The Samsung Omnia II is the newest smartphone offered by Verizon Wireless. It has a few standout components, such as a 3.7-inch, WVGA, AM-OLED screen and a 5.0 megapixel camera/camcorder with flash, some new technology such as the Swype keyboard, and the usual features today’s consumers have come to expect, like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
It is available now for $200 with a two-year contract and a $100 mail-in rebate.
The BlackBerry smartphone has its roots in a two-way messaging device called the “Interactive Pager” released in 1995 by Research In Motion, a small hardware designer based in Waterloo, Ontario. Unlike today’s BlackBerry devices, the Interactive Pager did not work on normal cellular data networks, instead using a special-purpose wireless data network known as Mobitex. The device even looked like a pager, except that it included a small keyboard for user input.
The trademark “BlackBerry” first appeared in 1999 as the name for RIM’s end-to-end wireless email solution for corporate customers. The term “Interactive Pager” was dropped and the pager was rebranded the “RIM 950″. The form factor remained the same, though, about 3.5 inches wide by 2.5 inches tall, and it still worked only on the Mobitex network.
The Nokia N96 is this company’s multimedia flagship smartphone. As its name suggests, it is the successor to the Nokia N95, and uses the same dual-slider design and includes many of the same features: Symbian S60, 3G, Wi-Fi, etc.
This is not a model that will probably catch the eyes of many in the U.S. these days. It doesn’t look as if there is much with it, but the N96 is a sleekly designed smartphone that offer some pleasant surprises… and some not so pleasant.
Design and Hardware
The N96 is an evolution of the dual-slider design Nokia released with the N95 two years ago. However, compared to the initial N95, the N96 is not as thick, though it’s wider. The slider is more taut, and there are fewer gaps in the build.
The BlackBerry Bold 9700 is a 3G, Wi-Fi enabled smartphone offered in the U.S. by T-Mobile and soon AT&T. It has a beautiful HVGA screen, track pad, full QWERTY keyboard, 3.2 megapixel camera with auto-focus, and expandable microSD memory card slot.
The original Bold 9000 set the bar in terms of delivering a reliable, high performing device that sported the best feature set RIM had to offer. Just a year later, the Bold2 offers an enhanced feature set and an improved design that instantly leaves the original Bold feeling, well, old.
The next version of the iPhone will contain a special chip that allows it to work on networks in Europe, Africa, Asia, America, and more.
According to American ‘technology experts’ the worldwide iPhone will be launched next Summer in the US by Verizon Wireless.
The new iPhone will utilise a Qualcomm microchip that will work on both the 3G dominant European and African networks as well as the CDMA2000 networks used by Verizon and much of the rest of the world.
“This Qualcomm-powered world phone will facilitate Apple to be carrier-agnostic,” Kumar said, meaning the new iPhone will not be restricted to any network providers.
