Mobile News and Mobile Info

Toshiba announced its Snapdragon-powered TG01 smartphone… again! This time around, the Japanese company said they’ll ship it with Windows Mobile 6.5. Not that we didn’t knew it will be upgradable to the latest version of Microsoft’s mobile OS once it’s released, it’s just that Toshiba’s PR folks decided to get some additional media attention. And as you can see, they’ve succeeded.

Anyway, the updated TG01 will start shipping in Europe on October 6th, whereas the existing TG01 owners will get a WinMo 6.5 upgrade, free of charge.

Looking for a way to further push the Snapdragon processor while constrained with a 4.1-inch screen, the Japanese-based Usuda Research Institute and Systems Corp has tacked on a MEMS motion sensor to Toshiba’s T-01A, also known as the TG01, for motion-based navigation around what it’s touting is a 2,000-inch picture. According to Nikkei, this “MotionPlus” like adapter has been shown to work alongside the camera, potentially paving the way for some AR application like we’ve seen with Tegra. It’s hard to tell from the videos just how accurate it is, but we’d love to see this go official — after a few cosmetic improvements, of course. Check out footage of the dongle in action after the break.

Well, that was snappy. Just days after O2 Germany abruptly halted the sales of Toshiba’s 1GHz TG01 smartphone due to an unexplained virus outbreak among new units, it seems as if things are back in gear. Online, anyway. As of this moment, web shoppers can order the Snapdragon / WinMo-powered from the carrier once more, though there’s no word on if retail shops are still keeping their stock in quarantine. Either way, we’d don a mask before waltzing in to inquire.

If there’s one super-model-thin mobile phone I can’t get enough of, it’s the Toshiba TG01 Windows Mobile smartphone. Measuring an impossibly thin 9.9mm thick and packed with a 1Ghz Snapdragon processor (with a second processing core dedicated to handling all communications) from Qualcomm, the Toshiba TG01 is just about the slickest Windows Mobile smartphone on market. I’ve covered the TG01 extensively over the past several months, but there’s nothing wrong with another hands-on.

Qualcomm was on hand at Mobile Beat 2009, and seeing as how Qualcomm is responsible for the processing and 3G technologies stuffed into the TG01’s crazy-thin body, it makes sense that they had the TG01 on hand for some play time. Inside, the Toshiba TG01 boasts 256MB of RAM, a 4.1-inch WVGA (800 x 480) touchscreen display, WiFi, GPS, 3.2-megapixel camera and 3G data connectivity.

Orange has come out this morning, in advance of the official UK unveiling of the phone,  to confirm it will be the exclusive UK carrier of the TG01. We can confirm availability from July 10 (i.e. tomorrow), and the phone can be had for free on a 2-year contract costing £39.15 per month. To figure out if that sort of investment is worth it, we’ll have an intrepid reporter stationed at this afternoon’s event, who’ll be bringing you up-to-the-minute details and imagery of the first Snapdragon handset to hit British shores. You’ll find the full PR at the read link, or continue reading for an unshaven Orange rep walking you through the phone’s specs.

It’s already out in Japan and a few  in Europe, now Toshiba’s skinny TG01 is hitting London on Thursday, July 9th. Presumably the invite will be met with an official UK launch of Tosh’s deftly skinned  handset with a Windows Mobile 6.1 core. Then again, it could be a lot of tech reporters eating mini triangular sandwiches slathered with pickle spread discussing the HTC Hero for four hours. We’ll let you know next week.

One of the hottest pieces of gear this year just made its way to retail in Japan. Less than a centimeter thick, the NTT DoCoMo T-01A is the same TG01 device revealed by Toshiba back in February running Qualcomm’s ultra-fast 1GHz Snapdragon chipset. As such, our far east brethren can lay claim to that 4.1-inch WVGA (800 x 480 pixel) resistive touchscreen display; HSDPA, GPS, and WiFi radios; and Toshiba’s custom-built UI meant to mask its Windows Mobile 6.1 core with a bit of Rothko misdirection. And now that Toshiba’s home country of Japan is all set, we hope to see the TG01 make its launch debute in Europe and beyond.