We’ll admit, there’s something strangely intriguing about the over-the-top design put forth by this gilded, Buddha-themed candybar turning up in the streets of Shenzhen. The shell is alleged to be stainless steel with a 24 karat gold plating — though we suspect that might only be true of the engraving on the back — and not a single square inch of the thing has been left without some sort of intricate detail that you’re not going to find on your average Nokia or Samsung. No proper Buddha phone would be complete without a microSD slot or a touchscreen, of course, and this example is no exception; it also seems that the phone has been blessed by a monk, so you shouldn’t have much trouble with evil spirits taking residence in your decidedly materialistic purchase. Seriously, how can you go wrong with a keypad that fancy?

From Engadget Mobile.

This is the day we’ve been waiting for. While the 3G Nokia 6212 classic doesn’t look like much, what it lacks in style is more than made up by the genius of Bluetooth-enabled Near Field Communication. If you remember the video we showed you way back in March of 2007, the combo makes device pairing and transferring content like photos, video, music, calendar data, contacts, etc. as easy a touching the phone to a NFC-enabled picture frame, cellphone, speaker, or headset like Nokia’s own NFC-variant of the BH-210. It will also work with NFC payment systems. According to Jeremy Belostock, the Head of Near Field Communications at Nokia, “NFC-capable handsets such as the Nokia 6212 classic are set to change the way mobile phone users interact with devices and services in their surroundings.” You said it Jeremy, you said it. Expected to start shipping in Europe and Asia in the Q3 for about €200.

Medify Solutions Limited (Pink Sheets - MFYS) today announced that its product portfolio will be available on BlackBerry® handsets.

The MedifyRemote application allows mobile access to patient notes and clinical systems in real time, helping doctors and nurses to provide better, more efficient and more informed quality care to their patients. The launch of MedifyRemote for BlackBerry, from Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM), will enable healthcare professionals to securely access, update and review patient records from any location using a BlackBerry handset. This brings more choice and increased mobile functionality to healthcare professionals in both the UK’s NHS and healthcare organisations globally.

In addition to secure access to clinical data on the move, healthcare professionals will be able to benefit from proven and popular BlackBerry features including access to ‘push-based’ email, phone, SMS, web browsing, organiser, instant messaging and other corporate data applications, all in a single easy-to-use handset.

“Secure access to email, information and clinical notes via BlackBerry, the market’s leading mobile solution, will make a real difference to the working lives of our healthcare professionals and to the quality of care received by patients,” said Ian O’Reilly, CEO, Medify Solutions Group. “In the UK, this solution will be provided through Medify’s accredited connection to N3; the national electronic NHS spine. MedifyRemote will be available pre-loaded onto BlackBerry handsets or as an add-on application. This launch is another important step in extending the reach of the MedifyRemote application and in Medify Solutions’ commercial progress.”

About Medify Solutions Limited (Pink Sheets: MFYS)

1 The first business to have developed a Secure Remote Access product addressing critical requirements of the UK National Health Service (NHS)

2 MedifyRemote, its leading product, is an application that allows remote access to a patient record through a mobile device

3 Medify’s technology allows clinicians and others to view, access and update patient records securely whilst mobile

4 The company recently gained service provider status for the crucial N3 spine element of the Connecting For Health (CFH) programme, passing all the pre-requisite protocols for security assurance; the only mobile company thus far to do so

5 More information, please visit http://www.medifysolutions.com

Contacts Press Office email: press@medifysolutions.com

Enquires to: Chris Hill - +44 (0) 845 03 44 095

Nokia wants us to give up our cameras and embrace the future, as they see it, of integrated devices - those being mainly Nokia devices, obviously. The N series have been squarely aimed at achieving that and with the N93 they have certainly taken a step in the right direction. The N93 is Nokia’s new flagship camera phone, so how does it line up against to the competition?

The N93 takes its photographic capabilities seriously, to such an extent that the phone sometimes feels as though it has a small video camera mounted on top - which effectively, it has. The camera might be a little bulky, but that space is needed to house a 3.2 megapixel device with a Carl Zeiss lens and, more importantly, a 3x optical zoom. The addition of a proper lens-cap further reinforces the seriousness, but is going to be difficult to replace when it - inevitably - gets lost.

from Reg Hardware.

Motorola continues to make in-roads into Nokia’s share of the mobile phone market, increasing its share to 22 per cent during the second quarter.

Around 229m mobile phones were sold worldwide during the second quarter of 2006, an increase of 18 per cent on the same period last year, according to research firm Gartner, which said the total number of handsets sold during the quarter increased by nearly 40m on the same period last year.

Though Nokia maintained its top position in the market, increasing its share from 31.6 per cent in 2005 to 33.6 per cent, the Finnish giant is feeling the heat from its US rival Motorola whose Razr and Slvr phones are proving a worldwide hit.

