Garmin announces StreetPilot navigation for iPhone

Garmin has so far kept its navigation package exclusive to its standalone GPS units and smartphones, but that's about to change. Garmin's StreetPilot iPhone navigation has already hit the AppStore.
Garmin has finally given up on the exclusivity and released its navigation package for the iPhone. The StreetPilot app offers everything you can get with the Garmin's standalone navigation devices - turn-by-turn voice navigation, real-time traffic updates, millions of POIs, address book, weather and forecast, speed limits warnings, etc.

SpeedPilot for iPhone
The SpeedPilot app can also access your music and play it during navigation. Multi-tasking is also supported - the app will continue to work in background and navigate you.
StreetPilot for iPhone is currently available only for USA and Canada and costs $40 in the AppStore.
Garmin has also announced a new tracking device - the GTU 10 - which can help you track any objects or people it's attached to. It works in conjunction with the Garmin Tracker app, which will be available soon in the Apple's AppStore and Android Market.
Another Garmin app that's about to hit the Android market is myMechanic. It uses Bluetooth to connect to the Garmin ecoRoute HD module (sold separately for about $100) and let's you know your car's specific performance metrics including horsepower, torque and G-force.
The final Garmin announcement for this year's CES is the My-Cast Lite Android app. It's free and provides radar images, current conditions, hourly and extended weather forecasts.

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We get more pics of Vodafone 360 H2, Vodafone says it's canceled

We just got some more photos of the LiMo OS powered Vodafone 360 H2 phone along with some confirmation of a few of the rumored specs. In the same time a Vodafone rep contacted us saying that the Vodafone H2 has been canceled since July 2010.
The successor to the Vodafone 360 H1 has been around in the rumor mill for a while now, but following the new leaked images from Sunday, Vodafone came up and confirmed that there will be no new Vodafone 360 handsets and that development of the H2 has been ceased since last summer.
We acknowledge these new bits of info and we hope Samsung will put the hardware to some nice use in another handset (Bada OS, maybe). We can't help but publish the new shots of this dead-end prototype as a wave goodbye.
So here it is compared to the iPhone 4 and a BlackBerry.

Vodafone 360 H2 spy shots
We guess this is the end of LiMo handsets altogether although that mobile OS was a hacker's dream. The small and dedicated community has already ported to it Android 2.2 Froyo, MeeGo and even Debian (a Linux distribution, many other distros are based on it).

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Freescale hits with dual-core and quad-core mobile CPUs

Smartphone and tablet processors are just about entering the dual-core stages of their evolution and Freescale wants to join the party. Not only this, the company is even willing to throw a quad-core CPU our way just for the fun of it.
Freescale just announced a trio of new mobile processors, suitable for use in Smartphones, Tablets and eReaders. The three versions of the i.MX 6 CPU are called Solo, Dual and Quad and come with one, two and four Cortex A9 cores respectively. Each of the cores can be clocked at up to 1.2 GHz. The level 2 cache isn't quoted for each of the CPUs but Freescale says it reaches 1 MB (presumably on the quad-core unit).

Still each and every of the i.MX 6 processors is said to allow full HD (as in 1080p) video decoding and encoding. There's also support for HDMI v1.4 and multiple USB 2.0 ports. The stereoscopic image sensor support allows for 3D imaging, provided that someone builds the right camera module for the task.
Freescale plans to start sampling the new CPUs later this year, which isn't nearly as specific as we hoped to get. Anyway we don't expect to be seeing one of those babies on an actual tablet or smartphone before the next holiday season.

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Samsung sells a total of 10 million Galaxy S phones

Samsung is doing more than well with the Galaxy S fella. The originally Android 2.1-running smartphone has entered the pockets of more than 10 million users around the world and is continuing to conquer even more market share.

Samsung I9000 Galaxy S
It is hardly a surprising number since we sat and watch as Samsung issued new press-releases for every new million or so.
North America is the region with most Galaxy S sold - more than four million - followed by Europe with 2.5 million. But then again - there are no less than three different variations of the smartphone deployed in the US only.
Samsung has the same big plans for the Galaxy Tab and its Bada-devices.
Let's wait for the MWC 2011 and see what else new has Samsung prepared for us.

