American and Virgin Airlines to Offer Aircell's Gogo WiFi Service

Aircell has officially launched its new Gogo product, a WiFi service for planes that can be used to surf the web while flying. The newly named service will soon be available on select domestic U.S. routes flown by American Airlines and Virgin America in 2008.
American Airlines will offer Gogo on its Boeing 767 planes with routes originating from New York. Routes planned for Gogo service are New York to Los Angeles, New York to San Francisco, and New York to Miami. Virgin America has said that it will provide Gogo on its entire fleet of planes, with initial flights including those between San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas, and Dulles International. The Gogo service will be available when flying over the continental U.S. and can be accessed by passengers on the flight as soon as electronic devices are permitted.
The only requirements for the Gogo service is a device that supports WiFi (802.11 a/b/g) and a web browser. Pricing has not been announced, but the new service should be available the first half of this year.
According to Aircell's PR firm, pricing for American Airlines flights is planned to be $12.95 for flights over 3 hours in length, and $9.95 for those under 3 hours. Aircell is said to also be considering day, week, and monthly passes.

T-Mobile Nokia 6555 - 3G on a Budget

3G has hit the mainstream, no longer the exclusive territory of expensive premium phones. Finally we are starting to see 3G phones for the budget minded, does that mean T-Mobile is ready to launch 3G very shortly? The quad-band GSM, dual-band UMTS Nokia 6555 is just such a phone. At FREE when committing to a 2 year contract with T-Mobile, the stylish 6555 promises much, including 3G and Multimedia. But can it deliver?

Verizon Wireless Has Won the 700 MHz C Block

Today the FCC announced winners in the 700 MHz spectrum auction. Verizon Wireless was the biggest winner. It snagged the C Block of spectrum with its bid of $4.74 billion. The C Block was the largest swath of airwaves being auctioned off, and Verizon's new 700 MHz licenses cover the entire continental U.S. plus Hawaii. The FCC also said that AT&T won 227 regional licenses in the B Block. Those new licenses cover many major cities, including: Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, Houston, NYC, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Seattle, San Diego, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. AT&T's licenses do not, however, blanket the country as Verizon's do. Other winners include MetroPCS, which won a large A Block license covering the metropolitan Boston region, and Qualcomm, which won E Block licenses covering Boston, Los Angeles, NYC, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. Frontier Wireless, in partnership with EchoStar, also won an E Block license that covers almost all of the U.S. Google, which was bidding on the C Block, did not win any licenses.

Google Makes Search Plug-In Availabe to Windows Mobile

Users of Windows Mobile can now install Google's embedded search plug-in on their devices and initiate Google searches directly from the home screen of their phones.

Samsung Forges 8 Megapixel Camera Module for Phones

Samsung has crafted a new 8 megapixel CMOS chip for cell phones. The chip, which measures 28mm x 15.3mm x 8.5mm, can be set up to ISO 1600 for low-light shooting. It also has anti-shake, face tracking, and a macro mode that can focus as close as 1cm from the subject. Samsung expects to begin using the chip in its high-end phones by the second half of this year.

Microsoft Licenses Adobe Reader and Flash Lite for Mobiles

Microsoft has announced that it is licensing Adobe's Acrobat Reader and Flash Lite technology for mobile devices. The Acrobat Reader technology will allow Windows Mobile devices to view PDF files and email attachments easily. Flash Lite 3 is a web technology that will enable a more robust, and animated, web experience.

The Windows Mobile Pocket Internet Explorer has been without flash since its inception, so the addition of Flash Lite 3 will be a welcome change and put it in line with more robust web browsers such as Nokia's S60's Webkit-based browser. The most notable benefit of Flash Lite 3 is the ability to view flash video content, such as that found on YouTube.

Both Adobe Acrobat Reader and Flash Lite 3 are expected to be made available to OEM manufacturers using Windows Mobile on their devices soon.

