Gartner sez: NAND flash memory shortage imminent
Filed under: Cellphones, Desktops, GPS, Handhelds, Laptops, Portable Audio, Portable Video, Tablet PCs, StorageGartner analysts just released a study confirming (presumably with their usual 70% probability) what we and the Koreans already knew: NAND flash memory chips are in high demand and short supply. Showing up in everything from MP3 players, USB flash drives, digital cams, cellphones, and more recently, UMPCs, Laptops, and hard drives, it’s no wonder Gartner is claiming that by Q4 2006 the market will see a 5.8% shortage of NAND flash chips leveling off to 2.6% at the start of 2007. They caution, however, that the pending shortage will worsen if Apple and Samsung’s collusion partnership results in new, high-capacity 16GB or 32GB NAND-based iPod, which Gartner says “could launch” by the end of the year. Uh, Someone might want to consider a restraining order against Creative’s Sim Wong Hoo before then.Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Source: cellphones.engadget.com
Intel selling mobile chip unit to Marvell
Filed under: CellphonesThe rumors of Intel searching for a buyer were circulating, and it looks like they were true: Intel is selling off their mobile chip arm — responsible for the quite successful XScale group of processors — to Marvell Technology Group for $600 million. With chips making notable appearances in Treo, Blackberry and HTC devices, and pulling in a reported $250 million in revenue last year, we’re still scratching our heads as to why exactly Intel would want to get rid of such a successful portion of their business. We’d think powering smartphones would be a priority for Intel right now, but the word is that Intel will have an option to receive $100 million of the purchase price in Marvell stock, so they might not be out of the game entirely. The chip unit currently employs 1,400 people, and Marvell plans to retain the “vast majority” of them, so this move shouldn’t be too traumatic for most parties involved. We just hope they keep up with the R&D to get us smaller, faster, cooler and cheaper chips on the regular.Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Source: cellphones.engadget.com
Verizon to get a piece of Chocolate?
Filed under: Cellphones Just as our Asian friends are likely starting to tire of their glossy black pearls of LG goodness, we’re now getting word that the Chocolate might make its first official US appearance in CDMA form as Verizon’s flagship phone. The VX8500, as it’ll likely be known, bears a strong resemblance to the original, but appears to lack the checkerboard keypad and trades a square d-pad for a circular, music-friendly design. There’s some rampant speculation that the VX8500 is slated for an October launch, but other than that, deets are sketchy. As always, we’ll be on the lookout for more solid information. Update: Like we said, we’re on the lookout for more solid information, and Phone Scoop has quickly delivered. Expect the VX8500 to sport a 1.3 megapixel shooter, MicroSD slot, and EV-DO data when it drops, plus an update version of Verizon’s much-maligned user interface that supports soft menus for the phone’s side keys.Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Source: cellphones.engadget.com
Mobile ESPN launches Samsung ACE
Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Video It’s thin, but not too thin; chic, but nothing your butchier friends are gonna call you a metro for having one;, it’s got features, just not many, and none are really all that impressive. Yes, that’s right, it’s Mobile ESPN’s second cellphone, the Samsung ACE, otherwise known as the A900. Expect the same set of features (Bluetooth, swiveling camera, EV-DO, audio and media playback) as its counterpart, but with a $99 price tag, a black paint job, and ESPN logos all over the damn thing. So thank you no, we’ll continue holding out for Mobile ESPN2 to launch so we can catch some real football games (and spelling bee championships, etc.).Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Source: cellphones.engadget.com
Palm and RIM to merge? Meh.
Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds Perhaps you’ve heard the buzz, but if not there’s a rumor going around right now that mobile communicator rivals Palm and Research In Motion are set to announce a merger of equals as early as this very Thursday. But before you get your panties in a twist about the seemingly possibilities of TreoBerries or BlackTreos (no, not those black Treos), you should trace the breadcrumb trail from the rumor’s prominent placement on CNET all the way back to an anonymous LiveJournal prominently featuring the slogan “Right now I am big on PALM stock, because the Treo is gonna be huge..” Of course, we’d never rule anything out only because it came from an anonymous source, but we’re definitely suspicious. The author of the LJ, titled Covert Stock Operations, points out that Palm would go through with the deal because RIM can offer them “a great investor relations department,” “acceleration of market dominance,” and a lot of other fluffy reasons; apparently it’s in RIM’s best interest to buy Palm because they’re a primary mobile communicator competitor who are beginning to support Microsoft’s entry into the push email space, and their hardware and software offerings would round one anothers’ out, complimenting and improving their total respective product portfolios. Honestly, we see RIM and Palm as two disparate, headstrong companies with a lot less incentive to merge with anyone — let alone with one another — given the goings on of the last few months. RIM’s emerged from the fog of the NTP case and Palm’s 2006 handset offerings are gaining in momentum; whereas there’s no way we can assure you the two won’t be merging, um, this week, we can definitely say Occam’s razor would dictate the anonymous Palm stock pimping blog might have more to gain from the rumor than either of these companies probably would in actually merging.[Via CNET]Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Source: cellphones.engadget.com