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HTC Thunderbolt 4G leaks again, flaunts GSM and HSDPA support

While North America has set sight on CES in expectation of the HTC Thunderbolt 4G announcement, the rest of the world fears that it might be left out once again. Yet a newly leaked photo from a German online retailer's website suggests that we might just see a GSM-capable version of the Android beast.
According to the source the UMTS/LTE-packing Thunderbolt 4G will be available, somewhere in the middle of 2011 in the O2 and Vodafone networks.

However the screenshot lists many of the HTC Thunderbolt 4G specs that were so far unkown. The smartphone's Android version of choice is 2.3 Gingerbread and the CPU ticking inside is the 1.2 GHz Qualcomm MSM8960 that just entered mass production.
What makes us quite suspicious is the mention of a microSD card slot that supports cards of up to 128 GB. As you probably know under the current microSD standards such high-capacitiy cards simply cannot exist, the maximum being 32 GB. The 5 megapixel front-facing camera also doesn't seem quite believable.
Still we are willing to give this rumor the benefit of the doubt and hope for an announcement at MWC in February (or even CES).

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Super AMOLED-packing Vodafone 360 Samsung H2 leaks again

Rest assured LiMo fans, the platform is not dead! We just got another photo of the Samsung-made Vodafone 360 H2 and chances are we might see it officially announced at CES or the MWC.
The Super AMOLED-packing Vodafone H2 was expected to be announced in Q3 2010, but that didn’t happen and rumors suggested that the platform was dead. Yet that new blurry shot we just received may suggest that Samsung and Vodafone are still not giving up on it and a follow up to the H1 will indeed appear.

The Vodafone i8330 or the nightmare of a name it has (Vodafone 360 H2 by Samsung) is said to come with a larger 3.7” screen and a better 8 megapixel camera, capable of recording 720p footage. The CPU speed has been upped to 1 GHz and the radios have been updated with Wi-Fi n support and Bluetooth 3.0.
There are only four days remaining to the start of CES, when we will possibly see the H2 make its first public appearance. Unless it's MWC 2011 in February anyway.

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microUSB to become the standard charger plug in the EU next year

As we say goodbye to 2010, the European Union says goodbye to un-standardized phone chargers. It's been over a year in the making, but microUSB will be the standard charger plug for European mobile phones starting next year.
The European Union first announced their plans in June last year and major phone manufacturers quickly signed the memorandum. A few others signed later on.
Currently the list includes: Nokia, Apple, Samsung, LG, RIM, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Huawei, Alcatel, NEC, Emblaze, and chip makers Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and Atmel. This covers the majority of phones you'd care to buy.
Convenience is one thing to look forward to. No more carrying several chargers for each device - just one will do (or even a microUSB cable and a computer). The switch to the microUSB standard has environmental benefits as well, as each year 4,000 tons of old, incompatible accessories get thrown out after the user upgrades.
The first phones complying with the new standard are expected to come out early next year. Of course, many phones already use microUSB for charging but from now on, if you buy a new phone from one of the signatory manufacturers you'll be guaranteed that it will charge off microUSB.
In Europe anyway. But we're hoping that the phone makers will use the standard globally rather than create Europe-specific versions with microUSB.

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Nokia N8 sales nearing 4 million units

According to a Finland research company, Nokia has sold between 3.5 and 4 million N8 smartphones. The research also mentions that the N8 is a top-selling phone in Finland, India, Malaysia and UAE.
Nokia previously stated that the N8 cameraphone flagship is the company's most pre-ordered phone ever. Despite that impressive claim we were never given specific numbers.

Nokia N8
We still don't have any official confirmation, but if the Finland research company Inderes Oy is to be trusted, nearly 4 million users bought the N8. We suppose the popularity in the listed countries is expected, because Nokia is the biggest player on those markets by a country mile.
Those early sales are certainly encouraging, but we'll have to wait until the Holiday season shopping spree ends and Nokia publishes its Q4 results, before judging the N8 market success.

