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NaviGadget: Garmin just announced Garmin Mobile XT, maps and software packed into a microSD card, that turns select smartphones with GPS into Garmin navigators. What is different about Mobile XT is that in addition to static preloaded maps it also provides access to dynamic content like real-time traffic alerts and fuel prices, without any monthly fees.Currently Garmin offers maps for North America and Europe on this microSD card where NA version includes United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. The software will kick into action once the card is inserted into a compatible smartphone with embedded GPS and users will see the familiar “Where to?” and “View map” welcome screen.

Garmin Mobile XT also includes a new feature called PeerPoints that lets users to send their position to any other phone and also navigate to precise location of other users.

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Camera Core: Toshiba is building on its strength in the laptop market with an expansion into the smartphone arena.

The company is developing a sub-brand called Portege and releasing two slider phones for business users – the G500 and G900.

The phones are rich in features suggested by respondents to a survey of business smartphone users, and will compete with brands such as Palm, HP and HTC.

Both phones have HSDPA and Wi-Fi connectivity, plus a two-megapixel camera, Windows-interface and microSD cards. Security features include fingerprint recognition.

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Mobile Magazine: This has got to be the biggest news of the day because it really involves two stories all rolled up into one. Commercial Times of Taiwan is reporting that HTC has received ODM orders from Sony Ericsson to produce Windows Mobile-based smartphones.

HTC is known to manufacture a variety of handsets under countless under other brands, including devices like the AT&T 8525, T-Mobile Dash, and i-mate KJAM. Only recently has the Taiwanese ODM starting making phones under its own banner. It is very surprising that Sony Ericsson would turn to HTC, however, seeing how they are direct competitors using competing operating systems. Up until now, Sony Ericsson smartphones have been powered by Symbian.

Sony Ericsson’s first Windows Mobile-based smartphone is expected to ship in the second half of next year. It’s also notable that, if true, this would be the first ODM order for HTC from a “first-tier handset vendor.” The new handset is projected to account for 10-20% of HTC’s total shipments for 2008.

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Camera Core: LG has officially announced the LG-KS20 smartphone, the company’s first Windows Mobile-powered device in Europe.

The LG-KS20 offers Windows Mobile 6 and HSDPA connectivity which allows music and video clip downloads at 3.6Mbps.

The secondary, VGA user-facing camera, and fast-connectivity facilitate video calls.

The LG-KS20 smartphone measures 99.5 x 58 x 12.8mm and weighs 95g. It features a 2.8-inch Wide Flat LCD screen with touch input interface, handwriting recognition, Wi-Fi connectivity, 128MB internal memory, support for MicroSD external memory and Bluetooth 2.0.

The device will be available from October 2007 but LG has not yet revealed details of UK pricing or operators.

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The Register: Fujitsu Siemens is to pull out of the PDA and GPS business by the end of the year to focus its mobile computing efforts on notebooks and tablets, the company admitted last week.

FS currently offers a range of handhelds under its Pocket Loox brand, the line-up divided into traditional PDAs with integrated GPS and Wi-Fi, and Blackberry-style devices with integrated phones and email-friendly micro-keyboards.

However, the range hasn’t been updated since the July 2006 launch of the N100 and N110 consumer-oriented GPS PDAs. And now further updates are even less likely.

An FS spokeswoman last week confirmed an earlier report from German trade paper Channel Partner that the company will quit the market this year.

The reason? Demand for PDAs is in decline, and FS expects smartphones to deliver all the functionality once provided solely by wireless handelds. Of course, FS’ Pocket Loox T800 series is arguably just such a smartphone, but popular though it may have been, it hasn’t been sufficiently successful for the company to consider retaining it as the basis for a smartphone strategy.

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ZDNet: The saga continues as hackers continue to peel away the intricacies of the iPhone, prompting many to ask why hacking the iPhone has become so important. A primary objective for the iPhone hackers is exploring this new handset and the consensus is that “this is no SmartPhone.” While the internet feature of the iPhone is a leap forward, its lackluster cross-functionality makes it much less attractive for many handset buyers.

Many multi-function handset owners with experience with handsets such as the Blackberry and SmartPhone have already begun to voice their dissatisfaction over the lack of third-party content available to iPhone users. Essentially there are over 20,000 third-party applications compatible with the Blackberry and SmartPhone, while Apple has locked down the iPhone so that none are available. The rush to the iPhone for hackers is about liberating the iPhone by opening it to third-party content.

