This HTC Hero came in last night with the Acer Timeline with a price of USD$642 from HKIA, way less expensive than the rumored ~Php40,000 price tag when it’s officially released here in the Philippines next month.

The unit came with only 2GB of microSD card but fortunately I got several spare 8GBs around here to replace it. It can support up to 32GB so I’ll have to look around and buy one next week.

It’s open-line so after popping in my SIM card, everything’s all set and running. And though I am still working my way around some of the features and functionalities, everything’s smooth sailing so far.

Check back in a couple of weeks for the full review.

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The Nokia X3 is a slider phone with 3.2MP camera, stereo FM tuner, Bluetooth a 3.5mm jack and dedicated touch music keys. But that’s all there is to it.

There’s no 3G (just EDGE), no WiFi and no GPS. Nokia new X-series phones doesn’t make any sense in terms of branding as they already have the XM, the N and the E series all lined up. The X3’s specs isn’t any different from their current entry-level phones.

But if you’re still interested, call Asianic at 415.81.41 or 415.82.41 for more info {see the listing here}.

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This phone combines sexy and elegance with a large 4.3 inch capacitive screen {see full specs here}. This is the largest screen I’ve ever seen in a mobile phone — larger than the first Touch HD and even the iPod Touch.

Despite that, HTC was still able to keep it slim at 11mm (as slim as the Nokia E71). It’s got some pretty kick-ass graphics as well.

While it is running Windows Mobile 6.5, it is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD2850 1.0 GHz processor so everything is smooth and fast. The HTC Sense UI is also a beauty and runs on top of WinMo 6.5 so you don’t actually see any semblance of the OS in the interface. The Touch HD2 is also Windows Mobile 7 compatible so when that OS comes out, you can have it readily upgraded.

Reps from HTC Philippines tell me the Touch HD2 will be out in the public by December or early January next year with an estimated retail price of around Php49,000.

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Again, check out these specs for the new SE Xperia X2:

3.2 inch touchscreen @ 800×480 pixel resolution
Qualcomm MSM 7200 528 MHz processor
HSDPA 7.2 Mbps, HSUPA 2 Mbps
110MB storage, 256 MB RAM, 512 MB ROM
32GB with microSD expansion slot
8MP camera with LED flash, AF and IS, WVGA @ 30fps video recording
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP
GPS receiver with A-GPS
TV-out
1500mAh Li-Po battery

This one is powered by Windows Mobile 6.5.

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This is the full text from Omar Hamoui, founder of AdMob.

Today we announced that AdMob has signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by Google for $750 million. We are extremely excited about this new partnership and what it means for our publishers.

AdMob’s people, products and tools will continue to work to effectively monetize your mobile traffic – no interruptions. Our product and engineering teams will keep building great products for our customers. Our sales team will keep working with our thousands of advertisers to deliver successful campaigns.

After our deal closes, AdMob will work with Google to accelerate the pace of innovation in mobile and do an even better job for you. We believe this deal will benefit our developer and publisher partners by:

* Building even more powerful technology and tools to monetize mobile traffic.

* Increasing the effectiveness of display advertising on mobile devices by leveraging Google sales team, infrastructure and relationships.

* Improving the already high level of service and support we deliver to our publishers.

You can read more about this deal at www.admob.com/google.

Omar

AdMob is like the AdSense for mobile sites serving billions of mobile ad impressions per month. Google AdSense for Mobile has also been recently introduced by Google but hasn’t really taken off. Acquiring AdMob is the next logical step. I just didn’t image how much that traffic acquisition is.

I’ve been doing some consultancy for a number of start-ups for some time now and one of my biggest advise to them is to invest in the mobile web this early. Just last week, I told one of them that AdMob could be Google’s next target. I’m just surprised my prediction happened this soon.

According to AdMob, the Philippines ranked #5 on their mobile web ad traffic report, up from #9 or #10 a couple of years ago. And for the last 2 years, I’ve been trying to get hold of them so we can have them talk on our annual Search Engine Marketing Conference about the mobile web and advertising.

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During a routine quality control process, Nokia identified a potential product quality issue with certain chargers manufactured by one of its third-party suppliers. The plastic covers of the affected chargers could come loose and separate, exposing the charger’s internal components and potentially posing an electrical shock hazard if certain internal components are touched while the charger is plugged into a live socket. Nokia is not aware of any incidents or injuries related to these chargers.

