HTC has added a new slider phone with GPS support to its range of Windows Mobile handsets for business users and professionals.

The HTC S740, available from September, is a compact handset with a slide-out qwerty keyboard for messaging and features the striking styling seen on HTC's Touch Diamond consumer phone, introduced earlier this year.

“The HTC S740 combines a powerful, premium phone with a full slide-out keypad in a compact and sleek form factor. Clearly, one size does not fit all and the S740 will play an important role in expanding our growing portfolio of devices, " said HTC's European vice president, Dr Florian Seiche.

With its 12-key keypad and full-slide-out Qwerty keyboard for messaging, the S740 follows in the footsteps of the earlier S730 and S710 models, but features a four-row keyboard for easier text entry.

The S740 is the first of HTC's compact slider phones with GPS capability, and ships with Google Maps to provide navigation. It also supports HSDPA mobile networks at speeds of up to 7.2 Mbps and has 802.11b/g Wi-Fi.

Based on the Standard edition of Microsoft's Windows Mobile 6.1 platform, the S740 has 256MB memory and 256MB Flash storage and weighs 140g with its 1000mAh battery pack fitted. It has a 2.4in 320 x 240 display and storage can be expanded via a single slot for MicroSD Flash memory cards.

HTC has yet to disclose pricing for the handset, which will be available from resellers and is also likely to be adopted by one or mobile operators in future.

Leading mobile handset manufacturers Nokia and Samsung are planning to launch touch screen phones to take on mighty Apple iPhone.

Apple iPhone launch in India a few days ago seems to have threatened the leading mobile handset manufacturers in India. They fear that the more lucrative market of top end mobile phones would be affected with iPhone’s launch in India.

Their fear is more keeping in mind the long-term implications of the Apple iPhone in an emerging market like India.

India is the fastest expanding telecom market in the world. Only last month telecom companies added a record more than 9 million mobile subscribers in the country, making a history of sorts.

A total 9.06 million telephone connections were added during July 2008 as compared to 8.81 million connections added in June 2008. The total number of telephone connections reached 334.84 million at the end of July 2008 as compared to 325.78 million in June 2008. The overall tele-density in the country is 29.08% at the end of July 2008 as against 28.33% in June 2008.

Keeping in mind the expanding Indian market and the implications of iPhone launch Nokia will try to woo the high end customers. It is now planning to launch an affordable touch phone before the end of the year.

Samsung too is in the fray to take on iPhone. Samsung OMNIA (SGH-i900) which incorporates features like touchscreen,and GPS will be launched shortly in India. HTC Touch Diamond with TouchFLO 3D user interface integrated with a GPS navigation system and the LG KF700 which features a combination of touchscreen technology with alphanumeric keypad, are all ready to replace the expensive Apple iphone.

Original Post Khabrein

Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL), one of the leading telecom players in CDMA sector, will launch GSM services early next year and BlackBerry push-email services in three months, a top official said Saturday.

'The company will invest $2 billion for setting up nationwide services on GSM network over the next two years,' TTSL managing director Anil Sardana told reporters.

'BlackBerry soft launch is already done. For official launch, the company is waiting for logistics arrangement, which should be done before year end,' he added.

The company had earlier this year made public its intention to offer the push-email services in collaboration with Research in Motion (RIM), the makers of BlackBerry phones.

'We have been told that the BlackBerry services do not have scope for lawful interception, may be because it does not have a server in India and it may be difficult to monitor the content,' Sardana had said then.

Presently, Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, Reliance and BPL Mobile are offering BlackBerry services.

RIM later assured the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) that it would sort out the BlackBerry tangle by initiating discussions between security agencies of Canada and India.

TTSL, which currently has 27 million subscribers and expects 40 million customers in its subscriber base by the end of this year, has already acquired spectrum for GSM services in south India.

'We have licence for six circles including Andhra Pradesh, Chennai, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, where we will be launching GSM services by fiscal 2009,' he said.

The company will also roll out services in Orissa and Kerala, the other two circles where it has acquired the spectrum.

Recently, Reliance Infocom, Tata's main competitor in the CDMA space, has launched GSM services as part of a pilot project in Delhi. Reliance has acquired licenses to operate GSM services in 14 circles last year.

Speaking about mobile number portability (MPP), Sardana said: 'we are in favour of the policy as we believe this will give a boost to our business.'

MNP, if implemented, will enable subscribers to change their operators while retaining their numbers.

Speaking about the recently released 3G guidelines and the upcoming start of the auctioning process, he said the company will offer a number of value-added services (VAS) like multi-casting, high speed web browsing, voice over internet protocol (VoIP), video streaming using the 3G technology.

The company which was last month in the news for a dispute with the state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) over non-payment of access deficit charge (ADC), expects its revenue to grow to Rs.250 million with 50,000 broadband customers in 2008-09.

'The case is now in the purview of the Supreme Court and hence remains sub-judice,' Sardana said.

News By Yahoo!

Spice Mobile launching Spice X-1, that comes with a dedicated gaming console and is preloaded with variety of games.

Users can either connect the gaming console to the phone to play or use the phone's dedicated gaming keys. The 2.4-inch display has auto rotate feature and the phone features a 2-GB expandable memory card slot.

The phone is equipped with Yamaha-amplified 3-D surround-sound, a 2 MP camera, FM radio with Record-and-Play feature and stereo Bluetooth.

The Spice X-1 comes pre-loaded with an Opera mini-web browser and WAP/MMS/GPRS features and costs Rs. 8,899.

Read Original Articles on Tech2

Samsung Telecommunications India (STI), has announced the launch of its full touch screen, ultra-slim lifestyle segment mobile phone – the Samsung TouchWiz (F480)- in the Indian market.

The TouchWiz is being launched to coincide with the Olympic Games 2008.

Announcing the launch of this new phone, Sunil Dutt, Country Head, Samsung Telecommunications India, said, "Given the growing consumer interest in touch screen phones , the Samsung TouchWiz offers a brilliant full touch navigation experience; widgets with 'Drag and Drop' technology and User Interface with Haptic Feedback which makes the experience of using the phone highly interactive and easy."

The TouchWiz has 'drag and drop' technology, which allows widgets to be selected from the left panel of the screen and dropped anywhere on the home screen. Since the Widgets comprise widely used applications like clock, calendar, alarms, music player, FM, games and profiles, this equips the user to set hotkeys on the touch menu for all these functions as they please. Haptic feedback offers a tangible feedback when a user makes a selection on the touch screen.

The phone encased in a metal body with a leather cover, features a 2.8-inch TFT LCD display and has a 5.0 Megapixel camera with face detection, image stabilizer, auto focus, CMOS video lens and Wide Dynamic Range (WDR). It also includes the 'Auto Smile Shot' feature - making its worldwide debut - that enables the camera to detect when a person is smiling and automatically take a picture when in the 'Smile shot' mode.

The Samsung TouchWiz is equipped with 240MB of internal memory, which can be expanded up to 8GB via the microSD memory card slot. It is compatible with GPRS, EDGE, 3G, HSDPA (7.2mbps) networks and functions on GSM 900/1800/1900, and WCDMA 2100 bands.

The Samsung TouchWiz costs Rs. 20,990.

Original Article on Tech2