Isaiah's Tech

Samsung has just announced and released their latest edition to their i8910 Omnia HD. This new variant is the Gold Edition and features 24 karat gold. This new model comes in two colours: Champagne Gold and Luxury Brown. In the box you'll thankfully find a TV out cable. According to Samsung, this handset should be available in Germany, Singapore, and the Middle East right now! The price wasn't mentioned, but it shouldn't be all that cheap.

[Engadget Mobile, Akihabara News]

The two phones I was hoping to get by the end of August were shown off at IFA demoing Samsung's upcoming application store aka the Samsung i8910 HD and the Omnia II. Samsung is set to launch their Appstore on September 14th, but we already knew that. "The list of partners for their store was also apparently quite impressive, with games like Tetris, The Sims, Spiderman 3D Racing and Ferrari Racing shown off." Below there are two videos that have to do with the Appstore, so check it out.





[WMPowerUser]

Looks like Samsung's app store is on the way. "The imaginatively named Samsung Application Store launches on September 14 for British, French, and Italian Omnia and I8910 HD handsets, later coming to the Omnia II and OmniaLITE as well as users in various other nations." Samsung has mentioned that "over 300" apps will be available at launch, "while partners like Electronic Arts, Capcom, Gameloft, and TAITO have signed on for the fun." Let's just hope it won't flop like the Nokia Ovi Store. Check out this website for what you see above.

[Engadget]

Five days ago, we heard about the Samsung i8910 Omnia HD launching in India; the one that launched with a 1GHz CPU. Well, it turns out that it was actually a mistake on India's part. They actually combined the numbers of the DSP chip (sound processing chip), which is 420MHz, and the ARM Cortex A8 CPU, which is 600MHz. Together that makes - give or take - 1GHz. This got me and GSM Arena shaking our heads because they have almost nothing to do with each other. Anyways, it looks like everything has been sorted out now. Even with the 600MHz CPU, it's still one of the best phones available right now.

[GSM Arena]

Arguably the best phone that is available right now - spec-wise at least - just got launched in India. Samsung's OmniaHD has just hit India with its normal: 3.7-inch AMOLED touchscreen display, 8MP camera capable of recording 720p video, and GPS / WiFi / HSDPA support. Now those look like the Omina HD's standard specs, but Samsung thought that they'd throw in a little extra flavour to this handset. Instead of the traditional ARM Cortex A8 600MHz CPU, they packed a 1GHz CPU inside of this handset. Yes, they made the OmniaHD even more of a Nokia N97-killer. The OmniaHD in India costs Rs. 33,990 ($705 USD).

Another phone was launched in India today is the Omnia Pro B7320. This smartphone has: a 2.4-inch display, a 3.15MP camera, WiFi / HSDPA / aGPS support, 256MB of ROM, a microSD card slot, 256MB of RAM, a 528MHz CPU, and it runs WinMo 6.1 - upgradeable to WinMo 6.5. The Omnia Pro costs Rs. 16,500 ($342 USD).

[Cell Passion]

The Samsung I8000 Omnia II looks like the official launch will be this weekend in Singapore. This is one of the best WinMo handsets to date, sporting: a 3.7-inch AMOLED resistive touchscreen WVGA display, a 5MP camera, 3G, WiFi, GPS, and a Qualcomm CPU. The Omnia II is expected to be available for around €440 ($620 USD).

The other AMOLED-packing Samsung handset is the i8910 OmniaHD. This handset is also said to be available soon - August 1st to be exact. It had an initial launch back in May, but Samsung stopped selling the handset because they had to fix the handset up a little bit. The OmniaHD is said to have a retail price of €540 ($761 USD). The OmniaHD is my favourite handset to date, it has: a 3.7-inch AMOLED capacitive touchscreen display, an 8MP camera with the ability of recording 720p video, WiFi, GPS, a microSD card slot, and runs S60.

