Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Just a quick notice: looks like AT&T is experiencing difficulties with data service nationwide.  Word from on high is “they are working on it”.  Interestingly, five states are immune from the data outage.

AT&T Business Customer Service can be reached at 800-222-0400 or at their site.

Today, Amazon announced that they have bought out the popular digital download site Audible.com. Audible is best known for their wide variety of digital content such as digital audio books, newspapers and magazines, television, radio programs and original programming. Audible boasts over 80,000 media files and is sure to help Amazon on their quest to stand atop the digital model.

“Audible.com offers the best customer experience, the widest content selection and the broadest device compatibility in the industry,” said Steve Kessel, Amazon.com’s senior vice president for worldwide digital media. “Working together, we can introduce more innovations and bring this format to an even wider audience.”

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Asus will be adding to the lineup of Eee products, no longer will it just be limited to the much talked about ultra-portable Eee PC laptop. Asus will begin offering LCD TV’s, a desktop PC and all-in-one style computer similar to the iMac and XPS One.

The LCD TV line is going to enter the larger than 42-inch market and is expected to retail for no higher than $200 more than competing brands. They will “integrate the Linux-based PC functionality of other Eee PC products,” and are looking for a September launch.

The desktop PC will be the E-DT and will initially feature an Intel Celeron processor with later models to use Intel’s Shelton’08 platform with Diamondville processors and the 945GC chipset. The E-DT is expected to retail for $200-$300 and it will ship without a monitor. An April or May launch is expected.

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Meet the nuvifone, Garmin’s latest entry in the phone space.  The slick little unit is touch-screen dependent and packed to the gills with features.  I am not sure what I am more impressed with: the slickness of the nuvifone or Garmin’s gumption to enter a tough market they’ve not had success in before.

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tvCompass is mostly known for their innovative and unique remote controls. This new one, is arguably the most unique so far. Televisions and HDTV’s have become very popular in the past few years and remote controls have struggled to keep up, but this is one that is sure to keep you on top of things, as one of its main features is Wi-Fi, yes that’s right Wi-Fi. When I saw this, I was thinking why would anyone need Wi-Fi on their remote, and I’m still wondering that.

Anyway, you can browse the web while watching TV on it’s 2.2-inch cell phone-like LCD screen. The SR 1500 Digital Media Remote can control up to 24 electronic devices, “hot keys” for real-time information updates. It even boasts a built-in speaker “to hear alerts and play back digital audio.” One more thing to make the Wi-Fi easy for you, is that it comes with a locater so you can walk around trying to find the best Wi-Fi signal. Naturally, this remote probably appeals to many people, except no word on pricing or availability at this time.

Via [Crave]

Nokia has received the FCC approval for the US version of the Nokia N95 with 3G support. We did see this model turn up a while back as a pre-order with a price of $800 and expected ship date of February 15, 2008. Nothing has been mentioned to make that official, but the FCC approval comes as good news as that is the last step before it can hit retail. Hopefully Nokia will have it out soon. The N95 8GB will have support fot 850/1900MHz HSDPA which puts it compatible with AT&T’s 3G and 3.5G networks. In addition it will also feature a 5-megapixel camera with Zeiss optics, 30 fps DVD-quality video recording, internal GPS and 8GB of internal storage.

Via [Boy Genius Report]

Slacker’s Portable radio will begin shipping today, after what seemed like a long wait, it was officially announced back in November. The Portable player was ready to ship during mid-December, but sadly they pushed that back till late January. Today to be exact, and a quick check of the Slacker website shows a now updated page. Slacker was set up at CES and we were able to get a little hands on time, which just made us want one a little more.

If you have not placed your order already, the Slacker Portable player is available in three models, a 15 station (2GB), 25 station(4GB) and 40 station (8GB) model that will retail for $199.99, $249.99 and $299.99 respectively.

Read [Slacker]

eMachines has offered up two new desktop computers that should fit within the budgets of most. The T3642 retails for $349.99 and the T5246 will retail for $429.99, both models are running Windows Vista Home Premium and neither ship with a display.

The T3642 features a 2.6GHz AMD Athlon 64 4000+ processor, 1GB RAM and a 250GB hard drive. The T5246 features a 2.2GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ (Dual Core) processor, 2GB RAM and a 400GB hard drive. Both models also include a 16x SuperMulti drive, 15-in-1 card reader, six USB ports, have 6-channel (5.1) high-definition audio and ship with a keyboard and mouse. The T3642 and T5246 are both currently available.

Read [eMachines]

Western Digital has introduced another line of smaller and lighter portable drives. The My Passport Essential line weighs in at less than 5-ounces and are USB powered, which means no additional power cord to lug around. The My Passport Essential line is currently available in a 160GB, 250GB or 320GB option and pricing will be under $199.99, all come in that “beautiful glossy black finish.”

Read [PR Newswire]

I find it amusing how our phones now have more ways of interacting with them than just buttons. Accelerometers, touchscreens, proximity sensors, all make our experience with our phones a bit more interactive. Now we see the introduction of ShakeSMS, an app developed by a keen user, that employs the accelerometer in the Nokia S60 to interact with the phone. Instead of unlocking the device, then navigating to through menus to read a new text message, the user simply has to shake the device to read the message, and shake it again to close and lock the phone. This app is still being developed and lacks a UI, and is not currently available to the public, but still an innovative way to interact with a device. Check out this video to see the application in action.

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