Trusted Reviews has got the first shots of Fujitsu Siemens Graphics Booster. It is an external card you can hook to compatible notebooks which enhances the Graphics Power of your notebook. It also has DVI and HDMI outputs as well as two USB ports - perfect for an external keyboard and mouse. It also allows you to connect up to three displays to a single notebook, with two connected to the Graphic Booster and one to the video output on the notebook. 
Unfortunately, details as to exactly what you get and how much it'll cost are still unknown, but we're keen to see if it can turn some laptops into genuinely useful gaming machines.
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Well after Bharti's failed bid for MTN, another major Indian telecom company has jumped to buy MTN. This time it's Reliance Communications, India's No.2 mobile operator which is part of the Reliance ADAG Group.
MTN and Reliance Communications on Monday said they were in exclusive talks aimed at a potential combination of their businesses, that could create a USD 66 billion telecoms giant. Under the deal MTN would become a holding company of India`s No 2 mobile operator, and Ambani would in return get around a third in the South African firm, and keep an indirect holding of nearly 20 percent in Reliance Communications. This may result in a transfer of Chairman Anil Ambani`s two-thirds stake in the Indian firm to MTN.
That would trigger an open offer from MTN for another 20 percent of Reliance Communications, as Indian law mandates such an offer to shareholders after an acquisition of more than 15 percent of a company.
The management structure at MTN and RCom will remain unchanged but the companies may opt for a common board of directors eventually. MTN is Africa’s biggest phone firm with networks in 21 countries spanning South Africa to Nigeria to Iran. It has more than 68 million customers to RCom’s 45 million in India. MTN is valued at some $38 billion by market capitalization against RCom’s $28 billion.
This will be the second attempt by Reliance to try and beef up through deals. The company lost out to Vodafone in an auction for Hutchison Essar Ltd, in part because its advisers didn’t anticipate India’s mobile phone market will continue to expand as rapidly as it has done and the company failed to raise its bid. Seems like it's trying to catch up this time 
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After starting merger talks with African Telecom Giant MTN, Indian Telecom Major Bharati Airtel has said that it has ended merger talks with MTN. MTN has now presented a completely different structure, from what was agreed,'' Bharti said in the statement. ``Bharti has decided to disengage from the ongoing talks and has conveyed the same to MTN. 
The collapse of the talks ends Bharti Chairman Sunil Mittal's plans to unite two companies with a combined market value of more than $70 billion that would offer mobile-phone services to 1.7 billion people stretching from the Cape of Good Hope to the Himalayas. Bharti's departure may open the door for potential bidders such as Emirates Telecommunications Corp.
Bharti said it ended the talks late yesterday after MTN presented a new structure in which Bharti Airtel would become a subsidiary of the South African company. The Bharti family and Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. would have had to exchange their majority stake in Bharti Airtel for a controlling stake in MTN, according to the structure, Bharti said.
Dropping the bid will allow Bharti to focus its investments on maintaining dominance in India's market and fend off competition from Reliance Communications Ltd. and Vodafone Group Plc. Mumbai-based Reliance, India's second-largest operator, is rolling out a second network this year.
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Nokia E66 has passed the FCC. For those who don't know about the Nokia E66, it's a Quad-Band Phone with 3G, Wi-fi & Bluetooth present. It also features a 3.2 mp Auto Focus Camera & is a successor of the E65.
Well it's leaked a couple of times so it's better Nokia release it soon. This might be one of the rarest Nokia's to pass FCC before being released.
We'll have to wait & see if AT&T or T-Mobile picks it up in USA. If anyone of these major carrier picks it up and positions it as a rival to Blackberry then Nokia can expect an upswing in their US market share. Even if no one picks it up, we can buy it unlocked.
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If you own a Blackberry Device and stay in India there's good news for you. 
RIM, not wanting to get kicked out of the potentially lucrative Indian wireless market, has apparently had its hand forced by the Indian government.
Following on government officials' threats to ban RIM from the country if a workable network-monitoring deal wasn't worked out in a timely fashion, RIM has announced that they have come to terms with the Indian government. 