3G Nokia 3555 Goes On Sale at T-Mobile

The Nokia 3555 has been released for sale on T-Mobile's web site. The 3555 has quad-band GSM/EDGE radios as well as stereo Bluetooth, microSD slot, music player, and VGA camera. It also supports AWS 1700MHz WCDMA 3G. T-Mobile has not made its 3G network available yet, but will later this year, with the New York City market launching before the end of the first half of 2008. The Nokia 3555 costs $50 after rebates and new activation.

Silverlight for Windows Mobile Announced

Microsoft has announced Silverlight for Windows Mobile 6 smartphones. Silverlight is a browser plug-in that acts similar to Adobe's Flash Lite in that it provides a more desktop-like mobile browsing experience. The 1.0 version of Silverlight, which will be available in the second quarter of this year, will enable animation, media playback, and vector graphics while browsing the web.

Sony T2..8.1 mega-pixel (like no other)

In stock now at Upnext Wireless Ala Moana & Pensacola the latest color flavors of the Sony T2 cybershot camera with 8.1 mega-pixel, 4 gigabyte internal memory and a concept design "like no other" In stores now for $359.99....get yours today!

IKEA dream kitchens for everyone

… a website for Ikea. The top page flash animation is pretty fun to watch. Just place your cursor over the image and press and hold the mouse button… the Matrix re-lives!

CHANEL...illest phone eva!

Called the Choco Phone, this concept has been designed by Fred de Garilhe. It works by integrating an optical fiber system that display image between two glass parts. There are 12 micro lighter fibers, that throw image components to the glass, that offer a quite good luminosity, and keep the mobile phone concept as light as possible. All lights only appear when you open the phone, by pushing removable part on the side of it.

bentley jet concept...ah..may..zing

Royce phantom..damn!

The Phantom Coupe, unveiled by Rolls-Royce at the Geneva 2008 show, has already sold out of the new model for this year. RollS-Royce CEO Ian Robertson revealed at the show that 200 Phantom Coupes have already been spoken for, representing the entire planned production run for 2008. This sportier version is seeking more attention for its form over the other RRs. However Roll-Royce CEO states that it shouldn't be considered a sports car. The Phantom Coupe's sister car, the Drophead convertible, has also seen similar success. The Drophead's sales have far exceeded Rolls-Royce's plans and is sold out through the summer of 2009.

AT&T Adds Wi-Fi Pearl to Its Lineup

Today AT&T announced the BlackBerry Pearl 8120. The 8120 is the latest version of the Pearl, adding 802.11b/g Wi-Fi to its quad-band GSM/EDGE connectivity options. In most other respects, it is similar to the Pearl 8130. It has a 2 megapixel camera, 3.5mm headset jack, stereo Bluetooth and external microSD slot. It is available to AT&T customers for $200 with two-year agreement and qualifying voice and data plans.

Court Papers: Nokia Paid Qualcomm $1 Billion

Nokia is claiming that the $1 billion it has paid to Qualcomm over the course of the last 15 years to use certain wireless patents means it should be fully paid up. Nokia insists that it be allowed to use the patents royalty-free moving forward. Qualcomm disagrees. The two companies struck cross-licensing agreements regarding these patents in 1992 and again in 2001. The second agreement expired in April 2007. Nokia and Qualcomm have not been able to resolve how to move forward and have legal fights pending in multiple jurisdictions.

FCC Clears the Motorola Z9

The FCC recently approved the Motorola Z9, a slider that incorporates some of the design elements seen on the RAZR2 series. The Z9 is a quad-band GSM/EDGE phone with dual-band 850/1900 3G and stereo Bluetooth radios. It has a 2 megapixel camera with flash, autofocus and it supports video sharing. The microSD slot is underneath the battery cover, but is hot swappable and it supports cards up to 4GB in size. This phone has not been officially announced by any carriers, but it was seen with AT&T branding on it and it is compatible with AT&T's 3G network.

German state demands $92 million subsidy refund from Nokia

Earlier this year Nokia closed its plant in Bochum, Germany, and is moving those operations to Romania. With 2,300 of its citizens now unemployed, the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia is now demanding that Nokia repay US$63 million in subsidies plus interest, totaling $92 million.

