Mens Plaza

Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio, Portable Video

You’ll have to bear with us on this one folks as the news is a bit muffled crossing the Atlantic, language, and cultural divides, but UK-based Vodafone has reportedly received a restraining order against T-Mobile’s iPhone sales in Germany. Vodafone’s issue is the exclusivity contract with Apple and fee structure within T-Mobile’s subscription offering. What’s odd here is the language of the Dow Jones piece which claims that the Hamburg order, issued Monday is, “prohibiting the German telecommunications giant from selling Apple Inc.’s (AAPL) iPhone in Germany.” That sounds like a full stop (pending appeal) of all iPhone sales in Germany. The Financial Times, however, says that the order “will not disrupt sales” as the Christmas purchases accelerate. Vodafone is framing their argument around customer choice while admitting that it’s the revenue sharing model, and possibility that Nokia or Ericsson follow suit, which has prompted the legal action. At least they’re not sticking their heads in the sand this time.

[Via Appleinsider]

Read — Dow Jones
Read — Deutsche Telekom (translated)
Read — FT

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The Blackberry Pearl 8120 has been spotted on the FCC, with GPS, a standard headhone jack, Stereo A2DP Bluetooth and Wi-Fi (no 3G, however). Could be a great T-Mobile@Home phone for roaming between hotspots and cell towers, seamlessly. [PhoneScoop]

When adults design a laptop for children, it looks like the OLPC or Speak and Spell. When laptops are designed by children they look like the setup above. The PurC PC (Purple Construction Paper PC, my name) was made by an 8-year old girl in the youngster-founded, no-adults-allowed “The Laptop Club”.

Alphanumerics are pegged where function keys are normally situated. Below are the real function keys, like, “kitten, dog, cat, bird, collar, lease, hamster, and design pet.” There’s the unfortunate, “Buy Immediately, shop, order”, too. Corruption starts so young. Too bad Fake Steve Jobs already has a patent on Child-Like-Wonder in Computing Device(s)— he told me the C&Ds are in the mail for the lower 98-percentile of the club, and the other 2% are being taken from their parents to be trained as 5th generation Apple designers. There are 8 more models at The Morning News, so check em out. [CNet via TheMorningNews via BoingBoing]

Filed under: Cellphones

Although Sprint has coughed up some $1 billion over the past few years in order to nix the interference between 2,200 public safety agencies across the US and its iDEN network, it apparently hasn’t done enough. Reportedly, the FCC has warned Sprint that it “could lose access to the signal spectrum used by its Nextel- and Boost Mobile-branded wireless services” if it doesn’t remedy the problem by June of 2008. Supposedly, Sprint is “working hard” to settle the issue, but it’s not wasting any time asking the US Court of Appeals to get involved. The carrier claims that these shut down threats could force it to halt signups of Nextel-branded customers, and furthermore, around three million public-safety workers would purportedly lose service if the FCC did indeed shut down the Nextel network. ‘Course, industry analysts are suggesting that regulators wouldn’t really go through with shutting it down, but if nothing else, this should light a fire under Sprint to expedite the process.

[Via PhoneScoop]

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Filed under: Handhelds

Folks, we’re going to level with you: Nokia’s N810 internet table — the magnetizing, multi-faceted gadget so many of you cats have been waiting for — is officially on store shelves. According to the Finnish company’s reps, the WiFi equipped handheld is now available for your general consumption at such luminous retailers as Best Buy Mobile, CompUSA, Micro Center, and Nokia flagship stoes in New York and Chicago. If you’ll recall, the Linux-based, touchscreen portable runs atop a 400MHz CPU, has 2GB of RAM (upgradable to 10GB), a built-in GPS receiver, a Mozilla-based browser, and a slide-out, full QWERTY keyboard. The silver dream machine is available right now for the suggested retail price of $479.

Update: As our eagle-eyed readers have noticed, the N810 has a 400MHz processor, not 400GHz – as much as we wish it were the other way around.

[Via PhysOrg]

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The amusingly named peripherals manufacturer Thrustmaster has launched the T. Flight Stick X, describing it as the “World’s first PS3 joystick.” This should be welcome news for flight-sim fans —as long as your favorite game doesn’t exclusively utilize the motion sensor, which renders the device useless.

Still, the device has plenty to offer, like rudder and throttle control, airbrake or rapid-fire triggers, a mapping button, easy configuration switching, a slew of programmable buttons and axis, and PC compatibility. It even comes pre-configured for Blazing Angels on the PS3 and Flight Simulator X on the PC. Available for $50. (Product Page via Register Hardware via Wired]

This cute little bomb-shaped piggy bank from Tomy will cough up all its contents if you don’t feed it coins on a regular basis.

