Nokia's Newest unlicensed mobile access phone, the 6301 was unveiled in Helsinki today.

The world's number one maker of cellular handsets said that this model will be shipping in Europe in the fourth quarter of 2007. As their fourth UMA-enabled device, the estimated retail price is €230 ($322USD) before subsidies and taxes.

Continue reading →

NBC Universal announced today it's scheduling the testing of its own "NBC Direct" online download service this October. You might be thinking, didn't NBCU already plan something like that? Indeed it did, in a joint venture with News Corp. So this new service may need a different premise.

The Direct service won't be offering downloads to own, but just to watch - temporary downloads, but with a shelf life of one week. And each program is embedded with advertisements that cannot be skipped.

Continue reading →

Sony had been actively demonstrating its 3D online user community Home recently, ramping up excitement around a release initially planned for later this year. But Thursday at the Tokyo Game Show, in his first public appearance as CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment, Kazuo Hirai announced that "Home" would be delayed until next spring.

Hirai said Sony is waiting until it can offer what would be a "totally satisfying" experience for its customers, and that he'd prefer to see it spend more time in development.

Continue reading →

As polarizing as the high-definition format war continues to be, Warner Home Video remains silently, but firmly, committed to its position of providing its movie titles to users of all formats on the market.

"If the consumer continues to support both formats, the industry will as well," Warner Home Video president Ron Sanders told TWICE magazine in an interview last week from the floor of the CEDIA convention in Denver.

Continue reading →

Verizon today announced the fall lineup for its V Cast Mobile TV service, and this year, several network TV shows will debut on Verizon phones at or around the same time.

Verizon's V Cast mobile TV, launched in the first quarter of this year, announced its fall programming lineup today. At least ten new shows are expected to debut at the same time on Vcast as on broadcast television. Never before has watching soon-to-be-canceled shows been so convenient.

Continue reading →

The impending launch of the iPhone in Great Britain has had many paying rapt attention to see which mobile network would support the device. With the launch date set for tomorrow, it appears no one was paying closer attention than the carriers themselves.

A full two months ago, the BBC cited early reports that Apple's choice of carrier for its iPhone was O2. Owned by Spain's Telefonica, the company reportedly edged out its competitors by agreeing to hand over the largest proportion of customer-derived revenue - as much as 40%. The remainder is to be divided between O2 and its exclusive retailer Carphone Warehouse, which not only gets a commission but also its own revenue share.

Continue reading →

In the midst of debates with his estate over charges of trademark infringement, Bob Marley's ringtones are again available from Verizon, enabling a veritable throng of users to finally be able to pick up their phones to the tune of "I Shot the Sheriff."

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of his milestone album "Exodus," Verizon announced on August 28th it would make available Bob Marley and the Wailers ringtones. The list of 28 possible tracks included such hits as "Could You Be Loved," "Buffalo Soldier," as well as recording history's most famous musical confession.

Continue reading →

An Xbox 360 user in Fort Lauderdale, Florida has filed a class-action lawsuit against Microsoft for damage done by the console to individual game discs. His lawyer has stated that his client wants all his damaged games replaced or equal monetary compensation for them.

The individual's claim is that the laser used to read the discs causes permanent damage to them, and that the documentation included with the system does not advise against moving the Xbox 360 while it is turned on.

Continue reading →

Towson, Maryland - Friday, June 29 Hours before the iPhone was to go on sale, the line for the Apple Store here stretched all the way around the mall's top level perimeter, numbering 80 strong. Security was tight, despite the general quietness of the growing crowd.

The head of security said the first people, several gentlemen in their late 50's, had been there since 7am. They appeared to be in extremely high spirits, and were eager to chat with whomever came along. Apple employees were circulating, giving out Smart Water and keeping the general enthusiasm high. The line continued to grow.

Continue reading →

Rumors of Sony Computer Entertainment's plans to cut U.S. jobs were substantiated on Thursday with the announcement of its plans to restructure in the face of last year's operating losses.

The size of the cutback is not yet known, however the recent streamlining of its European gaming unit saw the loss of 8 percent of the workforce there. If a comparable cut is made stateside, it could mean roughly 120 employees would be let go.

Continue reading →

US Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced today that states will be given an additional two years past the original May 11, 2008 deadline to comply with the directives of the controversial Real ID Act. Originally enacted into law in 2005, the Act contains many contentious directives, such as state agencies scanning of personal documents into a nationally-accessible database, giving a uniform appearance to each state's personal IDs, and implementing RFID tagging.

Today, in announcing the new deadline of December 31, 2009, Sec. Chertoff stressed that the process of tightening identification security strictly involves common sense.

Continue reading →

Thursday marked the beginning of Verizon Wireless' V CAST mobile TV service in twenty US markets, utilizing Qualcomm's MediaFLO mobile TV network. With the aim of giving potential competitors such as DVB-H and mobile IPTV a run for their money, this extension to Verizon's existing V CAST service will be capable of broadcasting standard TV-quality programming to specific handsets, namely the Samsung SCH-U260 and soon the LG VX9400.

The 20 initial markets on Verizon's list are as follows: Norfolk/Richmond, Virginia; Jacksonville, Florida; New Orleans, Louisiana; Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas; St. Louis, Missouri; Chicago, Illinois; Indianapolis, Indiana; Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota; Wichita, Kansas; Omaha/Lincoln, Nebraska; Colorado Springs and Denver, Colorado; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Tucson, Arizona; Las Vegas, Nevada; Palm Springs, California; Portland, Oregon; Seattle and Spokane, Washington.

Continue reading →

Adobe announced Monday that Adobe Flash Lite 3, scheduled for release in the first half of 2007, will include the capability to watch videos, bringing all the main features of Adobe Flash Player to mobile devices equipped with the software.

Flash Lite runs on numerous platforms: Symbian S60 v2/v3, Qualcomm BREW 2.x/3.x and Microsoft Windows Mobile 5, and a variety of OEMs. There have been more than 200 million Flash-enabled devices shipped worldwide, and with a community of over one million designers and developers, expect a variety of new applications specifically tailored to the mobile user this year

Continue reading →

Qualcomm announced today a dual entry into the mobile entertainment, or "TV on your phone" market: its Universal Broadcast Modem (or UBM) chip, and MediaFLO platform for streaming content to mobile devices.

The San Diego company has been a leader in CDMA development, and the UBM is designed to be a companion to its CDMA2000 and WCDMA/UMTS Mobile Station modem baseband chipsets. It promises to deliver some of the premier standards in mobile video to mass-market handsets in one chip, and supports Qualcomm's own FLO, Nokia's DVB-H and ISDB-T.

Continue reading →

Violent video games have long been the subject of concern, but now a religious title is stirring controversy. The Christian Alliance for Progress are two political groups petitioning Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott to have this game removed from store shelves.