[GSM Arena]

The phone that was once the Samsung OmniaHD has just launched on Orange UK. The Samsung i8910 HD codenamed "Acme" is pretty dynamite. It has: a 3.7-inch AMOLED touchscreen capacitive display with a 640 x 360 resolution, an 8MP camera, HSUPA connectivity, and will run on S60 with a bit of Samsung's own TouchWiz 3D UI. Surprisingly enough, this phone has launched for just £97.50 ($151 USD) with a £35 monthly plan. I say that it's surprising because it seems like such a low price for this amazing phone.

This handset would definitely be at the top my list if it had a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. This handset, in my opinion, is in the running for one of the best full touchscreen phones of 2009. Put the Viewty Smart up there also.

[Engadget]

Looks like Samsung's Android phones will be delayed. Enough to the point where their Android phones will not be showcased at this year's MWC. But it's okay, there's still the i8910 Acme and the S8300, right? Samsung is new to the Android OS, but it's still kind of surprising that the phone had to be delayed this much. Hopefully, it will be worth the wait. Maybe, an Omnia successor?

Activision-Blizzard has just hinted that the Starcraft II beta will begin in the "months ahead." Obviously, this is not a direct hint, since it was kind of obvious that it is coming soon. "Furthermore, the beta will include an early look at the new & improved Battle.net architecture that will ship with the game." I simply can't wait for this. It's gonna be amazing.

In response to Facebook Connect and OpenID's alliance, Google has responded by adding a social bar to their Google Friend Connect. I don't think that this addition will bring them closer to trumping Facebook Connect, but it's a start. "Google's new Social Web Blog introduces us to the social bar, a new gadget that 'concentrates many of the basic social functions into a small strip at the top or bottom of your webpage.'" The social bar will contain information, such as: your site's activity feed, comment wall and your member list.

Gmail has slightly altered how you organize your contacts. There are now 4 new options that relate to your contacts: contact merging, all contacts, removing contacts, and searching your contacts. First off, contact merging will combine those 3 accounts that your friend has into one. Secondly, "instead of Suggested Contacts, you'll now see a group called All Contacts which, as the name would suggest, is where all of your contacts live and thus a good view for merging duplicate contacts." Third on the list is removing your contacts. Yes, "you can finally move contacts out of the My Contacts group." This is probably something that should have been implemented before, but you do have it now. Last, but not least is searching through all of your contacts. This new Gmail feature will strengthen the search feature. Instead of being restricted to searching for email addresses and names, you now get the feature to search using "phone numbers, notes fields, and mailing addresses as well." Thank you Google, for all of these improvements.

As of right now Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is scheduled to hit consumers by this year's holiday season. Write this down on your Christmas list.

Samsung Delays Android Phones (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/11/samsungs-android-phones-delayed-wont-show-up-at-mwc/
Starcraft 2 Beta: http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/693202/StarCraft-II-Beta-in-Months-Ahead-Will-Include-New-Battlenet.html?utm_source=g4tv&utm_medium=rssfeeds&utm_campaign=TheFeed
Google Friend Connect's Social Bar (and picture): http://mashable.com/2009/02/11/friend-connect-social-bar/
Gmail Contacts: http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/02/four-changes-to-gmail-contacts.html
Gmail picture: http://www.breakitdownblog.com/working-around-gmail-contact-importing-oops-an-unknown-error-occured-while-importing-your-contacts/comment-page-1/
CoD: Modern Warfare 2: http://ps3.qj.net/Activision-Blizzard-CoD4-Modern-Warfare-2-out-by-Holidays/pg/49/aid/128834

The Kindle 2 was officially announced by Amazon today. The rumoured pricing and availability was correct. It will be released on February 24 for $359 USD. "The new model has a much more iPod-like aesthetic with an aluminum back, rounded curves and a much thinner design." Along with the new looks, the Kindle 2 has a 20% faster e-paper screen, 25% longer battery life and 2GB of storage. "It also has a new text-to-speech feature that reads books aloud through built-in stereo speakers." You will still be able to read your newspaper on this device for $6 USD - $15 USD a month and you can get blogs pre-formatted for your Kindle 2 for 99 cents each. Maybe my librarian will be able to purchase one this time around. People are also saying that the Kindle 3 should be an iPhone app. I don't this would be a good idea because not everyone wants an iPhone. Restricting the Kindle 3 to just iPhone users would be dumb. Kindle fans would also complain about how small the screen is.

