Philips’ GoGear line of portable entertainment players

Philips GoGear SA 9345 and SA 9325 are two dollies from the gadget giant that promise to keep you hooked to your music. They support MP3s, JPEGs, WMV files and FM radio. The duo weighs 48 g each and are just 9cm long. SA9345 features a huge 4GB memory capacity where as SA9325 has 2GB capacity. That spells out to up to 50 hours of music, up to 1120 photos, or 20 hours of video content on the 4GB player. Also featured at the IFA 2007 are Philips GoGear SA61xx series. The new 3.5-inch SA61XX portable flash memory player features an LCD high quality color display, and up to four hours of video and 15 hours of musical playtime. The flash player supports playback of WMA and MP3 files as well as an FM radio and has 2GB memory. The SA61XX features Philips SuperScroll, which allows easy speed control. The Compact Philips GoGear SA31 players is for people who are more focused on music but still enjoy watching video and photos on the move. It is available in two versions; the 1GB (SA3115) and 2 GB (SA3125) and provide up to 10 hours of music from its rechargeable batteryhttp://www.ifa.philips.com/press-releases/19.html

After iPhone fame, it's off to college

George Hotz's unlocked iPhone isn't ringing non-stop anymore with interview requests -- and he finally got a decent night's sleep.
But the last three days have been a whirlwind of TV and media appearances for the Bergen Academies graduate.
The Glen Rock teenager rocked the tech world last week with claims to be the first person to unlock Apple's iPhone, freeing it from exclusive use on AT&T's network.
News of his achievement, which Hotz posted on his blog and was first reported in The Record in Friday's editions, catapulted the 17-year-old to international fame.
By late Friday afternoon, Hotz was telling his tale on CNBC, a reporter for The New York Times had called him and he had been interviewed for National Public Radio's "All Things Considered."
That was only the beginning. Over the weekend, he traded one of his two unlocked iPhones for a snazzy new
Nissan 350Z sports car. Someone created a biographical entry for him on Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia. And Kevin Mitnick, one of the world's most famous computer hackers, e-mailed him his phone number. (They spoke for half an hour, Hotz said).
Hotz, who juggled media interviews as he headed north Saturday with his parents to freshmen orientation at Rochester Institute of Technology, was matter-of-fact about his rather lengthy 15 minutes of fame.
"It's been fun," Hotz said Monday as he shopped for a new computer router at a Rochester Best Buy with his parents.
"Things are settling down -- and no lawyers have called," joked his father, also George Hotz.
Neither have Apple or AT&T, the younger Hotz said.
The companies have kept mum on Hotz's hack, which was hailed by online tech bloggers after Hotz posted the complicated 10 steps needed to modify the iPhone's guts on his own blog. Hotz had help from a small group of hackers around the world who knew each other only by their online names.
Since Hotz's solution was posted, at least two more groups have come forward to report iPhone hacks, including one that is strictly a software modification. Those methods have not been released publicly.
Hotz's method requires both software changes and some fancy soldering work to change the phone's hardware that might take as much as 12 hours, he estimates.
Hotz's work was built in part on work done previously by other hackers. In the weeks following the iPhone's splashy introduction in June, hackers around the world were racing to discover the smart phone's internal design. Apple's exclusive deal with AT&T to sell the iPhone in the United States posed an irresistible challenge for hackers seeking to "free" the phone so it could be used on other cell carriers' networks. One prior solution used a modified SIM card (which contains cellphone number and account information) and some additional expensive equipment.
Hotz spent 500 hours working to modify the iPhone -- including one step that requires gently scraping a minuscule piece of metal smaller than a pinhead and then soldering a wire to it with great precision.
The process is complicated enough that few experts believed a cottage industry would spring up as a result using Hotz's method. Hotz has said that he has no plans to turn his newfound skill into a business. In the United States, an unlocked iPhone can run only on T-Mobile's network (Hotz wanted to unlock one in part because his parents subscribe to a T-Mobile family plan and Hotz wanted to use an iPhone).
He put one of his two unlocked phones on eBay but canceled the auction Saturday after fraudulent bidders pushed the price into the tens of millions. Hotz said he doubted those bids as soon as he saw them.
After canceling the bids, Hotz was contacted Saturday morning by Terry Daidone, founder of Kentucky-based Certicell, a supplier of used cellphones, who offered to trade a new Nissan and three 8GB iPhones for the iPhone. Hotz said he wants to give iPhones to the other members of his Web-based group, Dev Wiki, who helped him figure out the hack.
Hotz plans to fly to Kentucky at the end of the week to meet Daidone, then home to pick up the new car Saturday and drive back up to Rochester.
The electrical engineering whiz, who graduated from Bergen Academies, took apart a car which is still in pieces in his parents' back yard. He said he would "probably not" take this one apart. He amended that quickly -- "probably not right away; I'm going to be careful when I take this one apart."