January is a battlefield for Japan’s piggy bank market, because people often make saving money one of their New Year resolutions and because children like to put aside the cash gifts their family gives them on New Year’s Day.
Last year, the company launched a popular piggy bank with a screen showing comic characters that grow older according to the amount the user saved. It sold 250,000 in a year.

The bomb bank is Japan-only for now, it seems.

Exploding piggy bank could help Japanese save [Reuters] (Thanks, John!)

Filed under: Laptops

We know what you’re thinking: “Hey, hasn’t BenQ gotten a name change?” Well guess what, cowboy? Not for laptops. In fact, the multi-named, electronics-making creature-thing has just introduced a new model into its Joybook laptop lineup, the R43. The system sports a 14.1-inch “UltraVivid” WXGA display, an Intel 1.8GHz Core 2 Duo CPU, up to 2GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, an SiS Mirage 3+ GPU, and all with WiFi and Bluetooth you could possibly need. Of course — more importantly than specs — the laptop features a stylized, abstract case design guaranteed to make the ladies want you and the men want to be you… or, vice versa. The R43 will be available in China in December, with a rollout in other countries “in the coming months.”

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Tiny and piano black, one of the Sense’s better features is that it might make you look less douche-y than more space-age Bluetooth headsets. The talk dimple is endowed with touch-sensitive magic, plus it has voice alerts for stuff like redialing, rejecting a call, connecting or disconnecting for your phone, etc. The wire ear hook is also detachable for goggle-eyed gabbers. It streets early next year for about $100. [Bluetrek via Pocket Lint]

If you are styling a 16-year old British actress starring on a show called Shameless, please don’t let her out of the house in an outfit that attempts to prove her show title is apt: [Photo: Splash News] This kid…

Although we’ve certainly seen our share of glitz in the Bluetooth headset market, thankfully several manufacturers have realized that the less noticed a headset is, the better — and Bluetrek’s new Sense headset seems as low-key as any. The piano black device features a touch-sensitive talk button, voice alerts for common functions like redialing and pairing, voice dialing, and a detachable thin support wire designed for glasses-wearers. At £49 ($100), it’s not necessarily the deal of the century, but it’ll definitely stack up well against similarly austere headsets when it goes on sale early next year.

[Via Pocket-lint]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

We all know just how slow sloths are, being even the subject of a proverb, but Korean scientists from the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) have managed to recreate a koala bear robot that ought to come in the form factor of a sloth instead. This robot might be slow and tiny, but it sure is big on the amount of technology packed within. Just imagine, poking its belly will startle the koala bear enough for it to wave its legs with its body still laid prone. In addition, it will turn its face in displeasure, in an attempt to see who the culprit was.

This fluffy robotic pet not only shows off emotional reactions to touches and voice, it is also capable of recognizing human faces. So far, it is the most advanced robotic pet made in Korea, although close, but is not up to par with those found in Japan and the US. Unfortunately, kids won’t be able to receive this koala robot for Christmas just yet as there are currently no plans to put it into mass production at the moment, although Kobie will surely be remembered as a pioneer when it comes to producing smarter, friendlier and more pocket-friendly robotic companions for us humans in the future.

According to Sohn Joo-chan, head researcher of ETRI’s Knowledge and Inference Research Team, “When you slap Kobie once, he acts as if he is surprised. But when you keep hitting him, then he begins to show that he is scared and frightened. He can calculate whether you like him or not.” I guess it doesn’t take too much to find that out since hitting something or someone repeatedly shows off your disdain to all. Kobie’s reactions are made possible thanks to its wireless communication function as well as embedded tactile, light, audio and posture sensors within Kobie’s puffy body. Signals received will be sent to a nearby server station that interprets these signals, sending back appropriate orders to Kobie’s body.

Source: Korea Times

Jeff Bezos is about to launch the Kindle e-book reader at a hotel in NYC, and we’re in there blogging live. Here’s a gallery of Bezos plowing through device features. Jump for the play-by-play.

10:23 - Bookmarks last page read automatically. If you want to clear memory space, you delete them off of your Kindle and in 60 seconds you can get them back again. (So, 60-second downloads.) “Disappears so you can enter the author’s world.” The End.

10:18 - Look at the store: your recommendations, national bestseller list. Buy something: scroll with your select wheel, select title, pull up detail page. What you would expect with Amazon.com - cover art, editorial reviews. Print list price $35, Kindle price is $9.99. Click on Buy. Says “thank you for your purchase…you can continue shopping while you are downloading.” GREAT FEATURE: “Purchsed by accident? Cancel this order”

10:15 - Feature run through: font size change; “select” wheel; add highlight, annotation — all saved on server side so you never lose your annotations; dictionary - looks up every word in the line, then you can select each word.

