Isaiah's Tech

Spotted on Linkedin, someone has reportedly been working on a WP7 device currently being made by Acer. The program is said to be the M900 and could be sporting a slide-out QWERTY keyboard of some kind. This is weird to me because the company already release the Acer M900 but it was sporting the old school WinMo 6.1. It could be a mistake or something but let's just hope that Acer does have a WP7 smartphone in the works.

[WMPowerUser]

Acer is actually looking quite strong this year with their new handsets. The only thing bringing them down is the fact that most of them are running on WinMo 6.1 - which is terrible. Acer mentioned today that they are aiming to be one of the top 5 smartphone vendors by 2012. That's a huge feat for them, but if they make it there I'd be happy for them. Before I talk about Acer's 8 new phones, I should inform you all that they mentioned that it is "likely" that we will see their Android phone by the end of this year and that's great news.

The 8 phones that have been announced for the Singapore market today is the: DX900 ($530 USD), DX650 ($397 USD), X960 ($463 USD), F900, M900, F1, L1, and C1. The DX900, DX650, and X960 are now available for the aforementioned price. The price for the F900 and the M900 have not been mentioned yet, but they are expected in May. The F1, L1, and C1 are also expected this year and one of these could be the so-called Android handset. We've already heard that the Acer A1 could be running Android and that it is expected this September, but Acer didn't mention it today so we'll just have to see what happens. On a side note, I wonder what happened to the Acer E1? Anyways, take a look at some specs below:

• 2.8“ WVGA touch screen
• Samsung SC3 6400 533 MHz Processor
• 256 MB Flash ROM, 128 MB SDRAM
• Dual-SIM with SIM 1 supporting HSDPA / UMTS 2100/1900/850 MHz and quad-band GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, and SIM 2 supporting GSM tri-band 900/1800/1900
• 1.3 megapixel autofocus camera, VGA front camera
• Wi-Fi, BT 2.0+EDR, GPS
• Windows Mobile 6.1 Pocket PC Phone edition with Spb Mobile Shell v2.1

• Dual-Face design with touchscreen on one side and keypad on the other
• 2.8“ QVGA touch screen
• Samsung SC3 6410 533 MHz Processor
• 256 MB Flash ROM, 128 MB SDRAM
• 2 megapixel fixed focus camera
• GPS, Wi-Fi, BT 2.0+EDR
• Windows Mobile 6.1 with Spb Mobile Shell v2.1
• Standby time 150h / Talk time: 4h

• Samsung SC3 6410 533 MHz Processor
• 256 MB Flash ROM, 128 MB SDRAM
• High speed HSPA connectivity
• 3.2 megapixel auto-focus camera, 0.3 megapixel front-facing camera
• Wi-Fi, BT 2.0+EDR, GPS
• Windows Mobile 6.1, Outlook, Office, widget-based Acer Shell v2.0 UI

• Samsung SC3 6410 533 MHz Processor
• 256 MB Flash ROM, 128 MB SDRAM
• 3.8″ WVGA touch screen
• GSM/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
• HSDPA/HSUPA: 2100/1900/850 Mhz
• 3.2 megapixel auto-focus camera
• Wi-Fi, BT 2.0+EDR, GPS
• Windows Mobile 6.1, Outlook, Office, widget-based Acer Shell v2.0 UI

• Physical QWERTY keyboard
• 3.8“ WVGA touch screen
• GSM/EDGE: Quad-band GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
• HSDPA/HSUPA: 2100/1900/850 Mhz
• Fingerprint reader
• 5 megapixel auto-focus camera
• Wi-Fi, BT 2.0+EDR, GPS
• Windows Mobile 6.1, Outlook, Office, widget-based Acer Shell v2.0 UI

[Boy Genius, Engadget, ZDNet Blogs]

My favourite out of the 4 Acer Tempo Series phones is now available. The Acer Tempo M900 has: a 3.8-inch touchscreen with a WVGA resolution, a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, a microSD card slot, a 5MP camera with autofocus and flashlight (yes, flashlight), GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0, and HSDPA / Quad-band GSM connectivity. It's now available for $671.99 USD from Mobile Steals. The only bad thing about this phone is that it is running WinMo 6.1, which is a huge let down, seeing how WinMo 6.5 is just around the corner.

