While Nintendo paved the way for video games to hit a significantly larger market and eventually cause the rise of hard core games that many gamers now enjoy, the Japanese game company actually started making hits with very casual titles.
This is where Shigeru Miyamoto and Mario begun.
Now, over two decades have passed since Donkey Kong kidnapped the Princess and brought her to the top of an unfinished construction site and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts will be awarding Shigeru Miyamoto with the distinguished fellowship award.
This places the man at the same rank as creative geniuses such as Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick. With BAFTA having started to recognize the many creative and artistic talents behind video games in the past couple of years, it comes as to no surprise that they are now paying tribute to the man who basically started it all.
Mario was not the first video game character. Donkey Kong was not the first video game. Before all that, Pong, Asteroids and many other titles have been around. But it was not until the arrival of Mario into the scene that the world of video games changed.
So what does this mean for the rest of us? Unknown to many, Shigeru Miyamoto is the genius behind the evolution of many video game genres. Super Mario Bros is considered to be one of the most important platforming titles ever developed. The Legend of Zelda has created the standard for what we know now as a real time dungeon crawler RPG.
Metroid set the bar for heaving deep storylines and an amazing ending –not to mention the pioneer for having a strong female character in the video game (a surprise fact that is revealed at the very end of Metroid).
Read more about Shigeru and BAFTA at the Telegraph UK.
Straight from ZDnet, a podcast reveals the three different chassis types for WP7.
The type 1 chassis will feature the regular touch screen smart phone look. This will most probably be the standard for all WP7 devices as the user interface will need a large capacitive touch screen to be used properly. It is what we commonly see with the recent WP7 user interface screenshots. All in all, this is pretty much expected already.
The type 2 chassis is only slightly different than the type 1. Type 2 will come with a slide out QWERTY keyboard which makes it a great choice for users who are heavy message senders. The type 3 is rumored to be a candy bar phone, though that hardly matches the style suitable for the new UI.
In any case, regardless of what chassis will be coming, the general prediction is that the device will be running on a Qualcomm processor (possibly the Snapdragon 1GHz CPU). Since Windows Phone 7 series seems to be heavily reliant of high loading speeds and heavy animations, the processing power of the Snapdragon will make for a perfect fit. It has also been reported that Asus will be working with Microsoft to create the very first WP7 device.
WP7 is shaking things up in the mobile platform industry by delivering a new OS that could potentially surpass the Android and the iPhone OS. Though with the launch if the iPhone 4G coming soon, the title is still up in the air.
So far, no confirmed release date for the OS can be confirmed. While it has been said during the presentation that the device is expected by the holidays, some reports are pointing to an early October release.
Get to know the new Windows Phone 7 series and get to see the different chassis on Softpedia.
Windows Phone 7 series totally blew away when it was presented onstage at the mobile world congress. While the user interface was outright impressive and the new features are outstanding, no word has been given on the actual hardware that will be running the OS –aside from the fact that it will be relying heavily on Qualcomm chips.
The big screens used by WP7 are far larger than the display screen, requiring users to pan around to see the rest of the menus and delivering a quasi-dynamic appeal with the artistic bleeding effect and the fully customizable tiles. At this point, it is likely that WP7 device will be running on 1GHz CPUs as well as pretty impressive hardware for graphics. Animations and dynamic transition elements are plenty in the UI.
Now, what about the actual phone form factor?
According to an Australian podcast, there are currently three basic chassis types that will be used by WP7. The type 1 chassis is already a familiar sight to us all, it is a touch screen form that we all know from other smart phone, and it is also the same device being shown on the screenshots of the WP7 UI. Three basic navigation buttons are also present on the device; a “back”, “home” and another unknown context button are present on the bottom of the screen.
The type 2 chassis is also a familiar form; this one comes in the touch screen with slide out physical QWERTY keyboard look. It is pretty familiar look that we have seen in many other successful smart phones such as the Motorola Milestone. The Type 3 chassis is reported to be a candy phone form.
It has been reported that Asus will be working with Microsoft on the new WP7 device and it is expected to come out sometime after October.
