This is where the solution of having conference calls instead of physical conferences comes to mind. This option gives much more advantages that can be considered at the first impression. Except of having to save money on the boarding of the participants from various countries, you also save on some organizational costs.

With the appearance of free conference calls everything turned into something even more convenient. Now you can have the conference with the help of the operators without having to pay for it. But as everything else free conference calls also have a few disadvantages. One of the main ones is that these types of conference call can be done only with a limited amount of participants and for a specific amount of timing.

But if you came across something significant to talk about then this option of quite quick connection with limited participants and timing will not harm the quality of the problem-solving.

This article contains unofficial information.

Will the next version of the iPhone have an upgraded 5MP camera? According to tipsters for DigitTimes, OmniVision Technologies has received an order for 5MP CMOS Image Sensors (CIS) for a next-generation iPhone expected to be out in the second half of next year. The company became a supplier to the iconic touchscreen device by beating out competitor Aptina Imaging which provides the 2MP CIS for the iPhone 3G. OmniVision will ship 40-45 million CIS units for the iPhone in 2010, about double what it shipped last year. Including orders for the iPod, OmniVision’s shipments to Apple ran to 65 million units in 2009. The sources say that the company is raising its wafer starts at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company beginning at the start of the new year.

Google’s semi-secret Nexus One handset has been more or less exhaustively leaked at this point, with very few cats left to let out of the bag. The only two major points left were the tech specs and the release date – and now, even those have made their way out.

Not only did they share the above spec sheet, but they also mentioned that Google’s planning on selling the Nexus One on an invite-only basis come January 5th.

What exactly that entails, we’ve got no idea. Who gets an invite? Certainly not Google employees – they already have the handsets. Long time Google app users? Members of the Android development community? Dudes named Greg who write about cell phones on the Internet all day? Either way, we just Google opens up sales to everyone before too long.

Highlight-worthy Specs:

* 3.7″ WVGA AMOLED Screen – Should be mind-blowingly gorgeous

* 119mm tall, 59.8 mm wide, 11.5mm thick – A hair thinner than the iPhone 3GS

* 512 MB RAM and 512 MB rom, with up to 32GB storage via microSD (4 GB comes in the box)

* HSPA 900 / 1700 / 2100 – It’ll work on EDGE on both T-Mo and AT&T, but 3G will be T-mobile only

* 802.11n Wi-Fi

* 5 Megapixel camera with Autofocus and Flash

* Bluetooth 2.1+ EDR

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), aka the telecomm branch of the United Nations, has recently approved a standard for a universal phone charger. The standard is based on the GSM Association’s earlier suggestion for a Micro-USB-based universal mobile phone charger.

This is really good news for anyone who has been following the ‘universal phone charger‘ story. The ITU joins the GSMA and the CTIA, which jumped on board earlier this month, in making a universal mobile phone charger that much closer to becoming a reality. Hooray for cooperation!

According to the ITU:

Every mobile phone user will benefit from the new Universal Charging Solution (UCS), which enables the same charger to be used for all future handsets, regardless of make and model. In addition to dramatically cutting the number of chargers produced, shipped and subsequently discarded as new models become available, the new standard will mean users worldwide will be able to charge their mobiles anywhere from any available charger, while also reducing the energy consumed while charging.

Not only will the new universal charger be more convenient and save consumers (some) cash, but they are also more environmentally friendly. Malcolm Johnson, Director of ITU’s Telecommunication Standardization Bureau (TSB), said: “This is a significant step in reducing the environmental impact of mobile charging, which also has the benefit of making mobile phone use more straightforward.” The new, universal chargers are based on the Micro-USB interface, and will include a 4-star or higher efficiency rating – up to three times more energy-efficient than an unrated charger.

The highly anticipated TomTom car kit for iPhone has finally made its appearance at the Apple Store. It is going to cost $120 and will ship in two to three weeks. Some of the mentioned features include secure docking, enhanced GPS performance, clear voice instructions, easy charging, hands free calling, and the ability to play music through cars’ audio via cable.

Here are some specs for the TomTom car kit:

* Audio out: 3.5 mm

* Volume control: Yes

* Portrait/Landscape support: Yes

* Windscreen and dashboard mounting: Yes

* iPhone charging via CLA: Yes

* Dimensions: 5.17 x 2.7 x 1.96 in./131.43 x 68.68 x 49.86 mm

* Weight: 4.13 oz./117 g

ARM have just launched the ARM Cortex-A5 MPCore processor – their first multicore processor intended for usage in mobile devices. According to the company this is the smallest and most power-efficient multicore processor that is capable of delivering the performance needed for smartphones and the cheap manufacturing desired for low-cost devices.

