Verizon has just launched the Kyocera K323, an entry-level feature phone.  The handset sports Bluetooth wireless technology with a slcell eek internal antenna and a small clamshell design that fits right in the palm of your hand. Features: All Digital Phone Camera with flash Bluetooth® CapableSpeakerphone Voice Activated Dialing TTY Compatible Hearing Aid Compatibility = M4 [Read]

Great news! Cell phone owners can now unlock the software on their phones, thanks to a new copyright rule approved by the Library of Congress.Cell phone owners will have the ability to take their phone with them from wireless carrier to wireless carrier.  Thank goodness! Under the new copyright rules, cell phone owners will be allowed to break software locks on their handsets in order to use them with competing carriers.Librarian of Congress James H. Billington approved six exemptions, the most his Copyright Office has ever granted. Other copyright exemptions approved by the Library of Congress will let film professors copy snippets from DVDs for educational compilations and let blind people use special software to read copy-protected electronic books. In granting the exemption for cell phone users, the Copyright Office determined that consumers aren't able to enjoy full legal use of their handsets because of software locks that wireless providers have been placing to control access to phones' underlying programs. [Read]

England's online gaming group 888 is close to signing deals with some of Europe's bigger mobile phone operators to offer their customers gambling over their handsets, a source close to the company said on Thursday.Several European mobile operators are looking to incorporate 888 mobile into their offering and isin the final stages of negotiations. Mobile gaming is important to 888 as a means of acquiring new customers and helping them play wherever and whenever they wanted. 888 has 2 brands, Casino-on-Net and Pacific Poker. Since its official launch in 1997, over 25 million people have experienced Casino-on-Net's gaming action, making it the largest online gaming venue. Pacific Poker is the fastest growing online poker brand in the industry, hosting thousands of poker enthusiasts the world over at any given time, day or night. [Read]

Recently, Sprint has launched the first of its much-anticipated Sprint/Nextel combo phones, the Motorola ic502. The ic502 uses Sprint's CDMA 1xRTT network for voice calls and data connections, but Nextel's iDen network for walkie-talkie service.Sprint has wanted to move customers off of Nextel's unusual network for a while, but has moved gingerly for fear of enraging Nextel's extremely loyal business customers. Not only does Sprint have to run two redundant networks right now, the FCC has commanded Nextel to leave the 800 Mhz band it has been entrenched in because of interference complaints from public safety agencies using nearby frequencies.The problem is that no other technology mimics iDen's instantaneous push-to-talk capability. Searching for a good PTT solution has led Sprint to accelerate the rollout of EV-DO Rev A, a high-speed, low-latency data technology that could carry a Nextel-quality walkie-talkie system.Meanwhile, Sprint hasn't been adding many new towers to Nextel's network, causing trouble with blocked and dropped calls.  [Read]

Go abroad to Europe or Asia and you'll realize that American cell phones are behind the times.  Cutting edge cell phones to Americans like the Motorola RAZR on the international front isn't cutting edge. Europe and Asia have a bigger selection of feature rich cell phones to choose from and they are the first to try and adapt to cutting edge technologies incorporated in today's cell phones.European and Asians buyers of cell phones are more concerned with hi-tech advanced cell phones with numerous gadgets.  Americans are more concerned with value and price and American cell phone carriers are more concerned with generating revenues than offering pricy phones that may require upgrading their networks.Take a look below at few of the phones that are available in Europe and Asia and you'll see their cell phones are way more cutting edge that American cell phones. [Read]

Samsung launches a new mobile TV phone (model:SGH-P930) to the Italian market this month through Telecom Italia. This newest mobile TV phone combines not only the latest mobile TV technology, but it also combines HSDPA technology which enables high-speed data transmission. Samsung has provided a mobile TV phone (model: SGH-P920) to Telecom Italia since May 2006. Samsung's successful drive in the Italian market has been a big step in leading Europe 's mobile TV phone market. Samsung's newest model, the P930, adopts horizontal LCD screen for optimal mobile TV watching and supports stereo speaker for best sound quality. The P930 has wide 2.3 inch (240x320) LCD and supports Picture in Picture (PIP) function to watch two TV channels simultaneously. [Read]

The Palm 680 announced back in October is to go on sale after Thanksgiving by Cingular. Compared to the Motorola Q, T-Mobile Dash, Samsung BlackJack, and BlackBerry Pearl, the Palm 680 will be competitively priced with these smartphones. Palm is selling the 680 directly and unlocked for $399 with no contract. Customers will find the Treo 680 smartphone easy to use, slim and compact, yet packed full of features beyond its stellar phone capability, such as email, web browsing, messaging, multimedia, calendar, contacts and more. The Treo 680 smartphone includes 64MB of user-available storage, nearly three times the memory of the original Treo 650 smartphone. Customers can add up to 2GB of storage with expansion cards for those large music or video files (sold separately) [Read]

