Samsung Electronics a leading mobile phone and telecommunication equipment provider, today announced the launch of ‘Soul’, Samsung’s new flagship product for 2008. To make its debut, Samsung has chosen Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as the platform to deliver its new vision for mobile handsets to enrich consumer’s lives. Samsung named ‘Soul’ to honour the completion of its exclusive ‘Ultra Edition’ series of handsets, which offer a perfect balance of design and features.

‘Soul’, an abbreviation of “The Spirit Of Ultra”, will appeal to style-conscious users who are not willing to compromise between design and technology and search out the best of the best for inspiration and stimulation to enrich their lives.’ Soul’ will be supported by a major global advertising campaign and will be available in European countries from April.” We believe that is the answer for today’s style-conscious consumers, excited by outstanding quality design and performance,” said Geesung Choi, President of Samsung’s Telecommunication Business.

“Soul is set to continue the success of past Ultra Edition handsets, such as D900 and U600, and will further enhance Samsung’s leadership in the premium phone category.’ Soul’ is the ultimate essence of mobile; a slim, lightweight and stylish product yet still boasting all the essential functions in one single device. This product, a sleek combination of highly styled design and functionality, is a triumph of extreme opposite values, ‘Portability’ and ‘Multi-function.’

Today at ITU Telecom World 2006, Samsung Electronics and Microsoft launched the Samsung Ultra Messaging i600 powered by Microsoft ® Windows Mobile ® 5.0, the first 3G smartphone with HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) support. Measuring only 11.8mm and weighing a mere 99g, the Samsung Ultra Messaging i600 is the world’s thinnest 3G smartphone with a full QWERTY keyboard.

It blends the feature-rich, desktop functionality of the Windows Mobile 5.0 platform with multimedia capabilities to help people work on the go, stay in touch with family and friends or just have fun.” I am proud to introduce the Ultra Messaging i600 Windows Mobile smartphone with Microsoft. It represents the best innovation from both Samsung and Microsoft and makes it a perfect solution for today’s mobile professional,” said Kitae Lee, President, Samsung Telecommunication Network Business.

“Samsung will continue to explore new market opportunities with Microsoft and we look forward to collaborating together to bring more innovative products to market.” The Samsung Ultra Messaging i600 is the first smartphone in Asia Pacific and Europe that supports the HSDPA network for faster data transfer speeds, as well as seamless communications through high-speed connectivity via Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0 EDR. It is also the first smartphone to support web applications such as podcasting and RSS Feeder.

Samsung Ultra Messaging i600 users can listen to stereo-quality music and view high quality video clips with Windows Media Player 10 Mobile and a Bluetooth stereo headset. Internet browsing rivals the PC experience due to the device’s large 2.3” high quality color screen and wireless broadband capabilities. The Samsung Ultra Messaging i600 also includes a speakerphone, built-in voice recognition and support for a 1.3 megapixel digital camera that can record video. Built-in Pocket MSN offers consumers the consistent and familiar user experience that they currently enjoy with MSN Messenger on their desktops. With this offering, users will automatically have a separate Inbox for Hotmail messages on their device.

After the success of the MOTO A 1200, Motorola has announced that version 2 is on its way. The new MING, the A1600, appears to have a similar design but is a bit squarish with a similar transparent flip casing.

It will be 3G-enabled, come equipped with Wi-Fi and AGPS, and retain its touchscreen feature, but will have a newer Linux UI. Another upgrade is with the camera. The A1600 will boast a 3.2 megapixel, auto-focus camera with an LED flash. The CPU has also undergone an upgrade, so it should naturally be faster. The phone will be approximately 17.5 mm thick, so it’s going to be slimmer than the original. No pricing or availability has been announced yet.

Over the next several months, 12 mobile operators will run trials of contactless mobile payment services in Australia, France, Ireland, Korea, Malaysia, Norway, The Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Turkey and the U.S. as a precursor to commercial launches. The trials form part of the GSMA’s Pay-Buy-Mobile initiative, which is designed to provide a single global approach to enable contactless payments using a mobile phone. Consumers will be able to use their handsets to pay for goods and services in shops, restaurants and train stations. The Pay-Buy-Mobile initiative supports the use of the Single Wire Protocol, which was adopted by European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) as a standard in October 2007, to link the Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC) contained within the mobile handset with the phone’s embedded Near Field Communications (NFC) chip.

The NFC chip can communicate with existing contactless payment systems to deliver a wide range of secure, interoperable and transparent services, such as credit and debit payments. There are 35 mobile operators with 1.3 billion customers participating in the initiative. Executives from Korean operator KTF have paid for goods by passing their NFC-equipped handsets by contactless readers in retail outlets in Korea, Taiwan, and the U.S. in a trial involving real transactions facilitated by MasterCard. For this trial, MasterCard’s Paypass application and Shinhan Bank’s credit card application were downloaded to a KTF UICC embedded in the mobile handsets, which were provided by LG Electronics and Samsung Electronics. The retail outlets at the respective locations were equipped with readers that support the NFC interface and accept MasterCard’s Paypass applications, enabling real transactions in three different countries.

The Mobile World Congress at Barcelona saw Motorola introducing three new models: MOTO Z6w, W181 and W161. The Wi-Fi enabled MOTO Z6w is fully compatible with Windows Media Player 11 on the PC, works on high-speed USB 2.0, and features a 2.0 megapixel camera and video capture, and has up to 4GB of optional removable memory.” We’re proud to add our latest Wi-Fi enabled handset to our growing portfolio, delivering a compelling wireless experience to consumers anywhere they go,” said Rob Shaddock, senior VP, feature and mass market handsets, Motorola Mobile Devices. “

The new W series handsets offer both great mobile phone basics and a solid music experience, in a candybar form factor that you can show off with pride. The new candybar W161 and W181 come with the patented Motorola Crystal Talk technology, and also feature FM radio.

