UPDATE: The Samsung P777 can be purchased from Cingular through Wirefly for just $199... Details surrounding the Samsung SGH-P777 are starting to make there way across the usual channels. While still technically unannounced (though mentioned in some marketing material), the...
Dec 30 2004 - 02:06 PM ET | Samsung
Samsung has announced that it has shipped 20,000 SCH-A890 mobile phones to Verizon Wireless. Features of the Samsung A890 include: * EV-DO high-speed wireless (it will be the third EV-DO handset). * 1.3 megapixel camera with flash * 3D interface...
Dec 30 2004 - 12:52 PM ET | CES, Samsung
Samsung has announced that it will show off fewer mobile phones at upcoming trade shows (like CES and CeBIT) so competitors won't be able to copy as quickly. It's not known if other handset makers will follow suit. bq. Companies'...
Dec 29 2004 - 08:40 PM ET | In The News
US wireless carriers are working to add more network capacity around Washington D.C. in preparation for the Presidential Inauguration. New to this Inauguration is widespread use of camera phones--analysts expect lots of MMS messages to be flying out of the...
Dec 29 2004 - 06:09 PM ET | Data
At least one analyst is expecting 2005 to be the year that mobile phones with MP3 playback become mainstream. MP3 ringtones are not an uncommon feature today, but handsets with quality playback for more than a ringtone is few and...
Dec 29 2004 - 05:45 PM ET | In The News
The FCC may auction off more wireless spectrum intended for 3G access as early as 2006. bq. The bands to be auctioned include 1710-1755 Megahertz and 2110-2155 MHz. The agency said it would try to sell licenses for airwaves in...
Dec 29 2004 - 12:05 PM ET | MVNO, Rumor
The Wall Street Journal says [paid subscription req.]that Time Warner Cable is close to inking an agreement with Sprint to become a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO). While the story isn't new (MobileTracker has been covering this rumor since June)...
The LG F9100 was approved today by the FCC. Inside the approval documents were the usual details. The LG F9100 has a focus on IM and looks to be a competitor to the slow-to-market Motorola A630. Features of the F9100...
Dec 28 2004 - 05:30 PM ET | Security
Get ready for a lot of similar mobile phone viruses--the source code for Cabir has been posted online on a message board. Virus writing group 29A was responsible for the virus and is also responsible for the source code leak:...
Dec 28 2004 - 02:06 PM ET | In The News
Ericsson has inked a contract to provide the indoor network for the world's tallest building--Taipei 101. The building got lots of press last weekend due to famed French free climber Alain Robert scaling all 101 floors. Such a large building...
Dec 28 2004 - 12:35 PM ET | Motorola, Rumor
Information on the Motorola V635 has been posted onto the FCC's website. The Motorola V635 is an update to the Motorola V620 which was itself an update to the Motorola V600. Features of the V635 include: * EDGE high-speed data...
Dec 28 2004 - 02:14 AM ET | T-Mobile
According to the Financial Times, T-Mobile USA parent company Deutsche Telekom has ruled out a possible T-Mobile acquisition, such as T-Mobile buying Nextel (a rumor we highlighted earlier this month). bq. Kai-Uwe Ricke, chief executive of Deutsche Telekom, has ruled...
Dec 28 2004 - 01:25 AM ET | Camera
The Wall Street Journal has a piece in today's issue [paid subscription req.] about images taken with camera phones only rarely making it off the phone: bq. Keeping images trapped on phones hurts the printer makers, which generate much of...
Dec 27 2004 - 12:36 PM ET | In The News
You can put in your nomination for the cell phone of the year in the first annual Engadget awards. There were a ton of new cell phones this year, so it's a wide open game. According to the rules, the...
Dec 27 2004 - 08:14 AM ET | Data
Israel's Communications Ministry has announced that mobile phone carriers must begin restricting access to adult content. The ruling was due to, "Complaints that too many children were exposed to erotic material." bq. The ministry said in a statement that it...