10:05-10:13 - VIDEO: The publishing world rallies around Kindle. Toni Morrison, Neil Gaiman and other luminaries say that they love Amazon and the Kindle. Mostly promotional, but we have captured it in case there’s anything exciting buried in there.

10:03 - There’s a dictionary resident on every Kindle, the 8-lb. Oxford American Dictionary on the 10-oz. Kindle. “With Kindle it’s so friction-free to look up a word, I find my deduction of what that word might mean hasn’t been that accurate.” Wikipedia is the “best encyclopedia in the world;” you can access Wikipedia from the device.

10:00 - Personal documents - Every Kindle has an e-mail address. Attach docs and e-mail them to your device. It’s that simple.

9:57 - 90,000 books - 101 of 112 NYT bestsellers - 9.99 - if you want to do things taht physical books can’t do, why not deliver newspapers. They are delivered while you sleep. WSJ, NYT, Washington Post, and local newspapers too. Local newspapers on Kindle become national newspapers. Time, Fortune, Atlantic Monthly, Slate. And over 300 of the most popular blogs. This is not RSS - it’s pushed to you. Subscribe to the ones you want.

9:55 - “EV-DO, fastest wireless technology, it’s broadband. Highly deployed. Use it while you move around. Everybody knows when you use wireless cell networks, there’s gotta be a data plan, multiyear contract, monthly bill — we didn’t like that either. We built Amazon Whispernet on top of Sprint’s EV-DO network. No data plan, no multiyear contract, no monthly bill — we pay for all of that behind the scenes so you can just read.”

9:52 - “With a PC - you are loading software, shopping from your PC - once you bought and downloaded a book, you use USB cable to sync to device. We didn’t think that was a very good solution. There would be no PC, no software to install. Instead of shopping from your PC, you shop from your device. Store is on your device.”

9:50 Soft rubber back, full-length page turning, comfortable to hold, paper-like display, electronic ink. Recharging is bad, so long battery life. No backlight. (like Sony, Bezos says this is a good thing.)

9:47 - “I have nerd credentials.” (And a big crush on his elementary school teacher Mrs. McInerny.) But can you improve on something as well suited to its task as the book?
1. It has to fade away for the reader, like a book does, “so you can enter the author’s world.”
2. We can never outbook the book. We have to take modern technologies and do new things that the book can’t do.

9:45 - Bezos says why books are the last remaining analog product: The format (glue and paper) fades away, “and what remains are the author’s worlds, the author’s words. I’m a reader.”

9:40 - Bezos on the codex: “Gutenberg would still recognize a modern-day book.”

Though we’ve already posted the rumors and the news, there’s still a lot to know about this mystery disruptor. The dudes behind me think it might have the most impact on publishing since the internet, so stay tuned. [Amazon Kindle Store]

Filed under: Cellphones

So the Samsung A747 for AT&T is finally here, ‘cept it’s not the A747. Instead, the slim clamshell has been appropriately christened the “SLM.” Think of the SLM as a juiced version of the also very thin A717, carrying over the 2 megapixel cam and attractive brushed metal exterior while adding a much larger 96 x 96 external display and support for Napster Mobile — a first for AT&T. Get the SLM beginning November 23 for $150 after a $50 rebate on a two-year contract.

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We just got the official press release on the Amazon Kindle, and it delivers the good news that the Whispernet EV-DO service that lets you surf the web, check your email, and download e-books is totally free. On the flip side, it looks like they’ll be charging per-blog for the RSS reader, with “Wireless delivery of blogs [costing] as little as $0.99 each per month.” Uh, what? Oh, and emails with attachments will be $0.10 each to send. Wilson is currently at the launch event seeing if any new info will drop and to hopefully get some clarification on the blog thing, but you can already order your Kindle now for $399. Check the rest of the presser after the hop.

SEATTLE–November 19, 2007–Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) today introduced
Amazon Kindle, a revolutionary portable reader that wirelessly
downloads books, blogs, magazines and newspapers to a crisp,
high-resolution electronic paper display that looks and reads like
real paper, even in bright sunlight. More than 90,000 books are now
available in the Kindle Store, including 101 of 112 current New York
Times Best Sellers and New Releases, which are $9.99, unless marked
otherwise. Kindle is available starting today for $399 at
http://cts.vresp.com/c/?OutCastCommunication/4d428ae66c/e900644d0d/ed0a6ed189.

“We’ve been working on Kindle for more than three years. Our top
design objective was for Kindle to disappear in your hands–to get out
of the way–so you can enjoy your reading,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com
Founder and CEO. “We also wanted to go beyond the physical book.
Kindle is wireless, so whether you’re lying in bed or riding a train,
you can think of a book, and have it in less than 60 seconds. No
computer is needed–you do your shopping directly from the device.
We’re excited to make Kindle available today.”