In Silicon Valley, tech company owner Mohammed Khan buys his bagels with a wave of his specially equipped cell phone. In Los Angeles, aspiring filmmaker Mike Hodgkinson uses his cell phone to shoot DVD-quality video, one of them for Rob Dickinson, former songwriter for indie band Catherine Wheel. And in Italy, IT professional Robert Bernocco thumb-typed an entire 384-page sci-fi novel on his standard 12-button Nokia 6630 keypad during his daily train commute. These days the gadget formerly known only for voice calls has mastered multitasking. Smarter phones lead an onslaught of wireless technologies creating the third revolution of modern electronics, following transformations wrought by the personal computer and the Internet.

The cell phone’s worldwide conversion from voice device to high-tech Swiss Army knife includes contributions from engineers in San Diego at Qualcomm, Kyocera, LG Electronics and other telecom companies. In the five years since manufacturers added high-speed data connections to mobile phones, they’ve offered music downloads, text messaging, cameras, keyboards and other gadgetry as potential “killer applications” – must-have features that would compel consumers to buy new phones.

LG Electronics has partnered with Paramount Pictures to showcase the Korean company’s high-tech mobile phones in the upcoming Hollywood movie “Iron Man.”Set to open before June, the action film based on a comic book tells the story of a weapons designer who builds a robotic suit of armor to battle evil.

In the movie, actor Robert Downey Jr. who plays Iron Man will use an LG mobile TV phone while his co-star Gwyneth Paltrow will use a touchscreen smartphone that was released in Europe last October.”The futuristic film coupled with the phones’ high-tech, innovative image will likely produce immense brand promotion effects,” a senior official at LG’s North American cell phone unit said.

A Samsung cell phone is poised to become Korea’s first phone to reach 20 million in sales. Samsung Electronics says its SGH-E250 phone, launched in November 2006, will definitely top the milestone in February. Samsung developed the model to target emerging markets in Asia and Latin America. Based on the design of Samsung’s high-end Ultra Edition 12.9 phone, the SGH-E250 has a 300,000-pixel digital camera, color display, MP3 player and Bluetooth technology.

Samsung says the phone, which costs about US$150, is sold as a premium model in low-income economies. Among foreign cell phones, global market leader Nokia’s 1100 has sold some 200 million units and Motorola’s RAZR some 40 million. The 1100 is an extremely low-cost phone which sells for less than $50 in emerging markets.

The man accused of bludgeoning a Madera teenager to death may have taken photographs with his cell phone afterward to prove to his girlfriend that he had done it, authorities said on Tuesday. Police have turned over the cell phones of Dustin Robert Gran, 19, and his 16-year-old girlfriend, Brittany Navarra, to the state Department of Justice so that investigators can attempt to retrieve data from them. The two have pleaded not guilty in the death of 18-year-old Krista Pike, whose boyfriend found her slain last week in his home. Investigators have said they believe Gran killed Pike at Navarra’s behest. Navarra had once dated Pike’s boyfriend. “If it is in fact true that photos were taken, you are dealing with an individual I can’t even describe,” said Madera police Sgt. Robert Salas. “How can you be involved in something so brutal and take photographs?” Police also said Tuesday that a five-pound metal dumbbell is missing from the home where Pike was found dead, and investigators believe it may have been the murder weapon.

And investigators are looking for a kitchen knife that may have been used to cut the teen after she died, Salas said. Most likely Gran was let into the house, Salas said, because there was no evidence of forced entry. Gran was arrested hours after Pike’s boyfriend, Tom Hollier, 19, arrived home from school Jan. 14 and found her slain. Police said they were led to Gran by a confession from Navarra. Navarra had been in school that day, but she told police there had been text messaging. While investigators have not said who sent messages to whom, they have filed search warrants for records from Verizon and AT& T for telephones used by Gran, Pike and Navarra.

Droplet Technology began a 4-day showcase of the company’s 3G personal mobile video services at CES 2008 (January 7-10, Meeting Room #70127, Sands Expo & Convention Center, Las Vegas). Personal mobile video services provide real-time or non-real-time exchange of user-generated or user-selected video, with at least one mobile handset involved. At CES 2008, Droplet is showcasing video services running live on off-the-shelf commercial handsets over multiple 3G wireless (AT&T HSDPA/UMTS and Verizon EV-DO) and Wi-Fi networks, including: — video capture, instant sharing, uploads, and messaging

– automated video editing, multimedia mash-ups, and streaming

– one-to-one video chat and multi-party video conferencing — direct-to-subscriber deployment via all-software handset client download

– browser-based video player, eliminating trans coding and enhancing both device and network interoperability.

Droplet’s patented breakthroughs in all-software video processing and video communications eliminate the traditional hardware costs, complexities, and constraints that limit today’s video-enabled devices and services. This approach allows Droplet to deliver personal mobile video services with higher-quality video capture and playback, video editing and sharing, and video communications functionality, via all-software client or browser applications, into a much wider range of lower-cost, higher-volume handset platforms than is otherwise commercially feasible. These same technology breakthroughs have also been incorporated into Droplet’s video server applications, significantly reducing the cost and complexity of the infrastructure required to deploy video communications, business collaboration, entertainment, and social networking applications over wireless networks and the Internet.