Then again, the fact that RIM is trying to hire as many as 1200 new employees, mostly in their HQ (is the city of Waterloo big enough?) might suggest that they really are doing well. That there’ll be a huge demand for touchscreen phones is fairly obvious. RIM probably won’t even have to do a lot of advertising since Apple has already created the market

Samsung will have their own Android-based Google phone in 2009. It will be released in the second quarter of the year. Availability in the U.S. will be through Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile USA.  A full touch screen is a possibility, and being a Google phone, apps such as Google Maps, GTalk, GMail and Google Search are pretty much a given.  Android and Mac OS phones are said to be gaining market share over Windows Mobile and older mobile platforms.

[Note: Pictured above is the Samsung Sprint UpStage, not Samsung’s Google Phone]

Design – Measuring just 108.5mm long, 45.7mm wide and 15.6mm thick, the 3110 Evolve was created from unpainted bio-sourced materials. This reduces the amount of fossil fuels consumed during its creation. The over all packaging was made from 60% recycled materials as well.

Entertainment – Get spoiled by the 3110 Evolve with its 1.3 megapixel camera with 8X digital zoom, mp3 player, integrated FM radio and external memory.

Innovation – The Nokia 3110 Evolve uses the innovative AC-8 charger which was created to minimize “no load” energy consumption even if you forgot to unplug it from the power socket.

Aside from these 3 features, the Nokia Evolve 3110 is also loaded with cool mobile phone features that would surely make your mobile phone usage, a delightful experience.

Other features of the Nokia 3110 Evolve are:

• support for mp3, mp4, AAC, AAC+, enhanced AAC+, H.263, H.264, WMA
• video streaming through 3GPP
• supports true tone
• DRM release 2.0
• XHTML browser
• JAVA MIDP 2.0
• Macro Flash Lite 2.0
• supports GPRS, EDGE, HDSCD data transfer
• supports Bluetooh, Infrared, USB and XHTML connectivity

The Nokia 3110 Evolve is truly worthy of a second look. If you’ve been a user of the 3110 Classic, then you wouldn’t have a hard time adapting to this phone’s features. It’s good to know that a mobile phone giant company such as Nokia is concerned with environmental issues as well.

Nokia is giving its millions of users a new entertainment medium on their mobile phone, the Nokia Internet Radio. If you are a Nokia mobile phone user, the new Nokia Internet Radio, is a new web-based service that lets you discover and listen to radio shows broadscasted over the internet. The application can be downloaded free into your mobile phone. Soon, it will be embedded in upcoming Nokia S60 3^rd edition mobile phones.

The Nokia Internet Radio promises to make the discovery of music effortless. Mobile browsing can be done through station name, music genre, country or language. Top ten music countdowns worldwide will be updated on an hourly basis. And when you find an interesting radio station, you can easily add it to a list of you favorite stations as a bookmark in you Nokia mobile phone browser. Hence makin the radio station easily accessible.

The best part about the Nokia Internet Radio is that you can enhance audio quality by selecting appropriate streaming servers that would match the speed of the current network connection that you have. Just like audio streaming on the web through your PC, you will have the option to match the speed of your mobile phone connection with specific streaming servers.

The Nokia Internet Radio is currently available for download to Nokia models such as N82, N91, N95 and N95 8GB. To find out if your mobile phone is compatible with the Nokia Internet Radio, check out the list of compatible devices.

As for the price, it is up for grabs for $80 with annoying new two-year contract plus $50 mail-in rebate. Initial selling at Verizon Wireless Communications Stores and other online sites will be this coming Friday, December 7, 2007.

Since fashion and music often go along together, the Blue Ice Chocolate can easily access and download more than 2.4 million songs via the network’s wireless service, V CAST Music. Of course V CAST Video is also very accessible every time you need to get hold of entertaining video clips.

Key Features

Specifications:

*Certain features may use more power and cause actual standby and usage time to vary.

Via Gadgetell

In terms of units, shipments of GPS-enabled handsets will reach 240 million in 2008 and will expand to 550 million in 2012.