Only a limited number of chargers of certain model types manufactured by a single third-party supplier during a specific time period are within the scope of the exchange program. They are the AC-3E and AC-3U models, manufactured between June 15, 2009 and August 9, 2009; and the AC-4U model, manufactured between April 13, 2009 and October 25, 2009.

For more information, including how consumers can check to see if their chargers are part of this exchange program, Nokia has established a website.

Consumers are asked to visit http://chargerexchange.nokia.com or send an sms with the following format “charger model, manufacturer name, 26 digit charger serial number” to 0905-3224923 (for Globe subscribers), 0920-2678978 (for Smart subscribers) or 0922-8589360 (for Sun subscribers) so they can be assisted. Or they may call the Nokia Careline at (632) 886-1234 between 8:30am – 8:30pm from Mondays to Sundays.

Nokia recommends consumers with chargers within the scope of this exchange program to stop using the charger and exchange it for a free replacement.

Affected chargers are manufactured by a 3rd-party for Nokia, namely BYD. This label is found in the sticker of the charger itself. A production code is also included — they should be between 925 and 932. These are the ones that are eligible for free replacement.

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Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend and took pictures but according to Calvin over at PTB, here are the suggested retail prices of both phones:

Sony-Ericsson Aino

3.0″ display screen @ 432×240 pixels
8.1 MP camera w/ autofocus, IS, LED flash (3264×2448 pixels)
55MB internal, up to 32GB on microSD
WiFi 802.11 b/g w/ DLNA
FM radio with RDS
Accelerometer Sensor
HSDPA, 3.6 Mbps
GPS with A-GPS support
Bluetooth with A2DP
Remote play for Playstation 3
Price: Php23,950

Sony Ericsson Satio

3.5 inches display screen @ 360×640 pixels
12.1 MP @ 4,000×3,000 pixels autofocus camera
Xenon flash, video LED flashXenon flash
Accelerometer Sensor
128 MB internal storage
256 MB RAM with microSD support (up to 32GB)
16GB on microSD
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, DLNA
HSDPA, 7.2 Mbps; HSUPA, 3.6 Mbps
Stereo FM radio with RDS
GPS with A-GPS support
Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP
Price: Php32,500

Not bad at all. I was expecting them to be much more expensive. Hopefully, we’d be able to get some review units to feature here.

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This mobile device is a collaboration between Twitter Inc. and Peek Inc., thus the name. Imagine a Blackberry phone and service just for Twitter.

So what can it do? Well, it can do everything you can do on a desktop Twitter client (e.g. TweetDeck) but all embedded into a wireless device as shown above.

How much? The TwitterPeek sells for $99 with a $7.95 monthly fee or $199 with a lifetime of service.

That means it will be tied up with a telco. Don’t think this will be a hit in the Philippine where data charges are still expensive. The cheapest unlimited rate on Twitter is Php20/day or Php600/month using Globe Super Surf {via WSJ}.

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This slider phone has great build quality with a combination of steel and plastic casing in brushed metal finish. It has a dedicated key for the camera on the right side along with zoom in and out buttons. Beside it are additional keys dedicated for music playback. At the back is a flip-stand so you can place the phone down in an upright position.

The W995 has a built-in 8.1-megapixel autofocus camera with a resolution of 3264×2448 pixels, an image stabilizer, face detection, geo-tagging and an LED flash. It can record video with a quality of WQVGA at 30 frames per second and a secondary camera in the front for video calls. Photo quality is superb and shots are nice and clear even under low light conditions.

The display screen is 2.6 inches in diagonal width (240×320 pixels) that comes with an accelerometer so it can automatically re-orient display when rotated horizontally.

For connectivity, the W995 has everything you will need – from WiFi 802.11 b/g, to 3G (HSDPA speeds of up to 7.2Mbps), Bluetooth and GPS with AGPS support. And though the 118MB internal memory is a bit small, it comes with an 8GB memory stick micro out of the box.

Like most Sony-Ericsson Walkman series, the W995 outputs great music quality with a good range and loud volume coming from speakers situated at the top and bottom corners of the unit. The flip stand at the back allows you to position the phone at an angle so you can put at down while viewing videos or playing music. The phone also has a 3.5mm jack so you can use just about any headphones with it.

