The FCC recently approved the Samsung P858, a GSM Clamshell with a 3MP CCD sensor. The P858 is a Chinese version of the P850, which was announced for Europe last year. While it is unlikely the P858 will show up on American shores, a similar P857 model is rumored for Cingular.
Sometimes American versions of phones show up with less impressive specs than their European cousins, but the Nokia N80 has recently paved the way for 3 Megapixel phones with TV-out on American Networks.
In addition to a high resolution camera with flash, the P858 is a 900/1800/1900 GSM/GPRS handset featuring Bluetooth, an MP3 player, MicroSD slot and TV-out. The QVGA screen also flips around in order to hold the phone horizontally and use it as a camera while closed.
RIM received some favorable news yesterday, however none of it is likely to affect the upcoming trial set for the 24 of this month. NTP's final patent was declared invalid by the USPTO in a non-final judgement.
Although all five remaining patents have been overturned in non-final judgements, the final judgements could still be months away and the district court judge does not have to consider no-final rulings in the trial.
The Department of Justice also stepped in again yesterday, requesting that the judge not issue any injunction without first consulting the DOJ. The DOJ has a number of requests that the judge and RIM comply with before any injunction is issued, including a period of discovery for how a shutdown would affect Blackberry users and interested parties from wireless carriers to government agencies and emergency responders.
The FCC is set to unveil a proposal that will change the rules on small business discounts awarded in some spectrum license auctions. Currently large carriers team with small regional ones to bid on spectrum in auctions.
The national carriers do this to take advantage of a 25% discount awarded to small carriers on some licenses. The FCC would like to prevent large carriers from taking advantage of this discount while still offering it to smaller ones.
Even if the FCC does change this rule, it has to consider comments on the proposal, and changes may not take effect until after June's 3G auction, allowing national carriers one last time to buy spectrum at a discount.
Verizon is set to announce a change in policy that will allow owners of EV-DO handsets to use them as modems for laptops. Using a USB cable, not Bluetooth, owners of most current EV-DO handset will be able to tether their phones to a laptop and use the Broadband Access data network. Verizon already offers this option to users of the Blackberry 7130e.
As with the 7130e, users will have to upgrade their data plan to a $60 per month version. The LG VX9800 and VX8100 as well as the Motorola e815 and V3c are all compatible with the new option. The XV6700 and Treo 700W smartphones are not supported at launch.
No comments:
Post a Comment