October 2007 Archives

If your unsure exactly what ChargeBox is, well it's simply a machine for charging portable devices inside a secure locker. These machines can be found in various locations such as hotels, airports, gyms, shopping malls all around the world.

In Responce to the UK launch of Apple's iPhone, the ChargeBox team will be adding support for iPhones to the machines. The iPhone has a talk-time life of roughly 8 hours and can be drastically minimize from listening to music and internet browsing. Currently there are roughly 100 units in the UK, and there are plans to deploy another 500 within the next six months.

If your curious about any ChargeBoxes near you, just visit the Company's website www.chargebox.com or via Google Maps.

Offering one of the highest storage capacities for OEM Notebook platforms is Western Digital's newest Scorpio 320GB Hard Drives. The 2.5" notebook hard drive comes in a slim 9.5mm form factor and offers great features to achieve quiet running and cool operating temperatures. The newest Scorpio HD also provides exclusive Western Digital Technologies including WhisperDrive, ShockGuard, and IntelliSeek. Not only does the Scorpio HD offer outstanding memory capacity, it also delivers high performance with transfer rates up to 3 Gb/s.

The WD 320GB drives are currently available at www.shopwd.com, the company's online store, at a retail price of $199.99.

Three simple, affordable rate plans have been announced by T-Mobile and Apple for the iPhone in Germany. Starting at only €49 per month, each plan is to include unlimited data and access to T-mobiles 8,000+ HotSpots in Germany. All plans additionally include visual voicemail, which will allow users to view a listing of their voicemails and and allow them to skip over message and go directly to the voicemail message which interests them most without listening to previous messages. Depending on the amount of minutes and SMS text messages you use will determine which plan is best for you.

The 8GB iPhone model will be available for €399 through Telekom Shops of Deutsche Telekom and the T-Mobile web shop. The phone is scheduled for a November 9 sale date.

The LG KG290 Slider Phone was released earlier this month after much anticipation. This slider phone is small and slim enough to slip comfortably in your pocket, and features a nice 1.7-inch TFT color screen, and a numerical keypad that slides out vertically. A 1.3-megapixel camera is also included in the phone, which is also capable of recording video. An FM radio is integrated into the phone as well.

One complaint that has so far emerged about the phone online in comments by users is the fact that it does not come pre-packaged with a USB cord, so if you're thinking about buying one you'll likely need to get a USB cable of your own that works with the phone.

Talk time on the LG KG290 is up to 200 hours stand-by, and up to 2-hours of talk-time. The phone is available in two color choices: black and grey. It is currently available in Japan. Keep reading for detailed specs.

The Samsung C158 is some of the best bang for your buck on the market today. With 65536 colors and full Java functionality, the Samsung C158 posses style. It comes with a li-Ion battery and a travel charger.

Available in the following languages: English, German, Italian, French, Spanish, Korean, Russian, and Vietnamese.

Roper Mobile Technology unveiled their long awaited SwitchBack PC. Roper Mobile Technology specializes in providing customers with computer solutions suited for harsh and rugged environments. Roper produced the world’s first UMPC. (Ultra Mobile Personal Computer) It employs a version of Windows XP and is often purchased with a custom BackPack. Customers have apparently been very pleased with the custom BackPack initiative, especially the U.S. military. Roper Mobile Technology, is a subsidiary of Roper Industries that recently acquired Black Diamond Advanced Technology, the firm that created the SwitchBack.

We mentioned the LG Venus back in the beginning of October, there wasn't information about the price or release date at that time, but today those details were released - the LG Venus will be available at Verizon Wireless for pre-orders starting on November 8, and the real launch date is November 19. The price is “only” $200, that is, if you include the $50 rebate and 2-year contract.

The good looking LG cellphone that comes with two TFT displays (2.0-inches and 1.49-inches) has some similarities when comparing to the LG Chocolate, like the upper display, but its overall dimensions are considerable bigger.

Axxen, a company from Korea, has came up with a new portable media player called Pleigo X3. The most impressive specification of the fresh Axxen PMP is probably the weight, only 25 grams with the battery included, pretty light for a device that can do lots of tasks.

The Pleigo X3 has a OLED display screen with 65 thousand colors, it supports audio, video, and image files, on the following formats: MPEG 1/2/3, ASF, JPEG, AVI, and WMA. There is a 5-band equalizer in case you want to improve the sound quality taking in consideration what kind of songs you're listening.

Besides the previously mentioned specs, the Axxen Pleigo X3 still has a built-in microphone to do some recordings, and a battery life that can hang on 8 hours in playback mode.

The Sony Ericsson Pxi is only a concept phone for now, it was designed by Bence Bogar and unlike what happens with the majority of the phones, it has the left-handers in mind.

