Nokia has just made the release of their newest handset, the N8, official, in addition to the N97 devices.  The N8 will be Nokia’s first Symbian^3 handset and will be the flahship for its new and improved Symbian OS.  The Nokia N8 is set to include to following specs:
· 3.5 inch capacitive multi-touch touchscreen with gesture support
· Multiple homescreens with widget support
· 12 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and Xenon Flash
· HD recording and on-phone editing
· Facebook and Twitter integration via homescreen widgets
· HDMI support
· 16GB on board storage
· WebTV, Ovi Store
· Ovi maps with walk and drive navigation
· Symbian S^3
· Anodized aluminum casing

If you are looking to get your hands on this newest device from Nokia you are going to have to be a little patient as the N8 is not scheduled to be released until the third quarter.  However, when the N8 does finally hit the shelves it is expected to carry a price tag around $494.

While the Nokia N8 is set to be one of the pricier handsets on the market when it is finally released it will also be one of the highest quality mobile devices that you can buy.  The 12 megapixel camera is just crazy when compared to other similar mobile devices.  Combined with a 16GB storage capacity you can certainly take a lot of high quality pictures with this mobile device.  Throw in the HD recording and WebTV and this will be a high powered smartphone that is capable of making more than just phone calls.  Even with the high price tag I expect the Nokia N8 to be a big hit with all of these loaded features when it is finally released sometime during the third quarter of 2010.

It looks as if Microsoft’s lawyers are going to be pretty busy these days.  Recently Microsoft has realized that Google’s Android OS infringes on many of Microsoft’s software patents.  While Microsoft has declined to say how the Android OS specifically infringes on their patents they did say they believe that elements from both the user interface and underlying operating system are in violation of its rights.  This is in keeping with the Windows maker’s campaign to leverage patent claims over Linux, Amazon, Xandros and GPS developer TomTom.  While lawsuits are not yet being discussed this is hardly a small time matter.  Longtime Windows Mobile partner HTC has already decided to purchase a license from Microsoft that covers its Android devices, like the HTC Tilt, to reduce the risk of a possible lawsuit from Microsoft.

While it would be pretty crazy for Microsoft to sue one of its biggest and most important hardware manufacturers for patent infringement HTC is taking no chances by purchasing the Microsoft license.  It is rather unfortunate that HTC has to pay Microsoft royalties in order to use Google’s operating system these recent developments may be more of an indictment on Google than the other mobile device manufacturers. 

By forcing their Windows Mobile/Windows Phone partners to purchase a license to run Google’s Android platform Microsoft is leaving open the option of a lawsuit with Google itself down the line.  While this is a rather unfortunate turn of events for other companies such as HTC it is a nasty necessity if they want to utilize the Android platform without further possible lawsuits from Microsoft.  The cost of the Microsoft licenses far outweighs the potential damage that could be caused by a lawsuit for patent infringement.

The Garmin Asus collaboration unveiled a new addition to their lineup of navigation centered mobile phones.  The recent addition comes in the form of the Garmin Asus A10 which is a full touch phone running on the Android OS platform but with a focus on pedestrian navigation in Europe and Asia Pacific.  The Garmin Asus A10 comes equipped with a 3.2 inch HVGA display, electronic compass, and long lasting 1500mAh battery.  The device will also come with detailed maps preloaded so that a constant internet connection is not necessary.  At long last, some interesting competition for the iPhone.

In car navigation will also be covered with the Garmin Asus A10 as the mobile device will come with a dashboard mount as well.  The mount will have speakers built in which will allow for amplification of the device’s voice commands making it easy to hear and understand.  While Garmin Asus has not revealed all of the details about the A10 it is expected to come with a 5 megapixel camera as well.  The Garmin Asus A10 is expected to be available in Europe in mid 2010.  There has been no word as of yet of how much this new mobile device will cost.

If you are constantly on the go and walking around a big city or taking public transportation the Garmin Asus A10 might just be the mobile device you have been looking for.  You will never need to use battery draining mobile apps again to find your way around a big, unfamiliar city.  With the Garmin Asus A10 and its built in preexisting map feature you will not have to drain as much battery life while you use your mobile device to find your way around town.  I will be extremely interested to see what other features are included with this very mobile handheld device and if it will give the Nexus One a run for its money.