BlackBerry To Get Puretracks DRM-Free Music

Puretracks recently announced that it will be offering its DRM-free music store to users of BlackBerry smartphones. The store will provide tracks encoded in AAC and AAC+ file formats at 64kbps bit rates. The service will be compatible with BlackBerry 8100 Pearls, 8300 Curves, and the 8800 series smartphones. Puretracks has songs from Universal, Sony BMG, Warner, EMI, and independent labels from around the world in its catalog. The service will launch on April 1 in the U.S., with other markets planned at later dates. For now, users will download via their standard data connections, but Puretracks will support Wi-Fi downloads in future releases. Pricing for the music was not immediately revealed.

EmporiaLife Approved by FCC

The EmporiaLife, which is a phone designed with senior citizens in mind, was recently approved for use in the U.S. by the FCC. It is a slider that features a big monochrome screen and large buttons. The default screen provides quick access to contacts. It also features a flashlight built into the phone, and has dedicated alarm clock and lock keys. There is a large red button on the back for making emergency calls. It comes in two dual-band versions (900/1800, 850/1900) and will run on AAA batteries. It has not been officially announced with any U.S. carriers but it will work on certain U.S. networks.

LG Announces the Touchscreen Glimmer with Alltel

Today LG announced that it will begin offering the AX830 Glimmer through Alltel in the U.S. The Glimmer is a slider with a 2.8-inch touchscreen and touch-based user interface. It includes haptic feedback, a 2 megapixel camera, a microSD slot that supports 4GB memory cards, and Bluetooth. The Glimmer will cost $250 after rebates and a new two-year contract. It will be available beginning March 13.

Nokia 8800 arte "new" collectors choice!

The premium Nokia 8800 Arte brings along a fine bunch of accessories. And well deserved to the very last one of them, if you ask us, given the cost of the handset. Apart from the main ingredients - the phone and the battery - there is a whole bunch of other niceties.

There is a Bluetooth handsfree included, instead of a regular wired one. You also get a stylish leather carrying pouch and a stand charger. Not that you can't plug the charger cord directly into the phone but why not prop this piece of Arte up on your desk. It goes without saying that a microUSB cable and a DC charger are also in the package.

Street Fighter IV

OMG! How on earth did this slip by me?! Street Fighter 4 arcade! Just look at the graphics - it’s unreal! 3D graphics rendered to look like 2D - this combination is not new but the detail, styling and technique employed here is unlike anything before it. The artists at Capcom have really pushed the envelope here. The graphics are drop-dead gorgeous!

fiber optic CHANEL phone...illest phone i've seen!

Called the Choco Phone, this concept has been designed by Fred de Garilhe.

It works by integrating an optical fiber system that display image between two glass parts. There are 12 micro lighter fibers, that throw image components to the glass, that offer a quite good luminosity, and keep the mobile phone concept as light as possible. All lights only appear when you open the phone, by pushing removable part on the side of it.

Sony Ericsson Launches K660 in stock at Upnext Wireless "New"

Sony Ericsson unveiled the new K660 handset. This compact HSDPA capable 3G phone comes with a number of features meant to improve mobile web browsing. One such feature is a set of shortcut keys on the phone that only light up when the web browser is running. The browser also has a landscape mode to make it easier to read certain websites. The K660's NetFront web browser has been enhanced to make navigation easier and allows for zooming and what Sony Ericsson calls 'magnetic mouse' control. On top of that, a standby screen 'ticker' function lets users get updates from their favorite websites without having to pull up the web browser or the RSS feed reader. The K660 also comes with Google maps pre-installed, something that is becoming quite common these days.

Other non-web related features include a 2 megapixel camera and quad-band GSM/EDGE support on top of the UMTS/HSDPA support on the 2100MHz frequency band. The K660 also has a built-in IM client, support for mobile email, and Bluetooth stereo support. The main display on the K660 is a reasonably large 2" QVGA resolution screen, and the phone comes equipped with a Sony Memory Stick Micro slot and matching 256MB card for storing photos and music files.