“Black Tie Edition” Treo 650 is real, shipping in US
Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds Well, color us a bit surprised. It turns out that the rumored “Black Tie Edition” Treo 650 for Asia-Pacific was not only real, it’s coming to this side of pond as well. The specs sadly haven’t changed from what we’ve reported before: you get the same old Treo 650 repackaged in black, a unique hard case, a dual-purpose stylus/pen, and that’s about it. The Black Tie Edition is shipping immediately for a whopping $599 unsubsidized; we’re not holding our breath for our 700p-toting readers to make the switch, but for folks on GSM carriers, this is now the snazziest Treo money can buy.Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Source: cellphones.engadget.com
California launches “mandatory” cellphone recycling program
Filed under: CellphonesThe Golden State has always been fairly legislation-happy when it comes to keeping things green, and now they’re trying to “Keep California Beautiful” with a new program to require cellphone recycling. Californians have been restricted from throwing phones into the trash since February 8, 2006, but as of July 1 all cellphone retailers in California will be required to establish a collection and recycling program. Recycling will be free, but if even that is too much of a hassle, you can visit the KCB website to get a postage paid box for sending your old phone to a happy resting place from the comfort of your own home. KCB will also provide postage-paid collection boxes to businesses for collecting from employees and customers, so the program shouldn’t cause much of an inconvenience. Unless, of course, you wanted to mix a bit of arsenic and beryllium into your water supply.Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Source: cellphones.engadget.com
GlobalSat TR-101 GPS phone for easily misplaced children
Filed under: Cellphones, GPS Thanks GlobalSat, we we’re starting to think the worrying-parent market was drying up a bit. After that first wave of GPS kiddie phones hit, the feature set has been slowly sinking into the everyphone, which doesn’t allow for that special self-importance that comes to a child owner of a stripped-down tracking phone. The TR-101 allows for calls to 3 preset numbers, and sends location data via SMS or over the Internet. It uses a full-on SiRF Star III chipset, and can be remote controlled via other phones or through Online software. There’s also an SOS button for emergencies, Google Earth integration for visualisation, and quad-band GSM support to keep track of the little bugger all over the globe. No word on price or availability.Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Source: cellphones.engadget.com
Samsung’s Ultra Edition 9.9, 12.9, 6.9: World’s slimmest cellphones launched
Filed under: Cellphones Get ready Guinness ’cause Samsung just launched an entire series of “World’s slimmest” handsets. Sure, we’ve seen the D830 clam, X820 candybar, and FCC approved D900 slider before, only now they’ve been turned-out onto that mean global scene official, spec’d, and rebadged with their ultra-slim, millimeter measurements right in the name: the Ultra Edition 9.9 (D830), 12.9 (D900), and 6.9 (X820) pictured left-to-right. The UE 9.9 brings tri-band (900/1800/1900MHz) GPRS/EDGE, a 2 megapixel cam with auto-focus and flash, a 2.3-inch 240×320 262k TFT main display (0.8-inch 92×16 grayscale external), Bluetooth, 80MB embedded memory with MicroSD expansion, MP3/AAC media player, and even an MPEG4 recorder with TV-out jack slammed into this world’s slimmest flip. The UE 6.9 brings pretty much the same network coverage, cam, Bluetooth, media capabilities, and on-board memory as the 9.9 but had to forgo the microSD card and flash while dropping down to a 1.9-inch 176×220 262k TFT display in order to slip into that world’s slimmest, 6.9-mm, 2.33-ounce dress. The relatively plump UE 12.9 takes advantage of all that, uh, roominess to squeeze in quad-band GPRS/EDGE, a 3.13 megapixel shooter, 2.1-inch 240×320 262k TFT, that good media lovin’ we’ve already seen, Bluetooth with A2DP stereo audio support, and 80MB with microsSD expansion. Yeah, that makes it the world’s slimmest slider, er, with 3 megapixel camera — kind of a stretch, but that’s how Sammy likes to roll. They didn’t bother with drop dates, countries, or prices but the fact that the press release hit their English site gives us hope for this Samsung triptych to drop in the US sometime this year. [Via AVING]Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Source: cellphones.engadget.com
Qool Labs intros pair of Pocket PC phones
Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds Singapore’s CommunicAsia expo, which ended last week, is still leaving us with little bundles of mobile joy here and there. Today we present for you Qool Labs’ QDA Icon and QDA Lite, Windows Mobile 5.0 follow-ons to last year’s QDA Oh!. The Icon is the more interesting of the two, rocking four honest megapixels on a CCD sensor, A2DP support, and a RAZR-like etched keypad. The Lite offers a more run-of-the-mill 2 megapixel CMOS camera and mainstream design but includes WiFi, which the Icon does not. Expect both tri-band Pocket PCs to make their way into Asian consumers’ hands later this year.[Via Slashphone (Icon / Lite)]Read – Qool Labs QDA IconRead – Qool Labs QDA LitePermalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Source: cellphones.engadget.com
