According to Skype’s CEO, mobile versions of Skype for operating systems like Symbian, among others, are being delayed thanks to technical challenges. “When we begun developing the mobile phone version we didn’t realize the number of technical obstacles. It is challenging and is taking much longer than expected,” he added in an interview with the daily. The Windows Mobile version of Skype has been out for a while, but those devices usually require a WiFi connection or some sort of 3G data connection to be of any use. If you try to Skype on EDGE or heaven forbid, GPRS, you’re in for a world of hurt. Also, some of the lower powered CPU devices are having a hard time running the Skype protocol as well, since it was originally designed for PCs and thus used a more CPU-intensive codec. Technical hurdles delay mobile Skype: CEO [Yahoo] → Read More
Looks like Gizmodo got more footage of another raucous party held in honor of a small piece of plastic and some wires. Boom-shaka-laka-ActivSync! Look for friend of CG, Vince, cursing his Vienna sausage at the end. HTC 3125 Launch Party in New York: Enjoy the Decadence [Gizmodo] → Read More
We were wondering when Cingular would step into the mid-range not-a-BlackBerry QWERTY battle royale, and that day is today. The Nokia E62 is now available on the Cingular site for $149.99 with a 2-year contract. This slim smartphone was actually introduced several days ago, but is now shipping, which is nice for those of you who actually want a physical phone. The BlackBerry-esque E62 totes a 320 x 240 screen and runs Symbian’s S60 Smartphone OS, an alternative to Windows Mobile and PalmOS that we don’t see as much in the States as we do in Europe. It also sports EDGE hi-speed wireless, a expansion card slot and Bluetooth. The E62 is aimed directly at the Motorola Q market, and Cingular is selling it with its BlackBerry Connect service, meaning you can have your (BlackBerry) cake and eat it, too. Nokia E62 [Cingular] → Read More
Head on over to Lenovo’s handy idenfication page to figure out if your shiz is going to fizzle all over your pants or not. IBM and Lenovo sold these Sony batteries in systems listed below between February 2005 and September 2006. Customers who bought one of the following systems may have a battery subject to this recall: * ThinkPad R Series (R51e, R52, R60, R60e) * ThinkPad T Series (T43, T43p, T60) * ThinkPad X Series (X60, X60s) Isn’t it amazing what cellphones can do now? Because a dozen people documented what, for all we know, an extremely rare but not impossible occurrence we’ve collectively brought hellfire down upon almost every major laptop manufacturer. Battery recall [IBM] → Read More
This pair of headphones from Philips goes around your neck like a neck cushion (as seen in The Office last night) and have a pair of earbuds that go into your ear. When an appropriate sound effect is fired, the neck “brace” rumbles around and lets you feel the action. The Philips Sonic Vibes do look somewhat weird, and hopefully they designed it well enough not to give you permanent neck damage. These headphones might not work well for games like World of Warcraft, but for first person shooters or more action-oriented games, they might be great. You can pick one up for around £35 or $66. Product Page [Philips via Shiny Shiny] → Read More
Creative has introduced the MuVo 100, a subtle upgrade to the V200. Don’t let the smaller number fool you though, the new addition packs some welcome upgrades. Not only is the V100 smaller than the previous version, it also promises an 18 hour batter life and capacities up to 2GB. It also has a full USB port on the unit. The MuVo V100 is currently only available in Asia, but I suspect we’ll see something similar here by the holidays. Creative MuVo V100: It’s an update [CNET Asia] → Read More
Sorry for posting so much on the Meet-up but we’re trying to figure out the best way to gather invites and let our venue know how many are coming. If you’re in New York on October 13 and want to get free stuff and free booze—and don’t want to dig around the Grand Central Station trash cans to get it—head over to our Mollyguard site which lets you buy “tickets.” The tickets will be used during our lottery, which will include an iPod spa package (I know!), something that will help you sleep better at night, and maybe a laptop or three. How does that sound? Here’s more info and as we get closer I’ll only be posting reminders. Thanks for being so nice and patient. → Read More
, a hands-free Bluetooth in-car or desktop speaker set. The MINIKIT has stereo speakers, voice recognition, and is about as big as a pack of cards, which means you can hop in the car and put your phone down on the seat instead of putting on a dumb headset like King Pompadour of the Bluetooth Tribe. We’ll accept emails until Monday morning at 9am EST, so get cracking. → Read More
Here’s an idea that I would probably use a lot. A group of German students have developed a new Java program that will automatically update to your cell phone every time you enter a particular Bluetooth hotspot. What does it update, you ask? Right now, it’s the menu in the cafeterias at Dresden Technical University. When you walk through the Central Mess Hall, all 15 menus (or just the ones of your choosing) will be updated up to two weeks in advance. They’re calling the hardware Bluebot, and I can imagine this really taking off for advertisers. Think walking down 5th Avenue in New York while advertisements just start popping up on your phone. Edit: When Bluetooth was originally explained to me years ago, this was how it was presented. Being able to go to an airport and having all your flight times automatically coordinated to you. I’d like to see stuff like this realized soon. – Blake Official Site [Bluebot via Textually] → Read More
A portable USB 2.0 hard drive capable of keeping your “tunes”, “vids”, and “hardcore pornography” with you on your treks through Seattle’s finest cafes, the HP Pocket Media Drive is available in both 80 and 120GB models. Both models have that USB 2.0 support we mentioned and can also downgrade itself to work with USB 1.0 devices. Prices for both are $149.99 and $219.99, but come with a black carrying case and feature a stylish black and silver exterior. If you don’t use this for extra storage, you can definitely use it as a backup drive. When you’re begging the gods to “please, please, please let it boot up this time”, $219.99 will seem like peanuts. Press Release [HP via Mobile Whack] → Read More