Besides the 3.3-inch touchscreen that can work with a normal stylus, or with your finger, there is also a similar function to the iPhone, which adjusts the screen depending on the position that you are holding the device. On top of the main touchscreen, there is a secondary screen (touch pad as well) so you can have easy access to the applications being currently used.

The PXi concept phone has a 5-megapixel camera, it has space for 2 memory card slots, and stereo speakers are included to enjoy high-quality audio.

The Samsung i780 cellphone (with GPS) was first spotted on September, and at that time there wasn't many information available about the device, but yesterday Samsung finally let all the details be known during an announcement in London. With that being said, the i780 integrates 3G, HSDPA, GPS, and Wi-Fi connections in only one device, which makes it the top-notch cellphone of the i series.

The TFT touchscreen that measures 2.6-inches gives a 320x320 pixels resolution, and features the Windows Mobile 6 Pro as the operative system. One cool detail is the inclusion of a mouse, that makes the stylus become part of the past.

Panasonic has recently released its Strava GPS system codenamed CN-GP50N, but the latest addition to their small catalog of navigation systems is the CN-GP50U - which has became their first real portable GPS system.

The Panasonic Strada CN-GP50U has a price tag of $500 and comes with all the features of the not-portable model, such as preloaded maps from Navteq of the US, Canda, Puerto Rico and Mexico, a slot for SD memory cards, bluetooth so you can make a call and have hands-free, and last but not least, a Voice Command function so you don't have to touch the screen in order to set a command, just say it out loud and the new Panasonic Strada GPS is suppose to understand what you want to do.

Black Friday is coming and so are the special plus limited edition of hot gadgets. Sears seems to be one of the retail stores that has the black Friday theme in mind, because there are rumors about the release of 2 new Nintendo DS Lite gaming systems.

In one side there is a gold colored Nintendo DS system, with the Triforce logo placed on the corner. Besides the new design and color, the package includes a game – Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass.

Ricoh has released an upgraded version of the GR Digital camera, which is now called GR Digital II. If you are searching for a digital camera that has a retro style, this is certainly a good option.

The upgraded GR Digital II model comes with an improved CCD sensor, that now features 10-megapixels. The LCD screen has also got better and measures 2.7-inches. Other specifications that also got improved include the image processing system, which makes the photo have less noise, and therefore better quality.

In terms of storage, there is an internal memory with only 54MB of capacity, but since you can use SDHC memory cards to increase that small number, there isn't any problem.

Samsung has presented yet another mobile phone for the AT&T wireless carrier, it is codenamed the Samsung SGH-A737 and can be put on the low-budget series. The cellphone is available in 4 different colors: blue, lime, orange and red; with a price tag of $49 including the 2-year contract.

The type of phone is a slider, and it features the 3G HSDPA technology which makes it compatible with the 3G services that AT&T has to offers, like Cellular Video, Mobile Music, and Video Share.

On the technical specifications, the SGH-A737 comes with a 1.3-megapixel camera, stereo bluetooth, a digital music player, a speakerphone in case you want to enjoy music without using headphones, and a big amount on the maximum storage capacity of memory cards - 4GB.

Eye-Fi has finally launched its SD card that includes a WiFi connection, it is simply called a wireless memory card in case you are wondering. The new product has a built-in 802.11g Wi-Fi adapter, so you can easily (and wirelessly) transfer photos from the Eye-Fi, to a computer, be it PC or Mac, without the use of a USB cable or any other accessories - the card itself is enough.

For now, the Eye-Fi is only available in one version, which is the 2GB SD memory card, but more formats are expected in the future. As for the file formats, in case you want to upload data, this can only be done with JPEG files, but obviously other formats can be normally stored.

Sysbay International has recently presented its latest portable media player called the PF500, it goes for the stylish look with cool images placed near the corners of the screen, but the good specifications are also present in this fresh cool player.

The PF500 features a 7-inch TFT screen that provides a 480x234 pixels resolution, and aspect ratios on the 16:9 and 4:3 categories. In terms of compatibility with different format files, the device is capable of playing MPEG, AVI, Xvid, and DivX video files. The support audio formats are MP3, WAV and WMA, while the images can be viewed in JPEG and BMP formats.

HarmanKardon announced its latest products in the portable navigation series of Guide + Play. The new devices include the GPS-310, GPS-510 and GPS-810 models and feature a slim profile. These models build on the GPS-300 and GPS-500 previously in the Guide + Play range and offer enhancements including text-to-speech, real-time-traffic, Bluetooth hands-free calling and a rotary wireless controller.

