Gadgety News

It seems to have been longer than the 6 months that it actually has been since I got word that Sling Media was going to bring their SlingPlayer to the iPhone 3G.

But it’s here and has been demo’d at Macworld and the plan is to release the final version to the public in the next three months.

Like SlingPlayer Mobile for Windows Mobile, Palm, Symbian, UIQ, and BlackBerry platforms, this iPhone version will let you access one or more Slingboxes from your mobile device and then you can watch your TV stations on-the-go.

You’ll also be able to manage your PVR from the iPhone as well as adding and removing fave channels via your phone.

That’s a first for the SlingPlayer Mobile line of software.

They’ve even utilised the touch screen of the 3Gesus Phone so that swiping the screen horizontally advances you through favourite stations, and flicking up and down rotates through all your home channels.

SlingPlayer should appear in the iTunes AppStore by the end of the March.

Expect it to cost around $29.99 which is the going rate for the lifetime fee of SlingPlayer Mobile on other platforms.

If that’s too much just remember OrbLive delivers live TV and media stored on your PC for $10.

Any comic book fan will know that having a 2-way radio or, now we’re in the future, a mobile phone on your wrist is a great idea.

LG think so too and is preparing their GD910 wristwatch-cum-mobile phone for its European launch later in the year.

The 3G device sports a 1.4-inch touchscreen which can be used for pretty much everything you’d expect from a mobile phone.

You can bring up a keypad to make calls, view web pages and, thanks to a built-in front camera, take stills and have video conversations.

MP3 playback, Bluetooth and text-to-speech are also supported - so it seems that LG are serious about putting this wristphone up against real mobile blowers.

To be honest, I think the success of of the GD910 will depend a lot on how it is priced and the contract obligations - both are unknown as yet.

Expect to hear more on this from CES next week.

There has been plenty of chat about a tablet-style device from Apple for a number of years.

It has actually got to the point that people were fed up of waiting so they ended up making and selling one and called it the ModBook!

But Christmas 2009 could finally see a fully legit Apple tablet:  The iPad.

Ok, we now have our feet firmly planted in Rumourville, Hypetown and Hearsay City but those folks over at TechCrunch claim that:

‘three independent sources close to Apple’ have confirmed details of a prototype device to them.

From what I gather this iPad is likely to be a large-sized iPod Touch sporting either a 7 inch or 9 inch screen.

It will obviously have access to the iTunes app store with iTunes and a Safari web browser.

TC also add that prototypes have been ‘handled’ by those sources and that Apple is now in discussions in Asia about mass production.

Still, TechCrunch doesn’t say this is an absolutely guaranteed happening:

“I’m not saying Apple is definitely launching a large form iPod Touch.”

As with all rumored Apple products, we’ll see it when we see it, probably 12 hours before it’s actually announced (if it ever is) courtesy of Mr/Miss/Mrs Blurry Cam.

So, for now, file this under ‘believe it when I see it’ and wait for those ’spy shots’.

TechCrunch

We all know that the iPhone’s camera is not its strongest selling point - although it does rank has the highest used cameraphone on Flickr!

There has been a few attempts of, shall we say, enhancing the 3Gesus phone’s snapper and some are better than others - but, to be honest, none are all that attractive.

How about a kit that allows you to swap between 3 different add-on lenses kinda like a grown-up camera all through the magic of magnets?

The kits come with either a wide-angle lens, a 2X telephoto lens or a fish-eye lens which are all made from actual glass and real alluminium.

It still wont alter the fact that the camera will still be pretty pants in poorly lit situations though.

If you fancy the look of the magnetic mount lens kit - they are available from USBFever for just $16.99.

OhGizmo

Ah, Mr blurry cam strikes again!!

But as this seems to be the only set actually showing the Android OS running on OpenMoko hardware I can’t afford to be picky.

OpenMoko is set to announce the worldwide launch and pricing on the second ever Android-powered handset.

These pictures are of the Neo FreeRunner device running the Android Platform out in the wild - you’re just gonna have to take my word for that.

A little fuzzy, but it’s very likely that Neo FreeRunner will be the second Android Phone!

The phone features a 2.8-inch VGA touchscreen display, 400MHz Samsung 2442 processor, GSM, and GPRS connectivity as before, plus the usual built-in Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and AGPS, among other standard fare.

