press release. A separate document, “Cell Phone Radiation Science Review,” charges, among other things, that “Current FCC standards fail to provide an adequate margin of safety for cell phone radiation exposure and lack a meaningful biological basis.”

EWG has prepared a list of low-emission cell phones, contrasting it with a list of the top-rated cell phones and their corresponding emission levels.

Some phone manufacturers have extensive, accessible online information about phone emissions, such as Nokia, while others have sparser or less accessible data. But emissions data on all cell phones in the U.S. are maintained in a public database by the Federal Communications Commission. It’s a cumbersome, two-part query and you need to have the “FCC ID” number that’s on the phone. Often, this means removing the battery cover or even the battery pack itself.

The FCC safety limits are based on what’s called the Specific Absorption Rate (SAR), which the agency defines as “the amount of radio frequency energy absorbed by the body when using a mobile phone.” It measures the energy in watts, per kilogram (of body weight). The FCC has a SAR Webpage, and a link there to the searchable database. EWG has created its own listing of currently available U.S. cell phones, and their SAR data.

According to the FCC, “Any cell phone at or below these SAR levels (that is, any phone legally sold in the U.S.) is a ‘safe’ phone, as measured by these standards. The FCC limit for public exposure from cellular telephones is an SAR level of 1.6 Watts per kilogram (1.6 W/kg).”

Using the FCC’s data, EWG finds that the four phones (others are listed in the press release) have SAR levels close to the FCC maximum: Droid, 1.50 W/kg; Nexus One, 1.39; Bold 9700, 1.55, and LG Chocolate Touch, 1.46.

As recently as September 2009, the CTIA, a group of wireless industry vendors, reiterated its position that several government and other groups have sifted the evidence and “have all concluded that the scientific evidence to date does not demonstrate any adverse health effects associated with the use of wireless phones.”

Another industry group, the Mobile Manufacturers’ Forum notes on its SAR Web page that SAR testing is done in laboratory conditions using the maximum power of the phone. “However, the actual SAR level of the phone while operating can be well below this value,” MMF notes. “This is because the phone is designed to use the minimum power required to reach the network. Therefore, the closer you are to a base station, the more likely it is that the actual SAR level will be lower.”

According to EWG, “Scientists around the world are conducting studies to address the outstanding questions on human health effects of radiofrequency radiation. In the meantime, EWG recommends that cell phone users buy phones with low emissions.”

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LG, Samsung go social with latest handsets

By Fei Lumbania on February 11, 2010

By Martyn Williams
IDG News Service (Tokyo Bureau)
February 11, 2010

TOKYO - South Korea’s two biggest cell phone makers previewed on Tuesday handsets they plan to unveil at next week’s Mobile World Congress exhibition in Barcelona.

Both phones feature full-screen touch panels on their face, Wi-Fi and close links with social networking services.

The Samsung Monte is an extension of the company’s S-series of phones and includes applications for Facebook and MySpace, and widgets for access to Twitter, Bebo and several instant messaging networks.

The front of the phone is dominated by a 3-inch display with full-screen touchpanel through which all the main user interaction takes place.

A GPS receiver hooks into Google Latitude, which allows you to share your position with friends on a map, and provides location data that is embedded with photos taken with the phone’s 3.2-megapixel camera. Two applications, Exchange ActiveSync and Google Sync, are included to synchronize e-mail, contacts and other data with a PC.

LG’s new handset, the GD880 Mini, connects to Facebook and Twitter and a social network feed function combines updates from different services in a single stream.

In some areas the LG Mini outpaces the Samsung Monte: the screen is slightly bigger at 3.2 inches and the camera offers a higher resolution of 5 megapixels. Other features include high-speed HSDPA networking and A-GPS (assisted GPS).

LG said the Mini will be launched in Europe in March and later in other markets. Samsung didn’t provide launch details for the Monte. Both companies are yet to announce prices for the new handsets.

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Mobile phones edge PCs in social network use: IDC

By JM Tuazon on November 20, 2009

By MIS Asia staff
MIS Asia
November 20, 2009

SINGAPORE - Mobile devices are the preferred tools by social network site (SNS) users over PCs in at least four Asian countries, according to a recent IDC survey report.

The report titled Examining Usage, Perceptions, and Monetization: The Coming of Age for Social Network Sites in Asia/Pacific said more than 50 per cent of respondents in China, India, South Korea and Thailand access social networks such as Facebook weekly via mobile phones.

In China and Thailand, 62 per cent and 65 per cent of the respective respondents use mobile phones to get news alerts and notifications, receive and reply to messages, upload photos, or update personal status and profiles on popular SNS.