Nokia Brings N95 Super-Phone to US

Nokia will start selling a fully US-compatible version of the Editors' Choice N95 super-phone next month, the company announced at an event in London on Wednesday. Nokia also announced four other new phones, including a sleek black-and-red music phone almost certainly destined for T-Mobile, a new gaming service under the old N-Gage brand, and several improvements to Nokia's music phone experiences.

The biggest news for US consumers is the US N95. The European version of the N95 has been sold direct through Nokia here in the US for a few months now, and was amazing enough to get our Editors' Choice award. Its five-megapixel camera, high-res screen, Wi-Fi, multimedia, and GPS make it a true handheld computer. But the Euro N95 was missing one key element: American high-speed cellular networks. The new, $699 US version adds in support for AT&T Wireless' HSDPA network, letting people browse the Web at speeds of around 1 megabit per second. It also pumps up the battery, increases RAM, and improves GPS performance over the earlier model. The unlocked US N95 is also packed with the kind of software and flexibility that US carriers typically strip out of phones sold here, including links to

While the US N95 is better than the European model for American buyers, US buyers will lose something: the US N95 doesn't work on European high-speed networks, instead dropping to EDGE speeds. Apparently, Nokia will only let you run at high speed on one side of the pond. We'll have a full review of the US N95 next week.
Nokia also announced four other phones today, all of which will be available through the company's flagship stores in the US by the end of the year.
An 8GB version of the European N95 with an even larger screen will run $750—here, you're trading in the US N95's network speed for the bigger screen and more storage.
The N81, a sliding music smart phone that comes in both flash-memory-ready and 8GB-built-in models, will sell for $500 to $600.
The 5610 XpressMusic music phone has an unusual slider key to flip it into music mode; that one will run $400.
But the most interesting for US consumers, because of its likelihood of being picked up by T-Mobile, is the 5310 XpressMusic. The Nokia 5310 is a slim candybar with an aluminum body, only 0.4 inches thick and weighing 2.5 ounces. Yet it has a 2MP camera and a high-res 320-by-240, 16-million-color screen. It's a combination of style and power we rarely see here in the US. The 5310 is expected to sell for $306 unlocked, but if T-Mobile picks up this EDGE phone, they'll subsidize it and lower the price.
The 5310 will work with both Windows Media Player and the new Nokia Music PC client, a very necessary refresh of Nokia's PC software. The Music PC client will enable two-way synchronization of playlists to and from the phone.

Finally, Nokia announced the revival of the N-Gage gaming brand—but this time it isn't an embarrassing, half-moon-shaped phone, it's an online service offering games for sale and multiplayer gaming potential on several Nokia Series 60 Version 3 phones. (Of the phones we've reviewed recently at PC Mag, that includes the N95 and N73, but oddly not the N75 or N76.) The new service, coming in November, will let you download a free client, try games for free, and buy them with a credit card. EA, Capcom, and Vivendi are all developing games for the new N-Gage platform.
Nokia also announced a music store, but it's irrelevant to US consumers; the company only plans to offer the online store in Europe and Asia, according to the press release. Ditto with Ovi, Nokia's Internet services brand, which pulls together "web communities" and various services at ovi.com; we're unlikely to be able to access it on our handsets here.
Here in the US, it's still up in the air whether wireless carriers will choose to block the service, as it may compete with their own attempts to sell games over the air.

