A Toshiba phone in the O2 line of products
You probably know about the TG01, the Toshiba phone that was said to be the best-looking (but not only) Windows Mobile-based smartphone of this year. Well, for all of the German people out there, I have the greatest news of them all: the device will be sold on an exclusive basis by O2.
This means that people who love handsets like the iPhone 3G will have another alternative, a better one, we’re tempted to say. Not only when it comes to the features list, but also as far as the design is concerned, because the TG01 is a little bit thinner than its competitor, measuring only 9.9 millimeters in thickness.
You’ve all been assaulted with all sorts of details about this new Toshiba phone, but it won’t hurt anyone if I refresh your memory. Therefore, the features this phone is equipped with are the following: quad band GSM and HSDPA connectivity, a 4.1 inch touchscreen display with a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels, a 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus, an accelerometer, GPS, Wi-Fi, Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD2850 processor at 1GHz, 512MB ROM and 256MB RAM.
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Now, as for the availability, the only thing we know is that the Toshiba TG01 will start selling in Germany sometime this summer via O2 (a precise release date isn’t at our disposal, unfortunately). Whether it will become available or not in other countries, is still a mystery. Details about the price? Maybe in the following weeks. Not for the moment.
O2 Xda Guide, the latest Xda device
Focusing on low- and mid-end mobile phones in the past couple of days, I kind of neglected another important area that people are very eager to find out about. I’m talking about the smartphones, which are cutting-edge devices that combine all sorts of incredible feature that you would never have expected to see.
Another smartphone is the one that Telefonica O2 Germany has recently announced, the Xda Guide, the successor of another similar cell phone, the Xda Orbit 2. This is an improved version, as you can easily figure it out for yourself, adding all the features that you couldn’t find on the previous on.
Following the pattern of the Xda devices, Guide was also built by HTC, having a very cool design and a couple of impressive features that convert it into a high-end cell phone. The most important specs of the Xda Guide include: it supports GDM/EDGE/GPRS networks and UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA connectivity, it runs on Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, it has a 2.8 inch TFT touchscreeb display with a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels. In addition, it is equipped with Wi-Fi, an integrated GPS receiver, TomTom Navigator 7 that provides the user with maps for countries such as Germany, Austria and Switzerland, Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity, 3.2 megapixel camera.
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More than that, the O2 Xda Guide comes with a 528 MHz qualcomm MSM 7225 processor, 256 MB RAM, 512 MB ROM and microSD card support of up to 1 GB card, which is included in the package.
This latest Xda device that you most surely would love to have it for yourself is expected to become available first in Germany, via O2, starting Feabruary 2009. Unfortunately, the price wasn’t yet announced. Still, after the German release, chances are good for the O2 Xda Guide to reach other countries, such as the United Kingdom.
O2 Cocoon
Cocoon is a cool cell phone from O2,a leading provider of mobile communication devices and solutions. It received Bronze at the International Design Excellence Awards 2008 for an innovative feature that allows the user to access a hidden LED display on the front of the clamshell, which reveals current phone’s status. If you are listening to the music it shows track details such as the artist’s name, track info and radio information. When you are receiving a call or text message it shows the caller ID.
Also, the LED lights flash when you miss a call or when the battery is low.
You can set it to show the time or use it as an alarm clock in its Nest that’s also a charger.
The inspiration source was the designer’s answer to the question "what inspires you, and what do you want from a mobile phone?" - Something emotional. Original. That doesn't look like a phone or a music player - something more natural, that's visually stunning and functions perfectly.
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It’s main functionality is of a music phone, so O2 Cocoon comes with an advanced player with dedicated music keys for instant access to your playlist, FM radio, support for 2 pairs of headphones via the special adapter, pre-loaded tracks, videos sand ringtones from popular artists such as The Doors, as well as enough free space for up to 500 high-quality songs. You can create playlists, fade music during calls, playback music for up to 15 hours, and the Cocoon mode that sets the phone to record all missed calls and messages while allowing you to listen to the music undisturbed.
The built-in digital camera is not missing at this phone model. There is a 2MP camera with video recording, flash, zoom, autofocus and self-timer capabilities.
For personalization, you can see the phone to change the wallpapers every minute or hour.
Cocoon has an organizer, calculator, Bluetooth, USB, games, handsfree, the Windows media player 11 application, and Quicktime player for video playback.
It has 2GB internal flash memory, support for up to 2GB via a microSD card, and provides up to 5 hours of talk time, and 350 hours standby time.
to Release XDA Stellar and XDA Orbit II with 3MP Camera
O2 will release until the end of this year two new mobile phones called O2 XDA Stellar and O2 XDA Orbit II.
O2 XDA Stellar will come with a 65K colors touchscreen and a display resolution of 240x320 pixels, measuring 112x59x19 mm and having a weight of 190g.
The most important characteristic of this phone is the advanced built-in 3.15MP camera with 2048x1536 pixels resolution for photos and with recording capability.
Sony late today unveiled the “world’s first 16.4-inch display.” It is more notable though for being one of the first notebooks powered by Intel’s new Centrino 2 technology. This laptop is the Sony VAIO FW Series and pricing ranges between $1,000 and $1,750.The Sony VAIO FW Series is described by Sony as combining “the benefits of a slightly larger17-inch widescreen with the smaller ‘footprint’ of a 15.4-inch model.” Whether this makes much of a difference or not remains to be seen, but it does come with a nice load of technology features, including an integrated, optional Blu-ray Disc burner.
MSI has bumped up the feature set on its GX600 gaming laptop to create a more powerful computing platform. This new laptop is known as the MSI GX600-Enhanced.The MSI GX600-Enhanced now features Intel 45nm processing technology, 3GB of RAM and a 320 GB hard drive. It also sports the latest NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT 3D graphic chipset, Windows Vista Home Premium, and a 15.4-inch WXGA+ display.
Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS) is an overseas computer manufacturer which is drawing a little bit of buzz with its most recent laptop. It is known as the ECS G10IL - no word on specific pricing or availability.The ECS G10IL offers your choice of Windows XP or Linux as the operating system, a Diamondville CPU and an Intel 945 GSE (w/o S-Video) + ICH7M chipset. It includes a 10.2- or 8.9-inch display, 1.3-megapixel integrated digital camera and built-in tri-band HSDPA and HSUPA. 
