LG have just released the new Arena KM900, a new touchscreen smartphone featuring an innovative 3D cube-based layout with four different screens for access to various the applications and features available.

With powerful multimedia functionality, the LG Arena KM900 is aimed squarely at the consumer market, with Apple’s iPhone seemingly in its sights. Boasting a 3-inch WVGA screen, DivX and Xvid video playback, Dolby Mobile for Music, and an integrated FM Radio and FM transmitter, the LG Arena KM900 certainly packs a punch when it comes to entertainment.

The LG Arena KM900 is also no slouch when it comes to connectivity options. With HSDPA support for HSDPA 7.2 networks, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, as well as integrated GPS, the KM900 provides everything you could need from a modern mobile handset.

To top it off, the LG Arena KM900 sports a 5 megapixel digital camera, which can be used alongside the integrated GPS receiver to geo-tag your favourite snaps.

With fantastic multimedia options, innovative 3D touch interface and stylish design, the LG Arena KM900 looks set to make significant waves in the touchscreen market and is on sale now at £283.99.

Acer, better known for their world-leading position in the PC and notebook industry, look set to take the smartphone market by storm with the release of their new Tempo range of handsets. The Acer Tempo DX900 and  X960 handsets are the first to hit our shelves, combining state-of-the-art user features along with stylish good looks.

Acer DX900

The world’s first dual-sim smartphone to support both 2G and 3G SIMS, the Acer Tempo DX900 lets you manage two phone numbers at the same time, on the same device. This flexibility is ideal for those who frequently travel abroad and have subscriptions with operators from different countries or simply have a private and business number and want to manage both with the one smartphone.

The Acer Tempo DX900 also features high end functionality, including Windows Mobile 6.1, embedded GPS, HSDPA, 3.15MP Camera, 2.8″ touchscreen, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, making it a powerful business management tool for mobile executives.

More info on the Acer Tempo DX900 >>

Acer X960

For those looking for a fully integrated mobile device, the Acer Tempo X960 is the ideal all-in-one solution. Browse the web, read and reply to emails, make phone calls and socialise - all without the hassle of carrying a variety of devices with you.

Versatile and fully featured, the Acer Tempo X960 has everything you need to organise your professional life on the go. Running on Windows Mobile 6.5, and featuring GPS, HSDPA, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, as well as an integrated 3.15MP digital camera, you can keep on top of things when out of the office. And when you just want to relax, you can take pictures, listen to music, watch videos or chat with your friends - all from one smart and stylish device.

More info on the Acer Tempo X960 >>

Toshiba recently announced the release of their groundbreaking new handset, the Toshiba TG01. Featuring a 4.1″ Wide-VGA (800 x 400) high-resolution screen powered by Toshiba’s LCD TV REGZA technology, the TG01 is aimed squarely at the all-in-one market. With advanced picture-definition technology taken directly from the Toshiba’s acclaimed range of LCD TVs, the TG01 delivers greater colour image control for a bright and vivid display. With support for a wide range of popular video formats and superb image processing capabilities, the Toshiba TG01 sets new standards in portable entertainment.

The TG01 will also showcase the New Qualcomm Snapdragon 1GHz processor, ushering in a new era of mobile computing capabilities. With nearly double the processing capacity of most modern high end smartphones, the Toshiba TG01 delivers seamless use of applications and software, raising the bar for mobile handsets. Powered by Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, and with features such as 3D widescreen gaming, built-in GPS, and high-speed 3G connectivity, The Toshiba TG01 makes it easy to integrate your work and your private life and enjoy dazzling multimedia capabilities along the way.