While Google quietly takes over the smartphone market place three new handsets have emerged over in Asia with its Android operating system preloaded on each device.  LG has recently made official two Snapdragon based handsets, the LG-LU2300 and the LG-SU950.  Both of these new devices will sport a 3.5 inch WVGA display, DivX playback, 3.5mm headphone jack, DMB mobile TV, multimedia playback and a May/June release in Korea.

While LG has been busy launching these two new mobile devices Samsung has also been working on a new Android device themselves.  Samsung just announced its first Android powered smartphone for the Korean market with the Galaxy A, otherwise known as the SHW-M100S.  This mobile device is set to ship with Android 2.1, a 3.7 inch WVHA AMOLED display, 720 MHz CPU, mobile TV onboard, DivX playback, a 5 megapixel camera, HD video recording, A-GPS, Bluetooth and WiFi.  Availability on the SK Telecom network is scheduled for the end of this month.

Judging by the specs of the these three new mobile devices the Korean market is set to get their hands on some high quality Android devices.  The Samsung device appears to have the best features with their 720 MHz CPU, 5 megapixel camera and HD video recording.  While the Galaxy A may be the most powerful device out of the three the two devices from LG are certainly not lacking in high quality smartphone features.  The 3.5 inch WVGA display and DMB mobile TV will be sure to excite many consumers in the Korean market.

It has been a long time coming for these smartphone manufacturers to release new Android devices to the Korean market LG and Samsung appear to have set the bar pretty high with this latest trio of Android smartphones.

Europe’s first carrier of the Nexus One is all set to start offering the superphone from Google for free with a two year contract.  Preorders for the phone are already being taken and the new mobile device is set to hit store shelves on April 30th. 

While the release of the Nexus One Vodafone is a little bit anticlimactic with the release of the Incredible in the United States I am sure that there are a few Brits out there that have been waiting for a while to get their hands on one of the Android devices from Nexus One. 

There will be varying levels of contracts available for British subscribers.  The Nexus One is expected to be available for an 18 or 24 month contract with prices starting at 25 pounds per month.  Also, it looks like there will be 1GB of 3G data allowance that is included with a 1GB WiFi allowance via BT Openzone hotspots.  While these are not exactly the best price plans I have come across it is hard to complain when you can get this great mobile device for no money up front.

For all of the smartphone junkies in Britain this announcement that the Nexus One is set to launch in the UK on the Vodafone network will come as pleasant news.  Google has been a little slow in rolling out some of their top end Android devices in the UK but have finally come around to releasing one of their most popular devices with the Nexus One.  This great handheld device will surely attract more customers to the ever growing Android market and is poised to help Google continue its growth in the mobile device community.  Maybe the HTC Pure will show up next.

The good people over at Snaptic have launched a new developer challenge that is designed to get people up and moving.  The premise behind the challenge is quite simple.  All you need to do is develop an Android app to use even on your HTC Pure, that gets people up and moving and you can win an all expense paid trip to the TED Global 2010 conference.

This is a great new contest that the people at Snaptic are putting on.  While obesity continues to become a larger and larger problem in this country it is very rare that we will look to our mobile devices, like the Nexus One,  to help us get out and exercise more.  Sure there are already a few apps out there that are designed to make exercising easier and thus more likely to happen but there are no apps currently designed to get people to exercise regularly.

I certainly applaud Snaptic for their initiative here with this new contest they are putting together.  It would be great if this project set off a whole new line of Android apps that were designed to get people outside and exercising more frequently.  Since smartphones are becoming such a huge part of our every day lives it only makes sense to try and include some sort of applications that will help people better themselves and get into shape.  Of all of the various ways we are trying to fight obesity this is one of the more creative things I have seen.  I think this is a great idea and can not wait to see what type of apps are developed so that I can use them myself to help push me to get outside and exercise this spring and summer.

While the original BlackBerry Pearl 8100 Series had an incredible run, with only some minor tweaks the phone lasted well over three years with essentially no changes, it is time for this classic phone series to be retired and a new wave of BlackBerry Pearls to hit the market.

At its recent WES conference RIM unveiled the all new Pearl 3G.  This new device which is being rumored as the Pearl 9100 becomes the very first RIM device with 802.11n WiFi support.  The new Pearl 3G also features a 3.2 megapixel camera, 256MB of internal storage with microSD expansion up to 32GB, GPS, triband HSDPA with quadband GSM / EDGE, and a 360 x 400 display. 

RIM is also making this new device available in “several lustrous colors” and two different keypad configurations a numeric 14 key and more traditional SurePress 20-key.  However, there is no indication that the rumored QWERTY version will actually make it to retail or that the company intends for users to be able to swap modules themselves. 