Downloads Content Wirelessly, No PC Required, No Hunting for Wi-Fi Hot
Spots
The Kindle wireless delivery system, Amazon Whispernet, uses the same
nationwide high-speed data network (EVDO) as advanced cell phones.
Kindle customers can wirelessly shop the Kindle Store, download or
receive new content–all without a PC, Wi-Fi hot spot, or syncing.

No Monthly Wireless Bills or Commitments
Books can be downloaded in less than a minute and magazines,
newspapers, and blogs are delivered to subscribers automatically.
Amazon pays for the wireless connectivity for Kindle so there are no
monthly wireless bills, data plans, or service commitments for
customers.

Reads Like Paper
Kindle uses a high-resolution display technology called electronic
paper that provides a sharp black and white screen that is as easy to
read as printed paper. The screen works using ink, just like books
and newspapers, but displays the ink particles electronically. It
reflects light like ordinary paper and uses no backlight, eliminating
the eyestrain and glare associated with other electronic displays such
as computer monitors or PDA screens.

Books, Blogs, Magazines and Newspapers
The Kindle Store currently offers more than 90,000 books, as well as
hundreds of newspapers, magazines and blogs. Customers can search,
browse, buy, and download from this wide selection wirelessly from
their Kindle. The same Amazon shopping experience customers are
accustomed to is offered in the Kindle Store, including customer
reviews, personalized recommendations, 1-Click purchasing, and
everyday low prices. Additionally, Kindle customers can download and
read the first chapter of most Kindle books for free.

Kindle customers can select from the most recognized U.S. newspapers,
as well as popular magazines and journals, such as The New York Times,
Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Atlantic Monthly, TIME and
Fortune. The Kindle Store also includes top international newspapers
from France, Germany, and Ireland, including Le Monde, Frankfurter
Allgemeine and The Irish Times. Subscriptions are auto-delivered
wirelessly to Kindle overnight so that the latest edition is waiting
for customers when they wake up. Monthly Kindle newspaper
subscriptions are $5.99 to $14.99 per month, and Kindle magazines are
$1.25 to $3.49 per month. All magazines and newspapers include a free
two-week trial.

The Kindle Store has over 300 blogs on topics ranging from Internet
and technology to culture, lifestyle, and humor, to politics and
opinion. Examples include Slashdot, TechCrunch, BoingBoing, The Onion,
The Huffington Post, and ESPN blogs. Blogs are updated and downloaded
wirelessly throughout the day so Kindle customers can read blogs
whenever and wherever they want. Wireless delivery of blogs costs as
little as $0.99 each per month and also includes a free two-week
trial.

Holds Hundreds of Books in 10.3 Ounces
At 10.3 ounces, Kindle is lighter and thinner than a typical paperback
and fits easily in one hand, yet its built-in memory stores more than
200 titles, and hundreds more with an optional SD memory card.
Additionally, a copy of every book purchased is backed up online on
Amazon.com so that customers have the option to make room for new
titles on their Kindle knowing that Amazon.com is storing their
personal library of purchased content.

Built-In Dictionary and Wikipedia
Kindle has built-in access to The New Oxford American Dictionary,
which contains over 250,000 entries and definitions, so readers can
easily look up the definitions of words within their reading. Kindle
customers also have seamless access to the world’s most exhaustive and
up-to-date encyclopedia, Wikipedia.org, and its collection of over
2,000,000 articles.

Long Battery Life
Customers can leave the Kindle wireless connectivity on and recharge
approximately every other day, or turn wireless off and read for a
week or more before recharging. Kindle fully recharges in two hours.

Search
Kindle has a standard-layout keyboard that makes it possible for users
to search the Kindle Store, their entire library of purchased content,
and Wikipedia.org. Customers simply type in a word or phrase and
Kindle will find every instance.

Annotation and Bookmarks
The Kindle keyboard lets customers add annotations to text, just as
they would write in the margins of a book. Customers can edit, delete
and export these notes, highlight and clip key passages, and bookmark
pages for future use. Additionally, Kindle automatically bookmarks
the last page a customer reads of any content on their Kindle.

Ergonomic Design
Kindle is designed for long-form reading, so it is as easy to hold and
use as a book. Full-length, vertical page-turning buttons are located
on both sides of Kindle, allowing customers to read and turn pages
comfortably from any position. The page-turning buttons are located
on both the right and left sides of Kindle, which allows both left and
right-handed customers to hold, turn pages, and position Kindle with
one hand.

Adjustable Text Size
Kindle has six adjustable font sizes to suit customers’ varying
reading preferences.

Personal Documents
Customers can take their personal documents with them on their Kindle.
Customers and their contacts can e-mail Word documents and pictures
directly to their unique and customizable Kindle e-mail address for
$0.10 each. Kindle supports wireless delivery of unprotected
Microsoft® Word, HTML, TXT, JPEG, GIF, PNG, and BMP files.