Read more about the new Windows Phone 7 device at Engadget.
The new Toshiba K01 has basically the same hardware features as those found in the TG02 set. It comes with a standard QWERTY keyboard that increases the thickness of the Toshiba K01. However with only just 3mm.in addition the Toshiba K01.The Toshiba Company released this stylish and classy phone on 15 Feb 2010.
The Toshiba Company is among the best manufactures of laptops and other computer accessories. They have gone the extra mile to develop a phone that will appeal too many. The Toshiba K01 comes with 4.1 inch capacitive touch screen. The touch screen its self is just 0.66 inches which quite standard compared to other similar phones in the market. The phone itself is a clamshell with a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels. In addition, it comes with standard external screen with a keyboard that has ten buttons.
The Toshiba K01 is a suitable mobile internet device rather than the more common smart phone. The phone screen can also be used as a digital photo frame. The Toshiba K01 has a standard dimension of 70*129*15 millimeters. It utilizes Microsoft windows mobile software. This is the 6.5 windows mobile edition. The operating system is run by the browse devices. The phone uses a chipset microprocessor that has a CPU speed of 100MHZ. the Toshiba K01 CPU has a Qualcomm snapdragon or Qsd8250.The phone browse devices are found on this microprocessor.
The Toshiba K01 has 256MiB random access memory capability which is quite decent. In addition it has Read only memory capacity of 512MiB.the phones has display type 65536 scales TFT color transflective. The display diagonal is 4.1.The phone uses a Toshiba K01 uses a Mono microphone and stereo loudspeaker making it ideal for listening to music. The audio output is proprietary.
The phone is able to be used in most GSM cellular networks. Among this networks include UMTS 2100, GSM 850, GSM1900, GSM 900, and GSM 1800.In addition it can use various cellular data links. Among this data links include HSUPA, CSD, HSDPA, GPRS, UMTS, and EDGE. The Toshiba K01 comes with a call alert feature of 64 chord melody. Furthermore, the vibrating alert is enabled. Also, those that value the speaker phone will be glad to note that it is supported.
There are additional support control peripherals. The Toshiba K01 uses a touch screen positioning device. The downside of the slide out QWERTY keyboard is that the directional pad is not supported with the Toshiba K01.In addition the scroll wheel is also not supported.
there are a number of interfaces that are standard with the Toshiba K01 include a SDIO, micro SD, micro SDHC expansion slots. The USB uses a 2.0 client and 480Mbits interface. Apart from that, it can support 2.0 +EDR Bluetooth capabilities. The Toshiba K01 uses a LAN 802.11b, 802.11g wireless capability interface.
The Toshiba K01 does not support infrared features. In addition, analog radio receiver is not supported. The Toshiba K01 does not also support digital, media and broadcast capabilities. However, to make up for that the Toshiba K01 phone supports GPS, Quick GPS, Geotagging satellite navigation feature.
The Toshiba K01 has an inbuilt 3.1 mega pixels phone camera. The camera supports auto focus capabilities. It also has a standard auto optical zoom. Apart from that, it comes with built in accelerometer. The phone has a chargeable removable battery. The phone also features a feature where you can expand the storage space to an impressive 32GB using the micro SDHC technology. Users can be able to store their favorite music, movies and games and still leave plenty of space to spare. The Toshiba K01 does not disappoint.
The Mobile World Congress was a pretty telling testament to the trend of high end smart phones. While many of us are still raving about the upcoming Windows Phone 7 series mobile platform (yes, we are close to building a shrine for it), there is no doubt that 2010 is the year when the mobile phone industry is going to get highly saturated with Android smart phones.
A couple of years ago, the Google mobile platform was the underdog. HTC was the first manufacturer to bring the new OS to the market. The G1 Android handsets quickly proved the worth of the open source platform and now, we are eagerly anticipating each new Android phone that comes out.
Now, it looks like the Android OS has become the platform of choice as many new devices sporting the Google system will be launched this 2010. The year already started with the launch of the Google-branded Nexus One (also made by HTC), and March will see the launch of several major devices.