Apple shares rise on new iPod buzz

Apple Inc shares rose more than 4.5 percent on Wednesday, fueled by excitement over the pending launch of new iPod digital music players, which could entice current users to buy upgraded models.The stock climbed $5.74 to $132.56 in early trading on the Nasdaq, after Apple distributed invitations to a September 5 event in San Francisco. Goldman Sachs said in a note to clients that the date would bring "the almost certain launch of a new family of iPods.""The product announcement is likely to include a full line-up of revamped iPods with significantly greater functionality at current price points, including the much-anticipated full-screen video iPod," Goldman said.Goldman recommended clients buy Apple shares, saying the next video iPod could drive "an accelerated upgrade cycle."Apple shares are up about 55 percent this year, driven by the steady strength of the iPod, which dominates the portable music player market, and the late June launch of the iPhoThe share gains come despite top mobile-phone maker Nokia's unveiling on Wednesday of its own online music store, new top-end handsets aimed atrivaling Apple.Separately, Apple said on Wednesday it will sell television programs in Britain via its iTunes store as part of a push to become a one-stop shop for digital entertainment.

New Nokia Services, Gadgets Aim at Apple

Nokia Corp. unveiled new services and cell phones Wednesday that customers can use to download music and play games, a bid by the world's largest mobile phone maker to challenge Apple Inc.'s higher-end iPhone, as well as iTunes and the iPod.
The move by Nokia (nyse: NOK - news - people ), whose basic handsets give it a strong position in emerging markets, is the latest recognition that high-end markets require handsets with photo, music and video capabilities and quick access to the Internet.
One of Nokia's new phones can hold up to 6,000 songs. Other new gadgets include headphones, docking stations and speakers.
Nokia said it will focus its new Web services in a site known as "Ovi" - Finnish for "door" - that will include an online music store "with millions of tracks from major labels."
With the new services, consumers will be able to transfer music from PCs to compatible Nokia devices and play and download N-Gage games on "tens of millions" of existing Nokia devices, the Finnish company said.
In a Wednesday note to clients, American Technology Research analyst Mark McKechnie said Nokia's "expanded efforts into services ... will enable (the company) to offer `experiences' rather than just `devices,' which we believe will become more important as mobile services move from voice-centric to Internet-centric."
The announcement in London sent Nokia's U.S. shares up $2.17, or 7.2 percent, to $32.18, setting a new 52-week high.
"The industry is converging towards Internet-driven experiences, and Ovi represents Nokia's vision in combining the Internet and mobility," CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said in London.
Nokia's new top-range models, some including 5-megapixel cameras, Carl Zeiss optics, and memory of up to 8 gigabytes, range from $300 to $750.
Nokia bought Loudeye Corp., a leading provider of digital media distribution services, for $60 million last year to expand its digital music offerings. Now it has completed deals with the four major music labels - Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group (nyse: WMG - news - people ) Inc., EMI Group PLC and Sony (nyse: SNE - news - people ) BMG Music Entertainment, a joint venture of Sony Corp. and Bertelsmann AG. The "Nokia Music Store" will open this autumn in Europe and later in Asia and offer "locally relevant music" as well as hits.
Apple (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people )'s iTunes store is currently the leading online music retailer, and its iPod is the most popular digital media player. The company in June entered Nokia's territory in releasing the iPhone, which combines a cell phone, media player and wireless Internet device.
Nokia's announcement emphasized the new items' sleek design and slim size - one phone is less than 10 millimeters thick - another apparent attempt to counterbalance Apple and its renown for design.
Last week, Nokia and Microsoft Corp. (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) also announced that access to some of the software maker's most popular Web services, like Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger, will come built into some Nokia phone models.
Since losing out to rivals that produced popular camera features and clamshell models several years ago, Nokia is regaining its dominance in part because it has already offered some successful smart phones.
In the second quarter, Nokia sold 100 million mobile devices - more than its three main rivals combined. It accounted for 37 percent of the global market, according to technology research group Gartner Inc. (nyse: IT - news - people ) - up from 34 percent a year earlier.
Nokia, based in Espoo near the Finnish capital, Helsinki, has sales offices in 130 countries and employs 110,000 people worldwide.

