The Mobile Spoon

Exclusive pictures of the new xPhone!

gil.bouhnick@gmail.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 22:01:00 +0000

Mobile Spoon is delighted to be the first site to bring those exclusive pictures of the new xPhone.

In a world where all phones look alike, that is, screen only (a-la-iPhone) with no hardware buttons, the xPhone is innovative and unique.

The xPhone is all about buttons and keyboard. In fact it has no screen whatsoever - at least from the first images we've managed to put our hands on...

Other specs: 3G, GPS, 256MB of both RAM and ROM, a 993MHz processor (not bad!), 2.0 megapixel camera (which is somewhat disappointing from such an advanced phone), compatible with both Windows Mobile 6.5 and Android 1.5.

More updates on this cool smartphone very soon...

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The Mobile Spoon Reaches 1,000 Posts!

gil.bouhnick@gmail.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:47:00 +0000

Things were a bit quiet lately over here at the MobileSpoon, mainly because of some personal commitments and heavy work load.

Still, I just found that without noticing this site has passed the number of 1,000 posts! YEARRRRRRR!!! (WE CAN'T HEAR YOU!!!)

So.

Thank you all for reading the MobileSpoon, and an extra thanks to all the people who commented and contributed to our discussions. Some of the comments are really helpful and interesting - so thanks!

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The war of the Droids!

gil.bouhnick@gmail.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:27:00 +0000

The blogsphere is overloaded with Android / Droid news these days. It seems like the hype around this interesting OS is growing and humanity may have finally found the real iPhone killer;

It's not the Palm Pre, it's not Windows Mobile 6.5, it's the Android. More specifically, the Droid.

I had a feeling few months ago that the Triandroids attack is just a matter of time, but it seems like the Droids are the spearhead...

Here are some of the interesting stuff I found last weekend.

Gizmodo wrote a great post about the war of the smartphones.
According to Gizmodo, Android 2.0 will create a revolution in the mobile world, since it's the first version of the OS that can really fit everyone. Still, it will not "kill" the iPhone which is way to strong for that, instead it will hurt the weak ones. Mostly Palm with the new webOS.

What do you think? Does it make sense? Read more in here

MobileCrunch made a very interesting comparison between iPhone and Motorola's bran new Droid. Who wins? I will not ruin it for you, but it's a great interesting post. More details in here.

The New York Times had a very interesting article about the reasons why Android is the next big thing - check it out in here.

And finally, our very own favorite site PocketNow.com made a great review of the Droid - Read on for the Droid Review by PocketNow.

Are we experiencing the beginning of the mobile second revolution? (assuming the first one was done by Apple...) Is it the beginning of the real mobile war between one iPhone and an army of Droids?

We shall wait and see...

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State of the Mobile Web - by Opera

gil.bouhnick@gmail.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:21:00 +0000

Last month, Opera released a report called State of the Mobile Web.

the report is really comprehensive, and some of the numbers may be interesting to learn about trends in mobile web.

Highlights

In addition to the usual increases in all three categories of growth (users, pages viewed and data consumed), Opera Mini achieved a major milestone in September 2009: passing the 2PB barrier of uncompressed data processed by Opera Mini in a month (based on a compression rate of up to 90%).
In September 2009, Nigeria fell off of the top 10 countries list, while Vietnam made its debut (as we predicted last month).
In this month’s report, we added two new categories of data for each of the highlighted countries: data transferred per user and data transferred per page-view.
In this month’s report, we looked at countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The top 11 countries using Opera Mini in the CIS are: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
Some numbers regarding the CIS: From September 2008 to September 2009, overall page views in the top 11 countries listed increased 133%. From September 2008 to September 2009, overall unique users in the top 11 countries listed increased 55%. From September 2008 to September 2009, overall data transferred in the top 11 countries listed increased 174%.
Growth rates in the CIS: Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan lead the top 11 countries in growth of unique users.
Nokia and Sony Ericsson are by far the most popular handset brands chosen by Opera Mini users in the CIS.
Users in the top 10 countries save up to 672 million USD per month, or over 8.1 billion USD per year.
On a monthly basis, users in the United States and the United Kingdom save the most money using Opera Mini, based on their usage and the average cost of browsing (per MB).

