For those thinking of getting an additional battery for your Samsung i8910 HD, it may be a good time to look at some extended batteries from trusted third-party battery manufacturer, Mugen Power. They have two extended batteries on sale for the i8910, one with 1550mAh capacity and another with a whopping 3100mAh capacity. As the i8910 comes with a 1500mAh battery, both offer an improvement over the default offering.

For those looking at the 3100mAh battery though, it’s worth noting that given the size, Mugen Power provides a new back cover for the phone. This means your standard i8910 will be chunkier than normal with this battery. The sleek looks will inevitably be spoiled, but it seems like a great option for those who do a lot of travelling. Both batteries are in stock from the Mugen Power website right now. The 1550mAh battery will set you back $29.95, whilst the larger 3100mAh battery costs $96.95.

Microsoft MIX10 is a conference for mobile devs that’s taking place right now in Las Vegas. The company’s upcoming Windows Phone 7 mobile operating systems has been garnering a lot of headlines and yesterday a few handsets sporting the new OS were shown off.

Handsets from Acer, LG and Samsung were shown and it was Samsung’s offering that interested me the most… mainly because it appears to be almost identical to the Samsung i8910 Omnia HD. Yes, Samsung has slightly changed the front three hardware buttons, but apart from that it looks identical to me. Read the rest of this entry »

Samsung has finally released its new firmware, dubbed I8910XXJB1 for the i8910 Omnia HD. This brings with it a number of improvements including faster performance, stability as well as kinetic scrolling. The update can be pushed through via the PC Studio 7, but remember to backup your phone first.

The web browser is reported to be faster and moves to full-screen automatically. HD video recording is still seeing skipped frames, so unfortunately there’s still no solid 24fps recording. Also, users are reporting very low C: memory after the upgrade (as low as 17MB). I haven’t had a chance to upgrade my handset yet, but I look forward to any comments from those who have below.

Skyfire has launched version 1.5 of its mobile browser for Symbian S50 5th Edition handsets (including the Samsung i8910 Omnia HD). The update brings full support for high-resolution screens, a new UI and finger-friendly scrolling (including kinetic scrolling). You can download the Skyfire browser here. Check out a video of it in action after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

A big i8910 HD firmware update is expected to land during this month. The new update will offer faster web browsing, an improved graphics engine as well as kinetic scrolling. Anphase, the same person who wrote that 25 page quality control report, recently met with Samsung to talk about his issues and came back impressed with the company’s willingness to talk.

Samsung offered him a test unit with a preview of the new firmware on it. He’s documented his findings in a 10-minute video, which we’ve attached after the break. Read the rest of this entry »

The Desk Genie is an interesting mobile phone accessory. As the name suggests, the Desk Genie is a mobile phone holder that charges pretty much any mobile phone out there whilst also acting as a two-port USB hub and 8-in-1 card reader. It comes with a non-slip surface that holds your phone in one place.

MobileFun, a specialist retailer of mobile accessories, kindly sent over the Desk Genie for us to review. The device costs £14.99. MobileFun applies a small delivery charge on top of this depending on whether shipping is to the UK or mainland Europe. Click through to read our impressions of this charging desk stand. Read the rest of this entry »

Now we’re talking, hopefully all of the ranting and petitions regarding the woeful i8910 HD support is starting to pay off. Samsung has officially confirmed that it will be releasing a new firmware update for the handset delivering a “faster, smoother multimedia experience.”

The new firmware will deliver faster web browsing (finally), an improved graphics engine as well as kinetic scrolling. Here’s an excerpt from the press release:

-Webkit update: A faster user-interface when online, for swift navigation of your favourite websites
-Graphic engine: An improved graphic engine, increasing the speed to access the multimedia content
-Kinetic scrolling: The addition of a kinetic scrolling system provides a superior full-touch experience

There’s no mention for proper 24fps HD video recording but we’ll take what we can get right now. The update will be landing in January 2010 via Samsung’s PC Studio 7 software. It will arrive first in the UK and then gradually rolled out to other markets. We’ll bring you our first impressions as soon as it does hit. Until then have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The bling amongst you will be glad to hear that Samsung has today launched the i8910 Omnia HD Gold Edition. The phone itself is unchanged but the company is justifying the premium tag by including a “luxurious new look inlayed with gold and a package of special accessories”.

The 16GB i8910 HD will come in two colours Champagne Gold and Luxury Brown, both of which are inlayed with 24 karat gold. The special accessory package includes a leather case, mini-cradle and TV-out cable. It will be available in select markets this month including Singapore, Germany and the Middle East. Read the rest of this entry »

Panashe Michael Ngwerume really cares about the Samsung i8910 Omnia HD. He cares so much that he was compelled to document all of the issues he has faced with the handset. However, this is not your usual bug list, he has written a comprehensive 25-page report that he hopes will be seen by Samsung to rectify some of the issues.