Featuring a 4-inch widescreen WQVGA LCD offering 480x272 pixel resolution, the display on the GPS-310 incorporates alpha blending , which enables prompts and icons to be rendered transparent so that you can concentrate on the map at all times. Well, you have to concentrate on the road too, don't forget that. Memory expansion is possible and all three models support SD/SDHC (high capacity) memory cards. The bundled music player can handle MP3 and WMA formats. Thanks to TTS (text-to-speech) on all the models, you can now hear the street and highway names instead of listening to distances.

The GPS-310, GPS-510 and GPS-810 offer a USB 2.0 interface to transfer audio and map data. The GPS-510 and GPS-810 also support real-time traffic information services and come with a 90-day trial subscription from the Clear Channel Total Traffic Network. They also have video playback capability and support WMV9 and MPEG4 formats.

As can be surmised, the GPS-810 is the top-end model and offers Bluetooth hands-free calling as well as a wireless FM transmitter to beam audio to your car stereo. All models will be available beginning November 2007 at Best Buy and other retailers across the USA.

Pricing:

AT&T and Pantech announced that the new Pantech duo is now available in the US as an AT&T exclusive. A 3G phone, the Pantech duo features a QWERTY keyboard and numeric keypad - hence the name "duo". The phone features a dual-sliding design the addresses business users as well as John Doe. With Windows Mobile 6 running at its heart, the Pantech duo is compatible with HSDPA/UMTS networks and customers can take advantage of AT&T's BroadbandConnect network available in over 200 metropolitan areas in the US.

The usual office applictions - Word and Excel - are available on the phone. The Pantech duo, also called the C810, is equipped with a largish 240x320 pixel screen and measures 4.02" x 1.97" x 0.83". Thanks to stereo Bluetooth support, you can enjoy music on the Windows Media Player 10 wirelessly.

Priced at US $199.99 (introductory), the Pantech duo is available at AT&T retail stores and online.

AT&T

Since June 29, approximately 250,000 iPhoneshave been unlocked. This statement was made by Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook last week. 250,000 seems to be a number with some merit in this case, even though another Apple executive said that Cook was merely giving an educated guess. AT&T claims that it has activated 1.1 million iPhone units of the 1.4 million sold. This does not necessarily indicate that the above numbers are correct. This logistical report does not take into account units that are in transit or that have been lost. Under the current revenue sharing agreement between Apple and AT&T, Apple does not receive revenue for phones not connected to the AT&T service.

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A new LG phone is coming from the immensely popular Shine line of products. This one is called Wood because it has a wooden frame that gives the LG-LB2500H a natural feel. LG has not gone o’ natural with the Wood’s capabilities however. It wields high end features like a 2MP camera, MP3 Player and an electronic dictionary. There is also a DMB television for this Korea only telephone. No launch date has been released and the retail price is anybody’s guess at this point.

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On October 14, 2007 Sanyo unveiled the S1 cell phone on Radio Shack shelves everywhere. Starting in January of next year, Sprint will be selling the S1 as well. Here is a run down of the S1 in all its glory.

The term bigger is better may apply to many aspects of life, but mobile technology is certainly not one of them. The S1 is small. At just 2.5 oz. and with an ultra slim profile, this cell phone is an easy fit in any hand. A sleek black look and a silky finish give the S1 very uber appearance. There also exists a sophisticated key guard and flexible business and parental controls for a total control of the S1 experience. Many of the other industry standards exist as well, but the true strength of the S1 lies in Sanyo’s partnership with Sprint. Lost contact info? Want to input info on your cell through the web? All this and much more can be done through the Sprint website directly to your phone. Downloads, web browsing and IMS are all possible via Sprint. The S1 has a talk time of 3.5 hours and comes with an AC Phone Charger featuring the new micro USB connector.

Nokia's updated N95 8GB has expanded from it's big brother the Nokia N95 to provide added storage and performance. Wrapped in a new black color scheme, the N95 8GB gets some much needed updates. Along with expanding the on-board memory to 8GB, the N95 also gets a larger screen which boasts a bright 2.8" display, integrated assisted-GPS and improved battery life.

The Nokia N95 8GB also includes all the same key features of it's predecessor which includes a unique 2-way slider design, 5MP camera w/ Carl Zeiss optics, WLAN, HSDPA, Bluetooth connectivity, miniUSB port, video call capabilities, 3.5mm headset jack, and even tv-out capabilities.

The phone has been out for sometime and has been getting some pretty decent reviews. Some pros of the phone include a new sleek black finish, more RAM, a much needed improved battery life, and 8GB of internal memory. A few cons is a seemingly sluggish photo capture and lack of a memory card expansion slot. Overall, the N95 8GB handset is what the original N95 should have been.