Can Lawsuits Unhack the iPhone?

The iPhone hacks by 17-year-old George Hotz and others have spawned much publicity and speculation on the legal ramifications. Meanwhile, a New York man has reportedly filed a class action lawsuit against Apple for what he charges was the company's failure to adequately disclose that AT&T is the sole wireless carrier for the iPhone.

More Keys to Come
In the wake of Hotz's achievement last week, several other unlocking efforts have been announced. While Hotz's effort involved tinkering with both hardware and software, iphonesimfree.com, for example, claims to be on the verge of releasing the first software-only hack into the iPhone.
Hotz's technique required soldering and technical sophistication that would likely be prohibitive to many, but a software-only approach is expected to find much broader adoption.
Apple and AT&T have both declined to comment.
A Legal Complaint
Meanwhile, a New York man has reportedly filed a class action lawsuit against Apple for what he charges was its failure to adequately disclose the fact that AT&T is the sole wireless carrier for the iPhone.
Herbert Kliegerman, 68, owner of three iPhones, reportedly says Apple's actions violate a New York State consumer protection law prohibiting deceptive acts or practices, according to the New York Sun.
His complaint demands that Apple stop selling the phones because it doesn't disclose the fact that the iPhone is locked against outside service plans. He also wants to require Apple to provide unlock codes for other service plans to customers, and to adequately disclose the fees incurred by using the device internationally, according to the paper.
DMCA Protection?
At the time he announced his hack, 17-year-old Hotz said his unlock was protected by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The true legality, however, is far from clear.
"It is tough to keep the genie in the bottle, especially one desired as much as the iPhone is," Raymond Van Dyke, a technology attorney in Washington, told MacNewsWorld.
"It is not surprising that yet another techie has deciphered the codes, keyed the locks and otherwise unleashed the mysteries within the latest bottle," Van Dyke said. "It is inevitable, but that does not, however, make it right. The DMCA and other statutes against decryption could have been violated by these actions, which although seemingly innocent could have serious economic consequences."
There is, nevertheless, an exception to the DMCA that could cover cell phone hacking.
No Helping Others
"The copyright office ruled that if you want to unlock a phone, you can do it without violating copyright," Jonathan Kramer, principal attorney at the Kramer Telecom Law Firm, told MacNewsWorld.
A distinction is made, though, between unlocking a phone for yourself and helping others do it, Kramer explained.
"The key point is that if you can figure out how to do it, have at it," he said. "However -- and this is the issue around Hotz -- publishing instructions on how to do it falls under a different provision of the DMCA, which says you can't help others violate copyright."
Helping others unlock a cell phone is not an area in which there's much legal guidance so far, Kramer noted, since it's new and still fairly open to interpretation.
An Unsuitable Defendant
So, while Hotz's trading of his unlocked iPhone for a car and more phones is not likely to present a legal problem, the fact that he showed others how to unlock their phones might, Kramer said.
Will Hotz get sued? "I think he is ripe to be sued, because there's a principle in law that if you don't protect your rights, you may effectively waive them," Kramer explained. "I think Apple and AT&T will want to make sure people don't play around with their software."
On the other hand, Hotz's tender age may work to his advantage, Kramer added. "The one thing that may help Hotz is that he is not a publicly appealing bad guy," Kramer said.
If given a choice, attorneys tend to pick defendants who are not socially acceptable, he added. So, "it may be that AT&T and Apple wait for a more clear-cut bad guy, and take out their vengeance on that person."

LG's 3G KS20 smartphone with WinMo 6 and HSDPA

LG’s new KS20 is hip smartphone and will be seen in the upcoming IFA2007. it is just 12.8 mm thick and boasts of a 2.8-inch all touch screen display with full browsing capability. It runs on Windows Mobile 6.0, supports HSDPA network with 3.6Mbps download speed. Other specs include push email service, 2-megapixel camera, MP3 playback, Bluetooth 2.0, cursive script recognition and video call.

