Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

I have to admit that this post is way overdue but better late than never. A full three months after the end of the 2008 CES we would be crazy not to thank our sponsors. Without these three companies we would have gotten nowhere while out in Vegas.

Pentax - We were thankful to be hooked-up with a Pentax K-100D Digital SLR. The pictures were fantastic, storing photos on a SD card made posting extremely convenient, and the zoom lens helped us get some great close-ups even when not up front. Just check out the great photo galleries. Now we are left drooling for the K200D.

Energizer - Energizer? Yup, Energizer. If you learn one lesson after your first trade show, it is that you can never have enough batteries. In the past we have been burned by buying after-market computer batteries but because of the major cost difference between the manufacturer models and OEM models, we continued to search for a high quality solution. This search led me to Energizer and their line of rechargeable computer batteries. Personally I went for the ER-L385X extended battery for my Sony VAIO, and it could not be happier.

Sprint - Last but certainly not least would be Sprint. Without a whole bunch of mobile broadband cards there would have been no way for us to offer our non-stop coverage from up and down the Vegas strip. I think we may have had every single card, all EVDO Rev. A from the Sierra Wireless ExpressCard to the Pantech PCMCIA card.

So, thank you to these sponsors and we hope you, our readers, benefited from them supporting us.

I am doing a bit of head scratching this morning.  CTIA has come and gone, as has CeBit and 3G.  In this post, I’ll go over the 3 phones that are hot on the tail of the iPhone.  But can any of them compare?

First, I think it is essential to boil down the obvious: the iPhone hype is about 3 things.
1. OS.  Fun.  Simple.  Easy.  We like pushing things around with our fingers.
2. Internet.  We do so much online, it is natural to do that everywhere.  The big screen is a huge plus.
3. Sexy.  What makes sexy?  Not sure but Apple has it right now.

Knowing I am but a tech blogger and thus an idiot, let’s see how the phone makers have assessed the competition and how they plan to beat it.

MORE »

Under normal circumstances a Q&A session with a tech CEO is a fairly bland event. Sure sometime you get a Ballmer-esque monkey-boy moment, but usually it’s an opportunity for the CEO to break some news and to get out without looking clueless. This week though we are reminded why a room full of tech-savvy web developers is a very different crowd.

Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook was to appear in what was billed as a keynote but ultimately was a sit down Q&A with Business week reporter Sarah Lacy. Lacy and Zuckerberg have a history together in that she has written a book about Web 2.0 and this newest wave of internet movers and shakers that Zuckerberg is currently riding. It should’ve been a simple session with everyone going home with some more extra information on Facebook and not much else. It wasn’t.

MORE »

First reports on the new ASUS R70a UMPC indicates that it is not exactly a hot UMPC by any means, but it should still get the job done. It is pretty big and bulky machine, but otherwise it has nice features. One of the weird things is that it doesn’t seem to come with a keyboard.

To begin with, it features a 7-inch screen, runs Windows Vista, reportedly has a 120GB hard drive, and sports a 1.6GHz processor - no word on which Intel this is. Unfortunately, no more details have been released about the inside of the R70a. However, on the outside it boasts 2 USB ports, a memory card slot, and a stand to prop it up while watching videos. It bears similar controls to it’s little brother, the R50a. Since it can be mounted onto the car dashboard, it is thought that it comes with GPS capabilities. When ASUS officially announces this, there will probably be more details such as pricing and availability. Stay tuned!

Via [Engadget]

Recently, LG, a large cell phone manufacturer, has come out with a few new phones. However, they only released some information on basically 1 out of the 3 phones, the KF570, which you can see in the above picture. For the second and third phones - the KF240 and the KF300, LG has not released a lot of information on those as of yet.

