The Gadget Geek

Nokia Music veep addresses slow Comes with Music sales in the UK

After some rather disheartening (albeit unconfirmed) estimates last week that Nokia’s Comes with Music service had snagged only 23,000 subscribers in the United Kingdom, Rob Taylor, vice president of Nokia Music says that the company is pretty “happy” with what its learned there so far. He admitted that the UK launch (the service’s first) devices — the 5310 Xpress Music and the 8GB N95 — were “slightly out of date” at the time pointing out that the service was doing much better in subsequent markets, which all boast the 5800 as their hero device. Taylor said he also recognized that Nokia needed more retail partners to help move units, and that the company is not “giving up” on the UK as a market for CwM, adding that they’ll be bringing the 5800 there in the future. No word on when that might happen yet — but we’re going to keep out eyes peeled for you.

Filed under: Cellphones

Nokia Music veep addresses slow Comes with Music sales in the UK originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Apr 2009 11:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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KT’s Egg gives your WiFi device access to the wonderful world of WiBro

Korea Telecom really wants to get you on the WiBro tip. The aptly-named (if a wee bit uninspired) Egg is essentially a router for connecting WiFi devices (such as the Nintendo DS or iPod Touch) to the company’s wireless broadband network. According to the Korea Times, both KT and SK Telecom (the country’s two main WiBro operators) have mere 170,000 WiBro customers total, “making a mockery” of its “most wired nation” aspirations — so they can certainly stand to expand their customer base a little bit. Subscribers to the company’s flat-rate data plan will get the device for free (trust us, they’ve paid enough). Or you can pick one up for yourself at the Apple store in Samseong-dong or Myeong-dong, the next time you’re in Seoul. This guy should be hitting the shelves sometime in May for 220,000 (that’s about $163).

[Thanks, Stafford]

Filed under: Peripherals, Wireless

KT’s Egg gives your WiFi device access to the wonderful world of WiBro originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Apr 2009 10:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Philips 42PF9831D LCD TV
Philips 42PF9831D LCD TV
Samsung Announces Its First Android Phone
Nearly six months after the first Google Android mobile operating system powered device made its debut, a second Android phone has been announced. Samsung showed off an Android-based mobile device, the I7500. The I7500, Samsung’s first Android phone, features a 3.2-inch AMOLED screen (ctive matrix organic light emitting diode screen known for its luminosity and lower [...]

New Snow Leopard beta build includes screen recording capabilities, a certain je ne sais quoi

If you’re keeping track of Snow Leopard’s progress, you’ll be pleased to know that a new build (10A335) has been released into the hands of devs (and consequently, the world). Most interestingly, however, is that it seem this new iteration has a handy screen grab feature that hasn’t made an appearance until now — namely, the native ability (under QuickTime) to “record” your on-screen activities. There are other third-party apps that handle this duty, like the classily-named Snapz Pro X, but the inclusion in this latest beta will almost certainly mainstream the function. It should come in handy if you’re constantly trying to tell you parents how to change their network settings, or if you’re thinking about producing your own version of You Suck at Photoshop.

[Via Mac Rumors]

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

New Snow Leopard beta build includes screen recording capabilities, a certain je ne sais quoi originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 25 Apr 2009 17:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MMOs and Online Gaming
MMOs and Online Gaming
Green Box Makes Eating Pizza Environmentally Awesome
The Ninja Turtles can be green in more than one way with this awesome idea of an environmentally friendly pizza box. It’s so simple and brilliant: One half of the box breaks into four squares, which can be used as…
Project M
The long awaited Stile Bertone Mantide Project M supercar made its debut yesterday at the Shanghai Autoshow. The showstopper designed by famed Pininfarina designer Jason Castriota is a sleek, uber futuristic outlook on bespoke automotive engineering. Underneath the hood lies a Corvette ZR1 which if you have ever heard before, …