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Skype video calls officially available for the iPhone

Today Skype went official with the new version of its iPhone application that brings free video calling to all its subscribers. It works over both 3G and Wi-Fi networks the new Skype app even lets you have video calls with desktop users.
Obviously video-calling has enjoyed remarkable success this year, accounting for 40 percent of all Skype-to-Skype minutes for the first six months so bringing it to the mobile world seems like the smart thing to do. Plus, being completely free of charge (though data transfer rates do apply) and with no Facetime-like restrictions it might actually become the video service to use.
Also, with the rumored announcement of video-calling for other platforms you would be able to use it with a much larger number of people, which will drastically increase its usefulness.
Right now owners of the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, and iPod touch 4th generation with iOS 4.0 or later can go to the App Store and give the video-enabled version of Skype a try. Sharing your experience with us in the comments section below is encouraged.

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First pics of Motorola CLIQ 2 break loose, to be announced at CES

It seems Motorola is preparing a successor of its CLIQ and DEXT devices. A picture of Motorola CLIQ 2 for T-Mobile USA has leaked early today revealing a very interesting honeycomb-styled QWERTY keyboard.
Motorola CLIQ 2 (and perhaps DEXT 2 in Europe) is the next high-end smartphone in the Motorola lineup. It will pack big-enough capacitive touchscreen, 5 megapixel camera with LED flash, all-round connectivity and a unique QWERTY keyboard. Its design resembles the honeycomb pattern, which might be a clue the supposedly Android Froyo or Gingerbread inside will be upgradeable to 3.0 Honeycomb.

There is also a chance the CLIQ 2 will be HSPA+ capable.
Motorola CLIQ 2 is supposed to be announced at the upcoming CES 2011 and launched on 19 January.

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Sony Ericsson X10 mini pro successor is a real beast

The ultra compact smartphone niche has obviously brought enough cash to Sony Ericsson as it is just about to release a successor to their X10 mini pro. The new device is yet unnamed (though X12 mini pro seems like a reasonable guess), but seems to fix all there was to fix about its predecessor.
With a slightly larger 3" screen of higher resolution and far more computing power, the new tiny QWERTY-equipped device seems to be to the rumored X12, exactly what the X10 mini pro was to the X10. The keyboard is not actually visible on the leaked shots, but the Chinese source assures us that it's there.

Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 mini pro successor
The CPU ticking inside is said to be a 1GHz Snapdragon, confirmed by those impressive benchmark results. Even though it achieved over 1500 at Quadrant (significantly better than the Nexus One) you will notice that the CPU scores of the two are equal (the blue parts of the result bars).
The XPERIA X10 mini pro was announced at the Sony Ericsson press conference at the MWC 2010 so we will probably see the newly leaked device properly announced on 13th February just before the start of MWC 2011.

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LTE-enabled HTC Incredible HD now teased as Thunderbolt 4G

The veiled HTC is back with another teaser - the upcoming LTE-enabled HTC phone has changed its name since the last time we saw it and now goes by HTC Thunderbolt 4G (it used to be Incredible HD).


That's not the first name change for this phone - it first leaked as Mecha through the HTCSense website, then about a week ago it was teased as the first 4G phone for the umpteenth time (though the other first '4G' phones are HSPA+ or WiMAX enabled, neither of which is strictly speaking what 4G).
Anyway, the name seems to be HTC Thunderbolt 4G and according to the gossip, it is heading to Verizon's new LTE network. And there's a confirmation that the veil will be lifted on January 6 as part of CES 2011. You can sign up to receive email updates on the Thunderbolt 4G if you want.

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HTC Desire HD gets Android 2.2.1 update, improved HD recording

There's an update out for the HTC Desire HD but it's not the major update to Android 2.3 Gingerbread you might have hoped for. It's a tweak and bugfix update that bumps the Desire HD to Android 2.2.1, which reportedly brings improved performance too.
It's an Over The Air update weighing in at 40MB. It will update the HTC Desire HD to software version 1.72.405.3 and the Android version to 2.2.1, the latest available Froyo. Aside from fixing some bugs, the Desire HD is reported to run a little faster overall after the update.
The camera shows a much more noticeable improvement. It's now snappier and the HD recording has reportedly been improved as well.
There's not a peep from HTC about when the HTC Desire HD and their other droids will receive the Android 2.3 Gingerbread update though. That might take a while as HTC will have to port all sorts of custom goodies (including the extensive Sense UI, the fast boot magic, etc) to the latest version of Android OS.