We can really learn some interesting facts from the following details:

- BlackBerry is not yet doing so great in the UK?
- Facebook is the most popular page in the UK? Before Google???
- CNN vs. BBC... OK that one was obvious...

You can read the full Opera Mobile Web Report In here.

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Motorola Droid software tour by PocketNow

gil.bouhnick@gmail.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:24:00 +0000

PocketNow.com has recently published this long and detailed software tour of the Motorola Droid.

As always, a great review.

I have to say I'm beginning to like Android. Version 2.0, which is presented here seems to be much smoother than the first one which I tested a long while ago. The performance of this one looks impressive and I also like the overall design.

And not to mention the fact it's a Droid... I think it's time to put my hands on one of the newer Android devices out there...

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inPulse - a BlackBerry Wristwatch?

gil.bouhnick@gmail.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:18:00 +0000

We all know the drill; addicted BlackBerry users, rudely reading mails in the middle of important meetings, nodding their heads as if they are listening to the discussion, asking dumb questions whenever the topic becomes relevant to them, and giving high level answers that can easily be given by the secretary's children...

Well, the next generation in BlackBerry addiction is close; the inPulse - a BlackBerry watch! think about it: why hold your BlackBerry in your hands when the BlackBerry can almost hold you!

The quite lovely-looking inPulse connects to a Blackberry via Bluetooth and can either alert you to the full barrage of your very important email or can be set to filter it. These alerts are then displayed on the 1.3-inch OLED screen, and you are notified of their presence by the vibrator inside, and the whole watch, when fully charged (via microUSB), should last for around four days.

Pretty much anything that can be pushed to the Blackberry can be pushed those few inches further to your wrist. This includes RSS feeds, weather reports, SMS messages and the Twitter, guaranteeing that you can remain blissfully distracted during your next trial-by-PowerPoint. You’ll still have to pull out your crackberry to reply, but at least now you’ll know which messages to respond to.

I have a better suggestion for the BlackBerry users - a special chip that can be planted inside your body, creating special electrical pulses that can almost kill you if for any reasons you haven't replied to an email...

Think about it... bzzzzzzzz...

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Motorola VC6096 - in-vehicle fixed mount with Telematics

gil.bouhnick@gmail.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:40:00 +0000

Motorola has recently announced that it will be dumping Windows Mobile completely and switching to Google's Android, but in the rugged division there are still plenty of PDAs running Windows Mobile.

One of those PDAs is the VC6096 .

Motorola VC6096 is an in-vehicle/fixed mount mobile computer, optimized for work force on the roads. Designed for transportation and logistics providers Motorola VC6096 promises to maximize driver productivity, improve safety and vehicle utilization.

The form factor is unique, comparing to the other rugged PDAs out there. Seems like Motorola tried to make it more user friendly this time by including a quite big screen and full QWERTY keyboard.

Connectivity looks promising with 3.5G GSM HSDPA WWAN as well as 802.11a/b/g WiFi… For transportation the Motorola VC6096 also has a SiRF Star III GPS receiver and of course Bluetooth.

Other hardware specs include SD card slot, five programmable soft keys, mic and speakers; all running on 128MB of RAM, 256MB flash, 624Mhz processor and Windows Mobile 6.1 Pro.

Here's a short video demonstration:

Check out Motorola VC6096 homepage

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What's new in Android 2.0?

gil.bouhnick@gmail.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 09:55:00 +0000

Developers!

What's new in Android 2.0 you ask?

Watch this video and learn. Seems promising:

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DUB - Easy Way To Exchange Mobile Business Cards

gil.bouhnick@gmail.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:24:00 +0000

I received an interesting story today about DUB.

DUB is an easy way to (and software) to exchange business cards using mobile phones.

It is currently available only in the US and Canada, running on iPhones and BlackBerry devices.

Here's some more details copied from the official web-site followed by a demonstration video:

"When you and another person open the DUB app on an iPhone or BlackBerry and click the locate button, DUB will find both and prompt you to exchange info. The contact information is saved directly to your mobile address book.

If the other person doesn’t have DUB or is in the next state instead of next to you, just type their email address or mobile number and push send. They’ll get a message with your contact info and a link to create their card. Once they do, your info is saved to their mobile address book and theirs to yours."

DUB Website

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What can you do 1000 mobile phones?

gil.bouhnick@gmail.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 22:18:00 +0000

Vodafone people were bored enough to create a symphony out of a collection of mobile phones with TXT alerts that – when received in the sequence – created the music.

