All Best Phones

The iPhone is a multimedia, Internet-enabled mobile phone designed and marketed by Apple Inc. It has a multi-touch screen with virtual keyboard and buttons. The iPhone's functions include those of a camera phone and a portable media player ("iPod"), in addition to text messaging and visual voicemail. It also offers Internet services including e-mail, web browsing, and local Wi-Fi connectivity. It is a quad-band mobile phone that uses the GSM standard, and hence has international capability. It supports the Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) data technology.
Following the success of iPod, Apple announced the iPhone in January 2007. The announcement was preceded by rumors and speculations that circulated for several months. The iPhone was introduced, first in the United States on June 29, 2007 with much media frenzy and then in the United Kingdom, Germany and France in November 2007. It was named Time magazine's Invention of the Year in 2007. A new version of Apple's iPhone is expected to be introduced in 2008 that is capable of operating on faster 3G cellular networks.

History
The genesis of the iPhone began with Apple CEO Steve Jobs' direction that Apple engineers investigate touch-screens. At the time he had been considering having Apple work on tablet PCs. Apple created the device during a secretive and unprecedented collaboration with AT&TCingular wireless at the time of the phone's inceptionat a development cost of USD$150 million by one estimate. They rejected an early "design by committee" built with Motorola in favor of engineering a custom operating system and interface and building custom hardware.
Comments made by Jobs in April 2003 at the "D: All Things Digital" executive conference expressed his belief that tablet PCs and traditional PDAs were not good choices as high-demand markets for Apple to enter, despite many requests made to him that Apple create another PDA. He did believe that cell phones were going to become important devices for portable information access.
On January 9, 2007, Jobs announced the iPhone at the Macworld convention, receiving substantial media attention, and on June 11, 2007 announced at the Apple's Worldwide Developer's Conference that the iPhone would support web applications using the Safari engine on the device. Third-parties would create the web applications and users would access them via the Internet. On October 17, 2007 Apple announced that an iPhone software development kit would be made available in February 2008, allowing developers to create native applications that take full advantage of the iPhone's application programming interface.
On July 25, 2007 Apple announced in their 2007 Q3 sales report and conference call that they sold 270,000 iPhones in the first 30 hours on launch weekend. AT&T reported 146,000 iPhones activated in the same time period. Apple anticipated selling their millionth iPhone in the first full quarter of availability, and anticipates selling 10 million iPhones by the end of their 2008 fiscal year. On September 10, 2007, Apple announced sales of 1 million iPhones. This was followed by Apple's 2007 fourth quarter earnings announcement on October 22, 2007 which put total iPhone sales at 1.39 million with 1.12 million sold that quarter.[dead link]

Features
The iPhone allows conferencing, call holding, call merging, caller ID, and integration with other cellular network features and iPhone functions. For example, a playing song fades out when the user receives a call. Once the call is ended the music fades back in. Voice dialing is not supported by the iPhone.
The iPhone includes a Visual Voicemail feature allowing users to view a list of current voicemail messages on-screen without having to call into their voicemail. Unlike most other systems, messages can be listened to and deleted in a non-chronological order by choosing any message from an on-screen list. AT&T, O2, T-Mobile and Orange modified their voicemail infrastructure to accommodate this new feature designed by Apple. A lawsuit has been filed against Apple and AT&T by a company called Klausner Technologies claiming the iPhone's Visual Voicemail feature infringes two patents.
A ringtone feature, introduced in the United States on September 5, 2007, but not yet available in all countries where the iPhone has been released, allows users to create custom ringtones from their purchased iTunes music for an additional fee, the same price of a song. The ringtones can be from 3 to 40 seconds in length of any part of a song, can include fading in and out, can pause from half a second to five seconds when looped, and never expire. All customizing can be done in iTunes, and the synced ringtones can also be used for alarms on the iPhone. Custom ringtones can also be created using Apple's GarageBand software 4.1.1 or later (available only on Mac OS X).
Apple has released a video explaining many of iPhone's features through a series of demonstrations.

Multimedia
The layout of the music library differs from previous iPods, with the sections divided more clearly alphabetically, and with a larger font. Similar to previous iPods, the iPhone can sort its media library by songs, artists, albums, videos, playlists, genres, composers, podcasts, audiobooks, and compilations. Cover Flow, like that on iTunes, shows the different album covers in a scroll-through photo library. Scrolling is achieved by swiping a finger across the screen.
Like the fifth generation iPods introduced in 2005, the iPhone can play video, allowing users to watch TV shows and films. Unlike other image-related content, video on the iPhone plays only in the landscape orientation, when the phone is turned sideways. Double tapping switches between wide-screen and fullscreen video playback.
The iPhone allows users to purchase and download songs from the iTunes Store directly to their iPhone over Wi-Fi, but not over the cellular data network.

Web connectivity
The iPhone is able to access the World Wide Web via a modified version of the Safari web browser when connected to a local area Wi-Fi or a wide area EDGE network. It is not able to utilize AT&T's 3G or AT&T's HSDPA network. Steve Jobs has stated 3G would need to become more widespread in the United States and much more energy efficient before it's included in the iPhone. By default, the iPhone will ask to join newly discovered Wi-Fi networks and prompt for the password when required, while also supporting manually joining closed Wi-Fi networks. When Wi-Fi is active, it will automatically switch from the EDGE network to any nearby previously approved Wi-Fi network.
Before the launch, some reviewers found the EDGE network "excruciatingly slow," with the iPhone taking as long as 100 seconds to download the Yahoo! home page for the first time. Immediately before the launch the observed speed of the network increased to almost 200 kbit/s. This is probably due to the new "Fine EDGE" upgrades AT&T had been making to their network prior to the launch.
The EDGE network benefits iPhone users in the U.S. by providing greater availability than 3G, as carriers based in the U.S. do not have full 3G coverage. Most other countries have very little EDGE infrastructure in place, relying on 3G instead. By contrast, 3G coverage ranges from 60 to 90-percent. As a result, many users outside major cities will have to browse the Internet on GPRS, a much slower protocol.
The web browser displays full web pages as opposed to simplified pages as on most non-smartphones. The iPhone does not support Flash or Java technology. Web pages may be viewed in portrait or landscape mode and supports automatic zooming by pinching together or spreading apart fingertips on the screen, or by double-tapping text or images.
Apple developed an iPhone application for accessing Google's maps service in map or satellite form, a list of search results, or directions between two locations, while providing optional real-time traffic information. During the product's announcement, Jobs demonstrated this feature by searching for nearby Starbucks locations and then placing a prank call to one with a single tap. Though Flash isn't supported in Safari on the iPhone, Apple also developed a separate application to view YouTube videos on the iPhone.

E-mail
The iPhone also features an e-mail program that supports HTML e-mail, which enables the user to embed photos in an e-mail message. PDF, Microsoft Word, and Microsoft Excel attachments to mail messages can be viewed on the phone. Yahoo! is currently the only e-mail provider offering a free Push-IMAP e-mail service similar to that on a BlackBerry for the iPhone; IMAP and POP3 mail standards are also supported, including Microsoft Exchange and Kerio MailServer. The iPhone will sync e-mail account settings over from Apple's own Mail application, Microsoft Outlook, and Microsoft Entourage, or manually configured using the device's Settings tool. With the correct settings, the e-mail program can check many IMAP or POP3-enabled web based accounts such as Gmail, .Mac mail, and AOL.

