Mobile Devices

It looks like the guys over at BGR have yet again unveiled a blackberry handset before RIM. With claims that “this isn’t fake, this isn’t a hoax,” they are showing off the latest BlackBerry handset, its a clamshell style that at least based on the available images has a nice large internal display, an external display, a SureType keypad and a trackball similar to that found on the Pearl. It also does not feature a camera.

A rumored release date has the Kickstart hitting the market sometime before the end of the year. Overall not a bad looking phone, time will tell just how accurate these reports are. Keep reading to check out a few more images…

Via [Boy Genius Report]

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You know, if you’re going to demo your product on video, at least do it properly. To the untrained eye, the clip of Joey Roth using the high-tech teapot, the Sorapot, to make a cuppa seems fine. It certainly shows how the steel, glass and silicone pot works.

But Joey, next time you make tea, talk to somebody from Britain. You don’t pour water from a thermos, however stylish it might be. You need boiling water. Boiling. Not boiled or just “quite hot”, but 100ºC H2O.

I have mixed feelings about the design, too. The Pyrex should be a much better insulator than metal, keeping the tea hot, but the metal bar to lock the pot closed seems fiddly, and when upended to receive the boiling water, the Sorapot looks a little wobbly. And for $180 you could buy 12 classic ceramic teapots. Still, if you’re buying this to stick on a shelf in your bachelor pad, it’s probably perfect.

Product page [Sorapot via Uncrate]

Forget stickers. Real geeks show their commitment with something more permanent: laser engraving. And Jason Fields takes your etching and raises you one QR code. Sure, it’s too big for most little QR readers to handle, and the gray on gray isn’t exactly contrasty, but Jason has squeezed in his “email signature file, postal address, with links to my blog and twitter pages as well”.

Jason’s iphone was engraved free by the Instructables guys, who had an etching machine set up at the Web 2.0 Expo booth. And it seems he might not be the only person to have had the idea. This Flicker page shows another Instructables-provided QR code on an iPhone.

Project page [Oyayubizoku. Thanks, Michael!]

UPDATE: It’s official. Apple has issued a press release detailing the deal: Downloads will be available the same day as DVDs, priced at $15 (catalog titles remain at $10). The full list of studios on board: 20th Century Fox, Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Lionsgate, Image Entertainment and First Look Studios. This week you’ll be able to buy American Gangster and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly concurrent with their DVD releases.

Today, Apple is expected to announce “day-and-date” sales on the iTunes store. Movies will be available to download on the same day as the DVD release. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Apple has deals in place with Fox, Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros, Paramount, Universal, Sony Pictures, Lionsgate and New Line.

The article speculates that offering a simultaneous on-line release for new titles “risks cannibalizing DVD sales”. We see it as a smart move by the movie companies, pre-empting the inevitable decline of the plastic disk distribution model. In the US, at least.

iTunes to sell new films day-and-date [Hollywood Reporter]

Motorola Z9

Once upon a time, phones didn’t have email, browsers, media players, and cameras. Not anymore. Take a look at the phone in your pocket. Chances are, it’s chocked with so many features, it almost need a hit of Adderall to stay on task. So what can manufacturers do to make a device stand out from the pack? Make it smaller, and slather on the features. And that’s what Motorola does with with its fat yet functional Z9.

This slider is slimmer and flatter than an iPhone but about the same heft; so it’s bulky enough to wear through a pocket.  But unlike the iPhone, it slides open noisily to reveal a set of sunken keys marked by tiny, finger-friendly, silver rivets for touch dialing. Buttons on the side provide haptic feedback to ticklishly indicate your button presses. We’re not crazy about the proprietary headset/power connector, but Motorola is no way alone in this sin.

The Z9 effortlessly satisfies the standard phone user, and pleases the rest of us with a couple extra perks. You get your email and IM; you can listen to music from the microSD card or buy some more. Calls are above-average quality (trust us, we’ve been shouting into an iphone for the last year). In addition to 2-megapixel shots and recording video, can also video share—send live video to another 3G AT&T users—which is great for broadcasting scenes from your DIY fight club or natural disasters.

But the star of the show is the GPS. This is no cell-tower GPS Lite that only tells you what block you’re on; this is the real deal, with turn-by-turn directions, live traffic info, access to the AT&T database for points of interest — you know, stuff that’s actually useful. If you don’t want to punch in an address, just call the 877 number and speak it. It can even tell you where the nearest hot spot is. In use, it’s as good as any standalone GPS, but a little quiet. On the downside, you will visibly age while it initializes, and it sometimes miscalculates your direction. These goofs are few and far between though and the Z9 will fix the , it fixes it, and it’s allover OK, setting you back $10 a month or $3 for a day pass.

Anyone who isn’t crazed, geriatric, or off the grid carries a phone for all forms of communication and the occasional pic. But with its compelling extras, the Z9 tilts the balance in its favor to be that one chunk of gizmo wearing a rectangle into your pants.  —Roger Hibbert

WIRED Excellent call quality. Strong GPS capabilities. Lets you transmit (or receive) live video to other 3G AT&T phones. Haptic feedback tickles.

TIRED GPS can be slower than waiting for the Optimus Maximus. Pretty heavy. Proprietary headset/power connector = crap.