On the other hand, 19 per cent and 25 per cent of the respondents in Australia and Singapore, respectively, registered the lowest percentage of users who access mobile versions of SNS on a weekly basis.

“The prevalence of owning a cellular phone over a PC in China, India and Thailand has directly boosted the popularity of mobile SNS access,” said Debbie Swee, market analyst, IDC Asia/Pacific Emerging Technologies Research.

The number of mobile users in South Korea is also large but the growth has been attributed to another factor.

“The [South Korean] market is technologically advanced and has already seen mass adoption of mobile Internet as compared with all other countries surveyed in the study,” Swee explained.

Despite a similar technological status of the Australian and Singaporean markets, “the overwhelming importance of the PC over mobile has created strong inertia against adopting regular mobile access of SNSes,” the IDC analyst added.

Lower telco rates

According to the IDC report, there are indications that mobile operators’ pricing strategies are preventing non-users from going to mobile social networking.

“For mobile operators in China, India and Thailand, IDC believes a low flat-rate Internet access fee would complement and increase mobile SNS adoption,” Swee said.

Most users who have never accessed SNS through mobile phones said they are prevented from doing so because of the costly data tariffs in the form of mobile Internet, SMS or MMS access.

However, they also expressed intention of trying out mobile versions of SNS if telcos offer more affordable data rates. To a lesser extent, the availability of user-friendly mobile applications is also perceived as a notable area of improvement.

For other countries, increasing the number of users of mobile SNS might just be a matter of marketing approach.

“In Australia, South Korea and Singapore where data tariffs are already relatively low, operators need to correct users’ misconceptions of pricey data plans through advertising and other marketing efforts,” Swee said.

She stressed that failing to do so could mean that mobile Internet applications and services, not just mobile SNSs, will take longer to take off.

Undertaken by the IDC’s Asia/Pacific End-User Research and Statistics Group (ERS), the survey involved 1,400 social network site users, aged between 15-35 years old, from December 2008 to January 2009. It is part of a series of studies that evaluate the impact of Web 2.0 on Internet users in Australia, India, China, South Korea, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

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Dell open to developing mobile devices with carriers

By Melba Bernad on August 28, 2009

By Agam Shah
IDG News Service (San Francisco Bureau)
August 28, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO - Dell said it was willing to work with carriers worldwide to develop more mobile devices, suggesting that another phonelike prototype like the one it developed with China Mobile could be on the cards.

The company recently showed off a prototype mobile handset it developed with the Chinese mobile service provider, though neither has commented on when it will be available.

Dell collaborates with major telecommunication carriers worldwide, including AT&T and Vodafone. It is willing to make products with various screen sizes to suit the needs of the carriers it works with, said company founder and CEO Michael Dell on a conference call Thursday.

“We’ll go and build products those carrier partners want to see.” Dell said. “The [China Mobile] prototype … is one of those [products].”

Few details are available about the China Mobile device, though it is rumored to come with the Android operating system, a digital camera and support for a 2G network.

Dell already offers mobile devices like netbooks to customers as part of wireless carrier bundles. Netbooks are low-cost PCs that offer basic PC functionality and are characterized by small screens and keyboards.

However, company officials said they would like to try and focus more on enterprise products like servers and storage, which deliver better margins.

But if Dell decides to dive deeper into the mobile-phone space, it faces stiff competition against competitors like Nokia, Samsung, Apple, Research in Motion, Sony Ericsson and Palm.

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Touchscreens dominate smartphone interfaces

By Melba Bernad on August 19, 2009

By Mikael Ricknäs
IDG News Service (Stockholm Bureau)
August 19, 2009

STOCKHOLM - More than 15 million of the 38.1 million mobile phones sold during the second quarter used a touchscreen as the primary interface, according to market research company Canalys.

That’s much more than a year ago, when just 3.9 million of the 33.6 million phones sold in the second quarter of 2008 had touchscreens. The success of touchscreens is of course tightly coupled with the success of Apple’s iPhone, which has ignited user interest, said Mike Welch, vice president at Canalys. The number of smartphones that use a keyboard as its primary interface also increased, with 10.7 million sold in the quarter.

For its figures, Canalys decides what is the primary interface if a device comes with more than one input mechanism. Canalys then counts it as either as a touch, keyboard or keypad phone. So the Palm Pre and the Android-based G1 are, for example, counted as touch devices, according to Welch.

Like many market research companies, Canalys is upbeat about the smartphone market and is currently forecasting a 14 percent growth for global shipments in 2009 over 2008.