Others
The iPhone features a built in 2.0 megapixel camera, without a flash, located on the back for still digital photos, but does not support video recording. It also includes software that allows the user to upload, view, and e-mail photos. The user zooms in and out of photos by "unpinching" and "pinching" them through the multi-touch interface. The software interacts with iPhoto on the Mac and Photoshop in Windows.
The built-in Bluetooth 2.x+EDR supports wireless earpieces (which requires the HSP profile), but notably does not support stereo audio (requires A2DP), laptop tethering (requires DUN and SPP), or the OBEX file transfer protocol (requires FTP, GOEP, and OPP).
Text messages are presented chronologically in a mailbox format similar to Mail, which places all text from recipients together with replies. Text messages are displayed in speech bubbles (similar to iChat) under each recipient's name. The iPhone currently does not have built-in support for message forwarding, drafts, delivery reports, instant messaging, MMS, or copy/cut/paste capability . Some of these functions are accessible via free Safari-based "applications" as well as by free "hacked" native applications, though at this time Apple only sanctions the use of Safari "applications". Support for multi-recipient SMS was added in the 1.1.3 software update.

Interface
The display responds to three sensors: a proximity sensor that shuts off the display and touchscreen when the iPhone is brought near the face to save battery power and to prevent spurious inputs from the user's face and ears, an ambient light sensor that adjusts the display brightness which in turn saves battery power, and a 3-axis accelerometer, which senses the orientation of the phone and changes the screen accordingly. Photo browsing, web browsing, and music playing support both upright and left or right widescreen orientations, while videos play in only one widescreen orientation.
A single "home" hardware button below the display brings up the main menu. Subselections are made via the touchscreen. The iPhone utilizes a full-paged display, with context-specific submenus at the top and/or bottom of each page, sometimes depending on screen orientation. Detail pages display the equivalent of a "Back" button to go up one menu.
The iPhone has three physical switches on its sides: wake/sleep, volume up/down, and ringer on/off. All other multimedia and phone operations are done via the touch screen.
The iPhone interface enables the user to move the content itself up or down by a touch-drag motion of the finger, much as one would freely slide or flick a playing card across a table with a finger. Similarly, scrolling through a long list in a menu works as if the list is pasted on the outer surface of a wheel: the wheel can be "spun" by sliding a finger over the display from bottom to top (or vice versa). In either case, the object continues to move based on the flicking motion of the finger, slowly decelerating as if affected by friction. In this way, the interface simulates the physics of 3D objects, giving it a real world feel.
The photo album and web page magnifications are examples of multi-touch sensing. It is possible to zoom in and out of web pages and photos by placing two fingers (e.g. thumb and forefinger) on the screen and spreading them farther apart or closer together, as if stretching or squeezing the image. As can be intuitively expected from multi-touch sensing, the two fingers don't have to be from the same hand.

Text input
For text input, the device implements a virtual keyboard on the touchscreen. It has automatic spell checking and correction, predictive word capabilities, and a dynamic dictionary that learns new words. The predictive word capabilities have been integrated with the dynamic virtual keyboard so that users will not have to be extremely accurate when typingi.e. touching the edges of the desired letter or nearby letters on the keyboard will be predictively corrected when possible. The keys are somewhat larger and spaced further apart when in landscape mode, currently only available using the Safari web browser. Not focusing more on texting has been considered a chief weakness of the iPhone, while at the same time the virtual keyboard is a bold step and a worthwhile risk.
David Pogue of The New York Times and Walt Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal both tested the iPhone for two weeks and found learning to use it initially difficult, although eventually usable. Pogue stated use was "frustrating" at first, but "once you stop stressing about each individual letter and just plow ahead, speed and accuracy pick up considerably." After five days of use, Mossberg "was able to type on it as quickly and accurately as he could on the Palm Treo he has used for years," and considered the keyboard a "nonissue." Both found that the typo-correcting feature of the iPhone was the key to using the virtual keyboard successfully.

Hardware
According to The Wall Street Journal, the iPhone is manufactured on contract in the Longhua, Shenzhen factory of the Taiwanese company Hon Hai. Conditions for workers at the factory have been a matter of controversy.
Touch screen
The 3.5 in liquid crystal display (320?480 px at 160 ppi) HVGA touch screen topped with optical-quality, scratch-resistant glass is specifically created for use with a finger, or multiple fingers for multi-touch sensing. Because the screen is a capacitive touch screen, no stylus is needed, nor can one be used. Bare skin is a requirement; users wearing gloves would have to remove them to use the touchpad, unless they are wearing electrically conductive gloves.
The user interface also features other visual effects, such as horizontally sliding sub-selections and co-selections from right and left, vertically sliding system menus from the bottom (e.g. favorites, keyboard), and menus and widgets that turn around to allow settings to be configured on their back sides.
Audio
The iPhone's headphones are similar to those of current iPods, but also incorporate a microphone. A multipurpose button in the microphone can be used to play or pause music, skip tracks, and answer or end phone calls without touching the iPhone. The 3.5 mm TRS connector for the headphones is located on the top left corner (as seen from front upright). Wireless earpieces that use Bluetooth technology to communicate with the iPhone are sold separately. The headphone socket on the iPhone is recessed into the casing, making it incompatible with some headphones without the use of an adapter.
The loudspeaker is used both for handsfree operations and media playback, but does not support voice recording.
Composite or component video at up to 576i and stereo audio can be output from the dock connector using an adapter sold by Apple.
Battery
The iPhone features a built-in rechargeable battery that is not intended to be user-replaceable, similar to existing iPods. If the battery prematurely reaches the end of its life time, the phone can be returned to Apple and replaced for free while still in warranty, one year at purchase and extended to two years with AppleCare. The cost of having Apple provide a new battery and replace it when the iPhone is out of warranty is US$79 and US$6.95 for shipping.
The battery is stated to be capable of providing up to seven hours of video, six hours of web browsing, or eight hours of talk time (depending on configuration). The battery life for music playing is stated to be 24 hours. The battery also allows for up to 250 hours of standby time. Apple's site says that the battery life "is designed to retain up to 80% of its original capacity after 400 full charge and discharge cycles," which turns out to be the same as for the iPod batteries. When the battery reaches only 80% capacity, it would be providing approximately 5.6 hours of video, 4.8 hours of web browsing, 6.4 hours of talk time, or 19.2 hours of music playing, depending on configuration.
The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, a consumer advocate group, has sent a complaint to Apple and AT&T over the fee that consumers have to pay to get the battery replaced. Though the battery replacement service and its pricing was not made known to buyers until the day the product was launched, a similar service had been well established for the iPods by Apple and various third party service providers.
SIM card
The SIM card is located in a slot at the top of the device, and the device is activated through iTunes. The iPhone does not contain a memory card slot.
The iPhone is usually sold with a simlock preventing the use of SIM cards from different mobile networks.

