Filed under: Announcements, Cellphones, CES

Here you go QWERTY fans, ASUS’ M536. This touch-screen follow-up to the M530W runs Windows Mobile 6.1 under that 2.43-inch, 320 x 320 display. Inside you’ll find 802.11b/g WiFi, 256MB of flash, and GPS. While it sports 3.6Mbps HSDPA on the 2100/1900/850 bands, it’s unfortunately limited to GSM/EDGE/GPRS riding the 900/1800/1900 frequencies. As such, we’ll bet this one is heading straight to Europe, Statesiders. Our hands-on was brief due to that fingerprint scanner. Still, we’d bet that this business minded handset will come sporting ASUS’ own sultry WinMo overlay whenever it does launch.

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Filed under: Cellphones, Features

Regardless of the cause, we certainly like the trend of these enhanced touch-screen UIs dominating the high-end cellphone market. Now meet ASUS’ GUI slickness destined for their newest touchscreen devices including the ZX1. Starting with a Windows Mobile 6.1 core, ASUS slathers on a new customizable Multi-Home 3D interface meant to simplify access to your today screen, life and business applications. Think HTC’s TouchFlo only sexier. ASUS even threw in some “album cover flow” to the media app and the ability to more easily manipulate all your digital media with enhanced figure gestures. You can even drop everything into a visual carousel if that’s your preference. See for yourself in the video after the break.

Continue reading ASUS’ new touchscreen GUI prettifies Windows Mobile 6.1

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Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio, Portable Video

While poking around the ASUS booth this morning we had a chance to witness the world premier unveiling of the ZX1 Lamborghini. We even took a few shots before it went under the glass. However, the real treat is the UI based on a Windows Mobile 6.1 core running special ASUS tweaks. It’s “just like the iPhone” according to our friendly ASUS guide. The device is expected to fetch an unsubsidized €1,000 ($1,500) price tag when this 3G world-phone launches in Europe this May. Maybe you’ll think it’s worth it when we get back to you in a few with a video of the GUI albeit sans all that Lamborghini theme nonsense.

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Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio, Portable Video

So we hurried on over to the Meizu booth in sweaty-palmed anticipation of laying fleshy bits upon a working M8 MiniOne. It’s gotta be here, right? After all, Meizu CEO Jack Wong promised it his damn self. Nope. Oh sure, they did bring that siliconless, plastic mockup already seen kicking around the Nets for awhile and they offered to show us a laptop-based demo of the UI if we come back tomorrow. Although even the demo is feature incomplete. Nevertheless, Meizu is confident that it will begin shipping the M8 in China in the next “half year” while remaining coy for a rest-of-world launch. Guess reverse engineering the iPhone isn’t so easy, eh Jackson?

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Filed under: Cellphones

A lot of readers might be surprised to learn that Mitsubishi even makes cellphones, but yeah, it sure does. Its domestic Japanese market has typically been the recipient of its impressive wares, selling models on NTT DoCoMo using the “D” model name prefix — but maybe not for much longer. Nikkei is throwing out some rumors today that Mitsu will be exiting the dog-eat-dog cellphone manufacturing biz and possibly doing so very swiftly, even withdrawing models due to hit DoCoMo in the next few weeks. Despite raking in over 100 billion yen (about $958M) annually from its mobile division alone, the company has apparently been unable to make it profitable and recently downgraded its handset sales forecast for the current fiscal year. Frankly, we wish Mitsu had sold enough handsets abroad for us to be really upset about this. Nikkei says an official announcement could come as soon as today, so we’ll update you when we know more.

[Thanks, rinse]

Update: Nikkei was dead on. Mitsubishi has just announced that it is ending its cellphone manufacturing business, a venture that goes back some 25 years with the introduction of car phones on NTT’s network. For what it’s worth, the company says that it’ll continue to support its devices and move the 600-odd employees in the business to other parts of the company. It also says that it will “work to maintain and further strengthen the partnership with NTT DoCoMo through the communication related business [it aims] to expand,” so don’t get too teary-eyed, DoCoMo. Hit the link for the official release.

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Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio, Portable Video, Transportation

Apparently, Microsoft has plans for Sync that extend beyond the standard voice-activation scheme they’ve got going right now. The company wants to deliver a wider range of network connectivity for in-car use, and they’re debating the possibility of moving away from subscription-based services to an ad-funded scenario. What exactly does that mean? We’ll let Martin Thall, general manager of Microsoft’s Automotive Business Unit explain: “We know where you are and we know where you’re headed,” he says, seemingly unaware of the Orwellian implications. “We could target that advertising directly to your car.” You getting that? Targeted ads. In your car. While you’re driving. Apparently, execs don’t think you’ll mind being bombarded inside your vehicle because you’re, “used to advertising in the car. We hear ads on the radio and see billboards on the road.” Of course, this is speculation on future technologies, so nothing is set in stone — hopefully someone comes to their senses before our hovercar interiors glitter with holographic spam.

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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

A table of release dates dug up on Sony Ericsson’s own site suggests something powerfully depressing, which is that the XPERIA X1 has been pushed all the way out to February 10, 2009 (notice that the date is in European format — we’d just give up now if it were actually October 2, 2009). While the presence of the page on the company’s very own domain is pretty damning evidence, we’re still holding out hope that it’s a typo or an oversight; late Q2 of ‘08 was mentioned at MWC, and we really don’t see how it’s possible to push out a phone nearly three-quarters of a year just weeks after its initial announcement. Please tell us we’re right on this one, Sony Ericsson. Please.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

So it now looks like that rumored high-end ZX1 Windows Mobile 6 Professional handset from ASUS is a lock for a CeBIT announcement, though we’re going to be totally honest, we’re not certain it’s worthy of the Lamborghini name. Granted, we’ve got to withhold judgment until we get one in our hands, but outside of a Lamborghini badge-shaped nav pad and a speedometer-inspired clock on the home screen, we’re not seeing anything special about the darned thing. On the plus side, it’s a 3G world phone with HSDPA 850 / 1900 / 2100 and quadband GSM / EDGE, a 3 megapixel autofocus camera out back with a VGA sensor up front for video calling, 256MB of ROM, 128MB of RAM, microSD expansion, GPS, WiFi, and the typical QVGA display. We guess the 13.2mm thick shell is notable, but Lamborghini notable? More on this one as soon as we catch it in the wild.

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Guess the iPod nano family will be receiving a new addition soon - this time in the color deep purple. That’s what the Circuit City advertisement shows anyway - is it just a misprint on the printer’s part, where they somehow screwed up the ink cartridges? Since the iPod Shuffle has already received a similar color in the past, it does make perfect sense if such a Barney-colored iPod nano actually rolls out. What are some colors that you would like to see appear for the iPod nano?

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Those who have spent a night at the Bellagio will know that curtains in there are remote controlled, but you don’t have to travel all the way to Las Vegas in order to experience this luxury. All you need is a little DIY knowledge, a Wiimote and you’re good to go. “The curtain control system is an existing system from Goelst and is called “G-Rail 6200″. Normally it is controlled by infrared or wallswitches. However, it can also be controlled with a CAN bus. I used this CAN bus to interface with an old PC.” Guess the Wii has more than one use, eh?

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