Nokia Erdos with OLED display enters 8800 series

There are good phones and there are bad phones. And there also are expensive ones for no reasonable feature that would make sense in a mobile phone. That’s what I though about Nokia 8800 series when it came out in early December last year, had its season’s shopping craze and then, sort of, forgotten, because crisis has broke out. And now, would you believe, there is a new 8800 series entrant. Only rumored and not confirmed in any way Nokia Erdos seems to me so far that it follows its predecessors right by their footsteps, but is it?

At the moment I am not prepared to compare Erdos with anything we have in upcoming list for rest of the year. Sony Ericsson XPERIA X2 is probably going to cost roughly the same money as Erdos, but it is a highly poised multimedia and messaging smartphone while Erdos is said to come with Symbian S60. Yes, designer’s work stands up. The whole body is crafted out of a single piece of metal (116.9 x 50.3 x 15 mm), smart keyboard rises up a bit for more comfortable typing position when the front panel slides down, 2.4 inch 320 x 240 OLED display is hidden under glass that isn’t transparent when display is not active. And while we are on features, camera has 5 MP, Carl Zeiss lens, autofocus, dual LED flash and video recording. Connectivity has tri-band GSM, dual-band WCDMA at its disposal, Wi-Fi and A-GPS.

Well, unlike previous 8800 series, Nokia Erdos is nice to look at, has a very progressive OLED display and, I’m guessing, will sell exactly as good as before because it’s a niche thing. Have to warn you though, Erdos hasn’t been confirmed by Nokia so farm but as far as we know it will be soon – sales start in October.

NovoThink Solar Surge charger for iPhones and iPods

We got used to see solar chargers appearing all around especially before summer. We’ve seen and reviewed a good slag of them. Mostly, solar chargers require a bit of compromise in day-to-day usage – freedom they offer can be bogged down by taking care of them like leaving the thing in the sun and carrying extra weight. Anyway, here is a one more solar power gadget, the one for iPhone and iPod this time.

NovoThink, the company which designed and is selling Solar Surge solar charger for iPhone/iPod has done an amazing thing. First, NovoThink has approved their solar cell case at Apple, which means it will actually work. Second, it’s specs are really impressive. Solar panel distributes 5.5V at 100 mAh if there is no clouds whatsoever, then, after two hours you will have 30 minutes talk time on 3G and double that on 2G. Solar Surge inbuilt battery is 20% bigger than the iPhone’s and can be charged via USB 2.0 while synchronizing data. Approximate dimensions are: 4.9" x 2.7" x 0.9", weight is 7 oz. In addition you can choose from a vast variety of colors. The only problem about the Surge I can imagine is that high temperatures may cause problems for lithium ion batteries which is kind of worrying if it’s meant to stay in the sun.

Crysis on iPhone thanks to OTOY and AMD next-gen GPU

This isn't a prank really. Crysis on iPhone does mean exactly the same game by which performance gamers have been measuring desktop abilities for the last couple of years now and a standard Apple smartphone. We don't even say you'll need a latest iPhone 3GS or even 3.0 firmware to pull that out. All you need is an OTOY 780KB app and that's it. But there sure is a lot behind the scenes in which we are also interested, so let's have a look at how on Earth it is possible.

Hardcore desktop 3D gaming on a smartphone has a lot to do with AMD's recently unveiled next-gen GPUs. Features like DirectX 11 support and 2.5 teraFLOPS floating point made OTOY think of using these enormous powers for "remote" gaming. Yep, no foolies, you haven't seriously suggested that someone shoved an AMD GPU into a poor iPhone, right? Game rendering is done on OTOY servers and then pushed to the phone. The above named name app copes only with I/O. And it's not just Crysis I should say. Demos of GTA 4, WOW and Bioshock have already been qualified as gameable.

Basically, the idea is great, especially for MMO games. The trouble is though, how are they going to license remote gaming? Because the end result is almost as a good as a purchased version of the game delivers.

New at Verizon Wireless,Samsung Rogue and Samsung Intesity

Verizon Wireless has announced availability of two new Samsung messaging phones. The cheaper model is Samsung Intensity. This one is a straight forward messenger with a sliding side full QWERTY, 1.3 megapixel cam, web and IM capabilities and 29.99 bucks on the tag. The other one, Samsung Rogue, is a whole different mobile phone however. The only thing it has in common with Intensity is a keyboard. Everything else is from a completely different division.

First and the best thing about Rogue is its AMOLED display. A 3.1 inch WVGA touchscreen promises to deliver state-of-art image and blazing response time. Good job Rouge has VCAST video on demand support, video recording and editing features. MicroSD slot limited to 16GB and 3.0 camera seem a bit yesterday, but who wants pictures on the go in hi-res anyway. I have mentioned above messaging trend of both, so AMOLED display, QWERTY and camera, all come on purpose of social networking. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other widgets are on their place in Rogue.

Price is (just) 99.99 USD.

Verizon launches HTC Touch Pro2 QWERTY smartphone

Verizon Wireless has officially launched its version of the HTC Touch Pro2 business smartphone, a device that has recently been unveiled for T-Mobile USA and Sprint. The Verizon version is a world-roaming capable device that works on both Verizon's 3G CDMA based network as well as on the GSM/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900MHz) and 2100MHz UMTS 3G networks used throughout the world. The device's signature features are its large slide-out QWERTY keyboard and its 3.6-inch, tilting WVGA (800 x 480 pixel) resistive touchscreen display - all of which are put to good use by Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system.

Like most recent HTC touchscreen smartphones, the Touch Pro2 features the company's TouchFLO 3D user interface extensions for Windows Mobile, which make the OS much more intuitive to use and easier to control with a finger - instead of relying on a stylus. The Touch Pro2 also comes equipped with a 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus, built-in WiFi capabilities, and an advanced speakerphone system with noise canceling technology.

As is standard for Windows Mobile these days, the Touch Pro2 supports a lot of high-end messaging functionality. Threaded SMS is built into the OS, as is full support for Microsoft Exchange push email, contacts, appointments, and tasks. HTC has added more than a few updates to the OS, however. The contacts system, for example, now provides a single screen access point to not only a contact's call history, but also to messages and email, Facebook status, and Flickr photos.

The Touch Pro2 for Verizon comes equipped with full Bluetooth wireless support - including stereo headphones - and is said to get up to 5.3 hours of CDMA talk time, or 13.5 days of CDMA standby time, from its massive 1500mAh battery. Its microSDHC(INFO) card slot allows users to add up to 16GB of additional storage to the phone (card not included). All of that potential storage goes nicely with the built-in music player and the Touch Pro2's 3.5mm stereo headphone port.

Verizon is offering the HTC Touch Pro2 for US$199 with a new 2 year agreement, after a $100 rebate that comes in the form of a debit card. The smartphone will be available for purchase online starting Friday, September 11.