Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

T-Mobile has unveiled the latest model of the Sidekick, once known as the Gekko, it has been dubbed the Sidekick 2008 and is retailing for $149.99 along with a two-year agreement will be available beginning today.

The Sidekick will feature a decent set of specs which include a 2.6-inch 400 x 240 WQVGA display, 2 megapixel camera with video recording capability, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP support and a microSD card slot. The handset also ships with a 512MB memory card. The phone itself measures in at 4.7 x 2.3 x 0.7-inches and weights 5.3-ounces, and as expected it also maintains the standard, easy to use IM, text messaging and email capabilities.

In addition to the nice price, this Sidekick also marks the first to have user customizable shells, which sell for $14.99 each and are available from sidekickshells.com. Keep reading if you would like to check out the full press release, otherwise like previously mentioned it will be available today.

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Among the many large lens photo capturing contraptions listed in TIPA’s (Technical Image Press Association) web page for “The Most Coveted Photo & Imaging Awards in Europe” for 2008, the Nokia N82 is a stand-out. I’ve never known what the criteria for judging is for this thing, but I’m sure they have a pretty strict list of guidelines for it. And so it seems, the Nokia N82 passed all the tests, and won the award for “Best Mobile Imaging Device in Europe 2008.“ I’m sure a lot of SE, Samsung, or LG users would favor their own devices, but it’s hard to question why the Nokia N82 won. Especially taking into consideration that it’s not toting an ordinary LED flash, but a full-blown Xenon one. Its 5-megapixel camera also features a high-speed, f/2.8 autofocus lens, Carl Zeiss Tessar optics, 20x digital zoom and integrated Geotagging. This is helped further by its Symbian Series 60 OS, giving users a slew of things to do with their photos or videos once they are finished capturing them. Congratulations, Nokia! I hope you deliver more phones like these. Fashionable, functional, and award-winning. Surely it isn’t that hard, is it?

Read [Nokia]

• Walmart’s Cyber Monday 2008 video game deals
• Medion launches GoPal P5430
• Nokia’s unlocked N85 now available with Amazon

If you remotely rely on your phone, you know this is the big event of the year for new phones.  Beautiful Barcelona is where all the hot action happens and this year (should be) the year of the touchscreens.  Will we see the industry’s response to the iPhone?  I have no idea, but here are what the contenders are releasing early to get our attention:

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Like the idea or not, TiVo does keep track of just what we are watching on a “second-by-second” basis. With that information, based on approximately 10,000 households they were able to provide us with this great Top 10 list of the most TiVo’d commercials from the big game.

1. E-Trade: “Baby”
2. Pepsi Co: “Justin Timberlake”
3. Doritos: “Mouse Trap” (user-generated)
4. Coca-Cola: “James Carville and Bill Frist”
5. Ice Breakers: “Carmen Electra”
6. Bridgestone: “Headlights”
7. Bud Light: “Cavemen”
8. Vitamin Water: “Horse Race”
9. Cars.com Plan B: “Witch Doctor”
10. Life Water: “Thriller”

Noticeably missing seems to be Toshiba’s HD DVD commercial.  In case you missed any of the commercials you can check them out over on Spike.com.

Read [TiVo]

• Thanksgiving 2008 Mashup: A few (more) of our favorite uses of food in videogames
• TiVo launches TiVo Mobile
• Walmart’s Cyber Monday 2008 video game deals

It looks like 2008 isn’t going to be the most comfortable year for Facebook, as if 2007 wasn’t dramatic enough with some pretty high profile negative news items:

• The Beacon fiasco
• Fake celebrity profiles
• The Scoble squabble over number of online friends

The main problem that Facebook faces, ironically, is that is has rapidly become the social networking site of choice for bloggers, journalists, politicians etc who see MySpace for kids and LinkedIn as too professional. Why could this be bad news? Because “it will be the focus of attention in any story about the impact and evolution of online activity simply because it is the site that MPs and columnists know about.“ So that old PR adage about no PR being bad PR may not be the case anymore then!

Via [BBC]

• Walmart’s Cyber Monday 2008 video game deals
• Thanksgiving 2008 Mashup: A few (more) of our favorite uses of food in videogames
• Social networking sparks more trouble

Sections: Web, Websites

Whether you are heading to CES, planning what to spend your Holiday money or, or just reflecting on what you should be doing with all your current technology, here is 10 resolutions that you may want to consider for 2008. The good news is you don’t have to diet, exercise or become a hermit to achieve them either:

1. Patience is a virtue - with CES and Macworld coming up and rumor after rumor circulating, be patient. Wait until everything has been announced and then make your decisions.
2. Back everything up - with things like Time Machine on the Mac and storage so cheap you really have no excuse.
3. Have fun - not all gadgets have to make you more productive, smarter, contactable etc. It is OK to buy something just to have fun.
4. Try free software - don’t be a brand snob! There is some great free stuff around, give it a go.
5. Shop around - read reviews, ask questions, check out forums. Really you have no excuse for making duff purchases these days.
6. Get connected - build a community, find old friends. Check out the social networking sites - but get addicted to them otherwise 2009 resolution will be to slim down on social networking sites.
7. Use people power - work smart, use the wealth of knowledge and skill that the Internet puts at your finger tips.
8. Safety first - virus protection, security, passwords, you name it you should have it. Make yourself nice and secure and get a good maintenance schedule.
9. Let your gadgets multitask - convergence is back in fashion. Why carry a PDA, camera and a cell phone in 2008?.
10. Cut the cables - embrace Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, get rid of that plastic spaghetti that has been accumulating beneath your desk.

What does the dinosaur have to do with the article? I have no idea, but as we are going to be seeing a LOT of gadgets over the next couple of weeks it makes a change if nothing else!

Via [Telegraph]

• Walmart’s Cyber Monday 2008 video game deals
• Thanksgiving 2008 Mashup: A few (more) of our favorite uses of food in videogames
• Lesser-known Christmas ornaments catering to gamers

We will all have our own views on what will be hot or not in 2008, but this list of 5 areas to look at seems pretty spot on to me:

• The Web To Go - The year for Gears, Air and Silverlight.
• Ultra Mobile PC’s - Building on the Asus EEE, and utilizing flash memory.
• IPTV - With the growth of broadband accessibility and speed expect to see Internet TV grow and grow.
 
• WIMAX - City, or even country wide high speed wireless connectivity.
• Mobile VOIP - Seamless switch between VOIP, landline and cell phone to get the cheapest calls all the time from one hand set.

If 2008 delivered these 5 I would be very happy indeed.

Via [BBC]

• Walmart’s Cyber Monday 2008 video game deals
• Video games not necessarily a money making industry
• Thanksgiving 2008 Mashup: A few (more) of our favorite uses of food in videogames

Sections: Web