Dec 25 2004 - 12:00 AM ET | Site News
Merry Christmas to all of our readers. While we're still on the lookout for news, we don't expect there will be much to post between now and the new year. Reviews of the following devices should appear on the site...
Dec 24 2004 - 02:57 AM ET | Site News
After months of work, we're proud to release the second major design of the MobileTracker's history. It was a long time coming, but the final product is well worth the wait. Besides the new look, the site is now hosted...
Dec 23 2004 - 02:35 PM ET | Nokia
Nokia today announced a new version of its Lifeblog software. Nokia Lifeblog is a mobile phone and PC application that keeps an organized multimedia diary of the items collected with your mobile phone. The major update is the addition of...
Dec 23 2004 - 02:28 PM ET | Palm
PalmSource, makers of the Palm OS, today saw its stock [PSRC] hit an all time low. Back in October 2003 two companies were formed out of Palm: PalmOne (hardware) and PalmSource (software). Investors are reacting to a dismal outlook provided...
The Samsung i730 will ship with WiFi according to new documents posted by the FCC. This means the device will include Bluetooth, WiFi and EV-DO. Other features of the Samsung i730 include: * Megapixel camera * Sliding QWERTY keyboard *...
Dec 22 2004 - 05:40 PM ET | Data, Motorola
Motorola is looking to become a supplier for Sprint's future high-speed data upgrade. Besides the future EV-DO upgrade, Sprint's going to have a surplus of bandwidth suitable for WiMax: bq. It has said it would consider using the WiMax standard....
Dec 21 2004 - 05:53 PM ET | Nextel
Nextel is expected to get $452 million in additional credits for spectrum that it will gave up to the FCC to improve emergency communication (Nextel's phones have been interfering with 911 communications among other things). bq. If the FCC commissioners...
Dec 21 2004 - 05:40 PM ET | Security
Another new security notice for Series 60 owners--avoid a file claiming to be the game Metal Gear Solid with the file name METAL Gear.sis. According to security firm SimWorks, the virus looks for and then disables anti virus software: bq....
Research In Motion (RIM) today announced its 3rd quarter fiscal 2005 results. The company's quarter ended at the end of November. Here are the interesting figures: * $365.9 million in revenue, up 18% from previous quarter and up 138% from...
Dec 20 2004 - 05:33 PM ET | In The News
A new study out says that radiation from mobile phones harms DNA. There are many studies on both sides of the issue, but as the industry continues to grow the findings (especially negative findings) are becoming more and more newsworthy:...
Music Choice Today is a new music streaming service that is expected to be launched soon by Sprint PCS. Through Music Choice Today, Sprint customers will be able to have unlimited music streaming for $5.99 a month. The service is...
Dec 19 2004 - 08:09 PM ET | Nokia
Nokia is standing firm on its forecast for a 10% increase in mobile phone sales in 2005, despite other researchers predicting a fraction of the figure. bq. In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr [Jorma] Ollila (Nokia's CEO) said...
Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA are expected to lead the upcoming FCC spectrum auction. Cingular and Sprint have plenty of available spectrum thanks to mergers. bq. The Federal Communications Commission auction begins on Jan. 26, 2005 for 242 wireless licenses,...
Dec 19 2004 - 02:52 PM ET | Cingular
Cingular has placed the Ogo on its front page along with a new rebate that brings the price down too $49.99. Purchasers are directed to AT&T Wireless' site and told that the deal is only good for 1 week. At...
Dec 17 2004 - 04:41 PM ET | Motorola, Nextel
The Motorola i605 will be the first iDEN mobile phone from Motorola with Bluetooth. Destined for Nextel, the Motorola i605 will be a welcomed site--currently the BlackBerry 7520 is the only device carried by Nextel that offers Bluetooth. The feature...
