UrbanHello Wins Innovations Award At CES With A Home Phone

Home phones are becoming much less prominent than a decade ago now that we have cell phones with us at all times. There's no point in having a home phone just to receive calls when your mobile device serves the exact same function. Yet UrbanHello, a new French company was awarded the sought-after "Innovations Award" this year at CES for their new "Smart home phone" design that may just convince us otherwise. 

The UrbanHello phone is an intelligent device that knows when you're holding it up to your ear or when you've put it down. When answering calls by holding it up, the phone will automatically project HD sound through the earphones and when placed down, the loudspeakers come on. This makes conference calls and hands-free calling so much more convenient. 

It is a quickly setup device as well as UrbanHello promises the ease of "Plug-and-Play"; the three words that we love to hear. To keep things simple, the phone comes equipped with the essential mechanical buttons needed to dial and get your way the device. Two OLED displays located on top and on the bottom of the handset show the relevant information. To help with energy-saving, the displays are self activated only when the phone is in use. 

As with a lot of new startup ideas, they look to Kickstarter and the power of crowd-sourcing for help. Head on over to their campaign page to support the design and idea.

Invoxia AudiOffice Is The All-in-One And One-for-All Dock

Invoxia has updated its AudiOffice dock that serves as an ideal set-up that solves one of the obvious problems most docks have: calling. Most docks require you to remove your phone to answer a call, making it an overall inconvenient experience. AudioOffice solves this issue through a built-in handset which you can use for phone calls instead. The AudiOffice rocks a Cortex A8 processor to run with iOS, and with the newest update, Android as well. 

With two more additional speakers from its four in the old version, AudiOffice projects high quality sound for conference calls and music out of its six inVivo Acoustic technology enhanced speakers that is designed for HD sound. Not only are normal phone calls able to take advantage of the AudiOffice, but VOIP communications such as Skype can too. 

The new AudiOffice is compatible with all mobile devices and even your PC with included USB cables. It will available for $299 on Invoxia's website and will be released during Q1 of this year.

SparOne Emergency Cell Phone Runs On A Single AA Battery

SparOne and PowerSkin have come out with an emergency-specific, screen-less GSM dual-band cell phone that is the only one of its kind to run of off just a single AA battery that is said to last a mind bending 15 years. You'll never have to worry about recharging this phone making it perfect as an emergency backup phone to have around. Of course that is if you never use it. Talk time with the included Energizer Ultimate Lithium AA battery is 10 hours. TheSparOne uses MicroSIM and comes with one already inside and will be available early this year for $49.99 without contract. 

AT&T Purchasing T-Mobile

AT&T announced that it would be acquiring T-Mobile USA for $39 billion. This will further improve network quality for both AT&T and T-Mobile customers as well as bring a wide variety of phone selection in the future like the iPhone for current T-Mobile customers.

Motorola Charm Announced with MOTOBLUR

 

Today, Motorola and T-Mobile have officially announced the latest phone, the Motorola Charm. It is has a portrait QWERTY which is running Android 2.1 with MOTOBLUR. Other features include a 3Mp camera and 2.8" touch screen with backtrack Navigation, much like seen on the Backflip. But if you are not familiar with the backtrack navigation, watch the video below for more details. 

Press Release:

Motorola Announces its Newest Device with MOTOBLUR™: Motorola CHARM™ 
Exclusively for T-Mobile USA, Motorola CHARM packs smartphone features and social graces into a pocketable design with Android™ 2.1 and MOTOBLURTM enhancements 

July 07, 2010 

Libertyville, Ill. — July 7, 2010 —Motorola (NYSE: MOT) today announced the upcoming availability of Motorola CHARM™, a touch screen smartphone that packs a social networking punch with Android™ 2.1, MOTOBLURTM enhancements, a compact design and a BACKTRACK™ feature that makes screen navigation even more intuitive. 

Motorola CHARM is expected to be available this summer exclusively in the U.S. for customers of T-Mobile USA, Inc. 

“Motorola strives to provide an increased customizable user experience, which is enabled by our latest enhancements to MOTOBLUR and featured on the new Motorola CHARM,” said Jean Pierre Le Cannellier, vice president, Americas Marketing, Motorola Mobile Devices. “Combine that with a compact design, easy handling and all the features you would expect from a smartphone, and we believe that CHARM with MOTOBLUR adds the social ability and workability consumers are looking for.” 

Motorola CHARM provides consumers all the features of a smartphone with the intuitive navigation of a 2.8 inch touch screen – all in a compact, pocketable design that makes messaging a snap using the combination of a full QWERTY keyboard and touch screen. The BACKTRACK navigation pad, located on the back of the smartphone directly behind the home screen, is similar to a laptop touch panel and enables an unobstructed view of the Web, texts, e-mails and news feeds. Plus, with Android 2.1 and enhanced MOTOBLUR features, CHARM offers new customization and filtering options. 

“Being social with friends and family comes naturally for T-Mobile customers, and we think mobilizing their social experiences should be effortless,” said Saj Sahay, director of product management, T-Mobile USA. “With the new Motorola CHARM and enhancements to the Android and MOTOBLUR experience, we’re bringing more social skills to our broad portfolio of Android-powered smartphones.” 

Motorola CHARM will be the first device in the U.S. to feature an enhanced version of MOTOBLUR built on Android 2.1, which syncs contacts, posts, messages, photos and much more in easy to manage streams — from sources such as Facebook®, MySpace, Twitter™, Gmail™, work and personal e-mail. MOTOBLUR now allows for even greater customization, providing users more options to follow who and what really matters. 


MOTOBLUR filters can be selected from a single social networking account, contacts, group or messaging account so that users can select only the information they want to stream live to the Happenings and Messages widgets. Users can move and resize pre-loaded home screen widgets to personalize up to seven home screen panels for an even more custom experience. Lastly, consumers can manage their phone’s battery consumption by selecting different power modes to conserve battery. 


Contacts in MOTOBLUR are automatically synced to the phone from personal and work e-mail and social network accounts. MOTOBLUR will continue to provide convenience and peace of mind, as lost devices can be located from a secure personal information portal and even remotely erased if necessary. In addition, one user name and password brings back contacts, messages and connectivity to previously configured networks and e-mail providers. 

Last, but not least, Moto Phone Portal enables you to access and manage your phone’s data from any browser through a USB or Wi-Fi connection. Edit content and view important phone information while at home or on-the-go. Leave pictures on a friend’s PC, share a video at the local Internet café or share a presentation during an important business meeting. 

Additional features on Motorola CHARM include: 

-Adobe® Flash® enabled Web browsing experience to view most of today’s content-rich sites 
-Full suite of Google™ services including: Google Search™, Google Maps™, Gmail™ and access to thousands of apps on Android Market™ 
-Pinch to zoom functionality and two-finger swipe to easily surf the Web and sort through photos 
-Capture sharp photos with a 3MP camera and KODAK PERFECT TOUCH technology for better, brighter pictures 
-One-touch social media uploads to Facebook®, MySpace, PicasaTM and PhotoBucket® 
-CrystalTalkTM PLUS for enhanced audio and call quality with a second microphone for increased voice quality while filtering out background noise 
-Corporate email pushed immediately to the device for instant inbox updates 

Availability 
Motorola CHARM with MOTOBLUR is expected to be available exclusively to T-Mobile USA customers this summer.

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