HTC will be delivering its own Snapdragon Android smart phone in the form of the HTC Desire. The phone was originally known as the Bravo and it served as the basis for the Nexus One. The likeness in form and the similar specs between the two devices are hard to miss. Both have Snapdragon 1GHz processors, 5 mega pixel cameras and 3.7 inch AMOLED capacitive touch screens. The Desire got its new name last Mobile World Congress when HTC showed off the new device.
Another device that HTC brought to the spotlight is the HTC Legend. This phone is the successor to the HTC Legend. It comes with a 3.2 inch AMOLED touch screen, a 5 mega pixel camera, and a 600 MHz Qualcomm processor.
Read more about the new HTC Androids at Pocket Lint.
Motorola phones are quite popular throughout the world and this is for a reason. There are not many phones out there which can be placed as high as Motorola phones in terms of quality. The Motorola Quench phone is just one of the examples of how Motorola can innovatively create classy phones that will offer you everything you need to communicate. Motorola Quench is even better since it has got updated and new features that are missing from the other cell phones.
The Motorola Quench has a 65 TFT capacitive touch screen display. The display size itself is 3.1 inches with 320 x 480 pixels. The phone measures 116.8 x 60 x 12.4 millimeters and weighs 130 grams. It has licorice and purple as its external colors. The networks supported by this phone include GSM 850, GSM 1800, GSM 1900 and GSM 900. The other networks include Edge Class 12, WCDMA 900, 1700 and 2100, GPRS Class 12 and HSDPA 7.2 Mbps.
The memory components of the Motorola Quench include a 512MB ROM and a 256 MB RAM. External memory is supported for microSD that has up to 32 GB memory size. The phone book has an unlimited capacity for entries. The call records are also almost limitless. The standby time of its 1420 m AH Lithium Ion battery is around 450 hours and it has a talk time of up to 8 hours. The interfaces supported by this phone include expansion slots for microSD, TransFlash SDIO and a microSDHC. Another interface that you will enjoy utilizing in this phone is an 802.11b wireless LAN. The handset also supports Bluetooth technology.
Motorola Quench makes use of MOTOBLUR technology for most of its settings. For the call settings, you will be able to not only view the ID of the caller; you will also see his picture and social network status. You will also be able to share your photos with your contacts through various networks that are supported by the phone. These networks include Facebook, Yahoo, MySpace, Photobucket, Picasa and Last FM. You will get updated RSS news widgets every now and then. The Happenings, Messaging and Status settings in the MOTOBLUR will notify you of different status posts.
The Motorola Quencher has messaging options that will leave you at the edge of your sit. All the SMS messages that you receive will all be delivered to your personalized home screen. The phone supports Instant Messaging by Yahoo Messenger, MSN, AOL IM and Google Talk. For predictive texts, you can use the inbuilt SWYPE keyboard, Android or even iTAP technologies embedded in the phone. There is an analog radio receiver within the phone. The navigation system is well incorporated into the phone. There is an integrated GPS module.
In terms of sound, the phone supports vibration and pre-recorded as well as downloaded ringtones. The phone also has a speakerphone that has stereo speakers. There are a number of entertainment and multimedia options in this Motorola smart phone. It has an integrated music player and video player. With the music player you can listen to different music files such as MP3, eAAC+, WAV, WMA, AMR-NB and AAC. Some of the phone’s video player’s playable formats include WAV, WMV, AAC, MP3, MIDI, AAC+, among others. The phone’s inbuilt camera has 5 mega pixels. It has an on board flash and an auto focus capability.
If you are looking for a stylish yet useful smartphone, look no further than the Motorola Quench. This phone has got features that will satisfy all your communication needs. The Motorola Quench is a great investment for anyone who it.
It is not a surprise that Google has approached various mobile phone manufacturers to develop their Nexus series of mobile phones. After all, Google does rely on subcontractors for manufacturing.
