Filed under: Handsets, Multimedia, Samsung, GSM, EDGE, HSDPA, UMTS

Have 1,499 reais (about $904) to blow? Live in or around Sao Paulo, Belo Horizonte, or Rio de Janeiro, Brazil? Great, because Samsung has a tiny something it wants to show you. The V820L pivoting flip is a capable 3G phone in its own right, complete with Bluetooth, a 2 megapixel cam, microSD expansion, and a front-facing secondary cam for video calls, but it also adds digital TV reception for Brazil’s nascent ISDB-T spectrum. The relatively expansive 2.6 inch display should be a boon for watching your favorite Portugese-language programming on the go, though it sounds like the limited coverage could be a huge bummer at this point until broadcasters have the time to build out the network just a bit. It sounds like carriers might subsidize the phone a bit to knock down that stratospheric price tag, but even so — just how much do we want to pay for a few square miles of entertainment?

[Image via Abril.com, thanks Marcelo R.]

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Filed under: Handsets, Nokia, Misc

Nothing shows your complete and unwavering devotion to a handset maker like buying an ultra-rare vehicle with its logos on there, wouldn’t you agree? Those vigorously nodding up and down (well, those vigorously nodding up and down in Brazil) can get set to grab a limited edition Renault Sandero, which will come “fully equipped with Nokia’s navigation system and [undisclosed] car add-ons.” The super-special Sandero will come stocked with an N95 and cost around €17,650 ($27,693), but you’d superior hurry, as only 1,000 of these niche motorcars are being built. It’s like Nokia heard your cries for letting the opportunity to nab one of those co-branded Twingos slip through your too-busy-texting thumbs or something.

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Filed under: Handsets, Multimedia, LG, Others, Windows Mobile, GSM

Germany’s been one of the European countries protesting the hardest against the EU’s selection of DVB-H as the union’s mobile TV standard of choice — and for good reason, seeing how it already had a nice tiny chunk of cash sunk into T-DMB. We’re not sure if this is Germany’s version of passive-aggressive civil disobedience or if this is just how they plan on rolling for the time being, but Vodafone Germany is actually looking at rolling out a pair of phones next month that simply pull down plain ol’ DVB-T signals — the kind generally destined for home televisions, not pockets. This obviously gives the service a far larger footprint and content profile right off the bat, but the tradeoff is that DVB-T was never designed for the small screen and suffers from a greater power draw than either DVB-H or T-DMB. Anyhoo, the phones in question are the Windows Mobile-powered g-Smart t600 from Gigabyte alongside LG’s HB620T clamshell. Both are expected to go out the door for about €100 ($159) on contract, apparently, which is just as well seeing how the t600 lacked 3G data last time we checked in on it. Who’d really trade fast data for TV that’s going to drain your battery faster than you can say “David Hasselhoff,” anyway?

[Via the::unwired]

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The fallout from the now-over Blu-ray vs. HD DVD war is still coming, with Toshiba suffering a 95% loss in profits this quarter, most of it attributed to the failure of HD DVD as the format of choice for next-gen disc players. Samsung, meanwhile, is showing a 37% increase in profits, mostly from mobile phones and […]

The fallout from the now-over Blu-ray vs. HD DVD war is still coming, with Toshiba suffering a 95% loss in profits this quarter, most of it attributed to the failure of HD DVD as the format of choice for next-gen disc players.

Samsung, meanwhile, is showing a 37% increase in profits, mostly from mobile phones and LCDs.

For Toshiba, it wasn’t just the licensing, but the loss of HD DVD’s manufacturing that cause the loss. Tosh had invested millions in the manufacture of the disks, but then had to shutter its plants.

Wars, even format wars, have casualties. The good news though is that Toshiba’s shares only fell 2% on the news.

Via [crunchgear]

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