The K660 is going to be available in two color schemes when it starts shipping in Q1 of 2008: green on white and purple on black. Sony Ericsson has not announced specific market launch plans or pricing at this time.

Sony Ericsson's W890 Walkman Phone Unveiled in stock at Upnext Wireless

Sony Ericsson W880 fans rejoice, for today Sony Ericsson launched the W890, a device that shares many of the original's traits yet provides a number of technology upgrades. While it still lacks auto-focus, the W890 steps up things to a 3.2 megapixel camera while still providing the same thin-profile look that W880 owners appreciate so much. Also noteworthy is an upgrade to quad-band GSM and the addition of HSDPA data onto the W880's existing UMTS support.

Like all Walkman handsets, the W890 comes equipped with Sony Ericsson's Walkman music player application. The version in the W890 supports Windows Media DRM and a huge list of music file formats. The W890 can make use of wireless Bluetooth headphones, wired headphones, or even the built-in stereo speakers when they wish to listen to their music collection. Sony Ericsson even saw fit to include a 2GB Memory Stick Micro card in the box with the phone, which should allow upwards of 1800 songs to be loaded onto the device, depending on music format and bitrate used. This Walkman phone also supports Sony's MegaBass function, TrackID, and Sony Ericsson's SenseMe tempo/mood music categorization system. If all else fails, there's even an FM radio built-in.

Other features of note in this stylish music phone include the NetFront web browser, an RSS feed reader, and a USB mass storage connectivity mode. The 78g (2.7oz) W890 should start shipping in select markets in Q1 of 2008. It will be available in three color schemes: black, brown, and silver. No pricing information has been provided at this time.

T-Mobile Invests in Ubiquisys Femtocell Technology

T-Mobile Venture Funds, the investment arm of T-Mobile owner Deutsche Telekom, announced on Monday that it had invested an undisclosed sum in a home-networking company called Ubiquisys. Ubiquisys has been focusing on Femtocells, which are small, low-powered mobile cell phone base stations that are designed to improve local signal coverage and use a wired home broadband connection to connect back to the carrier.

T-Mobile has been dabbling in the home networking market recently with its HotSpot@Home service, which allows users to seamlessly transfer phone calls from a cellular network to a home WiFi network and back again. Femtocells work similarly, except they use the same network technology to connect to phones as do the normal towers (ie. GSM, UMTS, or CDMA). They can also offer other abilities, such as detecting when a specific handset connects and issuing an email or SMS alert, similar to a proximity notification.

Sprint Nextel recently launched the first commercial Femtocell in the United States, a CDMA device built by Samsung and sold by Sprint under the Airave name.

Sprint's Mogul Becomes First EV-DO Rev. A Phone

Today Sprint made a software update available for the HTC Mogul which will enable it to connect to Sprint's EV-DO Rev. A high-speed wireless broadband network. The Rev. A network is faster than the standard Rev. 0 network and will increase wireless download speeds to between 600kbps and 1,400kbps and upload speeds to between 350kbps and 500 kbps on the Mogul. The Rev. A network has been reserved for laptop cards, but this software update makes the Mogul the first smartphone able to use it for wireless Internet. The software update also gives the Mogul new GPS capabilities, allowing it to support Sprint Navigation, which provides turn-by-turn directions. The software update is available immediately from HTC.

Angry Chinese woman sets 400 phones on fire

It's a crazy, mixed-up world we live in. If we aren't worrying about global warming or peace in the middle east, we have to be on the lookout for scorned women setting large quantities of mobile devices on fire. A certain Mrs. Wang is guilty of that latter offense. The 37-year-old Chinese woman wasn't particularly stoked about her husband walking out on their marriage, so she did the only reasonable thing that presented itself: rounded up the entire stock of more than 400 phones the couple had at their joint-owned cellphone shop, and set the entire lot ablaze -- inside her home. The collection was valued at roughly 300,000 yuan, about $42,000 US. You might want to take this time to inform your significant other how sane, rational and sexy he or she is, while simultaneously removing all lighter fluid from your home. No gadget is safe!