On the memory front, it supports both microSD, SDHC as an expansion option for up to 16 GB of space.

Check out the blurry shots for yourselves below.

If and when I get better pics I’ll be sure to post them up

BoyGeniusReport

Ok fashionistas and trendy ladies!

You may or may not be familiar with the Coach brand and their range of stylish bags.

Well, there’ll soon be the possibility of matching your mobile to your cargo!

The aptly named Coach Mobile phone is likely to be released with a selection of designer accessories (charms, leather cases, etc) and will be sold by the Japanese KDDI network in the new year.

It sounds like this will be a limited edition deal.

Geek Sugar via ShinyShiny

I have been sent a gloriously blue Nokia E63 from the lovelies over at WOMWorld - I’ve had to wrestle a Chelsea fan to get it back off him so that I could have it to review!

If you cast your mind back I had a tinker around with Nokia’s E71 and E66 and actually got to take the E71 home.

I enjoyed the E71 and once I got the hang of the QWERTY (I owned a N95 at that point) I found it quite a natty phone and very usable - so what about the E63 then?

The first things that I noticed was the downsizing of the camera from 3.2 to 2.0 mp and the lack of HSDPA.

I loved the metal and thinness of the E71 but the E63 does feel good to hold albeit a little plasticky and will be more noticeable in your jacket pocket.

Now I’ve had a fiddle around with it I’ve warmed to it a little.

That camera is no big deal, heck - I own an iPhone so how can I gripe about the E63’s snapper? It works as expected, there’s not really anything more I can say about it apart from did they really have to remove 1.2mp? I’m sure that noone is really going to notice the difference though.

Other than that I am very happy to say that Nok have kept that rather spanky keyboard that I loved on the E71 and the blower comes with that ever important 3.5mm jack for your choice of ear-pleasers. 

You also get to keep the long-lasting battery of the E71, a nice, clear, large screen and WiFi.

I’ve been told that there is a considerable price saving tween the E71 and E63 which, I reckon, will soften the blow of packing 3 more millimeters of thickness and 1.2 mp less of camera power.

My E63 has come prepacked with some extra apps as well:

If I was in the market for a QWERTY packing phone I’d definitely consider a Nokia - whether the E63 has enough toys for me I’m not sure. If I had the choice of which work-phone I could have I think I’d be more than pleased to be handed an E63 - I might even cheer!

Microsoft Live Labs have just released their first application for Apple’s iPhone  before making it available on Microsoft’s own mobile platform.

Curious…………..

Seadragon Mobile was added to the App Store over the weeked. 

It’s a free image-browsing app that allows users to quickly ‘deep zoom’ online images and is intended to “demonstrate what is possible with a mobile platform”.

Seadragon is the backbone for Microsoft’s Photosynth, which allows users to take a grouping of photographs and stitch them together into a faux 3D environment.

“So where’s the Windows Mobile version of Seadragon?”, all you Windows Mobile users may well ask.

Alex Daley, group product manager for Microsoft Live Labs, told TechFlash, “The iPhone is the most widely distributed phone with a [graphics processing unit]. Most phones out today don’t have accelerated graphics in them. The iPhone does and so it enabled us to do something that has been previously difficult to do.”

Crave

This thing was found on a Russian luxury blog - but when you think of all those rich Russian business types it makes perfect sense.

The thing in question is the all new Vertu cellphone - you’re loving it aintcha?

The Vertu Boucheron 150, as it is called, looks just like that other Vertu blower but this one is said to have 3G connectivity!

WHOOhoOOOOoOoOoOO!!!!

So with that hyper-special addyon of 3G be prepared to sell various vital organs to cover the Premiership Footballer loose change price of $30,000.

Don’t hate the player - hate the game.

Hats off to Vertu for making something really expensive and being able to sell it

Unwired View

Instead of getting a mobile blower that will play your fave choonz how about when Walkman goes flip-reverse?

Most people would see the little player and think to themselves that it’s pretty cool.

But slide it open and you get a keypad and a working phone!

This is a Walkman phone. The Sony Ericsson Xmini has been added to KDDI’s (the Japanese telecom company - Kokusai Denshin Denwa Co., Ltd) lineup.