The main drivers behind the increased number of keyboard-equipped phones are sales of Research In Motion’s BlackBerry devices and the increased interest in social networking, including Facebook and Twitter, which demand more typing.

Having a keyboard can be helpful when inputting lots of text, according to Welch. So-called “soft” keyboards — which don’t have tactile keys — have gotten a bit of a bad rap, which sometimes is undeserved, Welch said.

But in the end it is how the keyboard is implemented, and support for a landscape mode on the iPhone is a step in the right direction, Welch said. That change made it easier for people with bigger fingers to type.

The big loser is the keypad. A year ago more than 60 percent of smartphones were equipped with a traditional keypad. Today that share has dropped to about 32 percent.

In the near future, voice recognition will play a more important role on smartphones and supplement other technologies, according to Welch. Navigation applications are one area for voice recognition since only a limited vocabulary is necessary, according to Welch.

Voice recognition could also be used to input simple commands and text into smartphones, he said. But voice recognition technologies are still developing and do not work well enough to be ubiquitous on mobiles or PCs yet, Welch said.

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Samsung introduces new full-touch mobile phone

By JM Tuazon on August 4, 2009

by John Mark V. Tuazon
Computerworld Philippines
August 4, 2009

After capturing the market with its full-touch mobile phone offering at the start of this year, electronics brand Samsung Mobile ups its ante with the launch of Samsung Preston, its latest full-touch mobile phone.

Looking to increase its market share, Samsung on Saturday presented before media and partners at the 16th Samsung Experience store in SM Mall of Asia its new addition to its full-touch mobile phone line, carefully positioning it as a “more affordable” touchscreen phone.

The Prestone, Samsung’s second-cheapest full-touch phone next to the Samsung Star, features a full-touch interface with a responsive haptic feedback, 3G capabilities with HSDPA speeds of up to 7.2mbps, a 2.8” LCD, three-megapixel camera and an accelerometer. The Prestone, however, doesn’t come with WiFi capabilities.

Meanwhile, a distinct feature called Widgets enables small applications to display on the phone’s dashboard during standby. “Businessmen and executives can take advantage of the Inquirer widget we are offering for free to view the latest news on their dashboard,” said Raine Javalera, product manager for mobile phones, Samsung Philippines. She added that widgets are available at the Samsung website free for download.

With this release, Samsung is poised to capture a wider audience in the Philippines as it comes to a close second in the mobile phone race. “We are currently doing well this first half of 2009, so we expect to grow stronger in the next few months as well,” said Javalera.

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HTC Touch

By Fei Lumbania on July 3, 2009

By Ronald James P. Panis
Computerworld Philippines

NOTING how more and more mobile phone users are climbing aboard the smartphone/touch phone bandwagon, HTC Philippines Corp. adds momentum to this rolling trend with the local launch of two new offerings, the HTC Touch Diamond2 and Touch Pro2.

The pair, which is HTC’s new flagship devices, offers a range of features. One of these is the HTC TouchFLO 3D interface, which has been integrated more deeply into a customized version of the Windows Mobile 6.1 to mainly make navigation and quick access to applications (like messaging and email) easier and more intuitive. Trouble-free navigation and accessibility are also realized through the phones’ single contact view. Touted as a “people-centric communication approach,” this feature displays from the contact card or the in-call screen during a phone conversation individual conversation history of contacts regardless of whether voice, text or email were used.

Embedded in the two as well is HTC’s push Internet technology. Internet browsing on a mobile phone is made simpler and enjoyable since this feature allows faster downloading and rendering of web pages. Users can also pre-select their favorite web pages (maximum of four) on the phone and access these immediately anytime and anywhere.

Geared with a QWERTY keyboard and a 3.6-inch widescreen VGA display, the Touch Pro2 will especially delight business professionals with its Straight Talk technology. Allowing seamless transition from email to single/multi-party conference calls (approximately up to 5 people) without having to put anyone on hold or switch to another application, the Straight Talk is paired with asymmetric speakers with full duplex acoustics – easily transforming the Pro2 into a sophisticated speakerphone fit for corporate boardrooms.

With 20% larger battery capacity and a five mega-pixel auto focus camera, the Touch Diamond2 is tagged at a suggested retail price of P36,900 and is already available, while the Pro2 (P48,900) will be out this month.

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Apple patching serious SMS vulnerability on iPhone

By Computerworld Philippines on July 2, 2009

By Sumner Lemon

IDG News Service (Singapore Bureau)

SINGAPORE - Apple is working to fix an iPhone vulnerability that could allow an attacker to remotely install and run unsigned software code with root access to the phone.

