Latest phones and cell review

Tele Atlas and Samsung have announced an agreement under which Samsung will use Tele Atlas maps for its GPS-enabled devices. Samsung will be able to bundle Tele Atlas’ product with its smartphone with more than 24 million points of interest (POIs), Voice Maps, and visual enhancements such as 3D Landmarks, 2D City Maps and Digital Elevation Models.

“I believe that the agreement will bring innovative and user-friendly mobile GPS experience to our users with Tele Atlas’ unique approach to combining community input with other sources to develop the freshest, highest quality maps and innovative location content,” said Hyoungmoon No, Vice President of R&D Planning Team, Samsung Electronics .

The two companies will continue to collaborate to deliver rich navigation and location solutions, covering a wide range of products and regions.

LG today announced a partnership with Twentieth Century Fox (Fox) to introduce the new LG Chocolate (LG BL40) phone in the Asia Pacific region with embedded content from James Cameron’s eagerly-awaited epic fantasy adventure AVATAR. The new multimedia-friendly phone will mark its regional debut in Hong Kong on November 4th.

“LG is very excited to team up with Twentieth Century Fox as both AVATAR and the new LG Chocolate represent innovations in our respective industries,” said Dr. Skott Ahn, President and CEO of LG Electronics’ Mobile Communications Company. “This is also a look at the future of entertainment where content creators and content deliverers work hand-in-hand to provide options that extend beyond just the theater-going audience.”

The new LG Chocolate made its official debut in the U.K. in September and is currently available throughout Europe and the Middle East. It is schedule for worldwide release by the end of the year. AVATAR premieres in theaters beginning on December 18th.

Today Qualcomm announced that its recently created Qualcomm Innovation Center (QuIC) subsidiary has become a member of the Symbian Foundation. Qualcomm's QuIC is focusing on open source initiatives such as Linux and Webkit, and on open source operating systems ...

HTC has confirmed that it plans to update its Hero Android device with Android 2.0 (Eclair). The company said in a statement, "Because Eclair is a significantly enhanced release, it will require some time to update Sense for this ...

Together with the upcoming Android 2.0 Eclair, Verizon Wireless Droid by Motorola will become the first Android 2.0 smartphone that will be available in US from November 6th. The Motorola Droid comes with a 5 megapixel camera, dual flash LED, WiFi, GPS and 3.7-inch capacitive touch screen with 16millions colors. The “Droid” will eventually get expanded with more Android smartphones for Verizon Wireless, which could be the Droid Eris from HTC.

DROID by Motorola will be available in the United States on Friday, Nov. 6, for $199.99 with a new two-year customer agreement after a $100 mail-in rebate. Verizon Wireless is also bundling the Droid by Motorola with a 16GB microSD card for your file storage.

Full Droid by Motorola Specifications:

• Talk Time: 385 mins/6.4 hours
• Standby Time: 270 hours/11.25 days
• Capacitive Touch; Full Qwerty Side Slider
• Band/Modes: 800/1900, CDMA EVDO rev A
• Android 2.0
• Weight: 169 g / 6 oz
• Dimensions: 60.00 (x) x 115.80 (y) x 13.70 (z) mm
• Webkit HTML5 based browser; Flash 10 ready
• Battery: 1400 mAh
• Bluetooth v2.1+EDR, 3.5mm Headset jack, USB 2.0 HS
• Display: 3.7”, 480×854 WVGA
• 5.0 megapixel camera, AutoFocus, dual LED Flash and image stablization
• 16GB card included in phone, Up to 32GB microSD expandable
• aGPS, sGPS
• 802.11b/g, 3-axis accelerometer