AT&T Wireless announced today their new Spring lineup of Smartphone and Quick Messaging handsets to come out over the next several weeks. Here’s a quick summary of the new handsets which includes two new smartphones – the Nokia E71x and the Samsung Propel Pro and four quick messaging phones – the Samsung Impression, the Samsung Magnet, the LG Xenon, and the LG Neon.

Nokia E71x:

• Thinnest smartphone on the market – 10 mm thin
• Black steel finish
• Symbian S60 platform
• Mail for Exchange and Xpress Mail
• AOL, AIM, Windows Live Messenger, and Yahoo! Messenger
• Full HTML Browser
• Location based services including AT&T Navigator, Yellowpages.com, Where
• 3.2 megapixel camera with auto focus and flash
• Video share
• AT&T mobile music support
• Measures 4.4 x 2.2 x 0.4 inches and weighs 4.4 oz
• 4.5 hour talk time and 12 day standby time
• GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS/HSDPA with 850/900/1800/1900 MHz (GSM/GPRS/EDGE); 850/1900 MHz (UMTS/HSDPA) support
• microSD slot
• 2.4 inch 16 million color, 240 x 320 resolution display
• 2.5 mm UHJ connector
• Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR + Stereo A2DP
• Available shortly for $99.99

Samsung Propel Pro:

• Full QWERTY silver and chrome compact slider smartphone
• Windows Mobile 6.1 OS
• 528 MHz processor
• Joystick navigation system
• Tri-band HSDPA/Quad band EDGE support
• Wi-Fi – 802.11 b/g
• Integrated aGPS
• Stereo Bluetooth (A2DP support)
• 256MB ROM/128MB RAM
• Measures 3.9 x 2.4 x 0.6 inches and weighs 4.83 oz
• 2.55 inch 65K color 320 x 320 display
• Microsoft Direct Push and ActiveSync 4.5 support
• Voice Command dialing
• 3 megapixel camera
• microSD card
• 6.5 hour talk time
• 12 day standby time
• Available in April for $149.99

Samsung Impression:

• First commercially available AMOLED (active-matrix organic light emitting diode) display in the U.S.
• Slim metallic blue device
• Supports AOL, Windows Live, and Yahoo IM
• Mobile Email, AT&T Navigator, CV, AT&T Mobile Music, Video Share support
• 3.0 megapixel camera with camcorder support
• Up to 1 hour of audio and 1 hour of video clips
• 3.2 inch AMOLED touch-screen display (240 x 400)
• Slide-out 4 row QWERTY keyboard
• 3G HSDPA support
• Java support for application download
• Full browser
• Quad band GSM and dual band UMTS
• Measures 4.4 x 2.28 x 0.61 inches and weighs 5.3 oz
• 3 hour charging time
• 3 hour talk time and 250 hour standby time
• microSD card slot
• Bluetooth support
• Available on April 7th for $199.99

Samsung Magnet:

• Slim orange and black bar-shaped handset
• Designed to be a low-cost quick messaging phone
• WAP browser
• Integrated camera
• Available on April 14th

LG Xenon:

• 4 line QWERTY keyboard
• Touch-screen 2.8 inch display with vibration feedback (240 x 400 resolution)
• Internal antenna
• 3G networking support
• 2.0 megapixel camera with camcorder and flash support
• Support for AT&T Navigator, Napster Mobile, eMusic Mobile, XM Radio, etc
• microSD slot
• Built-in music player with support for MP3, WMA, AAC, and AAC+ file formats
• USB Mass Storage support
• Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR
• Mobile email, IM, Text/Picture/Video messaging support
• Quad band GSM
• Dual-band UMTS/HSDPA
• Measures 4.16 x 2.11 x 0.62 inches and weighs 3.81 oz
• 4 hour talk time and 11 day standby time
• Available in three colors – black, blue, and red
• Available on April 8th for $99.99

LG Neon:

• Low-cost touch-screen device
• Full keyboard
• 2.0 megapixel camera
• IM, Mobile Email, AT&T Music, and mobile Internet support
• Available shortly

Read this in Chinese Simplified and in French

Technorati Tags: AT&T Wireless, LG Neon, LG Xenon, Samsung Propel Pro, Samsung Impression, Nokia E71x

Anyone else see the new Kodak “Print and Prosper” campaign on TV? I saw recently (can’t remember if it was this morning or last night but I did in fact see it) and I have to admit – it caught my eye. In this economic climate, it’s incredibly smart of Kodak to go after the cost factor of ink jet printers – the ink itself.  Kodak’s new ad campaign publicly exposes what most of us already knew – we overpay for ink jet printer ink. How else could companies sell inexpensive ink jet printers? They price the printers for cheap and then overcharge on the cartridges (and then force you to buy it directly from them).