After just debuting the LG White Chocolate, Verizon Wireless has now launched 2 additional colors (cherry and mint) of the popular LG Chocolate VX8500 phone. HighlightsStylish Slider Design With Soft-touch External ControlsFirst Phone To Play Either Downloaded VCAST Music or PC-transferred Music FilesWirelessly Stream Music To A Stereo Bluetooth HeadsetHigh-speed Data Downloads Let You Watch TV Or Listen To Streaming Music1.3 Megapixel Camera Takes Print-quality Photo And Hour-long Video Clips Advanced Voice Dialing Lets Your Operate Your Phone Without Pre-training [Read]

A new startup (named Berggi) is planning to launch this coming Thanksgiving a simplified alternative to the Blackberry e-mail delivery service from Canada's Research In Motion, which dominates the mobile professional market.Berggi aims to offer messaging services for basic mobile phones that still represent two-thirds of the U.S. mobile market. Users of Blackberry or rival e-mail services on Palm or Microsoft software need more expensive, so-called smartphones. Consumers can send and receive e-mail on their phones from Internet services such as Yahoo, Microsoft or Google, along with popular instant-messaging services. Berggi delivers any text in the body of an e-mail, but not document attachments. [Read]

Cingular Wireless became the first wireless carrier in the U.S. to introduce a wireless navigation system with 3D maps and "fuzzy search" when it launched an enhanced version of TeleNav GPS Navigator™ on the Nokia E62 device.Using TeleNav GPS Navigator on the Nokia E62 device, customers will receive turn-by-turn directions while driving and view colorful 3D moving maps on the device's large, high-resolution screen, which measures 320 x 240 pixels. Just like an in-car navigation system, the 3D maps turn, move and stop as the driver does the same, while also displaying a realistic image of the streets the driver is approaching and streets they are passing.Users can also pan and zoom the map to view surrounding streets. Other features provided with TeleNav GPS Navigator on the Nokia E62 device include searching "along-the-route" (ATR), allowing users to look up a business, place of interest, and even the lowest gas prices along their predetermined routes. In addition, TeleNav GPS Navigator on the Nokia E62 device includes "fuzzy search," also known as predictive address entry, which detects and automatically fills in addresses based on current or commonly-used locations, as well as corrective entry, which automatically revises information the user may have misspelled. Nokia E62 [Read]

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world’s largest provider of thin-film transistor, liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) panels announced today that it has developed the thinnest reported LCD panel, one no thicker than a credit card at 0.82mm, which is 0.07mm thinner than the panel previously reported to be the world’s slimmest. The company also announced that it has developed a new mobile technology, which it is calling, “i-Lens”, for integrating the entire panel assembly, including a protective layer, into a single, thinner module that is more shock-resistant and easier to read than conventional panels. To achieve the slimmer package size, Samsung’s Mobile Display Team redesigned the light guide plate subassembly and the glass substrate, which accounted for most of the LCD module’s thickness. Samsung has further contributed to the trend toward slimmer phones with its new i-Lens technology. [Read]

Samsung Electronics is cooperating with film producer Twentieth Century Fox to make the fantasy film ‘ Eragon ' – soon in cinemas – available on mobile phones. ‘Eragon', the Christmas blockbuster includes such actors as Jeremy Irons, John Malkovich, Robert Carlyle and Sienna Guillory , begins in cinemas in mid-December. Samsung mobile phone users in Europe will be able to exclusively receive free mobile contents such as film trailers, screensavers and wallpapers b efore the premiere of the movie ‘Eragon' as they download from the website. (eragon.samsungmobile.com). The mutual cooperation between Samsung Mobile and Twentieth Century Fox is presenting the premiere, making it possible for Samsung customers using any mobile phone models to load the video trailer and other mobile Eragon contents onto phones. The internet and mobile event began simultaneously on November 15th in 15 European countries including U.K. , France , Germany , Italy and Russia. [Read]

Recharging your laptop computer, your cell phone and a variety of other gadgets may one day be as convenient as surfing the web wirelessly.Like many of us, Marin Soljacic, an assistant professor in MIT's Department of Physics and Research Laboratory of Electronics, often forgets to recharge his cell phone, and when it is about to die it emits an unpleasant noise. Needless to say, this always happens in the middle of the night," he said. "So, one night, at 3 a.m., it occurred to me: Wouldn't it be great if this thing charged itself?" He began to wonder if any of the physics principles he knew of could turn into new ways of transmitting energy.After all, scientists and engineers have known for nearly two centuries that transferring electric power does not require wires to be in physical contact. [Read]