Summary of Features

• Display: Wide-VGA (800 x 480), 4.1”
• Processor: Qualcomm QSD8250 (1GHz) Snapdragon chipset
• OS: Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional
• Size: 70mm x129mm x 9.9mm
• Weight: 129g
• Camera: 3.2 mega-pixel, autofocus
• Memory: 512MB ROM / 256MB RAM, micro SDHC slot up to 32GB
• Interface: Bluetooth v2.0, USB v2.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
• Battery: 1,000mAh, Standby: up to 11 Days, Talktime: up to 5 hours (GSM)
• Band: 850/900/1800/1900 for GSM/GPRS/EDGE
  2100 for UMTS/HSDPA (7.2Mbps)/HSUPA (2Mbps)
• Navigation: Built-in GPS & A-GPS
• Video service: Windows Media Player, CoreCodec’s CorePlayer Mobile
• Browser: Microsoft Internet Explorer Mobile
• Messaging: SMS, MMS, E-mail, Microsoft Direct Push Technology, Windows Live Messenger
• Sound: MP3, AAC, AAC+, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, WMA, WAV
• Video: H.263, H.264, MPEG4, WMV
• Java: MIDP 2.0
• Others: Toshiba Touch UI

Available in black and white, pricing and availability is yet to be announced - so keep your eyes peeled!

Toshiba have released four brand new mobile devices with a variety of features aimed to optimise mobile productivity:

Toshiba Portege G450

At the budget end of the range is the Toshiba Portege G450. Primarily a mobile phone, it features an innovative four-in-one design to quickly and easily enable anyone to connect a laptop to the internet using a HSDPA mobile network. With voice calls and texting, USB data storage device and onboard MP3 player, the Toshiba Portege G450 provides lots of useful features, at an attractive price point.

Toshiba Portege G710

Built for the more demanding business user, the Toshiba Portege G710 is built with easy access to mobile email in mind. Featuring a full QWERTY keypad and trackball pointing system, responding to emails is quick, easy and efficient. Completely compatible with Microsoft Exchange server, the G710 offers push email access and the facility to open and edit attached documents sent. With support for Windows Mobile 6 as well as SMS, MMS and Instant Messaging for the messaging enthusiast you can stay productive no matter where you are

Toshiba Portege G810

Featuring a modern and stylish touchscreen design, the Toshiba Portege G810 is ideal for work and for play. The large 2.83” QVGA touch screen and enhanced user interface make the experience of navigation and access to applications simple and easy. Powered by Windows Mobile for access to Microsoft Office Mobile applications and with push e-mail, you can stay productive on the move. With full connectivity to GSM/GPRS/EDGE and 3G as well as support for Bluetooth, WiFi, Integrated GPS and a micro SD card up to 4GB, it is easy and simple to keep in touch.

With its sleek curves, the Portege.G810 is also a stylish fashion accessory and is perfect for socialising. With support for both HSDPA and HSUPA you can surf the web and download and upload pictures and videos captured on the 3 mega-pixel camera at broadband speeds. Windows Media Player Mobile and a high quality 65K colour screen keeps you entertained on the move, whether it’s viewing video clips or photos or just listening to your favourite music.

Toshiba Portege G910

Built around Windows Mobile® 6 Professional, the Toshiba Portege G910 is aimed towards the advanced professional user. Offering the full Microsoft® Office suite, including Powerpoint®, Word, Excel® and Outlook® push email and with a unique clamshell design with full QWERTY keyboard, editing your documents is quick and easy. Also featuring a high resolution 3” Wide-VGA touch screen, the G910 lets you display your documents and web pages with crystal clarity for optimum productivity.

With all of the key features you’d expect from a high end smartphone, including a 2 mega-pixel camera for digital stills and a secondary camera for video telephony, high connectivity from WiFi to HSDPA as well as integrated GPS with gpsOneXTRA Assistance™ technology for a faster ‘first fix’, the Toshiba G910 is the complete all-in-one business tool. It even features a biometric fingerprint security solution for instant, secure access to the phone – ideal for ensuring this doesn’t end up in the wrong hands!

As technology grows ever-more sophisticated, the convergence of complimentary technologies is inevitable. Where smartphones and PDA phones of past years have included features which feel more gimmicky than functional, todays devices include functionality to rival that of even dedicated devices.

