A few days ago we weren’t event sure if the next model of the iPhone existed just yet. Now we have a brief lowdown and a handful of pictures of it, provided by the good folk at Gizmodo.com, who got hold of the new model after an Apple employee accidentally left it in a bar. Initially thought likely to be fake, the images provided by Gizmodo here show the newest model, which is said to have been requested back by Apple soon after the became aware of Gizmodo’s involvement. Fairly solid proof that it’s genuine, we reckon.

The popular technology website bought the phone after it was found in a bar in Redwood, California, though the model was quickly turned off through Apple’s remote software, so the information the website were able to glean about the newest model before handing it back to Apple was fairly limited. While most have now accepted that the find is genuine, some commentators believe that the leak may have been intentional, with the aim of giving some advance promotion to the new model. This particular tactic is not typical of Apple, though, who surround their new developments with high levels of security and tend to go to great lengths to avoid this kind of slip up.

Of course, we’re all anxious to learn just what the newest version of the iPhone – which is expected to be an HD model – will offer, and Gizmodo were able to grab a fair amount of information from the handset. You can read the full dissection report here, but in the interest of quick reporting, here are the main things you might be interested in, combined with a few of our own thoughts on the matter:

• The new model contains a substantial battery, and battery life is likely to be a major improvement on the previous models that you’ll find on this version.
• The new model comes with a micro SIM, and has a far smaller electronic component then the previous one. Apple has hidden it very effectively, and Gizmodo were unable to get a great deal of information from the electronics.
• The model is probably in an advance prototype stage – it’s intricately packed and has little room for any additional features. The electrical design is careful and tight.
• The size of the phone is reduced from the previous model, despite the increased battery size.
• There is a new front facing video camera on top of the old style photo camera. The standard camera also comes with a flash.
• A far higher resolution screen, though it’s difficult to say quite how high the resolution is.
• There appears to be a secondary microphone for noise reduction.
• The overall look is far blockier than the old iPhone, though Gizmodo are unsure if this is due to the model being a prototype. It is of a factory level finish.

Which goes to show, even with the iPad still fresh on the shelves, the Californian firm have the capacity to create a major media furor with something most of us just weren’t expecting. The only down side is the new model – at least with a quick overview – doesn’t appear to be a dramatic improvement. Of course, we’ll bring you any extra news we hear on the latest iPhone as and when we get it, though it could be some time.

New Model iPhone Lost In A Bar is a post from: Xingtone.com

Nokia’s top of the range, flagship touch-screen model the X6 has been made available in the UK over the past few days, with, unsurprisingly, all of the major network providers taking on the handset, and impressive sales expected. The top of the range phone matches the strongest model in the iPhone range in terms of features, with the 32Gb of memory included (allowing for ample use as an MP3 player as well as a phone) a particular plus. The phone has been available in the US since very late last year.

The X6’s other features include:

• 3.2 inch touch screen designed with photos and videos in mind
• Numerous social applications, including Facebook, Twitter and comfortable access to countless other social networks.
• 35 hours of music playback, 401 hours of standby time and 8 hours of talktime.
• 32Gb of memory included (there is also a lighter 16Gb version available), allowing for thousands of songs to be stored on the phone
• Nokia music store access
• GPS with Ovi Maps
• On phone video editing
• EA’s impressive alien development game ‘Spore’ included as standard – probably the best freely included game we’ve ever come across on a mobile, together with two other beauties: DJ Mix Tour and Asphalt 4. A definite gamers device.
• Customizable home screen – choose what you look at when you turn on, with up to twenty different ‘one touch’ buttons available at any one time, featuring everything from the standard phone book to websites and email.
• Simple email software – combines a large number of accounts into one inbox, and a functionality that works with all major web-based email companies.
• High quality web browsing that incorporates flash player and uses an automatic, convenient landscape layout.
• 5 MP camera complete with autofocus and dual LED flash, leading to higher quality photos than typically possible from a camera.

