Some of you may remember Motorola's old PEBL model that was the mark of the company's mobile devices during the time. While it isn't exactly called the PEBL 2, don't let the MOTO U9's similar appearance deceive you - it sports a whole lot more in terms of video playback and other features.

The biggest focus the U9 has to offer is the support for syncing with Windows Media Player 11. So if you have any WMA, MP3, AAC, AAC+, and AAC+ enhanced files lying around, you can rest assured that the U9 can play them for you.

Other notable features include the CrystalTalk technology which reduces background noise and increases call clarity, a microSD expansion, and a 2 megapixel camera. Also, the whole "floating" effect the external display has just makes your wallpapers look more realistic than ever.

People can expect the MOTO U9 to hit shelves in the fourth quarter of this year in Asia, Latin America, and Europe. While no North American release plans have been revealed so far, importers can still avail of the phone's quadband GSM/EDGE technology to quell any compatibility issues.

Rob Shaddock, senior vice president of Feature and Mass Market Phones, Mobile Devices, Motorola, explained the new model's best qualities, saying:

MOTO U9 combines the surprising with the familiar, the latest in premium design and inventive controls with the next popular spin on Motorola's classic clamshell design to deliver the most stylish and dynamic mobile music experience. MOTO U9 embodies the stylish side of Motorola’s music-enabled devices, further building on our strong portfolio of products for a diverse global audience.

Microsoft, the biggest software manufacturer in the world have filed a lawsuit against the hacker that created FairUse4WM, the application which originally appeared in August. The application reportedly has the ability to bypass Windows Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology which is supposed to restrict the use of online purchased media to ensure copyright is not infringed. The FairUse4WM program strips DRM from Microsoft's WMA (Windows Media Audio) format of all copyright restrictions, allowing users to do what they want with the audio files.

Over the past month Microsoft has issued numerous patches in order to try and thwart the FairUse4WM threat, however the hacker, known only as 'Viodentia', has been keeping one step behind Microsoft, releasing new versions of the program when Microsoft update their DRM software.  Due to the promptness of Viodenta's releases, Microsoft claims that he has access to Microsoft source code and have therefore filed a lawsuit against him.

In a post on the Internet on Wednesday, Viodentia denied using any copyrighted Microsoft source code code, and as if in an effort to provoke Microsoft even more, released an updated version of his DRM-cracking tool. "FairUse4WM has been my own creation, and has never involved Microsoft source code," said Viodentia. "I link with Microsoft's static libraries provided with the compiler and various platform SDK (software development kit) files."

Is Viodentia an innocent person wanting the free distribution of data or a strategic hacker with a personal vendetta against Microsoft - Sound off in the comments!

Have all the mobile phone designers been going to Weight Watchers these days? It seems all of the recently released mobile phones are getting thinner and thinner, and Samsung's SGH-T519 Trace is no exception.

The Trace, which measures in at just about 0.3 inches thick, is even thinner than its already wafer-thin cousin, the SGH-T509. For now, it holds the title of world's slimmest phone, although with the speed of mobile phone releases we expect that title to be handed over to another phone pretty soon. Don't let this little number's slim figure fool you, though - it packs quite an impressive wallop in the features department.

The Quad-band GSM/EDGE Trace packs a 1.3 megapixel camera, microSD/TransFlash expandable memory, and an integrated music player that supports MP3, WMA, and ACC. It sports a 220 x 176-pixel TFT LCD screen that can display 262K colors and, of course, it also has the ubiquitous Bluetooth connectivity.

If you'll allow us to go off on a tangent for a bit, there's something that we've really wanted to say since all these slim phones started coming out. Y'know, any thinner and pretty soon we'll have a mobile phone that can be used as a knife. And that would be a good thing, since with a phone like that, you can actually defend yourself against a mugger with the very thing that he wants to take away from you. Snaps for irony!

Alrighty then, back to the topic. The Trace will be made available this month, but pricing and the actual release date are yet to be announced. Word is that T-Mobile will be offering the Trace to consumers, but that piece of info was still tentative at the time of writing. We'll be sure to keep an eye out on this phone to bring you more updates as they surface.

The Sony Mylo, Sony's personal communicator, looks really nice at Sony's official site, but we have to admit that studio-treatment product pictures can't compare to actually seeing it out of the box and in your hands. We've posted a video of the Sony Mylo in action before, so here's a little something extra for your taste buds - shots of the Sony Mylo straight out of the box.

   

Read on (click on the Full Article link below), and see shots of a Sony Mylo Prototype, its components, what it looks like side by side with other phones, how bright its LCD screen is, and most importantly the fancy raver lights.

There have been rumors going around about a program called Fairuse4wm being available on the internet which is said to be capable of bypassing Microsoft's Digital Rights Management system. While this could be good news to some, it's definitely the opposite case for Microsoft and for online music stores.

For the benefit of those who do not know, DRM (Digital Rights Management)  is designed to restrict the use of purchased music online to ensure copyright is not infringed. Now we've heard that a message on the doom9.org forum put up links to an application called Fair Use for Windows Media, and is now being circulated among different websites. This application is said to be capable of circumventing the DRM system. How it works: the application strips Windows Media audio (wma) files of Microsoft's DRM 10 or 11 protection, and removes usage restrictions.

