Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

A computer that did little but browse the web and do some mundane tasks?  That will never work.  Back in 2000, 3Com (remember them?) came out with the computer for people who didn’t want a full-fledged computer.  The 3Com Ergo Audrey was the device and it never stood a chance.

Take a look at this piece of engineering.  The Audrey had a touch screen, ran its own OS and could sync to Palm Pilots.  It even had an IR keyboard so you could type e-mails or URLs easily. 

Who was the target audience?  Where was this computer intended to go?  Find out more after the break.

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In an effort to expand its device business beyond the borders of just the corporate crowd, The Wall Street Journal just announced that Hewlett Packard is getting ready to release a new smart phone that is also going to be marketed to the “average joe consumer.“  It will be sold by a (yet un-named) mobile carrier in retail stores and will debut in Europe.

The new smartphone will be the latest in the line of HP’s iPaq devices.  The most recent iPaq smartphone, which was geared toward the business crowd, was launched this past June.  The company began selling iPaq-branded devices in 2002, when it acquired Compaq Computer Corp; although earlier iPaqs focused more on businesses and weren’t usually sold in retail stores.  So, they are obviously trying to make a leap into a broader market.

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So we’ve all been there. That rush of panic when we’ve lost (or at least momentarily think we’ve lost) our cell phone.  When our phone contains lots of confidential data like bank info and emails, the panic level tends to rise even more quickly. Now we don’t have to just worry about Joe Finder using up our minutes, but now Joe Finder could access our bank accounts and read all those spicy emails we sent to Suzy at the office, uh-oh. This not even counting in the fact that the money spent on the phone is now down the drain.

Enter your possible savior, the cell phone Superhero! Nope, it’s not some guy sporting a cape and a mask (regardless of their logo), but a new service just launched yesterday in the US and Canada from YouGetItBack.com. Claiming to be able to protect your confidential data and aid in safely returning your gadget, YouGetItBack.com may just be a lost cell phone users new best friend.  The way it works is that once a phone is lost or stolen, subscribers of the downloadable software simply go online and remotely lock their mobile phone. This will prevent anyone else from being able to make calls or access information on the device. Subscribers are also able to retrieve contacts from the phone via the internet.

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HKC has announced two new Pocket PCs, the W1000 and G1000. Both pocket PCs sport dual sim with an added hotkey for accessing stock market information. Business individuals who are always on the go would certainly find any one of these pocket PC’s useful for their needs.

Both W1000 and G1000 feature 2.8-inch QVGA touchscreen with 6.5M color, 256MB ROM and 64MB RAM, Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 for Pocket PC, support for SMS, MMS and EMS, and data storage can be supplemented by microSD cards.

The W1000 runs on 200MHz Qualcomm 6025 CPU while the G1000 runs on 200MHz Dragonfly CPU. One difference between the two pocket PC is that the W1000 works on GPRS, EDGE and CDMA, while the G1000 works only with GPRS and EDGE.

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