It measures a tiny 75 x 44 x 18mm and ignores all the usual phone gadgetry such as cameras, etc and rocks a mere 320 x 240 screen and 4GB of on-board memory.

When closed the bottom of the face reveals music controls; then, when opened, the whole thing morphs into a tiny handset.

Well, I think it’s cute.

KDDI

After hearing that T-Mobile have dropped the UK price of the G1 Google Phone the second Android phone has been announced in Australia and you can get hold of it in the UK too!

The Agora and Agora Pro will start shipping in January thus kitting out Aussies with Google’s OS.

The new Google Blower packs 3G, a 2.5 inch touchscreen and a QWERTY keypad.

The Agora will cost $299 and the Pro will cost $399. They’re essentially the same phone, although the Pro also packs Wi-Fi and a 2 megapixel camera.

The best news? They’re also being offered to international customers. The Kogan Agora will cost £152 with international shipping, while the Pro version will set you back £203.

Kogan

It seems that Nokia have slipped out details of the N97 whilst my back was turned!

Their new flagship phone packs a 3.5-inch, 640 x 360 pixel (that’s a 16:9 aspect ratio) resistive touchscreen display with tactile feedback.

Nok have also slipped a QWERTY keyboard into this sliding communicator that features an “always open” window to favourite internet or social networking site.

Nokia is calling the N97 the “world’s most advanced mobile computer.”

Well they have crammed in HSDPA, WiFi, and Bluetooth radios, A-GPS, a 3.5-mm headjack, 32GB of onboard memory with microSD expansion (for up to 48GB total capacity), and a battery capable of up to 1.5 days of continuous audio playback or 4.5-hours video.

As befits the N9* series it has that rather spanky 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss glass and “DVD quality” video capture at 30fps.

It does read as being quite the special smartphone but will the S60 5th Edition OS can support it?

Also for that “mobile computer” claim it will have to drag the likes of me away from the simple and effective iPhone interweb browsing experience.

The N97 will launch early 2009 with a retail price set at around €550 - don’t forget to add on all those lovely taxes as well.

Nokia N97 announced – via Dialaphone

More Brit based gadgety news that goes further to prove how addicted to the bleeding-edge of technology the UK is.

Neilsen Online suggests that mobile web usage has increased by 25% between July and September of this year and that 7.3 million (up from 5.8 million) of Britons are now logging on through their mobiles.

It is largely ‘The Young’ (37’s still young, right?) who are causing this upsurge with 51% of mobile web users under the sprightly age of 35 (darn it!) and a quarter between the ages of 14 and 24.

Praps, unsurprisingly only 12% of users logging-on are over 55.  They’ve just sorted out texting so web-browsing should be next……..just think of all those Bingo sites getting hit up via the olds mobiles.

This increase is being put down to a number of factors: Technology to access the mobile interweb is starting to be more readily available and so more people are giving it a blast. Most new phones come with high-speed internet connections and many even feature Wi-Fi giving us internet access at the sort of speeds we’re used to at home (and sometimes for free ). 

I guess this is a good point to mention my favourite at the moment - the iPhone 3G.

Before you lot poo-poo the impact of the 3Gesus Phone; don’t you think it’s too much of a coincidence that the explosion in mobile web usage started in the same month that the iPhone 3G launched?  Yeah - how’s thems apples?

BBC news, Google Search and, of course Facebook, head up the leader-board of most viewed sites but it is maybe more interesting to see that, proportionally, a greater percentage of people view the BBC weather (how British?), Sky Sports and Gmail websites through their phones than they do on their home PCs. 

Kent Ferguson, Senior Analyst at Nielson suggests “this highlights the advantage of mobile when it comes to immediacy; people often need fast, instant access to weather or sports news and mobile can obviously satisfy this, wherever they are.”

With T-Mobile’s G1 and the Blackberry Storm (amongst many others) bursting onto the market the future of mobile web looks busy and bright.

The Telegraph

I’ve got kinda used to flicking past ‘Black Friday Sale’ notices on my feeds and emails but, fortuntely, I hit reverse when I saw this and now have decided to share.

Apple is bringing a Black Friday sale from the US and delivering it to us folks in the UK. Thanks Apple - Thapple!

Log onto the Apple Store’s website this Friday and you’re promised bargains in excelcis.

We’re being spoilt here - first it was Darling’s VAT cut and now this!  Lumme!