Some users fear that opening the iPhone to third-party content would open the handset to the malware that exists for Blackberry/ Smartphone. While naturally the risks would increase, so would the preventive measures of mobile security such as an antivirus/firewall program. If you are looking for a handset with an abundance of available add-ons the iPhone is probably not the handset of choice for you. It doesn’t take a hacker to realize that the iPhone is not a SmartPhone.

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InfoWorld: Taiwanese electronics maker Asustek Computer launched a Windows Mobile 6 smartphone with a touch-sensitive screen on Wednesday, just days ahead of the launch of Apple’s iPhone.

Asustek’s new handset, the ASUS P526, wasn’t meant to be an iPhone rival, nor is the timing auspicious, being so close to the launch of the iPhone, the year’s hottest product. Development on the device started a year ago, and Asustek has simply followed its own timeline, according to Sannie Lee, a spokesperson at Asustek, talking to the press on the sidelines of Asustek’s news conference in Taipei.

Andy Wu, account manager in the mobile communications department at Asustek, said the touch screen functions and other parts of the ASUS P526 were all planned into the design well before the iPhone was announced.

“The iPhone announcement did grab our attention, but I wouldn’t say it had any impact on the way we designed our handset,” he said.

The ASUS P526 has a 2 megapixel camera, TomTom navigation software for its built-in GPS receiver, Skype’s Internet telephony software and an application that enables the handset to store business cards by taking a picture.

It launched in Taiwan on Wednesday and will reach Hong Kong by the end of this week, Lee said. Later this year, the company hopes to market the P526 in Europe and elsewhere. In Taiwan, the phone costs 426 euro.

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Tech: Nokia is hoping that the launch of the Apple iPhone will be a boost to all smartphone manufacturers, and not just Apple. That’s what Nokia chief Rick Simonson said (…). He added that the iPhone could raise the profile of smartphones and boost the market as a whole.”The American consumer hasn’t had a lot of choice to go out and purchase these kind of higher-end, feature-rich multimedia devices. If [the iPhone] can help that market grow, I think that gives us an opportunity,” Simonson said at the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit.

“Don’t get me wrong, they will bring some things to the table that we have to be responsive to, but we have been investing in this area or some time,” Simonson said. “We are leading in multimedia convergence.” (…)

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Mobilementalism: Sony Ericsson have announced the new Sony Ericsson P1 smartphone, which has surprised the world, largely because we all thought it was going to be called the P700i!

In a break with previous numbering formats, the P1 replaces the existing Sony Ericsson P900i and P990i smartphones, and offers much better features in a smartphone that’s 25% smaller than a P990. (…)

The new P1i is no slouch when it comes to multimedia features either. It comes complete with a 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus and a business card scanner (yup – just take a picture of a business card, and the P1 will not only capture the image, but capture all the information on the business card as data that will automatically be placed into your contacts list).

It also comes with a video camera and recorder, and supports not only video streaming, but H.264 playback for streaming mobile TV to the P1.

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We found a very straightforward Blackjack review on Mobilitysite

John Hatfield: “Ok, so over the past few weeks I have seen a million comparisons and reviews of the new Blackjack from Cingular. Every one of them makes the obvious Q comments. I am here to say one thing…..

THE BLACKJACK IS THE BEST OVERALL PHONE I HAVE EVER USED…. PERIOD!!!!!

I have had just about every phone I can think of since the old samsung i300 phone right up through the treos, blackberries, 6700′s, and so on. I had a lot of fear switching to the Blackjack with my previous smartphone experiences with the mpx220 and the 3125. While they both had upside they were just not a match for the ppc phones on the market. They were just to underpowered and the UI was not fully developed.

All of this has changed with the Blackjack. With the UI customizations, the great qwerty keyboard and the pre loaded software the Blackjack has blown me away. Usually within the first two weeks I have identified numerous issues and have developed buyers remourse and started thinking about the next device coming down the pipeline…. Not this time. I have loved every second of it and continue to find more things that I like.

Bottom line, if you are a ppc guy who is scared to take the jump, don’t be. You will not be dissapointed.

Jhat….OUT”

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