CTIA show

It's September, and that means it's time for the fall version of the CTIA wireless trade show. Thankfully, the CTIA fall show in 2008 will be right in our backyard at Moscone West in San Francisco, so we won't have far to travel. My colleagues Bonnie Cha and Kent German will be on hand to give you the low-down on the latest handsets, News.com's Maggie Reardon and Tom Krazit will be reporting on mobile news, and Download.com's Jessica Dolcourt will give you the scoop on all the latest software and applications for mobile.

The CTIA fall show typically doesn't have as many cell phone announcements, with most of the attention directed toward software instead. That doesn't mean there aren't new announcements, though; we're expecting some news on the smartphone front, as well as some sneak peeks at the fall lineup. Already we've seen news of the Palm Treo Pro and the HTC Touch Diamond for Sprint get announced prior to the show.

The CTIA fall show (otherwise known as CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment 2008) will be from September 10 to the 12, so keep your eyes peeled for our full coverage of the show.

Juice for your cell phone at the Las Vegas airport.

(Credit: Kent German/CNET Networks)

While waiting at Las Vegas' McCarran airport for my flight home to San Francisco, I spotted one of the most interesting things I've seen during my CTIA trip. Sitting between a water fountain and the restrooms was a nifty cell phone charging stand. For $3, it delivers 30 minutes of charging time, which can be just enough juice if your phone is dying but you left your charger in your checked luggage. The machine included connectors for 12 types cell phones, including Kyocera, Samsung, Nokia, Palm Treo, RIM BlackBerry, LG, and Nokia. It also had connectors for iPods and the iPhone. Though I didn't test the charging station, there was one thing about it that struck me as troublesome. Unless you want to risk your phone being stolen, you'd have to stay next to the machine while it's charging your phone. Who wants to sit outside the bathroom for a half hour?

Awww, aren't they cute?

(Credit: Kent German/CNET Networks)

I know I have a strange fetish for cell phone speakers, which is why I had to scope out these Samsung ASP700 speakers that I first saw at CES. I found them at CTIA sitting pretty in Samsung's booth (where else would they be?) while attached to a Samsung Juke. These round little beauties, which have a decent sound for their size, include an ICE amplifier. Considering they're designed by Bang & Olufsen, it's not surprising that they're so eye-catching.

Samsung Instinct

(Credit: Samsung)

Phew! Day 1 of CTIA 2008 is in the bag, and as usual, the opening day provided plenty of action. Here are some of the highlights of the day.

Samsung was certainly a show stopper as it revealed its Samsung Instinct, an iPhone competitor that features a sleek touch screen interface and a boatload of features. Senior Editor Kent German has all the details for you and says it look promising. Kent also got some hands-on time with AT&T;'s new Motorola Z9, which left him with some mixed feelings. And Kyocera kept busy as it announced a whole fleet of new cell phones, including the very sexy Neo E1100. Check out our Kyocera slide show to see all the new handsets.

LG Vu

(Credit: LG)

Meanwhile, Associate Editor Nicole Lee found plenty to look at the LG booth as the company announced the LG EnV(2) for Verizon Wireless and the LG Vu for AT&T.; The latter is particularly noteworthy, not only for its stunning design and touch-screen interface, but also because it supports the new AT&T; Mobile TV service. Being our resident Bluetooth headset goddess, Nicole also got a chance to out some of the latest models, including the Motorola H690, the Sound ID H300, and the "fashionable" Plantronics Discover 925.

Windows Mobile 6.1

(Credit: Microsoft)

Last but not least, in the land of smartphones, there were several key announcements. First, Microsoft announced the latest version of its mobile operating system, Windows Mobile 6.1, which features a number of enhancements to make Windows Mobile smartphones easier to set up and navigate. You can expect carriers and device manufacturers to roll out upgrades pretty soon. In fact, HTC revealed at the show that it will offer the GSM HTC Touch Dual in the United States with Windows Mobile 6.1 and 3G support. Verizon Wireless also snagged its own HTC Touch, dubbed the Verizon Wireless XV6900. Research in Motion shared the love with several carriers as it released the RIM BlackBerry Pearl 8120 for T-Mobile and the RIM BlackBerry Curve 8330 for Verizon Wireless and Sprint.

Now, these were just some of the highlights, and as you can tell, there's plenty to see here at CTIA 2008. We'll be back at it on Day 2, bringing you all the latest news and products via blogs, photos, and videos, so keep it dialed in here--same bat channel, same bat place.

Motorola Rokr EQ3

(Credit: Motorola)

When I first saw Motorola was releasing something called the Rokr EQ3, I thought it was a phone. Instead, the Rokr EQ3 marks Motorola's foray into the portable speaker market. The EQ3 is a compact little speaker that folds up to a smaller and more portable size. It's not a Bluetooth speaker though; you'll still have to use the regular ol' 3.5mm plug, which is great for MP3 players, but not so convenient for most cell phones that still use the 2.5mm jack, so you might want to spring for an adapter if you want to use the Rokr EQ3 with a phone. It's powered by four AAA batteries, and there's an extension cable optimized for players that have FM radio. It's pretty old-school tech, but hey, maybe there's still a market for these things. It'll be available in Q2 of this year and pricing is still unknown.

Parrot DF7700

(Credit: Parrot)

At CTIA next week, Parrot is showing a digital photo frame that can receive pictures sent from a cell phone in a multimedia message. The Parrot DF7700 is the first digital photo frame (as least that we know of) with an integrated SIM card and dedicated phone number. The phone number will allow you to send photos directly from your camera phone to the DF7700. And in case you don't want to send a multimedia message, you also can add photos to the frame using its mini-USB port or its multiformat memory card slot. The DF7700 does not offer Bluetooth.