Software
An optimized version of the OS X operating system (without unnecessary components) runs on the iPhone, although differences between the operating system running on Macs and the iPhone have not been officially explained in detail. The iPhone's version of OS X includes the software component "Core Animation" from Mac OS X v10.5 which is responsible for the smooth animations used in its user interface. The operating system takes up considerably less than half a GB of the device's total 8 GB storage. It will be capable of supporting bundled and future applications from Apple.
The iPhone is managed with iTunes version 7.3 or later, which is compatible with Mac OS X version 10.4.10 or later, and 32-bit Windows XP or Vista. The release of iTunes 7.6 expanded this support to include 64-bit versions of Vista, and a workaround has been discovered for previous 64-bit Windows operating systems.
The iPhone's CPU is an ARM-based processor instead of the x86 and PowerPC processors used in Apple's computers. This means applications can not simply be copied from Mac OS X and have to be written and compiled specifically for the iPhone. Additionally, the Safari web browser supports web applications written with AJAX, which, by design, are platform agnostic applications.

Applications
There are several applications located on the "Home" screen: Text (SMS messaging), Calendar, Photos, Camera, YouTube, Stocks, Maps (Google Maps), Weather, Clock, Calculator, Notes, Settings, and iTunes. Four other applications delineate the iPhone's main purposes: Phone, Mail, Safari, and iPod.
The YouTube application streams videos over Wi-Fi and/or EDGE after encoding them using QuickTime's H.264 codec, to which YouTube has converted about 10,000 videos. They are expected to convert the entire catalog by the third quarter of 2007. As a result, the YouTube application on iPhone can currently only view a certain selection of videos from the site. Also, because YouTube displays videos using Flash, the iPhone can only view videos through the YouTube application as opposed to accessing the YouTube website using Safari.
At WWDC 2007 on June 11, 2007 Apple announced that the iPhone will support third-party "applications" via the Safari web browser that share the look and feel of the iPhone interface. The applications must be created in JavaScript to maintain device security. The iPhone cannot officially install full programs from anyone but Apple, although Steve Jobs has hinted that future third-party applications are in development.. Many third party Safari "applications" as well as native applications are now available, although the ability to run native applications is currently completely unsupported by Apple. Such native applications could be broken by any software update, but Apple has stated it will not design software updates specifically to break native applications other than applications that perform SIM unlocking.
On October 17, 2007, Steve Jobs, in an open letter posted to Apple's "Hot News" weblog, announced that a software development kit (SDK) would be made available to third-party developers in February 2008. Due to security concerns and Jobs' praise of Nokia's digital signature system, it is suggested that Apple will adopt a similar method. The SDK will also allow application development for the iPod touch.

Software updates
Apple provides free updates to the iPhone's operating system through iTunes, in a similar fashion to the way that iPods are updated, and touts this as an advantage compared to other cell phones. Security patches as well as new and improved features, such as a mobile chat client, Flash support, and voice recording, may be released in this fashion. In order to be able to provide the updates free without violating accounting rules required by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, Apple will recognize revenue from their iPhones on a deferred basis
The first iPhone software update, 1.0.1, was released on July 31, 2007 to patch an exploit, discovered on July 23, 2007. It allowed hackers to take complete control of the iPhone via Wi-Fi connection or by luring a person to a website with that included malicious code. Once the hacker had control of the iPhone they could download the entire content of the iPhone, make phone calls, or turn the phone into a covert listening device.
The first full update, 1.1.1, was released on September 27, 2007. In addition to the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store, this update also adds home button shortcuts and other features previously released in the iPod touch. The update significantly changed the iPhone's software and improved stability of its applications. This firmware is incompatible with previous hacks for modifying the system software or installing third party applications.
The updates that have been released are:
1.0.1 - July 31, 2007
Safari security update
1.0.2 - August 21, 2007
Fixed bugs
1.1.1 - September 27, 2007
iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store
Louder speakerphone and receiver volume
Home button double-click shortcut to phone favorites or music controls
Spacebar double-tap shortcut to intelligently insert period and space
Mail attachments are viewable in portrait and landscape modes
Stocks and cities in Stocks and Weather can be reordered
Apple Inc. Bluetooth Headset battery status in the Status Bar
Support for TV out
Preferences to turn off EDGE/GPRS when roaming internationally
New Passcode lock time intervals
Adjustable alert volume
1.1.2 - November 12, 2007
Battery charge level shown in iTunes
International language & keyboard support
Patched the TIFF exploit
Adds custom ringtone field
Fixed bugs
1.1.3 - January 15, 2008
Google Maps gains the 'Locate Me' feature which determines the phone's approximate location using cell tower triangulation and (in the US and Canada) WIFI data from Skyhook Wireless; also adds hybrid map support and the 'Drop Pin' feature.
Icons on the homescreen can be rearranged and placed on multiple homescreens (up to nine).
iTunes gift cards can be redeemed on the iTunes WiFi store.
Movies acquired through iTunes have chapter support.
Music has lyrics-support feature
Web Clips can be added to the homescreen.
SMS messages can be sent to multiple contacts.
SMS storage capacity increased to 75,000 (from 1,000)
Improved Gmail IMAP support.
Multi-touch keyboard

Sales
Germany
Deutsche Telekom has signed up 70,000 iPhone customers during the eleven-week long period of November 9, 2007 to January 26, 2008.
The United Kingdom
It has been estimated that 190,000 customers have signed with O2 during an eight-week period from the November 9, 2007 launch date to January 9, 2008.

Specifications
The specifications as listed on Apple's website are:
Screen size: 8.9 cm (3.5 in)
Screen resolution: 320?480 pixels at 163 ppi
Input method: Multi-touch screen interface (the "Home" button is the iPhone's only physical front panel button)
Operating System: OS X
Storage: 8 GB flash memory (originally: 4 or 8 GB choice)
Quad band GSM (GSM 850, GSM 900, GSM 1800, GSM 1900)
Wi-Fi (802.11g), EDGE and Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR
2 megapixel camera
Built-in rechargeable, non-removable battery with up to 8 hours of talk, 6 hours of Internet use, 7 hours of video playback, and up to 24 hours of audio playback, lasting over 250 hours on standby.
Size: 115?61?11.6 mm (4.5?2.4?0.46 in)
Weight: 135 g (4.8 oz)
Digital SAR of 0.974 W/kg
An analysis of the iPhone's firmware has revealed that the main Samsung chip (designated S5L8900) contains an ARM 1176 processor, together with a PowerVR MBX 3D graphics co-processor.

