Samsung i8910i HD.

Samsung will drop the brand name from the Omnia HD phone and will release it under the generic i8910 moniker. Due to the fear that there will be confusion between original Omnia, which was Windows Mobile phone and i8910, which runs on Symbian OS. with the clarification from Samsung that they are dropping only the Omnia part of the name and keeping the HD. So the handset will be known as Samsung i8910 HD.

WTF?! Is this some kind of a week late April Fools prank?

I still have my doubts. But if this is true, to me it sounds so stupid, on so many levels, that I don’t know where to start.

samsung-i8910i-hd

Ok. Let’s start from the beginning.

* Omnia HD is a great name for this particular handset. It conveys the high end top of the line image ( and features like great, hi-res AMOLED display, HD video recording, etc;) of the phone perfectly.
* The phone already got a huge publicity and IS KNOWN to every early adopter high tech fan as Omnia HD
* Samsung already invested a lot in promoting the brand. And succeded. Even signing up a crowd of ambassadors to run around with OMNIA HD promoting it’s cool features.
* Since when Samsung, or average Joe for that matter, started to care about the operating system in the phone? Isn’t the TouchWiz interface the thing Samsung tries to differentiate it’s phones with? Even to the point of making it a new platform of mobile app development across all of it’s phones, no matter what OS?

So now, with the phone almost ready to ship, an (my guess) tons of marketing materials in print and in production, including some at the carriers that already ordered the phone, they go and drop everything they’ve invested and achieved for Omnia HD? And for what?

To please the hardcore Windows Mobile fan crowd that went mad that the latest great Samsung phone went to rival OS? How many people bought the original Omnia because it was a Windows Mobile phone, and how many because it was a great high specc’ed touchphone?

So original Omnia owners might get confused when upgrading? Just how many of them are planning to get a new phone less then a year from the original purchase?

Lately, to me, Samsung sounded pretty erratic with it’s marketing message. Especially the international efforts. E.g. it does not have any consitent brand for many of it’s touchphones. Even original Omnia is known as Player Addict in France and Vitu in Russia and CIS countries. Then there are Samsung Tocco and Ultra Tocco phones in U.K. – which are known as F480 Touch and UltraTouch elswere. And don’t get me started on the whole Anycall and Haptic thing in Korea.

But todays name change for Omnia HD is on a whole new level of erratic. Do they have someone in marketing department who thinks about things in advance? You know, things like deciding on a marketing message and sticking to it. Or at least avoiding conflicts between different lines of devices, that makes you do radical changes few weeks before the launch of device?

I hope there is some grand plan here – different brands for different lines of Samsung’s own feature phones and WM, Symbian and Android smartphones. Or some big Samsung/ Windows Phone push that was worth the trouble. Or something else that we’ll know pretty soon.

But on the surface the decision on the latest Samsung smartphone sounds really really not smart.

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iPhone Nano Concept Images Emerge

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Looks to be like the featured, or at least the most talked about rumor for the upcoming Macworld conference is going to be the so-called ‘iPhone Nano’. I touched on it a bit yesterday, with news of a case manufacturer already publishing pages on their website for the rumored device.

Well wouldn’t you know it, just as I’m completely zonked and have had it (another long day), I open up my email to find some images of the rumored iPhone Nano… and they look pretty darn good.

The images were submitted anonymously, and by the sounds of it, MacRumors has some real doubts about the validity of the device:
It seems the “iPhone Nano” is the rumor that is going take the spotlight ahead of this year’s Macworld, and while MacRumors is publishing these photos and rumors, we have some serious doubts about the likelihood of such a device. These doubts are based both in the quality of the sources as well as the practicality of introducing a new form factor to the iPhone/iPod Touch platform.

Be that as it may, I actually like the idea of a smaller, more compact iPhone. Something I can stash away easily in my pocket. That said, I think I would enjoy it only it I used the device for incoming/outgoing calls. If I used my iPhone to make calls only, heck, the smaller and lighter you can make it while still providing the same great OS and usability… I’m all over it. But after looking at the images of the device, it appears as though the screen is a tad smaller. Web browsing, gaming, video playback/viewing and the like will all take a hit on a smaller device. If I used the device for calls only, no biggie… But of course, I use my iPhone 3G for a heck of a lot more than that. From my point of view, when you’ve already had steak, why the heck would you go back to hamburger?

As with most rumors that have been going out these days, hold them as just that… Rumors. I’ll believe it when I see it… But at the very least, lets open this up to discussion in the comments, shall we?

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Key2SafeDriving aims to ensure safe driving with smart wireless key

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While it depends upon one’s discretion whether or not to believe that cellphones are a cause of health risks, there is no doubt that texting while driving and other related actions have been causing a lot of accidents on the road lately.

Many busy people engage in talking over the phone while driving their cars, as well as reading or sending text messages to friends and family. These activities require one, if not both hands, and ultimately cause a person’s attention to drift away from the wheel and the road to the phone screen and keypad.
The quickest way to remedy this problem is by using handsfree units and Bluetooth headsets. This has worked great for a lot of people, but apparently not for University of Utah engineers who have invented “a wireless car key device to stop teenage motorists from talking on their cell phone or sending text messages while driving.”

The system, called Key2SafeDriving, works with a special car key that’s equipped with a wireless sensor such as Bluetooth or RFID (radio-frequency identification). Every time the key is used to start the car’s engine, the slid out car key activates a sensor that sends a signal to the user’s phone to put it into “driving mode.” And while in driving mode, a cellphone cannot be used to talk or send text messages. Meanwhile, a “STOP” sign will be displayed on the phone’s screen, and only calls to emergency numbers such as 911 and other predetermined numbers can be made.

Currently, Key2SafeDriving has been licensed to a private company that hopes to put the product into market “within six months at a cost of less than $50 per key plus a yet-undetermined monthly service fee.” And while I don’t have doubts that this product will be put into market, I’m not sure if it will be well-received by the public.

Its makers pride it for being fool-proof in that it can’t be “tricked” by turning a cellphone off and then on again because the car key constantly sends out the “driving mode” signal whenever it is extended and in use. However, nothing prevents the user from simply turning of his/her phone’s Bluetooth or RFID sensor, and not caring a thing about the Key2SafeDriving car key. In that case, it’s up to the user to decide, though if you’ve already bought the Key2SafeDriving system for $50 and have signed up for a hefty monthly service fee, you might want to use it anyway.

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Samsung i7500 Android phone shown off in Video

We’ve seen and heard what the new Samsung i7500 Android phone has to offer, but we all probably know by now that what’s printed on paper doesn’t necessarily get translated in to real-world performance.

So, if you still have some apprehensions as to the performance of Samsung’s first Android, then this hands-on video might cast those doubts aside. True, it’s a bit amateurish and we don’t exactly get a thorough walk through into all of its features, but it does give us an idea as to how responsive and snappy it really is. Of course, we don’t really have a choice now as far as Samsung i7500 Android phone demo video goes so this is as good as it’s going to get for the time being.

Likewise, we still have no idea as to when and if it’ll debut stateside, but we’re still hoping that it will. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that more info regarding this matter will be made available once it’s officially released in Europe this June.

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Which way: Femtocells or UMA?

Discussions are again resurfacing about which technology should be used to improve coverage; Femtocells or UMA. Honestly, I have not been a big supporter of UMA (and you dont have to agree with me) and earlier this year when Nokia raised doubts about the technology, i stopped following it completely. Kineto has been the biggest supporter of UMA and is still carrying the torch.

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