CTIA show

Virgin Mobile releases new colors for some of its phones.

(Credit: Virgin Mobile)

Aside from the new Shuttle, Virgin Mobile is also churning out new colors of some of its existing phone offerings for the fall season. The LG Flare will now be available in silver, the Kyocera TNT will be available in lavender and espresso (with matching earbuds as an option), and the Arc will be released in a rather audacious gold. The silver Flare will be offered via Best Buy Mobile with a dollar of each purchase going to benefit a nonprofit. The lavender and espresso TNTs are exclusive from Wal-Mart, and you can get a gold Arc at Target stores.

Kyocera's NFC demo

(Credit: Kent German/CNET Networks)

There was more going on at Kyocera's CTIA booth then its new cell phones. The company also showed an interesting demo of NFC technology. In case you're not familiar, NFC allow users to store and access business cards in their cell phones, which they can then use to make purchases. In essence, your cell phone becomes your wallet, as it can be all you need to buy everything from a pack of gum to movie tickets.

In the demo I had a choice between a bottled water, a candle, or a pack of gum. I chose the gum since I had just guzzled my morning coffee. After the "cashier" rang up my purchase, he waved the NFC-enabled phone in front of a scanner to complete the transaction. If the demo handset was my phone, the purchase would show up on my normal credit card bill.

The technology is hardly new and though it's common in Asia, it's relatively rare in the United States. Just how it works is fairly simple. The NFC phone is embedded with a chip that stores your credit card information. When making a purchase, a scanner will read the chip and detect your preferred payment method.

The Kyocera E2000's fingerprint scanner

(Credit: Kent German/CNET Networks)

Naturally, this does bring up security concerns. No one would relish the idea of some nefarious person taking your stolen phone on a shopping spree. Yet Kyocera showed how to avoid that. Its demo handset, a Kyocera E2000, had a fingerprint scanner for identifying the phone's owner. Without the necessary finger touch, the handset would not allow NFC purchases. What's more, a Kyocera spokeswoman said you can train the phone to use different credit cards depending on how you swipe the scanner. That sounds very cool indeed.

Phew! Day 1 of CTIA 2008 is in the bag, and as usual, the opening day provided plenty of action. Here are some of the highlights of the day.

Samsung was certainly a show stopper as it revealed its Samsung Instinct, an iPhone competitor that features a sleek touch screen interface and a boatload of features. Senior Editor Kent German has all the details for you and says it look promising. Kent also got some hands-on time with AT&T's new Motorola Z9, which left him with some mixed feelings. And Kyocera kept busy as it announced a whole fleet of new cell phones, including the very sexy Neo E1100. Check out our Kyocera slide show to see all the new handsets.

Meanwhile, Associate Editor Nicole Lee found plenty to look at the LG booth as the company announced the LG EnV(2) for Verizon Wireless and the LG Vu for AT&T. The latter is particularly noteworthy, not only for its stunning design and touch-screen interface, but also because it supports the new AT&T Mobile TV service. Being our resident Bluetooth headset goddess, Nicole also got a chance to out some of the latest models, including the Motorola H690, the Sound ID H300, and the "fashionable" Plantronics Discover 925.

Last but not least, in the land of smartphones, there were several key announcements. First, Microsoft announced the latest version of its mobile operating system, Windows Mobile 6.1, which features a number of enhancements to make Windows Mobile smartphones easier to set up and navigate. You can expect carriers and device manufacturers to roll out upgrades pretty soon. In fact, HTC revealed at the show that it will offer the GSM HTC Touch Dual in the United States with Windows Mobile 6.1 and 3G support. Verizon Wireless also snagged its own HTC Touch, dubbed the Verizon Wireless XV6900. Research in Motion shared the love with several carriers as it released the RIM BlackBerry Pearl 8120 for T-Mobile and the RIM BlackBerry Curve 8330 for Verizon Wireless and Sprint.

Now, these were just some of the highlights, and as you can tell, there's plenty to see here at CTIA 2008. We'll be back at it on Day 2, bringing you all the latest news and products via blogs, photos, and videos, so keep it dialed in here--same bat channel, same bat place.

Kyocera Neo E1100

(Credit: Kyocera)

Kyocera kicked off CTIA this morning by unveiling three new cell phones. The Kyocera Neo E1100 is the most high end mode trip. It offers a sleek flip phones design with a few unique touches on its front face. The feature set isn't terribly advanced but you will find Bluetooth, a 1.3-megapixel camera, a 262,000-color display and a speakerphone. The Kyocera Mako S4000 is a trim flip phone with a VGA camera, voice dialing and a speakerphone. It won't wow high-maintenance users but it does more than just make calls. Finally, there's the Adreno S2400. Designed with simplicity in mind, the Adreno has a minimalist design with a functional feature set. Check out our Kyocera CTIA slide show for a closer look. Also, see Kyocera's new GSM handsets.

Kyocera Adreno S2400

(Credit: Kyocera)

Kyocera chose CTIA to unveil is new Adreno S2400, a low-end flip phone that offers a simple design and functional features. Be advised there's not a lot of whizbang functionality here; rather, the Adreno is all about making calls. That's hardly a bad thing, though, and we like that the S2400 offers Bluetooth 1.2 and voice dialing. You'll also find text and multimedia messaging, basic organizer features, a speakerphone, a WAP Internet browser, voice memos, a vibrate mode, and a 500-contact phone book.

