THE MOBILE HORNET … for those who get turned on by mobile devices

O2 MBO IN ASIA … YES, IT’S A MANAGEMENT BUYOUT!

European 2G and 3G carrier Telefónica O2 is exiting its device business in Asia and the current regional management team around O2 Asia’s CEO Mark Billington is taking over O2 Asia under a new name. The transition has begun already and will be completed in “a matter of months”.

MWG COMPANY’S INFORMATION :
Company’s Name : “Mobile and Wireless Group (MWG)”
Investor : Expansys (in the U.S. known under its brand name “Mobile Planet”)
CEO-in-waiting : Mark Billington
Warranties : Existing O2 owners, fear not, as MWG will take over O2 Asia’s service and warranty obligations.

New products launching: The company will also continue to supply Windows Mobile PDAs and smartphones to the Asian market.

To be launched soon by MWG :
1) Xda Atom 4
2) Xda Flame 2
3) Xda Zinc 2

(Mark will in future, launch new products under MWG brand.)

The Mobile Hornet wishes Mark and his team GOOD LUCK AND SUCCESS.

continuing ….

MY JOURNEY WITH THE O2 FLAME
2-2 INSIDE THE FLAME

The O2 Flame is one AWESOME device. It has 2 processors an Intel XScale PXA 270 Processor running at 520MHz for primary functions, and then an additional dedicated graphics processor, the NVIDIA GoForce 5500. O2 claims the Flame is the world’s first dual processor PDA-phone.

There is a hefty 2GB of onboard storage ROM and if you add the microSD card you will have a lot of memory to play with. When O2 included the GoForce 5500 were they trying to turn this PDA phone into a portable game console? I must admit that playing games and watching DVD-quality video on this device gives you unsurpassed user experience especially on its generous radiant 3.6-inch TFT VGA LCD screen. When there are more games that take advantage of the extra memory become available, the Flame will then be called the “PDA VIDEO GAME PHONE”. What a mouthful?

You can’t have total video and gaming experience without good sound output. O2 did not forget that. The Flame high resolution display is supported with SRS WOW HD surround sound to ensure that the visual experience on screen is further enhanced with high quality audio piped through the device’s dual speakers.

The advantage of a TV-out feature makes the Flame your true mobile office. You can conduct presentations via a big screen TV. When you hook up the Flame to a TV or computer screen via its TV-out connector feature you not only can conduct presentations, you will also enjoy watching videos and photos and play games on the larger screen format.

The Flame is a powerful device and its spetacular features fulfil the wishlists of most power users. It is indeed a fast machine. The absence of a keyboard is not an issue as there are a some softwares in the market that can do the job as well. TEKSOFT Finger Touch and SPB Full Screen Keyboard are well suited for the Flame.

…..to be continued

I don’t own the O2 Flame but I do own the Dopod U1000 aka HTC Advantage.

I happened to get my hands on the Flame for me to play with. So since I am going to spend some time with it I might as well share my experiences as I go along.

MY JOURNEY WITH THE O2 FLAME
1-2 FIRST IMPRESSION:

The unboxing of a parcel that you are looking forward to is always exciting. And unboxing the Flame is no difference eventhough I have touched it before. If the Flame had came much earlier, I would have bought it. Sometimes the timing is so important especially in high tech products.

The Flame is about the size of my Dell x50v and I find the bigger screen compensate for the loss of a keyboard. Given the choice of a smaller screen + keyboard and bigger screen without keyboard, I am willing to sacrifice the keyboard for a bigger screen. Well, you got to know where I come from (I am a U1000 owner).

The size and weight of the Flame are acceptable. It is not too big until you find it cumbersome as a phone. I would say it is a right size for some serious work. But the screen brightness and clarity cannot beat the U1000. I wonder whether it is fair to compare the Flame with the U1000 instead of some other devices.

On my first usage, I need to set up my bluetooth headset with the Flame. Unfortunately it cannot connect to my iTech bluethooth headset. Is there a compatibility issue between the Flame and iTech Bluetooth headset? Anyone care to help me to set it up?

…..to be continued