AT&T CallVantage: fare thee well, we hardly knew ye

CallVantage may have survived being sued by Vonage, but there’s one thing it couldn’t survive — progress. After thrilling us for some time now by magically transmitting people’s “voice” over something called the “internet,” AT&T’s VoIP service will begin weening off customers over the course of this year. Folks will be able to switch to either another AT&T service, transfer to another service provider, or drop off the communications grid altogether — where they will finally have the opportunity to spend their lives in solemn contemplation, with nothing but the babbling brook, the sweet sound of songbirds, and a journal of their thoughts to keep them occupied. The company says that it’s pulling the plug to concentrate on its U-verse voice service, which can only mean one thing: Watson’s got to them. We knew that guy was up to no good.

[Via MobileTechNews]

Filed under: Household, Networking

AT&T CallVantage: fare thee well, we hardly knew ye originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Apr 2009 13:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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V7 Nav740 GPS
V7 Nav740 GPS

MSI debuts Atom N280-equipped Wind U100 PLUS netbook

Frankly, we’re beginning to wonder just how many iterations of the Wind U100 MSI can dish out before it’s forced by riots and a bombardment of Molotov cocktails to come forward with a completely revamped Wind netbook. At any rate, today the company has just unveiled its U100 PLUS, a familiar looking fellow with a 1.66GHz Atom N280 processor, a hamstrung 945GMS chipset, Intel’s GMA950 integrated graphics, up to 2GB of DDR2-533 RAM, a 10-inch LCD (1,024 x 600), 160GB hard drive, 4-in-1 multicard reader, VGA output, three USB 2.0 sockets, an optional 6-cell battery (3-cell is standard), WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR and a 1.3 megapixel webcam. Crazily enough, MSI asserts that users can see upwards of 7 hours of use with the standard battery, which is easily one of the most unbelievable statements we’ve heard in the past 4.32 hours. Per usual, pricing and availability will come in due time.

[Via iTech News]

Continue reading MSI debuts Atom N280-equipped Wind U100 PLUS netbook

Filed under: Laptops

MSI debuts Atom N280-equipped Wind U100 PLUS netbook originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Apr 2009 10:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CES 2009: LG Watch Phone
CES 2009: LG Watch Phone

GamePark Wiz app store coming this summer

We heard murmurings of a possible app store for GamePark’s Wiz open source handheld back when we first laid our hands on it, but now it’s officially on its way. GamePark Holdings’ awesomely-named Game Contents Open Store is now set to open in August, allowing all users to produce and download homebrewed apps and games for the Wiz. The SDK is currently in development, and there aren’t any further details beyond that, but we’ll keep our eyes peeled for you.

Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds

GamePark Wiz app store coming this summer originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Apr 2009 15:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HP Firebird 802 gaming rig gets $500 price drop

Well, it’s only been available for a few short months but HP has already seen fit to give its flagship Firebird 802 gaming desktop a fairly sizable price drop — $500, to be specific. That includes a $150 cut to the $1,799 base price and a $350 instant rebate that brings the price down to a pretty darn reasonable $1,299, questionable keyboards aside. For those that haven’t been pricing gaming rigs lately, that’ll get you a Core 2 Quad 9400 processor, 4GB of RAM, a 500GB hard drive, and dual NVIDIA GeForce 9800S graphics cards (with 512MB of DDR3 memory on each card). Of course, any price drop of this size also invariably bring of the question “why?” and, in the case, the reasons are still a bit hazy. While HP discontinuing the line outright seems to almost certainly be out of the question, a slight revision does seem at least possible, if not necessarily imminent — although, any way you shake it, $500 off is $500 off, so we’re not complaining.

