Gadgety News

Word on the blogosphere is that Apple is a bit miffed at us here in Blighty and our propensity to unlock iPhones so they’re going to limit supplies of the iPhone 3G

Toys/Pram mean anything to ya?

ElectricPig reports that a source has said that ” Some are suspected of being sold abroad, while the majority are unlocked for use on other networks in the UK.”

The source goes on to say that the UK will receive a “very limited stock” of the iPhone 3G as a result, especially the 16GB model, which could go some way to explain the “one per customer” rationing.

It also sounds like we might be spanked further by way of not getting the white version (displayed here).

Next step is that all UK Apple Stores will include a ‘naughty bench’ for us to sit on and think of what we’ve just done. Just kiddin.

Or am I?

Do you think that this is fair?

The long awaited arrival of the N96 (similar to the fabby N95 but one better) is almost coming to an end.

To remind us it now has its own special Flash-based web-tour.

You get all the dirt on things such as GPS, music playback, and Internet browsing.

Go on - indulge yourself and decide if you’re still going to get an iPhone.

Would you chose the N96 over the 3G Jesusblower?

Here we go!

Apple are treating us to a video walk through of their new baby.

Are you sitting comfortably?

Set mouth to drool.

Hop along and follow this link for iPhone loveliness :0)

Driving fast.

The main goal for me to pass my test back in ‘89!

Fortuantely I bought my own car as soon as I passed - then, unfortunately, crashed it 3 weeks afterwards.

Well, Tiwi is here for those who also use parental controls on the satellite channels to keep your kids nice and safe.

Using GPS and a smattering of cellular connectivity it issues a verbal warning: “You’re exceeding the speed limit; please slow down.”

Then it emails, text messages, or calls the proper authorities, ie. your parents, if the speeding continues.

I think Van Halens “I can’t drive 55″ is quite an apt track at this point.

Only $549 and $35 a month to spy on your little darlings. 

Tiwi

How badly do you need to be first?

How badly do you need to be the first to own one of the new, shiny, spanky 3G iPhones?

If that feeling of overwhelming smugness is too hard to resist then you need to go and get your hands on the world’s first iPhone 3G and here’s how!

All you need to do is make your way over to New Zealand for 00:01, Friday July 11th.

So, you could use it to call your buddy from your new purchase while it is still Thursday, July 10th at 5:01 am in Cupertino or 13:01 hours here in London.

Vodafone NZ will swing open the doors of its Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch shops at midnight to you overeager Apple lovers!

Time Check — 00:01 NZ time calculated globally

Whoah there!

Thinking about using the glorious 3G iPhone when you’re abroad?

Don’t expect the same deal that you’ll be getting over in the UK with O2.

As you probably know, O2 have used the unlimited download facility in much of its marketing for both the first iPhone and the new 3G model, which will be available free on some O2 tariffs.

Apparently the unlimited data and WiFi allowances only apply in the UK.

If you use the phone overseas the charges shoot up to £3 for each megabyte (Mb) of data downloaded in the EU and £6 everywhere else in the world! ~GULP!~

Let’s say that you want to catch up on the gogglebox back in Blighty and watch an average iPlayer programme from Auntie Beeb; these are usually around 300Mb in size.

This will cost you around £900 if you were in La Belle France and £1,800 in the good ol’ US of A.

 Wha?????

So my advice would be to disable things like email before you leave the UK.

If you’re going to be needing all that kinda stuff that the iPhone has been built for the best option is to take out a data-roaming add-on for when you require the service

Remember though; O2’s new “unlimited” download policy is subject to a fair-usage policy - in other words, although there is no set limit, your connection may be stopped or dramatically slowed if you are deemed to be over-using it.

Hmmmmmmmmm………….

Source

Way back on June 11th I furnished you all with the news of Sony Ericsson’s first ever 8MP camera phone.

Now SE have given it the official thumbs up; so I formally introduce you to the Cybershot C905!

As we already know, the phone is rocking an impressive 8MP sensor partnered with a Xenon flash and a 2.4in QVGA screen for wallowing in your glorious snaps.

Don’t forget this is not just a compact digital camera.

Amongst all that photo stuff you’ll also discover AGPS, Wi–Fi and HSDPA for super fast web browsing. 

Slap 2GB memory support and TV out on top of all that and you’re looking at a fully tooled up phone that demands to be respected.

SE says it can be yours in Q4 and then laugh at those poor folks with compact digital cameras as you whip out your phone and get better results :0P

The swines!

The people over at Laptop Magazine have not only managed to get all over the Garmin Nuvifone prototype they’ve rubbed our noses in it and posted vids and pics aplenty (links at bottom).

The good thing for us lot is that we can see the UI in action :0)

They say that the screen is nice and big, and the User Interface appears to be very GPS-centric.

On using the QWERTY keypad they reported it as ”spacious enough” and uses an “auto-complete dictionary” (predictive text).