Comes Ready To Use
When customers order a Kindle, it arrives from Amazon.com ready to
use. There is no software to load or set up. Customers are
immediately ready to shop, purchase, download and read from Kindle.

Amazon is adding new book, periodical, and blog titles to the Kindle
Store every day. Publishers and authors can submit their content and
make it available to Kindle customers by using Amazon’s new Digital
Text Platform (DTP), a fast and easy self-publishing tool that lets
anyone upload and sell their books in the Kindle Store. Sign up today
for DTP at
http://cts.vresp.com/c/?OutCastCommunication/4d428ae66c/e900644d0d/1640f1bc6d.

Put on your tinfoil hats, because according to the findings of XianLi, one of the members of Hackint0sh, the iPhone spies on you. The evidence in the code shows that the Stocks and Weather applications send your IMEI number—the unique number that identifies your iPhone and is tied to your personal information—to Apple, along with the nature of the information you are looking at:

While there’s no evidence that Apple actually uses this information for any purpose, good or evil, the code shows that every time you try to access detailed information on whatever stock, your IMEI will be sent embedded in the URL. This could be cross-referenced with IP location and the information in Apple or its partner’s databases to gather extremely valuable data for marketing purposes.

But does it really matter that Apple—or any other smartphone or computer manufacturer—could know that you are are looking for the latest news on Google’s stock or the weather in the Maldives?

If confirmed some will scream and others won’t care. After all, Google stores information on your web usage and most people don’t give it a second thought. While this is something that could probably change with the gPhone, as the device’s potential as an advertising platform makes the whole unique identification of users even a sweeter deal, at this point Google data gathering is not necessarily tied to any personal information, so the information is less of a perceived “hazard” to your privacy.

Tying IMEI and browsing information is also different to cookies: When you access a website anonymously and they store a cookie in your browser, this is not tied to any personal information. Moreover, you can delete the cookie in your computer or avoid them using your browser privacy options. The IMEI, however, is a solid unique personal identifier, which makes the whole thing a little bit disturbing. More importantly, there’s no op-out and Apple covers its back with the iPhone’s license, as readers have pointed already in the comments.

Do you think Apple should provide with a privacy option or do you think that, once you agree to the license, it is okay for them to harvest this information? [Hackintosh]

Filed under: Handhelds

Call us crazy, but Gigabyte’s new M704 looks awfully familiar to the U60, but we’ll give the nod to this bugger in the style department. Freshened up with a sleeker, sexier motif, the firm’s latest UMPC packs a 1.2GHz VIA Esther ULV C7 processor, a VX-700 chipset, seven-inch 1,024 x 600 LED-backlit touchscreen, your choice of 40GB / 60GB hard drives, a multicard reader, twin USB 2.0 ports and a VGA output. On top of all that, you’ll also find 802.11b/g WiFi, a Li-ion battery good for around three hours, a slide out QWERTY keyboard and a 1.3-megapixel CMOS camera. As expected, Gigabyte hasn’t bothered to tell us when or where we’ll find this machine on sale, and yeah, the price is still a mystery, too.

[Via I4U News]

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

It’s embarrassing enough to be embroiled in scandal after scandal, particularly if you’re Samsung, whose identity is indelibly linked with that of the proud, South Korean nation (and responsible for 20% of its imports). Now this, photographic evidence of an alleged bribe from Lee Kyung-hoon, a former in-house lawyer for Samsung Electronics, as proof of Samsung’s nefarious efforts to coerce government officials into glossing over past, corporate indiscretions. The 5 million won (about $5,450) bribe disguised as a book was supposedly given to Lee Young-chul, the former Secretary to the South Korean president, Roh Moo-hyun, for Legal Affairs, on January 26, 2004. He gave it back, one month later. The evidence was presented today by the “People’s Action” civil group in the hopes that the government would open an independent counsel to probe the activities of Samsung and its chairman, Lee Kun-hee.

[Via Chosun, thanks Soc Gi]

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Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless

Landing an agreement to create a worldwide mobile broadband standard with the freed up 700MHz band isn’t the only good news going on in the spectrum world, as the FCC has also waived a previous regulation that would require winners of the D block segment to not wholesale more than 50-percent of its capacity. Now, the winner will be able to wholesale up to 100-percent of the capacity so long as it abides by the other guidelines surrounding D block, most notable of which is the provision that requires the victorious bidder to “build out a nationwide wireless network that is good enough to meet public safety specifications for coverage and redundancy.” The move is seen as one that will widen the range of potential bidders and encourage small business participation, and for consumers, it could offer up more competition in the mobile services marketplace. Sounds like a surefire win-win, eh?