Senior product manager for Windows Client Division Marcus Matthias said "Microsoft is aware that a tool recently surfaced that circumvents Windows Media Digital Rights Management technology.Fortunately, the Windows Media DRM system has built-in renewability, we have an update to address the circumvention, and are working with our partners to deploy this solution." Other than that, Microsoft has remained unavailable for comment.

However, owners of websites that allow song downloads, such as Paul Myers of Wippit, think that perhaps this calls for legal unrestricted content being made as the norm for online music downloads, instead of it being the exception. Myers also thinks that the spread of the Fairuse4wm could encourage more hackers to attempt to breach Microsoft's DRM system. Hopefully, Microsoft is already working on a system upgrade to deal with future attempts to crumble their current DRM system.

Available exclusively to customers of mobile network operator Orange this month, the market is sure to turn orange with envy over the new SPV M3100. Of course, the fact that it comes with a free monthly plan only hurts more.

New and improved with the inclusion of HSDPA (which boosts 3G transfer speeds in the range of 5x), the SPV M3100 runs Windows Mobile 5.0. Adding to its fruity appeal is the incorporated Wi-Fi 802.11g for blazing speeds at short range, while its tri-band UMTS support promises delivery of high-speed data.

For some zest factor, the model has a slide-out landscape thumbboard, with a 2.8 inch touchscreen and a range of messaging, scheduling and productivity applications.Also included is a 2 Megapixel camera with autofocus, music player with MP3 and WMA support.

It also features 128 MB of ROM, 64 MB of RAM, a micro SD memory card expansion, and a Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity with dial-up networking, headset and stereo headset support.

And that's only mentioning a few.

No doubt, the new SPV M3100 is set to show the world just how smart a phone it really is.

HTC's TyTN business phone hits Europe this month, and it's cooking up a storm. And why not? It's said to be the most powerful phone in its class because it offers download speeds five times faster than standard 3G, courtesy of High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) support. That alone will pique the interest of European businessmen who are always on the go.

While you might think that being a download speed demon is the only thing going on for this smartphone, you're quite mistaken as it's brimming with features starting off with a large display and a slide-out thumbboard. It offers a broad suite of messaging and productivity applications, as well as multimedia features - a music player with MP3, WMA, and stereo Bluetooth headset support. It has 128 MB of ROM and 64 MB of RAM. It has a memory card expansion slot so you wouldn't have to worry about not being able to download content.

The HTC TyTN is being sold for €675 ($860) without subscription.

You guys remember the Korea-exclusive Samsung SPH-S4300 phone that we talked about a few months ago? Well, those who cried themselves to sleep because they couldn't use that phone in the US can now sleep on dry pillows, because the Samsung X830, a GSM version of the SPH-S4300, is coming.

The X830 is a slider phone that has its number keys arranged in two columns instead of the usual three. That means it's thinner and easier to hold, just like the SPH-S4300. The x830's got a 128x200 screen and supports MP3, WMA, OGG, DCF, and SMP. It also comes with a 1.3 megapixel camera.

The SPH-S4300 had 1GB of internal memory, but there's a bit of confusion regarding the X830's memory capacity, as iDNES.cz says that it only has 82mb. We'll post something as soon as this issue becomes clear.

No info yet for this baby's pricing or availability. Expect an article here when that information comes out.

 

The ultra-thin, ultra-sleek MotoRazr V3x is not only stylish, but multi-functional as well. Included in its roster of features are: Bluetooth, AAC+, MPEG4, WMV, WMA, MP3 and Real Video/Audio file support, Internet access, enhanced WAP browser, a 2 mega-pixel digital camera with 8x zoom, integrated digital camera (VGA) for 2-way video calling, removable memory (up to 1GB microSD card support), as well as 64MB internal memory, MP3 stereo surround sound and advanced speaker-independent voice recognition.

Whew. Those features are quite A LOT.

Now the Motorola guys are back, with an update to this nifty phone. Called the new MotoRAZR MAXX, it's 5mm thinner than the V3x, has additional HSDPA 3G data, as well as EDGE support for its 3 GSM bands. According to sources, the exterior of the MAXX is quite similar to that of MotoKRZR - a glass front facade as well as new music control keys that are sensitive to touch. Also, nice blue light appears whenever a call is received.

The MotoRazr MAXX will be available later this year, but no pricing or carrier information has been released at this time.

With the opening of THE movie Superman Returns looming in the horizons, Warner Brothers is pulling all the necessary marketing strategies to sell not only the movie but also the Superman brand name.

Recently, Warner Brothers together with Lenovo released a Superman phone - no it's not indestructible and all that - but this is the first time that a film studio inked a pact with a cellphone maker to make a cell phone inspired by the movie ...Superman Returns is pretty special.

So after all that cheap talk, let's go to the phone's specs. The phone has a 1.3-megapixel camera, 126x220 screen, MP3/MP4/WMA/WAV playback and a TV-Out connector. It’s also got 128MB of internal memory and a miniSD slot for putting those needed Superman stuff in, and it weighs 89.3 grams with a 105 x 44.8 x 18.5mm measurement.

Not only will you walk away with a cell phone, you also get other Superman thingamajigs - a watch, a backpack, toys, shirts, and the Superman ring among a lot of other things. The cell phone is actually bundled as a special edition Superman package which includes a lot of Superman goodies aside from the phone. The Lenovo i750 would be available by the end of June and has a price tag of 1,500 Yuan or roughly $188 American bucks.