Patents and copyrights
Apple has filed more than 300 patents related to the technology behind the iPhone.
LG Electronics claimed the iPhone's design was copied from the LG Prada. Woo-Young Kwak, head of LG Mobile Handset R&D Center, said at a press conference, "We consider that Apple copied Prada phone after the design was unveiled when it was presented in the iF Design Award and won the prize in September 2006."
On September 3, 1993, Infogear filed for the U.S. trademark "I PHONE" and on March 20, 1996 applied for the trademark "IPhone". "I Phone" was registered in March 1998, and "IPhone" was registered in 1999. Since then, the I PHONE mark has been abandoned. Infogear's trademarks cover "communications terminals comprising computer hardware and software providing integrated telephone, data communications and personal computer functions" (1993 filing), and "computer hardware and software for providing integrated telephone communication with computerized global information networks" (1996 filing). Infogear released a telephone with an integrated web browser under the name iPhone in 1998. In 2000, Infogear won an infringement claim against the owners of the iphones.com domain name. In June 2000, Cisco Systems acquired Infogear, including the iPhone trademark. On December 18, 2006 they released a range of re-branded Voice over IP (VoIP) sets under the name iPhone.
In October 2002, Apple applied for the "iPhone" trademark in the United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore, and the European Union. A Canadian application followed in October 2004 and a New Zealand application in September 2006. As of October 2006 only the Singapore and Australian applications had been granted. In September 2006, a company called Ocean Telecom Services applied for an "iPhone" trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and Hong Kong, following a filing in Trinidad and Tobago. As the Ocean Telecom trademark applications use exactly the same wording as Apple's New Zealand application, it is assumed that Ocean Telecom is applying on behalf of Apple. The Canadian application was opposed in August 2005 by a Canadian company called Comwave who themselves applied for the trademark three months later. Comwave have been selling VoIP devices called iPhone since 2004.
Shortly after Steve Jobs' January 9, 2007 announcement that Apple would be selling a product called iPhone in June 2007, Cisco issued a statement that it had been negotiating trademark licensing with Apple and expected Apple to agree to the final documents that had been submitted the night before. On January 10, 2007 Cisco announced it had filed a lawsuit against Apple over the infringement of the trademark iPhone, seeking an injunction in federal court to prohibit Apple from using the name. More recently, Cisco claimed that the trademark lawsuit was a "minor skirmish" that was not about money, but about interoperability.
On February 2, 2007, Apple and Cisco announced that they had agreed to temporarily suspend litigation while they hold settlement talks, and subsequently announced on February 20, 2007 that they had reached an agreement. Both companies will be allowed to use the "iPhone" name in exchange for "exploring interoperability" between their security, consumer, and business communications products.[dead link - history]

Unlocking
While initially iPhones were only sold on the AT&T network with a Simlock in place various hackers have found methods to unlock the phone, more recently some carriers have started to sell unlocked iPhones. More than a quarter of iPhones sold in the United States were not registered with AT&T. Apple speculates that they were likely shipped overseas and "unlocked".
On November 21, 2007, T-Mobile in Germany announced it would sell the phone "unlocked" and without a T-Mobile contract, caused by a preliminary injunction against T-Mobile put in place by their competitor Vodafone. In Germany, a company is not allowed to lock the SIM card to itself. On December 4, 2007, a German court decided to grant T-Mobile exclusive rights to sell the iPhone with the SIM card locked, overturning the temporary injunction. In addition, T-Mobile will unlock the iPhone at the termination of a customer's contract.
The iPhone normally prevents access to its media player and web features unless it has also been activated as a phone with an authorized carrier. On July 3, 2007, Jon Lech Johansen reported on his blog that he had successfully bypassed this requirement and unlocked the iPhone's other features with a combination of custom software and modification of the iTunes binary. He published the software and offsets for others to use.

The LG KE850, also known as The LG Prada Phone, is a mobile phone made by LG Electronics and designed by Prada. It was first announced on 12 December 2006. Images of the device appeared on websites such as engadget mobile on December 15th 2006.An official press release showing an image of the device appeared on 18 January 2007.

Features
Capacitive Touch Screen
Music Player (MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA, RA)
Music Multitasking (Messaging)
Video Player (MPEG4, H.263, H.264)
Adobe Flash UI
Document Viewer (ppt, doc, xls, pdf, txt )

Specifications
EDGE Tri-Band (900/1800/1900) / CDMA (800) for South Korea
98.8 ? 54 ? 12 mm
2MP CMOS Camera / LED Flash
Video Recording CIF 352*288=101376 Pixels,WQVGA 400*240=96000 Pixels
Internal Memory Slot (Micro SD), behind the battery
Innerpack Battery 800mAh
Bluetooth 2.0, USB 2.0, USB Mass storage

Awards
International Forum Design - Product Design Award for 2007
Red dot design award - LG Prada Wins 'Best of the Best' red dot Design Award - At 2007

Pricing and availability
Prices are expected to start from 600 Euros.
France, Germany, Spain, Hong Kong, Italy, Singapore and Taiwan: Late March 2007.
Kuwait: Available at Villa Moda. 300 KD, which is equivalent to 900 US Dollars.
South Korea - Q2 2007.
New Zealand: March 2007 - Custom configuration to comply with Vodafone NZ's GSM network.
Sweden: Late June/early July 2007.
United Kingdom: Currently available for free with new sign up on T-Mobile/Orange/O2. Or around ?275 on pay as you go, although some websites seem to sell it simfree for ?220
Australia: Available as of September 24, 2007 with most carriers, and also unlocked online.

iPhone controversy
LG Electronics has claimed the iPhone's design was copied from the LG Prada. Woo-Young Kwak, head of LG Mobile Handset R&D Center, said at a press conference, "We consider that Apple copied the Prada phone after the design was unveiled when it was presented in the iF Design Award and won the prize in September 2006."
LG later claimed that Apple stole both the ideas and concept of the Prada phone. A lawsuit by LG had been rumored prior to this announcement; however, LG has remained silent on whether or not they will file a lawsuit.

The KDDI Penck by Makoto Saito was the winner of last years list, but the phone is almost 2.5 years old and the graphical user interface aint that interesting any more. Its still an incredibly beautiful phone - but this year it has been beaten by two very strong contenders.

Yeah, another great design from a Japanese. The PENCK phone designed by Makoto Saito is one and a half years old, but its still the most beautful phone ever made. The PENCK is available in three colors, metal, milk (white), and bitter (black). Too bad its only available in Japan.

A stunning clam-style phone designed by Makoto Saito, and available in milk white, metal, and bitter colors. Currently only available in Japan.

Absolutely stunning. The PENCK phone designed by Makoto Saito is one and a half years old, but its still the most beautful phone ever made. The PENCK is available in three colors, metal, milk (white), and bitter (black). Too bad its only available in Japan.

The LG KE970 (a.k.a. LG ME970, LG CU720, LG KG70, or LG Shine) is slider-style mobile phone manufactured by LG Electronics. Originally marketed in Asia as the LG Cyon SV420, LG expanded the phone to other markets including the Europe, South America, and parts of North America.

Design
The LG KE970 takes on a slider form, featuring a polished-metal exterior and stainless steel case. The display is a large 2.25-inch (240x320 pixels) screen with an 256,000 colors, which doubles as a mirror when the screen is not used. Instead of the touch-sensitive controls found on the LG Chocolate, it uses a scroll bar for up and down navigation and two buttons for side to side navigation.
North America has 2 modified versions of the Shine available. Both feature a joystick taking the place of scroll wheel. The only difference between the 2 North American models is that the Canadian version, offered by Rogers Wireless features a second VGA camera located on the front of the phone for video calling. The American version, offered by AT&T does not have this, since AT&T's network does not support video calling. Australia also has two versions - the one with a joystick was released on the Next G network.