[Via RCRNews, image courtesy of toddemslie]
Read - FCC D block waiver [PDF]
Read - Explanation of D block spectrum

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

We ship 50 to 80 percent of the 300k to 400k tons of electronics that actually make it to recycling each year—out of 2 million tons tossed—overseas. The “recycling” part happens when workers in places China, Nigeria and India bust up old gear with hammers, gas burners or their bare hands to pull out metals, glass and “other recyclables,” taking a toxic shower in the process. And the most likely stuff to make its way over there is what’s collected at free drives.

Event sponsors often take the cheapest hired gun they can find and don’t ask questions about what’s going where and how. The “recyclers” then turn around and hawk the wares, handing off what they can’t sell to export brokers. And if they get busted, they just say they were selling secondhand goods to poor countries that need them.

The article-concluding solution propagated by Green Earth hippies actually makes sense: Make companies take back their own goods for recycling. Some companies already do, like Apple and Dell, and it’s the law in eight states. Besides the obvious benefits, the hippies argue it’ll push them to develop products with fewer dangerous chemicals, since the stuff will be back in their hands. It’s better than the hands of underpaid, underprotected workers trying to scratch out a living. [CNN/AP, Flickr]

AT&T wireless CEO Ralph de la Vega mentioning in an interview on Friday that they’d talked to Google about joining the OHA and are “analyzing the situation” might seem like grist for the rumor mill (and headlines), but it probably isn’t news.

Of course AT&T and Google have “talked” about OHA—note the past tense, and that de la Vega hasn’t met with Google himself. Also, neither AT&T nor Verizon will publicly shut out joining—via the WSJ there were similar rumors about Verizon “weighing” the option. But there’s too much against it happening.

Wilson broke down why Sprint and T-Mobile joined and the two largest carriers didn’t. There’s also the wildly conflicting interests, which seem to have gotten still more intense this past week. Sure, AT&T could still buddy up. And so could Microsoft. [Mercury News via Broadband Reports]

Filed under: Handhelds

Although the article doesn’t contain much more information about the Amazon Kindle that we hadn’t seen before, Newsweek’s cover story on the device is the first official confirmation that the device exists. Featuring an interview with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, the article lays down the feature set — $399, 6-inch E-ink screen, no backlight, EV-DO “Whispernet” on Sprint for over the air book purchases — and the company’s vision for digital books replacing “the last bastion of analog.” Books will go for $9.99, and users can even subscribe to newspapers and “select blogs” for monthly fees. Also news is that the Kindle gets 30 hours of battery life, and can fully recharge in only two. One thing’s for sure, this is looking way more compelling a package than previous attempts at the eBook idea.

[Thanks, Alex]

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Filed under: GPS

The predicted bidding war between Garmin and TomTom over a takeover of Tele Atlas has certainly come to fruition, with TomTom all set to go ahead with a $4.2 billion bid taking place on Monday. Garmin stepped back from the brink on Friday, after offering a measly $3.3 billion. Tele Atlas’s management must certainly be happy that the company didn’t jump earlier, because it was only a few months ago that TomTom’s offer was $2.5 billion. Does anyone else get the feeling that these numbers are starting to lose their meaning?

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I’ve carried many USB drives over the last few years. My first was a very boring 128MB Memorex stick. They didn’t really make them fancy back then, it was cool enough to be carrying one at all. Like the rest of my flash drives, it was likely lost or broken. Needless to say, I’ve seen a lot of them. I’m not really sure why, but Mobile Disk P1 from TwinMOS really caught my eye.

I suppose that it’s human nature to be drawn to things that are shiny. I can’t really explain it, but if you see a glint of something out of the corner of your eye, you just instinctively want to look. That’s why people are bound to notice this particular flash drive. It has a mirrored surface, and six multicolored LEDs that light up when it is plugged in.

Just looking at this, you get the impression that there’s more than meets the eye. Unfortunately, the most exciting thing you’ll find is the retractable USB plug. Pricing and availability are not currently known on this product.

Source: Aving

A recent lawsuit involving Verizon and Vonage has been settled, and Vonage has been ordered to pay Verizon $120 million due to patent infringements. The fine imposed on Vonage means they are edging closer to bankruptcy, with debts mounting to the sum of some $250 million prior to the court’s decision, it looks like Vonage may have a tough time remaining in business.

With staff cuts already taking place to remain above board, this may be one cut too many for the firm to deal with. Having said that, as ever, anything could happen. We shall keep you posted on any developments. [Bloomberg via Gadgetell]

The Sega Genesis may well be the greatest gaming platform, ever. Who cares about online gaming, does anything beat a session of Sonic 2? Tec Toy knows the Genesis console rocked, so they are shrinking it and making it kinda pocket sized.