On the outside the Adreno won't win any design awards, but that's no to say it's unattractive. Its look is dominated by squares and rectangles, from the rectangle of the phone itself to the square, and monochrome, external display. This angular theme continues to the inside as well. The 65,000 color rectangular display is surrounded by a rectangular frame while just below it are the boxy navigation array and keypad buttons. Silver and black predominate throughout the S2400 so as we said, there's not a huge focus on design. But for users that just want a handset without all the frills, we imagine that they won't mind the Adreno's simplicity.

Kyocera has yet to reveal carrier and pricing information, but we know that the Adreno is a CDMA phone and it supports BREW instead of Java.

Kyocera's new Mako (pronounced like the auto bodyshop) S4000 is one of three new handsets that the manufacturer introduced today at CTIA. It has a simple design with a thin profile (0.67 inches) and a decent set of midrange features. The basic black exterior shows a color external display that sits above a small speaker which features a retro mesh design. It's a unique touch, and Kyocera mentioned that the speaker won praises during the Mako's user testing.

Inside you'll find a 262,000-color display with a shiny silver keypad and navigation controls. The controls are flush with the surface of the phone but they seem pretty user-friendly.

Kyocera Mako S4000

(Credit: Kyocera)

Features include Bluetooth, text and multimedia messaging, voice commands, a speakerphone, basic organizer features, Bluetooth (version 1.2), instant messaging, and a WAP Web browser. The VGA camera is a little disappointing considering just how common megapixel shooters are these days, but as long as it takes decent shots then we'll let it pass for now. We also thought that the 250-contact phone book was a bit small, though we imagine that high-powered users with lots of friends would gravitate toward a smartphone, anyway.

There's no word on pricing or when the CDMA handset will make it to a carrier. But consider it supports BREW instead of Java, Verizon Wireless is a distinct possibility.

During the last two CTIA shows, Kyocera has demonstrated a talent for unveiling new cell phone with a bit of design pizzazz. Last year it was the Kyocera E5000, and this year it is the Neo E1100. Sporting an extremely minimalist design in basic black, the E1100 is a thin (0.66 inche) flip phone with a glowing blue "lightpipe" down the center of its front face. Though you may think there's no external display, there is a hidden screen that runs vertically to the left of the lightpipe. Typically we're not big fans of hidden displays, and the E1100's seems awfully small, but in this case it seems to work well with the handset's sleek design. Another unique feature is the reverse hinge, which causes the Neo's front flap to fold behind its rear face when the phone is open. We first saw a reverse hinge in the Sony Ericsson Z600. Though on that handset we complained that the hinge rubbed against our face, we've gotten used to the feature as it has shown up on more phones. Inside the Neo there's a 262,000 color display a set of flush controls navigations keys.

Kyocera Neo E1100

(Credit: Kyocera)

On the whole the Neo's feature set is respectable. You'll find voice recognition, text and multimedia messaging, Bluetooth 2.0, a speakerphone, BREW for game and application downloads, MP3 ringtones, a 1.3-megapixel camera, and personal organizer features. A micro USB port will let you connect the Neo to a PC, but we had mixed feeling about the 2.5mm headset jack. Though it's better than some obscure proprietary jack, a 3.5mm jack would be ideal. Also, it delivers only mono sound.

Availability and pricing for the CDMA phone is still to come but we sincerely hope that will actually come to market. Kyocera has its share of models that never seem to make it off the trade show floor, the E5000 is just on example, so we hope that the Neo will have better luck.

After years of producing only CDMA cell phones, Kyocera announced today that it would neglect GSM user no longer. At CTIA the company unveiled four GSM handsets, all of which are destined for the Latin American market. They range from the feature-rich to the basic and functional while offering a selection of designs. Here's a roundup of the four new models.

Kyocera E4600
A slider phone vaguely reminiscent of a Motorola Rizr, the E4600 is the flagship model of the series. It offers an MP3 player, a 2-megapixel camera, Bluetooth, an expandable memory slot, a 262,000-color display, and quadband (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) world phone support.

Kyocera E3500
The E3500 has a flip phones design with dedicated music controls on its front flap. Features include an MP3 player, a 1.3-megapixel camera, a memory card slot, Bluetooth, and quadband (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) world phone support. It also offers eight hours of talk time battery life, which even Kyocera admits is a big improvement over is CDMA models.

Kyocera E2500
The Kyocera E2500 has candy-bar design. Inside you'll find a 1.3-megapixel camera, Bluetooth, a memory card slot, and quadband (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) world phone support. It also can function as an external hard drive, presumably through a USB cable.

Kyocera S1600
The S1600 is the most basic model of the GSM quartet. Inside the simple candy-bar design are features designed for communication. There's text and multimedia messaging, a VGA camera, and a WAP Internet browser. It's available in two dualband versions, GSM 850/1900 and GSM 900/1800.

So Kyocera, how about throwing a little love our way and bring these phones to North America?