Oh! Gizmo

By Andrew Liszewski

LG’s GD910 is probably the first real watch phone to be released by one of the major electronics manufacturers, and while it was shown off at CES earlier this year with news that it would be available later in the year, representatives for the company were mum when it came to pricing info. But finally the mystery of what this marvel of miniaturization will cost was revealed by Orange yesterday with the announcement that the GD910 would be available as of August 6 in France starting at €899 or about $1,270 US dollars with a 12 or 24 month contract.

It’s kind of hard to justify the price when you can get a far more capable iPhone for as low as $99 these days, but on the other hand this is the first true watch phone that doesn’t look like you’ve got some electronic monstrosity strapped to your wrist.

[ Orange - The first 3G watchphone available in France exclusively with Orange ] VIA [ Crave ]

By Chris Scott Barr

I’m really starting to wonder if there’s really any point it signing up for wireless service with a company that isn’t Verizon, AT&T or Sprint. Sure, they might offer some great deals, and you get that wonderful feeling of “fighting the man” by going with the little guy. But the ugly truth is that you’re only delaying the inevitable. It’s just a matter of time before your favorite provider is gobbled up by the big boys.

Sure, I sound a bit cynical, but at the beginning of the year Alltell was acquired by Verizon, and now Sprint has bought Virgin Mobile (who acquired Helio last year). Yes, Sprint did have a 13.1% stake in the company before, but now they proudly own the whole company. So I really do wonder, how much longer before we’re just down to be big 3?

[ Sprint ] VIA [ Cnet ]

By Andrew Liszewski

LG showed off their ‘wearable’ GD910 watchphone at CES earlier this year, but given the choice I would most definitely opt for the thinner S9110 watchphone that Samsung just announced. Now it’s easy to boast that you have the world’s thinnest watchphone when there are really just 2 contenders on the market, but the S9110 looks even more svelte than the Casio Databanks I used to wear as a kid.

The watch features a 1.76-inch touchscreen (176×220 pixel resolution) covered with scratch-resistant glass as well as Bluetooth 2.1, a speakerphone, voice recognition (all rather vital to a watchphone) as well as email with Outlook sync support. It will set you back a whopping $638, though hopefully that will be reduced with carrier subsidies.

[ Samsung Hub - Samsung unveils world’s thinnest watchphone – S9110 ] VIA [ MobileCrunch ]

By Chris Scott Barr

My iPhone can do a lot of awesome things. There’s even an app that turns the screen into a virtual lighter, for when a particularly great song comes on during a concert. What it can’t do is actually light something on fire. In fact, until this Lighter Phone from Seabright came along, I didn’t know of any that could achieve such a feat (unless you count the occasional battery overheating).

This strange little phone has a small slider on the back, which reveals what appears to be a small strip of metal (or coil) that heats up. Stick your cigarette in the hole and light up. This GSM phone might not pack a lot of other features, but if you have a habit of losing lighters, it might just come in handy. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to obtain pricing information from the company website.

[ Seabright ] VIA [ CoolestGadgets ]

By Chris Scott Barr

Here’s a funny story to brighten up your Monday morning. A 15-year-old girl was walking down a sidewalk on Staten Island and fell into an open manhole. While that would normally not make for an amusing story, the girl also happened to be texting at the time, thus she was completely oblivious to the fact that there was a gaping hole in the ground. She didn’t get seriously injured, so we’re all free to laugh a bit.

In the girl’s defense, there weren’t any cones or markers around the hole, which doesn’t look good on the city. The girl fell down 4 or 5 feet into a mostly drained sewer, got a few scrapes and lost a shoe. The family is planning on suing the city for an undisclosed amount due the physical and mental anguish that the girl has endured. No, not the mental anguish for being stupid enough to not look where you’re walking, but the fact that the sewer was “putrid.”

Read the rest of this entry »

By Chris Scott Barr

I honestly can’t remember the number of different cell phone chargers I’ve had over the years. I would imagine that it’s only slightly less than the number of phones I have owned. This is because almost every phone manufacturer has decided to develop their own proprietary connectors. While we’ve started seeing the microUSB port used for charging more lately, several manufacturers have agreed to use the microUSB port as the standard connector for all future phones in the UK.

The companies involved include Apple, Nokia, Samsung, LG, Motorola and RIM, each of which has promised to offer the new standard connector on their phones starting next year. The agreement only includes data-enabled phones, which means that some basic handsets may still be allowed to use a proprietary connector. The biggest question this is going to raise is how this will affect future iPhones. Apple has continued to use the same universal connector as the iPod. Will they continue to support the universal connector while adding a microUSB port, or will they remove it altogether, thus making most iPod docks useless?

Note: We have heard this before, however, now there are more companies on-board. They’re also making this happen two years earlier than previously announced.

[ Reuters ] VIA [ Ubergizmo ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Instead of having to connect your mobile phone and a USB flash drive to a PC in order to transfer files between the two, the Mobidapter lets you do it directly, as long as your phone has an external SD. It includes adapters for full size SD card slots as well as microSD and miniSD, and it will read any USB flash drive with a capacity of 32GB or less. Power is leeched from the cellphone’s battery, and the actual copying procedures are handled by the phone’s file browser, with the device simply showing up as a USB flash drive. (Though that could vary depending on the OS.)

The Mobidapter will set you back about $46, but it seems like a dead easy way to backup or upload multimedia content to your phone without the hassle of booting up a PC.

[ Mobidapter ] VIA [ The Red Ferret Journal ]

By Chris Scott Barr

While yesterday’s support note didn’t specifically call out the Palm Pre by name, it was pretty obvious what they were talking about. Well Palm was listening, so now they have posted a rebuttal, which is below:

Palm’s media sync works with the current version of iTunes. If Apple chooses to disable media sync in a future version of iTunes, it will be a direct blow to their users who will be deprived of a seamless synchronization experience. However, people will have options. They can stay with the iTunes version that works to sync their music on their Pre, they can transfer the music via USB, and there are other third-party applications we could consider.

I really hope that Apple doesn’t go out of their way to specifically block the Pre. Honestly I think it’s in their best interest to leave it alone. After all, media players are dime a dozen, however, Apple only stands to make money off of Pre users if they are able to purchase music from the iTunes store.

[ Wall Street Journal ] VIA [ Cnet ]

By Chris Scott Barr

Remember not that long ago when we let you know that the Pre would be able to sync with iTunes straight out of the box? Well we knew it was only a matter of time before Apple tried to do something about it. While the likely have no legal grounds to take action directly against Palm, they’ve already warned users that the functionality isn’t going to last. They released a support note that stated the following:

Apple is aware that some third-parties claim that their digital media players are able to sync with Apple software. However, Apple does not provide support for, or test for compatibility with, non-Apple digital media players and, because software changes over time, newer versions of Apple’s iTunes software may no longer provide syncing functionality with non-Apple digital media players.

What this means is simply that they know of the Pre’s capabilities, and they’re going to make sure that it won’t work with a future version of iTunes. I love iTunes, and while I also am very happy with my iPhone, I don’t see any reason why those with a Pre shouldn’t be able to enjoy similar compatibility. So here’s my advice: Go to Apple’s site, download the latest version of iTunes. Now save the installation file somewhere safe. Now you’ll always have a version of iTunes that works with your Pre.

[ Apple ] VIA [ GearLog ]