Visit Vodafone symphony page of View the sequences here.

The story of the rejected Windows Marketplace Applications

gil.bouhnick@gmail.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:17:00 +0000

Enjoy!

(Thanks for sending that one out, Amir)

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What is MOTOBLUR and what will it do to Android?

gil.bouhnick@gmail.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 08:17:00 +0000

Though I do not consider myself to be a Motorola fan, it’s interesting to see the MOTOBLUR, a new customized version of Android OS, developed by Motorola, and probably its' biggest hope to revive some of the company's lost fortunes...

Visually, MOTOBLUR is a nice looking OS, with a clear focus on social networks. The home screen is holding all the popular social network feeds at screen (MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and of course emails) allowing easy reading and simple status posting.

It looks nice, but I guess it’s nothing more than another widgets styled fancy UI.

Motorola took Palm’s synergy vision and improved it a little bit: MOTOBLUR continuously (and automatically) syncs your phone and email contacts with your friends from Facebook™, MySpace and Twitter.

Beyond the homepage gimmick, all the feeds are listed in one unified inbox screen, which may become helpful.

Like Ping.fm, you can quickly update your status across all of these sites in one move. Other social networking features – like wall posts, photo sharing, and quick posting of videos to YouTube are also supported.

In addition, MOTOBLUR continuously updates and backs up the information into a secure environment. Again, not a real innovation, but a cool feature.

What’s going on behind the scenes?

Technically speaking, Motorola took the Android 1.5 source and customized it. Yes, that means that once you use Motorola’s MOTOBLUR, you are not running the version that was released by Google’s developers…

Is it a good thing to do?

I’m not sure.

Based on my previous experiences with Motorola user interface, I think that it’s better to stick with the original… maybe a customized shell (a-la Sense UI) is better, as it keeps the original source of the OS.

In any event, the first 2 devices to run MOTOBLUR will be: CLIQ (North America) and DEXT (International).

To see it in action (movies and some trials) check out the Motorola web site.

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Off-topic: Useful Code Sample

gil.bouhnick@gmail.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 07:43:00 +0000

Useful code snippet in case you need some extra hand...

(Thanks for sending that one, Yechiel...)

Windows Mobile 6.5 Themes Creator

gil.bouhnick@gmail.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 11:40:00 +0000

Microsoft has included a cool themes creator for their new version of Windows Mobile.

You can head over to Microsoft Themes Creator and create your own Windows Mobile 6.5 theme by selecting the colors, gradient mode, background image and more.

Not the fanciest one, but good enough for creating basic themes.

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Linux Mobile Phones by Samsung

gil.bouhnick@gmail.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 21:47:00 +0000

Here at the MobileSpoon we love new mobile OS. The following story is not about a new OS, but could be the beginning of something.

Samsung, which is now releasing new smartphones running Symbian, Windows Mobile and Android, has added another OS - Linux Mobile.

According to MobileTopSoft: "Samsung is on the verge of releasing two spanking brand new LiMo handsets later in the year, these handsets are called the Samsung H1 and Samsung M1, both feature LiMo OS R2 (Release 2) which is expected to boots recognition of the OS and its hardwares. The Samsung H1 has a 3.5 inch OLED touch display, GPS, Wi-Fi, HSDPA, Bluetooth 2.0, 16GB on board memory, and a nice 5MP auto-focus camera for taking memorable photos.

Next up we have the Samsung M1, now this is not as kick ass as the H1 but still worthy to be mentioned, it has a 3.2 inch TFT touchscreen, Bluetooth 2.0, HSDPA, 1GB onboard memory, GPS, and a 3MP camera, that would do for the folks who just want to take casual photos of family, friends and their dog...or cat...or whatever."

Does it mean Samsung is doubting the popularity of Android? I don't think so... will LiMo compete with WinMo? Not sure... but it is going to be interesting to see how those 3 platforms will compete...

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The History of Windows Mobile

gil.bouhnick@gmail.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 21:30:00 +0000

Our friends over at 1800PocketPC created a cool video presenting the long history of Windows Mobile.

This one really brings up some memories...

This reminds me of our 3 posts series about The History of PDA's. Check out how it all started, before Microsoft even thought about PocketPC...