Consumers can expect the phone to launch with various carriers in May.  Since the devices have both AWS and 850 / 1900MHz 3G versions I would expect to see this mobile device launched on the AT&T and T-Mobile networks.

Since the original BlackBerry Pearl was so popular and lasted on the market virtually unchanged I would expect much of the same from RIM and their new Pearl 3G.  After seeing what the different specs were going to be for these new devices I think it is safe to predict that the new Pearl 3G will be just as successful as its predecessor if not more so.  Being a part of the 3G network will be a big boost to this already fantastic mobile device.

If you are like me then one of the biggest complaints that you may have about Android devices is that you have to manually update your entire app collection one at a time.  There is nothing more depressing than having over 75 apps installed on your mobile device, like your HTC Hero, only to see that 30 of them have an update available in the market place.  Knowing that you have to go through each app one by can be quite a tedious task and often times I will not even bother updating the app unless I know there is something groundbreaking included in this newest update.

If you share in my pain then you may be just as excited as I am about the upcoming release of Android 2.2.  According to a user over at 4chan Android 2.2 is set to come equipped with the ability to allow automatic updating.  This is even better news than a mass updating feature that I was hoping for.  Now Android users will not have to touch anything with their apps and they will be able to update automatically.  While having the ability to multi-select which apps you would like to see updated does have its own functionality this feature of downloading an app and turning on the automatic updating seems to be much more user friendly.  Having that ability to “set it and forget it” will be a great feature if it is actually going to be included in the latest Android 2.2 release.  I know I am certainly hoping that the days of manually updating each of my apps one by one are a thing of the past and automatic app updates are a way of the future, even for the Nexus One.

Why it appears that flip phone are quickly becoming a thing of the past a recent Motorola patent may change the way we look at flip phones as they may hold the key to the future for 3D cell phones.  The basic premise behind the patent is that when the phone is open you will see a 2D image however when the phone is closed you will be able to look through the screen and see a 3D image.  That screen will of course be a touchscreen.  The patent application claims that this technology can enable users to view information such as contact names, phone numbers, image, video, scrolled menus, user interface commands and most other on-screen display items in 3D view.

This appears to be some ground breaking news in the mobile device world.  It would be pretty cool to be able to view specific things on your cell phone in 3D.  This could also be the start in bringing 3D games to your mobile devices as well.  While it is still unknown just how effective this touchscreen would be and necessary it would be to view items in 3D on your phone but it would certainly make for an interesting user experience.

It really has been amazing just how rapidly cell phones are evolving these days.  With the advent of smartphones the cell phone technology has literally exploded.  Also, just when we thought flip phones were about to become obsolete Motorola comes up this idea to have 3D images on your phone which would without a doubt enhance the user experience with any unlocked flip phone.  An announcement like this gets me excited to think about what the future may bring when it comes to our mobile devices.

If you have been wondering where cell phone manufacturing company Nokia has been in recent months apparently they have been working on a new line of mobile devices.  Nokia recently announced the release of three low-cost messaging phones with a social twist.  The three new phones are named the C3, C6 and E5.

The most basic phone of the lot is the C3 which is also the very first Symbian S40 device to ever feature a full QWERTY keypad.  This mobile device offers a 2.4” QVGA display, 2 megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, Ovi Chat, Ovi Mail and support for microSD cards up to 8GB.  The phone is expected to be available in golden white, slate grey and hot pink in Q2 for approximately $122.

The next phone in the new series is the C6.  The C6 from Nokia features a full touchscreen with a sliding horizontal QWERTY keypad.  The C6 comes equipped with a 3.2” and 360×640 display, 5 megapixel autofocus camera with flash, HSDPA, Wi-Fi, GPS and Ovi Maps.  This new device is expected to be released next quarter with a price tag around $299.

The final phone is the E5.  The new E5 comes with a 2.4” QVGA display, 5 megapixel camera, HSDPA, GPS, Wi-Fi and support for Microsoft Exchange and IBM Lotus Notes.  This device is expected to be released in Q3 for around $224.

If you are looking for a new messaging phone Nokia has released three great options from which you can choose.  All starting out at reasonable prices the C3, C6 and E5 are a great deal for any mobile consumer looking to purchase a text messaging device at a reasonable price.  Throw in the fact that these devices can also keep you connected to all of your favorite social media websites and this new link from Nokia will be a great bargain for any cell phone customer.