Mobile Phone News

Filed under: Motorola, Sony Ericsson, Misc

Ugh, this is just downright depressing no matter how you spin it. Sure, it’s just the reality of business and all, but it’s no fun to hear that 270 staffers will soon be looking for employment when UIQ Technology finishes climbing into the grave. After hacking 200 jobs in June and being coined “dead” by Sony Ericsson’s Patrick Olson, All About Symbian has it that the company has put its remaining employees “on notice of dismissal.” We’re told that SE has agreed to “continue funding the company on a by month by month basis in order to allow it to investigate options for the future,” but from the outside looking in, we’d say the outlook is bleak. Thankfully, it sounds like those affected will at least be assisted as they exit, but at this time would probably be an opportune time to shed a tear for UIQ as we knew it.

UIQ Technology puts entire staff on notice of dismissal originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Fri, 07 Nov 2008 16:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Handsets, Features, Motorola, RIM, Sprint

It’s hard to believe that iDEN’s having a bit of a renaissance so lat. in its life, but if these two handsets aren’t evidence of that, we really don’t know what would be. The Motorola i9 and BlackBerry 8350i will represent the very bes. that Sprint’s Direct Connect network has to offer when they’re finally released; the i9 hasn’t been officially declare in any capacity yet, but the 8350i is on track for a launch some time this quarter (and with the still-sold 7100i three frickin’ years old at this time, that’s a damn good thing). We’ve also heard that Moto’s got an i465 in the works, too, but we don’t know anything about it just yet. Check out a few shots below while you wait for Sprint to get its push-to-talk butt in gear.

[Thanks, Manny P.]

Sprint’s Motorola i9 and BlackBerry 8350i team up for photo shoot originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Fri, 07 Nov 2008 12:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Handsets, Sony Ericsson

It’s tough to predict the future, especially with cutbacks to R&D budgets in the face of a global economic slowdown. Still, it’s continuously nice to see a forward-looking corporate-slide related to mobile handsets from the taller, blonder half of that Sony Ericsson partnership. LTE and fast CPUs are certainly no surprise, nor is that 1,024 x 768 XGA screen resolution that Japan’s superphones are already bumping up against. The most compelling vision is that of the embedded camera sensors: 12-20 megapixels capable of recording Full HD video by 2012. Adding more fuel to firey speculation that handsets are about to find their persons embroiled in a megapixel war. Fine by us, just as long the optics and image processing are there to support such a resolution. Even though 12-20 megapixels seems high compared to the 5-8 megapixel cell phones we see today, those numbers are entirely within reason when you recall that Samsung hit 10 megapixels in Korea two years ago. In fact, we wouldn’t be suprised in the least to find Ericsson’s mythical device on the market well prior to 2012. Combined, these features certainly make for a tantalizing glimpse at the wireless handset future.

Ericsson: 20 megapixel cellphones shooting Full HD video in 4 years originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Fri, 07 Nov 2008 05:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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