History of PDAs - Part #1

History of PDAs - Part #2

History of PDAs - Part #3

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iPhone Grabs Top Rank in Smartphone Satisfaction Survey

gil.bouhnick@gmail.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 22:45:00 +0000

We all know many iPhone users which are Apple fanatics (you know, those annoying geeks that always brag about how great is their mac and how smart is the iPhone).

Apperantly not all the iPhone users are like this, according to JD Power, the survey polled customers worldwide on satisfaction with their smartphones between January and June 2009 shows that customers rated the iPhone as the most satisfying phone.

Motorola, by the way, came last.

3,221 owners rated their smartphones based on factors including ease of operation, operating system, features, physical design and battery life.

Apple scored 811. LG scored 776 for second place, and RIM BlackBerry scored 759 for third.

In the survey for business users: Apple nabbed the no.-1 spot for smartphones in business, with a score of 803, followed by RIM BlackBerry with a score of 724. This portion of the survey polled 1,148 enterprise smartphone users.

Click here for the complete customers satisfaction survey results

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Great Looking TouchFlo 3D Themes

gil.bouhnick@gmail.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 22:26:00 +0000

Following some popular posts about TouchFlo3D Skins and Themes, I decided to sniff around and look for some more great looking themes.

Here's some links:

[TF3D 2.1][WVGA] TouchFluo 3D Line by Eagledig

[TF3D 2.1][WVGA] Blue Eye

And this one is a collection of nice looking TouchFlo Themes:

(click on the image to enlarge)

1st row
Black skin by TWolf
Red by bombzhome
White by bombzhome
Green by Anolnx
Purple by Anolnx
Blue Void by kulet78
Diamond clock by mbarvian (updated)
Pink her by TWolf

2nd row
Teal Manilla by .HaVoC.
Feng Shui by Dredd 67:
MobileMatt TF2D Connection by mchapman007
KnobiSkin by Knobibrot
AZUL-T2D bu GODZSON
TF2D Alabaster Skin by MobileMatt | M2DC Theme
White on black skin by eboelzner
T2D-WIDGETZ THEME by GODZSON

3rd row
Type-R skin by kidnamedAlbert
yellow theme by .HaVoC.
HTC-TOUCH/VOUGE transformation package by PROBEX (external direct link)
Black Vista skin by TWolf
Black ICE by MobileMatt
TOXIC theme by txema_py
Creaton by GODZSON (2 backgrounds)
MobileMatt Black ICE V2.0 by mchapman007

1st row
MobileMatt MM&L Skin by MobileMatt & Lepsyfou
Cowboys and UT Themes by ldostang
Touch Fantasy by bornotty
Oklahoma Sooner theme by stutzmason
harley Davidson by kron2
Néon Theme + transparent Manila by utopykzebulon
TypeR v3 by kidnamedAlbert

Click here for more great themes and skins

Or click here for the XDA-Dev TouchFlo themes thread

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Details About LG GM750

gil.bouhnick@gmail.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 13:35:00 +0000

Looking for useful information and videos about LG GM750? Came to the right place!

I was looking for some useful information about this fascinating device, the LG GM750, LG's first Windows phone (running Windows Mobile 6.5 of course), and one which is also wearing the S-Class user interface which is considered to be an innovative one.

The handset also includes 5 MP, 2592х1944 pixels, autofocus camera and one of my favorites D-Pad substitutes - an optical mouse (a-la Samsung Omnia!).

Here are some useful links with specs details and hands-on reviews of the LG GM750 Windows Phone:

Introduction to LG S-Class User Interface:

LG GM750 gets reviewed by WMExperts

LG GM750 - Full phone specifications

S-Class award winning UI

LG GM750 Videos by LG Training Squad including:
- weather theme,
- multi-tasking capabilities,
- optical mouse,
- homescreen,
- thumbnails in camera mode

Enjoy the links! We will definitely keep a close eye on this one!

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Windows Mobile 6.5 was released few days ago... Does anyone care?

gil.bouhnick@gmail.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 09:56:00 +0000

Well, looking at MobilitySite's WinMo reviews round-up, it seems like Microsoft are getting all spanked in the tush...

Personally I didn't have too much expectations, and therefore I'm pretty happy with the result. I think the next update for 6.5 will come sooner than expected and will include a lot of more small goodies.