The main page is pretty well set out with a row of icons for calling, searching, and mapping, and finger swipes stream them across the screen.  Smooooooth.

On the device that was tested the applications seem to be SMS, Google Search, email and media player.

Apparently some apps didn’t load properly and some of the display units were frozen in a borked limbo state.

But, as I said earlier, this is a prototype version and I’m sure (hope) that Garmin will have sorted all this out before the release in the 4th quarter of the year.

Still unsure that the $500 price tag is fixed or that it shall also be available in white.

Laptop Blog - Handson With Nuvi 

Laptop Blog UI Action Vid

Well, helloooooooooo.

Sony Ericsson have allowed this lovely slider phone to get out and about prior to any official announcements.

It is, in fact (as far as I know), the Cyber-shot C905 - codenamed “Shiho.”

Now, if the grapevine is to be believed this snapper/blower combo is pretty much packed.

Rumour has it that the camera is no less than 8.1 megapixels and is teamed up with both xenon and LED flashes (that’s to take care of still snaps and video respectively).

Other goodies include GPS, TV out, DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) certification and HSDPA in both Euro and Stateside varieties - but it still a QVGA screen.

It has been whispered that it shall be announced on the Tuesday, 17th June and should be appearing in gold, silver and black in the fourth quarter.

SE Blog 

I’ve just registered my interest with Carphone Warehouse and the news from Apple and o2 this morning is that the new iPhone, launched last night (in case you’re still unaware), will be free on selected tarrifs.

As predicted Apple are wanting those sales figures so here how the tarrifs stack up:

£75 (3000 mins, 500 texts) and £45 (1200 mins, 500 texts) a month contracts will offer an 8GB iPhone 3GB for free.

The higher contract offers the 16GB model for free and you can pick one up for just £59 on the £45 a month contact.

There’s a new £30-a-month contract which offers a paltry 75 minutes and 125 texts, which will allow to buy the handsets for £99 and £159 respectively.

The same prices apply to the £35-a-month deal which offers 600 minutes and £500 texts. I’m guessing this would be the one I’d go for.

The biggest news, however, could be the fact that the iPhone 3G is coming to pay-as-you go! I didn’t really see that one coming but I think this shows how flexible Apple is prepared to be.

So, contact O2 or Carphone Warehouse online to register your interest and be fed more news as it comes :0)

The pics on this article shows the actual dimensions, etc of the new Apple blower.

Ok people - here’s a quick once over of the latest iPhone:

• It’s tri-band 3G. This same phone will ship worldwide.
• WiFi is still 802.11b/g, no support for n yet.
• The GPS is A-GPS
• Geotagging photos is a yes.
• The screen looks exactly the same
• The camera is identical to the first - yup, that puny 2 megapixels. No front-facing camera in the end.
• Feels thicker in the hand but with those tapered edges it doesn’t feel that different. The back is all curvy so you can play spin the iPhone!
• Good quality plastic and nice and glossy so is just as much a finger-print magnet as the screen!! Oish!
• “It comes with a ridiculously, absurdly small power adapter. It basically looks like a tiny square with a USB port on one side, and power prongs on the other. It will power any other iDevice (iPod touch, 1st gen iPhone, etc.), and sell separately for those that want a smaller adapter.”
• The dock is now sold separately.
• Probably wont fit into your old dock. The new dock does look smaller and more sculpted to the new iPhone’s curves.
• The 3.5 mm headphone jack is flush.

Now. What hasn’t it got?

• Multimedia Messaging: Pretty much every other phone on the market has the ability to send images to other phones via multimedia messaging, or MMS. Yes, you can still email those photos, but MMS is such a basic feature these days - why wasn’t it on the Jesus Phone from the start?

• Copy and paste: Again, this is such a basic feature. Having copy and paste makes it easier to type out text messages and emails.

• Video recording: In the world of mobile video and the likes of YouTube, it’s a shame the iPhone doesn’t have video-recording capabilities. Yes, the quality won’t be that great, but it should be an option anyway - again a poke at that 2mp camera……..I mean, really!!

• Bluetooth flexibility: Ok. So you can use Bluetooth on the iPhone for headset voice calls. But how about Bluetooth and A2DP for streaming music wirelessly, the capacity for using the iPhone as a modem and a Bluetooth file transfer protocol so you can transfer files to and from the iPhone?

Hot on the heels of the 3G iPhone announcement TomTom has chipped in with an iPhone-ready version of its famed navigation software!

A TomTom spokesman was quoted as saying, “(that its) navigation system runs on the iPhone already”.

Unfortunately there is no estimated release date for the software.

GPSReview

It’s hard to decide what to report on as the 3G iPhone release date gets supposedly closer….

Contrary to the “the new iPhone will be thicker” rumours CultofMac are saying that it will actually be 22% thinner!!