It took a little longer than India's 15-day ultimatum, but India and RIM have agreed that RIM would be allowed to provide BlackBerry service in India with the provision that India can keep tabs on all BlackBerry network-data. But, it seems that privacy and data security aren't as important to RIM as is their PR stance. RIM's only demand from India is that the country take full blame should any data/information get leaked out.
Well if you are concerned about your data and privacy being leaked then look at the bright side, at least you get to use the Blackberry in India.
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Notebook Review is reporting that Fujitsu-Siemens is prepping up a External Graphics card for notebooks. A leaked presentation of the company gave away the details.
The AMILO GraphicBooster is based on "ATI XGP" technology and makes it possbile for Fujitsu Siemens AMILO notebook owners to upgrade their graphics card, something that was not possible in the past. Fujitsu claims a 4.7X performance improvement 
with the GraphicBooster versus the graphics of a "small form factor" AMILO notebook, which are most likely integrated.
The following graph shows that an AMILO notebook with the GraphicBooster can get up to 8,000 points in what is presumably 3DMark06:
While on the go, users can leave the GraphicBooster behind and enjoy long battery life courtesy of their onboard graphics solution. The GraphicBooster allows users to connect up to three external displays to their notebook: it includes DVI-D and HDMI connections. It is unclear how this device connects to the notebook itself and whether it will work with other notebooks besides Fujitsu Siemens AMILOs.
No pricing details are available at this time, and some specifics remain unclear, but this is a promising device. It will allow users to buy an ultra portable or even a portable laptop and still be able to game complex games and be free of the Integrated Graphics of their notebooks.
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John Mayer has posted pictures of his brand new factory-blessed BlackBerry 9000 Bold on his blog.
John is apparently impressed with not only the high-resolution display, but also the fonts that RIM decided to use on the BlackBerry Bold.
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The iPhone's design is easily recognizable around the world. There's no denying Apple's ability to churn out eye-pleasing creations that have tech-heads drooling for more clean lines and minimalist style. But Samsung is soon going to challenge iPhone with a Windows Mobile based Touch Screen phone.
The Samsung SGH-i900 has style and substance in it. There's a full-body, 3.5-inch (240×400) touchscreen and Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, the Samsung i900 gives Windows Mobile fans a chance to one-up iPhone owners. And, with a feature-set that includes HSDPA, WiFi, FM radio, 5 megapixel camera, TV-out, 16GB of onboard storage, microSDHC card slot, and Bluetooth 2.2 with A2DP along with huge 1500 mAH battery - all packed into a 112×56×13mm package, the Samsung i900 easily outpaces the current iPhone's meager offerings. And, there's some sort of fingerprint-scanner/touch-sensitive navigation pad at the bottom of the display.
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Images of the highly anticipated Sony Ericsson P5i have been leaked again. The Camera performance of the P5i is not upto the mark but it should be rectified and refined in the retail version. Also the same holds true for the GPS performance of the P5i. The real disappointed however is the inclusion of the same 208 Mhz processor seen in the M600 & P1i. The P5i also includes 128 MB RAM, Touch Buttons under the screen & UIQ 3.3 which was unveiled recently.
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Following Vodafone's stunning announcement that it had landed a massive deal with Apple to distribute the iPhone in 10 countries Orange has today revealed a virtually identical agreement and in virtually identical style.
Vodafone had signed a contract to bring iPhone to Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey.
Exactly ten additional countries will come under Orange's grasp and, just like Vodafone, the network has chosen an equally short and low-key press release:
Paris, 16 May, 2008
Orange brings the iPhone to customers in Europe, Middle East and Africa. Orange today announced a new agreement with Apple to bring the iPhone to Orange customers in Austria, Belgium, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, Jordan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Switzerland and Orange's African markets later this year.
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Kevin of Notebook Review has reviewed the Asus M70 notebook. The M70 is a true desktop replacement with 1TB of storage space. Also present are ATI 3650 Graphics Card with upto 1GB of Video Memory, Intel Core2Duo T9300 2.5 Ghz CPU, 17" UXGA 1920x1200 screen, Blue-ray drive & TV Tuner.
