Europe Chooses micro-USB Phone Charger Standard

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Cell Phones, Peripherals

We wish that other places were as up to date technologically as Europe. Sony Ericsson, Nokia, RIM, Apple and other companies have joined with the European Union to standardize a universal USB cell phone charger next year. Not only will it be easier to only have one charger, it will be good for the environment. Phones built with the new standard in mind should start hitting European shelves next year.

Read More | Yahoo!

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Research in Motion Unveils BlackBerry 8800

Posted by Lolita Beckwith Categories: Cell Phones, Corporate News, GPS, Handhelds

With all the cell phones and smartphones out there flaunting the latest innovations, choosing the right one can be a daunting process.  Research in Motion just made that decision even harder (or perhaps easier depending on your view) when it introduced the new BlackBerry 8800 at the 3GSM World Congress, a showcase for state-of-the-art wireless devices. While targeted toward the corporate crowd, the 8800—the slimmest corporate Blackberry yet—includes such consumer-friendly features as a media player that supports MP3 and AAC audio as well as MPEG-4 and H.263 encoded video files, and a microSD slot for music and video storage. The smartphone also contains a QWERTY keyboard, trackball, GPS software and Bluetooth capability.

The 8800 is a quad-band GSM/GPRS and supports EDGE - but oddly enough, leaves out HSDPA. That means that while the phone is slick, you won’t be doing any broadband surfing or downloading. It also has a built-in GPS chip, which means it can give you directions and support other location-based applications right out of the box.

The BlackBerry 8800 will be available this month, with pricing yet to be announced.

Read More | BlackBerry 8800 Product Page

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