Dec 17 2004 - 12:09 PM ET | T-Mobile
Merger rumors never cease--Forbes says that T-Mobile is interested in purchasing Nextel. bq. T-Mobile is a unit of Deutsche Telekom. There are strong reasons why T-Mobile might look seriously at its own bid for Nextel just as Verizon Communications is...
Dec 17 2004 - 11:58 AM ET | Data, DoCoMo
The future of wireless looks to be a showdown in wireless 1Gbps (1 gigabit per second) technology--just weeks after Siemens announced it was working on technology to transmit 1Gbps wirelessly, NTT DoCoMo announces the same thing. The last time DoCoMo...
Dec 16 2004 - 03:10 PM ET | Motorola
Some believe that Motorola's new phone with iTunes on board could be coming soon (even though others believe it will never make it to a popular phone). Apple's CEO, Steve Jobs, is giving a keynote speech in January that is...
Dec 16 2004 - 02:53 PM ET | Motorola, Nextel
In an attempt to ease investor's mind over the Sprint / Nextel merger (and eventual easing away from Motorola's iDEN technology), Motorola today announced a contract with Nextel to provide iDEN equipment for the next 3-years. Motorola supplies both the...
You can buy the LG VX8000 for just $249.99 through WireFly. Walter Mossberg has a review of two EV-DO compatible handsets in today's Wall Street Journal. The first is the Audiovox XV6600 (AKA PPC-6601). According to Mossberg, the XV6600 is...
Dec 16 2004 - 01:48 AM ET | Palm
Clever Treo 650 users have come up with a hack that enables WiFi SD cards to work with the Treo 650. The hacked driver is located here. The instructions are: # Copy the file to a SD card # Run...
Dec 15 2004 - 02:36 PM ET | In The News
There are several recent reports attempting to predict sales figures for cell phones for the next year. Most agree that while sales will continue to grow, the growth will be at a slower pace. A Japanese research group says demand...
Dec 15 2004 - 02:06 PM ET | Sprint Nextel
Om Malik provides some insightful analysis of the Sprint / Nextel merger. As many have said, one of the key points to this merger is the distance that will be put between T-Mobile USA and the rest of the leading...
As expected, Sprint and Nextel have come to a merger agreement. The ink is barely dry, but here's what is known: * Each Nextel common share will be converted into new company shares and a small per share amount of...
In today's Wall Street Journal is the news [paid subscription req.] that Sprint and Nextel are moving forward with the planned merger, despite a possible threat from #2 wireless carrier Verizon Wireless. A deal should be announced later today, keeping...
Dec 15 2004 - 04:10 AM ET | Nokia
In an effort to combat (now common) counterfeit batteries, Nokia has launched a new program that will allow consumers to accurately tell if a battery is made by Nokia. The security system consists of a hologram and a serial number...
The Sony Ericsson S710a was yesterday officially approved by the FCC. The phone is a Cingular exlusive that was slated to ship this month. Features of the S710a include: * 2.3 inch 262K color TFT display * EDGE high-speed data...
With this morning's report that Verizon talked to partner Vodafone about purchasing Sprint (despite Sprint attempting to purchase Nextel), the wireless industry has been abuzz. Several further reports have been filed since the Wall Street Journal's that set the whole...
The NTP Vs. Research In Motion case looks like it will be decided today. According to lawyers, the ruling has been, "Affirmed in part, reversed in part." Stock in Research In Motion [RIMM] has been on a high-volume roller coaster...
Dec 14 2004 - 01:11 PM ET | Nextel
Nextel has inked a deal with Yahoo to provide Yahoo! Mobile service to Nextel's subscribers. Nextel customers will now be able to access the following Yahoo services: * Yahoo! Mail * Yahoo! Messenger * Yahoo! Sports * Yahoo! News *...
The Sprint / Nextel merger story has just gotten a lot more interesting: The Wall Street Journal is reporting [paid subscription req.] another bombshell in today's issue: Verizon Wireless has gotten the OK from partner (and wireless giant) Vodafone to...