During the quarter Motorola gained over four per cent of the market to claim a 21.9 per cent share, compared to 17.7 per cent in 2005. The US mobile manufacturer sold 50.2m handsets globally during the quarter, compared to the 77.1m that Nokia shipped.

Read more.

Warning: This will erase all settings on your phone and all files stored on the phones internal memory. Please backup your data before you continue. Preforming this process could potentially brick your phone. This can only be used to change your phones language to english there is a Dutch rom available here, however I have not tested it and cannot guarentee that it works.

The Mio A701 is a great phone, but if you bought it in a non-english speaking country the chances are the phone is going to be stuck in a foreign language, which can be incredibly annoying.

Mio will tell you there’s nothing that can be done, however ROMs that are used to update the phone can also be used to change the language. The first ROM I tried was an official ROM, straight from Mio’s website, using this ROM caused me to loose all sound on my Mio, which didn’t really work for me. I then found this website. and downloaded the R51 WWE (world wide english) ROM, you need to extract the files using WinRAR for Windows or SimplyRAR for you Mac users. Alternatively you can download the extracted files from our website, links are provided below this post.

Once the files are downloaded you need to plug your phone into your computer or throw your SD card into a card reader and place the files WINCEIMG.BIN and RomUp_SD.exe in the same folder anywhere
on your phones SD card.

Next you need to unplug your phone or insert your SD card, plug it into the mains power and open up File
Explorer. Navigate to the folder on your SD card that you saved the files in and run RomUp_SD.exe. You will see a user
agreement, check the box and click next, the device should restart and then the install should begin, it takes about 10 minutes or so to
complete. Do not unplug the mains power supply at any time,
doing so could cause the update to fail and wreck your phone.

Once the update is complete you have a brand new copy of Windows Mobile on your A700/701 and can delete the
RomUP_SD.exe and WINCEIMG.BIN files, restore your files and settings and  enjoy your phone in english.

I haven’t noticed any downsides and my battery actually lasts 3 times longer now. I’ve been using the update for a week.

Useful downloads:

RomUp (Extracted)

WINCEIMG.BIN (Extracted)

Useful links:

A701 ROMS

Unnofficial Mio forums

With info and pic originating from Hungary, you know it’s gotta be good. Someone over at HowardForums just spotted this new, unconfirmed i-mate model, the i-mate Jaq, at Hungarian site PDA Mania, and were kind enough to share. Notably, i-mate doesn’t appear to be relying on HTC for the design here, and while their in-house designers might take a little while to warm up, a bit of diversity in the market never killed anyone. Also of note is that this phone purportedly runs the full-fledged Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC Phone Edition, allowing pen input on its QVGA screen and the software advantages that OS provides. As for the rest of the specs, the phone is a quad-band GSM, GPRS and EDGE unit, with 64MB of RAM, 128MB of ROM and a miniSD slot for expansion. There is IrDA and Bluetooth 1.2, but no WiFi, and the 1.3 megapixel camera is a bit lackluster these days, but with that QWERTY action this just might turn out to be a decent contender from i-mate.

From Engadget Mobile.

Mouse maker Logitech has hopped on the VoIP bandwagon with a phone-style cordless handset capable of connecting to its host computer from almost anywhere in the house. It’s got a colour display and it’s set to work with Skype. The company also unveiled today a PC-connected speakerphone and a Bluetooth headset for phones. The Skype-friendly Cordless Internet Handset is one of the better-looking VoIP-based DECT replacement handsets out there. It ships with a charging cradle that can be sited in any room - the phone communicates wirelessly with a bundled USB dongle. Handset and dongle can be place up to 50m apart, Logitech said. The company also touted the handset’s speakerphone feature, its illuminated keyboard and its “variety of ringtones”. The Logitech QuickCall USB Speakerphone for Internet Calling - to give the gadget its full, long-winded moniker - sports a two-microphone array for greater sensitivity. If you reckon that will make for more noisy calls, think again, because the array’s directionality can be used with the speakerphone’s sound processing and echo-cancellation technology to improve audio quality. The unit is bus-powered and has a headset socket for private calls.

Finally, the Logitech Cordless Headset for PC and Mobile Phones is a typical Bluetooth headset made more interesting, the company suggested, through its WindStop technology, which “servers as a barrier to disruptive air currents”.

The Logitech Cordless Internet Handset will be available in the US and Europe in October for £90/$100. The Cordless Headset will ship at the same time, for £70/$100. The QuickCall USB Speakerphone also costs around £70/$100, but will only be available in the US in October - European buyers will have to wait until December to see it over here.

From The Register.