Chris Leckness First Impression of WinMo 6.5

More information about Windows Mobile 6.5 from the MobileSpoon

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HTC Touch HD2 Video Introduction

gil.bouhnick@gmail.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 09:41:00 +0000

I'm continuing to promote my next WinMo device (yes yes yes!), but I just cant seem to find the "Sense UI" inside this demo, it seems to me more like TouchFlo... don't you think?

Another thing I must say is: what's all the fuss about the weather... who cares about it when it's all around us? Why promote such a beautiful device with a lame line like:

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Android Will Bypass iPhone By 2012, Says Gartner.

gil.bouhnick@gmail.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 09:14:00 +0000

From the very beginning we knew Google's Android is going to be something big. Google, open source, cloud, a long list of devices manufacturers supporting this effort - it cannot go wrong.

The first version did not make us too excited (although showed a lot of potential) but the "cupcake" version (1.5) was much better, and then came a few really good handsets as well.

Gartner Inc. predicts that the Android will make the highest jump in the next 2 years, surging from 2% market-share today to 14% of the global smartphone market in 2012.

Gartner forecasts that Android will actually rank second globally, behind the Symbian OS, (which by the way will continue to fall from more than 50% to 39%) in 2012.

The reasons, according to Gartner, are Google's great support for this OS, the range of cloud computing functions, the fact that it's an open source, and of course the manufacturers behind the OS which according to Gartner are expected to release around 40 Android models in 2010, many of them with the new OS version (code-named Donut).

The Triandroids are coming! (We said it first, long time ago!)

Another interesting point (which I tend to agree with) is that while iPhone is clearly focused on applications, games, entertainment, and Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, and Symbian are focused on productivity and tasks, the Android has a nice mixture which somehow manages to grab both areas.

The complete Gartner forecast for smartphones in 2012:

- Symbian: 203 million devices sold (39% of the market)
- Android: 76 million units sold (14.5% of the market)
- iPhone: 71.5 million devices in 2012 (13.7% market share)
- Windows Mobile: 66.8 million units sold (12.8% of the market)
- BlackBerry OS: 65.25 million devices (12.5% market share)
- Various Linux devices: 28 million units (5.4% market share)
- Palm's new webOS: 11 million units (2.1% of the market)

Surprisingly, BlackBerry seems to move down from second place to fifth, while Android will take over the second place by storm (hmm... wrong term... Storm).

Gartner have made their bets, what are yours?

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(Thanks for the tip Amir!)

A twist in the plot - Nokia 7705 Twist

gil.bouhnick@gmail.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 09:09:00 +0000

Now here's something positive I have to say about Nokia for a change.

Most of the time, when I write about Nokia I criticize their OS, phones design and how they are doing in comparison to few years ago. But here's something I actually like very much.

A cool, innovative slick design - this is the way to go!

Check out Nokia's 7705 Twist - a really cute looking gadget. I can definitely see this one having some success. Especially among young people.

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HTC Touch HD 2 - Announced!

gil.bouhnick@gmail.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 21:01:00 +0000

HTC Touch HD2 was released.

Some interesting specs:

One hell of a massive capacitive 4.3 inches screen.
First HTC WinMo 6.5 device
1GHz Snapdragon processor and 512MB ROM
5MP auto-focus camera with dual LED flash
Strange looking version of HTC Sense UI (which seems to me more like a twisted version of TouchFlo3D but this is what they say in the specs...)

Amazing. I was just about to get myself a new device and I would believe this is a good alternative, don't you?

I just wish HTC would do something about their cranky virtual keyboard and missing D-Pad. That would make this handset perfect for me.

The device will be available in Europe and later on in the US (Q1, 2010).

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Dragon Ball - Free ZUMA Like Game for Windows Mobile

gil.bouhnick@gmail.com (Gil Bouhnick) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 09:54:00 +0000

There were days where I could compete against my wife in ZUMA (you know, the annoyingly addicting game everyone used to play), that is, of course, because she left her job, home, and family to become a professional ZUMA player...

Thanks to spikegotti from the XDA-Developers, there is a new cool version for Windows Mobile phones.

Check out this video preview:

You can check it out in the XDA-Developers site or in 1800PocketPC.

It is, of course, a freeware!

Click here for More free games for Windows Mobile.

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