Microsoft Corp. recently launched an independent company with a peculiar name; "ZenZui" provides technologies that use a Zooming User Interface for mobile devices that mobile device operators, marketers and consumers can utilize.  The technology seems similar to some of the functionalities found on the iPhone (See Video).

ZenZui’s high-frame rate Zooming User Interface employs up to 36 individual “tiles” that are selected and customized by users to reflect their interests and lifestyle with relevant content, interactive communications and fresh data.  From the connected communities of social networks and the immediacy of pop culture to the have-to-know sports and weather info, this modular tile interface lets users sync, surf, and share digital content quickly, easily and in a distinctly new way.

The technology is patented by Microsoft, was initially developed by the Microsoft Research lab in Redmond, Wash. Microsoft’s IP Ventures helps startups and growing companies speed their time to market through access to Microsoft innovations.

• a dedicated key makes it easy to activate the integrated video recorder and camera with LED flash
• extra-large 128 x 160 pixel color display
• two-way speakerphone
• voice recorder and calendar

The Nokia 7088 is expected to be available in selected markets in Asia/Pacific, Middle East, Africa, China and Latin America during the 2nd quarter of 2007.

Today, Nokia revealed the Nokia 5700 XpressMusic, an accessible 3G smartphone augmented by a dedicated audio chip for enhanced music performance. The Nokia 5700 XpressMusic features an iconic twist design that easily switches between four modes at the flick of the wrist - music player, 2 Megapixel camera, video call and smartphone.

Using an optional 2GB MicroSD card, the Nokia 5700 XpressMusic supports up to 1500 tracks that can be enjoyed using Bluetooth stereo headphones, with their own favorite 3.5mm plug-equipped headphones and the included headset adaptor or through built-in stereo loudspeakers.

Today Nokia announced the 5070 your the younger mobile phone user. The handset has talk time up to 3.5 hours and the standby time is up to 12 days and is available in two fresh colors, red or blue and will be available in the second quarter of 2007.
 
A full set of messaging features is sure to satisfy the need to connect via text, voice and images. With just a few keystrokes, friends' contact information can be accessed and messages quickly composed and delivered. When a quick voice messaqe is more convenient, the Nokia 5070 offers the option to send off quick voice messages via Nokia Xpress Audio Messaging. And of course, since a picture is worth a thousand words, the built-in camera can snap pictures of friends, weekend trips or any of life's amusing moments and then share via MMS.

When not busy staying in touch, owners can enjoy the fun that the Nokia 5070 is built to deliver.

Verizon Wireless has launched the LG VX9400 (announced last January). The new handset is a mobile TV compatible phone that will be one of two launch handsets for V Cast TV. The Samsung's u620, was also announced recently.

Besides supporting broadcast TV on Qualcomm's MediaFLO network, the LG VX9400 features a form factor that's something between a slider and a swivel. The screen rotates up into a landscape orientation for optimal video viewing and to reveal the number keys.

Main Features:

• VGA (320×240 pixel) screen with 262k colors
• Bluetooth with stereo A2DP support
• 1.3 megapixel camera with flash
• Speakerphone
• microSD card slot

SanDisk and Verizon Wireless today announced a 4-gigabyte (GB) microSD High Capacity (SDHC) card that will be available on May 1.

The largest capacity of the world’s smallest removable flash memory card, the 4GB microSDHC is designed to meet the growing demand for a new generation of multimedia-capable mobile phones.

Using the 4GB SanDisk microSDHC card with a V CAST-capable phone and V CAST Music, Verizon Wireless customers can store more than 2,000 digital songs for use on their LG VX9400 and VX8700 phones.

For picture and video aficionados, the 4G microSDHC offers the capability to store more than 4,000 high-resolution pictures or up to 16 hours of MPEG 4 video.

Symbian Ltd. recently announced the launch of Symbian OS v9.5, the latest evolution of the world’s leading operating system for smartphones.  (The last upgrade to V9.3 was in July 06.  Don't not know why v9.4 was skipped.)

