Phones

#CES09: Thoughts on the Palm Pre

3 Comments / CES, Phones, Portable / By /

Closely following Palm’s announcement of their brand new mobile handset, the Pre, and operating system (webOS), reaction was swift and unanimously exuberant. Palm has certainly hit this out of the park, and if the tech community’s reaction is any indication, this will certainly save the company for at least a little while to come.

My quick thoughts on the Pre and the OS:

  • the new webOS gets multitasking right
  • unified application for messaging (text, IM, Facebook, etc.) – Palm gets it
  • awesome that development for the platform is based solidly on ubiquitous, well-established technology (HTML, CSS & Javascript)
  • very sexy looking piece of hardware
  • love that they’ve retained the QWERTY keyboard and so maintain that link to their once solid Treo lifeline
  • disappointed that there’s no SD card slot
  • learned from Apple’s mistake of not including a user replaceable battery
  • hopefully they will upgrade the firmware quickly to enable video recording and Adobe Flash support.

One more cool photo for the road:

#CES09: Palm Announces Pre – raw specs

CES, Phones, Portable / By /

Here are the raw specs on the just announced, soon to be released cell phone handset from Palm. Stay tuned for another post on our thoughts on the product (hint: we love it!).

  • 3.1 inch HVGA (320x480px) capacitive multitouch touchscreen with gesture area
  • slide-out QWERTY keyboard
  • GPS
  • 3 Megapixel camera
  • 8GB internal memory
  • 802.11b/g Wifi
  • microUSB connector
  • user replaceable battery
  • new Web-centric Palm OS (named appropriately webOS) that offers true multitasking
  • integration of messaging (text, IM, Facebook, etc.) in 1 application without needing to switch between various apps
  • slide out QWERTY keyboard (yet still same weight as an iPhone)
  • development for apps uses HTML, CSS, & Javascript
  • curved shape (not perfectly flat)
  • Proximity sensor, which automatically disables the touch screen and turns off the display whenever you put the phone up to your ear
  • Light sensor, which dims the display if the ambient light is dark, such as at night or in a movie theater, to reduce power usage
  • Accelerometer, which automatically orients web pages and photos to your perspective

#CES09: Powermat says wireless charging mats are close

Books, Music and Movies, Cameras and Photo, CES, GPS, Home Automation, Phones, Portable / By /

Powermat has a wireless charging solution that uses, you guessed it, a mat that you just place your gadgets on, and voila!, they’re charged up. It uses magnetic induction just like many of the other (promised) solutions. They have a wide range of products ranging from the small, folding to the large desktop variety. Apart from the added price, the only 2 drawbacks that I can see is the limited number of devices that they support, and that you need some kind of device adapter and/or support pre-built-in.

Devices: iPod, iPhone, Blackberry, Razr, GPS unit, handheld game, laptop computer. Not yet available, but expect $100 mats and $30 chargers.

#CES09: TriSpecs all-in-one sunglasses, headphones, Bluetooth headset

2 Comments / Audio/Video, Home Theater, CES, Gizmo of the Day, Miscellaneous, Phones, Portable / By /

This is a bit wonky, but TriSpecs thinks there’s a market out there for those who want what I’ll call integration of head-devices – sunglasses, stereo headphones, Bluetooth headset, and even power and volume controls for your MP3 player.

TriSpecs actually got together with a company called Step Labs to ensure that the audio quality is up to snuff and probably then some. It even has noise-cancellation, the ability to detect and switch between music and incoming phone calls. The lenses on the sunglasses are Zeiss Sola and are interchangeable.

Despite all of these high-tech and seemingly expensive components and materials, starting price is rumored to be around $200.

SlingPlayer Mobile for Blackberry – public beta starts today

Gizmo of the Day, Networking & Internet, Phones, Portable, Software / By /

Sling Media is rolling out a SlingPlayer Mobile for the following Blackberry models: BlackBerry Bold, BlackBerry Curve 8900, BlackBerry 8820, BlackBerry Curve 8320, BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220, BlackBerry Pearl 8120.

It’ll probably run on Blackberrys running on EDGE, but it’ll probably suck b/c EDGE networks are just too slow.

Head to the beta site for more info and downloads.

Motorola MOTO Q9c

Gizmo of the Day, Phones / By /

The MOTO Q 9c is a Windows Mobile smartphone that runs on Sprint’s CDMA network. It features a 320×240 LCD screen, much like its main competition, the Blackberry. The MOTO Q uses a curved QWERTY keyboard which works great for your emails and text messaging.

Besides the keyboard, the Q uses a five-way directional pad for menu navigation. You can browse the internet, check emails, text, and perform many more tasks thanks to the versatile Windows Mobile 6 OS. This is a feature-filled smartphone, including GPS, Bluetooth, and a 1.3 megapixel camera. You can watch movies and listen to music thanks to Windows Media Player 10 Mobile. The Q 9c is plenty compact, with dimensions of 2.6in x 0.5in x 4.6in and a weight of 4.8oz. It’s hard to go wrong with a MOTO Q.

Buy Now!

Price: $149.95
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)

Written By Devicepedia

Palm probably announcing new OS, Nova, at CES 2009

CES, Phones, Portable, Software / By /

Palm is set to announce their next generation OS, codenamed Nova, at CES in Las Vegas next month. They’re being a little cagey about the announcement, but all signs point to it happening.

This is a welcome update to Palm’s offerings, with Nova most likely going to be a Linux-based mobile OS, with a focus on Internet and Web applications. Naturally.

I don’t understand why so-called experts want Palm out of the OS business. I think their CEO has it right that having the OS and hardware strongly tied leads to a better product. For now. I’m a big fan of standardization; for example, the PC platform that runs Windows, Linux or Solaris (and now, practically MacOS). But we’re not there yet with smartphones. Android is a good first step in that direction, but it’s not here yet. Over time, Palm will probably switch to making Android work well on their hardware.

I welcome “Palm OS 2.0”. I’m a bit saddened that I may not be able to update my existing Treo to this OS, but excited that there will be a refresh of a cool mobile OS.

Sony Ericsson and Vodafone join Open Handset Alliance

Phones, Portable, Software / By /

Very interesting. 14 mobile phone and chip makers, including Sony Ericsson, & Vodafone Group joined the Open Handset Alliance to support the Android mobile device platform developed by Google Inc.

That means they’re promising to back the Android platform, to make apps, services and even to ensure that the hardware is compatible with Android. Sounds like quite a score for Google.

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