China Mobile Crosses Half Billion Users

China Mobile is the leading mobile operators in the world when it comes to mobile services and now the company has crossed half billion mobile users in China. Now 38% of the Chinese mobile users use services from China Mobile, which is just unbelievable and recently Apple has started offering its popular iPhone on China Mobile, which will add more to the increasing number of China Mobile's subscribers.

New Samsung Pixon has 3X Optical Zoom

Remember the imaging phone from Samsung with massive 12 meg snapper, this time an upgraded version of the same Pixon has popped up and now its sports a 3X optical Zoom along with the digital zoom. This makes the Pixon 12 a perfect convergence of a mobile phone and a standard digital camera. These details were revealed in a press photo that popped up and looking at that photo its seems that only Koreans will get their hands on the Pixon 12 with 3X optical zoom, as Anycall is the name under which Samsung sells its mobile phones in Korea.This new upgraded version of the Pixon 12 will be hit with the shutterbugs thanks to its 3X optical zoom and dual Xenon flash, which makes it super cool. The Pixon 12 (without the 3X optical zoom) was recently launched in India.

Very Very Affordable Samsung Corby Comes to India

Samsung has launched its affordable, social media focused Corby in India. Few days back Samsung also announced the Samsung Corby Txt and the Corby Pro but they are yet to come to India. The Corby range of phones have been positioned by Samsung as social media focused phones. By affordable, I mean its one of the cheapest touch screen handset in India from a mainstream mobile phone OEM. The Corby will retail in India at a price tag of INR 9,600. The kind of features that Corby offers looks impressive on paper with 2.8 inch QVGA screen powered by Samsung's TouchWiz UI, gesture control and one finger zoom. The phone does not have Wi-Fi but has EDGE and GPRS connectivity, Bluetooth (A2DP), 2 meg snapper, microSD card support, FM radio with RDS and the most unique feature of the phone is that it supports live feeds from sites like Twitter, Facebook and mySpace. I guess this phone will do good in the Indian market, thanks to its cheap price tag and social media support. Social networking and micro blogging is on the rise in India and Samsung its seems is the first one in India to take advantage of this situation. Wonder what companies like Nokia and Sony Ericsson have as an answer to this cheap touch screen handset, which is socially active.

Google Introduces Local Search for Mobile

Google has introduced new local search for mobile that works closely and integrates with Google maps on your computer. It also includes categories that can be browsed and let you search for information without typing. Read more at the Google Mobile Blog. Google hit the right spot with a lot of mobile applications like Google Maps and now this local search feature is really cool, without typing it lets you search information for local products and services.

Symbian Handset Shipments to Double by 2014

Though Symbian as a mobile OS is facing stiff competition from other mobile OS platforms like the iPhone OS and RIM's BlackBerry OS,Symbian powered handset shipments would double by 2014. This research has been made by Juniper Research. There will be 180 million Symbian powered handsets in 2014. Currently there are 87 million Symbian powered handsets. Apart from these main three, handsets powered by open source OS Android and LiMo. Recently Symbian Foundation also entered into the open source mobile OS race and faces competition from Android and LiMo to start with. Though Symbian is a leading Smart phone OS overall it is facing competition from RIM and Apple's iPhone OS, which are steadily eating into its share. Symbian is backed by the market leader Nokia and also by a strong developer community; these two might be the reasons why Symbian handset shipments will double by 2014.

Buy Metallica Live Recordings via LiveMetallica iPhone App

Metallica, one of my favorite rock bands has fallen to the immense popularity of the touch screen wonder, the iPhone. The rock band has started offering Metallica's Live Recording through an iPhone App.The LiveMetallica iPhone App, which comes for $0.99 has been launched as a part of their ongoing World Death Magnetic Tour. Once you have the iPhone App on your phone, you can download DRM free recording of their live performances immediately after the show ends. Users can also buy the MP3 directly from the app, without the help of the iTunes Store. The App works in-sync with the LiveMetallica Website. You can also listen to sample songs and buy them within the app, which i guess is a cool feature for an iPhone app to have. You can buy the LiveMetallica iPhone App from the iTunes Store.

Windows Mobile 6.5 has finally arrived in India

Windows Mobile 6.5 has finally arrived in India, thanks to the launch of the HTC Touch 2 . HTC has officially launched its TouchFlo UI powered HTC Touch 2 in India. The touch screen gadget sports a 2.8 inch QVGA display and is powered by a 528 MHz Qualcomm processor. It is equipped with 256 MB ram and 512 MB ROM and has a 3.2 meg snapper, A-GPS, Wi-Fi and 3.5mm standard head phone jack. The phone will be available in India at a price point of INR 22,000. Other handsets that run on Windows Mobile 6.5 and are launched in India are Acer Be Touch E100, Acer Be Touch E101, Acer Neo Touch S200 and Acer Be Touch E200. Further, several handsets running Windows Mobile 6.1, including HTC Diamond 2, HTC Touch Pro 2, LG Eigen and Samsung Omnia Pro, will be upgradeable to the new WinMo 6.5.

Micromax and MTNL Launch "Very Affordable" 3G HSPA Handset

With MTNL launching 3G Services long time back, the company has launched India's first operator branded handset along with MicroMax. The Micromax H360 is India's first operator branded 3G HSPA handset, which is optimized to make use of the high-speed 3G services available on MTNL. The handset will be available in Delhi and Mumbai first. Being a 3G handset, the H360 comes pre-loaded with Internet based services, wireless business solutions, social networking support, mobile TV and video calling applications. This is a big leap towards operated branded handsets by MTNL and Micromax. Being a 3G handset, users can catch up with all the latest happenings over the Internet at high speeds. Mobile TV gives you an option of watching live shows and serials on your mobile phone. The 3G speeds of MTNL are supposed to reach 3.6 mbps on this device, in real world we need to see. Other features include a 3 meg snapper, dual camera options for video calling, 8 GB memory support, Facebook/Orkut and Nimbuzz Social Networking Application. A high cost factor has always been attached to the 3G technology but the Micromax H360 will be retailing at a jaw dropping price of INR, 5,499, which I think is a killer pricing for the operator branded handset game.

Samsung Blue Earth Features

Samsung announced the launch of Samsung Blue Earth, an environmentally friendly mobile phone with a full touch screen. First showcased at the Mobile WorldCongress2009 in Barcelona, Samsung’s Blue Earth has been highly anticipated because of its eco-friendly concept as well as its sleek design and advanced multimedia features.

Main key features of the phone:

• 3.0-inch TFT LCD touch screen.
• 3.2-megapixel camera with face detection.
• Supports Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
• 130MB internal memory.
• Supports up to 16GB of microSDHC card.
• Weighs at 199 grams.
• Measurement of 108mm x 53.6mm x 14.2mm.
• Supports video recording and playback.

Samsung Blue Earth is launching in Sweden in October and will soon launch in France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Portugal and other European and Asian countries.