BARCELONA -- I-Mate announced the first Windows Mobile 6 devices with Windows Vista Sideshow capabilities, as well as the first phones on T-Mobile's 3G AWS frequency band in their "Ultimate" series at the 3GSM cell phone trade show Monday.
The i-Mate Ultimate line comes in five form factors, all with the same high-end specs: Windows Mobile 6 Professional, 520 Mhz Marvell Bulverde processors, VGA touch screens, 128 MB of RAM, 802.11 b/g/e/i Wi-Fi (with built-in voice-over-internet calling), Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR, 2-megapixel cameras, XGA TV video out, and full-speed USB 2.0 connections.
"We've got everything in there. It is the ultimate device," said John Williamson, i-Mate's director of special projects
The four Ultimate devices include the 5150, a somewhat chunky slider phone; the 6150, a touchscreen-only, keyboard-less model; the 7150, which folds open into a mini-laptop with a full keypad and 3.8-inch screen; the 8150, a more standard-looking candy-bar phone that's 11 mm thick, with a 2.6-inch touch screen; and the 9150, a flip phone with a 2.6-inch main touch screen, a 1.2-inch external screen and huge number keys.
Ultimate phones are the first we've seen for the AWS (Advanced Wireless Services) band, which was auctioned off late last year to give US mobile phone companies room to deploy more high-speed and multimedia services. The biggest winner in the AWS auctions was T-Mobile, who said they'll be deploying 3G high-speed services sometime in 2007 on that band. The Ultimate devices will also be available in versions using the 850/1900 3G bands which Cingular operates.
"We're keen to support the US market," Williamson said.
There's an unusual amount of Windows Vista integration in the Ultimate phones. The phones will come with an application to serve as a Windows Vista Sideshow device, working as a remote control or secondary screen for a Vista PC. The Ultimate line also functions as media extenders for Windows Vista media center PCs, so you can see the Vista PC's electronic program guide or watch prerecorded TV, either through a Wi-Fi or 3G cellular connection. Using a TV application codenamed "Snowbird," aUltimate 5150 streamed recorded TV programs over Wi-Fi from a Vista PC.
The built-in TV out will let Ultimate devices stream video to TVs, either through a cable or the new X-Stream Dock. The dock also lets you connect an Ultimate device to a standard monitor, keyboard and mouse for mobile computing.
The i-Mate Ultimate phones will be available by June; i-Mate did not reveal pricing.
source:
www.channelinsider.com
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been waiting or WM6 to make its official appearance after Vista hit 