The ongoing consolidation in the mobile industry is viewed as a strong driver of growth. Nokia’s acquisition of navigation company NAVTEQ is an indication of the handset manufacturer’s direction to make GPS a standard mobile phone feature.

Aside from Nokia, several other player navigation companies were recently acquired. CSR took over NordNav Technologies and Cambridge Positioning Systems while Broadcom acquired of Global Locate. Moreover, the ongoing scuffle between 2 navigation companies Garmin and TomTom over Tele Atlas further confirms the importance of GPS in the near future.

This consolidation is just one of the growth drivers. Another factor is low cost. Chipset manufacturers have already developed the technology improve the accuracy of GPS and integrate it to mobile phones at a very competitive cost. Additionally, mobile vendors have shown growing interest in GPS and other GPS-centric applications.

While the growth will come mostly from big players like Nokia, Samsung, and Motorola, small handset manufacturers like HTC and Quanta are also adding GPS features in their recent and upcoming mobile phones.

More importantly, the Finnish company has already filed a patent about its technology as early as May 2006. According to Crave, the concept submitted to the US Patent and Trademark Office is designed with 2 screens to show different kinds of information depending on the angle on which the clamshell is opened. Nokia plans to make this new technology available to the device manufacturers in 2008.

While the idea is very interesting, there is a bigger challenge to face – Apple, its iPhone, and its army of legal counsels. Apple CEO Steve Jobs claims to have filed at least 200 patents connected to touch-screen technology. With the impressive performance of iPhone, it is no doubt the company is very eager to defend its rights.

According to Nomura analyst Richard Windsor, Nokia will likely engage Apple in a legal scuffle should they proceed with this idea. It could delay or totally halt this project.

“I think Apple will likely view Nokia as infringing on its user interface patents,” said Richard Windsor “But I don’t see this being the same scale of the legal battle Nokia has with Qualcomm.

An out-of-court settlement will likely happen in 2009 instead of a long battle in the courtroom.

Via cellular-news

The mobile operator claims this is the “ultimate connectivity device” since it has a built-in Wi-Fi and high-speed wireless broadband.

Running on Windows Mobile 6 Professional, mobile users can access MS Office applications include Word, Powerpoint, and Excel as well as PDF files. Combining all these functions and its connectivity features, it is also dubbed as the “ultimate no-nonesense productivity tool for the busy professional.”

It is now available online at VerizonWireless.com for a price of $450 plus a 2-year contract and $50 mail-in rebate. It will be available in Verizon Wireless Communications stores on December 5.

Key Features:

Specifications:

The Levi’s Phone is geared for fashionistas and Levi’s denim pants fans who can’t seem to get enough of their favorite denim jeans that they would want to have its look and feel in their mobile phone as well.

But don’t get me wrong, the Levi’s phone aside from carrying the stylish look of a traditional denim pants is still a mobile phone packed with some nifty features although not as powerful as your other mobile phones today.

Just like any other mobile phones today, the Levi’s phone lets you connect, enjoy music, exchange images and videos while on the go. The Levi’s phone is designed for individuals who possess rugged lifestyles. It’s compact design and sturdy steel casing represents the ruggedness of the Levi’s jeans we’ve all grown to love. The Levi’s phone also has a unique detachable chain that provides a clever design solution that allows you to fasten your phone to your jeans, bags and more.

Available in metallic silver, black and brown copper the Levi’s phone is packed with standard mobile phone features that include:

• Mp3 player
• FM radio
• 64mb internal memory with expansion slot for up to 2GB SD card
• 262 000 colors TFT screen - 220 x 176 pixels 1.8″ pixels
• 2 megapixels camera with flash and zoom (x4)
• Video player and recorder (MPEG4/H.263)
• Stereo Bluetooth®
• USB 2.0
• Built-in Modem
• SMS / MMS
• Image formats supported: JPEG / GIF/ BMP
• Sound formats supported: MP3 / WAV / MIDI
• E-mail client

The Levi’s phone is currently available for the European mobile market. No word yet on when it will be released in the U.S. If you can’t wait for the U.S. mobile stores to pick it up, better check out online mobile phone stores which may be selling the Levi’s phone already.