Nokia’s really gone all out with this new model, which – best of all – is available for free when you sign up to a contract of £25 a month or more on O2, though you will have to commit to the company for a full two years. If you prefer another network or just want to check out the best deal, though, you can find it online by checking the range of contracts available here. As the flagship model in Nokia’s increasingly extensive smart phone range, we can certainly expect the company to push the phone, with plenty of new developments, downloads and applications likely to appear over the next few months and make the handset even more enticing to mess around with. Order now and you could have it in hand by the end of the week.

Nokia Make Flagship X6 Model Available in the UK is a post from: Xingtone.com

Google’s Nexus One handset has been heavily touted as the latest ‘iPhone killer’ a handset to rise to the dominance of Apple’s popular plaything and spark the battle of the handsets. In Europe, though, the handset appears to be under major threat before it’s even launched. Google might not be too happy with the turn of events, either, with the threat coming from an unlikely source: the same Taiwanese company that produces the Nexus One.

The rival handset, entitled the Bravo, has similar specifications to the Nexus One, offering the same processor speed, a similar touch screen, and equally impressive camera and identical Google Android software. The Bravo, though, will be pitched at approximately $100 (or £60) less than the Nexus One, and will arrive on the market only a matter of days later.

Another potential problem for Google is the Nexus One being sold only online. While the company has already signed up Vodafone as a UK service provider for the handset, you wont find the Nexus One in any high street stores, while the Bravo will available, and will even be stocked by Vodafone, along with a number of other major service providers. When it comes to the Nexus One, Vodafone has agreed to only handle billing enquiries, and play no role in dealing with the handset itself.

The Nexus One’s early sales stateside have been uninspiring even without the threat of the Bravo, coming in at around 12-13% of total sales of the iPhone early on its lifetime. While this can be attributed in part to the online sales method, Google have also run into problems with an underdeveloped customer service department (unsurprising, perhaps, given that the company are new to this) and many customers preferring to purchase a phone with a pre-arranged service contract.

The Bravo is expected to be officially launched next week, and we will, of course, bring you full on details.

If you’re in America, the Nexus One can be ordered here. If not, you have a little longer to wait, with an Play.com accidentally leaking the launch date at a week from today, February 16^th, though this date remains unofficial.

Taiwanese Producer To Go Head To Head With The Nexus One is a post from: Xingtone.com

With new handsets coming out on an almost daily basis onto the modern day mobile market, we here at Xingtone try to limit out handset coverage to the phones we believe might make a real impact, or at least mark a significant development for the company that’s launching them. The Sony Ericsson Aspen is one of those phones, selling itself as a business-focused model that offers an alternative to the Blackberry, as well as touting its strong environmental credentials.

As the first phone to run the latest model of Windows Phone, the Aspen has an instant claim to fame, but it’s also host to an impressive list of specifications, including combining a touch screen and a QWERTY keyboard (also a feature of our leaked focus yesterday, the Blackberry Magnum), as well as impressive music and leisure functionality. Here are the key features in full:

• The latest version of Windows Phone, allowing full transfer of documents produced on Microsoft Office to the handset, where they can be edited. Documents can also be produced from scratch on the phone, which, of course, has full capacity to distribute them by email, too.
• A selection of useful applications included as standard. These include Skype (which means reduced or even free calls when your using your mobile in a wireless area, or even cheaper international calls through the use of 3G), YouTube, CNN, FaceBook, Location program which allows the users current location to be sent to friends and a special function that makes the phone easier to use when traveling.
• Green features, including a special environmentally friendly charger boxed with the phone as standard, a power saving mode and a phone and accessories made almost entirely out of recyclable materials.
• 3.2 MP camera with 4x digital zoom, multi shot and self timer functions.
• Sony media player that incorporates album art, and plays MP3 and AAC files, as well as a mobile version of Windows Media Player.
• Email, handwriting recognition, internet instant messaging and predictive text.
• Entertainment through 3D games, FM radio, video streaming, Java and YouTube.
• A selection of organizer functions that includes a calculator, alarm clock, calendar, Outlook’s email mobile program (allowing emails to be downloaded and replied to offline) and a stop watch.
• Google Maps
• USB, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and audio connectivity.
• 2.4 inch, 65,000 color screen with multi-touch capability.
• Weight of 100 grams, size of 117 x 60 x 12.45 mm.
• Standby time of up to 600 hours, music listening time of up to 12 hours and talk time of up to 8 hours.
• Available in black and silver

