Mobifun’s Weblog

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd and Symbian Limited today announced the Samsung i550, Samsung’s first GPS navigator equipped smartphone at the Smartphone Show in London, UK. Packed with multimedia capabilities and fast Internet speed, the Samsung i550 is the latest addition to the Symbian smartphone family from Samsung Electronics.With a candy bar-type design, the new Samsung i550 is based on Symbian OS v9.2 and is on display at the Samsung stand at the Symbian Smartphone Show. Also based on S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 1, Samsung i550 users can choose from thousands of applications from the S60 applications library and have access to their favorites by using dedicated hot keys. With the GPS navigator function, voice activated turn-by-turn guidance makes it easy for car drivers to find directions while pedestrian mode offers specific locations and directions at walking speeds.

Web browsing and access to Web 2.0 services are made easy on the Samsung i550 as it’s based on HSDPA 3.6 Mbps and has full browsing with a high capacity memory of 128 MB RAM. Viewing and surfing web content becomes more convenient through trackball navigation and a 2.6″ optimized LCD. The SGH-i550 includes a 3.2 megapixel camera with video editing functionality. It features 150MB of internal user memory and an FM radio.

The Samsung -i550 will be available in Europe from November 2007.

There have been rumors flying around about a Google Phone for the longest time and many people are saying that the actual handset will be produced not by the search engine giant, but by a third party manufacturer already known for creating some rebadged wonders. And now, there’s even more fodder to substantiate that rumor.

A UBS analyst is reporting that HTC is set to ship “about 50,000″ cell phones running on a Google-developed mobile operating system. And the shipment will happen before Santa makes his rounds at the end of this year. As you recall, the HTC-produced google Phone will be running a mobile variant of Linux, hopped up with a bunch of Google software. Between 3 and 5 HTC devices have been seen running Google’s mobile OS.

Interestingly, this first batch of GooglePhones will not be destined for the marketplace. Instead, the 50,000 units “are going to be available for developers only to understand how the software works.” A commercial unit may be ready sometime in 2008.

As you may have heard, Nokia revealed a version of the S60 user interface today that includes a touch-based interface, squarely taking on the same market as Windows Mobile PocketPC phones and, perhaps more notably, the Apple iPhone. The demonstration video, which you can view below, tells you how great it will be to get your fingerprints all over the cell phone screen.