According to the company’s press release, consumers overpaid for inkjet printer ink by roughly 5 billion dollars in 2008 alone. These numbers are apparently based on 2008 U.S. annual desktop printer ink revenue and average ink savings using a Kodak ESP 3/5/7 or 9 All-In-One printer.  The company has even launched a new website (www.printandprosper.com) that allows consumers to calculate how much they overpaid for printer ink – and of course how much they could potentially save with Kodak. You can check out their lists of print performance and ink value data (separated by countries) here.

Truth is in the past – I simply replaced my cheapo ink jet printer with a new printer instead of buying an outrageously priced cartridge. Of course, I’ve gone color laser.. (plus I don’t print photos at home anymore) so none of this really affects me per se….

[Check  it out]

[Check out the press release]

Technorati Tags: Kodak, Print and Prosper Campaign

DirecTV customers with an Apple iPhone or iPod touch will be happy to hear that the new DVR Scheduler application is now available as a free download at the Apple App Store. With the app installed, DirecTV customers can perform remote scheduling and recording of DirecTV programming on their home DVR via their mobile devices – no matter where they are.

The new app “enhances and evolves” the DirecTV mobile scheduler located at m.directv.com. Features of the new app include:

• Browse the entire programming guide by channel or date/time
• Keyword search option lets you search by actor, title, and description
• Programs can be scheduled up to 14 days in advance
• View detailed program information including air date, duration, and description

[Check it out]

Read this in Chinese Simplified and in French

Technorati Tags: DirecTV DVR Scheduler, Apple iPhone, Apple iPod touch

For anyone that still cares (OK.. I’m sure there’s a lot of you that still do) – next year’s Macworld Expo dates have changed. IDC World Expo announced today that Macworld 2010 will take place from Feb. 9th till Feb 13th – no longer to be held in January when people are just coming back from the holiday break and also attending CES in Vegas. Another shift from the past, Macworld will also include a Saturday (just like CES had a Sat this past year). This provides attendees with a bit more flexibility when it comes to planning and of course traveling. Sessions will take place from Tuesday Feb 9th till Sat. Feb 13th. Now remember – Apple will no longer be attending Macworld so don’t expect some awesome keynote speech from an Apple exec in 2010 .

[Check it out]

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Technorati Tags: Macworld 2010, Apple

Hey folks – how’s everyone doing? Hope the gadget community at large is doing well.I took some time off last week to focus on some work (my real day job that is) as well as to simply get away from writing. Blogging does take a bit out of ya from time to time and March always seems like the month where I disappear off for a bit – only to hopefully come back a tad bit stronger!

So here we are at the end of March and there’s still a ton of stuff for me to do with Krunker. We’ve got several products that are still awaiting our review treatment. I’m still looking for some part-time help (free would be nice). I still have a ton of work to do outside of this AND I’m still working on building up NetbookTech.

One of these days I’ll write about my nightmarish digital music management experience (Never have multiple digital music library apps manage your music simultaneously!). Let’s just say that I’m attempting to restore 200+ GB of digital music as we speak .. (well when I’m home from work that is).

OK.. enough of this boring stuff – let’s see what’s going on in the world at large when it comes to tech ok?

-Felix

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I never would have imagined writing about a surge protector but the Belkin Conserve Energy-Saving 8 Outlet Surge Protector (model BG108000) is certainly one worth writing about. The surge protector comes with a wireless remote that allows you to easily turn off the protector – thereby completely shutting off all electricity to your devices.

Why is this important? Most modern electronic devices still consume some amount of power even though they’re technically “turned off” (typically known as “standby mode” or consuming “standby power”). To truly cut off power to these devices you either need to unplug the device, or shut off the surge protector altogether. Problem with most surge protectors – they’re placed in hidden away places making it hard to turn off the protector. AND hence.. we’ve got the Belkin Conserve Energy-Saving Surge Protector (that’s one long name eh?) with an included remote control making it incredibly easy to turn off devices. The protector comes with two “Always-On” outlets just in case you have devices that need to stay on all the time.

