Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Gadgetell Quick Review:

What is it?

The TeleNav Shotgun is the first stand alone GPS unit from TeleNav, known for their on-phone GPS

Pros:

Connected search, superior POI, smart traffic updates,  beautiful screen, Best mounting I’ve seen in some time, future possibilities

Cons:

No ETA, only time to destination and quarterly updates on POI information.

Will I finally find the GPS standalone device for me?  Follow to find out.

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When I say beast I do not mean in looks (like the iPhone), in functionality (like the G1) or low cost (like the Motorola Dyna 8000X).  I’m talking about the height of practicality, a phone designed to suffer the falls, scratches and splashes that your average Joe phone would break merely looking at.  This phone is not about looks, being small, or taking high resolution photos: it is the sort of phone you would expect to see on a building site, or on the top of a mountain.  Let me introduce the Sonim XP3.

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You’ve waited.  You’ve fretted.  You lamented at the news a cargo ship was rerouted back to Asia thanks to paint chipping.  But now, dry the tears from your eyes and head to T-Mobile to pick up the latest phone, in the hottest color: white!  Heck yeah, no longer just representative of the iPod of 2002, no; white is the new black.

Or is it?  Basic black and bronze (ugh) must be selling well, as Peter Chou, HTC CEO says they are ramping up the numbers and expect to move 1 million of this gadgets by year’s end.  Did they pick white just to compete with that other phone?  Or is there something more?

Find out what my source says about white.

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HTC front man, Peter Chou made three interesting comments on Friday.  HTC is surprising just about everyone with the products they put out now under their own brand.  How good are things for HTC?  Check out these almost outlandish statements below:

How would Palm fit into HTC’s master plan?  Follow to find out.

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TiVo is really making a push to have a good holiday season—first by offering better deals at Best Buy and now they have made a mobile website allowing cell phone users to browse TV shows and even schedule recordings. 

Let’s say you’re busy catching the train to come home from work and your favorite show is on, but no one is home to record it for you.  All you would have to do is take out your phone, navigate to m.tivo.com and then schedule a recording for that show.  This website works on any phone, on any network, from any carrier and you don’t even have to own a TiVo to use the site.  If you just want to check out the latest TV shows, you can easily do so on your phone.  Like all mobile websites, they are specifically designed to be viewed on a small screen, so the TiVo mobile site will probably look very nice and not be a strain on your eyes to read. 

Keep reading for more details and the full press release.

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Sections: Video, Content, DVD Players/DVRs, Portable Video, Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Smartphones, Mobile, Web, Websites

We all know the iPhone has become quite popular.  Just look around next time you’re in a place with a lot of people—whether it be a subway, train station, airport, city street or college campus, chances are you’ll see at least one person with an iPhone walking around.  They almost seem to mock those of us who are stuck with Verizon or other carriers that aren’t AT&T (well, until the Storm, that is).  There are actual numbers to prove that the iPhone is popular: mobile ad traffic.

According to AdMob, an ad network for mobile websites and apps, the iPhone is the leader in ad traffic for mobile devices.  It holds 4.1 percent of ad requests for October.  That doesn’t sound like much, but it comes out to 236 million requests in one month.  In July, it was only 28 million requests.  Of those 236 million requests, 62.8 percent were from the U.S.  That’s pretty impressive considering the iPhone is still the number 2 phone in the U.S., behind the Motorola RAZR.  5 percent of the requests came from the UK, with another 8 percent coming from all of Asia.  Continued after the break.

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Sections: Apple, Communications, Cellphones, Mobile, Web

This is where we call out the tech moves that seem odd, out of touch or just plain straight up smokin’ crack.  This week sees posturing, positioning and flat out insanity. 

This close to the holidays, everyone is hoping what is bolted down to the table withstands the storm.  (No, not that Storm). Here is what caught my eye this week:

Crazy texts from AT&T Marketing
Music sold on media
Apple’s lacking 2.2 update
BB Storms underwhelming intro
Touch on HP’s laptop

Follow me into the madness.

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Alltel has joined the ranks of Sprint and AT&T and have added the HTC Touch Pro to its smartphone lineup.  The Touch Pro will set you back $379.99, however there is a $100 mail-in-rebate available, which assuming you get that back, will bring your final cost down to $279.99.  In addition, in order to get that pricing you will also need to sign a 2-year agreement.

As for the specs, the Touch Pro is running Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional with a customized version of the TouchFLO 3D user interface.  Otherwise, the handset has a 2.8-inch VGA touchscreen display, GPS, Wi-Fi, a 3.2-megapixel camera with autofocus and flash, stereo Bluetooth and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard.

The HTC Touch Pro can be purchased directly from the Alltel website, as well as in-store.

Product [Alltel]

• Sprint’s Cyber Monday deals: free Centro and 5 others
• Gadgetell Review: TeleNav Shotgun
• Black Friday deals round-up [updated]

Earlier this week we heard the news of Jerry Yang resigning as CEO of Yahoo, the result of a painfully disappointing year for the company that saw failure after failure.  They have watched their grip on Internet search slip through their fingers and they are in danger of slipping into the worlds of anonymity and the pages of history.  However, things are looking good for Yahoo fans with two positive pieces of news.

One Search

They are both an attempt to fight back at Google’s search domination, both in the mobile phone and PC sectors.  The first is a deal sealed with T-Mobile with the “One Search” button.  Yahoo have been poor at closing deals recently; however, this catch is definitely one that should help them in the future.  T-Mobile has agreed to put the One Search button on their phones, thus allowing users to quickly get to a search engine and helping Yahoo by making it theirs.

Find out what else is in Yahoo’s plans to fight the Google empire after the break.

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Sections: Communications, Cellphones, Web, Websites, Google

It looks like AT&T will soon be getting the S60-powered Nokia E71, of course there will be a slight re-branding—it has been dubbed the Nokia E71x.  Based on the decent reputation that the E71 already has, we can only hope that any changes, and AT&T bloatware will be kept to a minimum.  Currently, as an official announcement has not yet been made, this is still in the rumor stage. That said, these images (above and below) appear to be pretty accurate.  So far the release date is still unknown.  As for the pricing, rumor has it that the E71x will be priced around $150 on a 2-year agreement.

Keep reading to check out another shot of the AT&T branded Nokia E71x…

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