Take integrated digital cameras for example. Five years ago, you might be lucky to have a 1 megapixel resolution with a top of the range smartphone - not much use for taking those all-important wedding photographs, but a handy gimmick for sharing fun snaps with your friends.

Today however, it is a completely different story. A smartphone with any less than 3 megapixels is a budget option, with the standard fast become 5 megapixels and upwards.
continue reading "Satellite Navigation for the Masses with the A-GPS SIM Card"

The newly released G1 (Google Phone), widely touted to be the next must-have gadget, has been met with mixed reviews by smartphone aficionados. Aimed primarily at consumers, the G1 was devised by Google as a means to bring the Google platform to the mass mobile market.

Based on Google’s open source Android operating system, the G1 comes with a number of features common to today’s smartphones, including: Internet browsing via 3G, YouTube video, e-mail, text messaging, interactive maps and playing or downloading music. The G1 also features a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, inbuilt camera and touchscreen user interface.
continue reading "New G1 Google Phone Receives Lukewarm Reviews"

The highly anticipated Nokia N96 Smartphone is now is stock at TotalPDA. Building on the success of its predecessor, the N95, Nokia’s new flagship smartphone looks set to create a stir all over again.

Amongst the most feature packed mobile devices on the market today, the Nokia N96 does not fail to disappoint. As well as all of the functionality you would expect from a high end smartphone, including HSDPA, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi Wireless connectivity and Quad-band functionality, the Nokia N96 also features a number of extras to make it stand out from the crowd.
continue reading "Nokia N96 Set to Create A Stir"

Straight from the mouth of TomTom themselves I have a full compatibility list of devices that will work with the TomTom Navigator 6. Not a very interesting post I know, but thought some people out there would appreciate it. They haven’t given me an answer yet on whether one license key will activate your phone and PDA, but say they will get back to me. There are some incompatibilities that I can’t explain, so if anyone knows of others to add, let me know and I’ll post them here. Anyway, here we go:

continue reading "TomTom Navigator 6 - Compatible devices"

After several months of anticipation, the wait for the arrival of the iPhone in the UK is over. At a press conference in London today, Steve Jobs – the Chief executive of tech giant Apple – revealed that the iPhone will go on sale in the UK on November 9th. He also confirmed that the unit will be supplied by network provider O2, and sold exclusively through the Carphone Warehouse.

Amid massive hype and marketing campaigns, Apple may have a tough time breaking into an already saturated mobile phone market. Surprisingly, there will be no operator subsidy, meaning that technophiles will have to pay the princely sum of £269 to own the coveted device - for the hoards of dedicated Apple followers expecting a free iPhone, this will sorely disappoint. Over and above the expense of purchasing the handset, it is likely that customers will be tied into a lengthy and expensive contract with O2, which will result in bills of up to £700 for iPhone services over the duration of the contract.
continue reading "Apple iPhone to go on Sale in the UK on November 9th"

Andy Ihnatko makes me feel old. While I like my devices to do what they say on the box, i.e. my smartphone is a smart phone, he goes and writes something that makes so much sense, but I still haven’t come entirely round to his way of thinking*:

So really, the point of the phone is just to keep me connected to the services and features I’m actually interested in.

Note that he doesn’t mean actually making and receiving calls. He’s talking about staying in the loop, no matter where you are — with Bloglines, Technorati, Google and Yahoo! by tuning into their mobile offerings.

Lives are so incredibly fast-paced in the modern world, and it is completely logical for our mobile devices to help keep our need for information under control. If one device, the smartphone, can manage these demands — via platform-independent applications and the Internet — AND handle actual telephony well, the convergence of analogue (by that I mean voice) and digital two-way communication makes perfect rational sense.

What do you use your smartphone for? Do you use all the Web-connected applications he lists in his article to stay connected, or are you more ‘old-fashioned’ and see your smartphone as a phone first and mobile digital communications device second?

* Frankly, I think it’s more the high data charges that have almost completely stalled my adoption of the services he speaks of.