Latest Mobile Phone News

Saudi Arabia has carried through with it’s promise and has forced the three network providers to block access to BlackBerry Messaging. Yahoo! News is reporting today that a number of users over that way have confirmed that they are now unable to access the service that their smartphones were primarily designed to use.

The reasons the BlackBerry messaging service has been shut down was related to “security concerns”. Any of the three carriers now blocking the service would have been given a $1.3M fine.

We are not sure when and if services will be restored. From what we understand, it would require that RIM build a datacentre out that way rather than relying on the one in Canada to handle the messages.

The move is expected to effect 750,000 BlackBerry owners in Saudi Arabia.

Popularity: 4%

Sprint has uploaded a teaser site showing off the Samsung Epic 4G that is launching soon.

The new Epic 4G is a dual-mode handset capable of working on either 3G or 4G networks. No new information is revealed on the Sprint site although it does show a teaser video of the camera being used although it isn’t a real life example. Other “coming soon” videos include gaming and movie watching. The mini site teaser page can be found here.

Other than just a little bit of information on the slider device, the real reason for the mini site is for you to provide your email address so you can register your interest.

It looks like quite a nice device and one we look forwards to testing in the future.

Popularity: 5%

Samsung could be unveiling the Samsung Galaxy Tab Android OS tablet device in just a couple of weeks time. We hear from Electronista that the release date might be August 11, or should I say the unveiling of it.

The new Samsung Galaxy Tablet will have Android OS when it is launched. An invitation has been sent out to numerous news sites indicating that three new products will be revealed.

Right now we are just going on rumours as there isn’t much information about the Galaxy Tablet about. What we have heard is that it does measure 7 inches which puts it right between the Dell Streak and Apple iPad in terms of size. We also suspect it will run similar, if not slightly better specs than the Galaxy S smartphone.

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RIM is sure to be launching a tablet device called the BlackPad. This rumour was recently strengthened by RIM purchasing the BlackPad.com domain name which further increased rumours about the new device.

We now hear that RIM will be launching the BlackPad in November. This comes from Bloomberg who cited two people close to RIM.

As for what the BlackPad will do. We hear it wont actually be a tablet that is fully internet connected and instead, it seems to be more like a companion device that works alongside a BlackBerry allowing you to check emails and browse the net on a larger screen.

As soon as we hear more about this we’ll let you instantly. Be patient please…

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LG has proclaimed the LG Wink Series aimed at the younger part of mobile users. The new mobile phone series is designed for those consumers who want a cell phone that looks stylish enough and has good connectivity.

The Wink Series is a group of three full-touch screen phones which include the Wink, Wink Style and Wink 3G. Each mobile device lets owner text, listen to music, connect up to social networks and customise a friendly user interface to allow each user to customise exactly how it is.

The LG Wink is the smaller of the three models and has a 2.4 inch screen. The LG Wink Style is a little larger with a 2.8 inch LCD screen. The LG Wink 3G has 3G built in as the name suggests. This allows for fast connectivity while on the move.

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Motorola has recently presented a brand new eco-friendly phone, known as Motorola Grasp WX404. Pictured above, this stylish device packs a portrait QWERTY keyboard and leaves out the dangerous BFR and PCV, for a cleaner and healthier environment. This phone supports CDMA/EVDO/AWS connectivity and it’ll reach MetroPCS’ offer soon.

The phone’s case is 100% recyclable and its specs list includes a 2.2 inch display (220 x 176 pixels), a 1.3 megapixel camera, GPS, Bluetooth 2.1 and a microSD card slot.

We do not have any info on pricing of this pretty mobile  device yet.

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The iPhone 4 has now landed on another mobile phone network here in the UK, mobile operator Three has started selling the smartphone from today in the UK.

There are several different options available, Three are offering the iPhone 4 on 24 month contracts, the cheapest contract will cost you £30 a month, plus £99 up front for the 16GB iPhone 4, if you want the 32GB iPhone 4 this will cost you £189.

iPhone 4 UK Now Available On ThreeOn the £30 a month you get 500 any network minutes, 5000 texts, 5000 three to three minutes and 1GB of data. There are also a number of other contract options available.

