Motorola and AT&T team up
Motorola finally announced AT&T Wireless as its carrier for the much anticipated V600. This world-roaming (GSM 850/900/1800/1900; GPRS) flip sports a built-in camera, a speakerphone, Bluetooth, and a rich color display. You also can store and play back video clips on its internal 5MB of memory. Though competitively priced against other AT&T mobiles of its class, the phone still doesn't come cheap at $299 with a two-year contract.
Samsung's a690 features internal and external color displays and push to talk.
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Phones ring up digital imaging
Samsung and Audiovox displayed new mobiles that sport similar features. Joining the ranks of Nokia, Sanyo, and Sony Ericsson, Samsung unveiled a phone (model a670/a680, depending on carrier) with a built-in video recorder (15 seconds at 15 frames per second) and flash for CDMA networks. While no carriers have been announced, there are two model numbers, so we'll probably see them available from the major CDMA providers, Sprint PCS and Verizon Wireless. The company also showed the a690, a flip phone that features internal and external color displays and push to talk.
Audiovox's CDM-8910 sports a 1.3-megapixel camera.
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Audiovox also announced a push-to-talk model with the CDM-8425 PTT. The dual-mode (CDMA 1900/AMPS 800) handset has a 4,096-color display, a USB port, and a two-way integrated speakerphone. More noteworthy, however, is the company's 8910, one of the first phones in the United States to feature a 1.3-megapixel camera. What's more, this flip has a 206,000-color TFT display and a built-in speakerphone. The company also teamed up with Microsoft to release a Pocket PC phone for CDMA networks. The real news is that it supports both 1xRTT and 1xEVDO (speeds up to 500Kbps) networks.
While there's no word on when we'll see Audiovox's latest Pocket PC phone or which carrier will offer the mobile, it follows on the heels of Verizon's nationwide BroadbandAccess service. Using 1xEVDO (Evolution Data Optimized) networks, you'll be able to get DSL speeds (realistically up to 500Kbps) on a handset. The service is currently available in San Diego and Washington, D.C., for $79.99 with a one-year contract. We'll see it deployed in the rest of the country in the next two years, which means we'll start to see more feature-rich phones that sport more internal memory (2MB to 96MB).