Features
All metal design
Mirror finish display
QVGA display resolution
2 megapixel autofocus camera with Schneider-Kreuznach lens
Scroller navigation
microSD memory card slot
Office documents viewer

Special Editions

Titanium Black Edition
In July 2007, LG Electronics unveiled the LG Shine "Titanium Black". Offering the same features as the original LG Shine, the full metal bodied jacket has received a makeover, turning it a dark and sophisticated metallic grey. Taking influence from futuristic trends.

Andy Lau Edition
In August 2007, LG Electronics launched the LG "Shine x Andy Lau Special Edition". The phone comes complete with the actors own handwriting inscribed motto on the back of the phone which says "Heaven is where the kind hearted people are."

Awards
Red dot design award - LG Shine wins Red dot design award 2007
Shiny Awards 2007 - Best Fashion Mobile

Along with the Hero, the Kickflip is one of two models released by brand-new cell phone carrier Helio, which launched in May 2006. A joint effort by EarthLink and Korea-based SK Telecom, Helio is a mobile virtual network operator that rides on Sprint's high-speed EV-DO network, while offering its own line of phones and services. It appears to be targeting the younger crowd with its hip marketing campaign focused on Web and multimedia features, as well as the phones' unique and stylish user interface. Helio also ups its youth appeal with a feature exclusive to its phones: integrated access to the mobile version of MySpace, the popular social networking site. Manufactured by Korean company VK Mobile, the Kickflip shares many similarities with the Hero in terms of features but certainly not in design. It's definitely the slimmer and sexier of the two and is probably the one to get if you're considering a Helio phone. The Kickflip costs $250, which we find rather expensive, especially when you factor in Helio's monthly fees and its target demographic.

The cute and curvy Helio Kickflip is one of the more fashionable phones we've seen to date. Perhaps taking some style points from the iPod, the Kickflip has a very minimalist body; it's pearly white with silver accents around the sides, and its front face is graced by only its large display when closed. While the Kickflip won't compete with the Razr in terms of thinness, it's a pocketable phone, measuring 3.88 by 1.96 by 0.98 inches and weighing 4.47 ounces. Its rounded corners and overall curves resulted in a cozy feel in the hand, though when open, it feels a little awkward held up to the ear. The Kickflip lives up to its name; the phone's swiveling action results in a very satisfying "kick" when it swings open and close, either to the right or to the left.

As we mentioned, the display on this phone is quite large, measuring about 2.2 inches diagonally. Showing off 262,000 colors and a 240x320 resolution, the QVGA screen is marvelously sharp and saturated with color. Unfortunately, it didn't fare so well in sunlight, where we were hard-pressed to see anything without shielding the screen. On the left spine of the phone are the volume buttons, a TV-out port, and a USB port, while the bottom has a Micro SD card slot and a headset jack. The right spine is home to a dedicated camera button, as well as music player controls such as rewind, play/pause, and fast-forward. The latter gives the Kickflip an advantage over the Hero, which doesn't have dedicated player buttons. On the back of the phone, you'll find the camera lens with a flash. Sitting on top of the lens is the macro mode toggle, which you can turn on to take better close-up shots--a great feature not normally found on camera phones. There's also a self-portrait mirror on the back, but it's accessible only when the phone is open.

When open, the phone reveals the keypad and the navigational controls. The navigational controls consist of two soft keys, a four-way navigation toggle, and a middle OK key marked with the Helio logo. The toggle acts as a shortcut to the browser, applications, video and music, text messaging, and the Helio on Top service. Below these controls are the Send and power/End keys, followed by a voice-recorder button and a Back button. The numeric keypad is arranged in a grid, and all buttons yielded easily to pressure and were textured enough to navigate and dial by feel. The user interface is exactly the same as the Hero's, and you can read more about it in our review.

The Kickflip's feature set is also very similar to that of the Hero. You get a 2-megapixel camera with flash, the wireless browser, a music player, a voice recorder, a speakerphone, vibrate mode, EV-DO support, and a video player and recorder. The address book can hold as many as 1,200 contacts (compared to the Hero's 500), each of which can accommodate five numbers, two e-mail addresses, a birthday, an anniversary date, a memo, and photo caller ID. You can also organize your contacts into groups and assign them with one of 21 polyphonic ring tones. There are the usual text- and multimedia-messaging features, but sadly, the phone doesn't support instant messaging--a huge oversight for a phone designed for the younger crowd. Rounding out the features are e-mail, a calendar, an alarm, a calculator, world time, and a notepad. Like the Hero, the Kickflip doesn't have Bluetooth, which we found similarly disappointing.

If you wish to learn more about the MySpace Mobile integration, the Helio on Top news aggregator, and the music and video player, please read our review of the Helio Hero for details on these features.

The Kickflip's 2-megapixel camera comes with a slew of settings. There are six available resolutions (1,600x1,200, 1,280x960, 800x600, 640x480, 320x240, and 240x320), four quality settings (Normal, Small, Superfine, Fine), up to 5X zoom, and a series or multishot setting for up to nine consecutive snaps. You can spruce up your shots with 10 different photo "stickers," 10 brightness settings, six light settings, six capture modes, 14 photo effects, and the ability to rotate the photos. You can also choose between two shutter sounds, though you can't disable it. The camera produced decent snapshots, but we couldn't say the same about the disappointingly low 176x144 resolution on the video recorder.

Like the Hero, the Kickflip has a long list of personalization options. You can change the wallpaper, the screensaver, the ring tones, the graphics, the menu styles, and so forth. You also have the choice of downloading additional ring tones and games from the Helio store. There are two games included with the phone--Hello CAT and a demo of MidnightPool3D--and you can always download more.

We tested the dual-band (CDMA 800/1900; EV-DO) Kickflip in San Francisco using Helio's service. We found the call quality to be subpar, especially in our office building, where there was a lot of electronic equipment that caused quite a bit of interference. Callers could hardly hear us at times, and though we could hear them, there was a lot of static during calls. When making calls from a more isolated location, the quality was a little better, but callers still had problems hearing us. The Kickflip's speakerphone quality was similarly dismal, and music playback sounded tinny. The Kickflip comes with a wired headset that doubles as a set of earbuds for the phone's music player functions. Downloading files was fast enough, though we experienced the occasional lag.

The Helio Kickflip has a rated talk time of around 3 hours and a rated standby time of up to eight days; our tests showed a talk time of 3 hours, 10 minutes and a standby time of eight days. According to FCC radiation tests, the Helio Kickflip has a digital SAR rating of 0.86 watt per kilogram.

Theres a new phone on sale in Japan this Friday, and its manufacturer (au KDDI) has dubbed it as the Media Skin. Not only is Media Skin the finest name for a phone since Talby eliciting mental images of tabloid crotch shots while at the same time sounding somehow classy it also represents the latest release in KDDIs ever-fruitful au design project. The handset is the work of Tokujin Yoshioka Design: its available in seven flavours (colours), and has all the specs youd expect from a 3G phone (microSD support, decent-res camera, PC site browser, et cetera). Far more importantly for its target users, though, it will turn heads.

First shown in November 2005 as a concept phone, the Media Skin cell phone is now a reality, and is available through KDDi in Japan. Designed by Naruhito Yoshioka, this fashion phone makes up in style what it lacks in technology.

