AT&T just launched a new QWERTY texting-friendly phone – the Samsung A767 Propel. It comes in four cool color combinations. It’s $79.99 with a two year contract, that is with a $50 mail-in coupon as well. So, the real price is $129.99. Without a contract the phone is $279.99. It’s not the cheapest phone, but it looks pretty cool and is chock full of features. It has 3G speed if you are in an area that supports it. Throw in a 1.3 megapixel camera, full texting, mail, etc… and you have a solid, modern phone. If this sounds like a cool phone to you, check out your local AT&T retailer.
A few details about version 2.2 of the iPhone firmware have emerged. According to the Digital Earth Blog, it will include Google StreetView, an expected move since it was recently released for Google Maps Mobile (Nokia, etc) and is part of Android.
In addition, you’ll finally be able to disable auto-correction on the keyboard. I personally hate it, so I’ll be happy to get rid of it.
Beyond that, they’ll be including support for Japanese emoji icons, which has been blamed as part of the reason for the slow iPhone adoption in Japan.
No word on Background Push Notification in this update, nor a release date for it.
Samsung has released another firmware update for the popular Instinct, and it seems to be a good one. According to Gizmodo, the update includes some major enhancements to the browser. The browser seems to to be the achilles heel of most phones (just ask my wife about her BlackJack), so it’s nice to see them working hard to make this one better.
They claim a 10x improvment in rendering speed, which must be a stunning improvement for people that are used to the old one.
In addition, you can now hide the browser controls (to give you more screen real estate), the favorites UI has been improved, and there have been 34 other browser-related tickets closed. Not bad!
This is pretty slick. Starting with firmware 2.1, specially coded mobile websites can be designed to run just like your other apps! If you are on a site that supports this, you simply save the app to your home screen, just like you’ve always done. When you tap the icon, the page will load in a clean window (no Safari wrapper), and it loads very quickly (no wrapper, less overhead).
For you webmasters out there, changing your site to support this is very easy. Simple add these three lines of code to your page header area:
The first Android-powered phone, T-Mobile’s G1, was officially released today. It comes preloaded with a varity of Google Applications (Search, Maps, Gmail, Calendar, Google Talk and YouTube). The Gmail app has most of the features of the web version (labels, conversations, etc) and Maps comes with StreetView built-in.
The phone itself isn’t a slouch either. It has a 3.2-inch TFT-LCD (at 320×480 resolution) and a full QWERTY keyboard. It has a 3.2 megapixel camera, and 8 gigs 1 gig of storage (plus a microSD slot). The phone does not have video capabilities, and it’s chained to the T-Mobile network. Undoubtedly, a unlock crack will be developed quickly.
Here is a video produced by Google showing off the phone:
And here are a bunch of photos of the device. It sure looks slick!
According to engadget, the 32GB iPhone might be here as soon as next week. Considering the 16GB model came out of nowhere in February, this certainly seems possible. In fact, I’m a little surprised we haven’t seen the 32GB model yet.
Shortages of the 8GB iPhone are becoming more widespread, which is fuel speculation of the 32GB arrival. This is possible, or it might just be a resource shift as Best Buy gets rolling. Either way, we’ll find out soon!
It’s another great innovation for the iPhone that every other phone has had for about 8 years — an “at a glance” home screen.
Right now, it’s just a patent application, but it looks pretty nice. As an iPhone user, I can certainly see how this kind of screen could be useful.
On the other hand, they’ll need to be very careful about the privacy implications. It was less than a month ago that they had the big issue with people being able to bypass the security code, and this appears to have a similar issue. Based on the sketch, you can see recent information (calls, texts, voicemail, etc) without unlocking the phone.
That being said, I’m sure Apple is keeping that in mind and will find a way to make it work that pleases (almost) everyone.
Google has just released a nice update for Google Maps Mobile, including StreetView and walking directions! This update is for Blackberry and other Java-enabled phone for now (no Symbian or iPhone yet), but other devices are coming soon.
You can download the update at google.com/gmm, or watch the video below for more info:
AT&T just launched a new QWERTY texting-friendly phone – the Samsung A767 Propel. It comes in four cool color combinations. It’s $79.99 with a two year contract, that is with a $50 mail-in coupon as well. So, the real price is $129.99. Without a contract the phone is $279.99. It’s not the cheapest phone, but it looks pretty cool and is chock full of features. It has 3G speed if you are in an area that supports it. Throw in a 1.3 megapixel camera, full texting, mail, etc… and you have a solid, modern phone. If this sounds like a cool phone to you, check out your local AT&T retailer.
