Isaiah's Tech

The first official Windows Mobile 6.5 screenshots were released today. We've already seen these before, so it's not entirely new. Let's just hope Microsoft has corrected the responsiveness issues that were virtually everywhere on WinMo 6.1. I'm excited to see how Microsoft improves Windows Mobile and am still waiting to see if they change the name to Windows Phone. MWC will reveal many, many things.

This may sound like a global-warming saver, but it's not. Technically it could be, but let's not talk about that right now. Let's talk about the Samsung Blue Earth which is a solar-powered phone. I guess it got its name from being so eco-friendly. The phone is made from "a recycled plastic from water bottles, the phone [has] an 'eco' mode for efficiently adjusting screen brightness, backlight duration and Bluetooth usage, and an 'eco walk' app / built-in pedometer to tell you how much CO2 emission you've saved by walking instead of driving." The big solar-panel on the back will charge your phone, so that's a nice feature to have. Unfortunately, there are no words on the OS, specs or price, but it is scheduled to release in the second half of this year.

World of Warcraft's lead designer, Jeffery Kalpan, has left WoW to work on Blizzard's new MMO. He actually didn't leak anything about the new MMO from Blizzard, but he thanked everyone for the support. He mentioned that WoW, in his eyes, is still the number one game. He will use WoW's success as a fuel for Blizzard's next MMO which has yet to be revealed.

Flower will be released on PSN today for $9.99. You can watch the trailer at this link, if you're interested.

The Cowon L3 was just announced to release in Asia. This PMP probably won't be released in North America, but it's worth a look. The L3 has a 7-inch touchscreen with a 700 x 480 resolution. It has a dual-core CPU, 128MB of SDRAM and a GPS. It only has 4GB of on-board storage but thankfully, it has an SD slot.

The LG Xnote P510's price and availability is not available yet, but the specs are. Who doesn't love to see new specs? The new Xnote will have a 15.4-inch screen with a resolution of 1,440 x 900 display, your choice of 2GB or 4GB of RAM, your choice between three Core 2 Duo processors and even has a 64GB SSD and a 500GB HDD on the top-end model. The P510 will also have a rubber keyboard and will sport NVIDIA's new GeForce GT130M graphics card. You can watch a video of this laptop here, via YouTube.

WinMo 6.5 Screenshots (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/12/first-decent-windows-mobile-6-5-screenshots-leak-out/
Samsung Blue Earth (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/12/samsung-unveils-blue-earth-a-solar-powered-mobile-phone/
WoW Lead Designer Moves On To Next MMO: http://kotaku.com/5152490/world-of-warcraft-lead-moves-to-blizzards-next-online-game
Flower Being Released Today: http://blog.us.playstation.com/2009/02/12/flower-available-today/
Cowon L3 (and picture):
LG Xnote P510 (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/12/lg-xnote-p510-laptop-dresses-up-for-its-debut/
LG Xnote P510 video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwTS07yplIY

The phone that blows. Actually, the phone you blow. Apparently, by blowing into the phone by Pantech you will be able to play their 'girl games' that include blowing a flower and watching the pretty petals float away. Lame-o. This so-called "Wind Recognition" will allow you to navigate through your phone's photos and videos by blowing into the device. "During a call, you can blow into the mic to send your companion an emoticon." I think that's kind of disturbing since i hate when people blow into the phone, so if i'm on the other end of that call, it better be one badass (first ever swear word in this whole blog!) emoticon. What a joke.

A new rumour has leaked that if you purchase Windows Vista, Ultimate, Business or Home Premium (or a PC with it pre-installed) anywhere from July 1, 2009 - December 31, 2010. You will get a copy of Windows 7 for free, as an upgrade. This wide date range could change, so don't be too surprised if that end-date of December 31, 2010 changes. If this is confirmed by Microsoft, i'll blog about it, so don't worry. Just hold off on gettng your Vista copy. Microsoft, of course, has denied that they've announced something like this. But, i don't doubt it happening.

These are the two new Acer models; the DX650 and the X960, left and right, respectively. Both these phones have "GPS, HSDPA, WiFi, Bluetooth, miniUSB, and [a] microSD card slot." They also have the same 533MHz Samsung CPU stored inside of them. Let's talk about the differences between the two now. You may notice that the DX650 (left) has two images, that's because it has 2 sides to the phone. One side has the 2.8-inch touchscreen display and the other side has a 1.27-inch OLED display. The DX650 also has a 2MP camera. This phone is pretty thick when you take a look at its side view. You can always check out more pictures at the extra links below. The X960 has the same 2.8-inch touchscreen display that the DX650 has, but it has a higher resolution which is at 640 x 480. The X960 has a 3.2MP camera, so it's an improvement over the DX650. Both phones are thick and running WinMo 6.1. These are both quite disappointing phones, in my opinion.

I recently talked about the Garmin-Asus alliance and how they are producing the Nuviphone G60. It looks like their alliance seems to be working well because there has been word on their next phone, the Nuviphone M20. The M20 has a 2.8-inch touchscreen, a 3MP camera, Bluetooth, GPS and WiFi. This phone will come with your choice of 4GB or 8GB on-board storage. This phone will come in 4 colours: yellow [gold?], red, blue or black. Unfortunately, you won't have your choice of changing the OS, which is WinMo 6.1.

2 new N97-based touchscreen smartphones have recently been leaked. They both have a similar design to the N97 and it's actually quite easy to get them confused. I actually had to watch the video 3 times to finally see the phones because i thought it was the N97 at first. In the video below, you will see what may be the Ivalo and the Madeleine (codenames). "Ivalo [left picture] is supposed to pack a 3.5" wide touchscreen, 32GB ROM [storage], AGPS, FM transmitter and receiver, 5MP camera, WiFi, TV-out and Bluetooth." No slide-out QWERTY keyboard will be available with the Ivalo. The Madeleine [right picture], on the other hand, will have a design exactly like the N97 except that the D-pad is moved to the right side; the N97's D-pad is on the left side. Beware, the N97's specs are actually superior to the Madeleine's. Madeleine will have the same slide-out QWERTY, WiFi, GPS, etc. But, the Madeleine comes with only a 3.2MP camera; the N97 has a 5MP camera. I actually like the design of these 3 (N97 , Ivalo, Madeleine) phones because i love the way the Nokia N97 originally looks. I think it's also good that Nokia is capitalizing from this amazing design. There will be more word at MWC this weekend. Enjoy the video below, via YouTube.



Pantech IM-S410 (and picture): http://i.gizmodo.com/5152164/pantech-im+s410-the-first-phone-operated-by-stank-breath
Free Windows 7 Upgrade: http://lifehacker.com/5152151/buying-vista-this-summer-could-mean-a-free-windows-7-upgrade
Acer DX650 and X960 (and pictures): http://www.gsmarena.com/live_shots_of_upcoming_acer_dx650_and_acer_x960_show_up-news-791.php
Garmin-Asus Nuviphone M20 (and picture): http://www.gsmarena.com/garminasus_announce_a_new_gps_phone__the_nuvifone_m20-news-789.php
2 New Nokia N97-Based Touchscreens (and picture / video): http://www.gsmarena.com/two_touchscreen_nokia_phones_leaked_by_nokia_look_promising_-news-790.php
2 New Nokia Touchscreen Leaked (video link): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzuKGaqkO8c