iPhone 4S

The Bluetooth 4.0 specification could have been finalized in July of last year, butsmartphones supporting the typical are only beginning to hit the market. Of course, the 1st such handset is the iPhone 4S. That the 4S is the primary to deliver its 4.0 wares to the yank public is something that got lost in each of the hubbub surrounding its launch.

One of the crucial biggest selling points of the most recent version of the PAN standard is its low-power mode, though that wont have much of an impact on Apple’s device. What it would enable the most recent iGadget to do however, is act as a hub — collecting data from multiple sensors and accessories simultaneously, which include heart rate monitors and cats . Don’t expect this to be alone available to buy for long, other manufacturers will definitely be squeezing support for the specification into their next flagship device.[EN]

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Taipei, Aug. 9 (CNA) Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC Corp. signed a deal with China UnionPay Co. on Tuesday to launch a smartphone in China that would allow mobile payments through the country’s only credit card network. The “HTC Stunning,” a 4-inch smartphone powered by Google’s Android operating system, will allow users to apply for mobile banking services such as remote bill payments and contactless payments, according to an HTC statement.

The world’s No. 5 smartphone maker will also work with Shanghai F-road Commerce Service Co. to introduce the services in China. F-road Commerce is a Chinese mobile application developer that tailors apps for financial institutions to offer mobile financial services on smartphones.

In January this year, HTC invested US$5.5 million (NT$159.6 million) in Shanghai F-road through its subsidiary HTC HK Ltd. “HTC believes that mobile payments will become an indispensable function for smartphones, and we expect to jointly establish a complete industry chain of mobile payments based on such a strategic alliances,” Fred Liu, president of HTC engineering and operations, said in the statement.

Currently, UnionPay cardholders can only make payments at about 40,000 contracted stores and can access 17,000 of the country’s automated teller machines (ATMs).

China UnionPay has 2.6 billion credit and debit cards in circulation in different countries worldwide. According to technology research company Gartner Inc., the number of mobile payment users worldwide will surpass 141.1 million this year, a 38.2 percent increase from 102.1 million in 2010. Meanwhile, worldwide mobile payment volume is forecast to total US$86.1 billion this year, up 97.5 % from US$48.9 billion dollar last year. [focustaiwan]

“Motorola XT531 is an affordable device that gives young, fast-moving users everything they want from a top-quality smartphone” said Fei Liu from Motorola Mobility.

Its feature an 800MHz processor the specs are a bit better than the LG Enlighten which had details of its internal hardware recently leaked. Backing up the processor is 512MB of RAM and as internal memory isn’t specified it looks like users will have to rely on a microSD card up to 32GB for their storage. There’s a 5mp camera on the rear and on the front a VGA webcam for video calling. A 1540mAh battery is said to last for 8 hours of talk time and on top of it all there will be a 3.5″ HVGA with capacitative multi-touch. The phone claims to offer the best battery life in its class as well as the ability to support regular multitasking between applications.

While it doesn’t look like this one will be reaching the US like the Citrus did, the handset will be available in China from next month. It will then be released in Europe and Latin American in the Fall. In Europe it will be known as the Fire XT and in Latin America the Spice XT. On paper it looks like one of the best budget handsets yet though how much it will cost has yet to be confirmed.

LG just announced two new Gingerbread Smartphones today with the the LG Optimus Pro (LG-C660) and the LG Optimus Net (LG-P690).

LG Optimus Pro is the first LG Optimus smartphone with a portrait bar QWERTY keyboard, the LG Optimus Pro offers the best of both a physical keyboard and touch display. The 2.8-inch display provides quick navigation while the QWERTY keyboard is ergonomically designed for fast and accurate typing. Dedicated hotkeys for email and scheduler enable instant access for enhanced speed and convenience. Optimus Pro will be available in white, titan, as well as black.

LG Optimus Net is featuring LG Social+, the Optimus Net combines the most popular social networking portals in one convenient widget right on the homescreen. With a single click, users can multitask between updating their status on Facebook and Twitter while reading their friends’ social media feeds on the same screen. The integrated social widget provides one-click photo sharing with multiple social media accounts from the home screen. In addition, the 3.2 HVGA (320 x 480) display delivers clearer, sharper viewing of multimedia content while the LG SmartShare function allows easy sharing of content with other DLNA-friendly devices.

Information regarding the release of LG’s Optimus 3D in the UK has been a little sketchy up until now; we’ve just heard that Carphone Warehouse and Best Buy will be stocking the dual-core Android smartphone in stores and on-line from this Friday, the 1st of July – and not the 7th as previously thought.

The Optimus 3D arrives in 20 select Carphone and Best Buy stores five days ahead of the phone’s general release. You’ll be able to get it free on a £35 a month contracts on O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone or buy it SIM-free for £499.95 from this Friday; it’ll be available to buy in stores nationwide from the 6th.

