Modu2 looked like a specially built device for the Android OS, therefore I bet that Modu will abandon its OS and will use the core of the Android operation system from now on until they have other options.
For dessert Modu mentioned that an Android based Netbook will also be released. Nokia watch out you are not alone anymore.

• BBC reports that a study shows that SMS improves language skills. That’s absolutely gr8.

• T-Mobile’s Samsung Memoir get reviewed here, here and here

• Israeli operator Pelephone invested 1.2 million dollars in a concept store in Tel Aviv .

• According to ABI Research mobile internet search increased  by 14% this year, Taptu thinks it should be more social.

• If you are looking to burn some time with your iPhone, you should try these 5 apps .

• A great comparison between the n85 and new Nokia N86.

• The Guardian will go fully mobile, boosts with ads on next month.

• Nokia Siemens Networks will supply China with 2G and 3G mobile equipment and services worth 880 million Euro.

• Now you can track how many iPhones visited your site

• One day, one app, this time: Google App for Wimo

It was back then in 2002 when the first mobile phones with cameras gradually became a “must have” feature.
In those days those mobile phones began a new era, the era of the MMS.
soon after the mobile phone equipped with a camera transformed the digital photography for ever. Since then, the MMS did not succeed in most markets, mobile services professionals learned about the spontaneous behavior of mobile photography users (as they shoot for fun pictures that are usually are not meant to be printed), and that the mobile phone with their physical attributes cannot replace digital cameras in terms of quality even in cases where they are equipped with good optics from Leica or Carl Zeiss.
2009 now draws as the year that mobile phones aim (again) to officially replace digital cameras (Not all of them, of course).

The  new Samsung i8910 or the Omnia HD equipped with: 8 megapixel auto focus camera with LED flash, geo-tagging, Face detection, Smile Shot, Blink  Shot, Wide Dynamic Range (WDR) and HD video recording at 24 fps is one of these devices that aims to do so.

But Samsung is not the only one, there are  the Nokia N86 , Sony Ericsson W995 and the soon to come Sony Ericsson Idou with 12 megapixel camera.
Moreover the mobile phone will flourish where the digital camera failed at Geo-Tagging and in connected enviorinment and photos based contextual awareness.

True iPhone Killers

From June 29, 2007 when the first iPhone went on sale until those days the iPhone did not  have the honor to  fight against an appropriate rival.
The amazing multi-touch screen, the full web browsing experience, the slick and intuitive UI and the apps ecosystem all those did not get a comprehensive answer from the manufacturers.
But now it seems that the manufacturers succeeded in fully understanding the success of the iPhone and to create true competitors to the iPhone.
The Nokia N79, Samsung Omnia HD, HTC Diamond2 and the Palm Pre that will probably hit the market on march this year.

Mobile OS War

Now after the missing piece of the puzzle is revealed, and the WinMo 6.5 was ofically announced, the mobile OS war have began.
Microsoft, Nokia and Google are fighting to power more and more devices, and Apple, RIM, and Palm that are trying to create the best OS using thier own devices.
All of them aim at the devlopers, they all offer them a great way to sell their apps and to create apps ecosystem just like apple did.
The day we will choose our mobile device by OS is not far, HTC and other manufacturers are all playing the game.
A game that will do good  to devlopers and to consumers as well.

As ReadWriteWeb mentioned location based social networks are already available on an increasing number of carriers, but all of the services have yet to hit the mainstream.
The lack of GPS-enabled devices and application awareness contributed to the situation.
Moreover, the mobile social network do not have a web presence, unlike Facebook that grew from the web to  mobile, Loopt and brightkite that have started their way on the mobile.

The evolution of social networks will definitely take place in the mobile world.
That is why  Google Latitude is a true innovation. the Geo Information comes as an additional information for an existed social network, in this case Google “Social Networks” (Google users).
The data will help you locate friends that are already a part of a relationship that is based on email contacts, close friends, etc.
While chatting with a colleague, the information can save him an SMS because he will know already where you are.
The mobile device is used as a tool to enhance the connections and communication ways, connections that are taking place on the web.

Another advantage is that Google can bring  Latitude to the masses by itself or with the help of developers.
The service will automatically be installed on all HTC G1 devices, and will hit all Android based devices from day one.

The launch of Google Latitude was just the opening shot, more and more mobile devices equipped with GPS receivers are soon to come,  and giants like Nokia are already working (and working) on its “Latitude”.
Then the main fight will start, will it be the major web social networks like Facebook that will take control over our mobile devices or will it be Nokia or Google.
Nokia’s intentions for it’s social network is still unclear , but it cannot ignore the momentum of web social networks like facebook, My space etc .
One way or another it seems the “Facebook phone” will be available sooner than we thought.

The iPhone for example changed the mobile industry and for the first time the hardware was not the issue.
It does not matter how much megapixel the camera is and if there are stereo speakers or not.
Until the iPhone came hardware was the issue, than apple made it all about software and more important user interface.
So which era has began now that the first Android phone is out?! It is the mobile OS era.
I am sorry to disappoint you but I do not think that Apple thought at first to release the OSX SDK for developers.
Jobes, thinking as a centralist as always, wanted to alter the mobile industry like he did with the iPod, nothing less.
He did not notice the MAIN issue in mobile consumption which is the content and that the quality of experience is influenced by the variety of possibilities.
After the iPhone hit the market, it was noticed that the beautiful “box” itself isn’t enough and that Apple is not a services development company.
Back to the Android and the OS era, Google want to be on any mobile phone, where is it an Android based phone or even an iPhone.

