Looks like the Chinese are still not over the Olympics frenzy and frankly I don’t blame them either. It was a great way for the country to showcase themselves and they did it fabulously. This little tribute to the country’s Olympic spirit may seem a little, well, belated, but you have to admit, it’s absolutely stunning. Inspired by the soap bubble structure of the now legendary Water cube building which was home to the Beijing National Aquatics Center where Michael Phelps became the greatest Olympian ever, this astonishing 2008 Olympics Water Cube Phone really lets you remember the Beijing Olympics in a most unique way. Packed with features like dual high-definition camera MP3, AVI, WAV, and WMA player, 3GP and MP4 support, stereo Bluetooth, USB outlet, U disc, handsfree, and group SMS, the phone also supports WAP, GPRS download, and GSM networks. With a dazzling 2.4 inch, 260k color LCD screen with 240 x 320 resolutions fronting the device and memory extendable upto 1GB via a TF card, the $175 phone certainly is a marvelous way to remember the Olympics just gone by. Catch this lovely video showcasing the Water Cube stadium in all its glory.

Vodafone’s affordable yet potent phone, the VF 527 is already popular for its pricing and features and the only thing that was pulling it back was the lack of variety. Not any more, for the phone that was available only in a single (black) colour will hit the shelves shortly with new hues. Dubbed the ‘rainbow range’, it would now be available in moss green, mandarin orange, aqua blue and pink colour variants. Tagged at ?30, this new splurge of colours could see more female buyers getting attracted towards the GPRS enabled device.

After bringing Giorgio Armani’s aesthetic touch to the Samsung Armani luxury phone, Samsung has now arrived with a luxury phone pack for the super-rich – the Samsung Omnia, along with an array of luxurious accessories will form the 699-euro Samsung Omnia Millionaire pack. The Grand Hotel Huis ter Duin in Noordwijk, Holland was the venue of the summer fair where Samsung introduced its limited edition Omnia Millionaire pack.

We have already been introduced to the Samsung Omnia handset in June. The touchscreen device is seen as a competitor of the iPhone. Its specs include 3.2 inch WQVGA TFT LCD display of 240 x 400 pixels resolution, Windows Mobile 6.1 OS, 5MP camera with features such as Wide Dynamic range, Face Detection, Auto focus, Image Stabilizer, Geo-tagging, smile detection and video recording. Other important features of the Omnia are push mail, FM radio, MS Office viewer, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, 8GB internal memory and microSD memory card slot. The Omnia Millionaire pack will contain other than the handset, a limited edition leather travel case, a matching Bluetooth headset and a special issue of the Millionaire magazine to complete the millionaire feel.

Digit Wireless today unveils the TRACE interface – a new software enhancement that allows users to write words quickly and accurately by “tracing” words on touch-screen virtual keyboards and other devices with physical capacitive sensing keyboards.

The TRACE Technology Platform may be used on any device with capacitive-sensing capability, including touch-screens and touch keypads, and may be adapted for any variety of languages or symbols. To input a word, the user simply places a finger over the first letter, skims over each letter that forms the word, and then lifts at the end to activate the final letter… displaying the word on screen. Spaces are inserted automatically at the end of each word.

While tracing, the system performs a dictionary lookup to determine which word the user intended. In the event the user was not completely accurate, or if more than one word can satisfy the trace, word prediction software suggests alternative word options. Word prediction engines that work with TRACE can have a vast dictionary with the ability of the user to add unique words instantly.

“Digit Wireless is constantly at work innovating new interface technologies for mobile and computing devices. TRACE, our latest text input method and system was originally conceived in 2003, granted a patent in 2007 and is now available for license,” said Robert Blumenthal, CEO of Digit Wireless.

EA Mobile today announced that Spore Origins, an original game for the iPhone and iPod touch, will be available this month. The game takes full advantage of the devices’ built-in accelerometer as players tilt, turn and twist their way through a world made of primordial ooze. In conjunction with the launch of Spore Origins, EA Mobile also announces a list of nine games in development for both the iPhone and iPod Touch platforms.


Eat-or-be-eaten in Spore Origins! Designed specifically for the iPhone and iPod touch, Spore Origins uses the platforms’ motion-sensing technology to let gamers navigate a primordial tidepool on a quest to evolve. Feast on the weak and flee from the strong through two exciting modes and 35 challenging levels. Pinch, pull, and poke your creation in the Creature Editor, customizing the texture, shape and body parts to improve your offense, defense, perception and movement as you evolve over millions of years.