Look at that sexy Blackberry 9300 Gemini. Barack Obama would sure love to get his hands on that. The Gemini looks like it will be one sexy Blackberry. Ever since the Bold came out, it has had the rights to that title. Anyways, this Blackberry will have a bigger screen, beefier processor, "a slightly more 'rounded' keyboard, and most importantly, quadband EDGE plus triband HSDPA." There is no word on the availability of this gem[ini], but i don't think that it will be available in the first half of this year.

If you use your laptop for dual-monitor purposes, this could be for you. These Lapfit monitors from Samsung will be beneficial to you. If you use your laptop as your primary monitor and a traditional LCD monitor for your secondary monitor, you may get frustrated, since your monitors don't line up exactly the way you want them too. You can use these Lapfit monitors to line up those dual-monitors together. These displays will sit at the same height as your laptop's display. The Lapfit monitors will come in 19 and 22 inch variations and will have a 10-30 degree tilt, a 1,360 x 768 resolution, 4ms response time and a 20,000:1 "dynamic contrast."

Samsung looks like it's a hungry contender for that top spot on the mobile list. Nokia has to watch out for Samsung this year because they've been stirring up all of the news lately. It looks like Samsung will start off by improving the TouchWiz UI to make it more "finger-friendly." This new TouchWiz UI was located on the S8300 slider, which i will talk much more about later. They will probably show the TouchWiz's latest version at MWC.

The M7600 and the i8910 will be what i talk about next. The DJ / rapper phone will come with Bang & Olufsen audio, which i know nothing about. Along with a microSD card slot, it will also include a: "2.8 inch AMOLED touchscreen, 3 megapixel snapper with LED flash, HSDPA, GPS capabilities as well as DivX support." Up next is the Acme i8910, also from Samsung. This will run on S60 5th Edition and will have 780p HD video recording. It has an 8MP camera (with only a disappointing LED flash), "GPS, Wi-Fi and DivX support." It also has an HDMI port somewhere. Look for them both at MWC.

I've saved you the best phone for last. Samsung's 'flagship' phone. Behold the Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH. Besides being uber for having caps in its name, the S8300 has features that will disappoint only a few. The S8300 has a 2.8-inch OLED touchscreen, 80MB of storage with a 2GB card supplied (expandable to 16GB, thanks to microSD), an 8MP camera with dual LED flash (I was looking forward to xenon), GPS, Bluetooth, the latest TouchWiz UI and an accelerometer. There is no claims of this phone having Wi-Fi on GSM Arena, but it must have it somewhere. Oh man. Wait for the big news about this at MWC and then i'll have a real story for you. This phone may be competing with the N97, but i still think it would lose.

Kindle 2 Officially Announced (and picture): http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/02/09/amazon.kindle.2/
Blackberry 9300 Gemini (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/09/rumored-blackberry-9300-gemini-appears-bold-gulps/
Samsung Lapfit Monitors (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/09/samsung-introduces-lapfit-monitors-in-a-fit-of-insanity/
Samsung TouchWiz UI (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/09/samsungs-touchwiz-ui-getting-a-mwc-makeover/
Samsung M7600 and i8910 (and picture): http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_m7600_appears_i8910_conifrms_hd_video-news-781.php
Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH (and picture): http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_s8300_ultratouch-review-314.php

The Samsung Acme i8910 is going to be an amazing phone, even a possible rival to the Nokia N97. It's not going to run on WinMo 6.1. It's not going to run on WinMo 6.5 (Yes, my WinMo guesses were wrong). And it also won't run on Android. Instead, it will be running on S60 5th Edition. The S60 5th Edition is the same OS that the Nokia N97 will have. Both the Acme and the N97 have their advantages over the other and we'll just have to see who wins when they go head-to-head. Talk about exciting stuff.

Do you remember the Toshiba TG01?. If you remember correctly, it will use Qualcomm's Snapdragon mobile device platform. There are rumours of HTC, Samsung and LG also wanting to use Snapdragon for some of their future phones. We may be seeing more beefed up WinMo phones, but we could also see beefed up Android phones. Snapdragon supports Windows Mobile and also the Android OS. So, imagine this: HTC + Android + Snapdragon + Google = T-Mobile G3? You never know. Tech is crazy nowadays.

