Gadget Venue

Yesterday a rumour about Steve Ballmer speaking at WWDC 2010 for 7 minutes surfaced from an analyst. Microsoft [MSFT] quickly shot the rumour down saying it was false. So now when we hear things from analyst’s we also have to take it with a pinch of salt, just like this next rumour.

We now hear that Verizon [VZ] will be getting the Apple iPhone in November, just in time for the holiday season. The information comes from Ashok Kumar who said the Verizon iPhone does and will exist. A company called Pegatron will be making the iPhones ready for shipping late this year. We have heard before that 10 million iPhones are being prepared for shipping on the Verizon network, so it’s not a new rumour. [Read more…]

Starting June 6, AT&T [T] will offer a new product called MobileProtect. MobileProtect is basically iPhone Insurance that protects your expensive gadget from damage. The cost of the insurance is $13.99/month and will be made available for purchase through the Apple app store with billing going direct to the card you have on file with Apple [AAPL]. The insurance plan is run by a company called Asurion.

When purchasing a new iPhone you need to opt in to take advantage of the insurance within 30 days of purchase.

The downside of course is that the insurance costs in the region of $168/year to protect your phone which is fairly steep if you ask us. I’d be inclined to just take more care of your phone at that sort of cost. [Read more…]

The Nokia N8 went up on the Vodafone UK store yesterday allowing users to register their interest in the new Nokia smartphone. With Vodafone putting up the details so early we were hoping for an earlier release as we had heard it isn’t due for launch till August.

Pocket-Lint reported today that the date is still “unfortunately” August and August 25 to be exact. It’s unclear why Nokia announced the N8 so early as phones that get leaked or announced months before launch tend to lose the interest of people.

As for technical specs the new N8 has a 12 megapixel camera that can capture HD at 720p. It runs the new Symbian^3 OS and looks to be an impressive phone. [Read more…]

The Motorola DROID Shadow leaked out a few days ago thanks to a Verizon employee using the Verizon staff gym.

From what we read, the Motorola DROID Shadow will launch in July along with another DROID device although which DROID device it is, we don’t know.

The Shadow is an exclusive on the Verizon network although we are unsure if the second DROID device will be also exclusive. [Read more…]

Skype is coming to Google Android smartphones in the near future. Right now, only those on Verizon can download the Android Skype app due to a deal with Skype and Verizon [VZ].

We learn today though that this is changing and that Skype will be launching an Android (and BlackBerry) application that will not be restricted to just Verizon, ie, any carrier in the world can be used. The information comes from a chat that Skattertech had with someone at Skype who said the following…

Skype envisions a world where video plays a larger role in the way we communicate. The next generation innovation involving video calling will not be bound to the computer. We’re seeing a proliferation of video calling shared between all kinds of connected devices. It’s on computers (today 1/3 of all calls on Skype happen via video), televisions (Skype bringing video calls to living rooms via Panasonic, Samsung & LG partnership), and it will eventually be coming to mobile devices too. We’re betting big on video, and we intend to set the bar on mobile video calling, and it’s something we’re going to do this year.

We will be bringing a direct to consumer app to the Android marketplace later this year. This application will be available for all consumers globally to download regardless of carriers. (i.e. similar to how we offer the iPhone app today)

Brianna Reynaud, Skype PR

[Read more…]