Huawei Unveils 4 Android Handsets and an Internet Device

Chinese handset maker Huawei is in Barcelona and it's not to see what the competition is up to. They've just pulled the curtain back on 4 brand new Android handsets, the U8300, U8100, U8110, and the U8800. In addition to that, they've also announced a SmaKit S7. Let's take a quick look at each of them, shall we?

U8300

The U8300 is targeted at the youth market, integrates social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter, features a QWERTY keypad, and is designed to allow for chatting and texting in comfort. Look for the u8300 in three 'bright' colors - green, yellow and purple.

u8100

Up next, the U8100 and U8110, are the same phone on the inside. The outside however might appeal to different segments (read boys versus girls). These are considered entry-level handsets although we don't have a complete list of specs. What we do know is that they both have 2.8-inch QVGA touchscreens, a 0.3 mega pixel camera in the front and a 3.2 mega pixel camera in the rear. Both of these models are expected in Europe at some point in Q2 of this year.

u8110

The high-end handset,the U8800 runs Android 2.1, offers support for HSPA+ (14 Mb/s download), a 3.8-inch screen and more. With the right network and ideal situations, this phone can download a 400Mb feature-length movie file in under a half minute. As far as carriers, price, or availability go, we're still waiting to hear more.

u8800

Huawei is also introducing their first Android-based Internet Device, the SmaKit S7. Featuring a 7-inch wide screen (800x480 resolution), it's designed to support 'information-sharing across screens to present the same content simultaneously on computers, mobile phones and TV screens'. A screen this size makes it easy to read emails, tweet, and stay connected to friends and family. The SmaKit S7 can also be connected to home gateway, TV, and of course, Android handset.



Be sure to check back with us as we fill in the blanks with the hardware specs and various Android builds for each phone!

[AndroidGuys]

BREAKING: AT&T and Others Announcing Rival to Apple App Store

Twelve of the world’s biggest phone networks – including AT&T, Orange and Telefonica – will announce their rival technology tomorrow to Apple’s App Store. The combined audience for the app platform will be 2 billion customers. Phone manufacturers Samsung, LG and Sony Ericsson are also part of the alliance.
The announcement is expected to take place at tomorrow’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, writes the Times, and will be good news for consumers. With the fragmentation of app stores from Apple, Android and others, many handsets and operators will now support a single standard of apps that work across multiple devices.
There’s no word if there will be a single app store, but a single standard for apps on devices from multiple networks is expected. It’s also unclear if the technology itself will be unveiled tomorrow — we may simply see a statement of intent.
[Mashable]

SIMFi Transforms Any (SIM) Phone Into a Wi-Fi Hotspot [Cellphones]

First, the Eye-Fiadded Wi-Fi to any camera with an SD card. Now, the Sagem Orga SIMFi does something similar. It's a SIM card that adds Wi-Fi capabilities to cellphones...Wi-Fi hotspot capabilities, that is.
Just like the Eye-Fi, the SIMFi runs its own integrated software, meaning there shouldn't be any special setup on your phone. You pretty much just plug it into a phone and you're good to connect a laptop, or any other Wi-Fi device, to the internet at 3G speeds.
But whether or not the SIMFi is coming to market under its own branding is unknown. For the time being, it may just be a proof of concept that's being shopped around to interested entities like AT&T or T-Mobile. You know, so someone can charge you an extra monthly fee for the thing.
[Gizmodo via Sagem Ogra via SlashGear]

Micro SIM Cards: Just Like a SIM Card, But a Lil' Smaller [Micro SIM]

One of the new bits of iPad viscera announced by Steve Jobs, besides the A4 chip, is that it's using a micro-SIM card for its 3G powers. What, pray tell, is a micro-SIM card?

It's the next generation of SIM card—3FF or third form factor—which is physically smaller, with less blubber around the shiny gold contact area, as you'll notice in this helpful picture from Wikipedia. The contact area, where the technobloop happens, is the same size, so it's backward-compatible with a physical adapter. But it fits in more stuff! Like a bigger internal phonebook that'll has room for emails, and a new authentication scheme that fights carrier spoofing.
Because it's the same size and stuff electrically, there's a chance you'll be able to shave down regular old SIM cards—so they'll physically fit in the slot—and use them in a micro SIM slot. Though we'll see how well that works when we get our hands on some stuff—like an iPad—to play with.
[Gizmodo via PC Mag, Engadget]

Better MultiMediaCards: Toshiba announces world’s first 64GB embedded NAND flash memory module

Toshiba has announced today the launch of the world’s first 64GB NAND chips that are fully compatible with the so-called e-MMC standard (embedded MultiMediaCard) established last year. The new modules were produced by combining 16 32Gbit NAND chips with Toshiba’s proprietary 32nm process technology and include a controller.
The modules are just 30mm thick and can be used in smartphones, netbooks and digital cameras. You’ll be able to store 1,070 hours of music or 8.3 hours of full HD video on them.

Toshiba says samples are already available and mass production (3 million units a month) will start next month. The company introduced 32GB NAND packages just in spring this year.
[CrunchGear]

HTC’s 1H 2010 portfolio leaked, pictured and speced

If you live and die by HTC, you might be very excited to know that the company’s portfolio for the first half of 2010 has been leaked online. HTC’s portfolio was presented in Vienna back in October in a global meeting, and now it’s available for us to see. The phones are broken down by category: Design, Performance, Social and Productivity (can’t a phone be two or more?). Lined up are a number of Windows Mobile 6.5 devices and Android devices, so we hope you’re sitting down for this one. Hit the break to see how the phones are broken down by category and to see some images of the devices themselves!

Under Design and Lifestyle, we have the Legend and Salsa and they’re both Android devices. The Legend is set to be available in March 2010 and the Salsa is slated for June 2010.









Under the Social category, HTC has the Tide and the Buzz. Both are Android devices and scheduled for April and May 2010, respectively.









For Performance, HTC has the Bravo and it definitely looks like it’s packing a lot of high-powered hardware. It has a Snapdragon QSD 8250 1GHz CPU, is capable of 720p HD video recording, 3.7″ WVGA AMOLED screen, a 16GB MicroSD card in-box and a 1400 mAh battery. It’s slated for April 2010 and yes, it will also be packing Android as its choice OS.





For the Productivity category, HTC has the Photon, Trophy and Tera and these will all be WinMo 6.5 devices. The Photon and Trophy are coming in April and May 2010, respectively, but we’re not quite sure on the date for the Tera yet. If we had to guess, it would be in June 2010 following the first two.













[Boy Genius Report via XDA Developers]