The phone comes with a 1.3-megapixel camera, a microSD slot, and voice activated GPS with a cool 3-D interface. The Media Skin phone unfortunately does not have Bluetooth capabilities, and instead features a primitive infrared port.

The KDDi Media Skin phone measures 50?110?13.1mm, making it easy to slip into a pocket or other small places. The phone also has a 2.4-inch organic OLED supporting a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels, which is protected from scratches with a protective tempured glass display. The surface of the phone has a soft, leather-like feeling. With the keypad cover closed, the KDDi Media Skin phone kind of looks like an iPod Nano without a click wheel.

The KDDI Media Skin is available in three colors (orange, white, & black) in Japan only.

It has been a very long time in coming, but Motorola is finally starting to put out devices based on its new Linux platform. The new platform was originally called JUIX ("juice"), in homage to its Java and Linux UNIX roots, but these days the company merely calls it the Linux platform or sometimes the Linux Java platform since Java now plays a much smaller part in the system than it did in early versions.

In any event, the Motorola ROKR Z6 is among the initial handset designs that Motorola has built on this new platform. As such, it has a brand new user interface and a significantly faster processor to ensure that things move along at a quicker pace than the older devices did. The quad-band GSM/EDGE ROKR Z6 supports Bluetooth stereo with its music player and offers the user the ability to take 2 megapixel photographs with its built-in camera. The Z6 may look much like the MOTORIZR Z3 that we recently reviewed, but the similarity is truly only skin deep. Inside, the Z6 is all new.

This review is based on pre-production devices supplied to us by Motorola. The firmware tested is not the final firmware expected to reach retail shelves, but the hardware version is production ready.

Physical Aspects

The MOTOROKR Z6 is a solidly built slider handset. The actual slider mechanism contains a dual-homed spring that causes it to open and close securely while making a solid thunking sound. The front face of the phone is decked out in a polished black finish that contrasts with the rubbery soft-touch paint found on the back of the device. The mate black middle section of the phone houses a series of gloss black controls. The volume control and smartkey are located on the left edge, the camera and voice dial buttons on the right. The covered miniUSB port is also located on the right. When opened, the back of the slider shows a patter of dots that is color keyed to the rest of the phone - gray for the black Z6, red for the black and red version, and orange for the black and orange version.

Like Motorola's RAZR, KRZR, and SLVR models that are already on the market, the ROKR Z6 makes use of flat metal front controls and keys. The grooved d-pad is reasonably large and easy enough to use with a fingernail or fingertip. It is surrounded by the red and green send and end call buttons, a pair of softkeys, and dedicated back and music keys. All of the keys click solidly in spite of their flat design. The keypad keys have the same decent feel, but also benefit from raised rubber strips that run between them that make the keys easy to find by touch alone. The bulge beneath the keypad that houses the internal antenna at least makes sure that the keypad isn't sitting at the very bottom edge of the phone, which I always find makes a keypad harder to use. Overall the keypad design isn't ever going to be as ergonomically friendly as a well-designed conventional keypad with normal buttons, but it is still very usable.

The thin keypad tech also allows the Z6 to maintain a fairly slim profile at 20mm (.8"). With a height and width of 106mm x 45mm (4.2" x 1.8"), you can think of the Z6 as being a bit larger than 3 iPod Nanos stacked on top of each other. Of course opening up the slider increases its length a decent amount: 38mm (1.5").

The Z6's display is a bright and colorful 2" TFT that can show up to 262k colors. The display has a 240x320 pixel resolution that lends itself well to normal use and taking photos. It really does the new user interface justice, as the two together make for a pretty smart looking system. At its brightest setting, the display looks fantastic and is easy to read in direct sunlight. It does appear to be somewhat transflective, but even so, it can be a bit hard to read in direct sun when the brightness is turned all the way down. Overall, it is still quite impressive, far more so than the relatively poor looking screen shots we have in this review would suggest.

As a quad-band GSM/EDGE device, the Motorola MOTOROKR Z6 can be used in most parts of the world. We tested it primarily on T-Mobile's 1900MHz network, with some further testing on AT&T/Cingular's 850/1900MHz network. The Z6's internal antenna put in a only an average performance. Audio quality was very good in general, but we did experience a few calls where we heard our own voice in the handset. This didn't seem to be network related, best we could tell, but could indeed be due to our review unit's pre-production status. We didn't experience any similar issues on another pre-production Z6 we had, though. In any event, the Z6's speakerphone function worked quite well. In terms of battery life, the Z6 put in a respectable showing by lasting for 5 hours and 45 minutes in our talk time test.

The new Motorola Linux platform that the Z6 runs upon offers a robust contacts system. Most all of the typical pieces of data that one could associate with a person are accounted for. Multiple phone numbers, email addresses, and street addresses can be assigned, as well as birthday and spouse/children names, web URLs, voice memos, notes, and separate custom ringtones and message alerts. All of this information is arranged logically on a tabbed screen interface. The contact search mechanism allows for multiple characters to be entered, but sadly will only search based on first name (or only last name, when sorted based on last name). Contacts can be assigned to a category and the list then filtered by category, which might help some people. Multiple contacts can be selected at one time for some tasks like copying and deletion, but not for category association.

The Linux platform also brings significant changes to the profiles system. The default profiles defined in the Z6 still mimic the old Motorola style (Ring, Vibe and Ring, Vibe then Ring, etc), but they can now be completely customized, and new profiles can be defined. This means it is possible to have a Vibrate and Ring profile with a loud volume for everyday use as well as have a separate Vibrate and Ring profile with minimal volume for meetings or similar situations. Similar to the contacts editor, the profile editor makes use of a tabbed user interface to keep things nice and organized. One thing that hasn't changed is the ability to easily activate a profile using the volume key and the smartkey that is located under it.

One of the more impressive aspects of the new Z6 is its voice dialing system. The new Motorola developed speaker independent system goes beyond what we've seen in other systems. Not only can you command the phone to dial a number or contact, but you can even have it check for new text or email messages and read them to you out loud thanks to the new Talking Phone system that I'll discuss in the user interface section. Voice commands can also can be used to address a new SMS, to check battery status, or to list your current calendar appointments, among many other things. When used in combination with the Talking Phone system, the new voice commands are exceedingly useful while driving. If all of this is just a bit too "Star Trek" for you, the new Linux platform still supports traditional speed dialing.

is still supported, but email has become a much more powerful messaging option on the new devices. POP and IMAP email accounts can be added to the system, but the real treat comes from the tight integration with the MOTOSYNC client. This enables the Z6 to be configured to link up with a Microsoft Exchange server using the Exchange ActiveSync protocol. While it doesn't support Direct Push, the device can be configured to sync with the server at a user selected time interval. In addition to email, contacts and calendar appointments can also be synchronized. Synchronization can be initiated from the email, contacts, and calendar apps as well as from MOTOSYNC itself.

The Z6 has Bluetooth 2.0 support built into it. It can be used as a Bluetooth modem with the DUN profile and also supports the OBEX transfer profile as well as normal and stereo headphones. We never ran into any Bluetooth related problems when using the Z6. The device also supports high-speed USB 2.0 connections to personal computers.

