Archive for March, 2008
Monday, March 31st, 2008
Posted Mar 31st 2008 8:16AM by Thomas RickerFiled under: cellphones After seeing it kicked around the Net for a few months, it’s good to see the blackberry Curve 8330 finally go live on Verizon Wireless. Well, almost — you’ll have to wait until May to lay thumb to QWERTY while riding that cool EV-DO wave of data. It’ll cost you $270 after a $50 mail-in rebate and two-year contract with further discounts available when signing up for eligible voice and data plans. Your cash will be rewarded with the wee 4.2 x 2.4 x 0.6-inches / 4-ounces curve sporting a 320 x 240 pixel display, 2-megapixel camera, media player, stereo Bluetooth audio, microSD / SDHC expansion, and 260 minutes talk / 11 days standby. (Read the full post about ‘BlackBerry Curve 8330 launching on Verizon in May’…)
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Monday, March 31st, 2008
In a move that’s stunned the market, Nokia has made an agressive bid for Apple for a whopping $159 billion. Alarmed by the rise of the iPhone, which is set to net Apple $3 billion this year and up to $45 billion next year according to market analyst Piper Jaffray, the giant Finnish phone maker has decided its best option is to buy Apple outright in a deal that makes Microsoft’s bid of $44 billion for Yahoo! seem like chicken feed. According to reports, Nokia intends to spin off Apple’s existing computer business, but keep its successful music and phone divisions. The plan is to ultimately incorporate iPod and iPhone technology, the iTunes service, and Nokia’s famed high-end mobile phones into one super-phone that will single-handedly challenge the mobile phone market, mobile music market and the GPS market all at once. (Read the full post about ‘Nokia to buy Apple for $159 billion’…)
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Monday, March 31st, 2008
Posted Mar 31st 2008 3:14PM by Darren MurphFiled under: cellphones Don’t look now, but mid-2008 is almost here, and for those waiting intently for the release of a LiMo SDK, you’re one step closer to having your dreams realized. Announced today, the LiMo Foundation has made available what it calls the “first globally competitive, Linux-based software platform for mobile devices.” According to Morgan Gillis, executive director of LiMo Foundation, the consortium is hoping that R1 will “spur rapid innovation and contributions from all LiMo members,” and it’s restated that software development kits for Native, WebKit and Java operating environments are set to launch during the second half of this year. (Read the full post about ‘LiMo Platform Release 1 gets loosed, R2 to come later this year’…)
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Monday, March 31st, 2008
Motorola has been working on a 5 megapixel camera phone in collaboration with Kodak for what seems like years. Finally, the partnership might be about to bear fruit with the launch of the new Motorola Zine ZN5 camera phone at the CTIA Wireless conference in Las Vegas tomorrow. The Zine will be the first phone released since Motorola split itself in two in an attempt to stop the company’s mobile phone division slipping even further into the red. This won’t make the Zine any good, though, as it still comes from a company whose last innovation was to paint the RAZR pink and sell it as a new phone! More pics and derision after the jump. (Read the full post about ‘5 megapixel Motorola Zine ZN5 to be launched tomorrow?’…)
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Monday, March 31st, 2008
Posted Mar 31st 2008 12:58PM by Donald MelansonFiled under: Laptops HP’s not one to let its laptops sit on the shelf too long without a revamp, and it’s now let loose yet another raft of updates for its Pavilion line, albeit only in Europe for now. The big news here is the addition of Blu-ray drives across the board, which obviously replaces the hd dvd option previously found on the models they’re replacing. That desirable feature finds its way onto the new Pavilion dv2800, dv6800 and dv9800 series models, which boast 14.1, 15.4, and 17-inch displays, respectively, along with your choice of Core 2 Duo or Turion 64 X2 processors, integrated graphics or NVIDIA GeForce 8400M or 8600M (depending on the model) and even a Blu-ray burner on the 17-inch model. (Read the full post about ‘HP goes all out with Blu-ray-packin’ Pavilion laptops for Europe’…)
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Monday, March 31st, 2008
Posted Mar 31st 2008 10:21AM by Darren MurphFiled under: cellphones Don’t you dare say green wasn’t already in style, as in all actuality, it’s US Cellular and Alltel following the crowd yet again. As the run-up to CTIA 2008 continues, the aforesaid outfits have both announced that a lime green variant of the Motorola Q9c will soon be on their shelves. Aside from that, prospective customers can also snap up the WinMo 6-powered Q9c in licorice, and of course, they’ll find a 1.3-megapixel camera, 2.4-inch display and 128MB of onboard memory. (Read the full post about ‘Lime green Motorola Q9c headed to Alltel, US Cellular’…)
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Monday, March 31st, 2008
LG have announced their new external Blu-ray rewriter and HD DVD-ROM drive, the LG BE06LU10. It has the ability to both read and write Blu-ray and also read HD DVD at 6x speed. The LG BE06LU10 offers a quick and easy way to add a permanent or portable HD drive to your computer. Its great to see a drive which supports the reading of both HD formats, and also provides great storage options with being able to write / burn to Blu-ray discs at a speedy 6x. So with the LG BE06LU10 you will be able to play back and watch both blu-ray and HD-DVDs and also have the ability to burn blu-ray discs for a huge 50GB of storage, thats enough space for over 11,000 MP3s. (Read the full post about ‘LG BE06LU10′…)
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Monday, March 31st, 2008
Posted Mar 31st 2008 4:21PM by Donald MelansonFiled under: Displays It looks like Hitachi is aiming to give those normally confined to XGA projectors a bit of a boost, with its new CPX3 model not only boasting a slightly more home theater friendly WXGA (1280 x 800) resolution, but some short-throw capabilities as well. Exactly how short that throw is isn’t clear, however, with Hitachi only going so far as to describe the projector as boasting a wide-angle lens that’ll let you use it “close to the screen with no obstructions.” Apart from that, the 3.9-pound projector is fairly standard fare, with it packing 2,000 lumens of brightness, HDMI input, and a built-in 1 watt speaker, along with some security measures sure to please more business-minded types. (Read the full post about ‘Hitachi intros short-throw CPX3 WXGA projector’…)
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Monday, March 31st, 2008
More and more geeks are going to a dual monitor setup to not only provide for me monitor space (real estate), but also because it allows for placing tools and uilties on one screen, while the second screen can be used as an actual interface for editing, drawing and other creative endeavors. Sadly, though, because these monitors are separate entitles, one has to deal with the encasement on both interfering with the unbroken image that can move across both screens. That is, until now. If it gets picked up by a manufacturer, this Double-Sided Transforming LCD Display will enable for an unbroken wide screen image, that can also double as a second separate screen. Wow. (Read the full post about ‘Folding LCD Monitor to add a lot of real estate’…)
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Monday, March 31st, 2008
Verizon Wireless has finally announced the availability of RIM’s BlackBerry Curve 8330. Sporting a new liquid-silver colored finish with chrome highlights, the BlackBerry 8330’s capabilities will be enhanced by Verizon Wireless’ high-speed EV-DO network. The 8330 will also have Verizon’s location-based services that will give customers mapping, audible turn-by-turn navigation and access to information on more than 14 million points of interest. All the goodness and eye candy that previous blackberry Curve owners enjoyed in other Curve models will be in the 8330. Measuring 4.2 x 2.4 x 0.6-inches and weighing only 4 ounces, the BlackBerry 8330 will be easy to handle and use. (Read the full post about ‘Verizon announces the BlackBerry 8330 Curve’…)
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