The device, packed with retro gaming orgasmic material, will retail for around $100, but will only be available to those lucky Brazilians. The twenty games that are loaded on will include Alex Kidd, Golden Axe, Ecco and obligatory Sonic titles (among others). It is not all good news though; there is no way to add new titles, $100 is a little steep and you could probably get an emulator to carry out a similar task. What the hell, these novelty devices cannot but help to put a smile on our faces, and a little cheer in our cynical souls. We’ll look past the non-rechargeable 3 x AAA batteries included and dream of all the good times, when we were 3″0′ tall and battling a blue superhero hedgehog through the Green Metropolis. A blue superhero hedgehog…how high were they? [Retro to Go]

Filed under: Storage

We already saw A-DATA unveil what it claimed was the “world’s first” 16GB SDHC card in the Class 6 family, and now Transcend is hitting us all up with a very viable alternative. The card guarantees a minimum write speed of 6MB/second, includes ECC to automatically detect and fix errors and sports a lifetime warranty, too. Not a lot to say beyond that — especially considering the glaring lack of a price or ship date — but we doubt you’ll be waiting too much longer before seeing this on store shelves.

[Via AVing]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Portable Audio, Transportation

Granted, Audi’s Cross Cabriolet Quattro is still a concept for now, but the proposed infotainment setup is quite swanky, indeed. Reportedly, the vehicle would include a Bang & Olufsen sound system that could stream internet radio thanks to its built-in internet link. Additionally, motorists could “judge” the tracks as they were played, enabling the system to “build up a picture of their preferences and offer individual play lists.” The whip also boasts a built-in intercom system with noise cancelling capabilities, and What HiFi even has it that the internet link could be used to fetch map data from Google Earth. In case you couldn’t guess, there’s no definitive launch time frame or an expected price just yet, but there’s no harm in hoping that its infotainment system shows up in a production vehicle sooner rather than later.

[Via What HiFi]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Cellphones

A follow-up to our earlier story regarding Verizon’s patent lawsuit against Vonage: the latter company has lost its appeal against the former, and is now looking at having to pay the full $117.5 million settlement, plus $2.5 million to charity. It’s been a bad few days for Vonage indeed, with the company’s shares dropping 87 percent since IPO, and a tenth of its workforce out of a job. When you’ve hit rock bottom, the only way is up, right?

[Via Slashdot]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Earlier this week, we shared breaking news about Seagate selling 1,800 Trojan-horse-infected Maxtor hard drives at retail. I checked in with the company to learn the details, and see if they busted the perp. The official word:

The internal investigation by the contract manufacturer determined that the virus was accidentally transferred by one of its employees and not a malicious act.

But accident, schmaccident: Seagate is taking some severe prevention measures to keep this from happening again, including extra anti-virus software—and metal detectors. The situation was more widespread than we originally knew, and anyone with a Maxtor Basics drive should probably read on.

Reuters reported that it was a Seagate disk discovered in Taiwan, but the truth is, the Maxtor Basics 3200 (aka PS 3200) is available all over the world, and the infected lot made its way to many regions including China, Russia and the Middle East. Our source confirmed that the problem was discovered internally almost two months ago, and only boiled over last week when the Taiwanese government got mad at China:

In late September, Seagate discovered that a virus had been introduced to one of our retail products from one contract manufacturer. Seagate put an immediate stop to the production line and quarantined the facility until we could confirm that all drives leaving the factory were free of the virus.

People who bought PS 3200s can download a free version of Kaspersky Anti-Virus 7.0 on the Seagate PS3200 support page.

Maxtor explains that the extent of damage of the Chinese-made Trojan-horse was minor:

Investigation…showed it was a threat to gaming passwords only and that a virus scan…would rid the drive—and any system attached to it—of the virus. Also, there have been some references to the virus deleting MP3s. Although it is a minor inaccuracy, this is also incorrect. The original suspicion out of Kaspersky Labs was that MP3s were being deleted by the virus, but tests have since proved that it does not.

As I mentioned, Seagate is claiming that the whole thing was an accident, and wasn’t the deliberate act of someone who really really wanted Chinese gaming passwords. Nevertheless, the company has share with us its new prevention measures, which seem likely to keep the genuinely malicious from pulling off a virtual heist in the future:

• Test software verifies that each PS 3200 unit contains no files in the root directory and no files are hidden in the system files. The PS 3200 product line does not ship with any software.
• The PS 3200 test procedure has been updated to run each unit through three separate anti-virus software applications (Norton, McAfee, and Kaspersky Labs). Previously testing was conducted with one anti-virus application.
• Seagate has strictly limited employees access to the test PCs; all employees must now pass through metal detectors.

