Ever since the iPhone was launched, many similar handsets have been released claiming to be the iKiller. Toshiba has also announced their smartphone, the TG01 which is set to compete with the iPhone 3G and HTC Touch HD. The TG01 has a 4.1 inch screen with WVGA 800 X 480 pixel resolution. The screen also uses Toshiba’s HDTV technology for gamma correction and backlight control.

The device is powered by Windows Mobile 6.1 OS and has a Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset and it is also the first one to run on that chipset. It has a slim 9.9mm thick body and is slimmer than both the iPhone and HTC Touch. It uses Toshiba’s own 3D user interface and is intended for one hand use and it also responds to gestures and shaking. A virtual trackpad is also present to help in browsing websites.

It has the Snapdragon 1GHz CPU and thanks to the dynamic speed control, it can throttle back during low usage. Toshiba claims that it can run for a whole day without requiring a recharge even if its multimedia features are used to full extent. Other features include Internal GPS with A-GPS, a 3.2 MP camera, EDGE/GPRS, 3G with HSDPA support. It also has Bluetooth 2.0, Wifi and supports Divx video playback. The IE mobile 6 browser that comes with it also supports flash. It has an inbuilt memory of 512 MB which can be extended to 32GB with microSD card.

The smartphone will be available in Europe after a few months. No pricing details has yet been announced and it seems that it will be available in colors of black and white.

For Sony Ericsson, it seems that a 8MP camera phone is not enough. At the Mobile World Congress which started today, Sony Ericsson launched a 12.1 MP camera mobile phone codenamed Idou which is a smartphone having high end camera features and is based on Symbian OS
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The SE Idou comes with a 12.1 MP camera having features like Xenon Flash, Geo Tagging, Auto Focus, Smile Detection, Face Detection and advanced camera touch features. It has a 3.5 inch TFT Touchscreen with 360 x 640 pixels supporting 16 million colors amd 16:9 widescreen format support. Connectivity options include 3G, Wi-Fi, DLNA, GPRS/EDGE, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, USB 2.0. FM Radio along with GPS with A-GPS support are also present. The Media Menu is now fully optimized to support the 16:9 format and will enable you to play your favorite movies, music etc. The phone’s memory can be extended by using microSD cards.

The phone is expected to be launched in the second half of 2009.

After a long wait, Nokia has finally announced their first 8 MegaPixel phone. The phone is called N86 and it will now compete with the likes of Samsung Memoir and Samsung Omnia i8910 HD. The phone comes with a wide-angle Carl Zeiss Tessar lens and can be compared to a high quality stand alone digital camera capturing brilliant and wide angle images.

It is a slider phone and resembles the N8X series. It has a 2.6 inch QVGA , OLED screen having 240 X 320 resolution and a scratch resistant hardened glass display. It is the first mobile device that comes with variable aperture which can produce good results even in low light conditions. The Camera also has auto focus along with Dual LED flash. Connectivity options include HSDPA, Wi-Fi, EDGE, Bluetooth with A2DP and USB 2.0. The phone also has GPS and A-GPS support and comes with 8GB of memory which can be extended to 16GB using microSD cards. FM radio with FM transmitter and 3.5mm AC socket is also present.

The phone will begin shipping in the second quarter of 2009 and the expected price is Rs 23,331 (EUR 375) before taxes.

Asus has launched a new P835 PDA phone for the PDA fans and business savvy professionals. The new smartphone provides a rich multimedia viewing and Internet browsing experience thanks to its large display screen, blazing fast download speeds and a responsive trackball.

The phone has a 3.5 inch touchscreen with 800 X 480 pixel resolution. The phone boasts of a HSUPA 7.2Mbps download speeds. It also comes with a unique trackball which helps during scrolling while browsing sites in the Opera Web browser. The phone is powered by Windows Mobile 6.1 and enables users to switch between 12 key, half QWERTY and full QWERTY modes depending on there needs. The phone comes with a 5MP camera that also supports video recording and it can also play audio and video files in a variety of formats. Connectivity options include WiFi, Bluetooth and USB. The phone has 4GB of internal memory with expansion through microSD slots available. It also comes with Asus’s Glide interface and has GPS.

The pricing and availability of the phone is not yet known.

Last week, Skype and Nokia went on a deal to pre-install Skype on upcoming Nokia N-series devices. This news had been a big story of February 2009 and the geeks are just wondering around for the easiness of free calls over mobiles.

Skype is preparing to launch for Symbian Devices with the upcoming Nokia beast - The Nokia N97. The phone is expected to launch in Q3 of 2009 and will be the first Nokia symbian device ever to have Skype. Making Video calls over the phone will surely be fun but the question is “Will Skype bring the functionality of Video Calling over phone? If so, when?

Skype wont be shipping as a separate application but it will be deeply integrated in Contacts and other services of the phone. This deal seems to be good but the problem comes because of the bandwidth. If the users are in Wi-Fi zone and have access to it, it will be well and good as Wi-Fi is cheaper than 3G and GPRS. On the other hand the 3G network is very limited worldwide and even costly too. GPRS is widely available but cannot handle even voice calls as the connectivity speed is very low.

Still I consider this integration as a useful one because it will let those users who have sufficient mobile bandwidth, communicate for free. However, Skype should also produce a separate application for all the existing devices to make this deal really worth else it will take a longer time to establish themselves.

Fring is also a good alternative already available for the most of the smartphone devices. Not only Nokia but Fring already support a bunch of other companies like HTC, Samsung, LG, Apple’s iPhone and many more. Thus Skype will face a major challenge from Fring as it also supports other popular IM services like Gtalk, Yahoo Messenger, etc. Fring has already started monetizing from its app and thus Skype is likely to do the same. Advertisements are finally helping VoIP to grow and provide free wireless communication.

Both Skype and Fring target to bring video calls in future smartphones but it is not likely to happen very soon. But once this is done and the bandwidth rates
are cutted, it will really make video calling very easy and economical.

Touch Screen technology has really evolved the mobile phones and people are getting adapted to it. Winters are around the corner and innovative minds have already realized the problem created by the hand gloves while using a touch screen devices. Touch enabled devices do not respond well while wearing the hand gloves as they are unable to sense the motion completely. Thus they have created such gloves which won’t make you get them down in cold, just to use your phone.

Etre Touchy, a specially designed partly fingerless hand glove created by Simon exposes the tip of your thumb and index finger. These gloves work well but they will also expose tip of your fingers to the biting cold.

If you would not like to expose your fingers to cold but still want the purpose to be solved, have a look at DOTS. These are like any other normal woolen hand gloves but are fitted with “dots” at the fingertips. The dots are very smooth and round in shape so that they will not damage the touchscreen of you phone.

Though dots provide an effective way to cover your skin and still perform task on you phone, they wont be useful for holding a stylus or typing on phone’s keypad. In that case the Etre Touchy is helpful for both the purpose.