Tech News and Reviews
Cellphones
Best Buy offering DROID pre-orders as of today, automates the mail-in rebate
0931 days
by Arlene.L
in Cellphones
In the best sort of tradition, Best Buy Mobile has gone for a repeat of its Palm Pre offering and is offering the $299 Motorola DROID at $199 thanks to the automation of a mail-in rebate you’d have to actually “mail in” if you were to purchase the handset straight from the carrier. Best Buy also seems to be the first place to offer pre-orders of the phone, so if you’re worried about a sell out or just generally averse to affixing stamps to things, Best Buy appears to have you covered.
DROID Phone Holder and Multimedia Station go for $30 apiece
0932 days
by Arlene.L
in Cellphones
Already got your DROID pre-order in and wonder what else you can blow your non-assured holiday bonus on? Well, that Phone Holder car dock and Multimedia Station home dock have just gotten price tags: $30 a pop. About in line with the general worldwide dock population, but horrifically overpriced in comparison with our own homebrew dual-purpose solution.
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TomTom Car Kit for iPhone review
0932 days
by Arlene.L
in Cellphones
Boy, TomTom sure has chosen the worst possible time to release its Car Kit for iPhone, and to make matters worse, its decision to not include the iPhone app is now set in stone. That’s right, the hardware alone will set you back the cost of a TomTom ONE nowadays, and the $99.95 app works on the iPhone 3G and 3GS without it. So here’s the question: is the car kit worth the extra $119.95? To find out, we got hold of a review unit for a sunny road trip around London. Surprisingly, the car kit uses Bluetooth to connect the GPS receiver to the iPhone, even though there’s a dock connector for charging. Bluetooth connectivity does have its advantages: according to TomTom it can work as a generic Bluetooth GPS receiver for any satellite navigation app on the iPhone, or any smartphones at all for that matter. TomTom even confirmed that the car kit could potentially compensate for the first-generation iPhone’s lack of built-in GPS, but since its app won’t run on anything but a 3G or 3GS we’ll have to wait and see if that’s actually useful. Meanwhile, the company is cooking up a compatible app for the original iPhone and the iPod Touch, which could make the car kit more worthwhile. Read on for our hands-on impression and test videos.
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LG launches official site for GW620 Android phone
0932 days
by Arlene.L
in Cellphones
LG’s GW620 handset may be easy to miss among all the other current Android-based offerings, but it looks like LG is now starting to ramp things up a bit to help it get noticed, with it recently launching (inadvertently, judging from the copy) the official site for phone complete with some fresh new images and promo videos. While there’s expectedly not much in the way of new details, LG’s ads and promo videos (check one after the break) do seem to position the phone squarely in CLIQ territory, with LG even going so far as to dream up a series of mascots (including a “Social Butterfly”) to demo the phone’s social networking capabilities. Head on past the break to see for yourself, and keep an eye on the link below for what should soon be the “official” official website.
Motorola DROID user guide unearthed in its entirety
0932 days
by Arlene.L
in Cellphones
We’re not sure how much more Motorola DROID tidbits you need to whet your appetite until its November 6th Verizon launch, but in hopes of keeping those cravings at bay, we’ve got the entire user guide here. No revelations so far, but seeing as we’re already in possession of the phone, we weren’t really expecting any. See it for yourself either via the gallery below or as a PDF just past the read link.
Nokia’s N97 mini gets its shipping papers
0932 days
by Arlene.L
in Cellphones
Right on cue, the smaller-but-just-barely N97 mini is now ready for public consumption over in Europe. Granted, we’re certainly at the tail end of October, but we can’t say that we caught Nokia in a lie or anything based on what was said last month in Stuttgart. You’ve already committed the specifications to memory and read all about firmware 2.0, so now all that’s left to do is run along, fork out €450 ($667) and wonder forever if this decision will positively or negatively change the course of your life.
Opinion: Motorola Droid is the ‘iPhone’ of Verizon
0933 days
by Arlene.L
in Cellphones
If you look back at recent history, one may consider the iPhone as the main conduit in the proliferation of touchscreen phones today. The iPhone also not only marked the entry of Apple into the mobile phone biz, but more importantly, through its exclusivity on AT&T, became a signature device for the US carrier that no doubt helped them rake it a substantial amount of earnings. (more…)
Google Wave to have its own app store
0933 days
by Arlene.L
in Cellphones
We’re still not entirely certain what Google Wave is for — or even if humans are capable of comprehending it — but we do know that we’re super-intrigued by the idea of third-party extensions that hook into the fledging messaging platform, and it sounds like the folks in Mountain View are as well. Google’s planning to launch both an extension gallery and extension store in the coming months, which would allow users to easily find, buy, and share apps for Wave. It’s not clear how the sharing will work, or how much Google expects extensions to cost, but it’s certainly an interesting way to capitalize on Wave’s flexibility. Our first request? An extension to kill live-typing. Let’s make it happen.
Storm2 now available from Verizon for those who waited
0933 days
by Arlene.L
in Cellphones
Assuming RIM and Verizon didn’t completely scorch the earth of prospective touch-screen BlackBerry buyers, some of you might like to know that Verizon’s Storm2 9550 is now ready for purchase. As expected, the Storm2 will cost you $180 after $100 on-line discount and after you prostrate yourself to a two-year tithe. Sorry original Storm owners, neither Verizon nor RIM are offering you any kind of appeasement for your early troubles — remember, according to RIM buggy smartphones are the new reality.
iPhone 3GS coming to Orange UK on November 10
0934 days
by Arlene.L
in Cellphones
So you’ve been lusting after that spit-shined touchy-swipey device from Apple, huh? If you’re in the UK, come November 10 you’ll finally have a choice of iPhone provider (both for 3G and 3GS flavors), with The Guardian confirming the date as Orange’s launch of the coveted handset. O2′s exclusivity runs out on the ninth of that month, but we shouldn’t be too quick to rejoice, as Orange will seek to “add value” rather than undercut O2′s pricing. Independent retailers Carphone Warehouse and Phones4U are also expected to stock the iPhone on behalf of Orange, and lest we forget Vodafone will be joining in with its own offering in early 2010. The CEO of 3 has also indicated a strong desire to bring Cupertino’s baby onboard, though that’s unlikely to happen before the midpoint of next year. So it’ll get cheaper, just very… very slowly.