The 8-megapixel camera is quite capable. Took a couple of shots and got these:

Video recording is not impressive and is only QVGA quality. I was expecting more but this one’s a little disappointing in the video department. See sample recording below:

A built-in feature of the W995 is the wireless presenter function that’s installed/enabled when you first connect to your laptop via Bluetooth. This allows you to control the mouse and the desktop as well as the media player or presentation software (Powerpoint).

The Sony-Ericsson W995 is available in three colors – black, silver and red – and retails for Php26,800. It had a limited promo price of just Php21,450 which ended last September 30.

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The LG GB230 is an entry-level phone so don’t expect a lot of bells and whistles with this one — no 3G (just GPRS/EDGE), no WiFi, or GPS.

What it boasts is the FM tuner feature that no longer needs those unwieldy earphones to function. The antenna is built-in so you can blast out music from an FM station thru the speakers. The dedicated FM button on the left side of the control keys make sure you don’t easily forget this feature.

There’s a feature that allows you do live FM recording for playback at a later time. Internal memory is just 6MB so you’ll rely on the 2GB microSD for storage.

There’s another dedicated button on the right side for the camera but it’s just 2-megapixel and has no autofocus. This unit will sell for around Php5,500 (give or take a couple hundred pesos) when it comes out in stores.

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No indication what processing power is inside but it could be the same as the BB Bold 9000 at 624 MHz.

2.6-inch display @ 480×360 pixel resolution
Full QWERTY keyboard
Touch-sensitive optical trackpad
3.5 mm audio jack
1GB storage, 256MB ROM
up to 16GB via microSD
3G/HSDPA 3.6 Mbps
WiFi 802.11 a/b/g
Bluetooth 2.1
3.15 MP autofocus, IS, LED flash (2048×1536 pixels)
GPS with aGPS support

Included is a document editor (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF) and a really nice battery pack (Li-Ion 1500 mAh).

The main difference between this one and the older version is that RIM has replaced the problematic trackball navigation with an optical trackpad.

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The LG Crystal (GD900) is, in most respects, your typical slider phone. The main difference is that the alpha-numerical keypad is a touch panel and the letters/numbers are laser-etched on a transparent hard plastic (feels like tempered glass) — you can practically see thru the keypad. That’s on top of the 3″ display screen that’s also touch-sensitive and has good, bright output.

Using the touchpad takes some time to get used to mainly because there’s not physical buttons to push but the feedback mechanism is okay. The cool thing about the touch keypad is that you can use it as a trackpad (with multi-touch!) to navigate between menus, when browsing and even for handwriting recognition. It even lights up (glows) so you can see the letters and numbers in the dark.

LG GD900 Crystal specs:
3-inch screen @ 480 x 800 pixels
1.5 GB internal storage
up to 32GB microSD card
3G/HSDPA, 7.2 Mbps
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP
8 MP, 3264×2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash
Video recording 720×480@30fps, VGA@30fps, QVGA time-lapse and slow-mo video recording
FM radio
TV-out

As for the user interface, it’s basically the same as the LG Arena (LG KM900) we reviewed here earlier (you can read thru that review to learn more about the S-Class Touch UI). In a way, the GD900 is like form-factor upgrade to the KM900.

There are several partitions for the internal storage that sums up to 1.5GB but you can upgrade it up to 32GB with a microSD card (sold separately).

From experience, the touch screen is more responsive and the multi-touch adds better navigation when browsing the internet over 3G or WiFi. As with the LG Arena, the LG Crystal is also powered by Dolby Mobile so sound quality has more depth and volume.

Took a couple of shots using the 8-megapixel camera. It’s pretty decent but not very impressive either (photos are a bit smoothed out and not crisp). Haven’t tried the LED flash at night time though.

At daylight, white balance and exposure are a little off so these should be adjusted in the phone’s settings.

Here’s a sample video from LG Crystal’s 8MP camera. Not really HD quality but the HQ level is pretty good.

As for battery life, the handset can do 3 days without heavy multimedia and internet use. Those who liked the LG Arena will surely love the LG Crystal as well. As for the price, earlier listing pegs it at Php27,500.

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The HTC HD2 also boasts of a Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD2850 1.0 GHz processor.

HTC HD2 specs:
4.3″ capacitive touch screen @ 480 x 800 pixels
448 MB RAM, 512 MB ROM
HSDPA, 7.2 Mbps; HSUPA, 2 Mbps
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP
5MP AF camera @ 2592 x 1944 pixels with LED flash
Stereo FM Radio tuner
GPS with A-GPS support
3.5mm audio jack

There’s no large-capacity built-in storage so it has to come from a microSD card. The Li-Ion battery is also rated at 1230 mAh. Based on previous handset prices of HTC HD here in the Philippines, it won’t be a surprise if this unit sells for over Php50,000 when it lands here.