Metal detectors sound pretty hardcore, but I for one am satisfied. Hopefully other companies with similar manufacturing vulnerabilities will learn from Seagate’s little misadventure. [Maxtor Basics 3200]

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

The referees at the upcoming Club World Cup in Japan will likely be taking a little less flack from the fans if a ball manages to come dangerously close to slipping into the net, as FIFA is deploying a type of “goal-line” technology that more precisely indicates whether debatable shots really crossed the line. At the heart of the system are four sensors that are placed around the goal and a single microchip within the so-called smart-ball; if the ball does indeed cross over the goal line, an encrypted message is instantly beamed out to a referee’s watch, leaving no doubt as to whether or not a point should be awarded. Apparently, the system will be widely used at the 2010 World Cup if testing proves successful, but unfortunately, this same technology can’t be used to embarrass the multitude of players who will inevitably take a dive in order to draw a card.

[Via AFP / Yahoo, image courtesy of FIFA]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Cellphones

So, first the bad news: T-Mobile and Motorola have confirmed that “some” Sidekick Slides are turning themselves off when the display is opened or closed. Now, the good: they’re doing something about it. Slide sales have been suspended as of this evening while Moto works to identify just what the heck’s going on; meanwhile, existing owners who’ve experienced problems can call T-Mobile or head into a store to “discuss available options.” For what it’s worth, neither of T-Mobile’s other Sidekicks in the current lineup — the LX and the iD — are affected, so Sharp might see a nice little sales spike here as Slide owners look for an alternative. Follow the break for T-Mobile’s full statement.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

• Dealzmodo: Logitech Wireless Music System on sale for $40 at Buy.com [Cnet]
• Fox News erroneously reports Apple bought 8.1% of AMD. [Valleywag]
• Scientists believe they found a way to communicate directly with the brain. [MedGadget]

Combine the sleek stylish form of the Maya Single Chair, a 32-inch television angled for maximum lounging relaxation, a pair of 60W speakers and a sub and you have a setup that most people couldn’t possibly afford. If you are most people, you will be spared the horrors of sticker shock given that little information exists on the Maya, and it appears to be a concept at this point. [StudioAV via T3]

If there was ever a case for embedding your dog with a microchip, this is it. In 2001 Lyn O’Byrne’s dog Rhia was stolen from the vets office where she worked as a nurse. Amazingly enough, last week she received a call from a lost animals line informing her that a dog was found with her contact info stored in a microchip embedded in its neck. Dog and owner were reunited, hugs and kisses all around, technology rules, and all is right with the world. [Wimbeldon Guardian via Spluch]

If you are the type that is captivated by small shiny objects, flashing lights and your own reflection, you will love this TwinMOS USB Drive with its mirrored surface and 6 colorful LED indicators. It also features a 4GB capacity, and a sliding USB connector. No pricing or availability information has been announced. [Aving via Gearfuse]

Edgar Bronfman, the CEO of Warner Music Group, admitted that waging war on consumers was kind of a bonehead idea at the GSMA Mobile Asia Conference. Look, he actually admits to being wrong!

“We used to fool ourselves. We used to think our content was perfect just exactly as it was. We expected our business would remain blissfully unaffected even as the world of interactivity, constant connection and file sharing was exploding. And of course we were wrong. How were we wrong? By standing still or moving at a glacial pace, we inadvertently went to war with consumers by denying them what they wanted and could otherwise find and as a result of course, consumers won.”

Boy, that’s just great, Edgar. Really heartfelt, we’re all impressed. But you know a better way of admitting that starting a way against consumers was wrong? Stop suing your consumers. Jackass. Until that happens, you’re all talk. [MacUser via Slashdot]

The Spin: High demand is causing Zune 80s to run out of stock, says Microsoft.
What People Think: Zune Scene’s source says production is 6 weeks behind schedule, and Ars reports that the Flash Zunes were prioritized so fewer 80GB Zunes were made in the first place.
What I think: Zune 30 FTW at less than $100.
[Ars and Zune Scene]

Fifty-four percent of you fess up to lo-jacking someone else’s Wi-Fi without permission, you free-wheeling bastards. We’re guessing the other 46 percent just didn’t wanna own up to it. [CNET]

Filed under: Gaming

Despite what you’ve been hearing about this fancy, extra “lite” DS Lite coming to town, Nintendo would like to tell you otherwise… sort of. In a response to analyst’s claims that a new system — thinner, with larger screens and on-board storage — was headed out in the near future, the company said that the news was, “Rumour and speculation and we are not commenting further.” Tough talk, right? Well, while that sounds all doom-and-gloom — it’s not quite a denial. If anything, one might conjecture that Nintendo doesn’t want all you holiday shoppers holding off on wallet-bashing purchases in the hope that something newer and / or better is just around the corner. Of course, we could just be speculating.

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