Mobile News and Mobile Info

After a week of teasing the public with snapshots of a mysterious upcoming device rumored to be called the Padfone, ASUS has finally pulled down the curtains and showed off to the world what they were talking about. The Padfone is basically a combination of two devices – a phone and a tablet. Imagine the Motorola Atrix – but instead of having a laptop dock to plug your phone in, make it a tablet dock instead and you get the Padfone.

The Padfone allows users to plug their ASUS smartphone into the tablet dock which gives it a larger screen, extended battery life, making it easier to watch movies, browse websites, read emails, all on a larger screen. The phone will contain the SIM card, storage space, and basically all the files, so there’s no hassle of having to transfer anything from the phone to the tablet or vice versa when using it in either mode. Seems like a pretty interesting way to implement the phone functionality in a tablet, though I can see not many people wanting to spend a fortune on a tablet that can’t do anything without a phone – ASUS will have to price this one right for it to succeed.

Smartphone Garmin-Asus nuvifone A50, which was announced yesterday relates to the navigation-oriented devices. According to the manufacturer, nuvifone A50 comes with the most advanced navigation software, including a step by step maintenance and voice control.

The device is equipped with a 3.5-inch capacitive touch display with HVGA resolution, a 3-megapixel camera with autofocus and support for geotagging. nuvifone A50 works in 3G-networks, supports GPS-navigation, has Bluetooth module, accelerometer, 4 GB of internal memory plus a slot for microSD memory cards. Next week smartphone will be presented at the exhibition MWC. nuvifone A50 will appear in the mobile market in the first half of the year. The price of the device is not known yet.

Alliance Garmin-Asus prepared to release its first smartphone based on Android OS.

Its first smartphone based on Android operating system the alliance Garmin-Asus is going to demonstrate at the exhibition MWC 2010, starting in mid-February in Barcelona.

Currently there are no data on the specification of the new device, but we already know that several more models from the brand Garmin-Asus will be added to this gadget in 2010.

President of the mobile unit Asustek Benson Lin in an interview with Taiwan resource DigiTimes stated that this year the Alliance will release 4-5 new smartphone based on Android and Windows Mobile.

At the exhibition MWC 2010 Garmin-Asus will also present the smartphone M10 (possibly belonging to a series of nuvifone). Its specification includes a 3.5-inch touchscreen display with WVGA resolution, Qualcomm processor with 600 MHz Chipset, GPS and a 5-megapixel camera. The M10 will go on sale next month with a retail price of $ 435.

It’s short and sweet but we thought you’d like to hear the good news doled out by ASUS chairman Jonney Shih and CEO Jerry Shen at a local press meeting in Taiwan today. Shih says that the company’s first Android phone will be “unveiled this year,” not next as originally rumored. For a second, it makes you wonder what’s going to happen to the OS underpinning the ASUS-Garmin nuvifone G60 — then you remember that you weren’t going to buy that phone anyway.

What’s that, you’re still holding your breath waiting for the G60 release? Breathe, child, breathe, it’s still going to be a little while before you can get your nav on with this celly. Obviously it didn’t make the first half of the year as initially planned, but the Garmin-Asus partnership is now saying that the phone will still arrive at its retail destination before 2010, with some places seeing it in just two months time. Why the delays? Apparently its custom flavor of Linux is at least part of the problem, leading the corporate couple’s marriage counselors to suggest a move to Android for all future, non-WinMo handsets — devices that, contrary to earlier reports, will also launch before the end of the year. So, G60 in August, or potentially even hotter Android nav phone a few months later? Decisions, decisions.

Mobile phones have evolved immensely since 1983, both in design and function.

From the Motorola DynaTAC, that power symbol that Michael Douglas wielded so forcefully in the movie “Wall Street”, to the iPhone 3G, which can take a picture, play a video, or run one of the thousands applications available from the Apple Store.

There are thousands of models of Mobile phones that have hit the streets between 1983 and now.

We’ve picked a few of the more popular and unusual ones to take you through the history of this device that most of us consider a part of our everyday lives.

We have tried, wherever possible, to include the most popular phones and the phones that were “firsts” for a particular feature, but may have missed out on your favorite phones due to the sheer number of models that are out there.

We invite you to post your faves in the comments section if they are not listed here.

Mobile phones are just now beginning to be as vital to North Americans as they have been to Asians. You can always see what is coming to store shelves in the next six months to a year by looking at the models that are currently available in Japan.

North America also had a spotty 3G network that has only really been revamped recently in order to deal with increasing demands for faster loading speeds from mobile customers, whereas Asia and most of Europe have had proper 3G networks in place for some time.

This has led to a revolution in 3G phones from 2007 until now, with more due to come out in 2009.

The list does not include any phones that were not portable handhelds. Car phones and some handhelds that were the size of a small briefcase were in use in the 1970’s and 1980’s, but since this is more about design than function we chose not to include them here.

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