As a member of Motorola's ROKR family, people ought to be able to expect good things from the Z6 when it comes to music. My experience with it was pretty good overall. I was able to use Windows Media Player to create playlists and move songs over to the Z6 via a USB connection without any problems. Playlists can also be created directly on the phone. Like most music devices, the Z6's new Linux platform offers a well rounded player application that sorts music by artist, song, and album and offers typical functions like shuffle and random play. It doesn't have a graphic equalizer function, but it does provide a number of settings for stereo widening and bass boosting that worked pretty well with the Motorola S9 Bluetooth headphones I was using. The S9 lacks bass response in general, and the Z6 did a decent job of overcoming that.

The player will show album art when songs are playing, and can display a full screen version of the graphic at the press of a button. The music player can run in the background and can be controlled from the standby screen with the d-pad. Pressing up on the d-pad will bring the music player back into the foreground. The application is capable of playing MP3, WMA, AAC, eAAC+, and WAV files. The overall experience isn't as tight or polished as that of Sony Ericsson's Walkman application, but it is reasonably close.

As it turns out, the Z6 also takes reasonable quality 2 megapixel photos. Photos are captured in portrait mode when the slider is open and in landscape mode when it is closed. The photos are perhaps a bit dark, but show good color and decent sharpness for a fixed-focus lens. My only complaint is that the camera suffers considerably when the light levels get lower. The effective shutter speed of the camera gets quite slow in such conditions, and that makes it difficult to take a decent photo if the subject is moving at all.

One of the other new features of Motorola's Linux based platform is the new Opera 8 HTML browser. While it is nowhere near as capable as Nokia's S60 browser, the new Opera 8 browser on the Z6 is a big leap forward when compared to the old platform's browser. The new assortment of productivity applications like the calendar and alarm clock are also nicely improved. Calendar appointments can have ring profiles and attendee lists associated with them now, which is handy. Also included on the Z6 are new calculator and world clock applets as well as a notes application and an app for managing a to-do list. Our test Z6 came loaded with two games, Sudoku and Tetris, but it seems likely that carriers will determine which games, if any, are shipped with the device.

All of these applications and media files require storage space. The Z6 has 64MB of built-in storage and the ability to add up to 2GB of storage by inserting a microSD card in the slot located under the battery compartment cover. The card can be swapped without turning off the phone.

For me personally, the most exciting part of the MOTOROKR Z6 is neither its slider form factor nor its music player, but rather the brand spanking new user interface. This is the same UI that is going to be found on most new Motorola feature phones, including the recently unveiled RAZR2 V8, V9, and V9m. This new UI runs atop of a Linux kernel on a speedy 500MHz ARM11 processor. That alone gives it great potential, but the overall feeling of a clean slate that you get from the UI is what impresses me most. Motorola dropped the quirky bits of its legacy UI and has streamlined everything to make it competitive with the best phone UIs available today.

Let's start with the main menu. The new system is very flexible and user friendly. The main menu can be viewed as a 3x3 grid of icons or as a simple list. Items in the menus can be rearranged, new folders can be created, and menu items that would typically be a menu or two deep in the menu structure can be moved to the main menu if that is what the user wants. It is not unlike the Nokia S60 UI in this regard. But unlike S60, the new Moto UI supports folders within folders. Another improvement from the old system is that the keypad keys are finally linked to the main menu items so that pressing the 1 key will always activate the top left corner icon. The only complaint I have about the main menu is that it does not reset to select the center icon when it is accessed, instead defaulting to the last icon the user selected.

Deeper level menus are always displayed in list format instead of the old platform's inconsistent mix of icons and lists. As is the case with all menus on in the new Linux platform, the keypad keys can be used to navigate these menus. In fact, the volume control and the smartkey that sits below it can also be used for navigation through any of the menus, giving the user access to jog-wheel like functionality. The up and down volume functions scroll, the smartkey selects.

The options menus called with the left softkey are also new. These menus generally provide additional options or some commands that can be executed on currently selected items on the display. The cascading sub-menus in them can be entered and exited with the right and left d-pad directions. Even the standby screen has a left softkey options menu that can be used to lock the screen, set an alarm, or access common functions like the camera or creating a new message. Another sign of the amount of thought that Motorola put into the new UI is the fact that the left softkey options menus can be context sensitive. For example, when a regular SMS message is selected, the default/top item in the options menu is reply. When a delivery receipt in the same inbox folder is selected, the default menu item is delete. That may not seem like much, but that slight sacrifice in consistency makes getting things done on the phone much quicker. In general, anything that results in fewer navigation clicks is a good thing. With that same thought, I was also pleased to see that the options menus are open ended so that the user can scroll off the bottom of the menu and end up at the top, and vice versa.

The right softkey is almost always linked to back or cancel, depending on the current task. The dedicated back key can be used on most screens that do not require a cancel function to exit. The message editor is an example of a screen that requires an explicit cancel request in order to go back to the prior screen. Curiously, the back button also fails to work on some informational screens that only have an OK option assigned to the left softkey and no function assigned to the right one, as is the case with the "Java System" information screen in the Phone Settings menu. This is something Motorola should change in future revisions of the UI.

The new Linux UI offers better theme support than does the old system. Our Z6 came with 3 pre-defined themes. Users can make their own themes that specify the UI skin, wallpapers, screen savers, and slider tones as well as ringtones and message alert tones. When a theme is activated, the user is asked if they would like to allow the theme to override current ringtone settings or not. There does not appear to be any way to add new skins to the system, and as such the color of the main UI on-screen widgets are fairly inflexible. The skins on our Z6 were silver, blue, and pink in color and offered some slight variations on the shape of on-screen items.

The most novel part of the new Linux platform's UI is what Motorola calls "Talking Phone." The Talking Phone settings let the user configure what aspects of the user interface will be spoken out loud by the phone's text to speech system. I currently have just the Caller ID function enabled so that I can hear who is calling or who has sent me a text message. There are options for verbalizing the menu, contacts list, and dialing, as well as actually reading received text or email messages. This is great stuff for people that drive all day or have poor vision. The Talking Phone system can be activated and deactivated with the previously mention voice command system. This way I could use the Talking Phone voice command to turn on all speech functions while I am was driving, and then have it revert to my normal preference of announcing only caller ID information when I issue the deactivate voice command. This is brilliant stuff. The speech is still a bit rough around the edges, but I love the direction that Motorola is going with this.

Motorola has finally moved its user interface into the modern era with the new Linux platform. The UI is consistent, intuitive, and worlds faster than the old platform. There are still some minor issues that need to be addressed, such as the lack of user selectable font sizes, the spartan look of the contact viewer, and the inability to list more than three messages on the screen at once, but considering how young the system is, the polish it posesses is quite impressive.

Conclusion

Motorola's MOTOROKR Z6 has an awful lot going for it. It has a capable music player, takes good photos, and offers new voice technology that we've never seen from a major manufacturer. It is, to be sure, an eminently enjoyable slider phone. I would have liked for its internal antenna to have performed a bit more strongly and I'm not real fond of the d-pad's nail file like surface, but apart from those few things, I really have enjoyed the past few weeks I've had with the Z6.

I'm very pleased to be able to give the Motorola ROKR Z6 a "Highly Recommended" rating.