The ARM Cortex-A5 gamma features a wide range of CPUs – from the power-efficient uniprocessor (that we imagine will cost pennies to produce) to up to 4-core processor (that should be used on high-end multimedia powerhouses).

The new range of processors should deliver much better performance than its ARM11 predecessors, while still fitting within the size of the ARM9 units. At the same time the multi-core ARM Cortex-A5 should be nearly twice as power efficient, which should probably have quite an effect on mobile devices battery life. ARM11 is a pretty popular hardware platform for many Symbian smartphones. Even the the first two generations of Apple iPhone used ARM11 cores.

ARM state that the new Cortex-A5 is fully application compatible with the older Cortex-A8 and Cortex-A9 processors (currently used in popular devices such as the Sony Ericsson Satio, Nokia N900, Samsung Omnia HD, iPhone 3GS and Palm Pre), which means it should get along perfectly with0 all software platforms such as Android, Symbian, Windows Mobile, etc. We are yet to see however if all those platforms will be able to utilize the multi-core architecture to its fullest.

The Cortex-A5 processor is now available for general licensing, and shipments will start in Q4 of 2009. That means that we might be seeing the first prototypes utilizing it at the next GSM Congress in February.

Another particularly successful company in the third quarter 2009 has announced its financial results today. LG have recorded their highest-ever revenue and profit for this period of the year.

Their consolidated revenue rose by 15.7 percent compared to last year, reaching 11.2 billion US dollars. Operating profit reached 685 million US dollars, which is 1.3 percent higher than the third quarter last year.

As usual recently, the mobile division is one of the best performing in the conglomerate, recording 3.75 billion US dollars in sales – an increase of 21.9 percent YoY. The operating profit is up 8.4 percent to 314 million US dollars.

Out of those, pure handset sales accounted for 3.53 billion US dollars revenue and 309 million US dollars profit. LG mobiles phones shipments saw an increase of 37% year-over-year and 6 percent quarter-over-quarter to 31.6 million units. Those numbers secure the company the 3rd largest mobile phone manufacturer spot with a market share of about 11.2 percent.

According to LG, the reason behind this success is the robust growth they’ve been experiencing in emerging and European markets, thanks to products such as Cookie and messaging-oriented phones. However price erosion, along with increased sales of low-end handsets caused the comparatively lower profit figures.

Chip maker Marvell has announced ARMADA, a new line of low-power 1.2GHz mobile processors with Adobe Flash and Blu-ray functionality designed for a range of devices like smartphones, HD video consumer devices, smartbooks, and Mobile Internet Devices.

The ARMADA 600 is built for smartphones and includes an ARM v7 CPU, 512KB L2 cache, 1080p video decoding, support for WUXGA LCD resolution, and more. The ARMADA 100, 500, and 1000 share similar specifications but are built for compatibility in MID devices, smartbooks, and mobile video devices, respectively.

Marvell says that ARMADA-powered devices should be available to consumers in early 2010.

via SlashPhone

NTT DoCoMo, NEC, Panasonic and Fujitsu announced today that they are making progress with their joint development of “LTE-PF”, a mobile-terminal platform based on Long Term Evolution (LTE), a coming mobile communication standard for super-fast downlinks above 100 Mbps and uplinks above 50 Mbps.

The four companies have completed the development of an LTE-PF chipset engineering sample and are now evaluating its main functions. The sample will be exhibited at the NTT Group stand at ITU Telecom World 2009 in Geneva, Switzerland from October 5 to 9 and the DOCOMO stand at CEATEC JAPAN 2009 at Makuhari Messe, Chiba Prefecture, Japan from October 6 to 10.

This article contains unofficial information.

Everyone knows Intel’s story at how they became such a prominent company in the computer industry. Their brand recognition has become evident on the outside of many computers throughout the world. They’ve had their fair share of competition in the past with AMD, but their commitment to produce chips with raw processing power continues to make them a market leader. Seemingly conquering the computer industry, Intel has made little headway in the mobile phone world.

Dadi Perlmutter, executive vice president for Intel’s Architecture Group, stated that a high-end smartphone maker would be shipping a phone in 2010 that will contain Intel’s 32-nm “Moorestown” platform based on the Atom core. The last time Intel’s name was remotely found on some mobile device was with its XScale chip which found its place among HP’s iPAQ PDAs. They foresee penetration into mainstream smartphones some time in 2011 with “Medfield” – which analysts expect to be Intel’s true smartphone product. Tony Massimini, an analyst with Semico Research, states that “Moorestown looks like a transitional product.”

With strong ties with Asian OEMs and ODMs, Intel will probably have an easier time forming relationships with those companies. On the other hand, they’ll have a tough time convincing top-tier European phone manufacturers like Sony Ericsson to adopt Moorestown. If Intel plays their cards right, they may end up taking the mobile world by storm.