NEC to release its 5.2M camera phone ‘N906i’ in Japan in June

SEOUL, Korea (AVING) — NEC expects to release its 5.2M camera phone ‘N906i’ in Japan market through NTT DoCoMo.

Adopting a 3-inch WVGA display, the N906i supports HSDPA and 1-Seg.

It is expected to be available in June.

Just posted! Canon EOS 450D / Rebel XSi review

Just posted! Our in-depth review of the latest in the popular ‘Rebel’ line of digital SLR cameras from Canon (rather later than we planned, it took a little longer to complete than we expected). The EOS 450D (Rebel XSi) builds on the success of the EOS 400D (Rebel XTi), adding live view, a new 12MP CMOS sensor and a smattering of new features (including boosted continuous shooting and spot metering). So does the EOS 450D have what it takes to stand out in the increasingly crowded (and competitive) entry-level digital SLR market? Read the in-depth review after the link to find out…

Add-on lens for Sigma DP1 draws close

Sigma has announced a close-up lens that can be mounted to its DP1 large-sensor compact. The AML-1 attached to the optional hood adapter (HA-11), and offers closer minimum focusing distances. The lens will be available from June 2008.

Fujifilm launches Finepix Z200fd

Fujifilm has today announced the Finepix Z200fd, a new addition to its range of ultra compact digital cameras. The Z200fd features 10 megapixels resolution and a 5x (33-165mm equiv.) zoom lens. It also brings us exciting new features such as the ‘couple’ and ‘group’ self timer modes, all wrapped up in an attractive metal body.

Fujifilm launches FinePix A850

Fujifilm has added another model to its popular ‘A’ series of competitively-priced compact digital cameras. The 8MP FinePix A850 is based around a 1/2.5" sensor and has a 3X zoom. There are 14 scene modes, including museum mode for those pictures in which you actually want artifacts to appear.

Sigma lens availability and Photoshop Express Updates

News updates: We’ve followed up some of our recent news stories to bring you up-to-date. Sigma gives updated details on lens availability for Sony and Pentax, and Adobe’s Photoshop Express updates Flickr into life.

Just posted! Sigma DP1 review

Just posted! Our in-depth review of the Sigma DP1. It’s been a long wait indeed. Sigma displayed a first concept prototype of the DP1 at Photokina 2006 but it took until March of this year for the first production models to hit the shelves. The DP1 sports the rather unusual Foveon X3 sensor (just like the Sigma SD14 DSLR) and comes with a 28mm F4.0 prime lens - quite an exotic combination in today’s world of superzooms and smile modes. Sigma claims the new model has the soul of a DSLR in a compact body. Is it right in saying so? Find out after the link…

First Spyshot of the new Treo 800w with Win Mobile 6.1

” Here comes the Palm Zeppelin! To be called Treo 800w, it is a windows mobile smartphone for CDMA network. It should available for Sprint network this year and you should also see another Palm device called Palm Skywriter this year (probably for GSM network?) Information on the spes is not available at the moment but it is confirmed that the smartphone use a microUSB connector. The Trep 800w design follows the old traditional Treo series smartphones, it might be the first Palm smartphone that comes with built in WiFi and GPS capability.” via slashphone.com

Microsoft eyes 40 percent of smartphone market by 2012

“Microsoft is aiming to capture 40 percent of the smartphone market with Windows Mobile by the year 2012, an executive said Tuesday.The target is ambitious considering the company’s relatively small share of the market for smartphone operating systems today and stiff competition from the likes of Symbian, Apple’s iPhone, RIM’s BlackBerry, and newcomers such as Google’s Android platform. Microsoft’s Windows Mobile OS went into around 11 million handsets in the company’s fiscal year 2007, and it says it will reach nearly 20 million devices in fiscal year 2008, which ends June 30, said Eddie Wu, managing director of Microsoft’s OEM Embedded Devices in Asia, on the sidelines of a news conference in Taipei. Handsets such as the new HTC Touch Diamond will help Microsoft achieve its goal, he added. High Tech Computer (HTC) is the world’s largest maker of Microsoft-based mobile phones and has been for years due to an early partnership between the companies. The HTC Touch Diamond is a 3G (third generation mobile telecommunications) update to the company’s popular Touch handset launched last year, an iPhone-rival that sports a large touchscreen. Around 118 million smartphones were sold last year, according to market researcher Canalys. Symbian captured 67 percent of the OS market, while Microsoft came in second at 13 percent and RIM took 10 percent. ” via infoworld.com

DreamSpring Releases Touch Friendly Version of DreamConnect 3 for Symbian

DreamSpring announced the availability of DreamConnect 3 v3.60, a touch friendly version and upgrade of the award-winning contact manager for Symbian UIQ 3 smartphone users.DreamSpring today released a vast improvement of DreamConnect 3, featuring finger friendly navigation as introduced in Sony Ericsson’s Developer World  and feature and performance enhancements which make the already intuitive DreamConnect 3 even more user-friendly.New to DreamConnect 3 v3.60 is gesture support, providing quicker and more convenient access to contact details. Users can simply swipe their finger or thumb either to the left or right to scroll through contact details or up and down to scroll through the contact list. On the upcoming Sony Ericsson G700 and G900, this even takes advantage of their accelerated scrolling feature.Also new in this upgrade is direct touch manipulation, placing all commonly used commands within the touch of a finger on the list view’s toolbar to further reduce key presses. This eliminates the need for a stylus, and further speeds up contacts management and communications.DreamConnect 3 v3.60 adds Key Match to the existing range of search methods. This feature reduces key presses on numeric keypads and shortens input by matching all of the letters (and the number) represented by each keypress.This upgrade highlights a substantial boost in scrolling performance now 66% faster than previously and noticeably at least 30% faster than the built-in Contacts.DreamConnect 3 v3.60 is Certified Symbian Signed and adds Danish and Taiwan Traditional Chinese in addition to English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Hong Kong Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese and Czech.This upgrade, with other enhancements, complements the many industry first and innovative features currently in DreamConnect 3 such as language-sensitive smart find and dynamic group messaging, providing significant benefits.More details on DreamConnect 3 can be found here A trial version (which will work even if a previous trial has expired) is available at here On the release of DreamConnect 3 v3.60, Managing Director Malcolm Lithgow says: “This upgrade focuses on real-world usability, and refines DreamConnect’s core features in ways that we feel sure will delight both new and existing users. It works especially well with Sony Ericsson’s exciting new phones.