New Cell Phone | China Mobile Phone Blog

The Nokia N9 could be released on 19 August after the MeeGo-toting handset was spotted on websites based in Russia and Kazakhstan.
Nokia has kept quiet about a release date for its debut MeeGo smartphone since it was announced last month, so this is the first indication we’ve had on when the mooted device might land.
Kazakhstan-based retailer TexhoDom revealed the N9 would be available from 19 August and is currently offering its customers the chance to pre-order it for 99,990 Kazakhstani Tenge which is around £420.
At the same time, the highly-anticipated handset went up for pre-order on Nokia’s Russian website (although a release date was kept under wraps), so clearly the N9 is on its way to some markets across the globe.
The big question remains as to whether we’ll be able to get our hands on the Nokia N9 in the UK, with the manufacturer yet to confirm whether its debut MeeGo handset will be making its way to Blighty.
We’re certainly hoping Nokia plans to bring the N9 to UK shores. After all, we’d love to try our hand at a brand new operating system and its swipe-based user interface. If the news is true and the device does go on sale in these markets on 19 August, we’d expect a UK release to follow.

The very first cellular phone designed for Windows Phone 7 Mango has been officially unveiled, and rather than it being Nokia, Samsung or any of the other established WinPho manufacturers, it’s newcomers Toshiba-Fujitsu who are first on the scene with the IS12T.
This is the phone spotted at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference a couple of weeks ago, then rumoured to be the one on which Mango would make its debut just a few days later. Sure enough, at a press event in Tokyo, Toshiba-Fujitsu and the KDDI network took the covers off the new IS12T phone.
Here’s what you need to know:

A 3.-inch touchscreen with a 480 x 800 pixel resolution.
Qualcomm’s MSM8655 processor.
A 13.2 megapixel camera with an LED flash.
32GB of internal memory.
Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
DLNA.

The standout feature in that list is the massive 13.2 megapixel camera, which also has autofocus and a selection of photographic software tweaks to play about with. Megapixels aren’t everything as we know, but there’s no denying that’s a great headline-grabbing figure!
Confirming what we already knew, the IS12T is water and dust proof, plus we’ve now got some dimensions too; and at 113 grams and 10.6mm thick, it’s easily on a par with most other smartphones. The device will come in several garish colours – citrus and magenta among them – along with a more restrained black chassis.
As Japan has no GSM network, the IS12T is a CDMA phone which means we won’t be seeing this exact model in the UK. Fujitsu isn’t all that well known here either, and aside from the camera, the phone isn’t all that different from Windows Phone handsets we have here already; so perhaps the IS12T will be a Japanese exclusive.
September is being reported as the IS12T’s release date, although the KDDI spec page suggests early October.

Detailed pictures of the HTC Puccini have been published online, courtesy of Boy Genius Report. The tech site somehow managed to get its hands on spy shots of the unannounced 10.1-inch slate and it’s certainly something to behold.
This is the first time we’ve seen the upcoming tablet in what could be its final form factor, and although the leaked photos weren’t accompanied with official specs, they do give away some clues as to what features the device will pack.
The Puccini is placed in a folio-style case so we don’t get a full look at it from the front. However,  a HTC Magic Pen can be seen, indicating that, like the HTC Flyer, the tablet will have Scribe technology which allows users to write notes on practically anything they’re viewing via the screen. The back panel consists of a funky mesh design and speaker grill, plus an 8 megapixel camera with dual-LED flash.
As for the other rumoured specs, the HTC Puccini is said to come with Android Honeycomb, a 1.5GHz processor, HTC Sense and a 4G LTE radio. There’s no word on a release date yet but considering that the tablet recently passed FCC testing, we reckon an official launch could be just around the corner.

On Monday evening, RIM popped a short but intriguing post on their Facebook page, suggesting something ‘shiny, new and social all over’ was ready to be announced the next day.
Naturally, thoughts instantly went to some lovely new hardware such as the new Bold 9790, but all those hoping for something that exciting are going to be a little disappointed to learn it was only version 2.0 of the BlackBerry Facebook app which was released.
While it fits (more or less) with the ‘shiny, new and social’ statement, we’re not sure if an app update was worthy of such bluster, a point RIM seems to agree on seeing as they didn’t even bother to update their Facebook page with the ‘news’!
After seeking out some information on the new Facebook app, it’s a bit of a shame they went about it in this way, as they actually released two versions of the new app; one for smartphones and one for the PlayBook, making it the first tablet-optimised version available. Other new features include Facebook Places, Facebook Events, Facebook Chat and the option to share videos.
So, while RIM didn’t officially show-off some new hardware, US network Verizon did do so unintentionally, as a demo video showing the Bold 9930 appeared on Verizon’s 9650′s page! If you don’t recognize the touch/QWERTY combo’s model number, it’s because we know it better as the 9900.
Perhaps RIM will surprise us with a release date soon?

Chinese officials have discovered five bogus Apple stores in the same city after a blogger stumbled across a fake retail outlet earlier this week.
The US-based writer, known only by her online name BirdAbroad, posted pictures of the a conterfeit shop she found in the city of Kunming, reporting that her suspicions were raised after she noticed some of the store’s branding wasn’t quite up to scratch.
In her blog, the anonymous author wrote that the store staff didn’t have names on their lanyards as genuine Apple store employees do and that a sign proclaiming ‘Apple Store’ was positioned above the entrance. Real stores have only an Apple logo and no accompanying signage.
After the pictures had done the rounds on the web, Apple confirmed that the blogger had indeed spotted phoney stores and that Chinese officials had been alerted to the scam. An investigation was subsequently launched, resulting in two of the five fake shops being ordered to cease trading. However, the other three evaded closure by virtue of them selling genuine Apple products, leaving the authorities powerless to shut them down.