Nokia 500 Auto Navigation In-Car GPS, Multimedia, and Bluetooth Phone Calling Device

The new Nokia 500 Auto Navigation device was designed to handle in-car navigation and communication, with its GPS capabilities, plus hands-free calling with a Bluetooth compatible mobile phone. It has a 4.3 inch wide color screen for viewing your destinations, searching through contacts and making and receiving calls, and features a speaker system with Digital Signal Processing (DSP) for the best audio quality. The Nokia 500 Auto Navigation device is equipped with high-sensitivity GPS and Nokia Maps navigation software, which makes for clear spoken and visual directions, and as you would expect, comes with pre-installed regional maps, and detailed travel information, including points of interest such as hotels, petrol stations and tourist sites. The widescreen also takes advantage of an intuitive Nokia interface, featuring a split screen which displays additional information alongside the main screen like details on your next turn, estimated time of arrival and distance remaining.

This is also a multimedia entertainment device, letting you listen to music from its integrated music player, view photographs or watch videos.
The Nokia 500 Auto Navigation is expected to be available in the fourth quarter 2007 at an estimated retail price of EUR 300, or about $410 USD.

LG Prada in 24 carat Gold for bling-ring

One of the most desired designer phones of 2007, (apart from the iPhone), LG Prada Phone also dons the precious metal to sport bling look. Now this blinging part isn’t new to us, right? However since this is the 1st time the LG Prada is being unveiled in 24ct gold. Touting a sleek black casing, touchscreen, pre-loaded content, mobile phone accessories and an exclusive leather case, this cell phone now can be dubbed as an ornamented futuristic communication device.

Motorola Moto Q 9H

MOTOROLA MOTO Q 9HPrice: $799 Rating: 4.5/5
Looking for a smartphone that will grab your email on the go? Your choice just got tougher - or maybe easier, depending on how you look at things.
The BlackBerry still delivers mobile email par excellence but we won't pretend that it's as strong in other areas, such as being a PDA or, for business users, providing seamless no-cost connection into an Exchange email system. Nor does it have a wide range of third-party software to add features and functionality to the basic device.
Motorola's MOTO Q 9h, however, ticks all those boxes and then some. This slim black beauty is built around the Windows Mobile operating system - not great news if you're not a fan of Windows but appealing for those who appreciate the extra features it brings to the device (such as a solid organiser) plus the familiarity and easy hook-up to your desktop or laptop PC. And being the first smartphone packing the fresh-baked Windows Mobile 6 edition means you get better email searching and smarter shortcuts.
The Q 9h has one of the best smartphone Qwerty keyboards we've ever used, along with a nippy navigational wheel on the front and a dial on the right side that's cleverly adaptive to the screen. The longer you hold the "up" or "down" buttons while in your address book or inbox, the faster the scroll speed. This is one of several touches Motorola has introduced to the operating system.
The two-megapixel digital camera is now mandatory for any decent smartphone but the inclusion of a 256MB microSD card for storing photos, music and video is a welcome surprise. It's just a shame that the high-speed coverage of Vodafone's 3G network on which the smartphone runs is still a little patchy in places, even around Sydney. You won't lose your connection but you won't always get the mobile broadband speeds of which this device is capable.

Nokia 6500 gets FCC's approval

The Nokia 6500 slider-phone just got the FCC nod. The handsome phone features 3.2-megapixel camera featuring Carl Zeiss optics, a TV-out jack (allowing video calls on your TV), a microSD memory card slot, Push-to-Talk, and a USB interface for data synchronization (and concurrent charging when plugged in). it sports a 2.2" QVGA screen plus you have the option of checking your emails on the go via the full fledged email client and IM application on it.

iPod Touch more details

Apple fansites are buzzing that the upcoming iPod will be called iPod Touch. One such site is 9to5Mac.com which had to take down the new Nano pic on order from Apple's legal department. They claim the iPod touch will have the same 480 x 320 resolution as the iPhone, run OSX and feature a single button home navigation. It will have the same form factor as the iPhone with a few exceptions, the outside rim will be black and not silver and will be slightly thicker. In short the iPod Touch is more like a 'phoneless' iPhone.

Nokia Shines Light on 'Prism' Phones