Mobile Phone News

China is one of Motorola’s last safe havens for Windows Mobile-powered devices, but even the Far East is falling to the inevitable onslaught of little green robots — one need look no further than the XT701, MT710, and XT800 for evidence of that. That leads us to believe that the company’s 2010 haul of smartphones for China will be primarily Android-based — particularly in light of China Mobile’s commitment to it through Open Mobile System — expanding on comments in Korea this week by Moto’s GM of the mobile devices business that there will “probably another four or five [smartphones] later” in the region following the recent announcements of the MT710 and XT800 and the upcoming launch of the XT701. Considering that China continues to be a stronghold for Moto, we’re not surprised to see so much of the company’s product R&D dollars go that way — as long as the rest of the world ends up getting some trickle-down benefit, of course.

Motorola China has a bunch of smartphones on tap this year originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Mon, 18 Jan 2010 11:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

As promised, Vodafone has busted down any last remaining shreds of O2’s iPhone exclusivity today with the official launch of Apple’s wares on its airwaves. Both the 3G and 3GS are available, and yes — it’s possible to get even a 32GB 3GS for free as long as you’re willing to step up to a big-boy plan of £75 (about $123) per month or greater. For its efforts in securing a deal, the carrier believes that it will have moved about 50,000 iPhones by the time it counts all the receipts from the first day’s sales, beating Orange’s numbers from late last year by a solid 20,000. It’s not Orange they’re necessarily going after, though: Voda’s quick to take a pot shot at original seller O2’s network issues by proudly boasting “Outstanding phone, Outstanding network” on the iPhone’s landing page. Honestly, we wouldn’t get too cocky, guys — the iPhone has a tendency to do unfortunate things to those that offer it.

Vodafone kicks off iPhone sales, expects 50K sold today originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Thu, 14 Jan 2010 23:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

We can hardly believe it but the day has finally arrived: Toshiba just launched the first Dynario fuel-cell for portable consumer electronics. That’s right, the long promised and highly anticipated direct methane fuel-cell (DMFC) with dedicated fuel cartridge for on-the-go refueling will go on sale October 29th in Japan for ¥29,800 (about $328) plus another ¥3,150 (about $34) for a set of five, 50ml fuel cartridges. Dynario takes about 20 seconds to fill its 14ml fuel tank with an injection of a concentrated methanol solution at which point it’s ready to charge USB-connected devices. Dynario’s hybrid structure uses a lithium-ion battery to store enough electricity to charge two typical cellphones, according to Tosh. The first run consists of only 3,000 units after which Toshiba will gauge consumer reaction before extending the launch outside of Japan. Boy oh boy, a new age in portability has begun.