Super-simple cellphones aren’t a new concept, but there’s something particularly endearing about the design of Dutch handset John’s Phone. A slabbish block with a simple numeric keypad on the front, a monochrome display on the top edge and straightforward control switches on the side, it boasts up to three weeks of standby time and a bargain €69.95 ($89) price tag.
Continued »
Sony Computer Entertainment president Kaz Hirai has blamed pricing for the slow sales of the PSP Go, telling MCV UK that the digital-only handheld suffered by virtue of being too different from the traditional PSP. According to Hirai, "because of the cost reductions we’ve been able to do over the years, the traditional PSP has benefited. But the PSPgo is a completely different design, so the cost trend is different."
Ah, the Apple Newton – spiritual predecessor to the iPhone and a PDA cruelly axed before its time. It seems a surprise that we’ve had to wait so long to see an iPhone Newton case, then, but happily Charles Mangin is taking on the challenge; his iNewt project will take an expired Newton MessagePad 2000 and trim it down to perfectly wrap around an iPhone 4.
So far it seems he’s managed to hack apart one old Newton and craft a custom bay for the Apple smartphone, doing some re-logoing along the way. A simple hatch door keeps the iPhone 4 in place, and we’re guessing there’ll be some sort of pass-through cable arrangement so as to charge and sync the handset without necessarily needing to remove it from the case.
Pentax’s other new cameras of the day are the point-and-shoot Optio RS1000 and Optio RZ10, the former offering gobfuls of customization thanks to eleven included 3M adhesive vinyl skins (and an app to help you create more) along with its 14-megapixel sensor and 4x optical zoom, while the RZ10 packs 14-megapixels as well but scales up to a 10x optical zoom. Both are capable of recording 720p HD video.
Pentax has revealed its latest DSLR, the 12.4-megapixel Pentax K-r, complete with a new 35mm lens to go with it. The K-r – which will be available not only in sober black but in Stormtrooper white and brazen hussy red – has a 3-inch 920k dot LCD display, 6fps shooting for up to 25 frames, in-camera HDR editing and a 100 – 25600 ISO range.
Continued »
Windows Phone 7's impending debut gets closer and closer, and the rumors about when exactly it will happen get more and more frequent. Today, Pocket-lint are claiming to have heard from "multiple sources" that Microsoft's next-gen smartphone OS will launch officially on October 11th 2010, at a New York event with companion launches in various global markets.
Continued »
Amazon is offering limited access to an "early preview" of their upcoming firmware for the third-gen Kindle, promising "performance improvements" from the new software. Firmware v3.0.1 - available for both Kindle 3G and Kindle WiFi models - will also allow new owners to set up Amazon.com accounts directly from the ereader itself, rather than having to register online first.
The approaching onslaught of Android tablets continues apace, with the RAmos W9 tipping its hand in the shape of some engineering prototypes. PC Online grabbed some playtime with the 7-inch Android 2.x slate – which will take on not only the iPad but Samsung’s Galaxy Tab – and confirm that it will run one of Rockchip’s newer, faster processors (tipped to be the 1GHz RK2818).
There are only a few days to go until Nokia World 2010, but over at the company’s blog they’re already getting in on the crystal ball gazing fun with their Nokia U concept. The product of a “Design by Community” effort, it seemingly demonstrates that when you ask Nokia fans for their ideal device they throw in every high-end specification of recent months in a chassis that looks like a slimmed down N8.
AMD has outed its latest professional graphics card, the ATI FirePro V9800, with a full 1,600 stream processors and whopping 4GB of GDDR5 memory. The FirePro V9800 has six Mini DisplayPort outputs – using ATI EyeFinity to drive the half-dozen displays – and supports DirectX 11, OpenGL 4.0, ATI CrossFire Pro and a 256-bit memory interface.
Technologies that Shaped a Decade
Nokia’s Featurephone Problem
2011 The Year of the Super Phone
IFA 2010 Wrap-Up
VoIP Roundup: mobile SIP providers on trial
Life on Facebook
Why I pre-ordered the new Apple TV
SlashGear JP