It seems that Sony are attempting to produce an ‘all round’ phone, joining Blackberry in their efforts to bridge the obvious gap in the market between the eminently practical (but not overly fun) Blackberry and the fun-focused (but barely business-worthy) iPhone. Whether they will succeeded will depend largely on the uptake amongst young, fun loving city types, and the level to which the company can promote their green ethos whilst still convincing users that their set up is entertaining enough.

In terms of functionality, the multi touch system that comes with the latest version of the Windows operating system is by far the biggest development, another useful feature that many pundits argue will drag Sony Ericsson’s previously uninspiring range of QWERTY and touch screen phones into the mainstream and see the Aspen compete alongside the current top of the range models. Sony Ericsson are widely seen as a few steps behind the competition in model mobile development, having previously been an impressive near market leader around the time their Razor series was selling by the bucket load.

New Release: The Sony Ericsson Aspen is a post from: Xingtone.com

Blackberry is yet to announce their latest handset, but being the type to have our ear to the ground, Xingtone have caught wind of their latest handset. Thought to be titled the Blackberry Magnum, the handset combines the two most commonly desired features of the Blackberry’s other two most notable handsets (the Bold 9700 and the Storm) in offering both a touch screen and a QWERTY keyboard. As such, it seems to be aimed at offering a much-needed bridge between the previous business focus of Blackberry’s most popular model and the more entertainment focused models produced by Apple.

The leaked pictures suggest the Magnum is closer in design to the more recent Bold, appearing to simply incorporating a touch screen in place of the Bold’s standard model, though we can no doubt expect a plethora of additional features, too. The biggest issue with this set up, of course, is likely to be the small size of the touch screen compared to the models already on offer elsewhere. The standard model Bold has a screen only a touch over two and a half inches in size, and with the Magnum seemingly based on a similar chassis, it seems the touch screen will have limited features due to size restrictions.

With pictures obviously providing only limited information on the Magnum’s functions, it’s difficult to know exactly what other features the phone’s likely to include. Blackberry is yet to pass any comment on the rumors, though it’s widely assumed that the phone will be announced at the up and coming Mobile World Congress, which is the largest mobile gathering year on year, and will offer the perfect chance to announce the handset.

Blackberry’s New Handset Leaked is a post from: Xingtone.com

With the mobile industry changing on an almost daily basis, Xingtone has spent the past few days trying to track down and identify what we believe is the best value for money mobile phone currently on the market in the UK. ‘Value for money’, of course, is not a style contest. Our main categories for consideration included the contractual options, the cost of the handset, the flexibility available should you decide you’re not a fan of your phone and the cost of a typical call or text should you decide to make use of a pay as you go contract. In the end, it turned out the choice wasn’t as hard as we thought it might be.

In terms of value for money, we found – risky deals on eBay aside – that your best bet is currently on sale at your local branch of Tesco. The VX1i Party Phone is a Tesco’s own brand phone that currently markets at a measly £18.99 in most of their high street stalls. Of course, these days it isn’t too difficult to grab a very cheap phone – you can even get a free iPhone if you’re willing to blow the budget on a monthly contract – but the Tesco phone leaves all your options open (though there is one catch to be aware of – the handset doesn’t appear to function on the ‘3’ network).

At £18.99 you’ll be left with a completely unlocked device, and the option to shop around multiple networks to find the best contract (or pay as you go option) for your own needs. Having an unlocked phone already in your possession gives you added negotiating power when it comes to approaching the networks (after all, they don’t need to provide you with a free handset), and also allows flexibility when it comes to pay as you go options, with some users even opting to get hold of SIM Cards from several different networks to save on call costs. At £18.99, and with a slim line handset that fits comfortably in the pocket and no commitment to associating yourself with Tesco’ own service or partner network O2, the VX1i might be slightly more of an effort to set up (and it won’t win any style awards in the modern market, either), but for the casual phone user there can hardly be a better option.