Let’s begin with what I think is the better of the 2 phones, the KF570. Basically, it comes with 160MB of internal memory, memory expansion via microSD cards, 5-megapixel camera with AutoFocus, unique touchpad design, and a touch screen display. Overall, it is very thin and sports a pretty hot design. If you’re one of those people who care about the look of the phone a lot, then you’ll definitely like this phone as it combines good technical features and well as a nice look. This phone is already up for sale on a Romanian website, however, if you don’t live near there then you’ll probably have to wait for CeBIT for more information on this and the other LG phones. Meanwhile, all that is known on the KF240 phone is that it is a music centric phone.

Via [Boy GeniusReport]

If you are like me, you were hoping to be bowled over by this years fresh crop of phones being unveiled across the Atlantic at the MWC (Mobile World Congress) in Barcelona, Spain.  The biggest question on my mind is this: who is raising the bar?  When the Apple made it clear the rumors of their entry into the phone market were true, many analysts predicted they couldn’t hack this tough road.  Since those predictions, we’ve waited for a response.  Is there anything debuting this year that will make us stand in line for?  Here are the contestants:

MORE »

Navigon is getting ready to unveil their new GPS in the 8000 series, and it comes with a new version of the Navigon MobileNavigator software, which is version 7.

Version 6 of this software was released about 2 years ago, and version 7 will be featuring voice synthesis, and voice recognition, which whill allow you to save address information. The maps will be displayed in a better 3D reality view, and route calculations will be performed much faster.

Screenwise, the Navigon 8110 will be featuring a wide 4.8 inch touch screen, and it is encased in an aluminum design. Additionally, it comes with integrated Bluetooth for hands-free calling, an FM transmitter, a RDS/TMC receiver for live traffic updates, and a built-in car charger. The processor runs at 533MHz, utilises a graphic accelerator, and 128MB of memory.

A list of all the features are as follows:

MORE »

I have the patience of a four year old.  I don’t want to know about things available in six months, I want it now.  OK, really I wanted it five minutes ago, but you get my drift.  CES is all about the future and that is fine, but what about things you can take away now?  Here is my list of cool things I took away:

SimulScribe - I’ve been waffling back and forth on giving this a shot.  This service takes over your voicemail from your carrier and then emails/sms you the transcribed version along with a wav file.  That sounds scary at first, but it is simple and completely reversible, not unlike a vasectomy.  The result is you don’t need to stand there listening to voicemail (which is a complete waste of time).  Instead of playing the message and listening to callers stumble over their ideas, you cut right to the chase and speed-read their message.

MORE »

In cased you missed it, or want to watch it again, here is the video spoof shown during the CES 2008 Bill Gates keynote about his last full day at Microsoft. The production team pulled out an all-star cast for Mr. G, including: Brian Williams, Steve Ballmer, Matthew McConaughey, Robbie Bach, Jay-Z, Bono, Steven Spielberg, George Clooney, Jon Stewart, Kevin Turner, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Al Gore, Ray Ozzie and Craig Mundie.

MORE »

Today during Job’s keynote address, Apple took the wraps off “the world’s thinnest notebook”: the MacBook Air.  Yes, it is real and features a 13.3” wide screen and one of the best keyboards, according to Apple, ever.  They are serious about being thin, only .8” thick.  Check it out here.

iTunes will be renting movies from $2.99 up to $4.99 as predicted.  Apple got all the major studios involved on this one and it is full steam ahead.  Read the nitty-gritty here.

The iPhone gets some new fun like maps with location approximation (looks to be based on triangulation).  Sweet.  Adam Fisher-Cox has the latest over at Appletell.

The iPod touch also gets some love (though we have to pay for it, just like in Vegas).  5 apps (that arguably should have been there from the get-go).

And then there is Apple TV’s Take 2.  The second coming of a good idea, now in better form.  No computer needed to download movies, show photos, DVR functionality looks to be possible and a reduced price of $229.  Check it out in detail here.

Also announced is Apple’s time capsule which combines a hard drive with Airport Express to help us back up.  Nice. Check it our here.

Company page [Apple]