Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

This isn’t your grandmother’s car anymore. Stuck in traffic and tired of staring at the guy in the car next to you picking his nose?  Well then maybe it’s time to shop for a Chrysler.  Starting in 2009, Chrysler plans to include a new in-dash system called UConnect in all of it’s vehicles.  This technology will allow Bluetooth connectivity, satellite tv, and iPod integration...a veritable rolling hotbed of communication entertainment for consumers. The Internet connection is made possible through 3G cellular connection that allows download speeds of up 800 kilobits per second, and upload speeds of 200 kbps.

Laptops, gaming systems and handheld devices all will now be able to be hooked up and online. Obviously, several safety advocates are not exactly jumping up and down waving their Wii’s in readiness, but, that doesn’t seem to be stopping the engineers at Chrysler.  (And people used to think drinking coffee while you drove was distracting....soon we’ll be brewing it!)

No price is set to date for the UConnect, but one could probably expect a monthly fee to use this option, as with the satellite radio option.

Chrysler plans to roll out their new line including the UConnect in November of 2008. They are hoping it’s going to give them a much needed kick-start with some pretty sorry sales figures as of late. Rival Ford does provide a similar system with their “Sync"… minus the web access. Asked what was able to be downloaded from the web system in the car, Chrysler’s Leung said that anything was fair game. Hold on to your hats boys...it might be quite a ride.

Via [AutoBlog]

Sony Ericsson has officially set into motion all the details about its F305 Motion Gaming phone,.  If the company has its way, soon your city streets and public places will be full of young people pretending to bowl and fish while oblivious to the strange looks from passersby.

The leaked details as seen previously here on Gadgetell are confirmed: compatibility with GSM and EDGE networks, a 2-inch TFT screen, 2-megapixel camera, stereo speakers and 10MB of in-phone memory. Motion-sensor accelerometers allow you to interact with gaming a la Nintendo Wii. Three games are pre-loaded: Bowling, Bass Tournament and Jockey, but 50 more are available via download at the PlayNow service. It hits the streets in certain markets in late summer/early fall; no pricing yet.

Some commenters on tech blogs are making the obvious Wii-mote related jokes about the need for wrist straps so F305’s don’t become accidental projectiles when you’re trying to nail that 7-10 split. Others, however, share my view that being unable to see the phone’s screen while (ahem) going through the motions may make for difficult gameplay. Developers could view this as a challenge; what about shaking the phone? A driving game like the one for the new 3G iPhone, where the handset is the steering wheel?

Read [Sony Ericsson]

Another handset that we can expect to see officially announced at the big Sony Ericsson event on June 17, the F305, which is being touted as their “first Motion Gaming-enabled phone.”

While the gaming features are taking the front seat, the F305 does also offer quad-band GSM with EDGE support, a 2-inch TFT display, 2-megapixel camera, stereo speakers on the back, Bluetooth and an FM radio. The F305 also has a Memory Stick Micro card slot, which is a good thing because there is only 10MB of internal memory.

As for the gaming features, that is obvious from the beginning as the F305 comes with Bowling, Bass Fishing and Jockey pre-loaded. When the phone is in game mode, it will be held to the side (in landscape mode) and will use some Wii like motion controls, as well as the phones buttons which are on the left and right side of the display.

The F305 will be available in polar white or mystic black and expected to be available during Q3 of 2008. Pricing while not officially announced is expected to be on the low side.

Via [se-nse]

Nokia has officially launched its N-Gage mobile games service. The N-Gage allows gamers to try and buy mobile games directly from their Nokia handsets. As we reported last Friday, the N-Gage service supports Nokia handsets that belong to Nokia’s new generation of mobile phones. These handsets include N81, N81 8GB, N82, N95 and N95 8GB.

For its initial offerings, N-Gage is making available various mobile games such as EA Sports’ FIFA08, Brain Challenge and Asphalt 3: Street Rules by Gameloft; World Series of Poker Pro Challenge by Glu Mobile and Hooked on: Creatures of the Deep and System Rush: Evolution by Nokia’s own mobile game publishing arm. Nokia also promised to release more games in the coming days.