Dec 13 2004 - 11:14 PM ET | Motorola
Motorola stock took a beating last week after the Sprint / Nextel merger put fears into investor's minds (Nextel is a large Motorola customer). But analysts have now decided that the merger really wouldn't change much at Motorola: bq. Of...
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Sprint / Nextel merger may close as soon as Wednesday. The $35 billion deal is moving at lightspeed--word of the deal only broke on December 9th. This is in stark contrast to...
Dec 12 2004 - 10:47 PM ET | In The News
Samsung today announced the MMCmicro, a new low-power MMC card that is 1/3 the size of today's MMC cards. The MMCmicro is only 12x14x1.1mm or slightly smaller than TransFlash, a mini memory format Motorola has been backing lately. Initially, the...
Dec 12 2004 - 02:24 PM ET | Siemens
Siemens has admitted to looking at its options for what to do with the company's money losing mobile phone unit, but did not validate rumors that Siemens is selling the division. bq. A company spokesman said Siemens had made no...
Cingular today launched the Siemens SX66, a high-powered pocket PC smartphone. MobileTracker noted last month that Cingular had been advertising this phone in a mailer to customers, though a launch date was unknown at the time. Features of the Siemens...
Dec 10 2004 - 05:16 PM ET | In The News
A report out yesterday from the International Telecommunication Union says that mobile phone users have doubled since the year 2000. Besides outpacing the growth of fixed line phone service, new mobile phone users are also growing more quickly than new...
Another Wall Street Journal exclusive--Sprint and Nextel have reached a tentative agreement valued at $36 billion [paid subscription req.] concerning the proposed merger. bq. The talks, characterized as advanced negotiations, could still fall apart, but if things stay on track,...
Cingular Wireless has finally launched the Sony Ericsson Z500a through corporate retail stores. MobileTracker has been expecting this launch for quite some time thanks to an advertising campaign featuring the phone that started back in October. The phone is not...
Dec 10 2004 - 01:36 PM ET | In The News
The FCC will begin considering rules that would end the official ban on cellphone use on commercial airline flights in the US. This will be a controversial decision--airplanes are one of the last cell phone free zones. If the current...
Dec 10 2004 - 01:28 PM ET | Rumor
Mobile Market Watch Motorola stock took a beating after the proposed Sprint/Nextel merger rumor hit the wires yesterday (just after market closing, during afterhours trading). Stock in the company (Ticker: MOT) traded down nearly 8% today. If Sprint takes over...
Dec 10 2004 - 01:19 PM ET | T-Mobile
T-Mobile USA CEO Robert Dotson yesterday went on record saying that while T-Mobile will build a UTMS (3G) network, he does not see that happening in the next two years. Mr. Dotson also noted that T-Mobile has a $2.64 billion...
Breaking news: According [paid subscription req.] to the Wall Street Journal, Sprint and Nextel have entered merger negotiations. The merger would treat the two companies as equals. Sprint is the nation's third largest carrier while Nextel is the fifth (but...
Dec 08 2004 - 03:42 PM ET | Cingular
Cingular has announced that the company is using smaller antennas located within shopping malls to improve reception. The new tech is being installed in two states, Missouri and Kansas, though it's possible it will move to other markets in the...
Dec 08 2004 - 02:29 PM ET | Palm
PalmSource, maker of the PalmOS, has purchased a China MobileSoft Limited (CMS). CMS is making a version of Linux for mobile devices, which PalmSource intends to put into its own software: bq. PalmSource will continue to offer both Palm OS...
Dec 08 2004 - 12:18 PM ET | T-Mobile
As expected, T-Mobile today launched its ringback service called CallerTunes. This is a national launch, making T-Mobile the first national cell phone carrier to provide ring back service throughout the network. bq. As a CallerTunes subscriber, you can select audio...
Dec 07 2004 - 08:33 PM ET | Data, Siemens
Siemens today announced that researchers at the Siemens Communications Group department have developed wireless technology capabale of speeds up to 1 Gbit/sec (1000 megabits per second). WiFi currently tops out at around 50 megabits per second, which is still quite...