All this comes at a price of $2,399.99
He tries to find out if the M70 does justice as a gaming machine in addition to it's multimedia capabilities for watching HD Movies. He also gauges the performance of the notebook to see if it delivers what it promises at the steep price.
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Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL) is poised to launch Mobile TV next month, signalling just how far the pervading influence of this service is spreading globally. MTNL will initially have 21 channels on their platform.
With Mobile TV, slowly but surely, we are witnessing the mobilization of what was a "lean-back", in-home service, in to a "watch anywhere, anytime" on-demand service. In some countries, as has been the case with simple voice calls, we may well even see the consumption of TV primarily via the mobile (data) medium, rather than via a cable/satellite system.
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Telefonia Europe CEO Matthew Key has stated there will be an announcement from Cupertino about the impending 3G iPhone in "the coming weeks". There is already talk of the 3G iPhone being launched in MacWorld in June.
When pressed further Key expanded slightly explaining "That's more of a question for Apple ... but over the coming weeks we will do a joint announcement with Apple as Telefonica Group". Given that Telefonia owns O2, Key was also forced to fend off suggestions O2 gave Apple too much for the exclusive UK rights to the famed handset when it agreed to an unprecedented revenue sharing business model pointing to the company's impressive Q1 results announced today.
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Research in Motion (RIM) has launched it's first HSDPA enabled handset and it comes with WiFi and GPS backing it up. A 480 x 320 pixel display is also the highest resolution screen in the company's history while it features a style makeover and heavily redesigned software interface courtesy of BlackBerry OS v4.6. The 624MHz CPU at the heart of the Bold is also the fastest RIM has employed to date.
A full page rendering web browser is in there too (to take on iPhone, Android & Nokia S60 Phones) and for multimedia fans it has a 3.5mm headphone jack, it will play all the usual audio and video codecs while the new 'BlackBerry Media Sync' will sync with iTunes for non-DRM infected files. Call life is good as well at up to five hours talk time and up to 13 hours on standby (no doubt with WiFi, Bluetooth et al turned off). At 114 x 66 x 13mm and 133gms, the Bold is also no more bulky than an iPhone which measures 115 x 61 x 11.6 mm and 135 gms.
Well there's no touchscreen tech in there and the 2MP camera is kinda weak in this day with Nokia, Samsung, Sony-Ericsson & LG all having 5 mp cams and Motorola soon to follow suit. Furthermore the 1GB of internal memory isn't overly generous in these of handsets with 8GB & 16GB of storage like iPhone & N96, though it can be bolstered by the ubiquitous microSD slot, which is also in N96. In short it's pretty good for the executive on move with his entertainment needs also taken care of. Now let's just wait for the BlackBerry 9500 'Thunder' .
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Here are a few pics of HTC Touch Diamond in action. HTC had announced Touch Diamond a little while back but the phone will not be out in the near future.
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Creative introduced its latest Sound Blaster product, the X-Fi Surround 5.1, which connects via USB. System requirements are as follows:
- Windows Vista, Windows XP
- Pentium 4 1.6GHz/AMD Athlon XP 2000+
- USB port (USB 2.0 recommended)
- 256MB RAM (XP)/512MB RAM (Vista)
- 600MB hard drive space
- CD/DVD-ROM drive
- Headphones or speakers
The X-Fi Surround 5.1 features Creative technologies such as X-Fi Xtreme Fidelity, CMSS 3D, EAX Advanced HD, and ALchemy 3D Audio. The device is currently available from Creative direct for $59.99.
This is the second Creative Product in the X-Fi range after the Creative X-Fi Xtreme Audio Notebook Express Card.
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Official pricing for the MSI Wind has been revealed. The US will only get the 10-inch version and will be available with Windows XP and Linux. The expected availability date is June 3. The following configurations will be available:
SuSE Linux version
- 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor
- 512MB RAM
- 80GB HDD
- 3-cell battery; 2.5 hours battery life
Price $399
Windows XP version will have all of the above specifications with the following changes/additions :
- 1GB RAM
- Bluetooth
- 6-cell battery: 5.5 hours battery life
Price $549
A lower priced $500 Windows XP version should also be available, but there are no details on specs for that price point.