Symbian OS v9.5 brings high performance features designed for richer consumer and enterprise experiences as well as significant savings to phone build costs and time-to-market, delivering a truly scalable mobile operating system for the global market.

Symbian OS v9.5 is the result of continued deep collaboration with Symbian OS licensees, the world’s leading handset vendors, and its user interface platform partners MOAP, S60 and UIQ. 

With over 110 million Symbian smartphones shipped, high smartphone growth in developing markets and increasing mass market requirements, Symbian’s addressable market is broadening across segments and regions.  

Today Verizon announced the upcoming release of the LG VX8700 which will be available in stores April 17. 

The LG VX8700 features the following:

• ultra-thin shape
• sleek metal finish
• mirror-like screen
• VCAST Music (more than 1.5 million songs) and Video
• Mobile Web 2.0.
• Bluetooth stereo headset
• 2.0-megapixel camera and camcorder
• a microSD memory port for storage

LG Electronics and Google today announced a global collaboration to pre-install Google’s services on millions of LG mobile phones.

Mobile users around the world will now be able to easily search for information, find locations, update blogs and manage email while on the move.

LG plans to launch mobile handsets pre-installed with Google and products and service for the next few years with at least ten new handsets in 2007.

Select LG handsets, pre-installed with Google products and services will be shipped globally including North America, Europe and Asia starting in the second quarter of 2007.

The LG handsets will create a more dynamic user experience, including one click access to Google search through an icon in the application menu. More features of LG-Google handsets include:

Reports are buzzing on the Internet that YouTube will launch a mobile Internet site in June in the U.S. after it's exclusive agreement with Verizon expires.  Last December, Google and Verizon announced a new service in which Verizon users could subscribe to a service that allowed them to view some clips from YouTube's library.

Motorola, Inc. today announced four new additions to its extensive mass market portfolio, including the Motorola W218, W360, W380 and W395. Building on the MOTOMOBILE portfolio additions announced at 3GSM, Motorola’s mass market portfolio will continue to meet the diversified needs of consumers around the globe by providing mobile experiences that deliver uncompromising style, innovation and entertainment, at an affordable price.

Motorola, Inc. today introduced four new mobile devices (MOTOROKR Z6m, MOTORAZR maxx Ve, Motorola W385 and Motorola W355).

These four new CDMA handsets supplement Motorola’s recently announced MOTORIZR Z8 (Motorola’s first “kick-slider,” featuring High Definition TV¹ in the palm of your hand) and the MOTO Q 9h (an HSDPA QWERTY with broadband-like speed for work or play).

Motorola’s new entertainment and multimedia handsets allow consumers worldwide to experience personalized mobile entertainment and communications – simply and seamlessly.

MOTOROKR Z6m

Motorola, Inc. today announced that it has made an investment in GoTV Networks, a made-for-mobile television provider. Terms of the investment were not disclosed.

GoTV Networks (www.4gotv.com) is the first made-for-mobile television network and studio group, which applies an on-demand model to allow consumers to select and watch up-to-the-minute news, sports, entertainment and other compelling content. GoTV’s team of Emmy® award-winning producers and mobile technology experts produce a wide array of digital and licensed on-demand programming that  connects consumers to what interests them the most.

GoTV’s channel offerings include music: Hip Hop Official and Altitude; sports: Fantasy Sports Edge and College All Access; and GoTV Superchannel, which combines a variety of news, entertainment and comedy. 

Following up on a series of new technology announcements, Samsung announced it has developed a 2.1” LCD panel for high-end mobile devices that will provide qVGA resolution and comes equipped with sensors designed to adjust brightness to optimize ambient lighting. Screen brightness is automatically adjusted to enhance readability under any lighting condition.

Designed for use in high-end mobile phones, PDAs and portable media players, the new panel also has a temperature compensation sensor embedded in its LCD driver IC that maintains a steady operational mode regardless of any temperature change in the surrounding environment.

The Samsung panel consumes 20-30 percent less electric power than other displays with the same size and resolution.

