Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Mobile ESPN will quit training and retire from a hard year of workouts but few games. ESPN has immediately suspend sales of new handsets for the Mobile ESPN service after struggling to build a large enough customer base, even in an area that typically harbors consumer fanatics.

ESPN said it will continue licensing sports-related content to other wireless providers. The company also said it is currently in discussions with other carriers about licensing its Mobile ESPN application. Consumers just didn’t want to buy an ESPN-branded cellphone to get access to ESPN content. Current Mobile ESPN wireless voice and data customers will continue to receive service until at least Dec. 31, ESPN said. Customers who purchased ESPN handsets will receive a full refund when they pay their last bill, the company said.

The announcement will have no impact on Disney Mobile, but I wouldn’t bet on it succeeding much more.

Read [Gizmodo] Read [WSJ]

Ever felt like simulating what life would be like on a shoddy tugboat crossing the Atlantic? No, of course you didn’t...but in-case you want the ‘rocking’ feeling and don’t have the cash or time to hop on the boat well check out the N702is 3G phones in Japan on NTT DoCoMo. They come with a built in screen saver that actually looks like water. Tilt it one way and the ‘water’ shifts. Throw in the meniscus and you’ve got yourself what appears to be a tall drink of water. It simulates water but that isn’t the only thing it does..c’mon did you really think the Japanese phone companies would create a useless product.....? The genius of this screen-saver is that water rises and falls depending on the amount of battery life your phone has. Batter close to the end, your water level will drop like the Bay of Fundy.

read [CrunchGear]

Can we please have a moment of silence for the Motorola RAZR.  Ok enough. Motorola has finally released the successor to the ever popular handset that changed the landscape of teh mobile phone market forever. The MOTOKRZR K1m is only 17 millimeters thin, 44 millimeters wide and wrapped in a metallic gloss finish.  Simple touch sensor music controls (can you say Chocolate) offer a music player for both V CAST Music and mp3 files. The handset also support V Cast video clips and music videos to be played on the 1.9 inch color screen.

The specs round out with a 1.3 megapixel camera with 4x zoom, video capture and playback, expandable microSD memory, Get It Now, EV-DO, Bluetooth, 250 minutes talk time, and 440 hours standby.

MOTOKRZR K1m is available now at www.verizonwireless.com for $199.99 with a new two-year customer agreement.  The phone will be available in stores on October 5 for $199.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate and new two-year customer agreement. 

Read [Verizon] Via [Crunchgear]

It’s official: The price of the Xbox 360’s HD-DVD drive will be $200. The announcement was made at the X06 international press conference in Barcelona, Spain. The external drive will ship mid-November 2006 with a remote and, for a limited time, include and HD-DVD of Peter Jackson’s King Kong. You’d think Microsoft wouldn’t want to give away anything that features a scary giant beast stomping on the l’il guy.

Read [Home Media Retailing]

KVH is shipping their second-generation TracVision A7, a satellite TV system with MSN TV mobile broadband service. The TracVision system mounts on the roof of your vehicle and, using GPS, self-orients the antennae as the car turns. It ships with the circular antenna bubble measuring 5x31x32 in., a KVN DirecTV receiver and a remote.

Besides the standard DirecTV channels and MSN Internet services, you also be able to receive your local TV stations while in your home town and, while anywhere, XM satellite radio. Plan to plunk down $3000 for the kit and $70 per month for mobile broadband access. You’ll also need to buy your own monitors and pay hundreds for the reckless driving tickets you’ll get when you are messaging your friends and downloading porn instead of paying attention to the road.

Read [TechnoRide]

Going on this week in San Diego, CA, is a not-so-secret, exclusive meeting of the digital minds. Hardware, software and miscellaneous gadget companies gather to show off their wears in 6-minute speed-dating style ppresentations at DemoFall (Sep. 26-29). Seventy companies have been selected to show off their goodies including Tribeca Labs, Plugged, Inc., Presto, System One, Genius.com, Void Communications, scanR, 4INFO, Fonpods, 3jam, MobileSphere and Mvox. I bet if you squint and look hard enough, you’ll see some really hard drives.

Read [Demo]

Check out Harmonix.

Read [IGN]

The Samsung t719 has something that many cellphones do not, BlackBerry Connect software enabling users to communicate via BlackBerry’s push-based wireless e-mail and attachment viewing in conjunction with both the BlackBerry Internet Service and BlackBerry Enterprise Server.  The flip phone also has a a compact, QWERTY-like keyboard with word predictive text, making it quicker to type messages, remain organized and stay connected. Additional features supported by BlackBerry Enterprise Server include wireless calendar synchronization, remote address lookup, and advanced security with Triple DES encryption.

The Samsung SGH-t719 is available now for $199.99 after rebates at T-Mobile.

Click on for the full feature list.

Key features of the t719 include:

• Slim, flip design


• BlackBerry Connect
  
  
  • Wireless E-mail Synchronization with up to 5 accounts
  
  
  • Wireless Calendar Synchronization
  
  
• QWERTY-like keyboard with speedy word-predictive text


• Speaker Independent Voice Recognition (SIVR)voice-activated dialing


• Bluetooth® technology


• Built-in 1.3 megapixel, swivel-lens digital camera with multiple resolutions


• Video Player (supports MP4 and 3GP)


• Address Book stores up to 1,000 entries, plus the phone’s SIM card stores an additional 250 entries


• Java™ Support for application download


• GPRS/EDGE high-speed connectivity


• Quad-Band: GSM 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz


• Messaging services: AOL™, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo!™ Instant Messenger*


• HiFi Ringers*


• Speakerphone


• Dimensions: 3.78” x 2.05” x 0.72” (standard battery)


• Weight: 3.5 ounces (standard battery)


• Internal Display: 2.2” diagonal, 176 x 220 Pixel, 262K TFT Color


• External Display: 96 x 96 Pixel, 4 Gray

Are you too antsey to wait til November for the Zune?  Well we’ve got good news for you!  Wal-Mart has just notified us the Zune is now available for pre-order.  The product page states that if you pre-order today, it “should ship on 11/14/2006.” We weren’t expecting this until at least October.  So what are you waiting for?  The product will cost you $249.94 (according to Wal-Mart which conveniently undercuts Apple’s 30GB iPod by 5 cents.  Head on over to the product page and get yourself a Zune!

Read [Wal-Mart]

With all of the Apple iPhone rumors being thrown around lately, lots of people ask us when this thing is coming out.  David Pogue from the New York Times has a guestimate for you: “Probably never.” He goes on to talk about how he remembers back when his friend at Palm was getting into the business - and how much hell they had to go through.

The problem is that when you build a cellphone, the carriers (Verizon, Cingular, etc.) have veto power over EVERY move you make. You have to fight, wheedle, cajole, beg, demo, refine, lather, rinse, repeat…all in hopes that the carriers will accept your design–and stock your phone.

He says, and we agree that Apple would not likely put up with all this bologna (not a direct quote).  Some feel Apple is more likely to become an MVNO provider like Disney, ESPN, ect., but even that’s a stretch for someone that’s used to having all the power in relationships.  They wear the pants - ya know?  So Apple, if you’re listening - just remember that the rumors aren’t gonna stop until an iPhone released… so just get it over with already!  Even Google thinks you have one already!

Read [Pogues Posts]

Other recent rumors on this thread:
Think Secret, Apple Insider, Elektriq