[Slash Gear, Mobile Steals]

Remember the 4 smartphones we saw from Acer at MWC? They are a part of Acer's Tempo Series and all have touchscreen capabilities, but will run on Windows Mobile 6.1 so that's definitely a negative, since Windows Mobile 6.5 is coming soon. Anyways, the 4 smartphones will be available starting later this month and the last phone is expected to launch by the end of May. Acer hasn't outlined a timeline plan for the 4 phones, but look out for them in the next couple of days / weeks. Personally, I think the F900 and the M900 are the two best smartphones here because of the 3.8-inch touchscreen display. I favour the M900 over the F900 because of the slide-out QWERTY keyboard though.

[Slash Gear]

Windows Mobile 6.5 looks like it will be surperior to 6.1 just like Windows 7 is to Vista. Apparently, Windows Mobile 6.5 (running on HTC Touch Diamond2) is much more responsive and the browser is faster. Everything seems to be "touched up, simplified, and polished." Although, the honeycomb menus are still quite unimpressive, there are a lot of good things going for Windows Mobile 6.5. I actually hope that WinMo 6.5 will be better because i've done a lot of WinMo 6.1 bashing. Come on Microsoft, you can do it! If you want to see a video of WinMo 6.5 in action just go to this link, via Gizmodo.

Since we're talking about Windows Mobile 6.5, i might as well tell you about LG. LG has now agreed to make 50 LG phones running Windows Mobile 6.5. Yes, fifty! I don't know how excited i am, but LG must be praying that WinMo 6.5 will run just how smoothly they say it will.

I was just talking about Windows Mobile 6.5, but it looks like we're going to have to backtrack because Acer is going old-school. All 4 of these smartphones will run on Windows Mobile 6.5 and i don't really know what the hell they are thinking. I'll go from left to right, starting with the X960. I've talked about the Acer X960 already, but i might as well briefly go through the specs. It has a 2.8-inch touchscreen display, 3.2MP camera, GPS and Bluetooth. The F900, which looks to be one of the better smartphones in the line-up, has a 3.8-inch touchscreen display, a 3MP camera with autofocus, GPS and, of course, Bluetooth. The M900 (the best out of these smartphones) also has a 3.8-inch touchscreen display but also comes with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, a 5MP camera (with autofocus and flashlight), GPS and Bluetooth. Last, and maybe, least is the DX900 which has a 2.8-inch touchscreen, a 3MP camera with autofocus, GPS and Bluetooth. Keep in mind (again) that they all run WinMo 6.1, have similar features and they all have microSD card slots.

So, Nvidia has just announced that they plan to use their Tegra 600 series chips to power $99 MID's (Mobile Internet Devices). MID's are squeezed into their own category, between smartphones and netbooks. These MIDs will "support 1080p HD video playback, which is the high end of what you'll find streaming online." Nvidia will use Windows CE along with Android on their cheap MID's. I don't see the point of this [MIDs], but Nvidia certainly does.

Windows Mobile 6.5 (and picture): http://i.gizmodo.com/5154385/windows-mobile-65-hands-on-the-new-interface-rocks
LG To Make 50 Windows Mobile Phones (and picture): http://i.gizmodo.com/5154335/lg-signed-up-to-make-50thats-fiftywindows-mobile-phones
Acer's 4 Smartphones (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/16/acer-unveils-tempo-smartphone-series-x960-f900-m900-and-dx90/
NVIDIA's Tegra 600 Series Chips (and picture): http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2009/02/16/nvidia-plans-to-power-99-mobile-internet-devices/