This fact brings me to my main point, Google does not want to create full web experience mobile phones, there are already enablers that do just that, take a look at Opera, Skyfire and yes again at the iPhone.
Google just want to build a mobile OS, It have all the services to do that like mail, maps, IM etc and the rest will fall into the developers hands.
Google’s Android comparison to the iPhone is really like comparing Symbian to J2ME.
Google tries to enable others to create services but still, Google still think as the player that came after the iPhone and try to clone the AppStore’s business model.
Only in the case that Google removes all restrictions and barriers and attract the operators and the users, they will be able to take control over the mobile OS market and operate as the Microsoft of the mobile world.
If Apple continues with the same attitude, they will be the Apple of the mobile OS market, nice, shaped, with no significant market share.
So enough with my analysis what do you think?

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For InfoGin it is not the first time for working with a mobile search engine.
It has done it in the past in 2005 with AOL.
Microsoft understands the potential of mobile search, and would not like to trudge after Yahoo and Google.
InfoGin’s technology will help Microsoft Live search engine to be displayed on any mobile device no matter what.
That is a good start for a company that would like to become a “Mobile” Google.

Take a look at InfoGin IMP Demo

Via ME

Two new Nokia N-series phones N79 & N85

Nokia announce today on the new N-series phones to its multimedia phones portfolio.
The first is the Nokia N85, The device share the same design factors as the N81 which was the first to include the Navi-Wheel.
The Nokia N85 is a 5 megapixel shooter with A-GPS, Wi-Fi and FM receivers.
It runs on Symbian OS S60 FP 2 which is displayed on a 2.6 inch AMOLED screen with 16 millions colors and an accelerometer.
As a High-End multimedia device the N85 will support all of Nokia OVI services.
The N85 will be on sale on October and will cost 660 US dollars.

Full specification

The second device is the successor of the N78 The new Nokia N79.
The N79 has a smaller screen than the N85, A 2.4 TFT screen.
More or less the N79 share the same features like the N85: 5 megapixel camera, A-GPS and Wi-Fi.
Again all OVI services can run on the device.
More interesting is the come-back of the XperssOn covers the N79 comes with two additional covers in retail.
The N79 will be on sale from October at the price of 515 US dollars.

Full specification

HTC dual keyboard smartphone

While HTC is getting the EISA (European Imaging and Sound Association) award for its iPhone rival, the HTC diamond, HTC is introducing The S740.

The dual keyboard smartphone design inspired by the diamond and touch diamond devices.
It runs Windows Mobile 6.1 and has Wi-Fi and A-GPS.
The devices will start to be sold the next month in Europe.

Full specification

HTC “Dream” is FCC approved

The FCC approved the HTC Dream the first Andorid based mobile phone that will launch on T-Mobile this year.

The full specification (Not confirmed) By AndroidGuys

• 528Mhz Qualcomm 7201 processor
• Data kit for USB connectivity in the box
• 64MB Internal RAM
• 128MB Internal ROM
• 1GB MicroSD card
• 5 Row QWERTY keypad
• Trackball
• Dedicated camera button
• 3.1MP camera (no flash) 2048 x 1536
• Video playback files – H.264, streaming, 3GPP, MPEG4, and Codec 3GP
• Dedicated YouTube Player
• Audio playback files – MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA, MPEG4, WAV, MIDI, REAL AUDIO, OGG
• Wallpaper supports JPG, BMP, PNG, and GIF
• Speakerphone (mono, natch)
• Ringtones (MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA)
• HTTP, WAP Push, xHTML
• Bluetooth (class 1)
• Picture Caller ID
• SMS and MMS support (Take that Apple!)
• POP, IMAP, and SMTP, AOL, and GMAIL email
• AIM, MSN, YAHOO, and GTALK messaging
• Quad Band (850, 900, 1800, 1900)
• 3G
• 802.11b & 802.11g
• UMTS (1,4), HSDPA, SUPL
• 1150mAh battery
• Screen size is 3.17″ with HVGA (480 x 320)
• Handset 117 x 55 x 16mm
• 5.6 oz weight
• Sync capable with Google Calendar
• Downloadable content via Android Marketplace
• Google Streetview with built-in compass

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HTC, a device manufacturer from Taiwan and a member of the OHA (Open Handset Alliance), is scheduling to release the first Android based devices at the end of 2008.
HTC’s declaration ignores the unscheduled delay from Google, the founder of the OHA organization and Android mobile OS developer.

It seems like HTC wants to take advantage of the Android mobile OS and to refresh its line-up with devices that are based on more than one OS. Currently HTC mobile phones run Microsoft Windows Mobile OS.

HTC designs and manufactures its own branded devices for the past 2 years now while in the past they only manufactured OEM devices. The Israeli device market works with HTC devices that were using the “i-mate” brand before 2006. HTC’s main problem is the transition from an OEM manufacturer to a branded phones manufacturer. The move from OEM to branded phones requires a paradigm shift in many issues concerning the device and its stability. While in the OEM market they needed to release the newest features and very fast on the expense of the stability of the phone, branded phones manufacturers put more emphasis on the stability and testing of the device before they release it to the market.

HTC’s decision to ignore the delays of the other organizations it is dependant on, demonstrates that they still prefer to release an unstable device with many features and to be first to the market. If that will be the case, it will be very interesting to see the device technical failure rate and the return rate. It will show if the strategy of go first to the market even if the device is unstable is the right decision.

Cellular-news reports that Qualcomm is also working on an Android based device.
There are not too many details regarding the Qualcomm’s Android device, but Qualcomm’s COO mentioned that the Snapdragon chipset will feature a 1Ghz processor and will support up to 8 megapixel camera.

We should expect an internet centric / iPhone rival to come at 2009 or even at this year if it depends on HTC.

Via intomobile & Cellular-News