The MSI Wind will be available in four colors, including black, white, silver, and pink.
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Panasonic has launched a Wi-Fi compatible digital camera, the TZ50, that comes with a year's free use of T-Mobile's Hotspot service in the US. The TZ50 is, essentially a TZ5 with Wi-Fi but the new tie-up allows users to upload to their Picasa Web Albums while out and about. There is no word yet on a similar tie-up or camera for European customers.
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Ricky Cadden, over on Mobile Burn, takes a long hard look at the Sony Ericsson W960 Walkman phone, and finds a mixed bag, from a bright screen to a cheap stylus, a poor camera interface and of course a long look at music playback functionality, which gets a strong thumbs up albeit with a wish for a built in 3.5mm headphone socket and the ability to playback by genre. Ultimately the W960 comes up short in Cadden's estimation with a poor user interface, slow USB transfer and clunky camera to blame.
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Engadget is reporting that the iPhone is not available in the UK. The 2G Version was being pushed with a discount by O2 in the UK. They were also not replenishing the stock. Now they've run out of it.
iPhone, at least in its 2G version, is officially dead in the UK. And even though we knew this is coming, O2 UK obviously wanted to make things clear, hence their iPhone page has a simple "iPhone no longer available" sentence. This in return prompts a question when will the 3G iPhone be released, and who will get the honor to carry it. Hopefully, we'll know sooner rather than later. June seems like a month to look forward to… Source : Engadget
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Opera has formally updated Opera Mini, the proxy-based web browser, to version 4.1. With a speed increase compared to v4.0, and the addition of URL completion and the saving of web pages, the little browser that lets the server at the end of the connection do all the heavy lifting continues to improve in leaps and bounds. While the built in browsers on S60 handsets have significantly improved over the years, Opera Mini, while targetted at lower-powered phones, still packs a feature set that makes it a contender.
Opera Mini 4.1 lets you have the full Web everywhere. This newest release includes several new features, including automatic completion of web addresses, making it easier to get to the sites you need; tools for attaching files to web-based email; uploading photos to your blog or other site; downloading attachments from email for storage on your phone; and saving and viewing pages offline.
The new Opera Mini takes your mobile browsing experience to a new level of interactivity with both the phone and the Web. Opera Mini 4.1 improves the way Opera Mini interacts with your phone to make browsing more convenient, more productive and definitely more fun.
New in Opera Mini 4.1
Now even faster
Prior to this release, we upgraded our servers and Opera Mini now receives your requested web pages up to 50% faster. So you can now access sites like Facebook, BBC, and any of your other favorite web sites even faster, with Desktop-like speeds.
Find things faster
Even though scrolling to your Web content is already easy with Opera Mini, the new Opera Mini 4.1 lets you search for text within a Web page so you can get to the information you need even quicker than before.
Get your to your web sites faster
Now you can stop wasting time typing in full web addresses more than once while browsing. When typing web addresses, Opera Mini 4.1 will recognize and suggest completions for you based on your Bookmarks and browsing history, making address input faster, easier and much more intuitive.
Download and upload files
On phones with JSR-75, you can now upload and download files using Opera Mini 4.1 , without being re-routed to your phone’s native browser. Update your blog while on the go. Upload photos to your web site or social network. Add attachments easily to web-based email, and download other non media-rich content to your phone using Opera Mini 4.1 .
Save it for later
On phones with JSR-75, Opera Mini 4.1 lets you save pages for offline viewing so you can quickly access and read your desired Web content, even when you’re on a plane, in the subway, or in other places where you can’t get network reception. Depending on your phone, you may need to choose a destination folder for storing pages for offline viewing.
Existing Top Features
Sync bookmarks and Speed Dial
Opera Mini 4.1 features Opera Link, which allows you to synchronize your bookmarks and Speed Dial shortcuts with a computer running Opera 9.50 or other mobile device running Opera Mini 4.
