The Mobile Fun Blog

Samsung is obviously bullish on its low-to-mid range Star handset. The all-touchscreen device, which is known as the Tocco Lite in the UK, is already available in multiple color options and even some special edition versions — all of which helped Samsung move more than 10 million units so far. Heck, we’ve even seen that the WiFi-enabled Star is in works…

AT&T (NYSE: T) announced a new member of its rugged family, Airo Wireless A25is, which they say is the “world’s first intrinsically safe-certified smartphone.” Powered by Windows Mobile 6.1, the A25is has undergone intrinsic safety certification testing and approval for UL 913 (North America) and also meets rugged military specifications (MIL-SPEC 810-F/G). In other words, it is rated to survive a fall of almost 50 inches at least 26 times, be shock-proof across 1,000 miles of transport in a vehicle on shaky terrain, and withstand up to 95 percent humidity for 48 hours and immersion in up to five feet of water for 30 minutes.

There’s a new messaging device available in the ever-growing Indian market. It’s called G-Fone G588 and even though it feels legit, I can’t help but to compare it with the BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) Curve 8900. However, instead of a trackball that’s found in RIM’s device, the G588 boast a D-pad (which I personally prefer).

By Scott M. Fulton, III, Betanews

Literally every day at Betanews, we get at least one security vendor “alert” of some type, warning us to be on the lookout for the latest malware. The message is always the same: Advise users to stay vigilant, to keep patching, to upgrade their antivirus to the latest editions. But the profiles of the malware typically look the same, too — stuff you might click on by accident, links pretending to be from your “best friend” in an e-mail message, ads for products that look too good to be true.

By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Late in February, Palm issued a shareholder warning which said that profits for the full year were going to be “well below” expectations due to a surprisingly slow demand for Palm’s smartphones.

Today, the company issued its third quarter earnings report, and though the numbers were actually up against the same quarter last year (when Palm posted a net loss of million,) the company is still losing money; million to be exact.

By Scott M. Fulton, III, Betanews

Version 196.75 of Nvidia’s GeForce/Ion drivers were indeed responsible for fan overheating problems reported by users. That’s the verdict from Nvidia, which in a second round of responses to customer concerns has released version 197.73, which it assures users doesn’t have the problem.

As if the term “Windows Phone 7 Series” wasn’t lame enough, Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) is pushing its latest operating system at “life maximizers.”

Zero Emission has announced the release of Short Order Cook, a fast-paced casual game that challenges players’ skills of recognition, concentration and trains their memory. In Short Order Cook, at the outset of each level a food image on a kitchen ticket and its matching tile are revealed for a short time. Once the tiles are flipped over, the challenge is to memorize the location of the matching pairs as quickly and as precise as possible. After all pairs of images have been revealed, the user needs to correctly select the matching tile for each kitchen ticket when it turns over.

Well yes, if the rumours are to be believed! TechDigest picked up on a story that came from Samsung Hub, regarding the SCH-W960 – apparently this device can do 3D via its screen, and not only that, can up-convert from 2D to 3D (now I think I’ve heard it all!). The device is apparently packing a 3.3 inch WVGA AMOLED screen, which is 3D capable – along with a comparably less impressive 3MP in the camera department. One other trump card it does have to play though is dual TV tuners – quite what standard really isn’t very clear though.

By Scott M. Fulton, III, Betanews

In the first series of comprehensive performance tests comparing Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 9 technical preview, released yesterday, to stable Web browsers in current use today, Betanews confirmed superb speed gains by the IE9 chassis in specific categories. Not everything in the new IE9 was faster than IE8, but in the computational department, the development team’s Chakra JavaScript engine shows much-needed gains.