AT&T iPhones get an "unlimited" calling plan

Finally, iPhone owners no longer have to mope around with a feeling of shame and embarrassment in their hearts: AT&T has blessed them with an "unlimited" calling plan. That's right, if you so desire (and you do so desire, don't you?), you can latch a $119.99 all-you-can-eat plan onto your super-device. Sure, it looks peachy, until you notice that despite your "unlimited" status, you still only get a measly 200 text messages, which is like a three-course steak dinner with no dessert. At least you'll never again have to end a conversation with Mom because you're worried about overages -- though you'll want to keep a close watch on those SMSs, since the prices seem to be constantly heading skyward.

Sony Ericsson withdrawing from NTT DoCoMo, sort of

What the heck is going on here? Despite the overwhelming popularity of gizmo-heavy mobile devices in Japan, working with megacarrier NTT DoCoMo must be a losing proposition for many of its manufacturing partners, because just days after Mitsubishi's announcement of its withdrawal, a fresh Nikkei report indicates that Sony Ericsson is raising the white flag as well to divert attention and resources to less saturated and more profitable markets. Apparently, DoCoMo will bear the brunt of the downsizing, while Sony Ericsson's partnership with KDDI -- a CDMA carrier -- will continue. [Warning: subscription required]

Update: It turns out that Sony Ericsson intends to continue working with DoCoMo by initially delivering new models through mid '08, at which point it will start buying handsets from other manufacturers and rebranding them. In other countries this would be truly egregious, but as our Japanese bureau points out, DoCoMo lays out very strict requirements for each of its lines that would probably make it difficult to distinguish a true Sony Ericsson model from a rebranded model sourced from, say, Sharp or Toshiba.

Update 2: Sony Ericsson's Japanese PR folks have denied Nikkei's report, although they did mention that they are "reevaluating" their DoCoMo line without going into any detail. Whether the report was actually false or Nikkei just managed to out the info well before Sony Ericsson wanted it out, though, remains unclear.

Update 3: The official Sony Ericsson response, and while it says that they're taking a good, hard look at their DoCoMo business, it also mentions that they'll continue to develop new handsets for the carrier. Clear as mud? Good!

Nokia Launches Two Phones for Europe

Today Nokia announced two devices for its European carrier partners. T-Mobile will get the 6650 and Vodafone will get the 6124 Classic.

• 6650: The 6650 is a flip phone with a stainless steel covering. It has HSDPA 3G, integrated GPS, a 2 megapixel camera, microSD slot, FM radio and Bluetooth. It is compatible with T-Mobile's MyFaves calling plans and data services such as web'n'walk. It will be available from T-Mobile in the third quarter.
• 6124 Classic: This bar-style phone has 3G and carries a 2 megapixel camera with flash and panorama mode. It has a microSD slot that supports cards up to 8GB. It runs the S60 platform and will be available from Vodafone in the second quarter.

Sony Ericsson Introduces T303 Slider

This new slider from Sony Ericsson will come in two different tri-band GSM/GPRS configurations, including the T303a, which is an 850/1800/1900 version that will be compatible with U.S. networks. It is a small phone and is covered in metal and chrome skin. It has a 1.3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, media player and FM radio. The T303a will be available in select markets in mid 2008.

Apple iPhone Gets Full Microsoft Exchange Support

Today at a Town Hall meeting held at its Cupertino headquarters, Apple unveiled its vision for the future of the iPhone and third-party application development. The first announcement was about the iPhone's new support for the enterprise, including a Microsoft Exchange client. Apple has licensed Active Sync from Microsoft and the iPhone will now support push Exchange email, as well as sync contacts and calendar information. The Exchange client will be built into the iPhone and will be customizable from the mail settings tab, allowing the user to turn on and off certain functions. It will also support enterprise features such as remote device wipe, 802.1x and WPA2 security, enterprise device configuration and Cisco VPN services. These new features won't be available until the 2.0 firmware is available in June.