Sony's new touchscreen Walkman NWZ-X1000 PMP has been rare to find. But, a French site (Le Journal du Geek) recently got their hands on it. This PMP has an extra-bright OLED screen, so that's always good. The UI is not entirely done, but its touchscreen has an "impressive response" that is "perhaps even better than the iPod Touch." That's an impressive feat, since we all know how good the iPod Touch is. The browser looks to be its weakest point, but overall, Le Journal du Geek says that it's part of their "top five."

Just in case you're anticipating the release of the Kindle 2, more news is on the way. The first Kindle was very successful and fans are awaiting the release of the next model. Amazon is having a press conference on Monday and the Kindle 2 will probably be mentioned. I don't know how much money you should save for it, but it should be around the same cost of the current Kindle.

Samsung Acme i8910 (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/06/samsung-acme-i8910-gets-caught-flashing-its-s60-5th-edition/
Qualcomm Snapdragon: http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/06/htc-samsung-lg-looking-to-snapdragon-for-future-handsets/
Sony NWZ-X1000 (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/06/sonys-nwz-x1000-gets-handled-in-french/
Kindle 2 Release Date (and picture): http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/02/06/reminder-monday-is-kindle-day/

"Mary Jo Foley's saying that we'll see Windows Mobile 6.5 devices in September of this year, and confirms that Windows Mobile 7 will be seen on devices in 2010." So, looks like Motorola's Sanjay Jha was correct about his estimation (here). This picture could be what WinMo 7 will look like, but it is not confirmed yet. Apparently, we will see the first Windows Mobile 7 phone in April of next year. It is also said that Windows Mobile 7 will be released earlier than the typical schedule. I think this could be due to the fact that more and more companies are starting to drift away from WinMo (as a whole) like Motorola is doing. Motorola did mention that they will go back to using WinMo when it upgrades to 6.5 or 7.

Another leak from Samsung. On the left side, you will see a picture of the Samsung i8910 or the 'Acme.' Engadget points out that it looks "a bit like the Omnia." This could be that 12MP phone that we heard about recently (here). The specs of this phone are also similar to the Omnia, including: "GPS, HDMI output, WiFi, plenty of media features, and availability in 8 and 16GB flavors." Since the OS is also unknown, this could also run on the same OS as the Omnia, which is the terrible WinMo 6.1. It might even run on WinMo 6.5, so we'll just have to see at MWC.

The Nokia E75 has resurfaced from the water. Like the Samsung i8910 Acme, we'll probably see it at MWC, since this phone has been leaking its photos for a while now. Along with the slide-out QWERTY keyboard and the 2.4 inch screen, you will also get: a 3.2MP camera with an LED flash, Wi-Fi and HSDPA capabilities. It will run on Symbian S60 of course. Thankfully, no Windows Mobile 6.1 here.

Do you have an iPod Video? Do you also get tired of trying to cram in all of your videos on whatever gigabytes of storage you have? If you said yes to both questions, this could be the solution for you. For $295 USD you can send your iPod Video to Rapid Repair so that you can have 240GB of storage. By doing this operation, they will use a Toshiba 240GB hard drive. Rapid Repair also mentions that they want to do this same operation to the iPod Classic and the Zune 2G.

Windows 7 Mobile Pictures (and picture): http://i.gizmodo.com/5146724/future-windows-mobile-roadmap
Windows 7 Release Date: http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/02/05/win.mo.7.phones.april.2010/
Samsung Acme i8910 (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/05/samsungs-acme-i8910-caught-on-film-by-wile-e-coyote/
Nokia E75 (and picture): http://www.gsmarena.com/unreleased_nokia_e75_shows_its_sliding_dual_face_again-news-775.php
iPod 240GB Upgrade (and picture): http://i.gizmodo.com/5146916/ipod-240-gb-upgrade-official-price-and-warranty
iPod 240GB Upgrade (a different post): http://i.gizmodo.com/5146324/upgrade-your-ipod-video-to-240-gigabytes