If you’re too cheap to buy a Sony eReader and too lazy to flip a real book by yourself, there’s the Japanese automatic book reader. All you have to do is plop down your book, set the page turning interval (automatic, or timed at X minutes), and voila, a machine turns the pages so you don’t have to. Of course, your eventual blindness from lack of exercise and diabetes will prevent you from enjoying books of any kind, be it “e” or otherwise, so you may want to move around a little bit instead of being a lazy sack. Three thousand dollars gets you one of these. So we suppose and eReader may be the better solution after all. → Read More
recall this morning, Sony just announced that it’s going to recall batteries that use its Sony-manufacturered lithium ion cells. This spans various companies, including Sony itself, and is the largest recall to dat at somewhere between 7 and 10 million batteries. No list of affected batteries yet, but we’ll update when we get it. Sony announces global battery replacement program [Japan Today] → Read More
<img src="http://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2007/01/WMA playback, FM radio, and USB recharging? It's only $187, and doesn't look like a gigantic squid attached itself to your arm. Best of all, it tells time. Like, a watch. Yeah. That's cool. A new MP3 and radio watch [Akihabara News via Sci Fi Tech] → Read More
I don’t consider myself a GPS expert, but this seems like a pretty bad thing. According to Cornell researchers, all GPS units will be serverely affected in the year 2011 by a dramatic increase in solar flares. Apparently, they have always been extremely succeptable to solar activity, but it hasn’t been a big deal because the sun has been relatively calm since the rise of GPS recievers. In 2011, however, solar activity will rise “due to cyclic changes to the Sun’s magnetic field – a peak period known as the solar maximum.” The researchers are saying that throughout the year, GPS units will simply fail for hours at a time. This could be a serious problem for airplane pilots, Search & Rescue teams, and my dad when he’s trying to find his way to the new Home Depot. Solar flares will disrupt GPS in 2011 [New Scientist] → Read More
Looks like BenQ’s attempt at hitting the Euro-America cellphone market is a dud. BenQ Mobile is closing its doors and laying off 3,000 employees. Apparently the company made no money, burned through initial investments like a cokehead with a year-end bonus, and is now dead. But the problems started almost immediately. BenQ invested €840 million in the mobile phone project only to generate huge losses. In the first quarter of 2006, the company was in the red to the tune of €155 million. And that following a disappointing Christmas season last year. I never had an issue with BenQ phones – most of them were fairly cool – but they never really made it over here and when we asked BenQ reps over and over last year when they’d start selling in the U.S., they just kind of said “Meh?” and went and got another beer. BenQ Bankruptcy Causes Furor [Spiegel] → Read More
Dell announced this morning that it would recall an additional 100,000 faulty laptop batteries. This latest announcement will move the total number of recalled batteries to 4.2 million. Toshiba also announced a recall of 830,000 batteries, made at the request of Sony. The Sony batteries explode due to shards of metal left within the cells. To date, nearly 7 million Sony batteries have been recalled due to the problem. Dell recalls 100,000 more battery packs [Yahoo! News] → Read More
We’ll be closing the voting at 3pm EST today, so vote early and often. Read more about the contest here, but the submitter of the best name will win a T-Mobile Trace. Roar! [poll=2] → Read More
Japanese scientists have developed a new “wearable power suit” that makes you look a lot like a Terminator. The suit is built for nursing homes, where employees would wear them in order to carry patients around. I always thought beds rolled for that purpose, but I guess that’s just not good enough anymore. A combination of portable batteries, micro air pumps and small body sensors help you lift 180 pounds with half the effort it took you, pre-power suit. The only drawback to the current model is the 30-minute battery life, but the engineers behind the suit say that future versions could help the elderly or disabled to walk, rather than simply being carried around by others wearing the suit. New Power Suit Amplifies Human Strength [LiveScience] → Read More
and little else. That said, it appears they’re going to create an Ajax-ified .mac mail with, get this, multiple mailboxes. This is immensely useful and essentially a network-based version of iMail, which I use and love. I was reading a bit in Wired – The Magazine that Parties Like It’s 1999! – about Microsoft and their Live Windows initiative, which is basically Google Apps, and, apparently, OS X web apps. Looks like they’ve got some programming to do. The one thing I loved about .mac, when it worked, was the mailbox and password sync. To have an exact copy of my iMail online would make me a happy little puppy so, again, Apple gets my love. That doesn’t mean I’m going to pay $99 for cut rate hosting, though. Give us .mac Mail with OS X. Why the New .Mac Webmail is Important [TechCrunch] → Read More
So far UMPCs have been fairly silly — they’re small, cute, and useless — but the next generation should be much better. They promise. Intel, for example, is showing off a Yahoo-branded UMPC that includes a Core Solo processor for increased battery life. They’re also expecting embedded GPS and wireless as well as cellular networking through Sierra Wireless and Nokia. I’ve seen a few UMPCs in my day and haven’t been very impressed. Again, I prefer the basic Internet tablet over a fully powered mili PC, but there are some folks out there who need a tiny XP machine in the palm of your hand. I just don’t think the current crop – or this pseudocrop described by Intel – is quite what they’re looking for. Second generation UMPC to debut in H1 2007 [TGDaily via Engadget] → Read More
