Mobile News and Mobile Info

Well, that’s what TechDigest reckons – and they are following up on evidence that the SE-Blog found on the Sony Ericsson site!

For those of you that had forgotten the specs:

4?, 800 x 400 touchscreen2G: 850/900/1800/1900 (Quad-Band)3G: 900/2100 (Dual-Band); HSDPA (10Mbps), HSUPA (2Mbps)8 megapixel camera with autofocus and 8 x digital zoomLED FlashImage StabilizationSmile ShutterFace DetectionVGA Video RecordingPOP3, SMTP, IMAP4, MS Exchange e-mailminiUSB, 3.5mm AV connectorBluetooth (2.1), Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11g), AGPS

4?, 800 x 400 touchscreen

2G: 850/900/1800/1900 (Quad-Band)

3G: 900/2100 (Dual-Band); HSDPA (10Mbps), HSUPA (2Mbps)

8 megapixel camera with autofocus and 8 x digital zoom

LED Flash / Image Stabilization / Smile Shutter / Face Detection / VGA Video Recording

POP3, SMTP, IMAP4, MS Exchange e-mail

miniUSB, 3.5mm AV connector

Bluetooth (2.1), Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11g), AGPS

So I guess within a couple of days we’ll see how the rumours are – but if it’s true then we have got a real smartphone shootout on our hands over the Christmas period!!

Right on cue, the smaller-but-just-barely N97 mini is now ready for public consumption over in Europe. Granted, we’re certainly at the tail end of October, but we can’t say that we caught Nokia in a lie or anything based on what was said last month in Stuttgart. You’ve already committed the specifications to memory and read all about firmware 2.0, so now all that’s left to do is run along, fork out €450 ($667) and wonder forever if this decision will positively or negatively change the course of your life.

We knew good and well this thing was coming sometime in November, and now Verizon Wireless has made it official: the Motorola DROID will hit Big Red on November 6th for $199 on contract (after a $100 mail-in rebate). Naturally, the DROID itself is just the first of what could be many Android-laced phones coming to the carrier, and Verizon Wireless CMO John Stratton even stated that the phone “is wide open” — pretty big words from a company like VZW. Android 2.0 will be front and center, along with Visual Voicemail, a 3.7-inch display (854 x 480 resolution), 5 megapixel camera (with dual-LED flash), a bundled 16GB memory card and a beta version of Google Maps Navigation(!). For those wondering, yeah — the DROID is the first phone to offer that, which transforms Google Maps into a turn-by-turn routing system that’ll have your dedicated TomTom / Garmin trembling in fear. There’s also a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, 3G, WiFi, voice-activated search and over-the-air Amazon MP3 downloads. With all that, who needs the iPhone, right Ivan?

China has their own 3G standard. First thing you may be asking yourself is why? China has always done their own thing, and by developing an alternative to WCDMA they save themselves the burden of having to pay for WCDMA royalties. Every decision in today’s mobile world, and I mean every single bloody decision from the materials used to make the body of a device, to whether the instruction manual inside the package comes printed in color or black and white, comes down to money. Nokia feels that with China’s population of 1.3 billion people, playing their game and making devices that work on their network would be beneficial to their bottom line.

Politics out of the way, does anything make the 6788 special? Well it has two 8s in the product name, which is a big thing in China. Some Chinese, a fair bit actually, are still superstitious and believe that the number 8 will bring them good luck. When picking a mobile phone number, they want to make sure it has as many 8s as possible, and they’ll even pay to have a phone number with a lot of 8s. Specification wise you have a massive 2.8 inch screen that is sadly QVGA (320 x 240) resolution, a 5 megapixel camera, and it’s powered by S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2. The 6788 will star shipping in December on China Mobile price unknown. Looks like Colin Giles, Nokia Senior Vice President for Greater China, Japan and Korea, kept his promise.

T-Mobile is Sony Ericsson’s main partner in the U.S. and now we have the two companies launching the mid-range clamshell, Equinox, on October 28th. Specs wise, there’s GPS on board, quad-band (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) GSM and dual-band (2100/1700 MHz) HSDPA radio, 3.2-megapixel camera, 2.2-inch QVGA screen, Bluetooth, FM radio, YouTube client, and so on. The key differentiating point of the Equinox is its “eye-catching night effects” feature that allow users to set different “pulsating light effects” for their favorite contacts. Kinda nerdy, don’t you think?

Anyway, to celebrate the launch, Sony Ericsson engaged its sexy ambassador, Maria Sharapova, who will make an appearance at the grand opening of a new T-Mobile store in Los Angeles on October 31st. At the event, the Swedish-Japanese company will hold a Maria Sharapova look-a-like contest, with prizes including Maria-style VIP treatment for a day, Sony Ericsson Equinox phones and Sony’s VAIO computers.

In addition, Sony Ericsson is organizing “Get Your Glam On” sweepstakes beginning November 9th. The winner of the contest will get a trip to Los Angeles to meet Kim Kardashian and receive the makeover from her personal glam squad…

Just as we’d heard, RIM decided to outsource the production of the planet’s first BlackBerry watch, but that doesn’t mean that devoted BB Messenger users won’t be hankerin’ for one. The inPulse Smartwatch for BlackBerry is being produced by Allerta, and now that it’s official, we can safely say that it’ll rely on Bluetooth in order to bring incoming emails, text messages and other alerts from your handset to your wrist (or your ankle, if you roll like that). As for specs, you’re looking at a 1.3-inch OLED display, glass lens, full metal body, vibrating motor, microUSB port and a rechargeable battery that’s good for around four days of “normal use.” inPulse users will have to install a special BlackBerry application in order to pass along information, but those hoping to use their watch to actually send messages will be sorely disappointed. It’s up for pre-order now at $149, and if all goes well, the first ones will ship out in February.

Just as we’d heard earlier this morning, today’s the day that Palm and Sprint come clean with their undercover plans for the former’s second-ever webOS device. The Pixi, which we toyed with back on our first Engadget Show, is slated to hit Sprint stores, Best Buy, RadioShack and select Walmart locations on November 15th for $99.99, but that’s after a $50 instant rebate and a $100 mail-in rebate that you’ll be waiting ages for. Nothing here is all that surprising — after all, we knew it’d be on shelves before the holiday season — but the $100 price point is downright depressing. The Palm Pre can be had right now for just $150 (also on contract), and beyond that, both webOS devices are being offered on the exact same network. Throw this thing on Verizon, AT&T or T-Mobile, and you’ve got a whole new wave of Palm customers; as it stands, who’s really buying this with the Pre just $50 away?