As we all know, the prestige (if we can call it such) of making the Google Nexus One is none other than HTC. The Taiwanese mobile phone manufacturer has played a key role in the development of the Android operating system since day one. In fact, it was HTC that made the very first Android smart phone, the HTC Dream (commonly known as the G1).
When Google announced that it was going to make its own mobile phone, plenty of rumors rose as to who would be manufacturing the Android handset. HTC got pegged early on as a likely candidate, but no one expected that Sony Ericsson would be one of the companies Google approached.
According to Bert Nordberg, CEO of Sony Ericsson, the Swedish Japanese joint venture passed up an invitation from Google to make the Nexus One. The news came from a Swedish magazine interview and has gotten plenty of feedback online.
“What was Sony Ericsson thinking?”
So goes the general reaction of anyone who has read the news. After all, 2009 was full of nothing but bad news for the joint venture. Halfway through the year, they had to shut down facilities and offices –losing 2000 workers in the process. Near the holidays, major device Satio got pulled out of shelves from both Carphone Warehouse and Phones4U due to firmware problems and December saw the XPERIA X2 getting delayed to January.
2010 began with the fiscal reports that showed SE being in the deep red; deep as in to the tune of over 800 million.
Did Sony Ericsson refuse a critical lifeline?
Read more about SE refusing to make Nexus One at Mobile Choice UK.
This week has been full of surprises -thanks mostly to last Sunday’s Mobile World Congress.
The Japanese Swedish joint venture Sony Ericsson had its own share of news with the reveal of the new X10 Mini, X10 Mini Pro and the Vivaz Pro. Already we have seen many of the initial specs and images of the XPERIA X10, Vivaz and the Aspen –three major SE devices that many wanted see.
The XPERIA X10 is an Android smart phone that runs on the Snapdragon processor. It also has an impressive 4 inch capacitive touch screen and it uses the new Timescape and Mediascape user interface. The only flaw about this smart phone is that like most high end smart phones, it is not a good device for the general market. Not everyone will dish out the money for a Snapdragon powered behemoth.
SE’s answer to this is the X10 Mini and the X10 Mini Pro. Both of these two devices share the same watered down specs of the XPERIA X10, at the added bonus of a significantly smaller size and a cheaper price tag. The “Pro” in the second smart phone connotes the presence of a slide out physical QWERTY keyboard.
The Vivaz Pro is pretty much the same. It is a Vivaz Symbian smart phone with the ability to record in 720p HD video and has an additional slide out QWERTY keyboard. There is one more difference between the two devices; the Vivaz Pro only has a 5 mega pixel camera while the original Vivaz has an 8 mega pixel camera.
The Aspen Greenheart smart phone which runs the new Windows Mobile 6.5.3 Maldives OS is unlikely to ever get a Pro version since it already has a physical keyboard.
Read more about the new X10 Mini and Mini Pro devices at Stuff TV.
It is a known fact that the general consumer market never liked the older versions of the Windows Mobile operating system. In fact, if it were not for HTC’s wise use of the Sense user interface to skin WinMo 6.5, the HD2 would not have been a successful device at all.
Indeed, Microsoft’s unveiling of the Windows Phone 7 series last Sunday at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain is a very impressive move. But when you think about it, has MS forgotten one major detail? The WinMo Os has been around long enough to last up to version 6.5.3 –which means that even if the general market hates the OS, plenty of people still use it. This is because Microsoft’s business class user base is second only to RIM’s. The business market has kept WinMo alive and in some ways, successful.
The presentation last Sunday was a blast. The new animations, user interface and the impressive new user-oriented features delivered media, images, social networking, games and plenty of other amazing features in one stylized, easy access and fully customizable package. Missing in the presentation was focus on the “Office” features.
Sure, there is Office and at this point, we can say that the rest is yet to come (the final product is not expected to come out until the holidays). But it still shows that the new focus on the OS is more on social networking and other facets that are important to the general user.
PC World points out a great point in their article about this matter, what about the flood of Facebook updates? The great thing about old WinMo OS is that sorting out your contacts and business correspondences was easy. Let us hope that the previous rumors about WP7 having an enterprise edition is true.
