Todays & Tomorrows Technology

According to an internal Microsoft tipster, the upcoming Zune HD will be available in 16GB and 32GB capacities, and be priced from $249 to $280 for the entry-level model. The company is considering a 64GB Zune HD later on in the model year, but the first of the PMPs will arrive in September; that tallies with previous rumors that fingered September 5th.

The source – a software engineer within Microsoft who claims that, while he chose to leak independently, his actions are known and unofficially sanctioned by the company – also suggests that movies are finally coming to the Zune Marketplace, and that the team are working on the final licensing agreements with the major studios. That content will be available in HD.

If that starting price turns out to be accurate, it will position the Zune HD above Apple’s rival iPod touch PMPs. The Zune’s Tegra HD-capable chipset, HDMI output and AMOLED multitouch-capable display are likely culprits for pushing up prices; it remains to be seen whether Microsoft can sufficiently persuade consumers that their platform is finally better than Apple’s.

According to an unnamed phoneArena tipster, Verizon have confirmed that they will be offering the CDMA version of Samsung’s Omnia II this July. The source is seemingly Verizon’s customer services, who revealed that the touchscreen AMOLED Windows Mobile phone will be dropping just next month.
Samsung made the Omnia II official earlier this month, surprising with the fact that the device publicly announced was not the GSM HSPA handset expected but a CDMA device. Verizon’s latest smartphone will offer EVDO Rev.A; there’s no talk of it being a “worldphone” with both CDMA and GSM support for roaming.

Also unknown is a specific release date in July, and what sort of pricing the Omnia II might command. The phone has a 3.7-inch WVGA display, 5-megapixel camera, WiFi and A-GPS.

Samsung have been demonstrating their latest AMOLED concept, an e-passport that embeds a 2-inch QVGA resolution flexible display into an identity card. Intended to show a 360-degree view of the card-holder, rather than just a full-on headshot, the e-passport uses an AMOLED display so frugal it can be powered wireless via an RFID reader.

Usually the display is blank (hence the need for a normal picture, as not everywhere will have an RFID reader) but when held close to the scanner it powers up and automatically shows the video. Apparently the AMOLED itself, as well as being flexible, has a 10,000:1 contrast ratio and can display 260k colors.

Of course, as well as showing more detail regarding the legitimate card-holder, it also makes the whole thing more difficult to counterfeit. There’s still no word on when - or even if – this concept will go into production, but you can bet there are security-obsessed government departments all over the world looking on with great interest.

More on Samsung’s upcoming B7610 Louvre this morning, and the suggestion that in fact the handset is set to arrive as the Samsung Omnia Pro. New photos, including a live-shot of the smartphone, have emerged, together with specifications seemingly confirming the 3.5-inch WVGA AMOLED touchscreen, HSDPA/HSUPA and WiFi connectivity, and a 5.1-megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash.

While the Omnia Pro will run Windows Mobile 6.1 (with an upgrade to 6.5 once that’s released, unless Samsung postpone their launch until the new OS is available) it will also have different UIs to pick from: one “Pro” and one “Media” which presumably offers a more PMP-styled interface. There’ll also be a dedicated button to switch between them.

Other specifications include GPS, DLNA support, a TV-out connection, Bluetooth and FM radio, plus a microSDHC card slot (up to 32GB supported) and 1GB of onboard storage. The battery is tipped as a 1,500mAh pack, while the CPU is an unspecified 800MHz chip. DivX, WMV and H.264 acceleration is supported. There’s talk that the Samsung Omnia Pro will land in August 2009.

While it's not the first name you think of in digital cameras, Samsung makes a decent piece of kit and its SL820 took the top prize in our recent summer shootout. So we figured you'd want to know that its WB1000 compact with those smokin' analog battery and capacity gauges is now on sale for KRW548,000 or about $418 closer to home. The 12.2 megapixel WB1000 features a 24-mm wide-angle 5x zoom Schneider-KREUZNACH lens and 1/2.33-inch CCD with 720p video record mode in H.264 format, max ISO 3200 sensitivity (at 3 megapixel resolution), and Samsung's Dual IS optical and digital image stabilization to compensate for hand jitter. The viewer won't disappoint either with a full 3-inch 480x260 AMOLED display rocking the backside. Why should you care? Check the video after the break to see how AMOLED compares to the TFT-LCD found on the Canon SD990 IS under different lighting and viewing angles. The winner is clear, no?

Samsung have unveiled a new digital camera that rocks its distinctive dual-analog-gage indicators. The Samsung WB1000 has a 12.2-megapixel 1/2.33-inch CCD paired with a 24mm wide-angle Schneider-KREUZNACH lens and 5x optical zoom, together with a 3-inch AMOLED 480 x 260 display around the back.
The two retro gages show battery life and capacity, and are intended to be more intuitively read at-a-glance. Meanwhile the WB1000 is also capable of recording 720p H.264 video, which also takes advantage of the camera’s dual optical and digital image stabilization.

Maximum ISO is 3200, though that scales down the frame resolution to a mere 3.2-megapixels, and the WB1000 stores either to its 76MB of internal capacity or up to 8GB SDHC cards (bigger may be supported, but not officially). No word on official launch dates or pricing, but it’s expected to arrive later this month for around $400.

Further details regarding the Samsung GT-I8000 have emerged, and it seems that you’re looking at the Samsung Omnia II (or Omnia2; the nomenclature isn’t decided yet). Packing a 3.7-inch WVGA 800 x 480 touchscreen - that’s tipped to use an AMOLED panel - the Omnia II has an 8.1-megapixel camera with dual LED flash and VGA video recording at 30fps.

Connectivity is tipped to include 3G UMTS, WiFi, Bluetooth and miniUSB, while there’s also GPS and a microSD card slot. The UI is prompting discussion: some are saying that it’s unchanged over previous iterations of Samsung’s Windows Mobile TouchWiz overlay, while a video demo said to be of the Omnia II shows a new, cubic arrangement.

Other hardware specs include an unspecified Qualcomm processor and 150MB of internal memory. There’s also some confusion over the display specifications, as at least one source tips the AMOLED panel to support up to 16.7m colors while at present Windows Mobile will only support 65,000 colors.

Nonetheless, this looks to be an interesting follow-up to the original Windows Mobile Omnia i900. There’s talk of it being announced at a Samsung event on June 15th.