Search Results for: iphone

10 Touchscreen Smartphones compared

Phones / By /

PC World has a nice rundown of 10 touchscreen smartphones including some upcoming models. The phones run the gamut from the iPhone to the Samsung Omnia II and all the major US carriers.

Apart from its Windows Mobile OS, the Samsung Omnia II really has a nice set of specs. Now if only it ran Android… Hey Google and/or hackers, can you get on that? Meantime, Verizon users can get their hands on an Omnia now for $99 with a 2-yr plan.

If only we here in the US weren’t so caught up in cut-throat competition, then perhaps GSM might be a standard and phones wouldn’t be locked into specific carriers. Then you could get the phone you really wanted and use it on whatever network you had. If only…

Barnes & Noble launches e-bookstore

Books, Music and Movies / By /

In their ongoing quest to stay competitive with Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble acquired e-book retailer Fictionwise a few months ago and is now offering e-book downloads and a free reader that works on PCs, Macs, iPhones and Blackberrys.

Barnes & Noble also struck a deal to offer the 500,000 public domain books that Google scanned and has available on Google Books. Just one problem – I can’t seem to find any ‘free’ e-books on BN.com’s e-book section. Perhaps I didn’t look hard enough. But then again, I shouldn’t need to. This should be used as a loss leader. Oh well, I’ll just peruse Google Books if I want to read a free classic.

And what about a e-reader? BN is working with manufacturer Plastic Logic that is releasing a device in 2010 for which BN will launch a e-bookstore to provide content for that device. Of course, e-books from BN.com don’t work on Sony’s device or Amazon’s Kindle.

*sigh* Competition is great and all, but why oh why don’t companies just save themselves and consumers the money and trouble and start out with standards?

Loopt comes to Sprint Instinct phones

Phones / By /

Loopt, the social location mapping app, has now been ported to Sprint Instinct phones. So if you’ve got one of those phones, you can find out what your friends are up to when they’re near by.

Loopt is already available for over 100 different devices including (some) Blackberries, Android phones, iPhone and iPod Touch.

Loopt is available for free on the Sprint Instinct family of phones by texting “GET” to 56678 (LOOPT).

Super Universal Car Mount

Gizmo of the Day, GPS, Phones, Portable / By /

Super Universal Car Mount

The Super Universal Car Mount is a neat idea for those of you who like to have pretty much all your gadgets rigged up in the car – mobile phone, Sat Nav and your MP3 player. The candle-style arrangement allows you to hold up to three of your favorite gadgets and comes with leads to connect all of these up (presumably to your car): iPhones, iPods, Zunes, MP3, GPS, Game consoles (a worrying idea!), PDAs, Phones and more! Pretty cool gizmo; just make sure it doesn’t obscure all of your windscreen!

Buy now!

Price: $29.99
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)

Apple blocks Palm Pres from accessing iTunes

Audio/Video, Home Theater, Phones / By /

Wow, c’mon Apple – are you really hurting for more $ that you needed to block the relatively small number of Palm Pre users from getting to iTunes?! Of course, this isn’t really targeted at just Palm Pres, but other non-iPod/iPhone devices, but still.

I personally don’t use either iTunes, the desktop software (even when I had an iPod) or the online store, but now I have another reason not to. This is the type of behavior that Microsoft engaged in that alienated a lot of people and helped to give them a bad name. Don’t make the same mistake Apple.

via WSJ.

Next-Gen Protection for Gadgets and Humans

Miscellaneous, Sports, Health & Fitness, Outdoors / By /

d3o have come up with a rather magical invention that protects whatever it covers by simply deflecting the incoming object. You can already think of the many applications – pad your iPhone in it to make it bounce back when you drop it, or protect your head when you’re skiing down the mountain. The material consists of ‘intelligent’ molecules. They flow with you as you move but on shock lock together to absorb the impact energy.

d3o don’t actually sell any products online, but they have teamed up with major retailers worldwide to provide some really useful products – full list here.

This video really sums it up!

Skyhook Wireless – A Credible Alternative to GPS?

GPS, Networking & Internet / By /

Skyhook Wireless

Perhaps a little known fact is that iPhone doesn’t always get its positioning from GPS, but sometimes from WiFi and cellular towers, using Skyhook Wireless’ system. Skyhook provides an alternative form of positioning that is more reliable in areas where there may be excessive sky coverage, such as trees or tall buildings – it is at this point the iPhone may decide to switch to taking its position from surrounding WiFi acess points and cellular towers by judging its proximity to them.

How does this work? WiFi points are generally moveable so surely it’s impossible to get an accurate position from them? True. But Skyhook employs around 500 drivers who constantly patrol the streets in their custom vehicles (much like how Google map their various softwares) to work out where the access points are located. To me, this seems a very costly procedure to what is a relatively small company, but it’s obviously working. If you want the gory details on everything Skyhook related, their website: SkyhookWireless.com otherwise I would highly recommend NYTimes.com’s very informative article.

GfG’s Article Recap for Week Ending June 19, 2009

Computers, Gizmo of the Day, Home Automation, Networking & Internet, Portable, Software / By /

Have Zune begun to copy Apple’s stylish music players with the upcoming Zune HD? We’ve got your weekly fill of format wars – this time focused on home automation and could we really be that much closer to wearable remote controls?

Father’s days coming up and, being such a caring bunch, we came up with a a really great idea! Another idea may be to get him an analog to digital converter so that he can preserve those old video and music sitting in the attic.

Are you aniPhone/iPod Touch user and also a networking maniac? Take a look at Zensify.

The week was capped off by the ever-so-geeky Mac vs. PC poster and a look at the current progress of holographic optics – manufacturer SBG has a very cool prototype of a full-color, heads-up wearable display.

GfG’s Article Recap for Week Ending June 12, 2009

Books, Music and Movies, Computers, Gizmo of the Day, Miscellaneous, Networking & Internet, Phones, Portable, Software / By /

First up in the ‘what the … ?!’ category from the ever-inventive Japaneses were the  Fuwarinka Candy, which changes your body odor by eating a piece of candy or chewing a piece of gum.  Apple had their WWDC conference and rolled out new MacBooks and a new iPhone.

Internet traffic could reach 2/3 of a Zettabyte by 2013 and speaking of the Net, you better grab your Facebook username before it gets snapped up by someone else.

More gadgets: The Lacie d2 Network File Server can store tons of photos and videos on your home network. Amazon released its latest Kindle, the DX, while Microsoft is close to beta testings its new free anti-virus software.

Wrapping things up, we compared some wireless 802.11 USB adapters so you could retro-fit that old laptop or desktop cheapily and easily.

Palm Pre pretty much sells out on launch day

Phones / By /

The general word is that most Palm Pres have sold out. Released yesterday, many Sprint and Best Buy stores were sold out before noon and then were only busy putting people’s names on waiting lists. While the lines may have not been as long as when the iPhone first came out, the hype that Apple built up prior to its release was certainly an order of magnitude larger. No matter.

A very rough average of the number of units doled out to the 1200 Sprint, Best Buy and Radio Shack seems to be somewhere around 50. This works out to only 60,000 units [disclaimer – this is a WAG]. This seems like a very small number. I hope they’ve got another shipment coming soon, like in the next week.

On the bright side, new owners seem to be quite happy with the new smartphone gadgets. Congrats Palm. Now get moving on producing more units!

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