There is growing vocal dissidence against Samsung, where many people feel that they have given up support on what was meant to be its flagship handset. We’ve already reported on our issues on this and there are many other people that feel the same. A petition was struck up by Ngwerume, however he also went that one step further.

I’d suggest all i8910 owners to have a read of the PDF, it really is a comprehensive report and includes some solutions for some of the problems suffered. Kudos goes to Ngwerume for all his hard work and let’s hope that someone from Samsung listens.

Via Engadget Mobile.

Spotify has finally released its app for Symbian S60 handsets, including our beloved Samsung i8910 Omnia HD. Similar to the Android app, the S60 client supports an offline mode that caches tracks onto the phone’s memory for those times when you don’t have a signal.

Before you rush of to download it, remember it will only work if you are already have a Spotify Premium subscription, which costs £9.99 per month. Check out a couple of quick preview videos after the cut. Read the rest of this entry »

New Italian firmware appeared for the Samsung i8910 Omnia HD yesterday evening. However, before you get too excited it’s only a minor update with the main change being the inclusion of 5.1 speaker audio.

There is still no kinetic scrolling in the browser (Opera Mobile comes in handy here), HD video recording still has dropped frames and the audio here is also unchanged. The free disc space on start-up is 32.9MB. All-in-all a bit disappointing. Let’s hope a bigger update is still on Samsung’s pipeline.

Thanks brett!

You’ve probably all seen the headlines by now. Samsung is rumoured to drop Symbian support on future handsets according to Samsung VP Don Joo Lee. This follows an analyst report that suggested something very similar. Samsung’s roadmap will instead concentrate on the company’s newly announced Bada platform, along with Android and Windows Mobile.

To be honest, this news surprises me not in the slightest. You just have to look at the support given to the company’s supposed flagship, the Samsung i8910 HD, to see that the phone and OS was not on the top list of priorities.

Where did it all go so wrong? When the phone was announced at MWC earlier in the year there was so much promise. Even now, purely looking at the hardware side, it’s still one of the most feature-rich phones on the market. You get a beautiful 3.7-inch OLED capacitive display, HD video recording, 8MP camera, excellent codec support and 8GB/16GB internal storage. This phone has it all, even compared to anything on the market or announced as we speak. Read the rest of this entry »

Opera has a released the beta of Opera Mobile 10 for Symbian/S60 handsets today. Samsung i8910 Omnia HD owners will happy to know that this includes support for S60 5th Edition. It looks like an exciting release with Speed Dial, tabbed browsing and a password manager. I’m especially looking forward to the first two, which should make the browsing experience more pleasurable (& hopefully) faster.

Opera claims that this beta is twice as fast as the previous version targeted to Symbian handsets. Opera has also included Opera Turbo, the company’s server-side compression technology that should help performance in weaker 3G areas.

I’ve not had a chance to download it myself yet, but will be giving it a whirl shortly. The beta is free to download to your computer from here or directly to your mobile phone by typing the following: http://m.opera.com/mobile/. If you are looking for more information on the beta, click here for the developer’s introduction to the Opera Mobile 10 beta. Check out a video of the beta in action after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

Despite the fact that we already have the Nokia Ovi and Samsung Application Store, Symbian has launched an all encompassing app store. The Horizon Directory is expected to be the one-shop stop for all symbian phone applications. The great news is that Horizon will include all apps currently found in the number of different application stores (including Ovi, Samsung App Store & AT&T’s Media Mall).

The Horizon Directory went live today with around 50 apps (including YouTube, Twitter and Qik clients).As we move into next year, Symbian expects “to process thousands of applications”. The Symbian Signed process will also change over the next few months allowing a developer to automatically ad an application to the directory.

It’s quite an easy site to navigate with both view by ‘Free’ and ‘Paid’ options. You can also filter the most popular apps or just the apps for your handset. There are currently seven listed apps for the Samsung i8910 Omnia HD including SPB Brain Evolution, SkyeSpy, Buddycloud, SPB TV, SkyeCaller II, SPB Puzzle, SPB Wallet. Hopefully this list will expand as we move into 2009.

Via Trusted Reviews.

Bluetooth is one of those features that can be a pretty important factor in mobile handsets. It allows you to transfer media (including pictures and music) to and from your laptop/desktop or even stream stereo music to a headset using A2DP (Advance Audio Distribution Profile). Many users now tether their cell phones to netbooks/laptops using Bluetooth, cementing just how important it can be.

However, Bluetooth doesn’t appear in every netbook/laptop/desktop. Using a USB Bluetooth dongle is one of the ways of getting Bluetooth onto your netbook and it’s a relatively inexpensive option. MobileFun, a specialist retailer of mobile accessories, kindly sent over the Atomic Pico Bluetooth USB dongle for review. This particular dongle is the smallest in the world according to its manufacturers and costs £8.95. MobileFun applies a small delivery charge on top of this depending on whether shipping is to the UK or mainland Europe. Read the rest of this entry »