Apple’s being coy as to which products will see a price drop - iPods, MacBooks and Mac desktops? I just don’t know.

What I do know is that Apple mentions the iPhone specifically

I think a date with Apple for cheaper Crimbo gifts is called for

If you happen to be a designer of mobile phones you’re pretty much cornered into a number of ‘must haves’:

1. They have to be pocketable
2. They must look cool when shoved up against your face
3. Even though its small it somehow must have a great display that can hold a bunch of icons and be able to display video

So, how can you shove what in essence has to be the desktop viewing experience into a device small enough to fit the skinniest jeans?

Entree Samsung’s new concept phone that’s being shown off at the FPD International show in Yokohama.

It opens like a book to reveal a flexible OLED big enough to handle all those video flicks that you carry around with you.

Calm yourselves though.  There’s no word on when we’ll actually see such a beast hit production.

Until then - check out this video

Via Engadget

Yeah, yeah - I know that this phone was officially anounced last month but LG has just launched a standalone microsite for their Prada II.

You are probably already aware that it packs HSDPA, WiFi, 5-megapixel camera, 3-inch 400 x 240 pixel capacitive multi-touch display and quad-band GSM connectivity.

But did you know about the matching Prada Link Bluetooth watch?

The fashionable timepiece syncs with your Prada II and shows your incoming calls and texts as well as probably telling the time.

Still no news regarding release or price - I reckon you’ll be looking around £500.

 UnwiredView

When Asus mentioned that they were gonna produce an Ultra Mobile PC that was going to be priced somewhere around the €500 mark I thought to myself, “well it had better be good”

Well, they’ve  done it and the Asus R50A is actually shipping at €1,475!

It’s up to whether you think that a pocket PC that runs Windows Vista with a 1.33GHz Intel Atom processor, a gig of RAM, a 32GB SSD hard drive, a 5.6” screen at 1024 x 600, three USB ports, a microSD slot, a wireless keyboard, and an external DVD reader / writer is worth the cash.

You get hooked up to all the good stuff via 802.11 b/g WiFi, Bluetooth, and 3G.

All in all it reads like a netbook but in a hand held stylee.

If you wanna earn those Geek-Points and have the cash - well, why not eh?
Pocketables

Remember my announcement of the INQ1?

Well, the 3 Social Networking phone has now had its official launch.

OK, so it’s a phone that is neither that fancy or revolutionary.

However, its integration with Skype (just like 3’s Skypephone), Facebook, and a handful of other consumer-friendly apps is something worth taking note of.  Also that Open Source OS.

The socially charged slider will come in black and silver and probably cost under £99 with no contract.

Word over at TechCrunch is that Apple may be working on a search engine of its own.

This isn’t wholly unreasonable when you see that its Safari web browser has 6-7% market share but uses Google as the search engine for both the computer and iPhone/iPod versions.

And they can’t be overly happy with Google’s competition to the iPhone - The Android powered G1.

The perplexing thing is that none of the big hitters have “lost search employees to Apple”, or heard of any specific hirings.

So, either Apple have got their own folk already working on this or they have something else in mind. Coz, let’s face it, you can’t do it without people who know what they’re doing.

Whilst most things point at the rumours being just that they still persist - so there must be something in it; right?

So far the thinking is that Apple is in fact working on a different mobile search experience that is much more visual than the existing one. It will likely still be powered by Google results, but Apple may present it in a very different way that suits mobile users much better.

Keep coming back for more as I get it………

iRiver is a name that you’d generally associate with media players but they have been flashing their phone concept at various shows.

I’m guessing that all the feedback was positive as it is a dream no more! 

Wave hello to the iRiver Wave!

This Wave is a bit of a looker as well.  Check out that large touchscreen and that lovely, metallic case.  

It’s from iRiver so media-playing is pretty much a given, with video streaming on that large screen that flips from horizontal to vertical viewing……I’m sure something else does this….. 

Also squeezed in are an FM radio, handwriting recognition and a dictionary - Naturally!

Wi-Fi and card expansion is all very groovy but I would have expected digital TV as well - Am I being unreasonable?

The iRiver Wave is set for launch in Korea in March 2009.

If you fancy one it might be worth noting that iRiver products have a habit of getting into the UK

HallyuTech