Set into a black leather frame, the DF7700 features a 7-inch display (720x480 pixels) that supports 262,000 colors. It comes with a variety of features including adjustable backlighting and brightness settings. Also, it will adjust the orientation of photos automatically when you change the position of the frame from landscape to portrait. Its internal memory capacity is 500 images in JPEG or GIF format.

We don't have pricing information or a release date just yet, but we do know the DF7700 will be available in North America. We'll be sure to check it out in Las Vegas.

CTIA always marks the end of a busy trade-show season for cell phones. We start at January at CES, travel to Barcelona in February for the GSMA World Congress, and then wrap it all up at CTIA. This year, it's back to Las Vegas for the wireless fun. The 3-day show will kick off April 1 at the sprawling Las Vegas Convention Center, and I won't be the only one scouring the show floor. My reviews colleagues Bonnie Cha and Nicole Lee, News.com's Maggie Reardon and Tom Krazit, and Download's com's Jessica Dolcourt will join me in Sin City to bring you the latest in phones, accessories and applications. This time, what happens in Vegas won't stay in Vegas.

Viva Las Legas

(Credit: Kent German)

As always, all the big players will be jostling for the spotlight. It's still to early to predict exactly what we'll see in Vegas, but you can be sure that companies like Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung and LG will unveil a few new handsets. Nokia has invited us to a press conference on April 1 that will be "180 feet above Las Vegas." Unless it's an April fool's joke, we're not quite sure what to expect. Sony Ericsson hasn't scheduled a media event just yet, but after its almost stealing the show at GSMA, we expect good things.

Motorola will be on hand as well. But after its quiet showing in Barcelona, we hope that Moto will wow us again as it did at CES. Moto really needs to step up to the table to impress us. Also, we'll check out the goods from Kyocera and UTStarcom and see what smartphone high-rollers like HTC and RIM have to offer. And last but not least, there undoubtedly will be news from the carriers, and we'll find plenty of new Bluetooth headsets.

As for trends, we anticipate a few things. Look for continued convergence in the areas of music, video, and GPS. As the cell phone continues to take on more duties, new devices will compete with each other to best combine those multiple features. Hopefully, we'll also see some more developments with Google's Android platform. Though it's still too early to see commercial devices, more demonstrations would be very cool. And just like last year, Apple won't be at CTIA, but iPhone competitors will abound.

Remember, the show begins April 1, so check back here to see our full coverage live from the show. We'll bring you all the latest in words, pictures, and video.

It's all over

(Credit: CNET Networks/Corinne Schulze)

It's a wrap! CTIA fall 2007 is officially over. As the wireless world flees San Francisco today, we bring the highlights of the show.

Though new product announcements were relatively few, we did see a handful of new smart phones. Bonnie Cha blogged about the new Samsung Blackjack II for AT&T; and displayed it in all is glory in a video. She also covered the new smart phones form I-mate in a blog and in a video and she wrapped up all the glorious new smart phones in a slide show.

Nicole Lee showed us concept phones from Fastap and the new LG CU515. She also gave us a close-up look at the new LG Venus and Voyager for Verizon Wireless. Nicole also gave us a slide show of the new LG handsets.

Samsung BlackJack II

(Credit: Samusng)

I didn't spy any new handsets at the show but I did get a hands on with the Venus and Voyager, the Sidekick Slide, the Sony Ericsson W910, and the Motorola Rokr E9 and the Razr2 V8 Luxury Edition. I also wrote on the changes to AT&T; Music and told you about Virgin Mobile's new Studio V and when we can expect Verizon's Wireless' V Cast Mobile TV in the Bay Area. And as for video, I checked out the Slide, the W910 and K850, the Moto U9 and Razr2 V8 Luxury Edition and the Nokia 5310 and 5610 Xpress Music models. On that note, I can report that I like the new Nokia models just as much as I did the first time I saw them. I covered all the new cell phones in a slide show while CNET photographer Corinne Schulze caught the sights form the show floor.

Outside of the CNET Reviews teams, Jessica Dolcourt of Download.com blogged on a plethora of new cell phone apps including Guitar Hero Mobile and Migo's video-music-syncing software. News.com's Tom Krazit attended a session that pondered the future of the iPhone while Ina Fried covered the Microsoft news at the show. And finally, Josh Lowensohn of Webware.com told us about AOL's new mobile services.

So that's it from the CTIA fall 2007 show in San Francisco. See you next April in Las Vegas for CTIA 2008.

Normally, we'd say "CTIA here we come," but since the biannual cell phone show is in San Francisco this time, we don't have to go anywhere. That's a good thing, as Crave much prefers to come home after a long day at a trade show rather than going to a nameless hotel in a nameless industrial park. Next week, from October 23 to October 25, the wireless industry will descend in force on our fair city, and I'll be joined by cell-phone experts Bonnie Cha and Nicole Lee to bring you the latest news from the show floor. We'll be traveling down the street to show you the newest and coolest cell phones, smartphones, accessories and services.

Samsung SCH-i760

(Credit: Verizon Wireless)

The fall CTIA show, officially called CTIA Wireless IT and and Entertainment 2007, is much smaller than the spring blowout, but there's still news to be found. While we don't know many specifics at this point, we do know that Samsung will be announcing a new product next Tuesday and that AT&T will reveal a new music service on Monday. Could it be that America's largest carrier is bringing us wireless music downloads? We'll have to wait and see.

Otherwise, we expect we'll see some news from T-Mobile, Sprint, I-mate and UTStarcom. And even though Verizon has kept us busy this week with its Samsung SCH-i760 announcement, we expect we'll see some new toys from the carrier as well. But whatever comes along next week, be sure to pay attention to our CTIA coverage for the full scoop.