Coming with a dual 5-megapixel camera unit, similar to the one in HTC’s Evo 3D which we saw the other day, you’ll be able to take and record 2D and 3D pictures and video. You can record 1080p 2D video on the Optimus 3D, and 3D video at 720p.

Naturally, it’s a dual-core beast, running on Texas Instrument’s OMAP 4430 1GHz chip. Interestingly, LG claims that the Optimus 3D boasts ‘dual-memory’, assigning half of the RAM to each of the processor’s cores, allowing for smarter multitasking. Specs we’ve seen for the Optimus 3D say that you get 512MB of RAM; we’re assuming this means you get 2 x 2 56MB. It’ll be interesting to see how this compares performance-wise to phones like the Evo 3D and Samsung’s Galaxy S2 which have 1GB of RAM, twice the amount.

We’ve just taken delivery of our LG Optimus 3D review until as well as it happens – stay tuned for some hands-on pics and our first impressions coming soon.

We’ve already got a pretty good idea that the LG Optimus Black is headed to US Cellular, but a recent FCC filing suggests it won’t be the only US carrier the handset will call home. An LG phone with the model number US855 has been joined by an LS855, As855, and VM855, with the first two letters all designating a carrier, the biggest of which being Sprint (the LS855). Alltel and Virgin Mobile will also see the handset if our logic pans out.

The Optimus Black is best known for its ultra-bright NOVA display technology, though the handset is often overshadowed by the Optimus 3D, which was announced around the same time. The Black has been greeted with relatively mixed reviews.

Our friends over at the FCC have somehow both scored and already torn asunder Nokia’s new flagship MeeGo development phone. Slicing and dicing Espoo’s latest confirms the watered-down N9 specs we’dpreviously heard about, except for one: a 12-megapixel camera. An intriguing addition, as the N950′s official specs list an 8-megapixel shooter, which the Finnish firm touted as “different” than the unit in its brother.

Perhaps different means the additional 4-megapixels we spotted earlier this year? Sure, last minute component changes aren’t unheard of, but if you ever manage to convince the Finns to throw one your way, do us a favor and let us know what it’s packing. Ok?

Plenty of you have been clamoring about Virgin Mobile’s upcoming pre-paid phone, the Motorola Triumph, and it looks like you can now go ahead and place a pre-order at Best Buy if you have $300 sitting around.

Yes folks, the phone still doesn’t have an official release date – we’re hearing July 19th – but Best Buy has thrown it up on its website anyway. Estimated arrival time is anywhere between July 19th – yup – and July 26th. We’re going to assume that it arrives sooner rather than later.

Many of you had been hoping that the phone would arrive for a price tag around $200-$250 but that doesn’t appear to be the case, at least not here. Instead, you’re going to have to fork over three Benjamins in order to get a hold of this beauty.

And just to go over the specifications again, the Triumph will have a  4.1″ display (800×480 WVGA), 5MP back-facing camera and VGA front-facing camera, 720p playback and capture, 1400 mAh battery, 512MB of RAM, 2GB of on-board storage, Android 2.2 Froyo, and a form factor that checks in at .4 inches at its thinnest point.

You can head over to Best Buy to pre-order right now if you wish.

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As predicted, Nokia has finally pulled the covers of the Nokia N9 during the Nokia Connection event in Singapore. While the Nokia N9 is the company’s first MeeGo phone it shares more than a little bit of a resemblance with the Windows Phone 7 concepts the Finns have flaunted in photos. Certainly the same range of wild colours is on the cards.

If you’ve been eagerly waiting to see what Nokia would do with Linux-based MeeGo OS, you can find the full specs and a handy video guide after the jump. The big question is: will you go for MeeGo or wait for Nokia’s love-in with Windows Phone 7 to make its debut later this year?  The Nokia N9 will arrive in two flavours – a 16GB or 64GB model – and packs a 3.9in AMOLED screen, 8MP camera and NFC skills. Nokia is seriously talking up the touch interface and the fact that you can unlock the phone by simply double-tapping the screen. Continue Reading

Four months after launching on Sprint under the moniker HTC Arrive, it looks like the HTC 7 Pro is making the rounds among smaller carriers: earlier this week it hit US Cellular, and starting today you can also pick one up through Cellular South for $199.99 with a two-year contract and a $50 main-in reabte.

To recap, the 7 Pro is a full tilt-up QWERTY slider with a 3.6-inch WVGA display, 1GHz Snapdragon processor, 5 megapixel camera, and 16GB of storage. So is it worth the $200? That all depends on how long you’ve been holding out for Microsoft’s slick Metro UI — the 7 Pro is, after all, the only WP7 device you can buy through Cellular South. Full press release after the break.