Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

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.

MORE »

While the whole mobile phone industry is busy with the hype built up by the release of the iPhone 3G, HP has quietly made available its new Windows Mobile smarthphone, the HP iPaQ 910. This smarthphone which has a striking resemblance to a Palm Treo is now available for $499.99 at HP’s website.

Like we said before, the iPaQ 910 is loaded with high-end features including a 2.4-inch touchscreen display, full QWERTY keyboard, HSDPA for connecting to the web at 7.2 Mbps, 3.0-megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, built-in Google Maps and GPS, 128MB of RAM, and a 416 MHz Marvell PXA270 processor.

The iPaQ 910 runs on Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional and is loaded with various Microsoft programs including Office Mobile, Office Outlook Mobile and Internet Explorer Mobile.

Product [HP] Via [IntoMobile]

• Micro Center’s Black Friday 2008 weekend sales
• HP Magic Giveaway: Register for an account now to get a head start
• HP’s Mini 1000 already supporting 3G?

HP has just announced that its latest smartphone, the iPAQ 900 Series Business Manager which has recently got the FCC’s kiss of approval,  will start shipping on June 30. Touted as a Blackberry killer, the iPAQ 900 is a 3G smartphone flashing a stylish, glossy piano-black design. Being a smartphone, the iPAQ 900’s features and functionality suits well with the mobile connectivity and computing needs of business professionals. But of course non-business professionals especially those into smartphones would still find this smartphone a very useful toy.

The iPAQ 900 boasts a full QWERTY keyboard, tri-band UMTS/HSDPA and quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE connectivity, GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a 3-megapixel camera. Plus its running on Windows Mobile 6.1 and it fully supports HP’s Enterprise Mobility Suite.

As for the pricing, HP said that the iPAQ 900’s retail price will vary by country and region, so you better check it out with your local HP distributor.

Via [IntoMobile]

• Micro Center’s Black Friday 2008 weekend sales
• HP Magic Giveaway: Register for an account now to get a head start
• Dell Inspiron Mini 9—now with optional 3G

A new HP iPAQ smartphone has just received the FCC kiss of approval, and we find that might actually be a member of the HP iPAQ 900 smartphone series, to be called HP iPAQ 910 for the AT&T network.

Now while this new smartphone has a slightly intimidating facade, not to mention that it’s colored in an aggressive black, it’s interesting to note that this phone is not just about business. It’s also about the other, equally important things in your life that make you happier, like a built-in GPS system, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Quadband GSM connectivity and support for expandable micro SDHC cards. And take a look at that screen. That’s 2.5 inches of QVGA real estate for you right there, so you can make the most of framing for the built-in 3-megapixel camera.

Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional reinforces this device’s status as a business machine, while a Marvell PXA270 420MHz processor can be found powering it under the hood. As of this time’s writing, this item is not yet available for release yet. So stay tuned for the latest as we update you with info as they become available.

Via [SlashPhone]

• The disruptive spectre of a $99 Wal-Mart iPhone
• Sprint’s Cyber Monday deals: free Centro and 5 others
• RIM announces re-launch of Mobile BlackBerry website

HP has released a device that may seem strange to some at this point, its the iPaq 210, a PDA, just a PDA, it does not have any phone features. While I am sure there is a market for such a primitive sounding device, I have not seen anyone use a standard PDA in a long time.

The iPaq 210 features a 4-inch 480 x 640 display, Marvell PXAA310 CPU clocked at 624Mhz, 128MB of SDRAM, 256MB of Flash ROM, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and has external storage via the SD and CF card slots. The PDA is running Windows Mobile 6 Classic and comes with Windows Mobile Office pre-installed.

Notably and strange to myself the iPaq 210 is missing any phone features and also a camera. It is however currently available and retailing for $450.

Product [HP] Via [Wired Gadget Lab]

• HP Magic Giveaway: Register for an account now to get a head start
• HP’s Mini 1000 already supporting 3G?
• Micro Center’s Black Friday 2008 weekend sales