Latest Gadgets, Tablets and Smartphones
Google [GOOG] is holding an event this week on August 12.
Not much is known about the event other than it being related to Google Mobile in that they announce that they are “unveiling a couple of cool new mobile features”.
We’ll keep an eye on the details. It’s only a couple of days away, so there isn’t too much time to wait now. [Read more…]
Dell has finally announced that the Dell Streak will be launching this Friday August 13.
Price wise, it will cost $299.99 when launched which also requires you sign up for a two year contract with AT&T. If you want it off contract then the price is $549.99.
Orders are being taken on August 12 over at the Dell site.
For those who sign up for the pre-sale program, you will get a free second-day shipping upgrade. Also those who pre-order can take advantage of a coupon that allows you to get a Plantronics Bluetooth earpiece for just 99 cents (while stock is available). [Read more…]
Saudi Arabia has allowed the BlackBerry messaging services to continue as normal after if gave a 48 hour dead line to get things put right. It appears that RIM has kept the Saudi regulators happy with Saudi Arabia saying a positive development had happened.
It isn’t clear exactly what was done to keep things alive, although speculation indicates that… “CITC will now be able to monitor communications via messaging services,”. Basically it means that encryption codes have been handed over. [Read more…]
Amazon looks set to be working on a number of devices other than the Kindle to deliver content. The Kindle was built in Lab 126 and that same lab is responsible for new hardware at Amazon. Recently, 80 job postings were made for that particular division which further indicates new hardware could be incoming.
It is expected that the new staff will be working on a number of projects as well as the next generation Kindle which could feature a touchscreen or/and colour screen.
According to people with direct knowledge of the company’s plans, who declined to be identified because they are not authorized to speak publicly about Amazon’s internal workings and unannounced products, Lab 126 has been looking into building other gadgets that it could sell to consumers.
One of those people said building more hardware products would be a means to an end. This person said Amazon wants to make more devices for consumers that would enable simple purchasing of Amazon content including its digital books, music and movie rentals and purchases.
The Notion Ink Adam tablet looked very promising when we first stumbled across it a few months back. The first time we saw it was back in February. Shortly after that we heard it was being delayed, and delayed again. We now hear that it has been delayed till the year end due to problems with investors.
From what we understand, the company has lost investors and has lost money also which is the main reason for the delays.
The sad part about all this is that this particular tablet looks like it could be in with a chance of doing well. It’s innovative, looks good and appears to perform well… but with the delays it’s looking less likely that we will ever see it. [Read more…]
This gadget is called the Battery Boost. It comes from Sprint and is designed to recharge gadgets such as cell phones, Bluetooth headsets, MiFi devices or MP3 players as well as other small gadgets.
The device is quite small in capacity and appears to have been designed for emergency use as it provides about an hours worth of extra juice to make calls on a smartphone.
The Battery Boost is also a micro SD card reader and can be plugged in to a laptop or USB port to both read the microSD card installed, and charge up the internal battery. [Read more…]
It appears that the Google [GOOG] operating system “Android” is now becoming so popular that a virus has been created for it.
The virus was found by the guys at Kaspersky Lab who identified the virus spreading in a text message. The virus is called the Trojan-SMS.AndroidOS.FakePlayer.a and is sent via text message to Android based phones. The message prompts you to install an application which is described as being a 13KB harmless media player app.
If you accept and install you open up your Android OS smartphone which gives the virus the ability to automatically send text messages to premium rate numbers silently in the background. [Read more…]
For those who prefer to use pen and paper rather than a smartphone or tablet, Sharpie has created a unique product called the Liquid Pencil. The Sharpie Liquid Pencil is capable of writing like a pencil but setting like a pen in that when notes are written on regular paper you can erase the contents of the notes. However, if you leave those notes for 24 hours to 3 days, the liquid pencil dries out and is un-erasable.
The Liquid Pencil works by using liquid graphite that sets after a period of time. [Read more…]
Nintendo today confirmed that it has sold 30 million Nintendo Wii’s in the US alone.
This makes the Wii the fastest selling console in the US as it’s the quickest to reach 30 million. The next best console took 15 more months to sell that many units in the US. [Read more…]
Today, the TweetDeck Blog had an announcement that mentioned TweetDeck for Android was almost ready for launch.
This week a public beta will be launched allowing users to test the application and report any bugs back to TweetDeck. It isn’t clear just yet when the final release will arrive, but we suspect that it isn’t too far away now although the final date will obviously be based on how well the public beta does. [Read more…]
Google [GOOG] has made changes to the Contacts tool found in Gmail today. The new Contacts section of Gmail has been made easier to use and integrates more easily with Gmail.
New features added include a bunch of keyboard shortcuts as well as the ability to sort contacts by name and label every field on a contact.
With the number of Android users growing rapidly, the need to have a decent online Contacts manager is becoming more essential. The changes that Google has implemented today aims to give the user more control of Contacts. [Read more…]
We have heard quite a bit from various places about HP’s plans for tablet based devices. It first started off early this year when the HP Slate was mentioned. The device was announced by Microsoft [MSFT] and was set to run a version of Windows 7.
HP then purchased Palm and along with that was webOS. We then heard that the HP Slate was being scrapped in favour of a webOS tablet (possibly called the Hurricane). Android from Google [GOOG] was also mentioned along with plans for another Windows 7 Compact Edition tablet.
The latest we now hear is related to a webOS based tablet from HP. According to Engadget, the webOS based tablet is being launched in the first quarter of 2011, or at least this is what all the staff at HP have been told. [Read more…]