The Belkin 8 outlet surge protector has an MSRP of $49.99. Definitely will have to consider this one.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Belkin Conserve Energy-Saving 8 Outlet Surge Protector

Palm reported their Q3 revenue numbers this afternoon and yes – they had one rough quarter. The company reported a net loss of $98 million dollars (or $0.89 per diluted common share). Total revenue for the third quarter (which ended on Feb 27th for Palm) was $90.6 million dollars. Smartphone sales took a nosedive for Palm as the company reported $77.5 million dollars in smartphone revenue – down 72 percent from the year-ago quarter on sales of 482,000 units (down 42 percent year over year).

These are certainly tough times for Palm. They’re in the midst of rolling to an entire new OS and smartphone platform yet they still have a large inventory of existing smartphone devices to sell. Combine that with abysmal economic climate and customers waiting for the new Pre, it’s really not that surprising to see dismal numbers.

Here’s hoping the new webOS and Palm Pre product line will bring growth back to the company.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Palm third quarter revenue numbers

*drool*…

That’s how I get every time I see a picture of the Lenovo IdeaPad Y650 notebook – the lightest 16 inch notebook in it’s class. I can’t quite pinpoint why I feel that way.. it’s a combination of several things I suppose – from the contrasting color design to the feel of the cover; from the light weight of the system to the insanely large touchpad; from the feel of the keyboard to the built-in speakers.. yes.. all very good things indeed and all witnessed first hand back at CES 2009.

Ok.. so that’s just me.. but what would the folks at PC Mag think? They’ve released a new review of the Y650 and the verdict’s pretty good (although the unit didn’t win an Editor’s Choice award unfortunately). Here’s their verdict:

“The Lenovo IdeaPad Y650 is the lightest 16-inch media center around, but its somewhat high price tag isn’t justified by its parts.”

Pricing is certainly a ding to the system – as well as the use of Intel integrated graphics (tho you can opt for discrete graphics from NVIDIA). Plus – strangely enough the notebook only has two USB ports – that’s way too small a number for a notebook this size. Yet.. if the price comes down a bit, you’ll quickly see me swap my VAIO notebook in favor of this display in a heartbeat.

[Check it out]

Read this in Chinese Simplified and in French

Technorati Tags: Lenovo IdeaPad Y650, PC Magazine Review

Screw the legal problems – let’s keep selling OS X-based PCs!

At least that’s what Psystar appears to be saying by announcing their third OS X based desktop system – the “Open(3) with Mac OS X”. For $599 you get a system with the following specs:

• OS X Leopard 10.5
• 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 processor
• 2GB RAM
• 500GB 7200RPM SATA HDD
• 20x DVD+-RW DL drive
• NVIDIA GeForce 8400GS 256MB single DVI card

Keep in mind you’re buying just the computer itself. You’ll still need a keyboard, mouse, and monitor to complete the entire package – a la Mac mini.

At $599, it’s certainly a better deal than the mini although it lacks the polish, compactness, and sexiness of the mini. Oh yes, there’s also the issue of the “hacked” OS X version that’s running on the box as well as the ever so slight legal conflict that Psystar is currently embroiled in with Apple.

Perhaps the motto here for Psystar should be – buy an Open(3) to help out defense team…

[Check it out via News.com]

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Technorati Tags: Psystar Open(3), OS X, Apple

Wish you could simply purchase an iPhone 3G without committing to anything? Soon you’ll be able to do just that! The Boy Genius Report is reporting that AT&T will begin offering the iPhone 3G at a no-commitment price starting on March 26th. The 8GB iPhone 3G will be priced at $599 while the 16GB will be yours for a mere $699. Apparently there’s a “one per line” limit which makes it seem that you’ll need to have an active AT&T account in order to purchase the handset.. Will friends with AT&T accounts suddenly become popular? Would anyone in their right mind spend $599 for the iPhone 3G 8GB???

[Check it out via News.com]

Read this in Chinese Simplified or French

Technorati Tags: AT&T, Apple iPhone 3G