At CES we had the Blounge™ , which was nice and spacious. It also provided us the luxury of not having to deal with other media or lack of Internet connectivity. Microsoft provided a much fancier Blounge™ at Macworld, but security wasn’t as tight and some random weirdos managed to sneak in and the general public viewed us like we were wild animals. Thanks to Samsung, we had ourselves a media lounge in which to set up camp during the show. Doug and I enjoyed the simple pleasure of having a room in Samsung’s ginormous booth where we could kick back and crank out some CTIA goodness. The lounge was open to all media, but thankfully not that many knew about it. Samsung Mobile kept us comfortable and well fed throughout the show. Plush office chairs allowed us to cool off our puppies or take a quick cat nap. Every day we were met with various beverages, sandwiches, cookies, chips, fruit and ice cream. Doug really, really liked the ice cream. We didn’t have to bother with Wi-Fi here. Power surges, a fancy HDTV and DVD player were provided as well as having the chance to rub elbows with some other journo’s and bloggers. Others should take note and offer the same thing at other shows. → Read More
Just returned from a meeting with Velocity Mobile. The 103 and 111 are impressive devices in their own right, but what VM wants to do with Windows Mobile is even more impressive. They don’t want to put a top layer over it with something flashy, which others have done and failed at a number of times. I’m excited to see the finalized version in a few weeks when we get the devices in for review. What I can tell you right now is that they’ll eventually have a OS X-like dock that pops up from the bottom whenever you need your list of favorite apps. The current version of the OS is just a hint at what VM has in mind for Windows Mobile. All VM employees have worked with every iteration of WinMo since its inception in one capacity or another. Their goal is to make it less crappy and more user friendly. I hope they succeed because the hardware is pretty nice and I really like the all black finish. → Read More
Here’s something that excites me greatly. It’s a prototype of a tiny projector that fits inside of a cell phone. Jim Hallas of Texas Instruments’ DLP group gave me a brief overview of the chipset and here’s some brief information along with my thoughts; The chipset is ready to go. It’s up to device manufacturers to integrate it into their products. I’d think that we’d see these things popping up pretty soon. The chipset is designed to be very low power but TI can’t comment on how much extra power you’d need because it’ll vary depending on which types of devices are used. In a well lit room, the projected images and videos can be blown up to about the size of an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper. In a darkened room, it can do between 30 and 60 inches. The implications of this type of chipset extend far beyond cell phones. I lustfully imagine a “headless” laptop that projects the screen onto your wall. Very nice. → Read More
Welcome to the Unreasonable Stance, where our own Devin Coldewey takes the minority opinion on a tech matter and defends it with convenient data, spun numbers, fanboyism, and insults until he proves, without a doubt, that those that disagree with him are filthy mouth-breathers. It’s interesting that there is so much noise being made about every revision of every model of every phone out there. Why do we bother? Phones have been the same for years, and they’re perfect. The amount of improvement possible is infinitesimal, especially when compared with the fanfare accompanying every press release. We’ve already reached the pinnacle of engineering and usability with the phones we have, so why bother trying to improve them? → Read More
[Shakes head disapprovingly] → Read More
CrunchGear.com — your most trusted source for political news — brings you the Day Three keynote from the CTIA Wireless 2008 conference. Today’s speakers are the honorable Fred Thompson and the equally-honorable John Edwards. → Read More
Did a little fondling of a prototype device from Qualcomm that’ll be hitting the market soon at under $300. It’s basically a super beefed-up Windows Mobile machine similar in size to the Nokia N810 (and with a QWERTY keyboard to match). The big feature is the 1GHz processor that it’ll have and its ability to play HD movies. Devices like this will be here the second half of this year. Hit the jump for more specs. → Read More
http://blip.tv/scripts/flash/showplayer.swf?enablejs=true&feedurl=http%3A%2F%2Fcrunchgear%2Eblip%2Etv%2Frss&file=http%3A%2F%2Fblip%2Etv%2Frss%2Fflash%2F800411&showplayerpath=http%3A%2F%2Fblip%2Etv%2Fscripts%2Fflash%2Fshowplayer%2Eswf This video is unedited, so my apologies for the inclusion of any unwanted extra footage, but I wanted to get it up ASAP. → Read More
Marco Boerries, EVP Yahoo! I just sat in on a Yahoo! press conference here at CTIA and learned a little more about the company’s plans to integrate its “oneSearch 2.0″ features into mobile phones. The three key elements that Yahoo! is emphasizing are an open development platform, easier ways to search, including voice queries, and idle screen search integration. Sounds like a thrill-ride, yes? Buckle up and let’s get things underway. → Read More
I’m at the AT&T media luncheon listening to the usual shpeal. Reiterating what we already know about AT&T, the US carrier is committed to openness and choice, which is what consumers want more than anything else. Right? I hadn’t anticipated this becoming a live blog so you’ll have to excuse the unruly nature in which this post has turned into. → Read More
In case anyone is wondering what the exact difference between the older u740 from Verizon and the new Alias is I decided to snap some photos of the two versions. Like I said before, the keyboard buttons are just different colors, but I really dig the new silver finish. → Read More
The USB dongle from Sierra that was announced last month is surprisingly sturdy contrary to the opinion of one CG reader. It was being demoed on the MacBook Air and it was really, really tiny. We now know it will be available with Sprint. Price and launch are still up in the air. → Read More
The latest incarnation of the enV is quite nice. The enV2‘s exterior number pad is rather funky, but functional. The QWERTY keyboard is standard and basically a shrunk down version of the Voyager. It’s a cute phone that will most likely appeal to the ladies. → Read More
http://blip.tv/scripts/flash/showplayer.swf?enablejs=true&feedurl=http%3A%2F%2Fcrunchgear%2Eblip%2Etv%2Frss&file=http%3A%2F%2Fblip%2Etv%2Frss%2Fflash%2F800017&showplayerpath=http%3A%2F%2Fblip%2Etv%2Fscripts%2Fflash%2Fshowplayer%2Eswf Yesterday we weren’t able to provide you with video of the Instinct’s Web browser due to an older model without a data plan, but we found one that did and here it is for your viewing pleasure. → Read More
We managed to get our hands on the special edition Iron Man version of the LG Shine and, boy oh boy, is it pretty. The back plate is 18k gooooooooold. I tried to walk away with it, but security tackled me. It happens. → Read More
Hey you guys. I have a bold statement. One that may shock and amaze the entire technology subculture made of blog readers, blog writers, and kids that surf our site looking for references to Miley Cyrus. And here it is. This WiMAX thing might just catch on. Yes, I said it. Can you believe it? It also might be “big” and whatever other buzzwords (like “big”) that the major media conglomerates want to slather across its deliciously fat techno-belly. But I digress. Take a look at the above video for more. → Read More
http://blip.tv/scripts/flash/showplayer.swf?enablejs=true&feedurl=http%3A%2F%2Fcrunchgear%2Eblip%2Etv%2Frss&file=http%3A%2F%2Fblip%2Etv%2Frss%2Fflash%2F798182&showplayerpath=http%3A%2F%2Fblip%2Etv%2Fscripts%2Fflash%2Fshowplayer%2Eswf I won’t lie. I’m not all that impressed with the LG Vu. It’s about as craptacular as the LG Voyager. It’s a little more refined and cleaned up than the Voyager. It’s lightweight, but feels sort of chincy. The haptic touchscreen is nice, though. Maybe I’ll change my mind when we get one in for review. After all, four minutes isn’t enough time to see what the phone can really do, but MediaFLO is rockin’. → Read More