Even casual readers of this publication know that we’re always seeking out ways to add more functionality to our existing gadgets, so when we heard about an innovative modder who was able to turn his Nokia cellphone into a fully-functioning Bluetooth mouse, well, we knew that we were approaching convergence heaven. Inspired by Jani ‘Japala’ Pönkkö’s LogiNoki hack (in which Jani embedded a Nokia LCD into a Logitech G3 mouse), “Pyrofer” decided to forgo the hardware modifications and instead write a Javascript code and corresponding Windows driver that would allow him to use his 6230i as an impromptu optical input device for when laptop trackpads and control nubbins just don’t cut it. Since it’s still in development, Pyrofer has yet to release his code to the public, and the Nokiamouse does indeed have some serious drawbacks; most notably, he has to hold the handset a fraction of a millimeter above the mousing surface — which must contain distinct patterns, so no direct desktop operation — in order for the camera’s CCD to pick up enough usable light. Still, once he develops a proper Bluetooth HID for the phone to work on any BT-enabled notebook (there’s also talk of a GPRS connection) — as well as an interface for mirroring the PC’s screen on the Nokia’s display — this sounds like it’ll be one sweet project that could see some serious widespread adoption.

Video and updates here. From Engadget.

Skype ruffled some feathers in the internet telephony world earlier this year when they announced they’d be offering free SkypeOut calls to the US and Canada for the rest of 2006. We weren’t too interested since it came off as little more than a promotion, and we typically skip over promos (for obvious reason). But we’re kind of left wondering how Skype — deep eBay pockets and all — intends to compete with archrival Gizmo Project’s latest tactic: free Gizmo-to-landline calls anywhere, anytime, any amount, forever. We’ll probably be spending a while trying to make heads from tails of their business plan which pretty much totally gives away the shop, but who’s really going to be reeling here is the rest of the VoIP telephony industry that’s currently clawing desperately to monetize on landline phone replacements. Not everything’s free with Gizmo Project, however; even though you can all over Europe, Asia, and the Americas (to 60 countries and counting), if you want your pals to call you on Gizmo from their landlines, you’re going to have to buy a Call In number. (Fret not though, since those cost as little as $3 a month.) What started with Captain Crunch’s 2600Hz whistle may now end with Gizmo Project’s capture of the biggest voice trunk of all time; if this is any sign of things to come, we’d say the free voice revolution may finally have a proper flagbearer. So let the free phone wars begin.

Download Gizmo here. Article from Engadget.

Can Skype be reverse engineered? That has been the $2.6 billion dollar question Skype watchers often ask themselves. Alec Saunders points to
this blog post by Charlie Paglee that claims that a bunch of chinese engineers have done exactly that - cracked Skype.

The hacked clients cannot act as super nodes, the said blog notes, quoting the CEO of the unnamed Chinese company. In other words, the said clients could ride the Skype network without doing any heavy lifting of their own. Virus has mutated, and the parasite has a parasite.

Skype has said “We are aware of the claim made by a small group of Chinese engineers that they have reverse engineered Skype software. We have no evidence to suggest that this is true. Even if it was possible to do this, the software code would lack the feature set and reliability of Skype which is enjoyed by over 100m users today. Moreover, no amount of reverse engineering would threaten Skype’s cryptographic security or integrity.”

From GigaOM

That’s right, this cell phone retails at a whopping $1.3-million. It features a diamond-encrusted case and a 5-carat blue diamond in place of the center navigation button. No word yet on availability.

More pictures available here.. It just looks like a shiny SonyEricsson to me.

Not only is Microsoft jumping on the widgets bandwagon (and calling them gadgets), Nokia’s also appropriating and renaming widgets to “Widsets”. Widgets + Handsets, or Widgets + Set?

All you need on your phone is Java MIDP 2.0, 128×128 screen and internet access. You can sign up for free and get the client sent directly to your mobile. Nokia is taking the same tact as Apple and Yahoo and letting users create and share their own widgets, so look out for some interesting ones as this gets more exposure. We don’t see anything that locks these Widgets out from non-Nokia phones, so go nuts, Sony Ericsson fans.

From Gizmodo available here

Everybody who is anybody has gotten their hands on a Sidekick 3 and told the Internets what they think. Here are just some of the many reviews.

MSNBC
Laptop Magazine
Mobile Burn
Phone Scoop
CNET
PC World
Washington Post
PC Magazine

From Gizmodo

Samsung today unveiled a brand new line-up of slim mobiles at CommunicAsia 2006 that takes ‘mobile communications’ to a whole new level. The ‘Ultra Edition’ demonstrates Samsung’s vision for the future of mobile communications in terms of technology and design. The Ultra Edition 6.9 (X820) leads the handset pack, boast ing the world’s thinnest profile of only 6.9 mm . Also on display is the Ultra Edition 12.9 (D900), the world’s slimmest slider with a depth of only 12.9mm and a picture-perfect 3 megapixel camera. Making its debut at CommunicAsia is the Ultra Edition 9.9 (D830), a brand new clamshell handset that is 9.9 mm thin.

Read more