Good news for Filipinos who have been patiently waiting for the iPhone 3G to become available in the Philippines. The iPhone 3G, according to reports around the internet, will become  locally available in the Philippines and to 19 other countries this coming August 22.The move is to accomplish Apple’s goal of reaching 70 countries worldwide where the iPhone 3G will be available by the end of this year.

Below are the 20 countries and carriers where the iPhone 3G will become available this month:

1. Argentina (America Movil, Telefonica)
2. Chile (America Movil, Telefonica)
3. Colombia (America Movil, Telefonica)
4. Czech Republic (Telefonica O2, T-Mobile, Vodafone)
5. Ecuador (America Movil, Telefonica)
6. El Salvador (America Movil, Telefonica)
7. Estonia (TeliaSonera, EMT)
8. Guatemala (America Movil, Telefonica)
9. Honduras (America Movil)
10. Hungary (T-Mobile)
11. India (Bharti Airtel, Vodafone)
12. Latvia (TeliaSonera)
13. Lithuania (TeliaSonera)
14. Paraguay (America Movil)
15. Peru (America Movil, Telefonica)
16. Philippines (Globe Telecom)
17. Poland (Orange, Era)
18. Romania (Orange)
19. Slovakia (T-Mobile, Orange)
20. Uruguay (America Movil, Telefonica)

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SimpleSignal has announced their latest service called SimplyMobile,  a hosted service which enables users to listen to their emails from any phone or mobile devices by means of text-to-speech technology. SimplyMobile also uses voice commands to call the sender of the e-mail and manage your appointments in Microsoft Outlook’s calendar items. SimpleMobile service is good for mobile workers, just charge up your bluetooth headset and they can start listening to their e-mail messages even if they are driving.

Below are SimplyMobile’s complete features:

• Read or listen to your emails on the go
• Read or listen to your visual voicemail
• Listen to your daily schedule
• Verbalize the addition of a particular task to your daily schedule
• Verbalize your appointments on the fly
• Use voice commands to call back email senders
• Use voice commands to access your calendar
• Use Outlook instantly to notify attendees of a schedule change by email

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Google have delayed the launch of the much awaited Gphone because of handset issues. The Gphone or Android as what others are calling it, is  a mobile phone/smartphone powered by an operating system Google has helped design.  It  is initially scheduled for release in the second half of the year, but it is more likely to appear in the fourth quarter.  Since Google has contributed to the operating system, a group of around 30 different partners have collaborated on the development of Android through the Open Handset Alliance, a multinational alliance of technology and mobile industry leaders. Meanwhile Google is continuing to woo software developers who, it hopes, will make applications that owners of Android handsets can download from the internet.

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Nokia announced a plan to acquire the 52% remaining Symbian shares it doesn’t already own and make the platform open source under the Eclipse open source license. Nokia have also announced the creation of the Symbian Foundation, which is an alliance of mobile vendors and application providers that any company can join. This move will definitely challenge Android, the open source operating system of Google. The Symbian is the operating system of Nokia’s smartphones and other mobile phone hardware manufacturers.

All of the major Symbian stakeholders like Sony Ericsson, Siemens, and Panasonic have accepted Nokia’s offer. The three companies represent almost 91% of the Symbian shares. Although Samsung, another Symbian stakeholder has no definitive answer from Nokia’s offer, Nokia expects them to accept its offer.

“This is a significant milestone in our software strategy” said Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, CEO of Nokia. “Symbian is already the leading open platform for mobile devices. Through this acquisition and the establishment of the Symbian Foundation, it will undisputedly be the most attractive platform for mobile innovation. This will drive the development of new and compelling, web-enabled applications to delight a new generation of consumers.”

Read the announcement here

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Samsung’s iPhone killer, the i900 Omnia is the first Mobile-based DivX certified Windows Mobile Smartphone on the market and the fourth Samsung mobile to achieve DivX Certification.

The i900 Omnia is based on Windows Mobile 6.1 Pro and features 8GB/16GB of internal memory with a micro SD slot, a WideQVGA display (240 x 400 pixels), an optical mouse, TV-Out feature giving users the option where to watch their video files, and a 5-megapixel auto focus camera with face and smile detection plus auto-panorama shot. Geotagging is also among the camera features because of its built-in GPS receiver.

DivX technology enables a high-quality media experience in which video content can be seamlessly transferred from the PC to the mobile environment and beyond.

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Bluetrek has partnered up with France’s ModeLabs Group to create a new headset, the “Bluetrek Metal”, supposedly the world’s thinnest Bluetooth headset. The “Bluetrek Metal” is an ultra-thin (4mm/0.2″) and lightweight (5.5g/.2oz) headset, which is built on metal. The device is very efficient, it offers up to 5 hours of talk time or 7 days of standby.

The Bluetrek Metal comes in black/silver for $60 and is also available in stainless steel for $76 and now available in Europe.

Popularity: 1% [?]