Hasta La Gadget!

Google may focus much of its attention on smartphones, but it knows that featurephone owners deserve a good online experience as well. Accordingly, it just launched a revamped Gmail web app for devices where modern browsers and touchscreens aren’t guaranteed. The new client requires fewer button presses to read and write messages; users can reply to email directly from the thread view, for example. While the need for basic webmail is disappearing as smartphones get ever cheaper, those who need (or prefer) a simple cellphone can try the new Gmail page today.

Filed under: Cellphones, Internet, Mobile, Google

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Source: Official Gmail Blog

The day has finally arrived, the straw that broke the feature phone’s back is now on the “winning side”. I am referring to total sales figures of smartphones as well as feature phones. Needless to say, today marks the first time in the history of mankind that smartphones have overtaken feature phones where sales volume is concerned. In the second quarter of 2013, a total of 435 million handsets were sold worldwide, where 225 million of those happen to be smartphones, which would represent a massive increase of 46.5% year on year. As for the remaining 210 million, those happen to be under the feature phones category that experienced a 21% drop in total sales, when compared with the same period in 2012.

Google’s Android mobile operating system does seem to dominate majority of the world’s smartphone market share, taking a 79% chunk, and Samsung is unsurprisingly the main driver behind this figure after moving a whopping 71 million devices in total throughout Q2 2012. While Apple’s iPhone sales have increased to 31.9 million units, it saw its worldwide share shrink to 14.2% from 18.8% during the previous year’s corresponding quarter. When do you think that the last feature phone will roll out from a factory somewhere in this world? I suppose as long as the most basic smartphone remains more expensive than a basic feature phone, there will always be a market for the latter.

Smartphones Overtake Feature Phone Sales original content from Ubergizmo.

Sorry, Ms. Sinatra, but the headline parody was all too obvious to ignore. As part of its mobile device Recycle program, which allows users to trade in old handsets for cash, British telco O2 has commissioned local designer Sean Miles to give discarded featurephones a new lease on life. The end result? Four footwear designs – made from the likes of Christian Louboutins, Nike Airs, Hunter Wellingtons and a classic Brogue men’s shoe — replete with a fully functional phone embedded in the sole. We know exactly what you’re thinking: Why would anyone want to hold a shoe to their face? Whether it’s for the love of the arts, a penchant for public ridicule or a closer whiff of the ground below, we can’t say for sure. What we do know is that this truly “mobile” kit(sch) will be up for auction later in March at a planned exhibition. But that won’t be the last you’ll see of Miles’ unholy meshing of tech and apparel — the artist also plans to branch out into gloves and handbags as part of the fuller O2 Recycle Collection. You paying attention, Weird Al? This one’s for you!

Filed under: Wearables

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Via: The Sun

Source: PSFK

Feature phones don’t grace our pages too often, but when Nokia said it had a new Asha to show us, we thought we’d go take a look. We’ve been following the Asha range since it launched a little more than a year ago, but we were also interested to see Nokia Slam in action, a new Bluetooth quick-sharing feature with Android compatibility. There were no touchscreens in sight as we were introduced to the Asha 205 — a Series 40 QWERTY handset with a social angle aimed primarily at emerging markets, but also at those who either don’t have the cash or the need for a top-of-the-range device. Bearing that in mind, we gave the phone a brief once over, looking at what it does for roughly $62 (excluding taxes, etc.), rather than what it lacks compared with smartphones at higher price points. During the meeting we also glanced over the Nokia 206, which shares many of the same features but isn’t part of the Asha family due to its numpad input (see the video and gallery for more details). Head past the break for our thoughts on the Asha 205, and a demo of Nokia Slam in action.

Continue reading Hands-on with the Asha 205 and Nokia’s Slam quick-sharing feature (video)

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Nokia

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If SammyHub‘s blurrycam tipster is to believed, Samsung will soon be swelling its Duos line of dual-sim handsets with the (purported) GT-S732 you see before you. Presumably, the feature phone will sit at the floor of any pricing table since it’s packing a meager 2-megapixel camera, 2.4-inch display and a 1,000mAh battery. Notably the handset includes a WiFi radio, which puts us in mind of a messaging-centric handset — which explains the presence of a dedicated ChatON button beneath the screen. We’ll keep our ears to the ground to find out if it’s likely to make an appearance on these shores — but we won’t get our hopes up.

Filed under: Cellphones

Samsung GT-S3752 Duos gets snapped with dedicated ChatON button by Mr. Blurrycam originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Jul 2012 19:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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