Details of what looks to be the first Windows Phone 7 Mango handset from HTC have appeared online.
Little known tech blog Gadgetian happened across specs for the HTC Omgea which included a 3.8-inch display, a 1.5GHz single-core processor, 512MB RAM, 16GB of storage, an 8 megapixel camera with 720p HD video recording capabilities plus 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth connectivity.
These specs give us a rough idea of what to expect from other Mango smartphones as Microsoft require manufacturers to adhere to strict hardware guidelines for devices running their Windows Phone OS.
No release date for the HTC Omega has been revealed yet but it’s expected to be officially announced alongside the rest of the new Windows Phone 7 line-up in the autumn. With that time a little while away yet, we’re hoping more details on the Omega will emerge before then, preferably in photographic form.

A white version of the Samsung Galaxy S II could be coming to the market after tech retailer Clove listed the paler version of the handset on its website.
The site proclaims that it is offering the “popular Samsung Galaxy S II in white” and that it will be available from August. However, Samsung is yet to confirm whether the alternative colourway model of its hugely successful flagship smartphone is set for a release.
Samsung recently announced that the Galaxy S II has sold an impressive 5 million units in just 85 days so the introduction of a white version could be viewed as an attempt by the manufacturer to tap into the popularity of white handsets, as evidenced by clamour for the white iPhone 4, to further boost sales.

The US is centre stage in the smartphone battle at present. It might not be the largest market, nor most advanced market (go east young gadget fan), but for sheer competition and payoff there’s no matching it. The biggest question for smartphone analysts is “Who’s winning?” – Android’s open-access attempt, or Apple’s combination of style with rabid exclusivity. The answer? According to a recent Nielsen study, both.

The great big block of banana colour there is Apple’s iOS, running on what’s unquestionably the single most popular smartphone. The rainbow to its left is Android, even more unquestionably the most popular operating system. In a brilliantly counter-competitive competition, the biggest names in modern gadgetry are fighting on different levels and they’re both winning. Apple focuses all its efforts into an annual phone, and it’s still working – their fans wouldn’t even consider buying anything else.
The Android approach is clearly working across a wider range of users – those four blocks of phone-using include at least a hundred different models – and while their total is bigger, they don’t make quite as much from each one. The rest of the results are what we all know: Blackberries are big but shrinking, Windows Mobile perseveres no matter what, a few people Palm for some reason and the recently sold-out Symbian is being crushed off the edge of the table.
As for the big two? It really is Apple vs Everyone else, because almost everyone else offers Android as an option now. And long may it continue – the instant one side wins, evolution of hardware will drop to first gear. As long as two titanic companies are trying to kill each other, everyone else gets much better gadgetry every year!

Watch out HTC, Vodafone has announced their very own Facebook phone called the 555 Blue, and it’s out to beat you at your own game!  Keen Facebook users may already be eying up the ChaCha and the Salsa, HTC’s latest smartphones with a dedicated Facebook button, but should they stop craving these little gems and think about the 555 instead?
Well, probably not, as although it’s going to be cheap and cheerful, it’s not a smartphone; giving HTC’s tiny dancers the edge. That said, it’s still a QWERTY-equipped phone and if you’re a young Facebook fan on a tight budget, you’ll want to know more.
It has a 2.4-inch screen above the hardware keyboard, a 2 megapixel camera and a microSD card slot, plus the Opera Mini browser installed as standard; but it has to make do with EDGE as its fastest data connection, so don’t expect super-fast speeds.
The real attraction is the Facebook button at the bottom of the keyboard.  It can be assigned to several different functions such as uploading a picture, posting a status or checking in with Facebook Places; while the proprietary OS appears to be heavily Facebook-focused to the extent where status updates appear as notifications on the main screen.
So, how cheap will the Vodafone 555 Blue be? It’s expected to hit the shelves costing around £70 on Pay-As-You-Go, which is very reasonable, however the release date hasn’t been announced.
 

Motorola may be forced to retract its claims that the Atrix is ‘the world’s most powerful smartphone’ following complaints about a TV ad for the device.
The Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) is currently looking at Motorola’s assertions about the power contained in the Tegra-2 powered device and are investigating the ad after receiving two complaints challenging the validity of the claims.
An ASA spokesperson told Know Your Mobile: “I can confirm that the ASA has received two complaints about a TV ad for the Motorola Atrix cellular phone that states “The world’s most powerful smartphone.
“The complainants have challenged whether the claim is misleading. We are currently formally investigating this ad and will publish our findings in due course.”
When the Atrix first launched in February 2011, its 1GHz dual-core processor arguably positioned it at the forefront of the smartphone market in terms of CPU power.
However, since then, a slew of equally powerful devices have been released, including the LG Optimus 2X and Samsung’s Galaxy S II, rendering Motorola’s claims factually incorrect.
The ASA didn’t provide a timescale for the completion of their investigation, but should the complaints be upheld, the Atrix advertising campaign will have to be rehashed or scrapped entirely.