To enable extremely slim mobile designs, the new LCD mobile display makes use of a proprietary technology called Adaptive Brightness Control (ABC) that is designed with an ultra-slim black matrix embedded within the display’s structure that measures no more than a single millimeter. 

Samsung today announced the development of a key semiconductor solution for mobile applications such as smart phones, portable media players (PMPs), and portable navigation devices (PNDs) at Samsung’s fourth annual Mobile Solution Forum in Taipei. The new package-on-package (PoP) solution incorporates Samsung’s application processor (AP) and Samsung’s proprietary fusion memory, the OneDRAM.

By combining the two key components together in a single solution, mobile application designers can enjoy the benefits of smaller area coverage on the print circuit board, reduced inter-chip noise level and faster performance. The initial applications for the new AP + OneDRAM solution are 3G and 3.5G smart phones, and are expected to gradually expand to PMPs and PNDs.

Samsung’s OneDRAM, first announced last December, fuses the memory functions that are required to interact with the modem processor and application processor into a single chip, and undertakes the role of supporting RAM for both mobile processors. This fusion semiconductor holds a shared block for the inter processor data transfer.

Samsung today announced an 8.4 megapixel (Mp) CMOS image sensor (CIS) with a 1.4um pixel design at Samsung’s fourth annual Mobile Solution Forum.

The new CIS chip provides a high signal to noise ratio (SNR), a key measure of overall image quality. Samsung achieved the high-resolution level by implementing advanced light sensing features and minimized noise levels. Notably, an extended photo diode technology was implemented to achieve higher light sensitivity and saturation levels, resulting in an enhanced fill factor.

Furthermore, it provides the same image quality as the charge-coupled device (CCD) image sensors currently used in most digital cameras and camcorders. Since the new CIS only uses one-tenth the power of a CCD image sensor, it should quickly replace CCDs in all three key applications-mobile phones, digital cameras and camcorders.

Beginning in early April, the Sprint will offer songs for $ 0.99, which is the lowest rate available for over-the-air song downloads purchased in the United States. This price applies to every song in the Sprint Music Store's library of more than 1.5 million songs.

The Sprint Music Store provides songs in virtually every genre from EMI Music, SONY BMG Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group as well as thousands of independent labels distributed by Groove Mobile and IODA. Groove Mobile also powers the Sprint Music Store. The new per-song rate is available to Sprint customers with any Sprint Power Vision data plan.

Today Sprint and Samsung announced the upcoming availability of Samsung UpStage. UpStage by Samsung is the first Sprint phone to offer the following features designed to make mobile music more entertaining than ever:

• Sprint Music Manager, powered by Smith Micro, gives users the power to quickly and simply transfer, or "sideload," unprotected songs from a PC to the handset via a USB cable. Provided on an enclosed CD-ROM, Music Manager also allows songs to be managed on the PC through an intuitive interface.
• Advanced Stereo Bluetooth 2.0 with Bluetooth caller ID enables the user to identify callers with a spoken voice while they listen to music.
• UpStage by Samsung gives users the power to multitask with the ability to play music in background mode while also using the phone for text messaging, playing games or surfing the Internet.

Today Sony Ericsson announced its first mobile phone to support Mobile Services Architecture (MSA), the next-generation Java™ umbrella standard (JSR-248).

The Z750 is the first Sony Ericsson phone supporting High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) targeted for AT&T (Cingular), delivering data at speeds comparable to or better than fixed-line broadband access systems. Users will have exceptional quality for video streaming, 3D gaming and rapid access to Web browsing and other online services. The Z750 phone also has a 2 Mega pixel camera and integrated blogging features.   The handset comes in two colors: Rose pink and phantom gray.

The Z750 clamshell phone is the first phone based on Sony Ericsson’s Java Platform 8 (JP-8), supporting a range of new Java programming features including instant messaging / chat and presence based functionality, handling banking, payment transactions, user identification and authentication through secure encryption technology, mapping and other location-aware applications.