$249 (with two-year contract), motorola.com

(Photo by Jim Merithew for Wired.com)

Its been just a few days now since Buy.com listed the Nokia N810 WiMax Edition with a selling price of $455 and its already seen a price cut. The newly lowered price is still based off a list price of $479, but instead of a $23.01 savings, they are now offering a $47.01 savings, which lowers the price down to $436.48.

Of course like we previously mentioned, this is the WiMax Edition and we are still unsure as to when Sprint will roll-out the service, otherwise it still seems to be a good deal at $436.

Product [Buy.com] Via [TabletBlog.com]

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Lenovo today announced the availability of the IdeaPad U110 consumer notebook PC, the star of Lenovo’s IdeaPad entertainment and fashion-oriented notebook collection and winner of three Best-of-Show awards at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show. Enhanced by a frameless screen and weighing less than 2.5 pounds, the 11-inch wide notebook’s infinite-like viewing experience and thin and light frame cater to the highly mobile user, proving style and technology can go hand-in-hand. Equipped with VeriFace Face Recognition, users can quickly and easily log-in without having to remember passwords. Dolby Home Theatre and the MultiMedia Control Center provide excellent sound quality while putting multimedia options at the user’s fingertips. Press release after the jump.
[Source]

I don’t know about you, but somehow many people still equate Asians, especially the Chinese, to be too thrifty for their own good. I suppose it is payback time for Microsoft as they are working on price cuts for its Xbox 360 console in Asia, trimming the recommended retail price by a measly 5% to nearly 20% in a quartet of areas throughout the region. South Korea benefits the least with a 5% cut, while Taiwan’s 20GB model will receive a 17% discount. Singapore benefits the most from this price revision exercise with a 19.5% drop. As for Sony, they took the opposite route in Singapore by raising its 40GB PS3 price to $394. Guess accountants from those two companies are busy trying to predict the impact of these price moves, while Nintendo execs sit back and continue smiling smugly knowing that their Wii and DS will still sell well at the current pricing that has remained unchanged for a fair bit now.

Source: Crave

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It used to be that a man carrying a bag would attract a certain kind of attention. Now, though, I feel naked if I leave the house without my phone, ipod, camera and sundry other bits of kit. I’m still too young to buy internet pants, so man-bag it must be.

Some kinds of bags, though, have always been acceptable. Those are the bags dedicated to carrying kit. Golf bags, fishing bags, bowling bags and gym bags. And the best of all, the camera bag. Here’s a rundown of two real classics, and a rather smart newcomer.

Billingham 550 $500

A British classic, the Billingham 550 is actually an evolution of a fishing bag. Martin Billingham founded the company back in 1973 and discovered that his canvas bags were being used by photographers in New York. A photographer himself, Martin gave up on fish sacks and switched full time to camera bags.

The canvas, leather and brass bags still look traditional, but there are a few innovations under the hood. Rainproof, with a neoprene shoulder pad and nylon covered padding inside, it also comes with two detachable pockets and more can be added. The bag will probably last longer than your camera kit. I have had one for years, but to be honest, it’s a little too heavy and even in smaller sizes, quite bulky and fiddly to open. It’s also expensive, but that could just be the weak dollar.

Product page [Billingham]

Domke F-2 $190

The Domke is perhaps the US equivalent of the Billingham. It’s the default bag for most photographers, probably because it is relatively cheap, tough and easy to use. It’s also understated in a way that the country-estate style of the Billingham could never be.

The whole point of the F-2, according to the maker, Jim Domke, is that it is built to be used and not for just storage:

It was designed so that I could get at my equipment instantly, without having to take the bag from my shoulder

If you have used one, it seems perilously thin at first, but there turns out to be plenty of padding and the thinness means more space for kit. The F-2 has a whopping 12 pockets, and can hold a couple of cameras and enough glass to break your shoulder.

Product page [Tiffen]

Crumpler: The Whickey And Cox $220

To be honest, Crumpler has such a great lineup that I picked this one for the name. It’s in the middle of the range of camera rucksacks and it’ll carry a DSLR with a zoom, plus space for a flashgun a wide-angle lens. There’s also space for a notebook, something you don’t see on older bags because, well, there were no laptops when they were designed. The computer can be up to 15”, and has its own removable sleeve.

The rucksack design means that you can shoot for a day and not go home with a twisted spine. The best part, though, is that it is extremely secure: you lay the bag on its front and the inside opens up. This stops anyone sneaking a hand inside on a crowded metro when it’s on your back. It also means you keep clean: any floor dirt stays on the outside of the bag, away from your clothes. The Whickey and Cox also has a lot of external pockets and straps to stow the rest of your junk, and you can add an optional cellphone holder to the arm strap.

Product page [Crumpler]

There’s one more way to go. Instead of buying a purpose made camera bag, you can get a small padded pouch to protect it and sling it into a regular bag. There are several advantages: no bulky bag when you only need to carry one camera; it can look a lot nicer if you need a bag to match your outfit and it can be more secure. Much like purpose made notebook bags, a camera bag is an obvious target for thieves. Think of the single camera case as the neoprene laptop case of cameras.

Your turn. How do you carry your gear? Answers, as ever, in the comments.