[Thanks, Ali]

Filed under: Desktops, Gaming

HP Firebird 802 gaming rig gets $500 price drop originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 19 Apr 2009 10:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BBC breaks down the new DRM rules for Blu-ray recorders

The reason Blu-ray recorders have migrated from Japan to the UK recently — and why you’ll likely never see them in the U.S. — is all about the copyright holders. Danielle Nagler, head of BBC HD, hit the blogs to break down the wheres and hows of the DRM changes associated with bringing FreeSat disc HD DVRs like the Panasonic DMR-BS850 and Humax FOXSAT-HDR to market, basically meaning users are allowed one HD copy of a show, which can be played back on protected devices and connections only (transfer to portable players is planned to the future.) Follow the flow chart for the details, and figure out if it’d be worth it to make your own BD-R DVR backups so easily.

[Via Pocket-Lint]

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

BBC breaks down the new DRM rules for Blu-ray recorders originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Apr 2009 16:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Vers 2X iPod Speaker System
Vers 2X iPod Speaker System
Car Seat Add-On Protects Your Crack
Today s winner of the award for tortuously squeezing a reference to the poor economy into a press release is Drop Stop. It begins like this: With the continued economic downturn but affordable gas, road travel is the expected mode of…
Vertigo Inducing Kazimir Supermatic
This highly conceptual interior space with spatially graphic planes meeting into floors meeting into ceilings meeting into walls is not for the faint at mind. Kazimira Malevich’s supermatic compositions are prototypes, schemes on which the spectator can define his/her own spacial relationship within the room. Even the shadows cast by …

Dual-SIM phone launches in the US courtesy of… National Geographic

We’d all but forgotten that National Geographic runs a little phone business on the side through a retailer partner, but yeah, it does — and after a couple years of forgettable hardware, things are starting to get interesting. The idea with these guys has always been to offer SIM cards that offer global roaming at a price that has at least a fighting chance of not bankrupting you, but the problem is that with a traditional phone, you’ve got to replace your regular SIM card while you’re using it; dual-SIM phones exist in bountiful numbers outside the US, but finding a domestic model is nigh impossible. The new Duet D888 option let’s you mix up one of Cellular Abroad’s roaming SIM along with a second of your own, so theoretically, you could make this your primary phone if you do a lot of traveling and hate breaking your fingernails (or your will to live) every time you want to swap cards between phones. As far as we can tell, the D888 lacks GSM 850 — so don’t expect stellar reception stateside — but it could be enough to get you by between trips to Madagascar.

[Via CNET]

Filed under: Cellphones

Dual-SIM phone launches in the US courtesy of… National Geographic originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Apr 2009 07:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple iPod nano 3G
Apple iPod nano 3G

Former Motorola CFO alleges that company lied about financial data, Santa Claus
There have been no shortage of legal wranglings in the electronics space lately, usually between two well-entrenched corporations, but this one’s a little more interesting: a former officer taking the offensive against his former office. Paul Liska, previous head of all things financial at Motorola, is alleging that the company has been misleading investors for quite some time regarding the performance of its Mobile Devices unit, and that when he raised his concerns to the board he was given an escorted trip out the building for his troubles. Moto, on the other hand, is saying that the company’s current financial mess is all thanks to a scheme concocted by Liska himself, who then attempted to blackmail the company before trying to paint himself as a whistleblower. That’s an awful lot of intrigue, but given the thrilling, cut-throat world of chartered accountancy (as depicted in Monty Python’s documentary The Meaning of Life), truly anything can happen.

[Via Phone Arena]

Filed under: Cellphones

Former Motorola CFO alleges that company lied about financial data, Santa Claus originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Apr 2009 08:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Logitech Z-10 Speakers
Logitech Z-10 Speakers
Palm’s Touchstone: Not Just a Wireless Charger, But a Whole Line of New Products?
When Palm introduced its new Palm Pre phone earlier this year it also showed off a nifty wireless charger called Touchstone. Now a company representative has reportedly said that the Touchstone brand represents a new family of accessories for the…
Unruly Cables, Bluelounge CableBox Review
Take a look under your desk, behind the entertainment center and by your computer. Chances are you have a rat’s nest. The deliberate twisty-ties on carefully laid out cables when you first set them up have become a tangled mess. How does that happen?!?! It’s a chore to untangle because …