Read the more about WP7 and the business market at PC World.
When Steve Ballmer went onstage at the Mobile World Congress last Sunday at Barcelona, Spain, he (and his team) introduced what must the single most impressive operating system in the Windows series.
Despite the platform not going to be released until later this year (holiday season actually), the initial demonstrations of the OS that we have seen so far are truly innovative and they have succeeded in re-inventing the Windows Mobile OS. This is why it comes as to no surprise that the new platform will also be given a new name. It will still carry the “7” number to designate the position of the OS in the series, but from here on, the new Microsoft mobile platform will be called Windows Phone 7.
In all honesty, Windows Mobile sounded a lot a better. Name aside, everything in Windows Phone 7 is outright impressive. Here’s a quick breakdown of the various focal points of the system.
First off, the new user interface is designed specifically for capacitive touch screen displays which means it will now accept gestures, multi touch and other commands that were not possible in the resistive touch screen based, stylus-centric incarnations of the OS.
Second, they have implanted the new Xbox Love Games service. Well, it is pretty hard to talk about this one since there are no games yet being demonstrated, but initial images of the feature show that XBL accounts can be linked into the OS and it will even recognize your avatar.
Zune will also be a major part of Windows Phone 7. No word yet if they will actually be releasing Zune to other territories, but we sure could use it in the UK.
Get the freshest and latest information about Windows Phone 7 Series and other MWC highlights at GSM Arena.
While Nintendo paved the way for video games to hit a significantly larger market and eventually cause the rise of hard core games that many gamers now enjoy, the Japanese game company actually started making hits with very casual titles.
Straight from ZDnet, a podcast reveals the three different chassis types for WP7.
Windows Phone 7 series totally blew away when it was presented onstage at the mobile world congress. While the user interface was outright impressive and the new features are outstanding, no word has been given on the actual hardware that will be running the OS –aside from the fact that it will be relying heavily on Qualcomm chips.
The new Toshiba K01 has basically the same hardware features as those found in the TG02 set. It comes with a standard QWERTY keyboard that increases the thickness of the Toshiba K01. However with only just 3mm.in addition the 
There are additional support control peripherals. The Toshiba K01 uses a touch screen positioning device. The downside of the slide out QWERTY keyboard is that the directional pad is not supported with the Toshiba K01.In addition the scroll wheel is also not supported.
The Mobile World Congress was a pretty telling testament to the trend of high end smart phones. While many of us are still raving about the upcoming Windows Phone 7 series mobile platform (yes, we are close to building a shrine for it), there is no doubt that 2010 is the year when the mobile phone industry is going to get highly saturated with Android smart phones.
HTC
Motorola Quench makes use of MOTOBLUR technology for most of its settings. For the call settings, you will be able to not only view the ID of the caller; you will also see his picture and social network status. You will also be able to share your photos with your contacts through various networks that are supported by the phone. These networks include Facebook, Yahoo, MySpace, Photobucket, Picasa and Last FM. You will get updated RSS news widgets every now and then. The Happenings, Messaging and Status settings in the MOTOBLUR will notify you of different status posts.
In terms of sound, the phone supports vibration and pre-recorded as well as downloaded ringtones. The phone also has a speakerphone that has stereo speakers. There are a number of entertainment and multimedia options in this Motorola smart phone. It has an integrated music player and video player. With the music player you can listen to different music files such as MP3, eAAC+, WAV, WMA, AMR-NB and AAC. Some of the phone’s video player’s playable formats include WAV, WMV, AAC, MP3, MIDI, AAC+, among others. The phone’s inbuilt camera has 5 mega pixels. It has an on board flash and an auto focus capability.
It is not a surprise that 
This week has been full of surprises -thanks mostly to last Sunday’s Mobile World Congress.
It is a known fact that the general consumer market never liked the older versions of the Windows Mobile operating system. In fact, if it were not for 
When Steve Ballmer went onstage at the Mobile World Congress last Sunday at Barcelona, Spain, he (and his team) introduced what must the single most impressive operating system in the Windows series.