To use Opera Link with Opera Mini, simply choose “Synchronize Opera” from within Opera Mini and enter your current My Opera login details (or register a free My Opera account) to synchronize your bookmarks between your phone and your computer. Access and edit the bookmarks from any other browser by going to the Opera Link page.
View pages in Landscape mode
To view the Web on a wider screen, just hit * # and flip your phone to the side to enjoy browsing in Landscape mode. Change your default view to landscape by turning “Landscape mode” on inside the Settings menu.**
Give your phone a mouse
Opera Mini gives your phone a virtual mouse, so you can easily scroll in any direction. Move the mouse cursor towards what you want, and then it quickly snaps your view to the link or content.
Power scrolling shortcuts
Scroll at warp speed using your phone keypad. Find your way around on the web pages quicker by using your phone’s number keys. Press 2 to go up, 4 to go left, 6 to go right and 8 to go down. Hitting 5 zooms you in and out.
Create custom search shortcuts
Just like in Opera for your computer, you can create your own web search from any search field on the Internet using Opera Mini 4.1 . Simply click on the search field that you want to grab on a web page and then choose “Create search” within your menu alternatives. Then you can enjoy making frequent searches without having to type in the site link again.
Tools and support for web designers
We support web designers who want to make their web sites look even better to those browsing with Opera Mini. In this Opera Mini 4.1 , we have included all of the CSS support that web designers need to make their web pages look pixel perfect on in the mobile web world.
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Bharti Airtel is interested in taking a controlling stake in South Africa’s MTN but it will depend on the price. Apart from pricing Bharti will also have to deal with counter bids from other operators who are also eyeing an entry into the African market. No operator other than Bharti has so far admitted to the interest in the South African company, Vodafone has even said that it will not bid for MTN.
Meanwhile, Bharti has roped in Singapore Telecom to be part of the discussions with MTN. SingTel holds about 30 per cent stake in Bharti Airtel and would have got involved in any case but sources said that the Singapore-based company may play a more active role. MTN’s market cap of $35 billion compares with $42 billion for Bharti. MTN’s 68 million wireless subscriber base also compares with Bharti’s 62 million.
If the deal goes through then Bharti and MTN would become the fifth largest mobile operator in the world with a significant presence in Africa, India and West Asia. It will also give Bharti a footprint in the African telecom market which has been dominated by local operators and European majors, including Vodafone Group and France Telecom.
One of the key issues for Bharti will be to raise funds for the acquisition. Reports suggest that the company is already in talks with a number of institutions including Standard Chartered, Deutsche Bank and J P Morgan. Bharti may have to cough up as much $20 billion for a 51 per cent stake.
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GSM Arena has unearthed spy pics of P5i. They are better than the earlier leaked pics and looks like the announcement is very near. The phone has slider form factor, M2 card slot, the proprietary QWERTY keyboard of Sony Ericsson M600, a 5 megapixel camera with lens cover and a secondary videocall camera located at the front panel. The display will be a touchscreen one - a stylus is tucked in the upper right corner of the body.
These guys also spotted a dedicated music key on the right side of the Sony Ericsson P5, which probably is used for the shake control or other accelerometer-based function. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any side scroll wheel on the left side.
So far from previous leaks it is known that Sony Ericsson P5 is supposed to run on the latest UIQ 3.3 UI for Symbian. Other goodies include the built-in GPS receiver, Wi-Fi, and HSDPA connectivity. Impressive enough, no one can't wait to see it finally announced.
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The iPhone rival handset from Research in Motion (RIM), the BlackBerry 9500 Thunder is reportedly going to be launched in Q3 2008 according to the Wall Street Journal. Verizon will get the exclusive launch rights for the U.S., while the rest of the world will at least initially be able to grab the gorgeous device through one of many Vodafone's subsidiaries.
E-ten is gearing towards launching its latest handset, Glofiish DX900, at Computex tradeshow in Taipei, June 3-7.The new smartphone looks pretty much the same as many of E-ten's previous models, but specs wise it's a different beast.
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