Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

In a very interesting move, the Peek e-mail device added some features last night that make it more of a compelling product in my mind.  In addition to picking this up now for the reduced price of $79.99 from folks like Target, the device can now send text messages to phones.  I am now considering getting this for my tween.

Users can simply input a phone number in the To: field of the device to send a text message.  Also added is the ability to see images like .JPG, .GIF .PNG and BMP.  Not a big deal, but more functionality is a plus.

I’ve been debating this cell phone but can’t believe how much they want to charge for just basic service or the beginning of a family plan.  This device and $20 reoccurring fee for connectivity seems like a pretty good deal.  Since my wife and I are uber-connected at all times, this could work.  Probably not the device’s target market, but hey, a sale’s a sale.

The Peek device comes in Aqua, Grey and Cherry and is now $20 off from $99.

Source [jkOnTheRun]  Purchase [Target]

• Gadgetell Interview: TripIt’s Gregg Brockway
• LG’s hot new touchscreen at AT&T
• Sprint: Plug into widget overload

Check out this one: LG’s Incite.  The 3G world phone has some impressive features as well as an interesting price tag: $199.  The lineup of $199 touchscreen phones in the AT&T stable is getting crowded.  So how is this one different?

The Incite features Windows Mobile 6.1, so it plays well with the MS Office docs, Outlook and the like.  It’s camera is a 3mp jobber and the 3” display has 240x480 QVGA going for it.  A bonus stylus tells you fingers may or may not be the best input device.  As a note, the Samsung Epix also offered a stylus and I found most tasks (save for clicking the close box in the upper left) were easily done with fat fingers.

Interestingly the screen is haptic (a buzzing is made so you can feel when pressing keys) and the onscreen keyboard comes in two varieties: a basic QWERTY keyboard in landscape or a 20 key keyboard in portait.  The switching between the two is automatic based on the devices orientation.

Other bonus features include aGPS, WiFi and Bluetooth; staples for any business user.  Also in there is AT&T’s video share, “the first-ever service in the U.S. that allows users to share live video over wireless devices while participating in a voice call.“  The unit has an SD memory slot that is 16GB card compatible according to the press release but the AT&T site disagrees, saying it can handle 32GB. 

Product page [AT&T]

• Microsoft to offer free virus protection
• Some GPS deals to consider on Black Friday
• Contest: can you be Yahoo’s next CEO?

As a frequent traveler, I am awash in trip confirmations, hotels, and rental car info.  I often forget who I’ve told I am going away and who I’ve not.  TripIt aims to change all that.  By simply forwarding them your confirmation emails, they scan the doc and import in the pertinent information into their system and put it out there for you and anyone you give access to.  Talk about handy.

I’ve been using TripIt for a bit now and must say it works as promised.  It takes email forwarded from sites like Travelocity and Expedia as well as from the airlines directly and travel agents.  Entering in new trips was effortless and the data entered was spot on.  Even when JetBlue changed a flight time on me, I forwarded the email wondering if it would throw their system for a loop; nope, it changed my data just as I hoped.

My contacts could easily find my trip info and when i was on the road, accessing the data was a snap.  I enjoy the service but had some questions.  Luckily, Gregg Brockway, CEO and founder of TripIt was willing to answer my questions.  Gregg comes out of the travel industry and seems to know his stuff.

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Sections: Gadgets / Other, Lifestyle, Transportation, Web, Web Apps, Websites

Sprint is all over the place.  They just lost 1.3 million customers, they’ve got their CEO on television yammering about technology, and now they’ve unveiled this thing.  What is it? 

It is Sprint’s promotion of its mobile broadband service featuring over 30 widgets.  At random intervals, a woman’s voice will say things like, “Feel free to touch it.“  You can listen to music, mess around with some of the widgets just by clicking on them like the cuckoo clock and be inundated with all kinds of information that you don’t need.

It’s actually a pretty cool way to waste a lot of time.  Does this make you or I want Sprint mobile broadband?  Not really.  It does remind me of Jarvis in the “Iron Man” movie.  I think I’ll go watch that.

See it at Sprint via UneasySilence.