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Like most other Blackberry phones, the Curve 8520 gets a stylish glossy finish and a sleeker look. It’s a bit smaller than the previous full qwerty Blackberry handsets but is still comfortable to use.

RIM ditched the usual trackball and replaced it with a touch sensitive optical track pad instead. The trackpad is really nice and comfortable to use but sometimes I find it cumbersome especially when scrolling over really long web pages or list of messages.

The individual keys on the qwerty keypad are a bit small but since they’re raised higher, typing becomes easier over time.

The phone sports a 2.64 inch display with a resolution of 320×240 pixels. The screen has a nice bright and crisp display despite the relatively small size. There is a 2-megapixel camera (1600×1200 pixel resolution) that’s optimized for taking videos.

As for connectivity, the Curve 8520 has WiFi 802.11b/g and Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP. It only has EDGE instead of 3G so it’s a little slower connecting to wireless data networks. However, RIM’s proprietary data compression technology enables faster data transfer over GPRS or EDGE. Despite that compression technology they always brag about (and I’ve noticed it really works), there are lots of instances you’d wish you had 3G (audio/video streaming, tethering to a laptop, etc.) with it.

Internal storage is only 256MB but that can be extended up to 32GB using an external microSD card (card sold separately). The handset runs on Blackberry OS powered by 512MHz processor and that’s already a capable device for its category. The Li-Ion battery is rate at 1150mAh and battery life is pretty decent at over 2 days of regular use.

RIM is also shaping the Curve 8520 as an entry-level multimedia phone by adding dedicated music keys and a 3.5mm audio jack so you can use just about any headphones with it. Playback is great with nice sound quality when playing music or videos.

The Blackberry Curve 8520 only comes in glossy black while pricing is dependent on partner telcos offering Blackberry plans. We have yet to see which BB plans they’ll offer it with.

Side note: if you’re interested on getting a Blackberry for a phone, having a postpaid Blackberry Plan to go with it maximizes its potential esp. with push messaging. Otherwise, the difference between other similar qwerty phones (like the Samsung Blackjack, Nokia E63) isn’t that much.

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The Blackberry Curve 8520 was launched last September 8 with RIM touting this handset as their most affordable so far (see complete specs here).

The catch though is that final price will still depend on the telcos that will carry the unit and how much they will charge with the subscription plan. We’ll soon know once they get this handset into the shelves. Full review of the Curve 8520 will follow.

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LG GD900 Crystal specs:
3-inch screen @ 480 x 800 pixels
1.5 GB internal storage
up to 32GB microSD card
HSDPA, 7.2 Mbps
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP
8 MP, 3264×2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash
Video recording 720×480@30fps, VGA@30fps, QVGA time-lapse and slow-mo video recording
FM radio
TV-out

S-Class Touch UI
Transparent touch-sensitive keypad
Gesture Shortcut
Accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate
Multi-touch input method
Proximity sensor for auto turn-off
Handwriting recognition
Dolby Mobile

Still don’t have the final retail price yet but a listing on eBay.ph puts it at Php27,500. Full review to follow.

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Specs of LG GW620:
3.0″ display screen @ 320×480 pixels
up to 16GB on microSD
3G/HSDPA 7.2Mbps
WiFi 802.11 b/g
Blueooth 2.0 with A2DP
5MP autofocus camera @ 2560 x 1920 pixels
FM Tuner
GPS with AGPS support

No word on suggested retail price or release date in Asia but it’s good to see a lot of handset manufacturers getting the Android OS into their mobile phones.

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Earlier codenamed Hikaru, the Sony Ericsson W995 gets some nice bump in the camera and music category.

Specs include:
2.6 inches @ 240 x 320 pixels
118MB internal memory
8GB Memory Stick Micro (M2)
HSDPA, 7.2 Mbps; HSUPA, 2 Mbps
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, DLNA
Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP
8.1 MP, 3264×2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash
GPS with AGPS support
Accelerometer sensor
FM Radio Tuner

No final SRP yet but it should be under Php25k. The SE W995 has a limited promo price of just Php21,450 today until September 30, nationwide. Regular price is Php26,800.

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