Shortly after the first screenshots of the Linux-based Tizen operating system for mobile phones, Samsung made a surprising move and announced plans to merge its proprietary bada OS with Tizen.

Tizen is the true successor of the MeeGo platform. Developed by Samsung, Intel and a number of MeeGo developers, Tizen is expected to go live next month at the Mobile World Congress, in Barcelona.

However, starting this year Samsung’s bada OS will cease to exist on its own, while its SDK and all apps will be compatible with Tizen platform, claim the folks over at The Verge.

Although Samsung confirmed it will launch one or two Tizen smartphone this year, the handset maker did not say when exactly they will be announced, but all rumors point to a possible MWC 2012 release.

For the time being, Samsung did not mention anything about the current bada smartphones, so there’s no telling whether or not some of them will be updated to Tizen OS.

Right, just as everyone’s thinking that Symbian would die soon because Samsung pulled out, and Apple’s iOS is battling fiercely with Google’s Android, and everyone’s leaving behind Symbian. Now here comes the knight in white shiny armour.

The European Commission has emerged as the saviour thanks to a €22 million public / private joint venture and a new association of some 24 organizations ‘easily’ called SYMBEOSE: “Symbian – the Embedded Operating System for Europe.” It seemed to be that some of the higher-ups across the continent are feeling a little emotional about the hometown platform — especially now that it’s starting to take a lot of heat — and have thrown some skin in the game to keep things interesting. For its part, the Foundation says that the initiative (and presumably the money) will go toward developing “new core platform capabilities,” exploring cloud computing, and broadening the platform’s hardware ecosystem, among other things.

SOURCE via Symbian

What can you tell of a person who spends 5 figures on a normal QWERTY phone? Yes, he should have a few Bentley and Lambo in his garage. Perhaps one of those limited edition Veyron too. And he hardly drives them, as he should be flying around the world nearly every week in his own private jet.

That’s why Vertu, the world’s swelly famous and exotic boutique, is using Symbian for their Vertu Constellation Quest. Well, you won’t care about what OS is it running when you can afford a cool €19,500 including VAT (about $27,000) for this ‘smartphone’. All you care is that it’s slightly gold-plated.

SOURCE via Engadget

Sony unveils new member for their Xperia series lineup. The X8, codename Shakira (no, not the one that’s in Africa right now) is the new member of Sony’s smartphone series. Its 3-inch wide, and runs on Android 1.6, with obvious customizations to its interface, for example Sony’s own Timescape and Mediascape. The UI seemed to be from the same class of X10 Mini.

The X8 is powered by a 600MHz CPU, with integrated Wi-Fi. There’s also the 3.2MP camera, which is slightly on the let down. Sony Ericsson has added the fun with interchangeable covers for users. Priced at around $320, it’s going to hit retails at quarter 3 of this year.

[via Engadget]

Well it’s the 30th Anniversary this year, so it’s expected that many new products centralizing on Gundam will emerge. Like cafes, and figures. And now comes the new challenger, mobile phone Company Softbank and Sharp announce 12.1-megapixel camera phone named the “Gunpla”.

Yep, it’s named the Gunpla alright. As you can see in the screen, it’s a flip phone, with the gigantic camera at the back. It even comes with EFSF (*Earth Federation Space Force in the U.C.). But the most important thing to all gunplas is that it comes with a 1:100 RX-78-2 Gundam!

[via Jandan]

HTC Wildfire is powered by Qualcomm MSM7225 processor running at 525MHz and comes with a 3.2-inch QVGA touchscreen, a 5 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash, 802.11b/g WiFi, GPS/AGPS, Blueooth 2.1+EDR, 512MB Flash and 384MB of RAM, and microSD expansion. It should be in the store around Q3. More pictures after the break.

[via Engadget]

“The video quality may not be great, but the gaming quality seems impressively strong running at “medium/high-ish graphics.”

Video after the break.

[via Techeblog]

Is this found the bar too? The new iPhone prototype has been cloned named the GiPhone F98. It has a iPhone-like UI and comes with dual SIMs, FM radio, Wifi, Bluetooth and works on 850MHz, 900MHz, 1800MHz, and 1900MHz GSM. Priced at $150.

[via Engadget]

LG announced the availability of its GT540 Android-powered smartphone. It will be available for the UK and Europe as LG GT540 Optimus. It runs on Android 1.6 os and comes with Bluetooth 2.1, Wi-Fi connectivity, a 3.5mm headphone jack, a 1500mAh battery, a 3 megapixel camera, GPS, a 3″ QVGA touchscreen and support both DivX and H.264. More pictures after the break.

[via Akihabaranews]

Check out the new BlackBerry Pearl 3G, for those who complaints Blackberry is too big here’s one suitable for you. The Blackberry Pearl 3G comes with small body, small screen and small keyboard with 802.11n Wi-Fi, GPS, a 3.2-megapixel camera with autofocus and flash, an optical trackpad, a microSD card slot, Bluetooth 2.1, and a 624 MHz processor with 256MB of RAM. Pricing is not available.

[via Uncrate]