This is a great progres for iPhone business. The iPhone 4 is now available to order from the Three online store.

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Excelent news for all the HTC EVO 4G lovers out there, as Sprint has finished testing Android 2.2 (Froyo) for the EVO 4G smartphones and will be rolling out Android 2.2 from the 03.08.2010.

Android 2.2 will bring a lot of new features to the HTC EVO 4G, including voice dialing over Bluetooth, the ability to store your applications on external memory, plus camera four way rotation which allows the camera icons to rotate with the camera.

Other features in Android 2.2 on the EVO 4G include improved browser performance, with a faster JavaScript engine, and Flash 10x. Android 2.2 will start rolling out to the HTC EVO 4G from August the 3rd.

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Motorola has already launched quite a few Android smartphones in China (including the BackFlip and the XT800), and now it produced yet another one: the Motorola M511, which is actually the FlipOut that’s available in Europe. It’s very popular model of MOTOROLA phones.

The M511 FlipOut comes with Android 2.1 onboard with MotoBlur, features a full QWERTY keyboard and has integrated social networking services, including a Sina application! Sina is the largest infotainment website in China.

The phones features also include 3G, Wi-Fi, WAPI, GPS, stereo Bluetooth, 3.5mm headset jack, FM radio, 3MP camera, and MicroSD card support up to 32GB.

The Motorola M511 should be available in China at authorized dealers starting the end of July, which is exactly now. Like in Europe, the smartphone will have lots of color versions.

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The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro Android-powered smartphone has been available in the UK on Vodafone for some weeks.

And now O2 have stepped in and are offering the little device on bundles starting at £25/month.

O2 are heavily promoting the Google Maps free Navigation for this phone, which is cool and all that, but not really a differentiating feature for this puppy, since all Android phones in the UK get that service anyway.

The thing about the pricing is that Vodafone offer the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro from £20/month, so O2′s isn’t exactly the best deal in town. And we’re talking 2-year contracts here, so that’s a full 120 quid more expensive over the life of the agreement.

Anyway, if O2 is your network of choice and you’ve been eyeing the X10 Mini Pro, you can be happy now. This is an interesting slider device, in a niche of its own, being so small but still managing to pack a QWERTY keyboard. Texting and email fanatics who don’t much care for enormous displays will surely love it.

Popularity: 11%

We first heard of Samsung Cetus from a purported leaked UK mobile phones roadmap. Now new details have surfaced about Cetus, courtesy Bluetooth SIG which obviously holds more legitimacy than the leak before.

Although we’re not sure if it will be the first one, Cetus or SGH-i917 will run on Windows Mobile 7 OS. Amongst other features, the smartphone will be more or less at par with Galaxy S and feature a 4-inch WVGA AMOLED screen ( Super AMOLED), GPS, Wi-Fi 802.11n, FM Radio, microUSB port, 5MP rear camera with front-facing VGA camera. The only difference we’ve found is the Bluetooth version, which is Bluetooth v2.1 in Cetus.

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News hit yesterday about Sprint’s HTC EVO 4G Froyo rollout. And, as expected then, it has been officially confirmed by Sprint this morning.

There’s no word on the update being pushed today for a small batch of owners for test purposes, but every EVO 4G owner will get notified that there is an update starting August 3rd.

If you’re desperate to get it faster, start checking for updates manually on August 1st, you just might get lucky.

Sprint point out that they’re the first carrier to bring the Android 2.2 update to a smartphone in their portfolio, and that will surely help drive some sales until their competitors fully catch up.

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CJ from ZomgItsCJ spotted a good leak over at Engadget China. The new dude to see the light of day is the Nokia C7-00, a Symbian^3 device with fairly good specs.

* Symbian^3
* 8MP Camera with Auto-focus, Dual LED Flash and HD Ready (720p) Video Recording
* GSM and UMTS
* microUSB connector
* 3.5mm audio-jack
* microSD card slot with support for up to 32GB
* Coverflow in Music Player
* 3.3″ Capacitive Screen with 640×360 Resolution
* Multitouch capabilities
* Size 116 x 57 x 11 mm

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