Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro

Interview with Nokia designer Mark Delaney

Nokia N97 Official Demo Video

Touchscreen mania is the latest trend with technology geeks. 2009 is going to offer some very fine Touchscreen cell phones to all of them.

Following are 7 most hyped Touchscreen phones of 2009, touchscreen phones are doing very well in the Middle East region :

HTC Magic:

This super sleek mobile phone is a descendant of G1. Magic lacks a QWERTY keyboard; an imperative reason of its weightlessness. 3.2 inch QVGA Touchscreen is super sensitive, interface is evidently enhanced, operating system is upgraded to Android “cupcake”, and the trackball is painless to use. This phone has a uni body form, and is outfitted with a 3.2 mp camera, Wi-Fi and HSDPA.

Though absence of a physical keyboard has been a positive point; it makes messaging a difficult task.
LG Arena KM900

With new 3D S-class interface and rich 3D graphics; LG Arena KM900 is a potential big hit. New interface changes menus into rotating cubes, giving a unique and special effect. This layout has four customizable home screens.

This phone has 800 x 480 3-inch display, a 5 mp camera, Wi-Fi, aGPS, FM radio and long living battery.

Samsung Omnia HD:

Now, here comes a screen too big to make us cry out a “wow”! With 3.7 inches OLED Touchscreen and TouchWiz interface, Omnia HD is a nicely designed handset. There are 3 different home pages available. Quality of video is simply amazing with its 8 mp camera.

Nevertheless, one will have to press the Touchscreen really hard in order to do a desired task, which is a little bit exasperating at times.

Sony Ericsson Idou:

Presently in a prototype stage, this amazing Touchscreen mobile phone is expected to hit the markets in the end of 2009. It has a 3.5-inch 640×360 Touchscreen, a 12.1 mp camera, and a quite fresh interface. It allows customizing contacts as well as audio/video playback. In all, this phone is a must get given SE fulfils the promises made through its prototype.

Nokia N97:

The Nokia N97 is a multimedia smart phone, announced in December 2008, likely to be presented in the market by June 2009. It is a Touchscreen mobile phone, with a slide-out full QWERTY keypad. An awesome photo taking and sharing experience is just another boost to N97’s market value. Nokia makes this possible with a 5mp camera. GPS, Wi-Fi, HSDPA, Stereo speakers and 48 GB memory is all that makes this a praiseworthy handset.

Palm Pre:

Palm needs a boost to its venture. Pre is perhaps the very long awaited product that can take Palm again in to the market. It is being termed as the first true competitor of Apple’s iPhone. Pre comes with a 3 mp camera, 3.1 inches multi-Touchscreen, Wi-Fi, 8 GB of storage and electromagnetic induction charging.

iPhone Nano:

Though Apple hasn’t announced this phone yet, it has really been hyped. No one knows whether Apple will release a newer version of iPhone. But it is expected to come up with an upgraded version within this year.

Source: ProductUSP

Major mobile phone vendors are set to cash in on the growing demand for multi-touch handset technology in the Middle East and are expected to boost their product line-up catalysed by Apple’s highly successful iPhone.

Research firm iSuppli forecasts global market for touch-screen panels to grow to 341 million units and earn $3.4 billion in value this year.

In a market dominated by so-called resistive touch technology, Apple’s iPhone uses a different technology called projected capacitance that enabled the multi-touch functionality that had been lacking in resistive-based touch panels.
HTC launched its first touch-screen phone – HTC TyTN and HTC P3300- in 2006 and LG launched its Prada in 2007 and Samsung in 2008 while Apple launched its iPhone in 2007, but iPhone is not officially available in the Middle East.

Samsung has four main sleek touch-screen phones – the Omnia, the Haptic, the F490 and the Instinct and LG has the Prada, the Viewty, Venus and the Voyager while HTC has the HTC Touch, Touch Dual with Touch FLO, TyTN II, HTC Shift HTC Advantage X7510 lined up to take on Apple.

HTC, which has been pioneering touch-screen technology for nearly a decade, continued to innovate the touch-screen market and its intuitive touch-screen technology has enabled consumers to access to the most commonly used content, contacts and features with a simple flick of a finger.

The launch of iPhone has really boosted the touch-screen concept but the market is still small. People have started recoginising the concept.

LG uses two different technologies – Electrostatic Charge and Pressure Responsive for its handsets. The future is going to be touchy.

Rivals Motorola and Sony Ericsson are most at risk as Nokia is expected to launch a series of touch-screen devices in the second half of the year, with the first model – likely the 5800 Tube – is expected to hit the market by the close of summer.

iSuppli forecasts that the market will grow to 833 million units by 2013, expanding at an annual growth rate of 19.5 per cent from 2008. touch-screen module revenue is forecast to grow to $6.4 billion by 2013.

Source: Gulfnews

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The Wireles FAQ

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Apple has filed a patent on their upcoming iPhone instant messaging app, detailing exactly what it’s going to look like and how it’s going to behave. While most of the images show an iChat-esque (and current SMS-like) interface, there are some interesting tidbits we picked up from the text. One, there’s mention of “graphics, photos, audio files, video files and/or other attachments as are supported in a MMS and/or Enhanced Message Service,” which points to possible MMS support in the future. At the very least, it might mean that their IM app will be able to transfer files. Two, there’s also a reference to the user receiving “an instant message while the user of the device is in another application,” alleviating fears that we wouldn’t be able to IM in the background. Both these snippets are after the jump.

More on the patent can be found at Gizmodo

Source: Gizmodo

Mozilla has produced some mockups of their ideas for their mobile browser.
http://dougt.wordpress.com/2008/01/23/we-want-you-proto-mobile-uis-posted/

There is a Firefox plugin so you can simulate the browser designed for non-touch screens at:

http://wiki.mozilla.org/Mobile/UI/Designs/NonTouchScreen
https://people.mozilla.com/~blassey/spbrowser.xpi

Source: WirelessRoundup

D:Scribe by designer Reuben Png is a digital fountain pen that allows users to send SMS and email messages from paper.

Just write out the message and circle the person’s name to send. This does away with a keypad and allows you to focus on communicating in a more personal way from anywhere as long as you have a bluetooth enabled phone and a surface to write on.

The design is loosely based on a quill and inkwell where by the quill is the writing apparatus and the inkwell is an electromagnetic induction charger.

Source: Textually.org

A touch-sensitive gadget with the sensing panel on its back, instead of the screen, is being developed by US researchers. Using your fingers behind the device allows a firmer grip and more accurate performance without obscuring your view of the screen, they say.”

“As soon as you put your hands on the display you [obstruct] the screen,” he says, something he calls the “occlusion problem”. Users of iPhones have other problems too, he adds. “Multi-touch devices detect the entirety of the touch area,” Wigdor continues. “That’s what we call the ‘fat finger’ problem.”

Source: Small Surfaces via New Scientist Tech