The handset was, in fact, designed as a temporary replacement for those who can’t afford to replace a mobile in the short term, hence the cheap price, but we’ve found it to be of solid build quality, and ideal as a main phone in its own right, or as an alternative to slip your SIM card into instead of taking a more expensive smart phone along on a night out, or to a messy sporting event where it might get damaged. The value option clearly hasn’t gone unnoticed, with Tesco selling an incredible 20,000 of the VX1i handsets just before Christmas, and Tesco’s CEO of Telecommunications describing the model as ‘a plucky alternative to smart phones’ and a great chance to save at ‘the perfect time to cut costs’. The company head also admits, though, that the popularity of the tiny bargain handset has surprised even him.

Features included in the VX1i are not particular impressive, but then again for most, this kind of phone’s main purpose is simply calls and text messaging. The basic features are:

-       Five hours of talk time and 90 hours of phone standy time.

-       The handset is no more than a few millimeters thick, and smaller than a credit card.

-       Standard simple features like the alarm clock, call forwarding and (service permitting) voice mail.

Okay, so it’s hardly glamorous, but it’s about time somebody released a handset without any expensive tie-ins, at a nice affordable price, and with the option to set up a contract that suits the user. Surprisingly, the VX1i is not quite the cheapest handset on sale in the UK at present, but it is almost certainly the best value option: while the VX1i might struggle to convince gadget lovers, it provides the perfect option for those for whom the mobile phone is more an occasional convenience then a lifestyle accessory.

The UK’s Best Value Mobile Phone is a post from: Xingtone.com

The world’s smallest slider phone – which comes in at about the size of two fingers – has been launched by S.T Dupont, in a move that goes against the current trend of larger, ample-screened models making their way onto a market inundated with smart phones. The tiny, golden model is producing by an independent developer, and is seemingly banking on its size and novelty value to bring it sales, being noticeably out of date on other features.

Many of the standard features on the Golden Bumble Bee – which is set to cost around $180 in the US – would be seen as antiquated on a five-year-old phone, and like many independent phone sellers, S.T Dupont can probably expect significant difficulty getting to the market as more than a novelty product. Nevertheless, the usability of such a small device is worthy of ‘rich man’s play thing’ status, if not for any sustained practical use.

Equipped with a mini USB port, 8 GB memory (barely worthy of the USB port, in all honesty), FM radio, stereo speaker and tiny 2MP camera (8MP is not uncommon these days, guys!), developers are clearly dependant on the tiny size and quirky ‘bling’ design of the handset to bring in a few sales, as well, perhaps, as hoping to gain a reputation through breaking the record, though perhaps ‘world’s smallest slide phone’ is not the most prominent record to hold.

The handset has also prompted a few comments on its ‘Transformers’ influences, which include the base of the handset having an obvious connection to the shape of the cartoon robots and the (presumably unregistered) use of a Transformers logo on the back of the handset. Early reports have suggested that the gold paint used in the production of the handset makes for an easily damaged finished product, while some popular cell phone blogs have even suggested that the claim to be ‘the world’s smallest slide phone’ may not be true, though Xingtone are yet to see evidence to support this suggestion.

The Golden Bumblebee is certainly not going to become a multi-national best seller, but it has received arguably the most press of any indie phone for some time, and offers an interesting novelty take on handset development without really offering anything new. If you’re after a bling-heavy handset you can string from your key fob, though, this might be just the thing.

Golden Bumblebee – the World’s Smallest Slide Phone – Launched by S.T. Dupont is a post from: Xingtone.com

The world’s biggest mobile handset producer, Nokia, has joined in the collective response to Google’s free satellite navigation software – available through the use of their Google map software – by also providing its own free software on almost all smartphones to both current and future users from now on through it’s Ovi app store (oddly, however, the company has specifically excluded the early N95 model from its free offer).