EA Mobile today also announced nine titles in development for the iPhone and iPod touch, pending regional availability. This list includes YAHTZEE Adventures, EA Mini Golf, Lemonade Tycoon, Mahjong, MONOPOLY: Here & Now The World Edition, SimCity, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 09, Need for Speed Undercover, and The Sims 3.

National Geographic today announced the formation of National Geographic Mobile to extend the company’s core mission via mobile programming and games. Launching in October, National Geographic’s Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) site will encompass all content optimized for mobile, including categories such as news, green, images, music and videos. All content will tie closely to features from National Geographic’s award-winning magazines and Channel.

“With the launch of National Geographic Mobile, we are pleased to partner with leading carriers and global handset manufacturers, aggregators and developers to share our library of award-winning photos, video and new properties. This is a great opportunity for us to leverage our wonderful assets and feed the growing demand from consumers who are looking for compelling, rich media content on their cell phones and for us to extend our mission globally,” said Prince.

National Geographic will soon partner with PlayPhone to drive mobile content distribution online. The subscription-based service will allow consumers to download National Geographic wallpapers, ringtones, video and games through their personal computers to their phones.

It’s a good news for U.S mobile users who love the Samsung i900 OMNIA, a touchscreen smartphone that uses the Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional operating system. The i900 OMNIA variants, the i907 and i910, have been approved by FCC recently. The i907 has been rumored will support 3G/UMTS network and “be headed toward AT&T” while the i910 definitely supports CDMA network and “expected to be announced on Verizon Wireless”.

Google’s new browser, Chrome, will make its way to Android, the company’s mobile phone operating system and software suite, as the co-founder Sergey Brin said recently. It’s a logical step and a common sence, I think. Moreover, Chrome and Android’s current browser both already employ WebKit, an open-source project for interpreting the HTML code that makes up a Web page and has ability to render it on a screen.

Despite the fact Chrome and Android were developed largely separately, Brin said in an interview at the Chrome launch event Tuesday. “We have not wanted to bind one’s hands to the other’s.” Chrome is said to be 10 to 15 times faster than Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari.

And how about the brand name? “My guess is we’ll have ‘Chrome-like’ or something similar,” he said.

I believe that the powerful browser would be one of important features of the smart-phone for the coming years.

Vodafone UK and Research In Motion (RIM) announced the arrival of the new BlackBerry Bold smartphone. On sale today for all new and existing Vodafone UK customers, the BlackBerry Bold comes with built-in Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g) and integrated GPS that supports location based applications including Vodafone Sat Nav. The BlackBerry Bold also features a large half-VGA colour display (480×320 resolution at 217 ppi) that presents eye-popping images and smooth video playback to complement its rich set of multimedia capabilities including a media player for music, photos and videos and a 2 megapixel camera with video recording.


The BlackBerry Bold smartphone is available on special promotion from free on the Anytime 600 data plan for £35 a month with an 24 month contract. The plan includes 600 minutes talk-time, unlimited texts and data/Internet access with a 500 MBs per month fair usage policy.

MediaFLO USA will carry the live, full-length college football games on its award-winning mobile TV service throughout the 2008 season. MediaFLO USA’s mobile TV service is available to AT&T subscribers as AT&T Mobile TV and to Verizon Wireless customers as V CAST Mobile TV.


AT&T and Verizon Wireless subscribers have access to more than 200 hours of live programming, including all six Notre Dame home games on NBC 2Go, and full-length Atlantic Coast Conference, Big 12 Conference, Big East Conference, Big Ten Conference, Conference USA, Mid-American Conference, Pacific-10 Conference, Southeastern Conference, Sun Belt Conference and Western Athletic Conference match-ups. Additionally, MediaFLO USA’s mobile TV service will air a comprehensive schedule of more than 20 bowl games following the regular season.

Starting in early September, MediaFLO USA will stoke the passions and rivalries of college football fans with an innovative online and mobile “Perfect Teammate” marketing campaign – including an online application that allows rival fans to taunt each other before big games, a sweepstakes, a widget and details of MediaFLO USA’s college football programming.

“With the 2008 college football lineup on our mobile TV service, college football fans can follow games live and in perfect clarity on their mobile phones wherever they are,” said Jonathan Barzilay, senior vice president, programming and advertising, MediaFLO USA.