The font is smooth and simple. The icons are intuitive. But what is with the menu system that mimics desktop applications? Couldn’t there be just buttons instead? Source: Pre Central via Engadget

That’s the new name for Windows Mobile 6.5. Any name that has “Starter Edition” is doomed from the start. Windows 7 Starter Edition anyone? Source: ZDNet via The Unwired, Engadget

The Droid is just $50 at Amazon, of course, with a 2-year agreement with Verizon.

Topology Research Institute, a Taiwan-based market research firm, expects 3G mobile phones to top 40 million units in China for 2010. China’s 3G technology is called TD-SCDMA and the total number of 3G service subscribers will balloon to 71 million by the end of 2010. No doubt China will soon become the largest market for a lot of things including 3G mobile phones. Source: DIGITIMES

Amazon started shipping the PEN E-PL1 from Olympus, a Micro-Four Thirds system compact digital camera for US$599.

The Pulse Mini by T-Mobile is a smaller and cuter Pulse. The Android smartphone is smaller but it still packs quite a punch. The Pulse Mini is manufactured by Huawei and runs Android 2.1, sports a 2.8-inch touch display with a 320×240 pixel format and is powered by Qualcomm’s MSM7225 CPU. The number of pixels on the rather smallish display is on the low side so if you’re addicted to texting make sure you have hands that are smaller than average.

The Pulse Mini will be available in April in the UK and Germany. I have been told that mobile users in Europe like to go unlocked and prepaid and that’s exactly what the Pulse Mini is. The contract-free price in the UK is £99.99 (about US$155).

I am not sure why there continues to be a preference for soft, or touch, buttons. I actually loath them because they are not accurate enough. I would much prefer physical buttons. If those touch buttons were pushed below to where the other buttons are the display could have been made a bit bigger. And do we really need such a big round thingamajiggy on such a cute smartphone? Source: T-Mobile

Modistech claims to be the only company that is developing flexible OLED surface lighting in South Korea. The aim of the company is to develop a “paper-like, fabric-like and film-like” flexible OLED panel for surface lighting. White, orange and red colors are being optimized for commercialization into the desk lamp and automotive markets. OLED lighting is softer than LED lighting, produces color that is close to natural color, has less glare leading to less eye fatigue.

Modistech is minimizing the number of substrate processes, making use of roll-to-roll deposition, and incorporates a company-developed encapsulation material to reduce manufacturing costs to just 10% of glass-based OLEDs. A 150x150mm flexible OLED panel for indirect lighting is scheduled for commercialization in 2010. It looks like a white OLED lighting panel can also be used as a light source for the backlight in LCDs. Source: OLEDNET

I personally think it would be best to have a global model number: Samsung’s EX1 in Europe is the TL500 in the US. Canon does this too. Nevertheless the EX1 or TL500 was introduced on February 20, 2010 and makes use of a 1/1.7-inch CCD image sensor, which is larger than what is typically found in compact digital cameras. The Schneider KREUZNACH lens is impressive too: 24mm f/1.8, which means it is wide angle and very fast. Samsung claims the sensor and lens combination allow for “better photos in low-light environments” with a max ISO of 3200 combined with a DRIMeIII image processor. Samsung makes use of Dual Image Stabilization technology. I am not sure if that means the TL500 makes use of both optical and in-body digital IS. You can also record video at 640×480 encoded in H.264.

An interesting feature is the articulating 3-inch AMOLED display:

Compared to the traditional TFT-LCD found on most digital cameras, the EX1’s AMOLED provides users with a higher contrast ratio, deeper blacks and more accurate, vivid colors, even when viewed from an angle or in direct sunlight.

I wonder how you’re supposed to take a picture with the display articulated toward the front without an optical viewfinder. Hmm. Although I will get fairly deep into details regarding Samsung’s AMOLED displays in a soon-to-be-released Nexus One technical review, just because the colors are more vivid does not necessarily mean more accurate colors, on the contrary, the colors are likely to be quite inaccurate. The claimed higher contrast ratio thanks to deeper blacks is believable but the ability to view the AMOLED in direct sunlight with deep blacks and vivid colors is questionable. Samsung also claims more efficient power consumption but that would only apply when the photographs are generally on the darker side. Design wise, on the front of the TL500 is the text “F1.8″ and on the back is “AMOLED”. Tacky. Source: DPReview

For all you shutterbugs out there, make sure to grab a Gorillapod Magnetic (pre-order at Amazon). A Gorillapod with magnetic feet: Simply brilliant. via Engadget

During Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2010, LG’s Skott Ahn, head of the company’s handset unit, shared that it will not be developing its own smartphone platform, at least not for the next two to three years. Samsung, LG’s cross-town rival in South Korea, has gone the other way and developed its Bada (means ocean in Korean) smartphone OS. In the competitive sea of smartphone OSes the move by Samsung can be seen as not-so-smart and just greedy. We have six main smartphone OSes at the moment: Apple’s iPhone OS, Nokia & Intel’s MeeGo, Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 Series, Google’s Android, RIM’s BlackBerry and Palm’s webOS.

Even with a long history of developing portable electronics and a fantastic smartphone OS, Palm is struggling to keep up with the competition. I think LG has made a wise decision to concentrate on what it is better at: hardware. LG will be focusing on developing Android and Windows Phone 7 Series smartphones. The company also expects the smartphone market to standardize into just three OSes in the next couple of years. Source: Fierce Wireless via phoneArena, Engadget

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