Sprint PCS has launched the LG LX150 which keeps you connected with Bluetooth®, a speakerphone, text and voice messaging, and phone-as-modem capabilities. The phone sports a dedicated text messaging key. By pressing the button it takes you right to the SMS section of the interface. Bluetooth® connects you wirelessly to headsets, printers and other capable devicesSMS Voice Messaging: send voice messages to any number or e-mail address in your phonebookSpeakerphone provides the convenience of hands-free conversationsPhone-as-modem capability lets you hook your laptop up to the Internet using no other devicesText messaging gets you in touch when you can't talkProductivity tools: planner, scheduler, to-do list, world clock, calculator, memo pad, morePersonalize: download ringtones, graphics and games to your phoneBuilt-in phonebook keeps your contacts at your fingertips [Read]

J.D. Power & Associates has ranked Sony Ericsson the highest in satisfying customers who have owned their current mobile phone for less than two years, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2006 U.S. Wireless Mobile Phone Evaluation StudySM –Volume 2 released today.The study measures customers’ satisfaction with their wireless handsets based on five key performance factors. In order of importance, these are: physical design (24%); operation (22%); features (20%); handset durability (19%); and battery function (15%). Sony Ericsson receives the highest ratings from customers in handset durability, and also performs particularly well in features and battery functionality. LG, Sanyo and Motorola, respectively, follow Sony Ericsson in the overall rankings.The study finds that the average reported purchase price for a wireless handset has increased for the first time in two years.  [Read]

launched its first mobile voice-over-IP service in collaboration with an operator, 3 Group, whose customers will soon be the first to use it.  3 Group customers will be able to make free Skype calls to other 3 Group Skype users and to PC-based Skype users around the world. Customers must subscribe to one of 3 Group's new monthly data plans to use the service.3 Group has not yet revealed the pricing for the plans but says they will include unlimited usage, subject to fair-use limitations. For mobile phone users who make lots of international calls, the offering could deliver significant cost savings, depending on the cost of the data subscription.3 Group Service Offers Unlimited Calls. [Read]

3 Group, in Partnership with Skype, Sling Media, Yahoo!, Nokia, Google, eBay, Microsoft, Orb and Sony Ericsson, unleashes the true power of broadband internet over the mobile.Hutchison Whampoa Limited today announced the global launch of the X-Series from 3. It will extend several of the core applications and uses of the broadband internet to the mobile handset, with a new pricing model. The X-Series from 3 will be supported by the leading internet companies, cutting-edge handsets from the world's leading mobile manufacturers and premium customer service.Customers will be able to make unlimited calls from their mobile using Skype, watch their home television via their mobile using Sling, access their home PC remotely using Orb and have access to the best of internet and messaging services from Yahoo!, Windows Live Messenger and Google. [Read]

Sling Media, Inc., a digital lifestyle consumer electronics products company, and the 3 Group, the global leader in 3G mobile broadband, today announced that they are partnering to give customers access to their home TV channels on their mobile handsets. The announcement was made today as part of Hutchison Whampoa’s global launch of the X-Series from 3, which unveils the true power of the internet on mobile broadband.  This is the first time that Sling Media has partnered with a major mobile operator and signifies the increasing consumer demand for the Slingbox and the increasing focus on mobile TV services that deliver a truly personalized one-to-one experience to the customer.The X-Series from 3, will give 3 customers the ability to experience all that they enjoy on the internet, using the latest mobile broadband handsets and with the award-winning Slingbox, customers will be able to watch anything they are able to watch on their own TV. [Read]

Today Microsoft and Sprint announced a strategic alliance through which the companies will develop and deliver a range of innovative new service offerings for Sprint's business and consumer customers. The first consumer offering in this collaboration enables Sprint customers to use Windows Live(TM) Search for mobile on their wireless phones to conveniently search location-based content from the Internet, such as nearby stores and restaurants, as well as Sprint's catalog of ring tones, games, screen savers and related services. The service also provides new opportunities for highly relevant and targeted local advertising, which will benefit businesses and consumers alike. The new Sprint mobile search service powered by Windows Live aims to provide one-stop access to relevant online content associated with a given keyword or phrase. [Read]

Firethorn  today announced a partnership  with Cingular Wireless that will offer mobile banking and payments services to Cingular Wireless customers. Atlanta-based Firethorn is the only mobile banking and payments provider Cingular has authorized on its network.FirethornSM enables consumers to securely perform a wide variety of banking and payment functions anytime, anywhere using their mobile phone, PDA and other mobile devices. Offering Firethorn's mobile banking and payments application to your customers can help you keep and strengthen customer relationships, increase brand awareness and value, and increase customer profitability. Firethorn delivers the most powerful yet flexible mobile banking and payments solution on the market. From a single, secure application, consumers can: [Read]