• Peek device gets price cut and adds texting
• Gadgetell Interview: TripIt’s Gregg Brockway
• LG’s hot new touchscreen at AT&T

Sections: Communications, Cellular Providers, Web, Websites

Rumors this morning suggest T-Mobile was hoping to spring a fresh white G1 phone for the holidays.  The word is there is a problem with the white paint causing the delay.  The Android phone was launched only in basic black.

Website TMO suggests the white paint is chipping.  Thankfully, the faulty paint was caught by T-Mobile but the delay will push an intro until after Thanksgiving.  This could push the hot phone’s sales downward as Black Friday brings out the masses in a buying mood.

The tipster originally said the white should be in stores by October 22.  We’ve pushed well past that date and now we hear after Thanksgiving.  Surely few are waiting for the white if they desire the G1, but T-Mobile has to wonder how this will hurt them this holiday season.

I like the white option.  And hey, without the iPhone’s cracks, it could be a better deal.

Source: [IntoMobile]

• Contest: can you be Yahoo’s next CEO?
• Walmart will sell iPhone, just not for the holidays
• Ocarina Wars: A challenger appears!

Looking for something that will allow you to have totally portable images for use anywhere?  Check out the new Pico Projector PK-101.  You attach this tiny device (it is smaller and lighter than a mobile phone even!) to either your smart phone (and yes, it works with iPhones too) or media player, and it throws an image onto a nearby screen or white surface.  Pretty cool.  Continued after the break.

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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.  Can you hear the drum beating for Black Friday?  It is getting nuts in here! Here is what caught my eye this week:

Join me as I call out these guys for totally suspicious acts:

• Gadget makers
• Classmates.com
• Bloggers that leak good stuff
• Korean dictionaries.  Yes, I am serious about that one.

Follow the link to hear more.  It is almost guaranteed to brighten your Friday.  Almost.

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The Eee PC has been the most popular net book since it started selling, namely because it was the first, but also because it is damn good at what it does. However a few people have some qualms with it, mainly about the fairly low storage that it offers: 12GB.  I know I could easily fill that in a day and obviously the people at the Japanese company GreenHouse agree with me as they have released some Eee PC hard drive upgrades.
You can now replace your measly 12GB SSD with either the 32GB or 64GB modules which will over quintuple your storage, making the Eee PC a much more attractive option.  The specifications aren’t awful (considering that it is for the Eee PC) with 35MB/s and 15MB/s, but comparing that to a desktop internal hard drive it is poor and even for a laptop it is slow.  What’s it cost to upgrade that Eee?  Keep reading.

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PhoneFusion announced yesterday that their Fusion Voicemail + is coming to the Android platform that will allow users to view their voicemails and listen to them in any order they choose.  This was a big selling point of the original iPhone and now it is coming to the Android platform.

Currently, PhoneFusion offers this software for free to Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, Linux, Palm and Symbian phones via their downloaded application.  PhoneFusion announced the addition of the Android to their compatible platforms at the Under the Radar: Mobility event.  The company says the application will be available before the end of this year.

Find out more about this app.  Click more to follow.

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HTC, along with Russian carrier Scartel have just unveiled the world’s first integrated GSM/WiMAX handset—the HTC Max 4G.  The new handset has taken plenty of design cues from the HTC Touch HD and has a solid feature set.  To begin with, the Max 4G has built-in support for WiMax, and it takes advantage of that support.  When calls are made in-network, they are automatically switched over to the WiMax network and handled as a VoIP call.

Other features of the Max 4G include a 3.8-inch touchscreen display with an 800 x 480 resolution, GPS, WiFi 802.11 b/g, Bluetooth, 8GB of built-in flash memory, an accelerometer, a 5-megapixel camera with a second VGA quality camera on the front, a 3.5mm headphone jack and an FM radio.  Additionally it will be running Windows Mobile 6.1 and powered by a 528 MHz Qualcomm ESM7206A processor.

As of now a release date has not been announced, of course, this one is not destined for the US market anytime soon, so no sense in holding your breath.

Keep reading to check out the full press release…

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