It’s been a while since we had interesting news from manufacturers of standalone PMPs. The iVIDI from a company called INS Mobile in Korea is a 3.3-inch AMOLED PMP with WiFi, G-Sensor, FM radio, auto-rotation and e-Book support. It also has a TV tuner so if you have DMB TV in your country, you are likely to enjoy the clearest mobile sport cast on the iVIDI. No pricing or availability yet. Hopefully INS Mobile is planning to launch the iVIDI outside Korea.

Screenshots of the iVIDI GUI after the break.

[via gmp3, akihabaranews]

It’s cold in South Korea and people there are having a hard time using their touchscreen iPhone. Skin conductivity is essential in the operation of capacitive touchscreens, which would be impossible if users want to keep their fingers warm in cold weather. Apparently, Koreans have been using sausages to operate iPhones. No clear evidence of this except a 39% rise in sausage sales at CJ Corportion (they have the ideal individualized sausage packaging for the iPhone) and some photos of iPhones users with the “meat stylus” floating around online (another one after the break).

[sources: korean, pocket-lint, kottke]

What you’re looking at folks is what’s being purported as the LG Arena’s heftier brother, the LG Arena Max LU9400. It’s expected to come with a 3.5-inch touchscreen, 5-megapixel camera, WiFi, GPS, and a 1GHz Snapdragon processor running under the hood. The Cyon branding on it more or less confirms that the LG Arena Max will be released in Korea though there’s still no official announcement about it just yet. However, rumor is that it will be launched this coming March. That’s all the info we have for now, but hopefully, we’ll get more details about the LG Arena Max at the MWC set to rock Barcelona this month.

[cetizen via unwiredview]

This baby packs a 3.7-inch AMOLED display, 5-megapixel camera, 720p video recording, WiFi (802.11n), GPS, 3.5mm jack, 800MHz processor, T-DMB tuner, and the latest TouchWiz UI running in tandem with Android 2.1. SK Telecom will release the Samsung M100S in Korea this March with an uncertain future elsewhere. Pricing is still yet to be known as well.

In related news, Samsung has also announced that an Android 2.1 update will be released for their first Android phone, the Samsung Galaxy. This will happen sometime in the second quarter which should be a nice consolation for others if ever the Samsung M100S doesn’t make it out of Korea.

[unwiredview via cellphones etc]

Most of you probably know this as the Motorola XT701 that’s now available in China, but this is actually a different version that’s debuting in another Asian country. Dubbed as the MOTOROI, this is Motorola’s first Android offering in Korea, and while it looks like an identical twin of the XT701 on the outside, this touchscreen beauty now sports a T-DMB tuner and a better 8-megapixel camera under the hood. This announcement likewise clears up the confusion the rumored camera (5-MP or 8-MP) of the Motorola Sholes Tablet as it turns out both are true albeit limited to specific markets only. Like the Motorola Milestone, the MOTOROI’s web browser also features multitouch support. There’s still no word though on its pricing, but it’s confirmed to be coming out in early February on SK Telecom.

[motorola via cellphones etc]

• 4G iPhone will have almost double the battery life of the current iPhone 3G S.
• The new iPhone will also have a front-facing camera as well as a camera at the back.
• Korea will get video-calling for the iPhone, the first country to do so
• Mobile TV on the iPhone 4G
• iPhone 4G will be better in both hardware and software

That’s all for now, until the next “leak” or rumor.

[source]

Don’t let its ordinary looks fool you, the Cydle P29A (first of series of PMP from the Korean company) not only plays movie and music files, it has built-in digital TV and HD radio. It will work in the U.S., too, as it supports the TSC standrd for the U.S., though we don’t know how many stations are available for the Cydle P29A in various areas of the U.S. The PMP itself is nothing much: 2.9-inch screen, stereo Bluetooth, accelerometer, voice recording. It is powered by an ARM-9 processor at 480MHz. The operating system is custom and dubbed Nucleus. It’s available in 4GB and 8GB and starts at $199. The Cydle P29A is perhaps the cheapest device you can find as DTV and HD Radio receivers.

[via electronista]

We weren’t sure Viliv was going to announce much more than netbooks and UMPCs at CES 2010. The Korean company has a penchant for innovation, interesting design and using the best hardware available., which makes the HD5 a truly interesting PMP for us. It has a 5-inch 800 x 480 touchscreen LCD, runs on Windows CE 6.0, supports full HD (1080p) on MKV format and has T-DMB/DAB TV. Other specs includes the necessary HDMI port, SDHC card slot and up to 32GB of internal memory. No pricing yet.

[via moveplayer]

Phoenix or PNIX produces low-cost MP3 players. PNIX SD is only their second product and either my translator is having an off-day right now or one of these PNIX SD MP3 players are only really 14,900 won (or about $13). Only nine bucks for a Korea-made MP3 player! Talking about cheap electronics! And we thought dirt cheap MP3 players are exclusive to China. But wait, earphones sold separately for 9,900 won or about $9. Which makes our PNIX SD player a $21 gadget if you want a fully working MP3 player. Warning, even in Korea, first read the fine print.

[store via moveplayer]

After a couple of models from their MyRacer series (MyRacer Lisse T10), Lisse has now announced a more conventional-looking PMP. It’s also a HD player, supporting 720p videos. Curiously, it has a 5-inch  WXGA or 1280×720 TFT LCD screen, similar in resolution to most 13-inch netbooks. In other words, you get to play the 720p videos in full quality. Other features: HDMI out, FM radio and transmitter, voice recording and speakers.

videos: RM.RMVB, AVI (Xvid, DivX), WMV, ASF, DAT, MPG, MP4, VOB, SMI

music: MP3, WMA, AAC, WAV, OGG, FLAC, APE

Others: JPEG, BMP, GIF, TXT

[lisse via moveplayer]