Aside from trying and buying games from N-Gage, users can also create Friend List, send and receive private messages and participate in N-Gage’s IM style chat. Prices of games to be featured in N-Gage will range from $9 to $15, but remember you can always try the games first before paying for them.

Read [Nokia]

Nokia has finally launched its N-Gage gaming service with high hopes of revitalizing the ailing mobile gaming market. (And possibly earn a few more bucks?) Although an official announcement will be made on Monday, the N-Gage blog took one step in advance and informed the loyal N-Gage followers who were testing the product during its beta stage, that the N-Gage platform is already opened.

The N-Gage is fully compatible with Nokia’s top mobile phone series – the N95, N81 and N82. With Nokia striking a deal with major cellphone game developers such as Electronic Arts, Gameloft and Glo Mobile they should prove to be successful. Nokia hopes to have around 25-30 games available by mid-2008 and add another 25-30 during the second half of the year.

Can the N-Gage re-ignite the dying flames of mobile phone gaming? That remains to be seen.

Read [N-Gage] Via [I4U]

N-Gage First Access, the testing ground for the pre-release version of the N-Gage application where users can try and buy N-Gage games and provide feedback about them is ending its beta on March 27, 2008. Although there was no word yet on the exact date of the official launch of the final version of N-Gage application, the N-Gage site mentions it will be happening in the next few weeks.

Related to this announcement, the official N-Gage blog has issued some reminders for those who participated in the N-Gage First Access run.

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Apple has conned over a million people to watch its video on last weeks SDK announcement.Ok, maybe “cons” is a bit harsh.  Apples video was up after most of us had already written about it and spilled the beans on what the video held.  But that didn’t stop the 1 million plus see Steve and Co. talk about the SDK for themselves.  Judging from the numbers, the iPhone is still gaining fans.  Check out this graph of what Apple is holding up as excitement for the SDK:

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Let’s face it, most cellphones are now marketed with strange and wonderful features (making calls is barely even mentioned anymore), and the Fly MC100 is no exception. While you may have thought the games on cellphones have not advanced recently, this handset will prove you wrong. It is like no other because it can emulate the old-school consoles to run NES, SNES, Game Boy, and Game Boy Color games. Now Mario, Sonic, Streetfighter, Tetris and Pokemon can be loaded onto the same device that offers you a QVGA display, Yamaha audio chipset, multimedia player, email, 2-megapixel camera, microSD expansion and an FM radio.

Okay I’m not 100% sure whether the emulation of Nintendo games is exactly legal or going to cause copyright infringements but there’s no doubting that the phone looks very charming. It retails for around $270.

Product [Fly-Phone] Via [Mobile Mag]

Nokia’s new N-Gage service has been marred by several delays and, in December 2007, the company formally pushed the launch of the service to the first half of 2008. Now with a pre-launch version, N-Gage First Access, being made available to N81 users through the official N-Gage website, the full version can’t be far off. And just before the launch of the service, the ongoing Game Developers Conference proved to be a great platform for the cellphone maker to shed more light on N-Gage’s new avatar as a standard gaming service for Nokia cellphone which will allow users to download and play quality games on their cellphones.

Read [Gamertell]

Nokia has, after a long delay launched their N-Gage service. The release, being called N-Gage First Access sounds to us a lot like a glorified beta testing group, but if you are one of the lucky few, you can still get excited. The service is currently available just to those with an N81. Once you have the First Access installed you will be able to download and test games as well as buy them and continue to play. In addition to the games Nokia also hopes you will take part in the development, so when something goes wrong you can provide them with feedback. Honestly we have no reason to think you will have issues, but with all the initial delays in getting the service launched, they just seem inevitable. Of course like anything else, someone has found a ‘work around’ to the N81 only limitation, if you have another recent N Series device and are feeling lucky you can check out Symbian-Guru for some more details.

Read [N-Gage] Via [Boy Genius Report]