The move is slightly surprising, if not in terms of market position than considering the massive $6.5 billion Nokia spent on acquiring a satellite navigation firm a little more than three years ago, an investment that’s return will now be measured only in the number of customers Nokia are able to grab from other phone companies due to the availability of the free service. The move will also cause massive concern for the already beleaguered group of in-car sat nav service providers, who are already struggling through the recession, and invariably charge prices into the triple figures for providing the same service.

The service offered by Nokia will cover more than 150 countries worldwide, all of which will be launched simultaously today, though only just under half of those will have full directional capabilities for both cars and those on foot. The remainder will simply offer detailed local maps but lack the vocal or visual directions themselves at this stage. Every new Nokia smartphone will come equipped with the software as standard, and users will be able to access it in 46 different languages. While Google are yet to be able to offer such extensive coverage outside the US, rumors persist that the company is in the process of developing a more international mapping system, and may have a more worldwide level of coverage available in the coming months.

Nokia Enters The Free Sat Nav Market is a post from: Xingtone.com

Korean mobile manufacturer LG has confirmed ambitious plans to climb to the peak of the mobile handset market, with a target of becoming one of the top two manufacturers in the world by the year 2012. Having already projected a heavily increased sales volume for 2010 – an estimated 140 million handsets worldwide – the company has explained that it’s betting on its large volume of new smart phones, all to be released over the coming year. Estimated sales for 2009 were around the 117 million mark, so figures of 140 million would represent an increase of around 20%.

The increase anticipated is all the more surprising given the growth LG already registered for the previous year, which saw the Seoul-based firm enter double figures in terms of worldwide market share for the first time in its history, despite an overall contraction of the cell phone market in 2009, something it might struggle to repeat. The company currently sits behind Finnish company Nokia and local rivals Samsung in terms of international sales, with both Apple and market newcomer Google expected to be a significant threat when smart phones land a more globally affordable appeal, as is expected later this year. While this will certainly leave LG with a serious battle on their hands, they may only need to find widespread appeal with one or two of their 20 new smart phone handsets, which will be launched at regular intervals of little more than two weeks over the coming year. The level of optimism shown in the sales projections remains to be seen.

LG To Launch 20 New Smart Phones is a post from: Xingtone.com

The iPhone seems to be up to its ears in legal battles these days. Already under assault from all sides by Nokia in an ongoing, bitter legal battle, today the iPhone and the second most popular cell phone in the world – the Blackberry – find themselves being prosecuted by photo specialists Kodak.

Kodak allege that the two have breached numerous patents in the construction of the two popular handsets, with the specifics revolving around the process for previewing photographs and issues in the transfer of data between the phone’s camera and computer software. Like Nokia, Kodak stated in their press release that they have been in long-term discussions with the two companies, and these discussions have proved unsuccessful in terms of agreeing on financial compensation. The camera maker also emphasized that they have no interest in pulling either the iPhone or the Blackberry from the market, but were simply seeking a reasonable compensation for the use of their patented trademarks.

Kodak actually has a history – and a successful one, too – of gaining patent infringement compensation from other technological companies. Korean handset producer Samsung recently had to hand over settlement fees for patent breach in their handsets to Kodak, with the New York based company unsurprisingly defensive of its technical advances, especially given its poor progress in the camera market recently. Kodak has found itself it has been far surpassed by technical progress by the likes of Nikon, Sony and Cannon in recent years.

The consequences of these legal issues for major handset producers remain to be seen, with the larger cases still pending and likely to take some time to go through a complex and costly legal process. It seems unlikely that any of the companies on the receiving end of the legal complaints will suffer any debilitating financial losses due to the legal concerns, with Apple in particular having taken substantial profits through the ever-popular iPhone. The legal wrangling may have an adverse effect on future technical developments in the mobile field, though, with profits far from guaranteed on new handset releases. Developers can be expected to be under strict instructions regarding patent breach, especially given the widely held view that Apple in particular are likely to have to pay out a fee for every handset sold that contains the patent breaching technology, both to Nokia and, it seems, to Kodak.

Kodak To Sue iPhone and Blackberry Makers is a post from: Xingtone.com