Dec 07 2004 - 05:08 PM ET | Data
An Indian movie destined for the big screen will first be seen on the small screen--the cell phone screen. bq. Arindham Chaudhary's much talked-about campus caper Rok Sako To Rok Lo will be premiered for Airtel subscribers on their cell-phones...
For the most part, MobileTracker has stayed out of the "Will Apple release a cell phone?" battle because the rumors are unsubstantiated, but today a music big shot went on record saying mobile phones may take out the iPod--one of...
It was just last week that we were talking about the possibility of Virgin Mobile India (it could still happen), but now the rumors are all about Virgin Mobile China. Richard Branson is in talks with a carrier in mainland...
LG Electronics has chosen the SavaJe OS for future mobile phones. The OS will be used on a range of 2.5 and 3G handsets starting in 2005. bq. SavaJe OS offers a total Java environment designed to provide operators, developers...
Dec 07 2004 - 09:47 AM ET | MVNO, Nextel
Boost Mobile, a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) based on the Nextel network, announced today that the company now has over 1 million customers. The company is marketing towards youth, a demographic that is not typically on Nextel (because of...
Sprint PCS today announced technical plans for its EV-DO network (high-speed data). The company has completed hashing out a deal worth $3 billion to create the network. Major beneficiaries of the network contracts are Lucent, Motorola and Nortel. The contracts...
Dec 06 2004 - 12:52 PM ET | Motorola
The FCC has given its stamp of approval to Motorola's upcoming MPx smartphone. The Motorola MPx is supposed to be here in early 2005. Features of the devvice include: * Dual hinged design for both phone and PDA functions (numeric...
Dec 06 2004 - 12:00 AM ET | Samsung
Update:T-Mobile has added the E315 back to the store, with a new lower price. For the next week you can snag the phone for free. It's not clear why the device was removed prior to the sale. T-Mobile USA recently...
Dec 03 2004 - 04:24 PM ET | Camera
Complicated billing for MMS (mutlimedia messages) have slowed the adoption rate of the technology, at least according to a report from analyst firm Canalys. bq. Although almost two thirds of mobile phones sold in the previous quarter had integrated cameras,...
The Skulls trojan horse we warned you about last month didn't do much since users had to install it themselves (that's why it's called a trojan). However there is now a new version out being called Skulls.B Worm that travels...
You can buy the LG PM-325 for just $29.99 through WireFly Sprint PCS today launched the LG PM-325. Due to having Bluetooth this phone is going to be in pretty hot demand (Sprint doesn't often ship a phone with Bluetooth)....
Cingular Wireless today increased its earnings outlook because of its buyout of AT&T Wireless. The company now expects positive cash flow in 2005, a full year ahead of schedule. Lately the company has been full of announcements, just yesterday the...
As expected, Cingular has started to ship the Siemens S66. As of today Cingular is listing it for $249.99 with a 2-year contract. Features of the Siemens S66 include: * VGA camera with 5x zoom and video capture * Bluetooth/IR...
Dec 01 2004 - 02:33 PM ET | In The News
A report from research group Gartner shows global handset sales up 26% for Q3 2004. Total sales reached 167 million mobile phones. However, the big news is a change in market share: Samsung edged out Motorola. Despite hot phones like...
Dec 01 2004 - 02:12 PM ET | MVNO
ESPN will team up with Sprint PCS to start a mobile virtual network operator called ESPN Mobile. Disney was widely expected to move in the MNVO space, so the announcemnet today comes at no surprise (Disney owns ESPN). As with...
Dec 01 2004 - 12:35 PM ET | Nextel
Nextel today began shipping its second BlackBerry device, the BlackBerry 7520. Nextel has been shipping the BlackBerry 7510 for 11 months. Features of the BlackBerry 7520: * Bluetooth (this is the first Bluetooth device from Nextel) * GPS * 65,000...
