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Yahoo: Samsung Electronics Co., South Korea’s largest corporation, joined Microsoft Corp. on Monday in launching the first mobile phone in Asia and Europe to use high-speed HSDPA wireless technology.

The companies said the phone — the Samsung Ultra Messaging i600 — was the world’s thinnest 3G smartphone with a full QWERTY keyboard. It is also the first smartphone that supports Web applications like podcasts and RSS Feeder, which scans Web sites for updates, the companies said. (…)

The companies said the phone, which can connect with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0, was designed for work and play. It has two digital cameras and can be used for 3G video calls.

“The mobile population is increasingly looking to use one device that easily plugs into their life, both in and out of the office,” said Pieter Knook, a senior vice president at Microsoft.

The device, powered by Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0, uses the new mobile protocol called HSDPA, or high-speed downlink packet access, that provides faster downloads of video and streaming music. The download speed is designed to be as fast as those provided by ADSL, or Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line, used in homes.

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Red Herring: Regulators in the United Kingdom are considering the end of AM and FM radio on the grounds that they have both outlived their usefulness, and digital services could make better use of the spectrum occupied by both bands.

Ofcom, the U.K.’s communications regulator, published a statement that said many of the AM and FM licenses are up for renewal and an automatic renewal could tie up very valuable slices of spectrum for 24 years, so the time is right for a long-term decision.

By making a decision on the future of analog commercial radio now, the U.K regulator argues, it will have more flexibility in the use of the VHF Band II spectrum currently occupied by FM radio.

Ofcom believes that the spectrum would be put to better use if it were allotted to emerging services such as mobile TV and more digital radio and data services.

FM radio re-uses a limited number of frequencies in a patchwork across the U.K. to deliver around 300 local BBC and commercial services and five UK-wide networks,” said the Ofcom statement.

“Any alternative uses for those frequencies would require large chunks of that spectrum to be freed-up simultaneously—something a rolling re-licensing process does not allow for,” the statement continued.

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New Scientist Tech: An in-car gaming system that creates an interactive game corresponding to a vehicle’s real-world route could keep passengers entertained on long journeys, say Swedish computer scientists. It turns passing sights like forests, buildings and rivers into locations for in-game characters and events.

The Backseat Playground consists of a GPS receiver, a handheld computer and headphones, all connected to a laptop in the trunk of the car.

The laptop uses the GPS data to maintain a three-dimensional model that keeps the car correctly positioned within the virtual world. A database of geographical information is used to match events in the game to suitable locations. Players interact using the handheld computer.

The game begins with a radio newsflash, relayed by the handheld computer, which places a passenger at the start of a murder mystery or a werewolf thriller.

As the car travels along its route, the player receives further phone calls and walkie-talkie messages from characters in the game.

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DotGizmo: Garmin has released a software download, which will allow many of their sat nav products to link to your Bluetooth mobile and read out any text messages you receive whilst you’re on the road.

It’s completely free, works with the nüvi 660, 360 and 360T as well as the StreetPilot c550 and comes on top of the other stuff they have, like an MP3 and audio book player, JPEG picture viewer, travel alarm and currency converter.

There’s also additional language packs for when you’re abroad, making it oh so much more than a sat nav.

The free download is available from Garmin’s support site at www.garmin.com/support/, and a list of compatible mobile phones can be viewed at www.garmin.com/bluetooth/phones.jsp.

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ZDNet: Mitsubishi and others are promoting a technical standard that’s expected to greatly expand the color palette on televisions.

The standard–elegantly called xvYCC–is meant to update the televised color spectrum for the Digital Age. The current standard, BT.709-5, defines the ranges of reds, greens and blues that TVs can display. The new standard will broaden the range of colors, adding shades of cyan or bright green, which should lead to more natural-looking colors.

“You’ll be able to see richer and more colors,” Vik Murty, senior manager of product marketing at Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America, said during a presentation Wednesday at audio and entertainment tech specialist Dolby Laboratories in San Francisco. “This opens a new set of colors that no one has ever seen on a TV before.”

The existing standard works for most TVs, but it constrains the capabilities of LCD televisions with light-emitting diode (LED) backlights and rear-projection TVs with digital light-processing technology, Murty said.

Mitsubishi plans to incorporate the standard into TVs beginning in April. Broadcasters are also starting to build xvYCC-compliant systems so they can deliver programming that takes advantage of the standard. Others are working on it too: Sony showed off small screens with the technology earlier this year.

Mitsubishi also plans to come out with a TV that uses lasers, rather than lightbulbs or LEDs, as a light source in late 2007, he added.

The new standard will further be enhanced by Deep Color, an existing technology that smoothes out the fine gradients between shades of colors. In some older digital TVs, viewers can see faint bands in a color field as the colors get lighter or darker. In a TV with Deep Color, the bands disappear, and images in shadows become clearer.

The acronym xvYCC is a rough equivalent for the standard more formally called Extended YCC Colorimetry for Video Applications. The standard is governed by the International Electrotechnical Commission.

Next year should be a big one for improving the picture quality on digital TVs. Several companies are expected to come out with LCD televisions that will get rid of ghosting and the blurriness often associated with the devices.

Toshiba will also try to ship the first SED (surface conduction electron emitter display) televisions, which use a new standard the company says will provide a better picture than plasma or liquid crystal displays

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EETimes: Nokia has launched a DVB-Handheld broadcast mobile TV pilot with state-owned TV broadcaster Doordarshan that will use Nokia’s DVB-H solution.

Doordarshan said it will begin testing the service here early next year. The broadcaster will test broadcast reception quality, explore options for supporting advertising and interactive services and gauge customer interest.

Doordarshan’s satellite network currently provides free analog broadcasts to more than 90 percent of India.

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EETimes: Sun Microsystems reported Thursday that it’s teaming up with Ericsson and Nokia to create an organization aimed at uniting network equipment providers as they work to assist telecommunications firms and service providers.Sun said the three companies jointly recognize the need for a common platform  infrastructure.

The telecom and mobile phone industry has fractured in recent months as Nokia and Qualcomm battled in several jurisdictions over a range of issues, mostly wireless technology. Qualcomm wasn’t listed as a member of the new organization, called the Telecommunications Platform Initiative.

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Slashgear: When it goes down to specifications, all MP3 players are alike. Therefore, it is really hard for some people to decide which one is right for them. You may find tons of “good looking” MP3 players in the market but how many of them are considered as a “cute” one. For all of those who are “young-at-hear,” this good looking MP3 player might be just right for you.

I’d say this Mickey Mouse MP3 player is just right for kids (pretty girls, perhaps?) and people who are young-at-heart (…). It comes with Disney Music samples, and you know that Disney Music is a good music. This MP3 player can play both MP3 and WMA audio formats. It has 128MB of build-in memory. If that is not enough for you, the SD/MMC slot is also available allowing expandable memory up to 1GB.
The built-in rechargeable battery allows up to 10 hours of play back time. (…)
Price: $49.99 (about 38 euro)

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Akihabara: I knew human beings could be merciless, but that’s going too far… Just because a retard decides to build a little nuke in his garage to blow up half of Asia, while starving his people, brothers and sisters, to death and forces them to live in utter misery, the cruel American government decided to impose severe sanctions against the North Korean regime. Among the sanctions, the American government decided to block the export of Apple products to North Korea, notably the iPod…

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