Short overview of the cellphone

With Samsung’s Omnia success, it seems like everyone’s taking shots at it - including Asus. According to some well rumored sources, this might be Samsung’s biggest challenger, featuring a 5MP camera and a 3.5″ touchscreen display that can render anything at a 800×480 resolution.

From what I could tell from some leaked photos, the cellphone seemed to have a front camera as well, leaving me with the thought it might also feature 3G connectivity.

The design part is pretty impressive, featuring an outer-casing made out of stainless steel and a monochromatic minimalist design. Regarding the tech specs, the word is that the cellphone is going to have a 4GB internal memory - with expansion possibility via a microSD card - and all the wireless connectivity you can think of ( WiFi, Bluetooth, aGPS ), all incorporated into a 13,8mm thick cellphone.

Oh, did I mention it also includes an Accelerometer ? I wouldn’t be surprised to see some of Apple’s iPhone functionality amongst it’s features.

Technical specifications

• GSM Connectivity : GPRS/EDGE/3G/HSDPA/HAUPA
• GSM Frequency : 850/900/1800/1900
• WCDMA Frequency: 900/1900/2100
• Screen: 3.5 “WVGA 800X480 / 65K Color TFT
• System: Microsoft WM 6.1 Professional
• UI: Glide 1.5
• Camera: 5MP (2592×1944px) from autofocus
• Video: MPEG4, H.264 encoding & decoding
• Communications: Bluetooth 2.0, Wifi, USB
• aGPS
• Audio: AAC, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, EVRC, QCELP, AAC + + EAAC, MP3, MIDI, PCM, WAV
• Working time:
• Standby : 200 hours
• Talk time: 4 hours
• Memory: 4GB flash
• Expansion: microSD
• Dimensions: 115×59×13.8mm
• Tracking ball
• Accelerometer
• Construction: stainless steel

The official launch will probably be in late October.

General information about P552w

Last Friday, Asus announced its latest handset : the P552w, a highly competitive and feature packed hand-held device. Boasting a 620MHz CPU and a 2.8″ QVGA display that can render at a 240×320 resolution the cellphone brings forward something new, a technology called ‘Gester’. This new technology Asus claims to have discovered is somewhat similar to HTC’s software called TouchFloTouchFLO is an user-interface designed by HTC. It is used by dragging your finger up the screen and moving your finger left and right to access common tasks. TouchFLO was used in the HTC Touch Family of Pocket PCs and was succeeded by TouchFLO 3D.

Gester is according to Asus cutting-edge technology that enables users to perform a variety of navigational actions – such as selecting, zooming, scrolling and flipping – easily through simple flicks of their fingers.

Brief overview of the tech specs

Besides the already mentioned tech specs, the cellphone also integrates wireless connectivity, more precisely : Bluetooth 2.0 ( with A2DP ) and WiFi 802.11(b+g). Besides that, we’ll also get HSDPA / UMTS radios, GPS connectivity, 256MB of flash memory, 128MB of DDR memory plus support for microSD / SDHC cards. Although not very impressive but worth mentioning it also features a 2MP fixed focus camera.

As for the software part, Asus claims their phone will come somehow ‘Google ready’, integrating both Asus and Google technology : Google Maps, Anytime Launcher, ASUS Today, Multi-Home, EziMusic and EziPhoto.

After talking about the  AiGuru SV1 yesterday ( the first Skype compatible videophone ), it looks like the people over at Gizmodo and at Engadget have got their hands on it and offer a few more screenshots than currently available anywhere else. There’s not much else left to be said, so head on over and take a closer look at the photos and enjoy the reviews.

Asus AiGuru SV1 Gizmodo review

Asus AiGuru SV1 Engadget review

Enjoy.

Ion Audio is a company that’s been lately focusing on bringing PC connectivity to old school stuff and a very good example is this one.

Slides 2 PC isn’t anything more than an innovative way of storing your old 35mm slides ( yeah, you know the ones that are collecting dust under the bed in a box probably ) on your PC.

Although priced at $100 it looks pretty promising, it’s able to scan an entire slide in 2 seconds tops, has a 5MP resolution and it also employs some automatic exposure and color balance over the newly scanned photos to cut down on the human tweaking that’s usually required afterwards. Pretty sweet.

As the title says, Asus has just announced the release of the first Skype compatible videophone - called AiGuru SV1. The AiGuru SV1 phone allows you to make free Skype calls to anyone in the world at no costs, as long as the other person is using Skype as well.

The phone boasts a 7″ LCD screen, built-in VGA web-cam, microphone and speaker and has a very user friendly icon based navigation menu that makes it really easy for anyone to use it. Users who wish to have privacy during their calls can use a standard mini-jack headset and microphone.

To start your Skype calling frenzy, you’ll either need an active WiFi connection ( b/n/g) or a free Ethernet port that will guarantee you an Internet connection - too bad the battery isn’t going to last more than 20 minutes without being connected to a power plug.

Another great thing about this product is the fact that you’ll be able to make or receive calls from fixed or mobile landlines at cheap rates - or at least that’s Asus’s plan.

The ASUS AiGuru SV1 will initially be available for pre-order on September 18, 2008 in Europe and North America from Skype’s online shop (www.skype.com/shop). It will be on sale at the beginning of October 2008 priced $299.95/€249.95/£199.95. The videophone will be available in retail outlets in the Asia Pacific region later this year.