The attack in question exploits a weakness in the way iPhones handle text messages received via SMS (Short Message Service), said security researcher Charlie Miller, during a presentation at the SyScan conference in Singapore on Thursday. He didn’t provide a detailed description of the SMS vulnerability, citing an agreement with Apple.

Miller is an authority on MacOS X security, and is a co-author of The Mac Hacker’s Handbook.

The SMS vulnerability allows an attacker to run software code on the phone that is sent by SMS over a mobile operator’s network. The malicious code could include commands to monitor the location of the phone using GPS, turn on the phone’s microphone to eavesdrop on conversations, or make the phone join a distributed denial of service attack or a botnet, Miller said

Apple is working to patch the vulnerability and expects to have a fix ready later this month, before Miller discusses the attack in greater detail during a planned presentation at the Black Hat USA conference in Las Vegas.

Despite the SMS vulnerability, the stripped-down version of MacOS X used in the iPhone makes it more secure than computers running the full-blown operating system, Miller said.

For starters, the stripped-down version of the OS presents fewer options for attackers, removing applications and features such as support for Adobe Flash and Java, which they might otherwise be able to exploit for vulnerabilities. In addition, the iPhone includes hardware protection for data stored in memory and the phone is designed to only run software code that has been digitally signed by Apple.

The iPhone also requires applications to run in a sandbox, a security feature that isolates them from other applications and limits their access to the phone’s capabilities. But SMS offers a way for attackers to get greater access to the phone’s capabilities, Miller said.

“SMS is a great vector to attack the iPhone,” he said.

Most often used to send brief text messages between cell phones, SMS can also send binary code to an iPhone, which then processes the code without any user interaction. Each SMS message is limited to 140 bytes, but longer sequences can be sent to the phone as multiple messages that are automatically reassembled.

This feature allows larger programs to be delivered to a phone, Miller said.

In addition, vulnerabilities found in the iPhone’s SMS function give an attacker root access to the handset, Miller said. That’s not the case for the iPhone’s other applications, such as its browser, where vulnerabilities only give an attacker access to the application’s sandbox.

“The iPhone is more secure than OS X, but SMS could be a critical vulnerability,” Miller said.

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Businesses get free exposure on Google Maps

By Melba Bernad on June 8, 2009

John Mark V. Tuazon
Computerworld Philippines

Business establishments have a new way of promoting their sites to technology-savvy users through Google Maps, a web application developed by search firm Google.

Developed as a partner application with Google Earth, Google Maps enables users to view road maps, landmarks and establishments in various areas around the world.

Recently, Google has unveiled a “Businesses” layer to the application to aid users in browsing nearby establishments and enabling business to input relevant data—such as name, address, business hours and contact numbers—about their establishments through Google’s Local Business Center.

While these services are currently limited to only a few countries, businesses in the Philippines can instead use Google’s Map Maker application which enables end-users to edit location and other relevant information on available maps.

Since Map Maker’s launch in October 2009, tens of thousands of edits have already been made on Philippine maps, enhancing the available information on the country’s geography. The Philippines currently ranks second in countries with the most edits on the application.

“We have seen an increase in Map Maker edits for the areas outside of the main cities which indicates the interest among Filipinos across the country to map out their local communities and contribute to this national effort,” said Derek Callow, marketing head, Google Southeast Asia.

Dwayne Dell Manuel, a 23-year old student who recently graduated from the National University of Singapore, is one of the top Map Maker contributors in the country. Manuel, along with three other contributors, was sent to the Google Map Maker User Conference in Bangalore, India, where they met with other contributors and developers.

“It was nice to know from the product development team that they are intensely interested in receiving user feedback and exchanging ideas to make Google Map Maker more useful and relevant for local users,” said Manuel. To date, Manuel has added around 7,000 edits to the application.

Users simply need a Google account to begin editing details on available maps and satellite images. Moderation by other users and trusted Google moderators keep data accurate and credible. Google Maps can also be downloaded to the iPhone and several other mobile platforms.

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Posts Tagged ‘ mobile phones ’

Sony Ericsson outs smallest Android phones yet

Top-rated cell phones also rank high in radiation emissions

LG, Samsung go social with latest handsets

Mobile phones edge PCs in social network use: IDC

Dell open to developing mobile devices with carriers

Touchscreens dominate smartphone interfaces

Samsung introduces new full-touch mobile phone

Hitachi’s cell phone records high-def video

HTC Touch

Apple patching serious SMS vulnerability on iPhone

Businesses get free exposure on Google Maps

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