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HTC 7 Pro to hit O2 in January, Nokia E7 gets a pre-order price

According to the German O2 website, HTC 7 Pro will launch right next month. Meanwhile Amazon is already offering the next Symbian^3 device on pre-order. Nokia Е7 is priced there at the hefty $680.
O2 Germany already has a teaser page for the HTC 7 Pro, which states the smartphone will hit the network in January. There is no price mentioned, but we guess it will be available on the carrier's standard deals with a two-year contract.

The next news comes straight from the US-based Amazon, which is offering the Symbian^3-running Nokia E7 on pre-order. The price is nearly insane - $680. Bear in mind that the European price is usually 20-30% higher, ouch!. For comparison, the Nokia N8 currently runs at about $470.

Our only hope is that this price is not accurate and will be adjusted sometime near the official Nokia E7 launch next year.

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Samsung S8500 Wave all set for a Bada 1.2 update early next year

Bada OS is barely a year old and it has already hit version 1.2. The latest version was available on newer phones but the original Samsung S8500 Wave will be getting it too starting early next year in Europe.
Version 1.2 of Bada brought important security improvements and bug fixes, along with some UI changes and the T9 Trace input method (a Swype competitor). The Bada SDK 1.2 came out earlier this month and added better graphic support for devs to play with plus things to make their life easier.


Samsung is almost done with preparing the v1.2 update for the original Samsung S8500 Wave and it will release it in early next year for unlocked European units. The rest of the S8500 Wave phones will get the update sometime in the first quarter of next year (the exact time depends on country and operator).
Details on Bada 2.0 showed up recently but there was teasingly little detail on the upgrade path. The Samsung S8500 Wave getting updated to Bada 1.2 is a good start but it's still not clear whether it will see the next major version of the OS it helped launch (here's hoping).

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Sony Ericsson MT15 Hallon and LT15 Anzu leak

We just spotted some new info, pictures and camera samples from a brand new Sony Ericsson smartphone - the MT15 codenamed Hallon plus the previously leaked LT15 Anzu a.k.a. XPERIA X12.
Sony Ericsson MT15 Hallon looks much like the XPERIA X12 Anzu, but has a beefier front-facing camera.

Sony Ericsson MT15 Hallon
The Hallon leaked via a Picasa album and is shot with a device called Sony Ericsson LT15. Rumor has it that the LT15 is the previously leaked XPERIA X12 Anzu and it's supposed to pack a 12 megapixel camera. The samples in the Picasa album are only 8 megapixel so it's not the full resolution of the camera or the LT15 could be a new unannounced device and not the 12 megapixel Anzu we are waiting for.
As you probably know Sony Ericsson has already reserved several new marketing names - the XPERIA Arc, the XPERIA Duo and the XPERIA Neo. Perhaps one of those will be how the LT15 will become known to the world. I guess we'll learn first-hand at the MWC 2011.
Anyway, here is the Sony Ericsson MT15 Hallon shot with the camera of the LT15:

Sony Ericsson MT15 Hallon shot with LT15 • another LT15 camera sample
And these are some camera samples from the MT15 Hallon itself:

Sony Ericsson MT15 Hallon camera sample
Both LT15 and MT15 are most probably running Android v2.3 Gingerbread.
There is one more thing. The long rumored Sony Ericsson PlayStation phone, codenamed Zeus, is supposed to go by the R800 model number so those two don't have anything to do with it even though they look similar.

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Skype to announce video calls for the iPhone at CES 2011

“A series of video-related announcements” already gave us a pretty good idea of what to expect from Skype at CES, but things just got way more specific. A leaked tutorial page from the company’s official website has revealed that video-calling will be coming to iOS.
Chances are other major platform will be getting video-calls too (hence the series of announcements). We have to remind you that Maemo and its sole smartphone representative – Nokia N900 already support video-calling through Skype.
Skype runs nicely on all the major mobile operating systems already and it would be pretty great if Skype enabled the new feature to all of them at once.
CES 2010 is only a couple of weeks away and the few remaining questions should receive their answers there.

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