The Sony Ericsson W880i is a mobile phone that was released in February 2007. Part of Sony Ericsson's successful Walkman series, the phone is heralded as a breakthrough due to its tiny dimensions and quality construction. With a thickness of just 9.4 mm, the W880 is one of the few phones currently on the market that is thinner than 1 cm (10 mm).
The W880i is available in three different colour schemes; "Flame Black", "Steel Silver" and now exclusively to Vodafone for a limited time only, Gold. There is also a non-3G version of the phone; the Sony Ericsson W888c.

Features
The W880 features a 2.0 megapixel camera (without autofocus & flash) and a secondary VGA camera located on the front which can be used for 3G video conferencing. The phone also features the Walkman Player v2.0, which offers a faster and friendlier user-interface than the previous version. The phone comes with 16 MB of memory and a 1 GB Memory Stick Micro, but can be expanded to 4 GB via the Memory Stick Micro slot. Using a 8GB memory stick still shows only 4GB of available memory. Other features include photo/video editing, picture blogging and web gallery uploading, QCIF video recording, and 3G data transferring capabilities of up to 384 kbit/s. This model shares all of the features the W850i has except the form factor and the lack of radio and camera light.

Compatibility
The Sony Ericsson W880i supports a wide range of Audio, Video and Image formats:
Video MP4, 3GPP, H263, H264 and Real8.
Image JPEG, GIF, BMP, PNG, WBMP, SVG and Flash.
Audio MP3, MP4, AAC, AAC+, M4A, 3GP, AMR ,WMA, Real 8 and G-MDI.

Problems
The W880 has widespread tendency to 'power-down', or turn itself off at various times. This is thought to be due to a fault in the battery placement design.

Ocean, nicknamed "The Oz", is a dual slider multimedia wireless mobile device sold by wireless carrier Helio, and made by Pantech (model PN-810). The device compares to the Danger Hiptop (T-Mobile Sidekick) and the enV for Verizon or the LG Voyager. The Ocean was released Friday, May 11, 2007. The Ocean has an array of features supported on the Helio service, including Location Based Services. The Ocean is loaded with a version of Google Maps that uses the device's GPS to locate the user on a map and the Buddy Beacon application that lets friends share their current location with each other via Mapquest. A distinctive feature of the Ocean is its dual sliding mechanism - when slid down in the vertical position, it reveals a numeric keypad. When slid down in the horizontal position, it reveals a 35-key QWERTY keyboard.

Features
The Helio Ocean has a considerable amount of features at the time of its release. According to Helio's website, future firmware updates will increase functionality.
Standard Features:
Address Book
Alarm Clock
Bluetooth
Calendar
Calculator
Caller ID
Internet Browsing (recently hacked to use the Opera Mini browser)
Speaker Phone
Voice Memo Recorder
Microsoft Exchange Support (for $9.99 a month)
Communication:
Full QWERTY keyboard
T9 Text
Korean character set
AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo! Pager, and MSN Messenger for mobile
POP/IMAP/Exchange Email Support
GPS Related:
GPS Capability: advanced satellite technology for directions or socializing
Buddy Beacon- Allows user to see where other users are in the world.
Google Maps
Additional Features:
Camera: 2 megapixel, built-in flash, 4x digital zoom, and MPEG 4 video camera.
Music/Video Player: MP3, MPEG 4, H.264, AAC, and WMA player, QVGA video, VOD, MOD, MMS
MySpace Mobile
Photo Studio with special effects

Ocean issues
The Ocean has several known software glitches that cause undesirable effects like the screen freezing while web browsing and various hangups while accessing new screens.
You can not use the Ocean's music player in the background of other phone functions. Although the music player does have an option for "Surf" (web-browsing), you can not instant message, text, or anything of that nature while listening to music. However you do get your notification by vibration for your text messages.
The Ocean is often criticized for the end button placement (above the control pad in landscape and right to it in portrait), which can cause the user to accidentally press the end button while web browsing and quit the browser.

The super stylish Nokia 8800 Sirocco Edition comes in an elegant stainless steel body which is extremely user friendly. The handset has an exquisite design & comes with sensuous curves in the body of the casing which makes holding & using the handset a pleasure of the user. The handset has a signature thumb rest which adds to the sensuous curves of the casing & a hidden keypad which is easy to access. The mobile phone comes with a fluid slide opening mechanism which has been designed using a smooth ball bearing slide system. The Nokia 8800 comes in two colours which are silver or black which comes with a high quality glossy finish.

The Nokia 8800 Sirocco Edition comes with a large TFT screen which displays up to 262k bright colours for the user to view at their information, photos & video recordings. The screen can be viewed when the handset is in the opened or closed position. The phone comes with a premium user interface which is exclusive to the Nokia 8800. The screen has a scratch resistant sapphire coated glass which will protect it from any unavoidable knocks during carrying. The colourful screen will provide a screen resolution of 208 x 208 pixel which allows the user to see all their photos & video recordings on a clear & bright display.

The phone comes with 128 Mbytes of internal NAND Flash memory & with a fitted rechargeable battery. The battery will provide the user with up to two hundred & forty hours of standby time & three & three quarter hours of talk time. The stylish handset weighs one hundred & thirty eight grams & measures 107 x 45 x 17.5 mm in the closed position. The user can have lots of fun using the built in 2 megapixel camera which is easy to use & comes with selectable photo settings. The photo settings will ensure the perfect photo is captured with a truly professional finish. The camera can capture photos at 1600 x 1200 pixels which provides the user with a beautifully clear photo which can be saved or shared with other contacts. The Nokia 8800 Sirocco Edition comes with a built in video feature which can play video footage which has been sent or saved & record video footage.

The Nokia 8800 mobile handset comes with multimedia messaging (MMS) capabilities which allows the user to stay in contact with other MMS compatible mobile phone users. The MMS message can contain music or sound with a video clip or photo which will give the user & their contact a fun & real life messaging experience. The Nokia 8800 Sirocco Edition comes with an instant messaging service which allows the user to communicate with any contact who is online at the same time as the user. The user can have an online chat with all instant messaging compatible contacts. The phone comes with an email service which supports SMTP, POP3, IMAP4 & APOP. The user has a good choice of messaging service which allows the user to stay in contact with all business contacts, friends & family from their mobile phone.

The user can tune into their favourite FM radio station or play their favourite style of music on the built in digital music player which will play MP3 & eAAC music formats. The Nokia 8800 Sirocco Edition comes with ringtones which have been composer by Brian Eno the ambient music composer.

The user can take part in a conference call which is easy to set up & allows the user to talk to more than one contact at a time on one call. The user can use the handsfree speakerphone which allows the user to have a handsfree call experience & lets the user get on with their work or jobs whilst taking a call over the phones speaker system. The phone comes with enhanced voice feature which allows the user to use voice activated commands for dialling. The user can use the automatic redial option & speed dialling feature to make the calling experience easier & quicker.

The Nokia 8800 Sirocco comes with Bluetooth technology which allows the user to connect to any Bluetooth compatible device & enjoy a wirefree connection between the two compatible devices. The phone comes with EDGE technology which provides the user with efficiently fast & effective data transfer which works approximately three times faster than GPRS. The phone comes with tri band technology which works over three network bands & will automatically switch between the networks without the user knowing.