Other specs from the informer include the long-awaited 3G, GPS, an improved battery life (surly not when the GPS and 3G modes are used???) and will be offered in two capacities, 16GB and 32GB in comparison to the 8GB and 16GB of the non-3G models.

As with all of this we shall just have to wait and see - but this cunning little tipster is said to be a reliable source.

As promised here’s some more info bout the device code-named “Tube”

It sounds like it will be Nokia’s first touch S60 device but will not be a flagship phone!

Oh no, another higher spec’d phone will ship “shortly after” so they say.

The display is said to be between 3- and 3.5-inches with a 16:9 aspect ratio and a camera (with what looks like another up front) which they say is “way better” than the iPhone’s but will not be able to challenge their N-series shooters.

The phone is said to have GSM/EDGE, UMTS/HSDPA with built-in GPS, Bluetooth, WiFi, uPnP support and a stylus.  Phwew!

No multi-touch on this model but it is said to provide haptic feedback in a package supposedly smaller (maybe a little bit wider) than the N73.

You might notice the “XpressMedia” label on the phone which would indicate an affiliation with Nokia’s XpressMusic class of media devices.

More at Symbian Freak

This is what Lenovo is teasing us with and it’s fitted with Intels new Atom.

Unveiled at Intel’s IDF in Shanghai, the new Ideapad U8 device features a 4.8-inch touchscreen display and bullseye, optical mouse for single-handed operation while surfing the web via EDGE or 3G data.

The handheld also features “Live GPS,” hand writing recognition, and support for MS Office applications - it praps could even be used as a phone - check out the numeric pad.

With Intel calling this a MID, don’t expect to see a Microsoft OS being run on it.

UMPC Portal

Here’s an update regarding the N96 release date.

It should be unleashed in the UK by August according to The Carphone Warehouse.

Their site was updated to reveal that the successor to the N95 was coming in 5 months.

There’s no pricing details on the site, but the HSDPA and Wi-Fi enabled blower will come with a 5 Megapixel camera, 16GB flash memory, 2.8 inch display, DVB-H tuner, GPS and all the other N gadgets we have come to expect.

Here’s a turn up - we’ve seen plenty of phones with GPS so now Garmin have gone all flip-reverse on us and released a phone!

It’s a handsome beast to be honest and has really come up to the big boys and said - “whatcha got?”

The ‘nüvifone’ can be best described as an iPhone-alike that incorporates the bits that Apple forgot; like 3G mobile broadband connectivity and full blown GPS (natch).

It comes as no surprise that including GPS was a foregone conclusion as Garmin is pretty clued up in this area.  Included are maps of North America and Eastern and Western Europe as well as millions of POIs and turn-by-turn voice prompted instructions.

They’ve even thrown in Google’s local search so you can search using phrases like ‘kebab’ or ‘Spearmint Rhino’ and the results will come up based on current location and relevance.

You also get access to ‘Garmin Online’.  This gives you up-to-date info such as real-time traffic, fuel prices, stock prices, sport scores, news reports, local events and weather forecasts.

All of that would be pretty special even in an average looking chasis - but the big G has only gone and wrapped all that in an iPhone-sized body with a 3.5″ finger nav touch screen!

The interweb is cruised using a Mobile Safari-esque full page rendering web browser.  You also get email client, a digital camera and support for MP3, AAC and Mpeg4 multimedia formats. 

You can also record vid clips, send MMS, Instant Messaging and there’s automatic location tagging on all photographs.  Audio is via the standard 3.5mm headphone jack.

Expect to see it around Autumn-time - I think that should give Apple a chance to step up its game………………

With better resolution than Google 192.Com’s site  is quite outstanding.

With a view described as the same as that you’d get from the roof of a 10 storey building it’s pretty special.

I zoomed in on The Oasis leisure centre at the end of Shaftsbury Avenue and the result is that you can clearly see people swimming in the outdoor pool!

If, like my bro, you are on 3 or the T Mobile network then 3G is going to be even better for you lucky lot!

They have both signed an agreement allowing users to access either network for 3G connectivity. By 2010, HSDPA will also be rolled out nationwide.

According to 3 and T-Mobile, this will be Europe’s most extensive 3G/HSDPA network, and give users access to high-speed Internet browsing and downloads in more places around the UK than ever before.

Good huh?

Via Crave

It’s almost too difficult not to go pun-tastic with this - just as the papers couldn’t res-train themselves at the time, but I shall try.

Emma Clarke, whose voice warned people to “mind the gap” in London’s tube stations for 8 years, was fired after a joke announcement was posted on a personal blog, now has taken her voice elsewhere.

You can hear her kindly guidance on the CoPilot 7 satnav which can be used on the HTC Touch and the Nokia N95.

Seems TfL’s loss is our gain.

Phwew, managed to avoid being railroaded into using silly puns just to make this platform more amusing in the short-term but only to lose credibility down the line.

DOH!